THIRTY-ONE
LUCY
I tell Jace that I have already drank too much and I’ll meet with him when I don’t require an Uber driver to make it back, so he immediately asks where I am. Twenty minutes after I tell him, the breath leaves my lungs when I smell the spicy, delicious scent that has invaded my thoughts too often for the last several days.
“Jamie,” he says with a nod as she gapes at him. He lowers steely blue eyes to mine, and my chest contracts because they’re not hard and angry like I expected. “Lucy.”
“I didn’t think you were coming here,” I squeak, and he allows a half-smirk to cross his features.
“I wanted to talk.” He reaches into the back pocket of his jeans and slides a hundred dollar bill onto the bar before glancing at Jamie. “Would you mind if—”
“Take her,” she blurts out, and I cringe. God, she’s not subtle at all. Grinning sheepishly, she tilts her curly head to one side and tries to smoothly add, “I mean, I have other plans tonight, so I promise it’s fine.”
“Perfect.”
My nerve endings tingle violently as he leads me out to his Challenger, and once I’m beside him in the passenger’s seat, I finally find my voice so I can ask, “Where are we going?”
“My place.”
We spend the duration of the fifteen-minute drive to his house in silence. Once we’re there, standing in his living room, he says, “I’m sorry it took me this long.”
I blink at him. “You’re apologizing to me?”
He gives me a brisk nod. “I should have done this awhile back, but I told myself it was better this way.” He closes his eyes and a rueful smile lingers on his lips. “I’ve never been so fucking angry in my life.”
A painful weight drops into my stomach. “I’m so sorry, Jace, I—”
“I’ve never been so fucking angry, and it’s because I cared for you. So I let you go like an idiot. I’m sorry for that. I’m sorry it took me so long to react, when you were pouring your heart out for weeks. I’m sorry.”
“Thank you for saying that. Because it hurt that you wouldn’t hear me out. It hurt, even though I knew what I did was so wrong.” I swallow back the lump building in my throat as tears rush to my eyes. I feel so ridiculous crying, but goddammit, I can’t help it now. “I’m sorry for that, Jace. You trusted me, and I hate that I screwed up that trust.”
“Then we’ll start over. Because I forgive you, Lucy—I don’t have any other choice. I sat there, telling you to fix things with your mom, and when shit hit the fan with us, I was a hypocrite. I’m not that person. I left things unresolved with my mum before I lost her, but I’m not going to do that with you. You’re too important to me. I’d rather move forward than let one mistake fuck up a good thing.”
“I thought we were just casual,” I whisper.
He shakes his dark head and takes a step closer to me, reaching out for my wrists and pulling me close to him. “You’re not casual, love. You’re the one I can’t get out of my head. Lucy-I-Know-Fucking-Everything-Williams.” I start to speak, but he stops me, pressing his fingertip to my lips. “You are everywhere. You’re still in my building. Still on my sheets. I heard that fucking awful song you liked so much the other day—the Craig David one—and I listened to the entire thing because I thought of you.”
“That must have been traumatizing for you,” I whisper, and his lips move into a slow grin.
“I don’t want you to work for me, Lucy. Fuck, I don’t think my clients want you to work for me, but I do want you.”
Although I can barely breathe, I melt against him, and I’m lost when his lips cover mine.
"I've missed you," Jace murmurs against my lips, his tongue darting in and out and blurring my senses. “I’ve missed you so much.”
I never would have believed that just a handful of words could affect me so much, but suddenly, I can’t breathe. “I love you, Jace,” I whisper. Swallowing hard to relieve my dry throat, I open my eyes and I’m lost as I stare into his. “I love you, and I’m so sorry for what I—”
"Shh, love," he says softly. “I love you, too. I have for a while.”
For a while.
Does he have any clue what that confession does to me?
When I start to tell him, he cuts me off with his mouth. A raw, husky moan pushes past my lips as Jace’s teeth capture my nipple. An explosion shoots down my spine, arching my back and I buck my hips against his in response.
The sensations he’s sending through my body makes me temporarily forget my apologies, but I promise myself there will be time for that later. No matter what I will make it up to him, but all I want now is to lose myself in him.
"Jace—” The frustrated groan escaping my lips makes him chuckle, so he moves his attention to my other nipple, giving it a rough tug.
"Dear God!" I scream, the fire launching through my body settling at my core. Every inch of me hums and aches, every muscle is so tight from the anticipation of being with him again that I know I’ll detonate if I don’t have him deep inside of me and soon. The desire to have him—coupled with the number his teeth are doing to my breasts—drive me absolutely insane. He grins up at the sight of my head tossing from side to side against the pillow.
"Do you want more, love?" he rasps, his handsome face rubbing between my breasts. Dear god, why does this have to feel so good? He leans away and draws me up on my knees. “Tell me what you want from me.”
"You,” I whisper. “I just want you." Because I love you. Taking my hand in his, he roams it down his torso, toward his erection. My eyes are immediately drawn to his cock straining against his boxer briefs. "I just need to have you inside me, Jace. It's been too long, and I just want you.”
Without waiting for his answer, I move my fingers to his waist and tug on the elastic band until his boxer briefs slide over his hips. He doesn’t even make an attempt to hold back his smirk as he helps me, and my breath catches as he closes my fingers around his erection and jerks my hand up and down. “You drive me crazy every time I think of you. Because I’m crazy about you. I’ve never been in love—don’t even know how to cope with it—but I know that I’ll fight to keep you. No matter how many mistakes we make, I don’t want to let you go again.”
His words make my heart both ache and sing at the same time, and I can’t find the right words as I bob my head up and down. “I’m so sorry, Jace, I—”
He gives my ass cheek a stinging slap. "Stop apologizing. We’re done with apologies because I forgive you. I forgive you, Lucy.” I shiver as his eyes roam over my body in slow appreciation. Taking in my bra and panties, he gives me a pained look. “Take them off, Lucy, or I’ll rip them to shreds.”
Keeping my gaze locked with his, I move my hands to the thin straps on my shoulder before Jace lays a rough hand on mine to stop me. "You’re too slow, love, and I have no patience to wait for you." His deep, sensual growl sends sparks through my veins, and my skin is on fire as he rips away my undergarments, tossing them carelessly on the floor.
The feel of the cotton sheets beneath me draws a sharp moan from my slightly parted lips, and my teeth bite down on my upper lip to keep from screaming when Jace moves down my body, and I feel his warm breath fan the inside of my thighs. I clench my fingers around the pillows to keep from reaching down to grab his hair.
My hips buck when the tip of his tongue dips between the folds of my sex to move in a smooth, circular motion. I see stars. I see stars already and he’s barely even touched me. His fingers splaying on my thighs, his tongue continues its exploration of my sex, darting in and out until I’m breathless and begging him for more.
"You're so wet."
He says something else, something that will probably make me unravel a little more, but those words are drowned out by the raspy moans falling from my lips.
“And you taste so good,” he’s saying when the buzzing in my ears stop. Licking and sucking deep on my clit, he continues until the climax hits me, and I’m practically singing his name.
He moves up and over me until his cock presses against the opening of my sex. Releasing a rough growl, he pushes himself inside me in one powerful thrust. I let go of my hold on the pillows and lace my fingers into his dark hair as he pushes deeper. Harder.
The sensation of flesh against flesh is almost too much to bear, and I’m trembling again when I lift my legs and wrap them securely around his waist. With each stroke of his cock, he takes a little more of me. Makes me want him more. Makes me fall a little faster.
"Jace," I rasp when I feel the beginnings of another orgasm work through my body. "I'm going to come soon. I don't want this to end, but ohhhhhh … right there. Right. Fucking. There.”
“Say that again, love. That naughty, filthy—”
“Fuck,” I say. “Fuck.”
The waves come crashing down just as the walls of my sex clench around his cock. He keeps going, pushing deeper, each stroke—each movement—creating a tension that tears me apart.
Several thrusts after he makes me incoherent, Jace finally releases himself, a loud groan of pleasure ripping from his lips just before he tells me he loves me again.
I lose count of the number of times we make up, but I know my body will ache tomorrow. That’s a feeling I’ll gladly welcome. Several hours later, Jace is fast asleep, one tattooed arm wrapped around my body and his forehead to mine. He’s breathing lightly, his warm breath fanning my face with each inhale and exhale.
Reaching between us, I cup his face between my hands, biting my lip when he turns toward me, his mouth twitching even in his sleep. To be able to lie next to him again and feel his heart beat against mine is everything.
I place one more kiss at the corner of his mouth.
“I love you,” I whisper.