Chapter 35 #3
Ace swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat as his gaze flicked over her face.
It was like he was seeing her for the first time. Not the palatable version she showed the world — all of her.
The blood.
The sadness.
The violence.
The pain.
The anger.
She’d laid her truth bare at his feet and yet?—
“I do.”
He placed a kiss on her lips. Then another.
“Look at me, Rose,” he murmured.
Joy hesitated a moment, then opened her eyes.
Ace held her gaze. He didn’t soften it, letting her see everything in his eyes. Letting her see the menace he kept restrained. The menace he’d let off the leash behind her.
“I see you, Joy,” he said. “All of you.”
His thumb brushed along her cheek.
Ace leaned closer, his forehead resting against hers.
“Monster or not, you don’t scare me, and I’m not going anywhere.”
Something in Joy broke and her lip trembled as tears threatened to escape her ducts again.
Joy stared at him, searching his face for hesitation. Fear. Disgust. Anything that proved his words were only an attempt to comfort her.
There was none.
Ace looked at her the same way he had when she came down the stairs in the red dress.
Like she was the prettiest woman in the world.
Only now, there were no secrets between them.
He knew what lived beneath the dress. Beneath the practiced smiles and sharp tongue. He knew about the blood on her hands and the rage she couldn’t always control.
And he was still there.
Joy hadn’t realized a tear was sliding down her face until Ace kissed it away.
He continued his path of kisses across her face
Slow and intentional like he was learning her all over again.
Joy supposed he was.
“Adonis,” she whispered.
His name on her lips made something in Ace’s chest snap.
His mouth found hers again, deeper this time. Hungrier.
He wasn’t rushed, but he lacked the tender restraint he’d had the last time they were together like this. There was an edge to him now. A barely leashed aggression beneath every stroke of his tongue and tightening of his hands.
Joy didn’t mind it at all. She met him there. Fully.
Her hands slid up his back, gripping the back of his neck and pulling him closer like she was trying to fuse them together. Like any space between them felt wrong now.
Their kiss shifted then. Ace’s hands moved, precise and sure, like he already knew where she needed him.
He slipped his hand under the thin material of the slip, his hands dragging slowly over her skin.
Joy didn’t stop herself from arching into his touch. His deft fingers toyed with her as his mouth attacked her neck and chest.
“I need you, Adonis,” Joy whispered up to the ceiling as she rode his fingers.
Ace’s movements stopped and his whole body stiffened. He pulled back just enough to look at her.
Really look.
Her eyes weren’t guarded anymore.
No mask or distance.
No secret sitting between them that she could use as an excuse to retreat later.
She wanted him.
Whatever control he had left snapped clean in half, making way for a primal urge to claim her.
He lifted her into his arms and placed her on the bed without breaking eye contact. He kept his eyes on her as he made sure she was still there.
Still choosing him like he’d chosen her.
He pulled her dress over her head, baring her to him. He disposed of his own clothing so quickly he was a blur, his body begging to be back on hers. Back in hers.
His eyes traveled over her slowly, taking in her body with new eyes, but the same reverence. The scars he found now having more context.
The faint line near her ribs.
The mark at her shoulder.
The remnants of violence written across her body.
His mouth traced down her jaw, her neck, her chest, her stomach, every kiss saying, I see you. I want you. I’m not going anywhere.
Joy’s hands moved over him – exploring, claiming, and echoing every word back to him.
“I don’t care what anyone called you or made you believe. I don’t care what parts of yourself you feel like you have to hide. Every part of you is perfect. Every part of you belongs to me.”
Joy closed her eyes as emotion tightened her throat.
Ace’s hand wrapped gently around her neck.
“Look at me.”
She obeyed.
His thumb stroked the side of her throat, directly over the place Jermaine had once tried to steal the life from her, but his touch held no threat.
Only possession.
“Who do you belong to?”
Joy’s pulse jumped against his palm. “You.”
“Say my name,” he demanded.
“Adonis,” she breathed.
“That’s my girl.”
He slipped inside of her easily, the resistance he’d been met with their first time eased after almost two weeks of living inside her.
He moved immediately, his hips setting a pace that wasn’t frantic but urgent with impatient need and precision.
Joy’s breath caught as her body reacted, her back arching off the bed as sensation rolled through her, stronger than she expected and deeper than she was ready for.
But she didn’t pull away.
Didn’t run.
Her hands gripped him tighter. Holding him there and accepting everything he had to give her.
“Yes…” she breathed, her voice shaking.
Every nerve in her body was lit like a christmas tree, making her sensitive and breathless. Every thought was drowned out by the way he moved with her.
“Stay with me,” he murmured against her skin like a plea.
“I’m here,” she gasped. “I’m not going anywhere.”
And she meant it. There was nowhere else she’d rather be.
Joy’s nails dragged down his back as everything inside her tightened, snapped, and unraveled all at once, her body shaking beneath him as she held on for dear life.
To him
To this.
Ace followed right behind her, pumping into her, holding her there like he didn’t want to come back up for air.
For a moment, there was nothing else.
No past. No pain. No ghosts.
Just them, and their small flicker of light they’d created together in darkness. The bond they shared through things they hadn’t even voiced.
“You feel so fucking good, Rose,” he groaned against her ear. His mouth moved over her cheek, placing kisses there as his hips drove forward, pulling a cry and orgasm from her.
Ace stiffened as he followed her over the edge.
The room fell silent as their moans ceased and their heavy breaths slowed.
Ace didn’t move right away.
Didn’t rush to separate.
They stayed just as they were, chest to chest, breathing each other in.