Page 57 of A Secret In The Garden

“Say that’s not true,” he said. “Lie to me.”

My mouth fell open, but all my thoughts swirled with the heat between my legs.

He grinned—small, devastating. “Exactly.” His voice went lower in a lethal caress. “I’d pin you to the floor right here and you’d take it. You’d beg for it. I’d put you on your back and fuck you until the leaves stuck to your skin. Make you cry my name into the dirt.” He leaned close, lips brushing the corner of my jaw—not a kiss…a threat. “But don’t worry. I’d still let you shoot me before I let myself fuck you.”

I gasped at his words.

“Because I’d break you, Eliza, and not in the sweet way you’re hoping for.”

I tried to back away, but my feet were frozen in place. His words were pouring through me like electricity. I should shoot him just to teach him a lesson.

“I’d make it messy,” he said. “Loud. You’d hate yourself for how much you’d love it.” His lips closed and I could almost taste the lie in his restraint.

“I don’t want this,” I said unsteadily, knowing it didn’t land.

“No?” he asked. “Then why haven’t you moved?” He stepped away. “Again. Relax your shoulders.”

I gaped at him. He wasn’t serious.

“You need to learn.” For as unhinged of a mood as Jasper was in tonight, he seemed determined to actually teach me to be comfortable with defending myself.

“Why are you teaching me this?” I asked.

“Because someone’s going to hurt you eventually,” he said. He took the pistol and slid the magazine in with a soft click. “And I’d rather it not be me.”

The words hit harder than they should have. “You said you’d ruin me.”

“I will,” he said without even a hint of apology. “If you let me.”

My thighs trembled. “You could be lying about everything,” I said. “I don’t know what you’ve done.”

“You don’t.” He leaned in closer. “And it turns you on anyway.”

I didn’t deny it again. There was no use. Not with Jasper. He saw straight through me.

Instead of handing me the gun butt first, he pointed the barrel at my chest, closing in until it grazed my nipple before sliding it slowly up my throat, bringing it beneath my jaw. He tilted my chin up with it. The metal was cool but my blood was hot.

He smirked. “I think you’d let me ruin you. I think you’d let me use this gun to pin your wrists while I made you beg.” His voice was deathly calm.

I shook my head haphazardly and ran my tongue over my lips. His eyes tracked the motion.

“Not because you trust me,” he continued, eyes locked on my lips. “Because you want to know what it would feel like to finally give in.”

My knees finally buckled. He didn’t help. I swallowed, feeling the muzzle of the gun still at my throat.

“I’d fuck you so slowly, you’d forget why you ever tried to resist me.”

I shivered and pressed my thighs together.

He saw it and his smile darkened. He holstered the weapon like none of it had happened and turned. “Go to bed, Eliza.”

Chapter 19

Eliza

Jasper was just carrying in the last of the plants for the bed I was finishing in the conservatory. He’d been in the conservatory when I’d arrived this morning and offered to help. I was nervous about being so close to him again, but I wasn’t going to turn down the opportunity to find out more about what might have happened last night.

My phone pinged in my pocket. I saw the text from my mother, and my face fell. I had been doing such a magical job of tucking my problems away and avoiding them. I knew it couldn’t go on forever, but it had been such a freeing change.