“Then make me,” I push.
The tension snaps.
One second we're standing there arguing around everything we're not saying, and the next he's pulling me closer, his hand sliding from my waist to my back, closing the distance between us like it was inevitable from the start.
The kiss hits hard.
Not gentle. Not hesitant. Like he's been holding it back and doesn't have the space for that anymore.
I respond before I can think, my hands finding his shirt, grounding myself in something real, something solid, something that isn't uncertainty or fear.
He backs us deeper into the trailer without breaking contact, guiding me toward the living quarters. His hand steady at mywaist, my body moving with his without question. Our mouths are locked together
The door clicks shut behind us and the rodeo disappears entirely.
He pulls back just far enough to look at me, chest rising and falling hard, jaw tight. Waiting.
Giving me the same out he always gives me even when I don't want it.
I reach for his shirt and pull it over his head.
That's answer enough.
His hands move like he's been thinking about this, unhurried but certain, sliding my jacket off my shoulders, finding the hem of my shirt.
When his palms drag up my sides I shiver despite the heat and he notices. His mouth finding the curve of my neck while his hands keep moving, unclasping, uncovering, moving quickly like he's determined not to miss any of it.
"Jace." His name comes out unsteady.
"I hear you," he murmurs against my skin.
He lays me back on the narrow bed and works his way down with his mouth, his hands on my breasts.
Then his mouth and tongue, teasing and sucking. My body is arching with pleasure. He gives me his full attention, reading every sound I make and every move my body makes using the information ruthlessly. I stop being quiet about it. There's no point.
The way he touches me makes restraint feel like a waste. I am so wet and ready for him, and by the time he finally settles over me and I can feel how hard he is, I'm not thinking in full sentences anymore. I am waiting for him anxiously. He teases me with the tip and then pushes in. It takes my breath away quickly.
We find a rhythm that is satisfying to both of us. My body arches into his. I can feel him inside me and my walls are tightening on him.
Slow at first. Then faster and faster, harder and harder. In one heavy breath I say, "I'm so close." He notices as he moves one more time and I lose my breath. He holds me through it and closely follows.
When it broke it broke for both of us, his forehead against mine, neither of us making any effort to be quiet about it.
Afterward the trailer holds us in the dark, both of us breathing slow, his arm heavy and warm across my waist.
Outside, the rodeo goes on without us. I tell him we need to get back to Hadley and Piper. We get up and start dressing.
And then it stops.
Not because we want it to.
Because something else interrupts it.
Jace see's it first, his body going rigid in a way that has nothing to do with me. His head turns slightly, his focus snapping past me toward the narrow stretch of floor just inside of the living quarters door.
“What is it?” I ask, breath uneven.
He doesn’t answer right away.
