Page 65 of All I Feel

I was alreadyhere.We were seated at the table in my dining room. He was at the head of it, and I was just off to his right side. If he wanted to, Ace could easily reach out and hold my hand, so I didn’t exactly understand how much morehereI could get. “What do you mean?”

Ace scooted his chair back, and he turned his body slightly toward mine. “Princess, comehere.”

My eyes rounded as my lips parted. I shifted my attention between his face and his long legs. Suddenly, I understood whatheremeant. Ace wanted me in his lap. A shiver ran along my spine, tingles of excitement spreading throughout my body.

Cautiously, I rose from my chair and took one step toward Ace. He reached for me, one hand curling around my wrist while the other wrapped around my waist. The next thing I knew, he had me settled in his lap.

Silence filled the air again, the tension crackling between us. My breaths were coming in quick, shallow bursts as Ace searched my face, stroked a thumb over my cheek, and eventually drove his fingers into my hair. “You and I will never wind up like you did with your ex. I would never cheat on you, Tessa. Not only could I not do that to you, but I’m just not that kind of man.”

“Ace, I never meant to insinuate that you’d cheat on me, and I don’t want you to think I’m comparing you to Ryan. It’s just that I don’t have a lot of experience. He was my first real boyfriend. Obviously, it ended very badly. I’m just worried that if things didn’t work out between us for someother reason that I’d no longer have you in my life the way I do now. Could we… Would we even be able to go back to being friends if we took this chance and broke up down the road?”

The hand he had in my hair drifted down my back, settling at my waist, while the other was heavy across my bare legs. I was acutely aware of his fingertips pressing firmly against my outer thigh.

“You’ll never not be in my life, Tessa Stone. And while I can’t make you any guarantees about where things will end up between us if we take this chance, I can’t imagine that I’d ever find it so easy to walk away from you. I think it’s foolish to assume that this would end.”

“Ace…” I trailed off again, because I wasn’t quite sure what I could possibly say to that. He was so sure of himself, of us, and I desperately wanted to feel that way, too.

“I won’t hurt you, Princess.” Tugging me closer, he leaned forward at the same time. His face was inches away from my hair when he inhaled deeply. Then his mouth traveled to my ear, where he whispered, “I’d sooner cut off my own arm than do anything to make you cry.”

My breath caught in my throat. Ace Townsend was saying all the right words and making me feel things I’d never felt before. I hadn’t realized he knew what he was doing to me when I squirmed in his lap.

“Tell me what it was,” he urged.

I twisted my neck to look at him. “Tell you what?”

He smiled, and I swear the look could’ve been used to sign a modeling contract for him. The man was gorgeous. “Tell me what it was you thought about whenever you were thinking about me.”

Ace’s eyes dropped to my lips as I licked them. “In thebeginning, it was mostly just how appreciative I was for all that you’d done for me. But lately, especially over the last week, it was something else.”

“What was it?”

“All week long, I haven’t been able to think about much of anything besides the way it felt to have you kiss me.”

One half of his mouth quirked as pride washed over his expression. “And what exactly did that make you feel?”

For a moment, I wondered how he thought I could answer that question when his fingers began moving lightly along my thigh. It was an effort to focus long enough to share anything at all. “Fear. I felt fear.”

That was enough to get Ace to freeze. His fingers stopped moving, the muscles in his body going taut. “Fear? The thought of me kissing you made you fearful.”

I shook my head. “No. It was the thought of never being able to experience it again that terrified me.”

His eyes darkened. “You say the word, Princess, and I’ll kiss you all you want.”

I stared at him, my words failing me. Ace was willing and ready to give me what I wanted, what it appeared he wanted as well. God, the thought of feeling his lips against mine again had my insides trembling with excitement.

“Say it, Tessa. Tell me you want to explore this between us. Tell me you want me to kiss you.”

With his instruction, the words spilled out of me. “I want to explore this, Ace. And I want you to kiss me again.”

He barely gave me the opportunity to take in the smile on his face before he leaned in and touched his lips to mine.

A thrill of delight moved through me, and I squeezed my legs together as desire pooled between them. That was it.That was all it took for me to feel such want and need for him.

One kiss.

One simple kiss.

He’d only just got started, and it was already the best experience of my whole life. There was the softness of his lips and the way he held me close. There was the gentle touch of his fingers moving along my thigh. It was everything I could’ve ever wanted and more.