Punt: A British Bad Boy Football Romance (40 page)

“
S
o how is Camilla
, anyway? I know she’s taking care of… what’s his name, again? The one we rescued from the Legion during the big raid?” Maddie asked.

“Good question. The last time I asked, it was Grant,” Tessa replied.

“What do you mean, the last time you asked?”

“He doesn’t seem to remember much about his life before we rescued him from the Legion.”

“Not even his own name?”

“No. Camilla makes a game of it, changing his name all the time to see if it helps jog his memory at all.”

“No luck so far, I’m guessing?”

“No, not yet.”

“So are they together? Jace said they’ve been holed up in her house since his arrival.”

“I really don’t know. I get the sense that they don’t know, either. To be honest, he’s never even spoken in front of me. Everything I hear comes from Camilla, and she’s not talking about their relationship.”

“Ah. Well, what does she say about his past?”

“Just that it was violent even before the Legion did whatever they did to him. Camilla either doesn’t know the details or won’t talk about it. Either way I imagine it was pretty awful.”

“I bet he has one hell of a grudge against the Legion by now.”

“Jace thinks the same thing. He mentioned using the male as a weapon against them, which didn’t go over very well.”

“No?” Maddie asked, amused.

“Camilla flat kicked him out of the house.”

“She’s spunky. I knew I liked her for a reason.”

Tessa pushed away her now-empty plate, sitting back in her chair.

“What about you? What are you going to do?” Tessa asked.

“What is there to do? I’m going to stay here and help Jasper sort out things with his pack, I guess.”

“What about your grand plans to travel?”

“I think the pack probably needs me to do… well, I’m not sure,” Maddie admitted. “But something. I’m going to help however I can.”

“What about the new position they’re creating? They need someone to travel to all the packs and get everyone together. That sounds perfect for you.”

“I can’t take it. I can’t just leave—” Maddie cut off, awkward.

“Jasper?” Tessa suggested.

“Yeah,” Maddie said, shoulders sagging. “I’m not sure how it happened, but I don’t think I can leave him. Worse, I don’t want to. I guess if I have to choose between my wanderlust and him… I choose him.”

Just saying it out loud had a profound effect on Maddie, filling her with a sense of sadness tinged with certainty. Tessa leaned forward and patted her on the shoulder, giving her a wry smile.

“I know just what you mean. It happened to me too. Don’t worry, it’s not that bad,” Tessa teased.

Nodding, Maddie got to her feet and picked up her tray. Tessa did the same.

“I’m going to go check on Camilla,” Tessa said. “Want to come?”

“I should go find Jasper and see if I can help with anything,” Maddie said.

They parted ways outside the mess hall and Maddie looked around the Grass, trying to decide where she should go. She ended up just heading back to her house, but when she arrived there was no sign of Jasper. Although she’d intended to track him down and offer her assistance, Maddie found herself feeling heavy and introspective, wanting to reflect.

Heading into the living room, she opened one of the cabinets of the entertainment center and dragged out a cardboard box. It was ancient and tatty, marked ‘Kid Stuff’ in Maddie’s own childish cursive. Sighing, she sat the box down on the couch and flopped down next to it.

Inside were a few photo albums, some cherished toys, and several ill-used books. Maddie spotted a slim green volume and fished it out, knowing on sight that it was what she sought. It was in horrible condition, burned on one end and all kind of other dents and nicks besides. She turned it over, reading the title aloud.

“William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet,” she mused. “An oldie but a goodie.”

She thought about trying to read a bit of it, but she knew herself. She had a copy of the 90’s movie on DVD around here somewhere, and no way would she read the actual book over watching handsome young Leonardo diCaprio and beautiful Claire Danes flirt and despair.

Maddie dug the DVD out with surprising quickness, and soon she had the room darkened and the movie playing as she lay on the couch watching the action. She’d seen the movie so many times at this point that she barely needed to look at the screen, choosing instead to sift through the boxes of her old things as she half-listened to the movie.

The boxes mostly contained spiral-bound notebooks filled with her girlish handwriting, various school awards and yearbooks, and miscellaneous mementos. Boring, but she’d probably never throw any of it away.

At the bottom of the last box, though, a grin spread across her face when she found a stack of old travel brochures and language phrase books. Maddie flipped through the pages slowly, savoring the blocky 1980’s style of the books. Nostalgia overwhelmed her, thinking about how her younger self would have been watching this movie and flipping through a guidebook to Rome and daydreaming.

Maddie jumped a bit at a sudden cry from onscreen. Looking up, she found that the film had nearly ended. Lovely young Juliet knelt over the now-cool body of her Romeo, sobbing.

“‘For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo’,” Maddie quoted, absorbed. The line made her smile, thinking back to an ongoing battle that she and Jasper’d had as kids.

She could imagine her childhood self, dressed in grubby jeans and a tee shirt; she’d be standing with her arms crossed, giving adolescent Jasper a stern look.

“It’s romantic,” young Maddie would have said, stomping her foot.

Young Jasper would have merely sighed and rolled his eyes, tossing a lock of his shaggy blond hair out of his eyes.

“But Madd, they die at the end,” he would have explained for the thousandth time.

“But at least they died together,” she would have fired back.

At least they’d be together.

Maddie’s smile slipped as her eyes slid back to the pile of travel guides. Maybe Jasper had been just old enough back then to understand that life was more complicated than just being together. When she’d insisted that being together was the most important thing, adolescent Jasper had always let the subject drop without further comment. Maybe he’d had it right from the beginning. When he’d left, Maddie had decided that togetherness didn’t mean much at all. If Jasper didn’t care, she’d decided that she sure as heck wouldn’t care either.

Maddie frowned.

Thinking about it now, it seemed silly that she’d taken up the torch of his teenaged apathy. In fact, she had no idea how he’d felt; her younger self had just interpreted his silence as disagreement. If someone asked her today how she felt about committing herself to someone long-term, she’d feign disgust to get a laugh out of her questioner.

Was that her true sentiment, though?

Maddie sighed and lay down on her back, staring up at the ceiling. Jasper’s image drifted into her mind, dressed in a simple white t-shirt and dark jeans. She smiled. Of course her mind’s eye would sketch him as she liked him best, the t-shirt snug enough to show the well-defined muscles of his chest and shoulders and the dark jeans accenting the narrowness of his hips.

In her mind, Jasper turned and snared her gaze with his ice-blue one. The imagined sunlight glinted softly against his golden hair, much shortened since his teenage days but with a hint of the once-rebellious curls he’d so hated back then. He smiled, one corner of his mouth quirking upward to form a heart-melting dimple in his cheek.

If someone pointed at Jasper just now, just like this, and asked the same question about commitment… would she react the same way?

Of course not. The answer came without a moment of hesitation, and she knew it to be her true sentiment.

She’d blown off the slightest attachment to any man other than her brother for most of her life, believing in her heart that it was best for both parties. Romance was for fools, and Maddie didn’t waste time on anyone who thought otherwise.

Jasper was different, for so many reasons. He was incredibly handsome, true. But he also made her laugh. He’d been there in the very beginning, back when she’d lost her parents and her home. He understood Maddie on nearly every level. What he didn’t understand, he made the effort to learn. Ever since he’d returned earlier this year, he’d stuck by her side no matter how much she rejected and irritated him.

As a matter of fact, Maddie had intentionally tormented him with her nearness for over a month without Jasper so much as batting an eyelash. Aside from the occasional eye roll and finger-shaking lecture, that was. Most males would have been driven to madness long before he’d even done that much.

And what had she done? She’d been a complete twit, of course.

No wonder Gwen had taken her to task over her treatment of Jasper. Maddie had been pushing him, desperate for a reaction. She’d hidden her own feelings, holding out for a big display of emotion from him. When he merely tolerated her behavior rather than trying to woo her, Maddie had been the one to react. She’d lashed out, shoved at him with all her physical and emotional defenses. She’d wanted him gone, and of his own volition.

Jasper’s image in her mind stopped smiling, his expression turning sad. He gave her a long look, then turned his back and walked away. He faded away, leaving Maddie feeling bereft.

Jasper put his whole heart in everything he did, and she knew that. Since Jasper had taken her as a mate, Maddie had taken for granted that he wouldn’t leave her side again. That hadn’t stopped her from constantly talking about leaving him behind, though. She’d prattled on time and again about her plans for travel, all the places she was going and what she’d do there.

Never once had she said aloud that she imagined that Jasper would be at her side. Never once had she thought to invite him along; after all, before now her plans for travel had been little more than fantasies. She could never have left Jace alone for that long, not before he’d taken Tessa as a mate.

What must her own mate think, then? She’d been waiting all along for pretty words and declarations. Never once had she thought of making them herself. She’d barely bothered to decide how she felt about Jasper, much less told him what she felt.

Clarity struck her with blinding force, causing Maddie to suck in a breath.

She loved him. Completely, absolutely loved him. And although she’d told him that much, she’d never told him how important he was in her life. Never told him that she had long since decided to stay here to be with him.

Scrambling to her feet, she started throwing all the travel guides and phrase books back in the box. She ran into the kitchen, fishing out some lighter fluid and a pack of matches, adding them to the pile of books. She stopped for a moment to straighten her hair and make sure her clothing was in place, then scooped up the box and headed for the front door.

It appeared she was long overdue for some important words with her mate.

T
he moment Maddie
approached the clearing, Jasper’s gaze was drawn to her. She had a determined scowl on her face, probably not particularly good news for him. She carried a plain cardboard box, but he couldn’t make out the contents from this distance. Maddie’s gaze swept the crowd, catching his in moments. Her expression didn’t change much, but he sensed her relief at finding him.

Where did she think he’d gone, exactly? Sometimes his mate was as mysterious as she was gorgeous.

“Jas,” she said, settling down onto the picnic table where Jasper had taken up residence, watching Shifters of both packs swarming the Den’s communal quadrangle, a broad expanse they called the Grass.

“Hey,” he said, leaning in for a kiss. She obliged, giving him a taste of her sweet mouth, and Jasper had to restrain himself from laying her back and taking her right there on the table, before every Shifter they knew.

When her hand came up and pushed against his chest in protest, he sighed and retreated.

“Am I being punished?” he asked, only half kidding.

“Will you travel with me?” Maddie blurted out, her hand flying up to her lips. She turned an exquisite shade of pink, and on any other occasion Jasper would have followed through with his original plan to ravish his mate on the picnic table.

The look in her eyes stopped him. Guilt, fear, shame. Three things that he never wanted Maddie to grapple with, not even for a moment.

“Travel,” he echoed, trying to understand the context of her question. With Maddie, it seemed that there was always context.

“I want to volunteer to help with the new project. Travel the world, contacting and uniting the Shifter packs,” she said, dropping her gaze to her lap.

“Okay,” Jasper said, taken aback. In a flash, he realized that it was a perfect job for her, and that he should have been the one to suggest it.

“Jas,” she said, pulling his attention back. “I can’t do it without you. I won’t leave you. You offered before, but I didn’t take you seriously…”

Jasper’s mouth went dry. Those words, from her lips… they really had come full circle since childhood, it seemed.

“I’ll go anywhere with you,” he said, interrupting her before she could explain any more. “Anywhere, anytime. I meant it when I offered to go with you, Madd. Let’s go get my laptop, and we’ll book tickets right now. Just pick a place.”

Maddie burst into tears and flung herself into Jasper’s lap, and he pulled her into a tight hug. Her scent, her warmth, the way his wolf could feel hers… Gods, she was perfection.

“I kind of hate that you’re surprised, Madd,” he admitted.

She sniffled and looked up at him, her eyes luminous and filled with love.

“I’ve been so foolish, Jasper.”

“Nah,” he said, reaching up to brush the hair out of her face. “You’re just a little slow to trust, is all.”

Jasper used his thumb to wipe away her tears, and then gave her a long, deep kiss.

“Oh, Jas,” she whispered, making his heartbeat falter with the sincerity of her gratitude.

“You’re my mate,” he said, unable to explain himself any better.

They held each other tight, and Jasper’s heart soared. Right now, for the first time in his life, he could truly say that he had everything he’d ever wanted.

After all, he had her.