“Our bees, of course.”
“Is that so?” A touch of amusement laces his tone.
“Mm. There would be a bed, made soft by layers and layers of straw and blankets. A chair in the corner where you’d write.”
“Letters?”
“Yes,” I tell him. “And you’d teach me to do the same. We’d have gardens out back. Pigs, perhaps. And not another soul in sight. Except for maybe Catherine and my mother, if they wished to join us.”
Jasper sighs against my chest, his breath a whisper over my skin. “It sounds like a wonderful life.”
I bite the inside of my cheek hard enough to cull back the sound that wants to escape my throat. “Yes,” I say at last. “It does, doesn’t it?”
Jasper lays his head on my arm, looking at me in the dark. Is he picturing it as I am? The future that will never come to pass?
“Are you sore?” I ask quietly.
“Only a little. I would weather it a million times over to be close to you again. Will you do that to me often?”
A smile pulls at my lips. “As often as you’d like.”
He hums, a contented cat with his cream. “I wrote you a letter the other day.”
“Did you?”
“I was missing you.”
He offers himself so readily I have the sudden urge to craft a suit of armor for Jasper so that no one could touch him save for me.
“Will you tell me what you wrote?” I ask.
He makes an almost frustrated sound. “I can’t remember all of it, but… The stars were out, and I could see them from my window. It was a comfort because when I look at the stars, I’m reminded of you. I was imagining you with your sword and how handsome you’d be.”
My chest warms. “Do you find me handsome, Jasper?”
His voice is full of nothing but earnestness. “Very. You make my breath come short and my heart leap. I never felt that for another before you. I didn’t know, at first, what to make of it.”
I run my fingers along his jaw, the skin smooth and warm. “I think you’re the most beautiful man I’ve ever set eyes on,” I tell him seriously. “But even if I didn’t have eyes, I would want you just the same.”
Jasper captures my wandering hand, pulling it over his heart. “What are we to do?”
“Continue as we are,” I answer, the hitch of his breath causing my chest to constrict. “It’s all wecando.”
Jasper nods, his forehead brushing mine before his mouth seeks my own, urgent in its demand. He pulls me on top of him, and I go easily, settling between his legs, taking from his mouth at a pace matched only by what he’s willing to give me. He reaches for my cock, coaxing me to hardness, tugging me toward him as if desperate to have me within his body once more. I slow only long enough to grab the oil, and then I’m sinking inside Jasper a second time.
Our coupling is frantic, Jasper leaving the evidence of his arousal smeared along my stomach as I punch soft grunts and whispered moans from his lips. His hands tug at me, and I plant my palms on the ground, seeking to imprint myself inside his very being so that he’ll never again be without the memory of my touch.
Jasper throws his head back when I wrap my hand around his prick, his cry of ecstasy one I tuck away inside my heart. He heaves against me, his spend on our stomachs as I empty inside the tight clasp of his body, grateful to be leaving myself there. To be giving Jasper evidence of our time together, however brief.
He doesn’t unwind his arms from around me, and I leave soft kisses over his cheeks and chin as he trembles.
“Don’t lose hope,” I beg of him quietly. “Never that. When you feel lost, look at the stars and know I am looking at them with you.”
A tear slips down his cheek, cold against my nose. “My warrior.”
“Forevermore,” I vow.
It’s late when Jasper and I finally move off the cold, blanketed ground. I’ll need to clean the wool again before long, but I leave it for another day, walking half-clothed with Jasper to the creek. We wash under the light of the stars, the moon but a sliver tonight.
