I was on the phone with Kelly when Trace walked into his place.
I’d been waiting with his team, but something had happened, and they’d driven me without him. As soon as I’d walked inside, Kelly had called, and for the last hour I’d been talking her down.
“I gotta go, Kelly. I’ll talk to you later.”
She was sobbing and hiccuped on a sniffle. “Okay. Be safe, please.”
“You too.” I was watching Trace steadily as he came in, taking his suit jacket off, then taking out two guns that I had no idea he’d taken to carrying. He put one in the drawer, and he took the other to a side wall, where he moved a photo aside, and I saw him open a safe for it.
“When did you start with those?”
“The day my uncle threatened you.”
That got my attention. “What?”
“It was the last day I saw you too. Outside your apartment.”
Oh. Right.
“He threatened me that night?”
“Make you feel better, he threatened everyone I cared about that night, but yeah. He made it abundantly clear that he knew about you. It’s why I stayed away as long as I could.” He closed the safe and came toward me, raking a hand through his hair. “Want a drink?”
“What happened tonight?”
“I’m going to get a drink.” He came over, stopped, pressed a kiss to my forehead, but moved beyond me to the liquor cabinet. There was a tingle left from his touch and his hand as he touched my waist, grazing it around me before dropping it back to his side. “Is Kelly okay? You were on the phone with her?”
“She wants to know about you and me, more specifically when you and me became you and me.”
He gave me a grin. It was a tired grin, but still a grin. There was a huge boulder of tension in my gut, but a small piece of it chipped away at that look from him. Not everything was totally fucked up.
“Justin came clean with everything about his family, but he also told her about you and Ashton. So, yeah. There’s that.”
“Kelly is freaked.”
I affirmed with a nod, moving over to him as he poured some bourbon in a glass and held it over to me. I took it. “Kelly is freaked.”
He took a sip of his own, watching me over the top of his glass as he did. “I got an offer tonight.”
I took a sip, raising my eyebrow. “Sounds interesting.”
“I’m guessing Nicolai Worthing is related to Justin somehow. He called, said his cousins were imbeciles.”
“Makes me like him.”
He ignored me. “And he offered a sort of franchise proposition. He moves in, takes over everything, while I run the money. The West family still controls everything at the top, but I’m not involved with the dirty business.”
“Except the money part.”
“There’s that. Yes. That part.”
I pointed at myself, raising my other eyebrow. “And you’re telling me? An officer of the law, more so in regard to parolees, but still. It’s in my wheelhouse, and you know, there’s the issue where I’m not dirty. I just like fucking you.”
He grinned.
I grinned back. “Why are you sharing this new player with me?”
He swirled the last of his bourbon around the glass before letting out a small sigh. “I wanted to be straight with you. Assumed you would have questions, and I don’t want to start this relationship off with lies. I’m sure little lies will come into play later, but not yet. And because while he was giving me this offer, I realized something.”
“What’s that?”
He had a look in his eyes, a gleam. It was a light, and he was still grinning at me, in a very delicious way, but while that was making my heart speed up, the look in his eyes was adding to it. He was happy, and that made me happy, and in our present situation, I wasn’t sure either of us should be happy.
But he was, and that made me, so I was going to accept it.
“I realized tonight that when you chose me, it made me want to choose you back.”
My eyebrows dipped down. “Huh?”
The grin was gone. He put his glass down on the counter, reached, and put mine next to it. Then he started forward, coming and placing his hands on my waist. “I realized tonight that I am in love with you.”
He picked me up before I could react, and I squealed as he did. My legs locked around his waist. My hands went to his shoulders, but I leaned back to see his face. “What?”
“Yeah.” He turned serious, his voice dipping down into a whisper. His gaze scanned over my face, going to my mouth, lingering, and then moving to my eyes. A whole new look was coming from him. Sincerity, but also a light. It was a new light. Like a bulb was turned on inside of him. He began walking, carrying me backward. “I didn’t realize that after the call. I realized that when you stood next to me when we were facing off against those guys, but then the call came, and while I have no interest in accepting this guy’s offer, I did realize something else.”
“What’s that?” I settled back, my hands connecting behind his neck.
His hands went to my ass, but I scooted back enough so I could bounce in place. It was odd, a position that I’d never been in before unless as a child, but I liked it. Felt carefree. Fun. Trace grinned at me almost ruefully as he cupped my ass cheeks, helping me bounce. “I want out.”
I paused midbounce. “Out? From . . . ?”
“From the family business.”
I went still. Tensing. “You mean . . . ?” My heart slammed up in my throat.
He nodded, slowly, intensely. “I want out. My uncle is dying, and when he dies, I’m going to make the business die with him.”
“Are you serious?”
“I am.”
“But Ashton?”
We were in the bedroom by now. He didn’t move to turn the light on, and when we came in here, all the other lights would turn off. They were on motion detectors. His windows were slanted so that no one could see in unless he pushed a special button to let them see, but he never had. We could see out; they couldn’t see in. He took me to the bed and moved so I was standing on it. Then, his hands went to my pants, and he began to undress me, sliding my zipper down. “Ashton is my brother. He’ll either go with me or he won’t, but he’ll still support me. It was an understanding we’ve always had with each other. If one wanted out, the other would be fine with it. Our brotherhood was and is always first.”
He slid my pants down, his hands trailing along with them. My skin was lit from sensations from that touch.
He reached up to pull down my panties. I lifted a foot, then the other. He tossed my pants and underwear aside. His hands ran up my legs, the back of each of them, going to cover my ass. He palmed me and moved me forward, his head tipping back so he could see me from the lights turned on outside. Streetlamps. Other buildings. The moon, what we could see. Even a few ships were out there, but they were background light, letting me see his face fully.
“Do you love me?”
His voice thickened as he asked, and he moved a hand around me. Coming to my stomach. Sliding up, moving my shirt with it as it went until he rested it between my breasts. He leaned in. He moved my bra down, and his mouth covered one of my nipples, his tongue sweeping around. He moved, finding my other breast as he pulled my shirt and bra off, probably tossing them alongside my other clothes.
I was fully naked in front of him, but he tipped his head back once more. His eyes finding mine. “Do you?”
I couldn’t answer, not because I didn’t know or didn’t want to, because as he asked, his hand moved around to cup me. His thumb pressed over my clit, starting to move in a slow and sensual motion, and at the same time, two of his fingers moved up inside of me.
I jerked up from the motion, my breath hitching in my throat.
“Hmmm, Jess?” He grazed the insides of my breasts, moving his head. His jaw rubbed against me, and he was lowering me to the bed, his fingers still moving inside of me. In, holding, and back out with a twist. His thumb continued moving over me, pressing in. So slow. Achingly slow.
“You’ve not answered. Do you love me?” But his fingers pulled out. Both of his hands went to my hips, and he lifted me up. A pillow was brought underneath me. He positioned me so he had complete access to me. Then his mouth dipped in, and I gasped, my hands grabbing onto his head, his hair, as his tongue replaced his fingers.
He feasted on me, and I couldn’t speak. I could barely breathe.
I was panting and writhing in place as he continued to explore me. He took his time, his very languid and delicious time, until he lifted his head back up. He met my eyes, looking down my body to where I was watching him. He smiled. “Do you love me, Jess?”
I was melting into a pile of sensations, pleasure.
“Yes.” I breathed out my answer, and he gave me a blinding smile before his head moved back.
I couldn’t speak for the rest of the night.
I woke later, much later. The clock said it was six in the morning—6:43, to be exact. Trace’s arm was nestled under my breasts. He was molded up behind me, one of his legs pushed in through mine. His head was burrowed into my neck and shoulders, but that hadn’t woken me up.
What had?
I saw my phone on the stand next to the bed, and the red light was blinking.
I had a message.
Glancing back, not wanting to wake him, I moved gently to disentangle myself. He let me go, but not all the way. His head moved down so it was pressed into my back. His arm wrapped around my waist, and his leg moved higher up between mine.
He could press up a little more, and I’d be waking him up for a whole different need.
But, reaching over, I was able to grab my phone.
After opening it, I keyed in my code and saw the first message.
Bear: Don’t be alarmed. Your mom is stable, but when you get this, you should come down to the hospital. Chelsea overdosed tonight.
