Jasper Vale (The Edens, #4)

by Devney Perry

“I’d kill to see you without your shirt on.” Jasper barked a laugh. It was hoarse too, like he didn’t laugh enough. Sad. Should I give him a hug? Too busy contemplating that question, I didn’t realize what he was doing until it was too late. Jasper reached a hand behind his head, fisting his shirt. Whoosh. Shirt gone. “Holy. Freaking. Abs.” My jaw dropped. “Six. Definitely six.” “Eight,” he corrected. “Count again.”

“I like perfect,” I murmured. “I like imperfect too. I like wild and reckless moments that you never forget.”

“I don’t know. You’re the one who used to live here. What’s something spontaneous to do in Vegas?” A man walking by answered for Jasper. “Get married.” I scoffed. “We can’t get married.” “Why not?” the guy asked, still walking, his arms raised. “Yeah,” Jasper said. “Why not?”

My wife was sneaking out. My wife. I fought the urge to curse into my pillow. My head was spinning. The headache throbbing behind my temples was less from last night’s alcohol and more from this morning’s situation.

A cuddler. Of course I’d marry a woman who cuddled. I loathed cuddling.

🤣😅🤭

I craved him. Only one night, and Jasper Vale had become an addiction.

“The next time you talk about any other man inside this body, I’ll spank your ass so red you won’t sit for a week.”

“This body.” He nipped at the base of my neck as his finger slipped inside. “You think I didn’t like fucking you, Eloise?” Whether it was his skilled finger or the way he growled my name, I wasn’t sure, but my toes curled into the carpet. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this pussy.” His finger eased out, shifting to my clit. “What have you done to me?”

“Don’t run away from me. Don’t pretend that you don’t know what it feels like when I’m fucking you.”

“You want me to fuck you for a while, fine.” He stepped into his boots. “I’ll give you the orgasms the losers from your past couldn’t. But when I see you on the street, you look at me.”

In my time here, I’d learned that the Edens were Quincy’s founding family and had lived here for generations. Basically, small-town royalty. I’d mistakenly married their princess.

This was happening too fast. Nothing was going according to plan. Jasper was . . . mine. He wasn’t mine but he was mine. Sort of.

Babe. I’d do this every fucking day to have her call me babe. Eloise wasn’t the first woman to use that endearment. But I liked it in her voice the best.

It was just more paint. More color, more beauty, covering up my ugly past.

I’d have her in bed next. I’d have that lithe body spread across my sheets, that hair undone and tangled with my pillows.

He snared my focus with that gorgeous face. With the way every muscle in his body flexed and bunched with raw, primal power as he drove inside me. Jasper delivered twice as much pleasure as he took.

“I like fucking you, Eloise.” A flush crept into my cheeks. That rugged voice, his rasp, always made my breath catch. He might not be a man of many words, but when he used them, I listened.

“You like that, don’t you? I talk about fucking you, and your face turns this pretty pink. Almost as pretty of a pink as your pussy.”

He bent, his mouth a whisper against the shell of my ear. “You call me Jas later, okay? When I’m so deep inside you that you’ll feel me in your throat. You call me Jas. And I’ll make you come so hard you’ll scream.”

Foreplay with Jasper was an experience like no other. It had been an education.

A strong arm wrapped around my shoulders, stopping another lame apology. Jasper hauled me backward, flush against his chest. “That’s enough.” Griffin’s gaze leveled on Jasper. “This is a private conversation.” “You’re yelling at my wife.”

“Look at me,” I ordered, my breath hot against her ear.

When I leaned back, her eyes were waiting. I slammed inside of her, all the way to the hilt.

“Remember.” Reme...

Her hand came to my cheek. “Will you?” For the ...

And for everything he poured into that searing kiss, I sent it right back. The thunder to his lightning.

We were a storm. Two souls lost in the pouring rain.

Then I climbed into the bed, settling on top of her, and without any fooling around, I slid inside her wet heat. And for the first time in days, I could breathe.

She’d ruined me. Somewhere along the way, she’d ruined me for any other woman.

Eloise was my wife. There wasn’t a damn thing fake about this marriage. Not anymore.

This woman. She was a warrior, fighting in my corner. Ready to go to battle.

Nothing. Not a damn thing. She might as well have been a stranger. It was . . .odd. Though not nearly as odd as the fact that I was actually enjoying this party. Thanks solely to the angel in my arms.

Fierce loyalty. A precious heart. My Eloise. “Thank you for coming with me tonight.”

Did she see how perfect we were together? Did she realize that it didn’t matter if I wore a ring? If she had my last name? Eloise Eden was mine. And I was hers. Until the end.

This woman got everything I had—heart, body and soul.

“Watch it,” Jasper rumbled. “That’s my wife.”

I owed Winn my life. Eloise’s life. They were one and the same.

My handsome husband. The man who’d leapt in front of a bullet for his wife.

Four months later, with our daughter growing inside me, my husband took me back to Paris.