Runaway (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 4)

Molly looked at him, hurt that despite everything he felt compelled to ask her again.

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“I am no thief,” she snapped.

Molly was so angered by her inability to stop her tears from falling that she shrugged off Jasper’s hands and turned her back. Even though she swiped her hands down her cheeks to wipe the moisture away, her foolish emotions continued to purge more.

Jasper knew he should leave before either of them said or did something to widen the ever-growing distance already building an insurmountable obstacle between then. A part of him knew it was wise to allow it to flourish because it meant he would be forced to remain professional. However, he also detested the thought that he had hurt her. He felt an eel because he wasn’t usually a callous man.

“To get through this we have to work together,” Jasper began.

“I am not one of your men,” Molly snapped as she whirled to face him.

“Do you think I don’t know that?” Jasper countered.

“Oh, so we have to all work together like the honourable gentlemen we are. Is that what you are saying? Well, Oscar and I aren’t part of your team. Your assumption that I am guilty proves that. Given we haven’t committed any crimes, we have no reason to stay. You have no proof, other than that woman’s lies, to prove we have committed any crime in this house. Neither Oscar nor I are under house arrest and are free to go where we please.”

“Where would you go?” Jasper interrupted. He suspected Molly and her brother had been planning on leaving again when they had been interrupted just now.

“Anywhere away from here would make us considerably happier,” Molly hissed.

Jasper eyed the tears on her cheeks and didn’t doubt it. Rather than leave, Jasper crossed the narrow distance between them.

“Try to leave and I shall have you thrown behind bars,” he whispered.

“For what?” she cried.

She realised what a mistake she had made when she looked up and realised that he was so close she had to tip her head back to look up into his dark gaze. It drew her toward him; to the hint of promise that lingered in the darker recesses of the slumberous gaze he turned on her. It promised her all the things her heart desired and asked her for nothing. The faint hint of danger within those broad shoulders and strong masculine presence elicited a wild thrill of anticipation from deep within that was as quietly appalling as it was appealing. Stunned, all Molly could do was stare helplessly at him as she watched his head descend toward hers.

The second his lips touched hers, Molly realised her mistake. There was no time or space to do anything about her doubts, though. His arms, which had instantly wound around her the instant their lips collided, refused to release her. Not that she wanted to go anywhere. The hands she placed on his heavily muscled chest pushed but were feeble at best because she didn’t want him to move. Not when the flames of passion roared all around them and threatened to engulf them both.

Molly tried to pour into the kiss everything she wanted him to understand. For the first time in her adult life she allowed all her barriers to drop. Inadvertently, as she would realise later, she allowed her self-control to disappear as well. She clung to him with a desperation she had never felt before. It didn’t matter that they were in a house full of people who could walk in on them at any moment. It didn’t even concern her that Jasper didn’t seem to trust her. Right now, he was as engaged by what they were sharing as she was. It was there, in that heated passionate kiss that she knew she was able to reach him, the man, the one she needed to be able to trust, and have trust her in return.

She wanted, needed to show him she trusted him, and so tipped her head sideways to allow him greater access when his lips slid away from hers and peppered a long trail of kisses down her neck to the gentle hollow of her throat. She slid her fingers into his soft hair and began to copy him as best she could while her knees threatened to buckle beneath her and her mind refused to work properly.

Eventually, they were forced to stop by the heavy pounding of booted feet steadily approaching along the corridor outside.

“Jesus, what are we doing?” Jasper whispered when he found the strength to lift his head. He wanted nothing more than to spend the next hour or two savouring every inch of her but knew she would hate him if she was embarrassed by someone walking in on them.

“You don’t want me,” she hissed, horribly guilty yet defiant at the same time.

“Did that feel like I don’t?” Jasper countered. “But until we learn to trust each other this can go nowhere really, can it?”

“Do you want it to go somewhere? What do you want from me?” Molly asked. She dreaded his reply but forced herself to remain still while she waited. “Where is this taking us? I mean, I know you want to put me behind bars, but setting that all aside, what is this all about?”

Jasper sighed but could see no reason to lie to her. “I have no idea. What I do know is that it is foolish to expect anything good to come from this while it is founded on a bed of lies. I can’t promise you a future because I don’t know what my own future needs to contain. My life is my job with the Star Elite, that must should be obvious. I won’t give it up. Not even for you.”

Molly tipped her chin up. “I didn’t ask you to.”

“But would you be happy with your life with a man who lives like this? Where you don’t know where I am, or when I will be back? Because that is what a life with me will be like. I have to go undercover, often for long periods of time. Am I to expect you to leave me while I am gone? If you do want a future with me you have to stop running.”

“While you do?”

“I am not running anywhere,” Jasper replied sharply. “I am here. You know where to find me. Maybe the next time you leave here you should consider what you will do if I don’t come after you. It is a childish thing to do to keep running away. Don’t you think you are a little too old to behave like your brother?”

“I am not running away like he did,” Molly retorted. But inwardly, a deeper, more sensible side of her paused and contemplated what he had just said. It was indeed what she had done and they both knew it. “I left of my own free will. That isn’t running away.”

“Sneaking out with Oscar and heading off into the wilds of London wholly unprepared for what you are likely to face is definitely running away. Consider that before you try to sneak out again, Molly, and ask yourself just how old you are,” Jasper countered. “I am not interested in any romantic engagement with someone so young and childish. I live in a harsh world full of danger and death. I need someone who is strong and willing to face the challenges life will throw us, not an immature young miss who keeps running from them.”