Chapter 9 Jace
JACE
For a moment, elation coursed through me before reality slapped me across the face. What kind of man was I acting like?
My “relationships”—if you could call them that—had always been casual for a reason.
Casual meant no messy emotions, no complications.
It meant having short, monogamous arrangements where I never thought about the women when they weren’t warming my bed.
I definitely never sat there, analyzing their body language, or felt my chest constrict at the thought that they might walk out of a bar and disappear from my life forever.
This laser focus on a woman, this hunger that rivaled a starving man’s desperation, wasn’t me. Hell, I prided myself on control, on keeping emotions at arm’s length. But here I was, completely unsettled by a woman I’d known for all of twenty minutes. Who felt a pull like this so quickly?
This had to be about distraction. It was the only logical explanation, and I was nothing if not logical.
The timing fit perfectly. I’d been told to find a distraction for the weekend, and then she literally fell at my feet.
My mind must have latched on to her and her mysterious revenge fantasy as an escape from my professional hell.
Something to stop me from doing anything rash, like taking that flight. That had to be it.
Right?
But if this was just about distraction, why was I suddenly consumed with knowing who had hurt her badly enough to warrant that revenge list? My fingers twitched at my side, itching to pull that information from her like I pulled confessions from lying business partners.
A relationship wasn’t in the cards, but perhaps I could help navigate whatever storm was raging in her life. Not that she seemed incapable. Something in those sharp eyes told me she could handle herself just fine, but for reasons I couldn’t explain, a protective instinct kicked in.
Who are you, Scarlett? And who the hell hurt you enough to make you write that list?
The real question was: Why did I care so much about either answer? And why did I just vow to find the answers to all of the above?