Chapter Sixteen
After polishing off the magnum of Veuve Clicquot 1985 Gold Reserve, Alice vowed to herself that Jasper would pay and pay big. For what, she wasn't quite sure, after all she was a little buzzed, but she was sure of one thing; she was going to break up his little tete a tete with Ms Woodward. Grabbing the empty bottle by its neck, she sauntered over to his table, swinging her hips temptingly. She saw his smile widen, showing his delicious dimple, and then she glanced over at his date who was scowling as she looked from Jasper to Alice and back again.
"Hello I'm so sorry to interrupt you two, but I just had to come over here to thank you for covering the tab for Riley and me." She smiled at his date, and winked conspiratorially, "It's not every boss who is so generous."
"You're welcome. It's the least I could do after making you work so hard this afternoon. Why don't you and your date join us for a drink Ms Swan?" Jasper invited.
"Well, I really wouldn't want to interrupt, I just had to stop by and say thanks. Riley and I will probably go dancing..."
"Where?" the date piped up.
"Err, I don't know we haven't gotten that far in our discussions yet. But I thought, …don't they have a club here?"
Blondie shook her head in response. "No, this is strictly a bar, on Saturday nights they play a little music, but not many people dance. If you really want to go dancing there's a club called Annabelle's in the St George Hotel, it's always fun. Jasper," she pouted, "I'd love to go dancing with them."
Jasper shrugged, "Dancing isn't really for me Heidi, but go ahead if you want to. I guess I'm gonna call it an early night
"No. I don't want to go dancing without you; I'd just as soon stay here and talk." Blondie grinned.
Alice saw her plans going down the drain, and scrambled quickly. "I'll just go and talk to Riley, see if he's interested in coming over."
By the time Alice and Riley came over, Jasper and Heidi had moved to a larger table. "What are you having, Ms Swan?"
Riley had pulled the chair out for her and Alice smiled her thanks at him. "Oh, I think I'll just keep drinking champagne."
"Oooh me too." Heidi perked up. "I just love champagne. I don't have it nearly enough."
Jasper hailed the waiter who came over immediately. "More champagne for the ladies and ..Biers? What are you having?"
"Jameson's."
"And sparkling water for me." he told the waiter.
The waiter left and Alice asked, "You're not drinking?"
"Oh no. I'm the designated driver."
"Driver? But you're staying here at the hotel."
He smirked, "Yes, but I'm taking Ms Woodward-Finch home, later on tonight." The way he said it made it sound as though he would be up to no good, he smiled at her and she smiled back, but Alice was not amused.
"Oh. Ms Woodward-Finch, is it?" Alice turned to the tall, cool-looking blonde. "That's quite a mouthful. Why didn't you just keep your name or change it. I'm not a fence straddler, so I don't understand the hyphenated thing."
"Well, to be honest I hated the name Finch. But I compromised by adding it. I would have preferred to just keep my name, but Cooper insisted. Anyway that's all water under the bridge, now. "
Just then the waiter returned and Ms Woodward-Finch exclaimed. "Veuve Clicquot? You have great taste Ms Swan."
"Oh taste had nothing to do with it, I just asked the bartender for his best bottle of champagne. I don't know nuthin' bout nuthin' bout champagne, but I drink it as often as I can; especially when someone else is paying."
Ms Woodward-Finch guzzled her glass of bubbly. "Well, I love champagne. Drinking it makes me feel all sparkly." And she giggled as Jasper poured her another glass.
"Sparkly? Now there's a word you don't hear every day, unless it's from preschoolers." Alice snickered.
"Well I guess that's why I use it. I teach kindergarten, you know, Ms Swan. Words like that, are just a part of my daily vocabulary. Like "owie" and "potty" and "booger".
Alice was beginning to realize that it was almost impossible to faze Ms Woodward-Finch, unless she was willing to be bold.
"So, where is Mr. Cooper Woodward-Finch these days?
"Oh he's not a Woodward, he's just a Finch. Although, it would be more appropriate to call him a fink." She snorted and proceeded to finish her second glass in one long swallow. "Mr. Fink, as I prefer to call him, is probably on top of his secretary these days, Ms Swan." Her eyes twinkled with the shine of tears. "His young, nubile secretary."
Alice's heart went out to Heidi, and she topped off both their glasses. "Well, let's drink to the stupid bastard who didn't have sense enough to appreciate a world class woman like you, Ms Woodward. Some men are just mother fuckers aren't they?"
Heidi raised her glass, "Here, here. Just call me Heidi, Alice." She smiled at Alice before finishing her third glass, then made a long, low burp. "Well, like I tell my students, better that it comes out the front end than the back end." And she snorted and started to giggle.
Alice clapped delightedly and howled with laughter too. Riley soon joined in and all three laughed. Alice looked over at Jasper and he smiled an odd smile. Alice thought that he looked just like a lion with a kill in its paw.
But she was already pretty tipsy and therefore easily distracted; so when Alice heard the thumping music start up her thoughts shifted away from Jasper's watchful expression and back to her own plans. "Do you like this music, Heidi?"
"Yeah, I love Kings of Leon. Who doesn't?" she shouted above the music that was getting louder.
"So you like Sex on Fire?" Alice winked at Jasper, and he winked in return.
"Uh hunh. Love it." And Heidi took a swallow from her fourth glass of champagne.
"Me too. His voice makes me shiver, it's so husky and sexy almost like having sex. But it's not much of a dancy song. Just gets you in the mood, you know." Alice winked at Riley and smiled when she saw Jasper's eyes narrow.
"I know what you mean." Riley answered.
"You do, don't you, Riley." And Heidi and Alice both giggled like school girls
"I need some sex on fire tonight!" Heidi shouted and clapped her hand over her mouth and giggled again
Alice laughed and shouted back so everyone could hear. "Well, I guess you came to the right place. Mr. Hale over there is sex on fire, but maybe you know that already.
Heidi shook her head. "No I don't. Never tried it, but ah surewouldn'mind." Heidi slurred and ran her fingers up Jasper's arm.
Jasper's eyes widened, Alice thought he looked like a fish on a hook- caught; and she wanted to laugh at him. "Oh, I have it on good authority that he'll burn you AND your sheets up." She said loudly. "Just make sure you can handle it when he freezes you out." She turned to Riley as Santeria came on. "Ready to do the dirty dance, hot stuff?" and she pulled him out of his chair and led him to the makeshift dance floor where she turned her back to Riley's front and dropped to the floor and slowly slithered up. She laughed and laughed when she saw Jasper's thunderous expression.
#
Mid-morning sunlight was streaming through the windows of the hotel room and Alice rolled over on to her side and groaned into a strong, muscular bicep. "Please tell me that I didn't do what I think I did."
A husky male laugh tickled her ears, "Depends darlin'. Just what is it that you think you did?"
She rolled on to her back and groaned again, clutching at her throbbing head. She whispered through a bone dry throat, "I think I got ass tearing drunk on three magnums of 1985 Veuve Clicquot, jumped up onto the bar and asked for better dance music."
The voice chuckled near her ear and a strong hand smoothed across her naked belly to grasp the curve of her hip."Sounds about right so far."
"And then after whipping my skirt around like a crazed flamenco dancer and gyrating to two encores of "Animal", I decided to raffle my room key to the guy who comes closest to guessing the color of my bra…"
"Panties..." A finger slipped under the band of said panties and snapped them teasingly. "Red. I won."
She moaned again and pressed her fingers into her eyeballs that threatened to bulge from her eye sockets. "So it did happen?"
"Well the raffle came before the singing …"
She opened one eye to look at her bed partner, and closed it again in horror. "Singing?"
"…but after you told Ms Heidi Woodward-Finch to make sure her date had condoms, because he likes to do the naked slide into home plate…"
"Oh fuck. I did that too? I thought it was a clip from a really bad movie that was infiltrating my dream."
"…and then you claimed to have evidence that Mr. Jasper Hale was a lying asshole who…"
She gasped out. "Please, please tell me that I didn't say that."
"…who claims to be celibate but sleeps with every piece of tail he can get his big, dirty, cootie hands on."
"No, no, no." She groaned into her fingers.
"You also told Ms Woodward-Finch that her date likes to lick pussy, but only …"
Her eyes popped open in horror. "Oh my fuck, Riley! Heidi! What…"
Her companion tugged at the sheet that covered her, and gazed lasciviously at her nipples, that were poking through her thin sleep tank. "Oh I wouldn't worry too much about her, darlin'. Chances are they won't remember a thing. They were already so drunk by the time the mud-slinging started, I doubt they'll wake up until late tonight, maybe even tomorrow. They may even want to forget most of what was done too. "
"Oh no. What was I thinking?"
"You weren't." Strong thumbs strummed her nipples through the thin material, sending chills up her spine. "Good thing I didn't drink. I kept my sober eyes on you."
Alice pushed his hand away and tugged the sheet back into place. "You planned this didn't you?"
"How could I have?" he asked with all the shifty-eyed innocence of a politician caught red-handed.
"You are a devious, devious man, Jasper Hale. You offered to pay the tab so we would stay at the hotel bar and drink ourselves into the ground, didn't you?" She accused.
"Alice, not even I, could have predicted the level of drunkenness you, Biers and Heidi would sink to. To be honest, I was shocked."
"Oh, get off your high horse. You stayed sober so you could lure me up here again. I feel like I'm stuck, like in that movie Groundhog Day. Am I cursed to wake up in your bed forever?"
He tucked his head down and nipped at her lips. "That wouldn't be a curse, darlin', that'd be a blessing."
"Said the spider to the fly." Alice pulled away and tried to get up to use the bathroom but she moved too suddenly. Her head felt heavy, as though it was filled with bowling balls, she worried that it might roll right off her shoulders. "Help me! I'm going to die." She sunk back into the pillows.
He kissed her forehead so sweetly, smoothing back her hair. "Do you want me to get you some acetaminophen and water?"
"Anything, please? I'll even take my mother's home remedy at this point."
"What's her remedy, baby?"
"Co-Co."
"Cocoa? As in hot chocolate? I'll order some from room service." He offered as he got upfrom the bed.
"No. Don't. Not Co-Co, as in hot cocoa. Co-Co as in Coleslaw and Coke."
"Together?"
"Yep. Eat Mexican coleslaw, the kind without mayo, and drink a can of coke."
"That sounds horrible."
She gulped a nasty taste in her mouth. "Yeah, it does. That's why I've never tried it. My mom said my dad discovered it."
"Do you want me to get you some?"
She shook her head and then grabbed it and shuddered. "Ibuprofen would be fine. I just need to evict the dwarves that are building a seven bedroom cottage behind my eyes." He chuckled and went to the bathroom.
"Thanks, Jasper." She whispered when he brought the pills and the glass of water. She drank all the water and dropped back down into the feathery pillows. "I always thought that you couldn't get a hangover from drinking good liquor."
"You can get a hangover from any liquor. And apparently, the more expensive the champagne is, the crazier the drunken revelry becomes." He slid into the bed and held her close.
"What?"
"I honestly don't think this hotel has ever seen a crazier bunch of people. It was like a sit-com." He chuckled at the memory of the night before.
"You mean it wasn't just me?"
"No, Alice. But you did almost incite a riot."
"Thank God I have no memories of it. What happened?"
"Before or after the fight?"
"There was a fight?"
"Yep."
"Who?"
'I have no idea who they were. I think they were stragglers from a bridal shower; but after you winked at the guy, his girlfriend got up and wanted to leave."
He called her a tight ass, which is when she kneed him in the balls and called him a thumb dick and then everyone started hooting and hollering. He got pissed and walked out, leaving her stranded. She started to bawl and said it was all your fault. And you told her that you did her a favor."
"No way."
"Yes."
"What happened to her?"
He shrugged. "I think she left with some friends, I really don't know, but that's when you and Heidi ordered the third magnum of champagne, and toasted to the end of that "sorry relationship". Then you both did a dance, waggling your thumbs, to celebrate rescuing the girl from the thumb dick boyfriend."
"I'm surprised the bartender didn't kick us out." She tried to get up, but again her head thumped with the force of a thousand hammers and she lay back down.
"Are you kidding? He was in heaven. You and Heidi were flirting shamelessly with him all night long."
"What about Reilly?"
"He didn't flirt with the bartender."
"Very funny."
"Riley can't hold his liquor like you gals. He was wasted before the end of the second magnum. It doesn't help that he was downing some Jameson's like there was no tomorrow."
"You didn't let him drive home in that condition did you? I hope you put him in a cab."
"No, he and Heidi are in your room, even as we speak."
"I don't even want to know how that happened."
"Are you sure?"
"Absolutely. Jasper, I need to use the bathroom but I can't seem to get up without feeling as though my big heavy head will break my neck."
His mouth drifted to her ear and he nipped her lobe. "Do you want me to carry you?"
Oh, her insides were melting. "Can you?"
He stood up and gathered her barely clothed body effortlessly into his arms."I can do whatever you want me to."
Alice wrapped her arms around his neck. "Take care of me?"
"I'll be happy to oblige, ma'am." He said as he carried her gently to the bathroom.
"What's with all the Texas twang?"
"It's coming back to me; it always does after I'm down here for a few days. Remember I told you I grew up in Houston until I was fourteen?"
She shook her head, "You never finished telling me about your childhood, Jasper. How about now?"
He hesitated. "Maybe later, darlin'. Right now I just want to take care of you. Make you feel better."
"Just take me to the shower, and after that can you bring me my girlie bag? I need to, you know, take care of business."
After her shower and girlie changes, Alice returned to bed and resumed sleeping off the after effects of the night before. By the time she woke again in Jasper's arms at one-thirty that afternoon her head and stomach felt much, much better. She was warm and cozy snuggled next to him, so she lay there for a bit. He stirred and his hands started wandering down her back toward her behind and she moved a little out of reach. "Jasper" she whispered, "are you awake?"
"Yes." He kept his eyes closed and his hands roaming.
"I'm so hungry." She whined. Her belly growled in agreement.
"Me too." Jasper replied huskily and he pulled her back into his arms.
"I'm serious, I think I need to eat some food, pronto. The last thing I had was barbecue almost twenty-four hours ago."
He reached for the phone. "Well, what'll it be?"
"You know what I want? Hot wings." she licked her lips in anticipation as he dialed for room service. As he spoke she interrupted him "and get some french fries with lots of ketchup and hot sauce."
#
Half an hour later they sat on the bed facing each other, eating. Alice had spread a towel for a make shift bed picnic. "You know what would make this great?" she asked.
"What?"
"A couple of beers."
"You've got to be joking!"
"If I didn't have a hangover, I would love a Corona with lime right now."
"Just drink the coke. That's about all you can handle."
"I know, I'm just a lazy lush. You don't drink much do you?"
"Not really. I never wanted to. I have gotten drunk sometimes, but not often."
"When was the last time you got wasted?"
"The night you told me you were getting married."
"Oh."
"Yeah, oh."
"Not since then?"
"No."
"Are you an alcoholic?"
"No. I avoided liquor in college because I worried I might be, genetic predisposition and all that. But as I got older, I would indulge every so often. It never proved to be a problem. I guess the universe can sometimes be good. I didn't inherit Royce's alcoholism."
"Or his violence?"
"No. Twice in my life I've touched a woman in anger, and it scared me."
Alice paused and licked sauce off her fingers. She was surprised to hear that Jasper had lost his cool with a woman. "What happened?"
"It was with you."
'Me?"
"That time in your office when you told me you didn't want to see me anymore."
"I don't remember it."
"It was just a moment, a couple seconds really. I grabbed you by your shoulders and then I realized what I was doing. I stopped immediately, horrified; I didn't want to be anything remotely like Royce. And the second time was on your birthday, when I pulled your hair and grabbed your chin. I was so angry with you, it scared me."
"I didn't think those incidents were even a little bit violent. Did you want to hit me, hurt me?"
"I didn't let it go that far. But I wanted to stop you from seeing him. I had to walk away Alice, or I was going to break something."
Hmm. "Ever thought of therapy, to deal with anger?"
He shook his head. "I've seen someone, but not for anger issues. I seldom get very angry, you are an exception. I channel a lot of my energies into work. You'd be surprised just how many hours I do work."
"I don't think I'd be surprised, I know its your heart and soul. I'm sure you put in fifteen plus hours a day."
"Yes, I do. But as for therapy, my father saw to it that we got help. I saw a shrink in my teens, to deal with recurring nightmares I used to have after Auralee's death. They diagnosed it as PTSD."
"How did she die? You haven't told me."
"It's not going to be easy to hear, Alice." He warned her, looking more than a little worried.
"I'm sure, but I need to know what you've been through. I just need to know that part of you, I think it's really important."
"Well, a couple days after he beat her and threatened to kill her if the baby looked like the gardener, Auralee went into labor. Rosalie was born five weeks early; the obstetrician on call asked a lot of questions about Auralee's bruises, and guessed that domestic violence may have led to the premature delivery. The police were called to the hospital, but once again Auralee covered for Royce and claimed to have suffered the bruises by falling off a ladder while decorating the nursery. I overheard all this from listening to Royce talk to his parents on the phone.
I know that put a little scare into Royce because after Rosalie was born he stayed away from us. And for a year or so things were relatively quiet. There were rumors going around that he had a mistress and that was why he didn't come home much.
But abusers always abuse and after a while he started up again. The beatings got worse and I made it a point to keep a bat near my bed, just in case I'd need it. A week or so after Rosie's fourth birthday he beat Auralee for the last time. They were at the top of the stairs and she tumbled and broke her neck at the bottom of the stairs. I wasn't there at the time, but Rosie was and she saw the whole thing, from beginning to end. The police interviewed everyone except for her. When they asked to speak with her she screamed and cried and Royce's mother accused them of making the trauma of her mother's death worse."
"Your grandmother did that?"
"Royce's mother. She was never a grandmother to me. She hated me just as much as she hated Auralee. Like I told you, they thought of her as white trash; someone who tricked Royce into marriage. Anyway, we went to the funeral and for the first time in my life I found out that Auralee had family, she had never spoken of any. Nick Hale and his wife stood by the graveside and wept openly as the casket was lowered. Honestly, I think they were the only ones who cried. Royce didn't, his mother and father didn't and I certainly couldn't shed a tear. I think the only think I felt that day was puzzlement and relief. I wondered how it was that Auralee had this family who cared about her and relief that her beatings had ended.
Nick and Edie Hale introduced themselves to me. They told me who they were and said I looked a lot like my mother. I told them that Rosie looked a lot more like her, but she wasn't at the funeral, because Royce's mother said that it would be too scary for her.
Edie wanted to meet Rosie so badly but Royce said no, that it would be too much for her because she was so traumatized. I noticed that the whole time Edie was talking, Nick Hale never spoke to Royce and barely even looked in his direction, his only conversation was with me and Royce's mother. Even at that age, I recognized the look on his face; I knew that what I saw was a deep and abiding hatred for Royce. The same look that I was sure I had on my face as well. Nick Hale gave me his card and left. I held on to it and kept it safe, somehow knowing that I would need it one day.
Months went by and Royce got himself another girlfriend and spent most nights out of the house, leaving us to the care of the house servants. I was never so happy in my whole life. Rosie was happier and she started to behave like any other little girl, she was no longer silent because Auralee wasn't there to tell her to stop singing or dancing, she didn't have to be quiet for daddy anymore. The only thing is she would sneak in my bedroom at night to sleep with me. She said that she was afraid of the boogeyman, but I know her boogeyman was Royce. And she was terrified that he would come after us and throw us down the stairs too. Every single night she would wake up sweating and crying, screaming for him to stop hurting her mommy.
Royce and the girlfriend eventually broke up, and once again, he started sleeping in the house and drinking heavily. Rosie would beg me to get up and check the lock to make sure he couldn't get in my bedroom."
"Poor Rosie, poor you. Jasper, my god, how did you survive living with a killer?"
"Alice, one thing abusers never prepare for is that someday the child they beat will grow up and fight back. That's what happened on the night that Royce decided to kick in my bedroom door and drag Rosie out of the bed by her hair. I swear if he had pulled on my hair, I probably wouldn't have fought back so hard, but because he picked on Rosie, I don't know, I just lost it.
I fucked him up, Alice. I mean I beat the shit out of him. He was a big man, but he was angry and drunk, so his reflexes were off. I was only fourteen, but I was already pretty tall and I had acquired some muscles from being on the freshman football team, and I used the fucking bat. Royce and I probably would have been evenly matched but I had years of rage on my side. When it was all over and I was standing over his unconscious body, I heard a noise and looked up. Royce's mother was standing there, staring at me, the maid had telephoned her. I must've been a sight, I tell you; I was covered in blood, mine and his. She screamed, "You little bastard, you killed my son. I hope they hang you from the highest tree." Then she told the maid to call the police.
I probably would have run away right then and there, except Rosie was clinging to me and crying. I couldn't leave her with those devils. The ambulance came and then the police. I was arrested but before I was taken away I heard the medic say that Royce was alive and that he would more than likely be fine. He had a broken nose and jaw and some fractured ribs. He looked bad, but it was mostly bruising.
After the police booked me I asked about my one phone call, and I called Nick Hale.
He flew to Texas the following day and he posted my bail. I told him that I couldn't go back home, they wouldn't want me; he understood and he got a suite. We sat there in that hotel room and I told him the whole story. Everything, including the way Rosie had described the night Auralee died."
"Good, I hope he got them to put him away, for life."
Jasper shook his head "No. He wanted to, believe me he did. He was livid. He wanted Royce to pay for his crime against his daughter, but I was furious. I told him more than anything I wanted Rosie out of there. Think about it. Who would have gotten custody if Royce was in jail? His mother and father that's who. And I knew they would take it out on me and Rosie. In the end Nick spoke with Royce's mother and father. He told them what he knew about the circumstances around Auralee's death and threatened to work with the DA to reopen an investigation. If they didn't want their family name dragged into the mud they should try and convince Royce to relinquish his parental rights to both Rosie and me.
They knew Judge Nick Hale would be able to unearth a lot of evidence against Royce and bring the case to the media. Even if Royce eventually got off, the family's reputation would suffer; so he convinced them and they convinced Royce. I got Rosie out of there and that's all I cared about. I really didn't care whether or not Royce paid for his crimes."
She gasped. "Oh Jasper, you must care, just a little. You, Rosalie and your mom suffered so much. Didn't you want justice?"
"I learned at an early age that life isn't just. There's no fairness to it. Auralee, who never hurt a fly, had thirteen years of abuse. Where is the justice in that? Royce Whitlock is alive and well, soon to celebrate his eightieth birthday. Edie died of breast cancer before she could enjoy her golden years. Nick Hale, my only father, and the best man I've ever known, is suffering from dementia in a nursing home. How is that fair?"
"I guess it isn't is it?" Alice wiped the silent tears that flowed down her cheeks. He was right, life wasn't fair to her father, her mother or Mike.
"No, not at all. Anyway at least we got out, managed to move on with our lives. I started high school in San Francisco, I pretty much kept to myself, at school and at home. It was easier for Rosie I guess. She could accept the love that Edie and Nick showered on her, as for me I didn't want anything to do with love. I heard Auralee talk of love for that rotten bastard, and I hoped never to fall in love, not if it would leave me without the will to love myself. I never wanted to have someone love me either, and I never wanted to have children. I never wanted to repeat that nightmare of having a family and reliving that hell."
"That's why you told me that you don't do love? Because that's how you think it will be for you?" She reached out and caressed his cheek, wanting to tell him he deserved more, but not knowing how to do that without leading him on.
Jasper grabbed the hand she'd touched him with and held it in his own. "Yeah, I was seriously screwed up Alice, probably still am. The only difference between then and now is that I have fallen in love. And I tell you it hasn't been easy. You've made me feel the best I've ever felt in my life, but lovin' you has meant that I've also felt pretty shitty at times too. You got me by the balls, babe. I don't know if I hate being in that position or love it, but it doesn't matter really. The truth is, that's where I am, caught up in you. And you haven't been fair either."
"What do you mean?"
"You never gave me a chance. You're still not giving me one. You blow hot and then cold. You threaten to walk out of my life every chance you get. And I've tried in every which way to please you, and you never give an inch."
"Jasper, maybe once upon a time I could have loved you. But you shut the door. And I don't feel regret over that, because after you I found true love. And I fell in love and that's where I still am."
"You've said that and I understand. What I can't understand is you not even entertaining the possibility of a future with someone again, namely, me."
She shook her head despairingly, wondering if he will ever get it. "Jasper, I'm not there yet. Maybe I will be, next month or next year or maybe never. But I'm not ready to lock Mike away in some part of my heart. Can't you just try to understand that?"
"So you're saying, maybe, maybe, sometime down the line. Or maybe never, is that what you want me to accept? Those measly crumbs of a perhaps future?"
She took both his hands in hers as they sat on the bed facing each other over the remnants of their bed picnic."I'm not asking you to accept anything. I'm only telling you what I can and cannot give at this moment in time. I'm not saying "yes", I'm not saying "no", and I'm not saying "maybe". I'm saying at this moment I don't see it happening. That's all I have to say, Jasper, that's all."
He closed his eyes and breathed quietly for long minutes. Finally his eyes opened and she looked into the deepest blue ocean of him and saw that he was giving in.
"I love you. And I'll wait. Weeks, months, years for you. I won't push you, but I won't give up. I'll give you time and in the meantime, I plan to show you that I'm worthy of you and your love."
Alice kissed Jasper deeply. "Thank you." she whispered after breaking away.
He held her tightly to his heart, she felt it beating hard and strong under her cheek."I'll be here for you, always, I hope you know that. And I'll never hurt you."
Stroking his chest, feeling his love she had to reassure the little boy in him. "You're not like him, you know."
"I know." he nodded.