Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
If Joy’s eyes could shoot lasers, Ace and Stephanie would have burst into flames on the spot.
Through the glass pane beside her office door, she had a perfect view of Ace as he stood at Stephanie’s office door, engrossed in conversation.
Stephanie’s smile was wide and she looked up at him like a god that had graced her with his presence.
Joy’s vision was washed in a hue of green as she watched the pair interact closely and she couldn’t help the envy that sat on her chest.
Stephanie was probably the type of woman Ace needed.
Physically, there weren’t many differences between them.
They were both beautiful and elegant but Stephanie seemed…
brighter. Softer. She didn’t exude a darkness that made people wary of her like Joy did.
Aside from her slight cattiness towards Joy, she emanated the soft feminine and sunshine that put people at ease.
She looked normal.
Her smiles reached her eyes and she likely hadn’t assessed each person in the room as a potential threat. She looked soft inside and out. Like she’d never touched a gun in her life and her body beneath her impractically pretty clothing held no callouses or raised scars.
Joy looked away. She’d never been one to compare herself to other women but admittedly, the last year of her life had made her question herself. Her pull to Ace made her curious.
What did he like?
What did he look for in a woman?
Joy shook her head to evict those thoughts. Ace had occupied her mind for the remainder of the weekend after the party.
She could still taste his lips and feel his hands on her long after she’d left the estate.
The feelings she thought she’d tamped down and the desires she thought she’d buried had been unearthed by one kiss. Joy was unsettled by her mind and body’s reaction to Ace. She wasn’t inexperienced, but no man moved her the way he had.
Everything about him made her uninhibited and an uninhibited Joy was dangerous.
She berated herself the whole way home. Pressing that blunt to his skin was reckless, stupid, and decidedly not normal.
Her tipsy brain had told her to scare him a little. To give him a glimpse into the monster beneath the woman he claimed to want. To push him away before he had the chance to do the same to her.
Thoughts of what it would be like to be with a man like him made rounds in her mind more than she’d like to admit.
She had never considered it much before.
Not in the way that most girls reject romance as a form of feminism — love in the romantic sense had just never been presented as an experience Joy would have in her lifetime.
She knew she would marry, and might even have a child or two but it was understood those would simply be means of combining power and bearing an heir to continue it.
But Ace made her wonder what it would be like to be able to call someone like him hers and to belong to him in return.
Joy shook those thoughts off as quickly as they came.
She had no business thinking about a man right now. She needed to focus all of her energy on her plan. Ace and any other man would run for the hills once they discovered the demon that laid dormant beneath her skin.
Ace might enjoy a glimpse of her darkness, but she doubted he was ready to truly face all of her. She couldn’t afford to be derailed by a man that rattled her. She didn’t have the fortitude to deal with the fallout and rejection that would surely follow once her slipping mask fell completely.
By the time the day ended, Joy was drained and ready to go home. She needed a drink and to hit something — soon.
More than that, she needed distance.
She needed to be out of this building where everywhere she turned, she saw Ace and was reminded of the thing she wanted but knew she couldn’t have. She wouldn’t be able to breathe easily until she put physical space between them, making it easier to evict thoughts of him out of her mind.
“You out?” Joy heard spoken behind her as she waited for the elevator that evening.
She didn’t need to turn around to know that it was him. She sensed his presence before he entered her space, not by his scent or his voice caressing her ears, but the way her body at once relaxed, and became alarmingly alert.
“Yeah,” Joy answered turning to face him. “Unless you needed something else?”
He stepped closer, forcing her to look up, and looked down at her with the same heaviness that he had at the party the weekend before. His amber gaze flicked from her eyes to her mouth repeatedly before he answered. “Nah. I’m good. Go home and get some rest.”
“You too,” Joy said.
Ace didn’t reply. The elevator dinged and the doors slid open. He motioned for Joy to enter ahead of him and while he pressed the button for the garage, she pressed the button for the lobby.
Ace turned to her. “You didn’t drive?”
“No, I take the train here,” Joy shook her head.
His jaw clenched. “It’s too late for you to be taking the train by yourself.”
Joy chuckled. No one had ever been worried about her safety before. She had always been the danger. She found the concern endearing.
“I’m a big girl, Adonis, I’ll be fine.”
“I’ll take you home,” he replied. The finality held no room for argument.
“I’m fine,” Joy protested.
“I didn’t ask.”
Joy smacked her lips. “You’re bossy.”
“I’m the boss,” he winked.
When the doors opened to the lobby, Joy and Ace engaged in a silent standoff. Joy gave in to her desires, staying put as the doors began to close.
When they shut again, a triumphant smile spread across Ace’s lips. Joy scoffed.
Ray was already waiting idled outside the elevator doors when they arrived at the garage level. Ace opened the door for Joy, and she stepped in then he slid in beside her.
“We’ll be dropping Joy off first,” Ace informed the driver.
“Yes sir,” Ray replied.
Joy gave him the address to the brownstone and with Nina Simone singing softly through the speakers, they pulled out of the parking garage.
Evening traffic bustled around Brooklyn as Joy kept her eyes fixed outside the window.
Joy didn’t think she’d like New York as much as she did, but she understood now why Mel chose to make the city her home. With each passing day, she fell deeper in love with it and the ache of homesickness grew a bit duller.
Joy kept her eyes out the window, her body facing the door. She pretended not to feel Ace’s heated gaze on her. She pretended not still to feel the ghost of his lips on hers.
She heard the rustling fabric of Ace moving, then a zing of electricity went through her body when Ace’s knee brushed hers. Joy shifted away, unable to stand the heat of his touch.
Ace moved closer.
They did this dance of retreating and following until Joy was wedged between the door and Ace’s body.
“Do you mind?” she finally snapped, turning to face him.
“Not at all,” he grinned, clearly enjoying getting under her skin. Joy huffed and turned her attention back to the window.
The ride to her place was silent until they pulled in front of the building.
“Thanks,” Joy mumbled. She didn’t wait for him to open the door, the scent of his cologne and weight of his presence suffocating her.
Ace was quick about stepping out of the car and walking around the back to come to her side. Before she could do so on her own, he extended his hand to help her out. When Joy began walking to the door, Ace kept stride with her, walking her all the way up to the front door.
“Thank you for the ride,” Joy said again.
“Don’t be too thankful. I had selfish intentions.”
“Oh? And what were they?”
He shrugged. “The more time we spend together, the more I want. I didn’t see much of you today.”
“Yeah well… you were busy,” she said, folding her arms over her chest.
The twinkle in his eyes and small quirk of his lips let Joy know that he knew exactly what she was referring to.
He’d clocked her attention. And now he’d clocked her jealousy.
“I would’ve rather been busy with you, but you were hiding from me today,” he said instead of calling her on it. He took a step forward.
Joy lifted her chin. “I don’t hide.”
Another step forward. “You do. Or try to at least. And I didn’t like that shit.”
“I don’t care what you like.”
Ace chuckled. “There you go being mean to me again.”
“And yet you won’t leave me alone.”
He grinned. “If you think that mouth is a deterrent, you’re sadly mistaken, Rose.” His eyes zeroed in on her mouth, and Joy felt the heat of his gaze on her lips. “I been thinking about these lips all day,” he mumbled.
“Thinking what about them?”
Joy didn’t know why she was feeding into this but the desire radiating off of him matched her own and it was intoxicating.
She wanted to hear what he thought about her. What he liked about her. What he wanted from her. She wanted to compare notes and see if they wanted the same things.
Ace’s hand came up and his thumb began lazily stroking her bottom lip. Her red lipstick smeared his finger but he didn’t seem to care. “How soft they were. How good they tasted. How bad I wanna taste them again.”
Against herself, Joy tilted her head up, a silent invitation to do just that.
Ace needed no further prompting. He descended his lips onto hers and led them in a kiss that had Joy’s legs feeling like jelly. It was slower than their previous kisses, but no less consuming. She gripped onto his forearms to steady herself as her mind floated and her soul threatened to follow.
Joy pulled away abruptly. “You have to stop doing that,” she breathlessly pleaded with her eyes closed.
She felt Ace’s lips on her cheek then travel towards her jaw and down her neck.
“Why?” he rasped, backing her into her front door.
“Because I won’t want you to stop.”
“Then I won’t.” He kissed the corner of her mouth.
Oh, but you will, Joy thought sadly.