Chapter 35
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
VIVIAN
Driving back to Delta’s, Jace has asked me three times if I’m okay, and I try to hide it, answering, “I’m fine.”
But I’m not.
I’m freaking out.
So I change the subject. “How long will you keep the man-child captive?”
Jace sucks his teeth. “A week or two. I’ll break him until he’s too scared to even remember you.”
“But once you let him go, aren’t you worried he’ll report you to the police? You and the kings?”
Jace huffs darkly. “That’s how much I’ll break him; he’ll shit himself even thinking about it.”
I map Jace’s perfect profile and see his savage edges; all the ways his father tried to break him.
But I can dive into Jace’s blue eyes and trust that he’s tamed his beast. He refuses to be like his father.
No, he’s my man, the only image of love I need, who keeps glancing at me, his focus penetrating.
With my new secret, I’m suddenly exposed to feelings I’ve never had. A bright future, saturated in love with hues of happiness. It’s a picture with him I’ve dared to dream.
You can’t build a love like ours on friendship and expect it to suddenly be blind because we’re more than friends now. A whirlwind that feels so right. A romance that’s much more. We’ve always seen each other, straight through to our souls.
And Jace sees me.
“Alright, Viv.” He parks his truck in the cobblestone alley behind Delta’s and turns off the ignition. “Baby, tell me what’s wrong.”
Gazing through the front windshield, jasmine vines spill over the garden brick wall, their white star flowers in fragrant bloom as I swallow, filling my heart with courage.
“I forgot to take my pill.” Pause for panic.
“For two days. These two days we’ve been together. There’s just been so much going on.”
Jace answers with silence.
It’s deafening.
I close my eyes, forcing myself to turn and face his ire, but when I flutter my eyelids open, he’s beaming. “Can we have six?”
Laughter bursts from my soul. “Six?”
“Three girls and three boys: if I’m being picky.”
“Picky? Jace, what if I’m pregnant?”
“You mean what if you make me the happiest man alive? Viv, it’s all I want with you.”
“All?”
“Okay.” He shrugs, eyes sparkling. “And your friendship and your photography and your morning macarons. Oh, and fucks. But sorry, this beast gets hot and needs to sleep in a freezer, so I’ll supply the blankets. Deal?”
Deal? How about destiny? How about a dream that’s been deferred for so long, I don’t know if I’m ready to wake up.
“But what if I want more nights with you? Just me and you for a while? We’ve waited so long to be together. And what if this is a false alarm? What if I can’t get pregnant and give you six kids?”
Are we rushing things? No, it doesn’t feel fast when you know it’s fate. When you’ve been waiting for a future together, and you know it’s every next breath with each other. When you build a friendship, a foundation like ours, it’s easy to fall into eternity together.
Thankfully, I never tried with David. I guess deep down, I knew he was a child; I didn’t need to have one with him.
Jace reaches across the truck’s console, cradling my cheek. “Six kids or six kittens: I’m happy with whatever we have as long as it’s together.”
I lower my brows, already feeling better. “You want us to get six cats?”
He winces. “Make it five. You need to meet Moose.”
“Moose?”
“Yeah. He’s from the litter Axel and Ruby’s cat had: long story. But he’s my guard cat. He scares the gators away.”
I’ve never met Jace’s cat. I haven’t even seen his house. He says it’s a hideaway on Goat Island, and I don’t mind.
I just need him, no matter where we are.
“Do you really mean it?” I caress his hand. “We’ll be together, no matter what?”
He doesn’t answer. Instead, he gets out of his truck and circles the front of it, leaning over to pluck something from the grass by the garden wall.
When he opens my door, I glance down at the two white dandelion puff balls in his grasp.
He holds one up to my lips. “Make a wish for us.”
I close my eyes, and there’s only one word in my soul—Jace.
With a puckered exhale, I open my eyes and blow white fluffy seeds in his direction. Each one a tiny parachute, carrying my wish for him on the breeze…
And landing on his shirt.
He gazes down, grinning, not wiping them away.
“Your turn.” I spin his way in my passenger seat, swinging my legs over the edge. “Make a wish for us.”
Jace lifts the puffy ball to his lips but halts, tucking the tender stem behind my ear instead. “It already came true.”
His kiss is as soft as it is certain. Cupping my jaw, he lifts my lips to his to take even more, the butterflies in my belly dancing with delight until his tongue finds mine. It always ignites our moans. I’m tempted to get lost in him, but something finds my logic, my recall.
I murmur over his ravenous lips. “Wasn’t that a line in Sixteen Candles?”
“Shhh.” He chuckles into our kiss. “I’m bagging a babe.”
That was another line.
“Mmm.” I nip his bottom lip, giving him one. “May I admire you again today?”
Jace murmurs excitedly. “Are you quoting Pretty in Pink to me?”
“Definitely.” I sigh into our kiss. “Why do you love those movies so much?”
He nuzzles my nose. “Because I was punished for having emotions as a boy. But as I grew up, those movies made me realize I wasn’t alone. That I could be a big, strong man, with an even bigger heart.” His peck is soft. “And now I’m a helpless fucking romantic for you.”
“Mmm.” Swooning, I seek his heated kiss, finding his hungry tongue, but I want to make him swoon as well. I pant. “This is an incredibly romantic moment, and—.”
“Woman,” he growls, “keep quoting Pretty in Pink and we’re fucking right here.”
“Please don’t.” A deep voice startles us; pulling away, I see Nash, twirling the keys to his minivan parked farther down the verdant alley.
“Goddamn, man,” Jace grumbles, “you make cockblocking a chronic condition.”
“Huh.” Nash smirks. “Never heard you complain about my cock before.”
The zip of lust is instant. It shoots straight between my legs, electrifying my clit with the innuendo, the image.
Jace turns back to me. “We can ignore him, but not Vale. She’ll know what to do about your situation.”
Standing in the front parlor of Delta’s minutes later, Jace is right.
Vale advises, “Call your doctor to be sure, but most of the time you’re supposed to take the most recent pill you missed and the one you were supposed to take this morning, right?”
“Right.” I nod.
“Then keep taking your pills and use condoms as backup, or don’t fuck for seven days.” Jace groans like Vale just kicked his balls, so she rolls her gray eyes at him. “Listen here, hot nuts, wearing a bone bag is a small price to pay if you’re not ready to breed.”
Jace stands behind me, wrapping his hulking arms around my shoulders. “Oh, I’m very ready to breed my woman.”
It’s like being engulfed in a warm amber prison of masculine muscle.
My instincts go haywire.
Desire fights doubt in my system.
Vale understands, quipping, “Yeah, it’s easy for a man to be ready when all you have to do is shoot your cream in three seconds, while the woman has to bake your bun in her oven for nine months.”
“Excuse me, Poison?” Nash spins Vale’s chair around, lowering his nose to hers, glowering hotly.
“I give you far more than three seconds of my cream. Every night, I give you hours of creaming on my face and cock before I ever shoot my load inside you. Which, by the way, is getting very fucking ready to breed you.”
“See,” Jace jokes. “Your daddy wants a bump in the front too.”
“Bump this.” Vale flips her middle finger at Jace.
I love these two.
Jace and Vale bicker because they love each other. And I know it’s not like the love Jace has for me. I’ve even watched Vale secretly defend it.
Every day, throngs of horny customers throw themselves at Jace. He often finds himself in tough spots, trying to be a professional while getting groped.
But I swear, Vale’s been like a cattle prod, zapping the hot heifers away from him—even some bulls.
She does it for Jace’s sake first; that’s their friendship.
But she’s done it in my honor as well; that’s a queen. Vale has been guarding my love for Jace until I could express it.
No wonder Jace cares for her and the other queens. He respects them, and I love that about him. He knows the line between being a king and being my man.
He never crosses it.
Unless…
“Ahem.” I break into their banter. “Now that we’ve resolved my pill situation, I need everyone’s help with a photography one.”
Burrowing into Jace’s yummy pecs, I claim my spot in the warm canyon between them.
Jace mutters into my hair. “I can’t believe you got Nash to agree to do the photo shoot tomorrow. Vale? Yes. Queens always help each other. But Nash? He must really like you.”
“Yeah, well, I can’t believe you like it so cold in here.” Cuddling under blankets on my studio bed, I rub my feet over his legs to warm them. “You could hang meat from the ceiling.”
He chuckles. “Told you I’d bring the blankets if you make my babies.”
“Jace.” I laugh softly, half fantasizing, half fearing. “Are we getting ahead of ourselves? Shouldn’t we decide where we’re going to live first? We can’t sleep in my studio forever.”
He teases, voice husky, “Why not? Think of all the pictures we can take of us playing with sex toys.” I angle back to see his grin growing wider. “I sure have.” And wider. “And so have you.”
“Guilty.” I roll my eyes with a sigh, so massively in love. “Fine, we can take kinky pictures, but we can’t live here. Not for long. What are we going to do?”
He twirls a lock of my hair. “Until we have a deal with Ruslan, we stay here. This place is secure, and your house is too exposed, and mine is our last resort. Our secret hideaway and home.”
“Ours?”
He traces my nipple. “Yeah. I bought it for you last year.”
My nipple hardens as my heart hurls itself into a fluttering pace. “For me? But Jace, that’s too sweet. I—”
“I couldn’t have you, Viv. Not then. But that couldn’t stop me from doing everything for you.
For us. So I bought us a house. It’s safe for the risks I take, on a secluded island accessed only by boat.
But I swear, the house is so you, Viv. It’s a classic beach bungalow on the Intracoastal, all elegant and white on the inside, fully furnished with baskets and blue ceilings.
It’s your vibe with a huge, covered porch facing west, perfect for taking sunset shots, and—”
“Jace.” I blink back tears. “You bought the house because you thought I’d like it?”
He traces my other nipple. “You and our six cats.”
Six kids.
It’s his dream and mine.
It keeps getting closer.
I crane my neck for his kiss, ripples of euphoria, flashes of our future. He gives me a kiss, making me see it, before he murmurs, “I’m not the only one, am I?”
“What?” I sigh in a loving haze.
“Tell me what you did this past year, waiting for me.”
How does he know?
Then again, how would he not know when he’s lived in my heart all this time?
“I bought a new lens,” I confess. “It’s perfect for beach portraits. It creates a soft bokeh that you can’t get with a wide angle, and—”
He quizzes, “Bokeh?”
I love sharing this passion with him. “It’s a Japanese term used in photography.
It means a haze. The lens softly blurs the background, especially on the beach, putting the focus on the person.
” He shared, so I share. “This past year, when I took pictures of parents on the beach with their kids… I secretly wished they were us. So I bought a special lens for when it would be.”
“Oh, fuck, Viv, I love you,” he mutters softly, flipping me over, his kiss not so soft. It’s hungry and heated and aching with all the angst we’ve suffered, melting away with our moans. “I want it too, baby: a family with you,” he rasps. “But we can wait however long you need.”
Wait or want.
My head doesn’t know which way to go.
So I listen to my heart. The one in love with my beautiful best friend. It’s all I can hear pounding when I’m with Jace. “Let’s see what happens this week.”
He lifts from my lips, searching my eyes. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, I’ll take my pills. I’ll finish the packet, but we won’t use extra protection. We’ll let destiny decide.”
“Viv.” He nuzzles his nose to mine. “Are you sure? Baby, I promise, waiting for you was worth it, and I’ll do it again.”
“I know.” I trace the bow on his whiskered lips. “But my mom always says that destiny is what happens on your road to avoid it. And I don’t want to avoid my future with you. Not anymore. Not when I love you so much. Let’s just see what it holds.”
Jace grins, way too beastly, boyish, and cute. “Right now, destiny’s holding my hard dick for you.”
He flips me like a doll, making me laugh, loving it when he sits up, grabbing my hips as I straddle his lap. Sex with Jace is an erotic dance of savage and sweet, and I won’t ever avoid it.
Little did I know, I couldn’t avoid destiny either.