Chapter 22 #3
She was lonely. Ace could see it in her as clearly as it was in him. Whoever hurt her, the people who took their acceptance away, they’d left her isolated and her spirit crushed. She tried to deflect and hide behind practiced poise and charm but Ace saw straight through it.
Joy’s breath hitched and he leaned closer.
“I don’t know who told you that you had to hide and perform to be accepted but I see you. And I think you’re beautiful.”
“If you really saw me, you wouldn’t say that,” Joy whispered, her voice barely audible over the sounds of the night. Her eyes glistened with unshed tears that tore at the unused organ in Ace’s chest.
He didn’t know how to refute her claim. Whatever demons she carried, he was sure his could rival them. However bad she thought she was, he was sure he was worse. Her demons didn’t scare him. He welcomed them. Maybe their demons could hold hands and sit for a while.
Instead of speaking, Ace gripped her by the chin and pulled her closer. Closing the distance between them, he lowered his lips to hers claiming them in a kiss he’d been thinking of for weeks. Joy immediately reciprocated, bringing her arms up to wrap around his neck.
Their lips synchronized, moving together in tandem as they tasted each other and shared air.
Ace flicked his tongue out, teasing the seam of her lips and filled his hands with Joy’s full hips. He tasted the champagne on her tongue mixed with the almond cake and her and he wanted more.
The taste of her. The scent of her so close.
They intoxicated him and when Joy moaned out her pleasure, Ace swallowed them.
In true Joy fashion, she only allowed him to lead for so long. Somehow, she ended up guiding the kiss and Ace happily went along for the ride she wanted to take him on. He moved his grip from her hips to her ass, hoisting her up into his lap.
That was a mistake.
Her dress bunched up around her thighs, baring more skin for Ace to caress while their lips continued to dance.
Their centers were aligned and Ace could feel the heat of her core against him.
When she began a slow grind in his lap, Ace groaned, the sound seeming to only spur her on.
Her pussy dragged across the erection straining his zipper, the delicious friction and heat making Ace warm all over despite the nippy air around them.
She bit down on his lip hard, the pain making him buck his hips into her.
He’d never come in his pants before but at 34, he might if Joy didn’t stop.
Joy broke the kiss, her lips trailing to the base of his neck, kissing and sucking on the skin there before she sat back fully, her hands rested on Ace’s shoulders as they caught their breath.
“You think you wanna know me?” she panted, her eyes blazing. “You think the reality will live up to whatever fantasy you’ve made up in your head?”
“I know it will.”
“What if I told you I wasn’t good?”
Ace shrugged. “I wouldn't care.”
Joy scoffed. “No?”
Ace shook his head. His vision was hazy with need and the restraint needed not to take her on this bench in his grandparents’ front yard. His grip on her waist tightened when a sinister smirk spread across her smeared crimson lips.
With eyes crazed and hard, she retrieved the discarded blunt from the bench beside them and before Ace could even inquire about her intentions, the searing heat of the tip of it singed the base of his neck where Joy had kissed him only a few moments before.
His eyes widened but he held her eye contact with a hard dick as he accepted the pain.
She held it there until he winced.
As if the sound snapped her out of her daze, Joy pulled back abruptly. Dropping the blunt in the grass like she was the one who’d been burned.
“I-…” she breathed, horror making her almond shaped eyes round like the full moon above them. “I’m so sorry, are you hurt?”
“I’m fine,” Ace assured her. His tone cool and collected, unlike someone who’d just been burned with the butt of a blunt. “It’s okay.” He held her hands as she tried to remove herself from his lap.
She snatched away from him. Her breaths came quicker, shock and panic making her more frantic than Ace had ever seen her,
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me. I-I might’ve drank too much,” she tried explaining her action away. Ace had watched her nurse two shallow glasses of champagne all night. Alcohol wasn’t the cause for the sadness and sick thrill whirling in her eyes.
“It’s okay,” Ace promised again, his voice soft as he tried to soothe her. “Just sit back down, baby.”
Joy shook her head so rapidly that her bun loosened. “I-I gotta go. Tell April I left when you see her, please.”
“Rose,” Ace called but she was damn near sprinting towards the circular driveway. “Joy!”
For the second time since they’d met, he’ watched her run off after fucking with his mind. He watched her run from him and her own desires she wasn’t ready to accept yet.
Ace sighed and leaned back, wishing he had another blunt. Instead, he remained where he sat, flicking his lighter open and closed, savoring the taste of her on his tongue and the pain from her burn.