Chapter 21 - Warts And All
Scarlett's POV
"Jasper, please, you know I hate surprises!" I whined as he guided me out of the jet with a blindfold on.
"Wait for it," he laughed at my annoyance.
Suddenly, I felt hot air rush towards as Jasper gently pulled off the blindfold.
"Italy?" I squealed as he grinned at me, picking me up. "Oh my God, Jasper, this is amazing," I said excitedly, planting a small kiss on his cheek.
"I want more than that, woman," he responded gruffly. "Tortured me for hours in there."
"I'm sorry," I laughed. "I'll make it up to you."
"I know you will," he smirked as I rolled my eyes.
We went through security before Jasper's driver dropped us off at his beach house which looked like something out of a magazine, it was just breathtakingly beautiful.
"Welcome to our home for the next two weeks," Jasper grinned as he opened the doors and we stepped inside.
"It is so beautiful, Jasper," I gasped, basking in the glorious interior.
"I'm glad you like it, Scarlett," he smiled, kissing my forehead. "Our things should be arriving soon, but, in the meantime, what do you want to do?"
"Anything as long as I'm with you," I replied shyly as he grinned at me.
"Let's go."
We visited the little market stalls and shops which sold cute handmade souvenirs before walking along the sands of the beach, dimly lit lights and lanterns scattered across the perimeter.
"Jasp, this is absolutely beautiful," I told him as I sighed.
"We needed this," he replied softly, kissing the top of my head as we sat on the sand.
"I know," I murmured as he lay down, his head on my lap. "And, I'm sorry for being -"
"Stop it." He snapped, glaring at me. "You need to stop fucking apologizing."
"What -"
"You apologize for every single thing that you aren't even responsible for, goddammit!" He practically yelled as I looked towards the ocean, afraid to look him in the eye. "And that..." He breathed helplessly.
"What?" I questioned seriously, bringing my gaze back to his.
"Why do you always look away from me, Scarlett? Why?" He asked, his tone defeated as I tried to think of something to say. "Please, baby, let me in."
I blinked furiously, taken aback by how desperate he was to find me out.
"Um..." I trailed off pathetically, my heart racing.
He is the only man in my life who has stayed long enough to unearth me and this was the least he deserved.
"Look, fine -"
"Can we go back to the beach house?" I interrupted quietly as he unsurely took my hand and led me back to our temporary home.
I sat on the recliner in the lounge as Jasper sat on the opposite side. watching me expectantly.
"Um, well, I might as well start from the beginning," I started, unable to keep my eyes on his. "I was born on June nineteenth, to my mom, Lisbeth and my dad, Oliver, who got hitched a month after meeting each other. Anyway, fast forward to the first six years of my life which couldn't have been greater. My parents were fantastic and we had everything we could have ever wanted until one day, I came home to find police officers everywhere." I choked out, adamant to keep my emotions intact.
"Scarlett, you don't -"
"It's fine. So, then I came to know that my father had almost beat my mother to death and was being held in custody while mom was recovering in hospital. After a few weeks in the social system, my dad came home after my mom released the charges and from there, things really started to go downhill. We moved halfway across the state, from one to another, every time my father suspected the police were on to him. It was during this period that he was often too drugged up and out of it, especially to raise a child alongside a crack addict for a mother. He started beating me, for no reason, or if my reaction was slightly delayed in doing what I'd been told to do. At first, it was hair pulling, scratching, building onto kicking and punching until eventually he'd resorted to treating me like some sort of a human experiment. By the time I was eleven, my mom had left and that day was when I got given my first scar because it was my fault she had left." Swallowing the lump in my throat. I blinked back my tears as Jasper sat down beside me, cradling me in his arms.
"Baby, it's okay -"
"No. I need to finish, Jasper." I interrupted as he nodded silently. "With her gone, it was just my father and I running away from town to town until I was seventeen. He had decided he'd had enough of having to hunt me down every time I had run away, so he decided to throw me down the stairs before beating the living shit out of me and I honestly thought I was going to die, Jasper. I felt everything slip away like it never even mattered until I woke up in a hospital surrounded by, yet again, more cops and detectives. I don't even know what possessed me to tell them what had been happening but, God, it was one of the best decisions I'd ever made, but it wasn't over for yet another year. As soon as I'd told them everything, they'd gone back to the house only to find that he was gone and it wasn't until my eighteenth birthday when I received a phone call to let me know he'd been found and was due to appear in court in the following days. So, after a year of hiding and living in constant fear, I went to court, gave my statements, photos, recordings and he got jailed for life. Well, obviously before the previous case anyway, but it doesn't matter, I suppose."
I looked up at Jasper who just stared at me.
Deathly silent.
"Say something?" I whispered worriedly as he gently cupped my face in his hands.
"I love you." He declared, his eyes becoming glassy as my mouth dropped open. "I've known for a very long time that... I love you."
Of all the things I had expected him to say, that was not one of them.
He held me like this for what felt like a blissful lifetime, our eyes boring into each other's as I realized I hadn't looked away from him once.
"I... I..." I began, my voice breaking as I tried to choke back my sobs.
He lifted me onto his lap, stroking my hair as I buried my face into his shoulder, my tears seeping into his shirt.
"Shh, baby, shh," he whispered softly.
"Why did he do this to me?" I cried into his chest.
"Scarlett, shh, he is never coming back, I will not let anything or anyone hurt you ever again," he murmured against my ear, his voice thick with emotion.
"No!" I snapped furiously as I got off his lap and ripped my dress off my body, leaving me only in my underwear and scars. "Look at me Jasper! Look at them and tell me you love me!"
He grabbed my wrists and pushed me so my back was pressed against the wall as he breathed heavily.
"I love you," he growled getting onto his knees as he kissed every single scar leaving the worst one till last. He torturously ran his fingers along the scar from the hip to beneath my breast before kissing every inch of f it as my breath hitched. What the hell was he doing to me? "I love you so fucking much it scares me." He whispered as our noses pressed together, his body moulded into mine.
I felt guilty.
Why didn't I tell him I loved him?
Why was I being such a coward?
"Hey," he said softly as I looked at him. "It's okay, I know you aren't ready. I just had to let it out and I don't regret it one bit."
"You're amazing, do you know that?" I asked, smiling as he picked me up.
"Only because I have an amazing woman by my side," he murmured into my hair. "God, you've changed me so much."
"I have?" I asked seriously, pulling my silk gown over my body.
"All I ever did was screw practically any girl I saw until I finally saw the one woman I wanted but could never get," he told me, watching my expression as if he were expecting me to blow up.
But I wasn't angry in the least. Of course, I knew how many women Jasper had been with, I would have to have been pretty stupid to fall for him without acknowledging that.
"I'm glad to have been more of a challenge in comparison to your many previous conquests," I teased him as he rolled his eyes. "And if we're doing this, then I might as well tell you have no idea how much you've changed me, Jasper."
"My turn, now," he grinned mischievously. "How?"
"You actually stayed. You cared enough to stay. You stayed long enough for me to... Uncover the parts of me I hate and my abnormal childhood, so, yes, you've changed me, Jasper and you have no idea how grateful I am for that. You let me trust again," I smiled up at him, his expression truly unfathomable.
"I wish I'd done this sooner," he told me as I shook my head.
"I'm glad it happened like this."
I chewed my lip thoughtfully, not admitting to him how scared I actually was because this wasn't a case of me just testing the waters, this was me allowing the ocean to devour me whole.
"What are you thinking?" His voice interrupted my train of thought.
"That you have a cute bellybutton," I lied even though I really did find it pretty cute.
"A cute bellybutton?" He questioned with disgust as I laughed.
"It's so adorable I could eat it," I said grinning as I noticed his grimace morphed into his trademark smirk.
"Anything else of mine you could eat?" He asked, raising his eyebrow as I threw a pillow at him.
"You're gross, do you know that?"
"A certain blondie keeps telling me that very same thing," he teased, standing up as I rolled my eyes.
"I'm so tired," I yawned as Jasper came up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist.
"Jetlag will do that to you," he said, kissing my neck softly. "Come on, let's go to bed."
"I want to watch the stars, come on," I grinned as he laughed.
We went out back to the veranda and lay back watching the stars.
I felt reborn tonight. As strange as it sounded, I'd never felt so at peace with myself. I'd finally let someone in and it felt so damn good that despite feeling a little apprehensive, I couldn't wait to ride the waves of this new-found ocean because I had Jasper and was the only thing that mattered to me in that moment.