Punt: A British Bad Boy Football Romance (21 page)

J
asper didn’t have
to look up to know Maddie was approaching the house. He didn’t have to hear the roar of her bike’s engine, either. Standing in the living room as he packed, he could almost feel her anger from clear outside. Gods, he could only imagine what she was worked up over now.

The thunder of her bike’s motor only echoed his sense of her fury as she pulled into the yard, stopping short and cutting the engine. She stomped up onto the porch, her footsteps giving Jasper a premonition of the fight that would surely ensue between them.

Maddie slammed the door open hard enough to jar a couple of the framed photographs hanging on the living room wall. Standing in the living room and folding his clothes, Jasper turned his head to look at her. Maddie’s chest heaved, and she almost vibrated with the force of her anger.

Even pissed off, she was a walking wet dream. Make that especially when she was pissed off. When Jasper was that angry, people shrunk away from the darkness in his expression, the intimidation of his physical tension. When Maddie was angry, Jasper was more drawn to her than ever. Damn if life wasn’t unfair.

“Ugh!” she yelled, slamming the door closed. She came in and flung herself on the couch, oblivious to Jasper’s neat stacks of sorted and separated clothes. He tried not to scowl when she upended two large stacks of folded tee shirts and jeans onto the floor.

“You’re on my clothes, Madd,” he sighed, not expecting any real response.

“Jace is an ass!” Maddie declared, crossing her arms. The motion drew attention to the lush mounds of her breasts. As his gaze dipped down to appreciate them, Jasper was reminded of how well they’d fit in his hands . When she’d been writhing on his lap like a whore in heat, pressing those heavy orbs into his hands…

“Don’t you want to know why?” Maddie demanded, angry. She pouted, showcasing shapely, bitable lips. Just what Jasper needed, more thoughts about her lips and all the dirty things she could do with them. Had done with them, damn her.

“Alright,” Jasper said. He barely knew what he was agreeing to, distracted as he was. It was easier to agree than to ask questions.

“He got the Ascendant pregnant,” Maddie said with evident distaste. Waving a hand, she continued as if she were talking to herself.

“And I was just trying to help. I mean, they just got mated a month ago! How can they even know that they even really suit each other?”

“Yeah,” Jasper mumbled, although he thought Tessa was pretty much perfect. The ideal woman, actually. He’d almost fought Jace to the death for her not so long ago. Or tried to, anyway. Maddie had jumped in to stop the fight, offering herself in Tessa’s place.

He’d been floored at her offer, his brain turning to liquid at the thought of having Madeline Copeland as his mate. After all the years of telling himself it would never be possible, suddenly she was handed to him on a silver platter. He could have no more refused her offer than he could have stopped breathing air.

And now? Now instead he was standing here, scoping out Maddie’s body like a horny teenager. If he had somehow won Tessa, he probably would have regretted it the second he saw Maddie again.

Not that he was benefiting from having Maddie as a mate right now. She’d made it clear that she’d chosen him for practical reasons, not because she wanted anything physical or emotional from him. He couldn’t blame her. If she knew the truth about who he was, what he’d really done the day their pack had been killed… he’d be denied even this much interaction. Gritting his teeth, he turned back to his packing.

“—so basically I have no choice,” she was saying. “When do we leave?”

“We?” Jasper asked, his hands stilling.

“Yes,” Maddie said. She talked slow, as if he were mentally handicapped. “I just said I was going with you.”

“Going with me,” Jasper repeated back. Maybe Maddie was right, and he was a bit on the slow side. He’d been in enough fights and had enough concussions that it wouldn’t be shocking.

“To Mobile,” she prompted.

“Oh. Ohhhhhh,” he said, trying to keep a straight face. She was coming back after their fight this morning, tail between her legs. Jasper knew how proud she was, and that it was probably killing her to have to go back on her previous words. He ought to be gracious about it, but it was beyond him.

“What— are you laughing?” Maddie asked, outraged. Putting on his strictest expression, Jace shook his head.

“No, of course not. It’s just… you really were going to miss me, weren’t you?” he said, unable to resist teasing her. Maddie crossed her arms and glared at him.

“You are lucky that I don’t have a choice,” she huffed.

“Oh, yeah. Okay,” Jasper said, a grin cracking across his face once more.

“Don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“That Brad Pitt smile thing. Just don’t,” she said, frowning.

Holding his hands up, Jasper made his dimples stand out a little more. He had a sneaking suspicion that Maddie had a secret weakness for his dimples. When she wasn’t threatening to kill him, of course.

“I’m just being me. Can’t be any other way.”

Biting his lip, he spun in place, pretending to showcase himself. Maddie’s mouth quivered as if she might laugh, but instead she stood up and gave him a reproving glance. Looking at the clothes now scattered all over the living room floor, she pursed her lips. Reaching out, she looked him right in the eyes and flipped another tidy stack onto the floor.

“You know I’m gonna have to refold all these before we can leave,” he said, unwilling to give up his good humor.

“Not my fault you’re OCD, Jas,” she retorted, skirting around him and heading for the bedroom.

She was back in the living room a second later, empty suitcase in hand.

“What am I supposed to pack for Alabama?” she asked, as if they were going to a different continent instead of a few hours away. Jasper couldn’t resist teasing her.

“Mostly overalls, I’d say. Flannel, anything flannel. If you have any baseball caps that’d be good, and I think that’s about it. Don’t bring anything nice,” he said, all innocence.

“Overalls?” Maddie gaped.

“You don’t want to muck out a pig pen wearing skinny jeans.”

“Why would I be doing that?” she asked, frowning.

“What do you think we do in Alabama? We farm,” he said, working doubly hard to keep a straight face.

“You farm pigs,” she said, skeptical.

“No, I’m the Alpha of a pack of pig farmers. Totally different. I’ll be doing my Alpha duties, but since you’ve volunteered to come along, we’ll put you to work.”

“You expect me to roll around in filth with a bunch of dirty males?” she said, sounding outraged again. Gods, but it was too easy to get her going.

“There are other females,” Jasper said. “Besides, I bet you look hot as hell in cowboy boots. You’re gonna be a cute little Alpha’s mate, you know that? And once we have kids, you can stay home with them except during harvest season,” he drawled, bluffing.

Maddie’s eyes narrowed. Shit, he’d gone overboard and exposed the lie.

“You’re putting me on,” she said, a statement rather than a question. Jasper bit his lip and looked down at his hands, trying not to laugh.

“Maybe a little,” he admitted. “My pack works security for big corporations. We definitely don’t have any pigs.”

“Uh huh. I see,” Maddie said, shooting him a glare and sweeping out of the room. Jasper probably shouldn’t have messed with her, but sometimes she just walked right into it. He couldn’t be held accountable for that.

Chuckling to himself, he made short work of refolding and packing the rest of his clothes. He wasn’t actually OCD, as Maddie had suggested, but he had lived a militant life and it showed in his behavior. He was always at his best when he was neat, calm, and prepared. Almost a little mantra for him, really.

Lost in thought, he carried all his bags out to the car that Cord had brought around. He packed his things in the trunk, leaving it open for Maddie’s suitcase.

When he got back inside, he looked around to make sure he wasn’t leaving anything behind. Other than his beloved leather jacket, that was.

“Jasper?” came Maddie’s voice from the bedroom. He sighed and walked down the hallway, stopping dead when he found Maddie sitting in a seductive pose on her bed. His brain sputtered, trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

Maddie patted the bed beside her, giving him a wink.

“Sit with me,” she said, her tone suggestive. A little voice in the back of his head started going wild, imagining things. Imagining himself tearing her clothes off, pressing her up against the wall, taking her so hard she cried out his name again and again.

“Alright.”

He sat, eyeing her body. A smile teased her lips, and she stood up. A warning bell went off somewhere in his sex-addled brain, telling him she was up to no good. He was about to protest when she pushed him back onto the soft mattress and straddled him as neatly as a champion cowgirl. She slid down his thighs, pressing the heat of her core against his growing erection. Just a tiny bit of denim separated them now.

“It’s just… I need something,” Maddie said, leaning forward to place her hands on his chest. Her thick brown hair swung forward to surround them and he couldn’t keep his hands out of it. It was soft and bouncy and beautiful, just like Maddie. The manipulative little wretch knew just how to tease him. He wasn’t having any of it, though. He wasn’t about to let Maddie try to make him her bitch, the way she’d probably done to every other man she’d ever so much as looked at.

Jasper clenched his jaw, his body tense to the point of pain. She was pressed against him so tight that he couldn’t hide the evidence of his arousal in the slightest. His cock pressed against her flesh, from her belly down to her mound, the heat of her body tempting him.

Still, he wasn’t going to let her toy with him. If she wanted him, she could damned well start acting like his mate instead of a spoiled teenager.

“No,” he ground out, responding to her question.

Maddie gave him a sly smile, running a hand up through his hair and giving the strands a gentle tug.

“You don’t even know what I’m going to ask for!” she protested. She leaned in and put her lips to his ear, teasing with each breath. Jasper refused to cave to her wickedness, purely on principle.

“What do you want, Maddie?” he asked, closing his eyes against her very closeness. His brain kept flashing back to the past, to the only time he’d had her fully. He’d been too long without a female, and she’d been a sensory overload. He’d lasted but a handful of minutes inside her, shaming himself. She always knew just how to find and exploit his weakness, and this was no exception.

“It’s just, if we’re going to be going away together…” she whispered, her hands finding his shoulders and trailing down his arms. He couldn’t repress a shudder of pleasure, which just annoyed him even more.

“I just thought you could use your…” she interrupted herself to nip his earlobe, making his whole body clench with need. Jasper brought his hands up and grabbed her arms, stilling her movements.

“Maddie,” he said, his anger growing. “You are playing with fire right now. Now get off me, or this is going to turn into something very different. Do you understand?”

“And what if I do?” she asked, her expression darkening. She didn’t like that she couldn’t twist him around her finger like she did with other men. Well, she could just deal with it, the brat.

Jasper surged up and pulled her mouth to his, giving her a kiss that lacked any softness or subtlety. He moved his lips over hers, pouring all the pent up need and anger he felt into the motion. Maddie gasped, opening her lips, and Jasper took full advantage. He nipped her bottom lip just hard enough to remind her who was dominant. Then he worked her mouth open further and dipped his tongue into her mouth, penetrating rather than exploring. She struggled in his grip, her arms coming up to his wrists and trying to break the hold.

Jasper took his pleasure for several long moments, letting her struggle against his invasion. He bit back the groan pressing up from his chest, unwilling to give her the satisfaction of knowing that he was desperate for the taste of her. She wasn’t unaffected, either. Jasper could feel her chest rising and dropping as her breaths grew fevered, either with lust or fear. Either one was fine with him at the moment. At last she stopped struggling, melting in his arms.

Jasper broke the kiss, looking down into her clear violet eyes for a long second. He kept his expression neutral, but he knew his eyes were alight with need and frustration.

“I am not a toy that you can play with whenever you like and then just put back of the shelf,” he growled, releasing her. “Now what do you want from me?”

Maddie scrambled off his lap fast as lightning, still panting. Her nipples were hard, poking out against the soft material of her shirt. She gave him a baleful look, wiping the back of her hand against her lips. Wiping away the taste of him, he supposed.

“I wanted you to carry my suitcase to the car,” she said, looking away. He’d turned the tables on her, and she was angry about it. Well, let her be mad. She would think twice before she started something with him that she couldn’t finish.

“Fine,” he said. He stood up, and she gave him one last glare before turning to head to the car. Unable to resist, Jasper reached out and smacked her on the ass. She whipped around, furious.

“You! UGH!” she shouted, storming out of the room. Jasper chuckled, delighted to have the upper hand over her for once in his damned life. Gods knew she held it every other minute of the day.

Picking up her overstuffed suitcase and heading for the door, Jasper smiled to himself. Maybe this little trip wasn’t going to be so horrible after all.

“
T
his is
our exit for Mobile. The Bunker is a bit out from the city, through a lot of urban and suburban areas,” Jasper commented, breaking the hours-long silence. He took the next off-ramp and turned right onto a busy street lined with seemingly endless strip malls and restaurants. Maddie wrinkled her nose at the sudden onset of suburbia. She wanted to say as much to Jasper, but she didn’t know how to start talking to him again.

Maddie’s little tease earlier had created a palpable tension between them and it had only increased in the confined space of Jasper’s Mercedes. Rather than try to make awkward conversation, Maddie had spent the trip staring out the window or flipping channels on the radio.

“How can you keep your Den safe here?” she asked.

“Bunker,” he corrected, “and we prefer the tactic of hiding it in plain sight. Makes it more accessible.”

“Uh huh. It wouldn’t happen to be hiding on a pig farm, would it?” Maddie asked.

“Nope,” Jasper replied, not responding to her dig.

“So if you’re not pig farmers, how does your pack make money?” Maddie asked, unable to reign in her curiosity.

“Seriously?” Jasper gave her a searching glance. “Jesus, Madd. You don’t even know what I do for a living.”

“I know a little. I know it involves guns,” Maddie said.

“I told you, we are a security firm,” he said. “Guns are a last precaution, when everything else has failed.”

“Jace said you’re basically a Rent-a-Militia, like the Hell’s Angels in the seventies.”

Jasper was quiet for a moment, his lips thinning.

“My father made some poor choices when it came to clients,” he said, clearly not wanting to discuss it.

“But not you?”

“I hope not. Every client is run through a series of checks and balances to make sure they fit our standards. Gwen sits down with most of them in person to make sure they’re reasonable and stable.”

“Who’s Gwen? Your secretary?” Maddie asked, trying not to imagine a petite, big-chested blonde leaning over her desk to give Jasper a show.

Jasper laughed, a deep rumble from his chest.

“Shit, no. She’s my second in command,” he said, amused.

“Your beta is a female?” Maddie asked, surprised.

“Technically, you’re my beta now. So yes, in either case,” he said.

“You know what I mean! I thought your pack couldn’t stand females in general. How the hell did this Gwen get so high in the ranking?”

“She worked her ass off and kicked the shit out of all her competitors, that’s how. Most of the males are secretly scared of her, I think.”

Maddie had to smile at that. Imagining the busty little secretary delivering a roundhouse kick to the face of an errant pack member was just too funny.

“Don’t you worry about her trying to take your place in the pack?” Maddie asked, curious.

Jasper shook his head as he took a series of quick turns, guiding them away from the dense commercial area.

“Gwen is pretty damned loyal. If she ever takes me out, it’ll probably be for a good reason.”

Maddie’s eyebrows shot up, but she didn’t reply. What was she supposed to make of that?

“I probably ought to warn you, she’s not very happy with me right now. Especially not with my absence the last month,” he said, keeping his eyes on the road.

“She’s overwhelmed with running the pack?” Maddie guessed.

“That’s certainly part of it,” he said, but didn’t elaborate. Maddie tried another tack.

“So what is the pressing issue that’s got us racing back here on short notice?”

“Women,” Jasper said.

“I thought Gwen was the only female?”

“I’m not talking about Shifters. Human women. The males of this pack have a taste for human women, and not nice ones like Tessa either.”

Maddie frowned at his comment about Tessa, but let it slide. Nothing good ever came from bringing her up around Jasper, only a flat-out screaming match. He refused to hear a bad word about her, which pissed Maddie off. As if she needed the reminder that Jasper had preferred a human over her. Not only that, but Tessa was petite, blond, and curvy… all the things Maddie wasn’t. Tessa’s beauty was all-American, and completely alien next to Maddie’s own slender, dark looks.

Frowning, Maddie turned her thoughts to the conversation.

“Not nice. You mean like…”

“Hookers? Yes. Junkies, drunks, and strippers, too. I don’t see the appeal, myself. Maybe it’s just the low expectations,” he said, muttering the last.

“Maybe it’s the fake tits. Guys like that,” Maddie said, matter-of-factly. She tried not to be too obvious when she looked down to check out her own rack. Jasper groaned, looking disgusted at her statement.

“Real males like real females, Madd. Not every male likes touching a pair of pool floats,” he said, unamused.

“Let’s take a vote when we get to the Bunker,” Maddie said, sarcastic. “Mine against one of the strippers. We’ll have a wet t-shirt contest and see whose drinks get bought.”

Jasper’s jaw tensed, and his knuckles went white where they gripped the leather steering wheel.

“Well, I guess I should be thankful that I’m only mated on paper, then. I can explore my options,” he bit off.

Maddie turned away from him, staring out the window. She was angry, but she didn’t want to fight with him in the car. The close confines made everything ten times more intense, and she wasn’t stupid enough to provoke his anger here.

“Now you’re all mad about it? This whole open relationship was your idea, Madd,” he said, keeping his tone pleasant.

“I didn’t mean—” she started, then snapped her mouth shut. Fuming, she crossed her arms and kept her face turned away from him.

“You didn’t mean what?” he asked, keeping his eyes focused on the road.

“What I meant was that when I figure out my next step and move on, you shouldn’t feel obligated to be alone. I didn’t mean that you should rub my nose in it,” she said. Her lips twisted in a sour expression.

“So as long as you don’t see it happening, you’re okay with the fact that I’ll go meet and seduce other women?”

“Yes,” she grumbled, her face contradicting her speech.

“As long as you understand that this is one-sided. I’ll never be accepting of other males touching what’s mine,” Jasper said.

Maddie growled, sick of his ridiculous dominant streak. He needed to get over it, and soon.

“I’m not your damned possession, Jasper! It’s not your choice who I do or don’t screw!” she said, her voice rising with anger.

“You’re not my possession, no. You’re my mate. You willingly exchanged bites with me, and there are certain responsibilities that go along with that. I didn’t see you protesting right after the bites when I had your feet in the air, making you scream my name,” he said.

“Bastard! I can’t believe you. I’m already regretting coming on this trip,” she hissed. “Not to mention this whole mate thing!”

Jasper pulled the car into an abandoned parking lot, slamming on the brakes. The car squealed to a halt and went silent as he snapped off the stereo.

“That’s it. We can’t go to the Bunker like this, Maddie. We have some things to straighten out between us,” he said, still staring straight ahead and gripping the wheel.

“You got a magic wand that you can wave and make us agree on everything?” she asked, fuming.

“No, but I know a place we can sit down and eat. Then we can figure out how to get along while we’re at the Bunker.”

“But—” she interrupted.

“Stop talking, and I will buy you dinner. Best offer you’re gonna get all night,” Jasper said, sounding exasperated.

“Fine. But there had better be drinks involved,” she said, returning to staring out the window. She didn’t miss the satisfied smile on Jasper’s face as he pulled the car out of the lot again. He was going to need to make that a lot of drinks, Maddie thought as they headed back down the road.