Page 125 of The Fire We Make

A moment later, Ace slid in beside her and Ray pulled off.

In the backseat of Ace’s Escalade, Joy ran her fingers over Ace’s bruised knuckles.

“You okay?” Ace asked, breaking the silence.

Joy looked up at him, seeing the apprehension in his eyes.

“I’m fine. Are you?” she asked, her gaze flicking down to his bloodied hands.

He flexed his fingers with a smirk. “All good.”

Joy stared up at him. Her heart and core thumping in time with each other.

“Adonis… You just killed a cop. What are we gonna do about the body?”

“Don’t worry about that,” he said, his fingers flying across his phone screen. “It’s handled.”

“How?”

He looked up at her. “Don’t worry about that either.”

Joy narrowed her eyes and in that moment she knew every article she read and rumor she heard about the King family was true. “He said he was with a task force looking into you and your family,” she said.

“Not the first, won’t be the last,” he said nonchalantly. Finished with what he was doing, he dropped his phone in his lap and turned to her, taking her chin between her fingers and inspecting her face. “Are you hurt?”

The fire in his eyes burned with anger that hadn’t been put out when the detective stopped breathing. His jaw was tight and his lips were pressed firmly together in barely restrained fury. The fact that harm coming to her elicited such a response from him made Joy’s heart flutter.

“I’m fine,” she answered softly.

He searched her face and frame for any contradiction to her answer before replying.

“Good.”

Joy stared at him a moment, then a cackle burst from her lips. Ace stared at her in bewilderment as she laughed.

“What?” he asked, a wary smile on his lips.

Joy shook her head. “Something is wrong with me. Something is really wrong with me in the head.”

“What is it?”

Joy figured she could show him better than she could tell him.

She took his hand and slipped it under her dress and into her panties. He hissed, feeling the dampness between her thighs.

“This is what watching you fuck that nigga up did to me.”

He began moving his fingers, spreading her wetness and stroking her pearl. He leaned up and placed nasty open mouth kisses on her neck. “You liked that shit, baby?” he asked, adding more pressure from his fingers.

“Mhm,” she hummed, rocking her hips to meet the slow strokes of his fingers. When he slipped two of his thick fingers inside of her, Joy threw her head back on an open mouthed gasp. Taking advantage of the exposed skin, Ace moved his lips from her neck to her throat, then chin.

Joy swung her legs over Ace’s lap and straddled him, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Thank you,” she whispered against his lips.

“For what?”

“For protecting me. Fighting for me. No one has ever done that. No one has ever—,” she choked on her words, tears welling in her eyes as she fought the emotion overcoming her. “No one has ever fought my battles for me.”

Ace unraveled her arms from around his neck and kissed her hands.