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It was enough to send her straight over the edge.
Jace. This wasJace. And she didn’t even have to tell herself that to cement it in her mind, because it could only ever be him.
She had been waiting for this. All this time.
“Well. We can go back to... To the house.”
The house that she had inherited from her grandfather wasn’t that far out of town.
“Yeah we can.”
“It’s convenient, since you don’t even have your truck here.”
“Yeah,” he said, his voice ragged. “If I were a different man, I’d be tempted to say that I planned it this way. But you’re you, so I definitely shouldn’t of done that. And I’m me, so I’m not supposed to... Plan.”
“Did you?”
“I’m not going to lie to you. What you said about that got to me. I try to not think of you that way. And when I say try, I mean I decided not to, so I didn’t. You must know that you’re beautiful.”
“I know that men respond to me a certain way. I don’t know that I think that is beautiful.”
“Well you are. You’re basically a damn sunrise. All right? I’m not good at that.”
“That’s a lie. You pick up women all the time. You must be very good at flattering them.”
“I’m good at empty flattery. I’m good at letting those words roll off my lips without even thinking about what they mean. Hey gorgeous. Hey baby. You look beautiful. Like a dress. But it would look better on my bedroom floor.”
She blanched. “Please tell me you’ve never said that.”
“I probably have. I probably didn’t even pay attention to what it really sounded like. But I guarantee you that neither did she. Because we were both there for one reason, and it didn’t matter if we liked each other. It didn’t matter. It’s the perfect kind of hookup for a man like me. Who doesn’t think about tomorrow.” His voice pitched lower, and she shivered. “And you know, even though I don’t think about my tomorrows, Cara, I know one thing about them. You’ll be there. And that matters to me. It matters a hell of a lot.”
Her throat went so tight she could hardly speak. “It matters to me too.”
“So what I say to you matters. I’m not to give you empty compliments. And maybe that wasn’t a great one, but I meant it. I meant it all away from my soul. I promise you that. You’re beautiful, and I had to put blinders on to not notice. I did a pretty bad job of it when you first... Filled out.”
She laughed, which felt good. “Diplomatic,” she said.
“Tonight, I was watching those men look at you... And seeing you the way that they did... Well, it made me want to strangle them, but it also made it impossible to look away from you. But I want to make it very clear it’s not like I didn’t notice. You don’t have the kind of beauty a man doesn’t notice.”
“Thank you,” she said. “But we don’t need to talk.”
Because it they kept talking, then maybe she would have to share more about what she felt. Maybe she would have to share more about the way that she felt about him. The way that she had always felt about him.
“Take me home and make me feel good.” And it wasn’t the smoothest thing, but it was real. It was raw and it was honest. And he seemed to find it undeniable. Because that was when he grabbed her arm and led her out the back door of the bar.
And it was her truck that they needed to take, but she fumbled around looking for the keys, and finally he took pity on her and fished them out of her purse for her and got into the driver’s seat.
Her house was a modest one, on one of the streets just a couple of blocks from the bar. All the houses on the street had been built in 1974. All of them the same sort of small and nondescript, or at least they had been originally. Some had been added onto over the years. Made a little bit more fancy a little bit more spacious. But not hers.
It was still the same as when she had lived here with her grandpa. The same green shag carpet. The same daisy pattern countertop in the bathroom.
She loved it because it reminded her of him. Because it reminded her of home.
Jace was a lot like home too, and somehow, right now the combination of the two didn’t feel comforting. It simply felt dangerous.
They had spent the night together, shared a bed back at the motel, but this was different. It was different, and so were they.
And she fought against the thought that argued with that. That told her they were just the same. And doing this was risky. As risky as it ever had been. And she needed to be careful. So goddamned careful. And she was taking a risk because she wanted to touch him so badly.
