- TWO #2
"This is seriously an issue?"
"Yep. Take it off or keep your ass here and hope the guys who did all that damage," he said, gesturing around the apartment, "don't come back. That's your choice," he said, turning and going back into the hall.
And, well, I wasn't getting left behind. Partly because I needed to see Jade and partly because I didn't like being alone in our apartment in our shitty neighborhood on a normal night, let alone when it had been torn apart for God-knew what reason.
I reached behind me and unclasped, taking off the still-damp bra and tossing it to the ground, covering my breasts with my hands for a minute until my nipples stopped pointing.
I grabbed my cell off my bed and headed back into the living area to see Jasper standing there with a wool jacket held open toward me as if he expected me to follow orders.
His eyes roamed down me slowly, and I fought the irrational urge to wrap my arms around myself and hide. "Good," he said with a slight nod. "You don't need a bra anyway."
I felt heat flood my cheeks at the comment, anger starting to bubble in my belly.
While true, my rack wasn't exactly impressive, it wasn't completely flat either.
And, well, I had to admit, my pride was still a bit bruised from all the shit with Corbin and having another guy point out my flaws really wasn't doing much to help my self-esteem.
I ripped the jacket from his hand and turned from him to slip into it, I turned back, looking down at my cell to see if I had any missed calls.
"You can leave that here," he said, nodding at my cell. "Can't get in with that either. Here," he said, kicking a pair of Jade's moccasins toward me.
"Moccasins?"
"Christ, woman, just fucking cooperate. We are losing time while you fight me on every goddamn thing." With that, he opened the door and went into the hall.
I slipped into the moccasins because, really, I was already in a borrowed sundress in the tail end of fall and a woolen jacket that made my skin itch, there was no going back.
But I did slip my cell into the inside pocket of the jacket along with some cash.
True, I might have been willing to blindly follow the jackass Jasper to whatever the hell The Green was, I was not going to do so without the means to call for help or pay for a cab if things went south.
Jasper was silent as we went down the four flights of stairs, not bothering to hold the front door open for me.
I stepped out, expecting the same torrential downpour I had just walked in from.
But the seemingly endless rain had stopped.
The ground was covered in glistening puddles and the air was cold and wet, but I was silently thankful that I wasn't going to have to freeze and reek of wet sheep because apparently wherever The Green was, it was in walking distance.
About forty minutes later, the cold wind biting into my mostly-bare legs, my arms hugging the warmth of the jacket into my freezing body, we hit a fence.
Literally.
A fence.
It was at least ten feet tall and lined in barbed wire atop. It didn't seem to be protecting anything in particular. The area behind it was a field for a while until it met the woods. That was it. But still, it was private property if the signs warning us to keep out were anything to go by.
But Jasper seemed unperturbed and undeterred by the signs and was busy kicking various spots in the fence to, presumably, find weak spots.
Finding one, he knelt down and peeled back the cut-open fence, slipped through and languidly stood up on the other side.
Turning, he looked at me, giving me a brow raise that seemed to ask why the hell I wasn't following.
"You're trespassing," I informed him, waving at the sign.
"There's nothing on this property. They're just keeping squatters and teens out. Just come through. We're almost there."
I looked over my shoulder as if cops were lying in wait to nab me if I slipped through. But I hadn't seen a single soul for blocks and blocks. If there was nothing on the property, then why were we going there? But I had already gone that far, if we were close, I owed it to Jade to go all the way.
I knelt down, trying to figure out a way to get through without flashing him in the dress.
But Jasper's attention wasn't on me, it was watching the tree line aptly like he could see something beyond it.
What, I wasn't sure, because it was dark enough that I couldn't quite see more than a few feet in front of me.
I ducked low and quickly moved through the hole in the fence, feeling a sharp wire scrape across my thigh as my skirt hiked up.
"Damn it," I hissed as I straightened, wondering if it had been ten years since my last tetanus shot or not.
Jasper took a deep breath and turned back and, as if somehow knowing what happened, reached down, snagged the hem of my skirt and hauled it up to reveal my thigh.
Surprised and mildly embarrassed about my ladybug panties, I quickly tried to push the material back down again.
But his hand was in the way, gently stroking over the bleeding scrape in a way that made my sex clench involuntarily.
"Just a graze," he said, dropping his hand and yanking the skirt down himself.