Then his head dipped towards my throat and he gave me open-mouthed kisses there while sliding his hands underneath my top to knead my bare skin.
My waist wasn't slim anymore. I'd tried after giving birth but my body hadn't gone back to normal. Cole did not care, he thought I was just as desirable but would Jasper feel the same?
He lifted his head and kissed me on the mouth again, impatiently. "I want you," he growled.
My cavewoman instincts came alive at the need I detected in his words and my nails scratched the back of his throat before I ran my hands down his chest.
"Skye," he moaned my name and touched my panties. "Tell me you want this."
"I want it," I said and allowed him to take them off before he opened his zipper, his lips moist and insistent against mine. He hoisted up my thighs and wrapped them around his hips and I let out a distinctly feminine growl, hating my weakness and hating him for reducing me to this.
I couldn't stop though. I couldn't push him away. The need was so acute, so forceful.
"God, Jasper," I whined and he wasted no time in responding to me.
He was buried in me seconds later and fucking me so good, my head slumped against the wall, my mouth hanging open as I saw stars. All that could be heard were our panting and grunts and moans that rang in the empty corridor. His hips slammed against mine while he bit me on the neck.
I cried out, climaxing hard and fast and when Jasper followed with a growl, I had the strange sense that these paintings that kept us company were now bearing witness to our coupling. Jasper gasped against my neck and I trembled in his arms. We stayed that way for a long time.
I was the one who recovered first and as the haze of lust faded, horror took its place at what I had just done. I hadn't even been thinking because I'd been so consumed with desire and all the angst churning inside me from our fight. Shit. This was so wrong.
Why did he have to kiss me? Remind me of how it had felt? Why did he do that to me? I started to cry after he had tucked himself in and stood there looking at me with a serious expression.
"I'm so sorry," I whispered to him. "I did what I thought was best for us back then. I didn't mean to hurt anyone."
He lifted my chin with a finger. I blinked back my tears, gazing at him earnestly.
"I kind of started that way too," he murmured with a hollow expression. "But somewhere along my path, I really did lose myself. I'm trying to drag myself back now but you won't let me." He gave me a mocking smile. "Skye," he whispered. "Do you realise how easy it was for you just now to cheat on your husband with me?"
I felt the blood draining from my face at his words and my heartbeats seemed to just halt.
There was absolute silence for a moment. And then a sharp sound that echoed all around us when my palm connected with his cheek.
"You bastard!" I screamed at him. How could he say that to me?
"We're basically even now, Madison," was his calm reply. He didn't even protest at the slap even though my handprint was now visible on his skin.
"We're not even close," I spat at him and then I slapped him again, harder this time. I wanted it to hurt just like he had hurt me.
Jasper scowled at me fiercely. My body broke down and I slid to the floor, unable to stand on my feet any longer. He was dead to me. Dead.
"I was right about you," I sobbed loudly, hugging my knees to my chest. "You are selfish! You're just a shadow of the man I loved now. All you ever wanted me for was to satisfy your depraved needs. Just fuck off, Jasper. Go. Take whatever you want. Take Cole from me. Take Jacob from me."
My eyes burned and I cried even harder while he simply stood there silently.
"That's all you're good for. Just take everything from me. Make them hate me. You'll have both of them in your life and...I'll be alone. Hope it makes you happy," I choked out, staring at the floor with my blurred vision.
He didn't even bother to reply as he turned and walked away from me, his retreating footsteps the only sound in the gallery apart from my sobbing.
****
Chapter Twenty-Four
Skye
I lost track of time. Sitting on that spot on the floor and crying my eyes out seemed like the only thing my shattered heart was allowing me to do. I was going to lose everything, probably by this time tomorrow. I didn't think I was strong enough to face Cole after all this now.
I'd gotten angry with him but Jasper had been right. I wasn't in any kind of relationship with him, hadn't even intended to get into a relationship with him and I should've stayed within my boundaries. He was a selfish cheater but I should have told him no. The fact remained that I was married to Cole and I would have hated Cole if he had slept with Jasper behind my back. And yet, I'd just done the exact same thing that I knew I would hate them for doing. That I hated Jasper for doing.
Had the sex been a means for him to prove a point because God knew how much he loved doing that? Had he wanted to show me just how easy it was sometimes to get carried away in the moment and selfishly want something without caring about the consequences? Because Cole's feelings had been
