Chapter 23 #2
Joy was sure Ace thought she meant that he needed to stop kissing her.
He needed to do that too, but she needed him to stop making her feel this way.
Beautiful and desirable. He needed to stop making her fantasize about another lifetime where he actually saw her the way he claimed to and still wanted her.
Her hands came up and cupped his face to bring him closer. One hand trailed down his neck and snagged on a raised portion of his skin beneath his collar.
She opened her eyes and her gaze collided with a small round spot of burned flesh on his neck. The sight made her nauseous. It was a physical, permanent reminder of how she’d hurt him. Consciously. Intentionally.
It was the personification of the version of herself she’d been running from but couldn’t seem to wrangle control of. Proof that she wasn’t mentally stable enough for whatever was brewing between them.
“Does it hurt?” she asked, running a finger lightly over the scarred flesh.
“Nah. Not anymore.”
“I’m so–”
“Stop apologizing. It’s gonna take more than a ‘lil burn to scare me.”
She finally found the strength to extract herself from Ace’s hold and he allowed her to push his big body away from hers. They stared at each other with lust-filled eyes, chests heaving as they caught their breath.
“Whatever it is you’re trying to do, whatever game you’re trying to play, stop. I’m not interested.”
“No?”
“No. Stephanie seemed interested. Maybe your attention would be better spent there.”
“My attention is exactly where I want it to be.” Ace leaned against the brick wall, arms folded and the picture of cool despite the lips smeared with transferred lipstick.
“Well maybe I don’t want your attention,” Joy shot back, raising her voice.
Ace tilted his head slightly. “Are you bipolar?”
“Don’t fucking do that,” Joy snapped.
“Do what, Rose?”
“Try to make me seem crazy.”
Ace slowly pushed off the wall. “I’m just trying to figure out what I’m dealing with. You weren’t kissing me a second ago like someone who wasn’t interested.”
Joy released a sharp, humorless laugh. “Temporary lapse in judgement.”
“Temporary truth.”
“Stop acting like you have me all figured out,” Joy snapped, taking a step back. “You don’t fucking know me.”
Ace chuckled, running his hand over his mouth. “I don't have you figured out,” he said, his tone tight. “That’s the problem. I’m trying to, though.”
“Well stop trying.”
“Why?”
“Because there’s nothing here for you to see. Nothing you want. Whatever you think you’ll find here, you won’t. I promise you don’t want this so just let it go.”
“You tr?—
“You’re not the first man I’ve kissed, Adonis and you won’t be the last. Stop trying to make this mean more than it does.”
“Watch yourself, Rose.” His voice was low in warning and the possessive flicker in his eyes would’ve made a lesser woman back down, but not Joy.
“Or what?” she challenged, standing her ground.
Joy didn’t like this. She felt exposed and vulnerable, a place she was never comfortable in. So she did the only thing she knew to do. The only thing that had protected her all her life.
She fought.
She shoved at his chest. The force only made his bulk retreat an inch, but it was enough breathing room.
“Back up,” she snapped, shoving him again.
Instead of retreating, he kept advancing on her.
“You need to stop,” she warned.
“You said that already,” he replied with a grin on his lips that only made Joy angrier.
“And you’re still not listening.”
“Because you’re lying.”
“I don’t do… whatever this is,” Joy said, waving her hand between them frantically in exasperation.
“You think I do?” Ace hissed, his face scrunched in the same agonizing irritation she felt. He was crowding her now. With each step forward, Joy took one back until her body was trapped between the wooden door and the firmness of his body yet again.
A rock and a hard place.
“I have a full fucking plate and I still can’t get you out of my head.”
Joy hated the way those words made her feel.
Hated the way it softened something in her chest and made hope and something foreign bloom there.
So she did what she did best — she killed it.
She swung, catching him off guard, and clipping him in the mouth.
Ace's head snapped to the side with the force, and his hand slowly went up to his mouth. He wiped at his busted lip and lowered his hand, his eyes blazing at the crimson smeared on them that wasn’t Joy's lipstick.
“This is the second time in three days you’ve marked me, Rose. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were trying to claim me.”
At the mention of what she’d done, she swung again but he caught her hand mid-air. He gripped her wrist in his large hand then took possession of the other, pinning them both above her head.
His hands were rough and warm and his body pressing her firmly against the door should’ve felt threatening but it made her feel secure instead.
She could've freed herself from his hold. If not by force, then with the help of her sharp heels and the switchblade in her bra.
But she didn’t want to.
With her hands still in his grasp, he leaned down and took her lips in another kiss. Joy fell into it immediately, damn near melting as the seam of her lips opened to allow Ace's tongue to slip inside.
She tasted the metallic tang of his blood on his lips and felt the hardness of his erection as his hips pressed into her.
Ace released her hands and moved one hand to her neck to gently grip her throat. He nipped at her bottom lip, pulling a whimper from her.
Joy felt like putty in his hands, her earlier resistance waning and with it, her control. She happily handed it over to him, if just for a moment.
After a few more kisses, he released her with a final tug at her bottom lip with his teeth.
Ace rested his forehead against Joy’s, both of them sharing the same air to catch their breaths. “You push me away because I see you,” he whispered, his breath fanning her lips.
“You don’t see shit but what I want you to see,” Joy whispered back.
Ace shook his head. “You’re not as good an actress as you think you are Rose. I see you. The real you. Not the one you pretend to be.”
He moved to speak into her ear. “I like what I see. I only wish you’d stop hiding it.”
His lips brushed the shell of her ear as he continued. “I think I’m about done letting you hide from me though.” He punctuated his statement with a kiss on the cheek.
The kiss was soft but final. Like a kiss of death.
“Goodnight, Rose.”
Joy quivered at his contact and declaration then stepped back before her body could betray her again.
He was already sliding back into the SUV when she’d finally found her voice again.
“Goodnight, Adonis.”