Jasper's Education Ch. 02

The phone on his desk rang, and Jonah snatched it up quickly, glancing at Jasper. It hadn't woken her. She remained curled up on the couch, still deep in an exhausted sleep.

"Hello?" he said quietly.

"Jonah Gabriel Parker."

Jonah closed his eyes. "Hi, Mom."

"What did you do?!"

"Can you be more specific?"

"Curt called me this morning and told me that you canceled some girl's scholarship! Without even telling me. Why on earth would you do that?"

Jonah had known this was coming, but didn't actually make up his mind about how he was going to handle it until he opened his mouth and said, "She doesn't need the scholarship anymore. She has money for tuition."

There was a puzzled silence on the other end. "How do you know that? Do you know this girl? Is this something personal, Jonah?"

Taking a deep breath, Jonah said, "You could say that. She's my wife."

This time the silence was longer, and practically vibrating with his mother's shock. It was quite a while before she managed to say, "You got married? When? To who? Why didn't you tell me? Wait, Jonah." Sharp disapproval entered her tone. "She was in college - how old is this girl?"

"Nineteen."

"Jonah!" The shock and horror in her voice made him bite his lip to keep from laughing.

"She's an adult," he said, keeping the amusement out of his voice with an effort. "Nothing to be shocked about."

"The age difference-"

"Rich older men marry younger women all the time, Mom. We're practically expected to. If you think about it, I'm actually being very traditional." Few things gave Jonah more pure, simple delight than fucking with his mother. "Remind me how much older Dad was than you?"

"That's not the point," she snapped. "People will talk."

"Don't be so melodramatic. Yes, some people will gossip. It's not the end of the world. They'll eventually get bored and move on to a new topic."

"Is she pregnant?"

"She is not."

"Well, that's something, at least."

"If it makes you feel any better, she was a virgin, too."

"Jonah!!"

Jonah had to move the phone for a moment in case he couldn't hold back the laughter.

"Why on earth do you do things like this?" she asked in exasperation. "Everything with you is always so..."

"So what, Mom?"

There was a soft but exasperated huff. "Why do you always have to make everything so difficult?"

"I'm sorry," Jonah offered. "The only reason I didn't tell you is because I didn't want anyone to know yet."

"And you suspected I wouldn't approve," she said pointedly.

"And I suspected you wouldn't approve," Jonah agreed with a small smile.

There was a pause, then a practical sniff. "Well. What's her name?"

"Jasper."

"Is that her first or her last?"

"First name. Maiden name was Mason." It made him ridiculously happy to call it her maiden name. He eyed her sleeping form, gaze wandering over layers of bruises and welts in various stages of healing.

"Oh, Mason? Is she-"

"Whoever you're thinking of, no. She doesn't come from money and she grew up in Texas."

"Oh."

Another little pause. Jonah could practically hear her trying to think of how to ask it.

"Are you... have you known each other long?"

"About a month."

She finally gave up. "Oh Christ, Jonah. What the hell are you doing?"

Jonah chuckled. "You don't need to worry. It was fast but it wasn't hasty. It was right. I'm sure of it."

"Do you love her?" There was genuine surprise in her voice.

"Of course I do," Jonah said very quietly, eyes on Jasper's face. "You'll understand when you meet her."

"Oh, I get to meet her, do I? How gracious of you."

"How long are you going to give me shit about this?"

Her voice went from sarcastic to scolding in a heartbeat. "Don't use that language with me."

"You cursed five seconds ago," he pointed out.

"That's different. It's a matter of respect, Jonah. You shouldn't use that language when speaking to your mother."

Jonah rolled his eyes. "I'm sorry. How long are you going to needle me for eloping?"

"Well, I think I'm at least entitled to a few visits, don't you? So that I can get to know my new daughter-in-law and possible mother of my grandchildren?"

Jonah winced. Usually she could wrangle him into one or two visits home each year. This was maybe enough leverage to get three or four. "Of course. But not right away. It's only been a week. We're still on our honeymoon."

"Oh, right, I forgot. You still have to get to know each other."

"There's that classy New England snark," he said affectionately. His mother was from Maine, originally.

"I suppose it's a good thing you canceled her scholarship. That's at least one hint of impropriety we can spare ourselves."

"Do you ever listen to yourself talk?"

She sighed testily. "You'll let me know when you have some dates in mind?"

"Why do you want me to visit so badly if I aggravate you so much?"

"Sometimes I wonder that myself."

He smiled. "I'll send you some dates, Mom."

"Thank you," she said crisply, and hung up.

When he looked up, his eyes met Jasper's. She hadn't moved, watching him silently from the couch.

"I can't believe you actually have a mother," she said.

Jonah rose and walked towards her, pulling his t-shirt over his head. She rolled onto her back automatically. "What's so unbelievable about that?" He unzipped his jeans and shoved them down.

"It's just weird to think of you doing normal things... like being a child."

Jonah laughed softly, trailing off into a low groan as he slid inside her. She was already wet, and as soon as he was inside her, she began making small noises in the back of her throat. Jonah's cock tightened almost painfully. Fuck, he loved those noises. She was on edge within seconds, her breath hot and heavy on his skin, her nails digging into his arms.

"Please..." The first faint, breathless plea came out of her.

Edging was one of Jonah's favorite things in the entire world, and it was beautifully effective on Jasper. He'd been using it ruthlessly on her, whipping her into a state of near manic arousal over and over and then leaving her there, right on that ragged edge, until he had her doing whatever he wanted. And it pissed her the fuck off. It had quickly become his favorite punishment. This time, he'd been keeping it up for nearly two days after she failed yet again to come just from being fucked.

"Come on, sweetheart," he murmured in her ear, one fist twisting in her hair to force her head back. "Come for me." With his other hand, he lifted himself enough so he could see her face, and pounded into her, hard and fast.

This was the part she hated. The part where she completely lost control, unable to do anything but chase the orgasm that was simmering in her veins, racing toward the center of her. Some distant part of her watched in mortification as she writhed and strained, back arching, thighs clutching Jonah desperately. She panted, and begged, and fucking whined, drawing red lines across his skin with her nails and biting his chest and shoulders.

"That's it," he panted. "Come for me, baby. Come on my cock."

Fuck, it was so so so so close, so so- "oh god" - so SO fucking close - "fuck, oh fuck, don't stop, please don't stop-"

He grabbed her jaw, stopping her babbling. "Say my name," he growled.

"Jonah," she practically wailed, hating the raw desperation in her voice.

He slammed into her even harder, every thrust sending electric shocks through her abdomen that tingled all the way out to the tips of her fingers and toes.

And then suddenly it was happening, and nothing else fucking mattered.

The world went white. It was as though the shock wave hit her before the explosion happened, rippling across her skin as muscles inside her began contracting hard around Jonah - and then the pleasure hit. Jasper nearly screamed, her entire body going rigid as bliss shredded her, hitting a crescendo that threatened to become more than she could handle.

It faded, if morphing into immediate, excruciating over-sensitivity could be called fading. The sound of their fucking had become obscenely wet. Jasper gritted her teeth and hung on for dear life as Jonah fucked her through the aftershocks, chasing his own orgasm now.

He slammed inside her with one last massive thrust, a familiar groan vibrating his chest. This part, Jasper actually kind of liked - it was the only time Jonah sounded helpless, ecstasy forcing sounds out of him that he wouldn't normally make. Breaking down that smug, icy exterior and leaving him just as sweaty and sticky as anyone else.

"Good, good girl," he sighed as he relaxed atop her.

It took both of them a while to recover. This part... this had become something akin to nice, as well. Jonah's weight was oddly comforting, pressing her down into the cushions, his fingers threading absently through her hair. He never stopped playing with her hair.

Jasper had dozed off again when Jonah finally sat up, running a hand through his own damp hair. "Shower," he said, and he actually sounded tired for once. Which was a relief, because he'd been fucking her nonstop for a week.

Her legs were unsteady enough that Jonah had to put an arm around her, laughing. Kissing the top of her head, he said, "Congratulations, sweetheart. You did it."

"Fucking finally," she said emphatically.

He laughed again. "It should get easier to do it, after this."

"I didn't know that was a thing you could train your body to do."

"The body can be trained to do a great many things," he said with an ominous wink as he ushered her into the shower.

*

It took a while for Josh to fish his cell phone out of the pants he'd dropped by the side of the bed. Sitting up, he hit "accept" before checking the caller ID first, and immediately regretted it.

"Did you know?" a crisp female voice demanded.

Josh winced, glancing at the just-sated woman lying next to him. She grinned up at him through a fan of mussed blonde hair. What was her name? Ashley? Amber? Something with an "A."

"Hi, Lydie," he said into the phone. "How are you?"

"I don't have time for pleasantries. Did you know?"

"Know what?"

"That Jonah got married."

For a moment, Josh thought he couldn't possibly have heard her right. "Who? Did what?"

"Jonah got married," Lydia repeated emphatically. "A little over a week ago. A courthouse wedding, apparently. Just the judge and a witness." She tsked in disapproval.

Josh laughed. "You can't be serious. Who told you that?"

"Jonah did."

Josh stopped laughing.

"This morning I got a phone call from Curt. He told me that Jonah called him out of the blue and had one of my scholarship awards canceled. I called Jonah to find out why. He told me he's paying her tuition from now on because she's his wife! As casual as you please. Unbelievable."

Josh was staring blindly at the opposite wall, trying to process what Lydia was saying. "Jonah got married," he repeated dumbly.

"Yes! I guess you didn't know after all. Well. That makes me feel somewhat better. Usually you know more than I do."

"There's a lot I wish I didn't know." A slow, bitter anger was churning its way through Josh's gut, working its way up to his chest, tightening every muscle in his body as it went. Along with it came a savage anticipation.

"I'm sure I don't want to know what that means," Lydia said in his ear. "Well, how are you, dear? Are you busy? I hope I haven't interrupted anything."

Now she hoped.

"No, it's fine, Lydie, it's just I have a meeting soon and I'm afraid I have to run."

"Of course, of course. Give me a call some time. I miss you, Joshua."

"I miss you too, Lydie."

"Goodbye, dear."

Josh hung up. "You need to go."

The blonde blinked up at him in surprise.

"I'm sorry," Josh said tightly, getting up from the bed and snatching her clothes up off the floor. "I don't mean to be a dick, but I just got a phone call, and... you need to go."

"What the hell," she complained. "I can't even take a shower?"

"No."

Making a disgusted noise, she got up and began pulling her clothes on. He walked her briskly to the door.

"You're a fucking asshole."

"Yeah, I hear that a lot." He closed the door behind her and leaned against it for a moment, eyes closed.

Then he grabbed the small table that stood next to the door, turned, and hurled it into the opposite wall. It broke with a loud cracking sound. A lamp followed it, and then a print that had been hanging on the wall. By the time Josh was done, most of the furniture in the living room was broken. It didn't matter; the apartment was a barely-furnished place that he kept just for hook-ups. He paid rent and he paid for discretion, so he didn't bother restraining himself as he drove his fist through the sheetrock and then hurled something at a window. The window shattered, and Josh paused, not even sure what he'd just thrown.

Breathing hard, he surveyed the damage around him.

"Fuck," Josh muttered into the silence. Then he went back down the hall to the bedroom and retrieved his phone, pulling up a familiar number. The firm kept a private investigator on retainer. They paid him very well, but they'd also gotten him out of a serious hacking charge a few years ago, so he was more than cooperative when they needed him to be.

"What's up?" he answered on the first ring.

"Need you to do something for me. Jonah went and wifed himself up. Find everything you can on her. Name's Jasper Mason."

There was a skeptical paused. "Jonah got married?"

"Just do it." Josh hung up.

*

"This can end anytime you want it to."

Jasper didn't respond. Jonah was sitting cross-legged on the bed in front of her, watching her patiently. Meanwhile, she was on her knees, with her wrists tied so that her arms were straight and angled up behind her, forcing her to lean forward. Jonah had explained - very calmly - as he tied her up that this was known as a "stress position." As in, it put an uncomfortable amount of stress on a few muscles, which eventually led to pain, which would eventually lead to muscle failure.

It was a fucking torture technique.

Jasper drew in a slow, deep breath, trying to become one with the pain in her shoulders. It was a technique that had worked well during the various whippings and spankings, but it wasn't working nearly as well just then. For one thing, she wasn't aroused. She'd pragmatically ditched any mental hand-wringing over the fact that part of her enjoyed the pain. Denying it would have been stupid and pointless. If she wanted to navigate this situation successfully - whatever the fuck that turned out to mean - then she had to be honest about what the situation was. And the situation was that she was always wet as fuck after Jonah beat her.

This was different, though. It was starting to get pretty agonizing, with no throb of desire to make it worth it. Jasper shifted her legs carefully, trying to find some position that eased the strain a bit, but it was futile. She flexed her fingers and took another deep breath.

"This is so simple, Jasper. All you have to do is answer my question."

"You don't deserve an answer."

He laughed. "No one said anything about 'deserve.' I want it, so I'm going to get it." Studying her, her said, "You and I both know this is only going to end one way. The only question is how stubborn you're going to be about it."

For once, she was fully clothed. Jonah had been fucking her constantly for the past two weeks, and she'd almost forgotten what it felt like to have her skin covered. Why he'd left her clothed for this little exercise, she wasn't sure. But she suspected it was because he didn't want her to feel any more vulnerable than she already did. Which was pretty fucking vulnerable. It was an oddly considerate gesture.

Licking her lips, Jasper said, "Remind me of the question."

"What was your worst experience while in foster care?"

Sighing, she said, "You couldn't start with something easier?"

"I could, but I don't want to. Once you get this out, it will be easier to get all the other things out."

Sweat beaded on Jasper's forehead and dripped onto the duvet. "Define 'worst.' "

"You define worst. What was the worst experience you had, according to you?"

Goddamn it. Arguing with lawyers was endlessly frustrating. And pointless. Jasper shifted again, but rather than alleviating her pain, it sent a lightning bolt through her left shoulder, making her hiss. "This is so fucking sadistic," she spat.

"Yes," Jonah agreed mildly. "But apparently, it's what it takes to make you open up."

"Why is it so fucking important to you that I 'open up'?"

"Because I fucking own you, and owning you means I own all of you. Your history, your thoughts, your emotions, your fucking everything, Jasper. I want every-fucking-thing from you, and I want to be the only one who has it. So get used to it. And answer my question."

The burning in her shoulders was really unbearable. And honestly... what did it matter? It was just facts. It didn't mean anything. Still, it was ridiculously hard to find the words to begin.

Panting in an attempt to cope with the pain, Jasper said, "I don't know how to identify what's the worst."

"Then just pick something and share it with me."

Shifting yet again, Jasper set her jaw and said, "When I lived with the Montgomerys. They were a perfect couple. Middle class Christians with respectable jobs, volunteered on the weekends, took in stray dogs, the whole nine fucking yards. Mr. Montgomery - Jason - was a pharmacist. But it turned out he made most of his money by selling pills and other drugs he made on the side, and he used us - the foster kids - to sell the shit. There were three of us in the house. If we didn't meet our weekly quotas, we got punished. I didn't meet my weekly quota the first couple of weeks."

"And what happened?" Jonah prodded patiently when she didn't continue.

Closing her eyes, Jasper said, "He took me down to the basement and tied me to a fucking support beam and told me I could either starve or figure out how to sell drugs. Then he turned out the lights and left me there."

"That's why you don't like being tied up."

"No shit."

"How long did he leave you tied up?"

"Two days. Over the weekend."

"Is that all he did?"

Jasper shifted again. It was hard to focus on anything but the steady burning in her shoulders. Impatient to get it over with so that he'd let her down, she spoke quickly and without inflection. "He would come down every so often and talk at me for a while, mostly as an excuse to eat and drink water in front of me. It didn't even take that long to break me. I was crying and promising him anything he wanted within a few hours. But making me cry wasn't the point."

"What was?"

"Making me understand just how much he could make me suffer if I didn't cooperate." Jasper gave Jonah a very pointed look.

A brief smile flickered across his face. "Yes, I'm sure right now you think he and I are the same. But there's a very important difference between us."

"And what's that?"

"Motive."

Jasper made a derisive noise.

"Did you tell anyone?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"He said he'd kill us if we did and I believed him."

"How old were you when this happened?"

"Fourteen."

"How long did you live with the Montgomerys?"

"Seven months. I was trying to think of some way to get out of there and then we caught a lucky break and he got busted, all on his own. The pharmacy where he worked had suspected him of stealing drugs, so they'd been monitoring him for a while. As soon as they had proof, they had him arrested." Jasper took another deep breath. "Jonah."

"The next time I ask you a question, are you going to answer it?"