Ruthless Noble by Alley Ciz

CHAPTER 29

I’ve always beenchatty when I’m behind the wheel, a condition I’ve tortured Wes with a lot given how he’s always the one riding with me during races. It shouldn’t really come as much of a shock that I essentially word-vomited my driving history to Jasper during the race.

What is a shock? The fact that I don’t regret a single word I said.

I don’t know if he believed my claim about him knowing me better than most, but again…I didn’t lie. The only person I think can truly claim the top spot when it comes to all things me is Tessa, but that’s different. The bestie bond can’t be compared to the scale of a relationship. Not that Jasper and I have a relationship. Or didn’t? I don’t know. I’m all kinds of confused and so not in the place where I can or should be worrying about…that.

Still…

I can’t help myself.

I want Jasper Noble.

I…

Oh my god. This is hard to admit, even just to myself. It makes me all kinds of triggery.

But…

I…

I… Deep breath, Savvy. I love Jasper Noble.

I’m in love with Jasper Noble.

When the fuck did that happen?

Howthe fuck did that happen?

Though as I watch him slap the dash, bellowing a “Fuck yeah!” as we pull to a screeching stop, clarity starts to set in.

I open my mouth to say…I don’t know…something, but the hand clamped around my thigh tugs it until it knocks into the center console, and another grips my throat to drag me into a kiss that has my already damp panties completely ruined in an instant.

Kissing isn’t something Jasper and I have done a lot of, despite all the other things we’ve done with each other—and in his case, all the things he’s done to me—yet he somehow finds a way to make it carnal.

His teeth nip, his lips press and pillow, his mouth sucks, his tongue strokes, and his piercing whirls. One of these things can add to a good kiss, but the way he combines them all turns my brain off.

He has me in such a mess of hormones that the faint taste of blood from his cut barely registers until I see the trickle of it pooling in his chin dimple when we separate.

Like earlier, I catch the way his gaze flits down to my chest, except this time, my usual defensive impulse is absent. It might have to do with the way his kiss-swollen lips curl upward as he takes in the rise and fall of my cleavage peeking out of the scooped collar of my shirt. It’s devilish.

But…

It’s the subtle nod he gives as if telling himself, Yes, that’s arousal, not asthma. It’s how quickly he’s learned to read the cues from my bodythat has my heart fluttering.

“Let’s finish this.” I unclip my seat belt and pat the dashboard affectionately, letting my palm slide over the surface. “Good job, Toothless.”

Jasper’s rumbly laughter has my nipples vibrating more than the torque of the engine. “What the fuck did you just call your car?”

I rotate in my seat, wedging myself between the door and steering wheel as much as I can, and hook a thumb at my seat back. “Toothless.” I trace a nail over the green eyes stitched into the leather. “He’s the dragon in How to Train Your Dragon.”

Watching Jasper try to maneuver his large frame enough to see the matching detailing in his seat amuses me to no end. I’m also enjoying this playful, less broody side of him.

“BP Dragons, dragon name—I get it.” His fingers trace along the curve of my Camaro’s namesake, my core clenching at the way he caresses the leather, remembering what his touch is capable of. “You’re kind of adorable for a badass.”

My breath actually does stutter inside my lungs at his comment, and my cheeks heat. Holy crap, I’m blushing. I can’t remember the last time I blushed, though to be fair, I don’t think anyone has ever called me adorable before. If they did, they most certainly did not do so while also calling me a badass.

That flutter thing? Yeah, my heart is now doing it continuously.

Feeling unsteady and completely unsure of how I should respond, I open the door and step out of the car.

Behind me, I hear Jasper do the same but don’t take my eyes off the half dozen awed, shocked, and some mildly aggressive jocks in front of me.

My body hums when Jasper positions himself beside me, the back of his hand brushing along mine as he leans against Toothless.

I’ve always found his relaxed, one ankle crossed over the other, devil may care position infuriating but also annoyingly sexy.

“Things settled now?” I wave a hand through the air.

“Yeah.” I run my tongue along the backs of my teeth at how reluctant the word sounds coming from Brian, as if it was physically yanked from his body.

“Respect.” Scott hops down from his perch on his car’s trunk and holds out a fist for me to bump as he rounds the vehicle for the driver’s side.

Winning the race was an easy, quick fix to tonight’s issue, but I can’t let them leave without addressing the long-term one.

When I push off the car, Jasper straightens, his demeanor alert as I approach Brian’s Mustang parked near the front of my Camaro.

Bending over, I brace my elbows inside the open driver’s side window, clasping my hands together and locking eyes with Brian. Modulating my voice into the eerie calm I learned from my brother, I say, “In the future”—there’s no stopping the sardonic edge from bleeding into my words—“it’ll be best if you keep your hands to yourself where Jasper is involved.”

“Oh really?”Both of Brian’s brows wing up his forehead. “And why’s that, King?”

Looks like I’m not the only one taking digs with their words. Too bad for him I’m proud as fuck about being a King.

“Because, Salvatore”—he’s not the only one who can remind the other of their lineage; he’s just the one who experiences a crisis of identity as a result—“Jasper is mine, and you know how I feel about my people being messed with.”

Awareness flickers in his gaze because yes, yes he does, as he was one of the others who got the Don’t be an asshole reminder with Gunderson.

I don’t bother waiting for him to agree or respond. I don’t need either. Instead, I straighten and step back from the ‘Stang, watching as all my old classmates file out of the lot and through the BA iron gates.

I wait until the last of the taillights disappear into the night before turning around to face Jasper.

Holy fuckballs. Just give the man your panties because…well…fuck!

I’m rooted to the spot. The storm raging inside Jasper’s pearly gaze looks ready to consume me like a hurricane as he rakes it over my body. There is such naked ownership and vulnerability in it that I don’t know how to process either conflicting emotion.

Jasper doesn’t wait for me to close the gap between us and reaches Toothless’s front bumper the same moment I do.

A hand snags my wrist, and I’m spun, the front grill pressing into the backs of my legs.

Closer and closer, Jasper pushes in until I have no choice but to fall back onto the hood, the heat from the still-running engine warm even through the denim covering my ass.

My knees fall open in this position, and when Jasper steps between them, his massive frame looms over me. My neck arches in an effort to see him better, and I place my hands down behind me, palms flat to the hood, pressing the tips of my fingers against the mild vibration from the engine.

“You called me yours,” he states simply.

I run my gaze over his face, trying to read him. I can’t. It’s annoying.

“I did.” There’s no point denying it when we both clearly heard what I said.

“You claimed me.”

Again, it’s a statement.

Again, I have no denial.

The tilt to his lips shouldn’t come across with a boyish charm when they are still swollen from both our kisses and his fight tonight, but it does. It also shouldn’t match with his backward hat bad-boy appeal, but it does—and neither of those things is helping the situation I have going on in my panties.

His chest brushes mine, my budded nipples poking the hardness of it as he lowers his head before burying his face in the side of my neck, inhaling deeply. “You said my name, Princess.”

I nod, his lips skimming my skin. I did say his name, more than once if memory serves.

“Say it again.”

Not even the demand behind the request can stop me from following through, and I expel a breathy “Jasper,” my eyes falling closed when he latches onto that spot behind my ear.

He pulls back, cupping my face between his large hands like fragile glass, his thumb ghosting over the wet mark I expect he left behind with his hot mouth.

“Again.”

“Jasper.”

His Adam’s apple bobs with a concentrated swallow. Why is such a simple thing so damn hot?

“Fuck, Princess.” The heels of his palms push into my cheeks until my lips purse, and he places a gentle kiss on them. “Do you have any idea what hearing you say that does to me?”

Lifting my legs, I wrap them around his waist, using the muscles in my thighs to tug his body closer, oscillating my hips against the erection straining inside his pants. “I have a general idea.”

The way he seals his mouth over mine is almost savage in its intensity, but it’s the emotion fueling it that has me whimpering with need. Need for the kiss. Need for more. Need to be closer. Need for him. Just him.

Unable to support myself against the onslaught of sensations and emotions bombarding me, I wind my arms around Jasper’s neck and give myself over to him.

It should terrify me. Never have I ceded control to another, let alone willingly handed it over. It’s pure insanity that Jasper is the one I choose to give it to. Here’s a guy who once demanded my obedience yet has evolved into so much more than the bully he was.

Hands slip inside my leather jacket, rough palms gliding along my exposed skin, fingertips kneading the muscles of my back as they inch their way under the cropped hem of my shirt and the band of my bra.

I do a full-body roll as I undulate with the desire coursing through me.

“Jasper.” I speak his name in a broken whimper against his lips.

He’s growling, biting along the cut of my jaw, dragging the ball of his piercing down the pulsing vein in my neck, sending an echoing beat between my legs.

“You’re fucking mine, Princess.”

“Yes,” I agree on a moan.

My heart rate jumps into another gear, and I tilt my chin to breathe deeper. I didn’t lie when I told Jasper physical exertions aren’t my biggest triggers, but by the numbness forming in my fingertips, it’s clear the emotional maelstrom I’ve found myself in is proving tonight is anything but typical.

Jasper’s irises are like bruised pools when he pulls away, the fringe of his dark lashes lowering as his eyes narrow at the unsteady hitch to my breathing.

“When was the last time you used your inhaler?”

My mouth presses into a flat line, not wanting to answer. I hate that his mind can go there while mine is lost in a hazy fog. Where the hell is your sense of self-preservation, Savvy?

Jasper pinches my chin between his fingers and rotates my face around until we’re making eye contact. “Answer the question, Savvy.” His tone is harsh and brooks no room for argument.

“About an hour ago.” Right about the time I realized I’m in love with you.

I choke, coughing at how clear that thought came through, praying he can’t read it on my face.

“Are you able to use it again now?”

Removing a hand from around his neck, I use it to rub at my breastbone. “Why?” Sure, I’m triggery, but I’m still at the point where I can get myself under control without my inhaler. “I don’t need it.”

“Yet.” His expression turns downright feral.

“What?” This time my breathing hitches for an entirely different reason.

“I said yet. Because…” He drags his thumb across my lower lip. “I’m going to fuck you.”

“Here?” I squeak, casting my gaze at our surroundings.

We’re parked in the back of the lot, far enough away from the road not to be seen by cars driving past and from security lights to be mostly in shadow, but…we’re still in the parking lot of our school.

“Right fucking here, Savvy.”

Maybe it’s because I spent weeks having to hear him call me Samantha, but I love how my name rolls off his tongue.

“I’ve been forced to keep my distance for too long.”

I’m hoisted up, my ass leaving Toothless a second before Jasper spins me, my back now flush to his front, officially pinned between him and my car. He anchors himself with a hand on my hip and pulls my inhaler free. He shakes it, thumbing off the cap, his action confident like it’s muscle memory for him when it’s not.

“The time it would take to get you to a bed is too long.”

I scoff, the rolling motion in my throat making me cough. “You live on campus.”

Teeth bite into my flank hard, and I hiss.

“Too far.” He brings the inhaler to my mouth. “Now use this so I don’t have to worry about killing you when I fuck your brains out.”

A bolt of heat shoots straight to my core, my panties officially disintegrated from lust.

I’ve had many people monitor when they thought I should use my inhaler, but never, ever has the reason been something so carnal.

I stretch forward. In my peripheral, I can make out the flare of heat that enters Jasper’s eyes as they lock onto the way I bite down on the plastic lip and wrap my lips around it. Holy shitballs. Never in my life has medicating myself been an erotic experience. Can’t say that anymore.

I lay my hand over his, holding his gaze as I depress the cylinder, inhaling deep enough to keep the chemical-tasting mist off my tongue and pause for a beat while it works its way through my system.

My eyes typically close when I go through the process so I couldn’t say for sure, but the way the side of my face burns, I don’t think Jasper blinks at all until he is certain I’m good.

With a small bob of his head, his arm stretches across the pristine glossy black paint of one of Toothless’s rally stripes, setting the inhaler inside the divot where the hood meets the windshield. Once it’s secured, a hand grips the back of my neck, and I’m shoved forward until I’m bent over my car, my cheek smooshed to the reverberating metal.

Warmth envelops me from behind as Jasper folds his body over mine, his hard-on digging into the curve of my ass.

His chest pins me in place, his hands running up my sides, over that spot in my armpits that makes me squirm to avoid the tickle. He chuckles darkly because it only makes me rub his erection more.

His hands continue their upward trajectory, stretching my arms overhead as hot breath blows across my ear. “I suggest you hold on.” He bends my fingers to curl over the lip of the hood. “It’s my turn to drive, Princess.”

“Jasper.” My whisper is almost lost in the hum of the engine.

“God I love hearing you say that.” His lips curve against my skin.

My scalp burns when he wraps my ponytail around his fist and tugs. I hiss, my neck arching from the force, and my elbows dig in as a mouth slams down onto mine.

The kiss ends as quickly as it started, our lips making a popping sound as they release.

“Get ready, baby.”

The endearment makes my breath catch in a whole different way as I let my cheek rest against the hood again.

Fingertips skim my sides again until his palm flattens against me. Before I can blink, my shirt and bra are shoved to my chin, my breasts spilling free, the dueling temperatures of the chilly night air and the warm metal making my nipples bud painfully.

Large hands squeeze and knead my breasts before deft fingers pinch and tug my nipples, causing them to harden further.

I groan and attempt to squirm again but can’t.

Next, leather falls like a blanket around me as Jasper flips the back of my jacket up, gooseflesh instantly coating the skin of my back but just as quickly chased away in the wake of heat shooting down my spine as he starts to kiss a path along the length of my tattoo.

My stomach caves in from the pressure of his hands working the button on my jeans open. One second my jeans are on; the next they’re yanked down my thighs.

A hand splays on my lower back, and then Jasper is kneeling behind me, hooking a finger beneath the strip of my thong, the lace setting off new sparks as it traps my clit with a delicious abrasion when he pulls it to the side.

The cool air doesn’t get the opportunity to chill my hot center because Jasper’s burying his face in my pussy, the hand tugging my thong, splaying until his thumb breaches my ass at the same time his tongue spears my entrance.

He’s not eating me—he’s consuming me. Forget going zero to sixty in three seconds. No, this is him punching the gas and hitting the NOS injection simultaneously, dragging a guttural orgasm from me quicker than should be humanly possible.

I’m writhing, rising up onto my toes and dropping down in an uncoordinated pattern.

Pleasure ravages my body, but all Jasper does is continue to eat me, the barbell pierced through his tongue toying with the one in my clit.

His hand leaves my back and clutches the back of one thigh, the grip hard enough I’ll probably be sporting finger-shaped bruises tomorrow.

He keeps going until I come again, my inner thighs coated in my juices. Only then does he rise to stand, one hand pinning me in place with that thumb shoved down to his bottom knuckle in my ass while he works his own jeans open. I feel his dick pop free from his boxer briefs, his hand brushing me as he rolls on a condom, then he thrusts inside me in one powerful, stretching, slightly painful go.

I cry out, the sound echoing into the dark.

Thank Christ Jasper told me to hold on because my body is pushed and dragged up and down the hood as he pounds into me even still.

“You’re fucking drenched, Princess.” A hand grips my throat, tilting my face to kiss. That situation only increases at the pleased, growly way he makes the declaration.

Pleasure dances in my clit as he yanks on my thong again, using the material to guide me into the rutting pumps of his hips.

“Ja—” I groan. “Jasper.” I lick the seam of his lips. “I need—” My words break off as a guttural moan pulls from deep in my belly.

“I know, baby.”

He swivels his hips, his dick hitting a spot I didn’t know existed, and I detonate, the top of my head popping off and fireworks exploding behind my closed eyelids. A mini aftershock has me sagging boneless, body melting into the car beneath me when Jasper comes two hard thrusts later.

He holds himself still behind me, but I feel the faint tremble in the fingers around my throat. The fact that I’m not alone in this…intensity…this insanity has unexpected tears prickling in the backs of my eyes.

A hand smooths my ponytail off my face, and the gentleness of the action, as well as the featherlight kiss Jasper presses to my temple, is at complete odds with the animalistic way he fucked me and has me blinking my eyes like my lids are flipping hummingbird wings.

He pulls back, and both of us remain silent as we pull ourselves together, straightening our clothes. He smirks when I scowl at him for littering with the condom after he ties it off.

Unsure what to say with emotion choking me, I move to get back inside the car when two strong arms wrap around my middle.

Jasper pulls me into the cradle of his body, and the two of us stay like that, both leaning against the car I’ll never be able to look at without remembering tonight.

He keeps his arms banded just beneath the swell of my breasts and props his chin on my shoulder.

“I meant what I said, baby.”

I hum. There’s that endearment again.

“I don’t care what it’ll cost me. I can’t pretend anymore.” What does he mean cost him? “You’re mine, Princess.”

I should say no, claim temporary insanity, and revert to keeping my distance again.

I haven’t found the evidence Natalie has. Her threats are still very much real.

Yet…

The idea of staying away from Jasper hurts as much as the idea of Carter going to prison.

We have to be smart about this, though. If I learned anything from my brother, it is not to let the heat of the moment bring about an avoidable failure. We need a plan.

I run a hand along the sinew of Jasper’s forearm and thread my fingers with his before stepping forward.

He easily moves with me, but one of his dark brows is raised to touch the edge of his hat in question.

Pushing onto my toes, I press a sweet kiss to his lips, pointedly giving another to the split in the bottom one before dropping back down.

“Will you come with me to my brother’s?”