The Bodyguard

31.

tw: death, mutilation

Jasper's blood ran ice cold by the time he made it to the second floor of their hotel. He couldn't distinguish what was real and what he'd made up at this point.

His feelings for Ace — real. Reciprocity — real. Passion — real. Trust — had he made that up in his head?

Had they spent so much time together that Ace merely adapted to Jasper's unreadable nature, told him the things he wanted to hear? Or was their some underlying reason that Ace couldn't be fully honest with him?

A sharp knock on the door. Even though Jasper wanted to break it down.

He rung out his fingers. He was so close to knocking again, this time more feverishly.

But he never got the chance.

The door opened with a slow mechanic click and suddenly Ace stood before him with a dim luster. He looked exhausted — his pupils dilated and eating away at brown, his hair unruly and the rim of his eyes lined with a dull wetness.

But upon seeing Jasper, that fatigue seemingly dissipated.

Jasper was speechless. He took Ace in with everything in him. Like if he were to look away, the guard would disappear out of his sight line.

Neither of them had words, so they spoke with their bodies instead.

Jasper was the first to move. He pushed forward into the confines of Ace's room and immediately captured him in a stunningly intimate embrace.

The door shut behind them as Jasper's wrapped his hands around the guard's neck — Ace's naturally found Jasper's waist.

They were so close that Jasper could feel Ace's heartbeat pounding erratically. He's almost positive his would sound close to the same, or maybe even identical.

Two hearts beating rhythmically as one.

They stayed like that for what felt like hours. Jasper found solace in the crook of Ace's neck, inhaling the scent that he'd become so accustomed to.

In the weeks they spent in Ace's apartment, intertwined and alone, Jasper had found pieces of Ace he'd left behind for him to keep.

Being with him again was like all of those pieces coming together as one again. Where they should have never left. Where they belong.

"Jasper." Ace said his name like it was the only word he knew.

His voice rough with fatigue and scratchy on certain syllables. It sounded like he'd been crying.

The guard reluctantly pulled away to look at the man who consumed him whole — raw for the two weeks they'd been apart.

"You left me."

The way Jasper said it as a statement, like a law made Ace's chest constrict.

Accusatory.

Their eyes met, and their hands never left each other's body. They were both scared to let go on the off chance that they'd never get to hold one another again.

"I didn't," Ace said.

He wanted to tell Jasper everything.

"I didn't, baby. I was always going to come back to you."

A long tortuous stare conspired. One that stripped them both bare and revealed everything about themselves that they hated and loved all at once, which was each other.

Jasper's fingers glided up and reached the ends of Ace's hair, willing his head down slightly until their lips met gracefully.

When they kissed, it was with an urgency to rewrite the last couple of weeks and erase it from their memories.