Page 26 of Between the Stars

That’s when I realize I’m left at the table with Rhett, and Jace standing on the other side of him. Rhett disappears, distracted by someone at the bar.

Now what? You’re thinking it, aren’t you? We’re left alone, neon lighting his face and a haze in the air. I can’t breathe. Wait… am I? I think maybe I am, but I don’t know for sure with him this close. He looks different. Older. Still has that same mysterious draw he’s always had. The kind that makes you stare at him and need to know what he’s thinking, but you know you won’t ever find those details.

I draw in a breath about the same time he leans forward. With both hands on the table, he nudges a shot glass toward me with a brush of his knuckles.

No words are exchanged, but for reasons I’m not privy to, I take the shot and down that damn thing in one fluid swallow. He could have poisoned it and you know, stupid me would have drank it.

The liquid goes down smooth, but it burns. I smile around it, unable to stop myself. “Hey, stranger,” I whisper, taking in a breath filled with stale beer and fried food.

Jace draws in another breath and tilts his head to the side, his eyes searching my face as though he’s not sure it’s me while studying me with an intensity I’m not prepared for. I wait for him to say something. Anything. Words don’t follow. I’m left in a state of anticipation, dying to know if he’s disappointed by my presence, or curious maybe.

He nods to the dance floor, winks, and then grasps my hand in his. It’s a natural reaction our bodies know, to be near, but still, my hand in his causes a reaction I’m both unprepared for and nervous about. What does he want? Is he going to lead me out to his Jeep and question me as to why I’m here?

He doesn’t do that, but instead guides me to the dance floor where everyone is staring at us.

My arms slip over his shoulders and the softness of his flannel meets my fingertips. I want to grasp the threads between my fists and pull his mouth to mine. I want to remember what it feels like to have him beg me to come and tease me with his hungry lips.

I glide my stare further to his arms. He’s covered in ink, his shirt rolled up to his elbows. He’s… different, but I can’t place the change, or if it’s him, or me.

“You’ll never get far from me.”

Ain’t that the truth, because four years later, look where I’ve found myself after only being home for a few hours.

“Where’s your fiancé?” he whispers, his voice low and gravelly, an undeniable hunger filling his eyes. The words scrape against my skin in the most delicious way as his hands circle around my waist and we sway to the music over the jukebox.

He looks… different. He’s the boy I once knew, and yet, so much has changed. But one thing never will. Our connection. It’s undeniable and keeps me coming back for more. He knows it. Look at the way he’s staring at me. He’s daring me to tell him otherwise. It’s why he asked where Griff is.

I don’t answer his question. I’m not sure I can. What am I going to tell him? I left Griff at home because I wanted to see what would happen between you and me? I can’t say that to Jace. He’d take full advantage and probably fuck me in the bathroom here just to prove one, he could, and two, I shouldn’t be getting married.

I stare at his lips and then lean in unintentionally. I want to say something, but my words fail, and I smile. His hands slide from my hips to my wrists with a possessive edge. God, I missed this. The pulsating electricity only experienced with someone you know will give anything to be with you.

Griff and I, we don’t have that charge. This…thisis pliable and unrestrained.

I feel the heat of his skin in my hands as he glides his nose along my collarbone, every nerve in my body aware of his touch. “To think you can ignore me is laughable, darlin’.”

“I’m not ignoring you,” I point out. My breathing kicks up a notch, desire flooding through me. “I thought we were going to dance.”

He holds my wrists still and kisses my neck in the shadows, between the amp and the speakers next to the stage. “I don’t dance,” he growls, holding me closer. He groans and slumps forward, burying his face in the curve of my neck. “But something tells me you didn’t come here to dance with me.” Without an inch of space between us, our eyes lock and I know any resolve I had to ignore him is gone. I can’t. Not with the hunger in his eyes.

CHAPTER8

Under the Stars

ABBI

I lost myself.

Those eyes,beautiful and lost, pierce through my resolve and I’m lost forever. His breath blows over my neck, shivers igniting down my body. “Come with me.”

Our eyes meet and I stare. There’s an emptiness about him I can’t place. A thickness fills the air and I shift my gaze from his. It’s suddenly difficult to take a full breath.

“Where?”

“Anywhere but here,” he whispers, his hand sliding to mine.

After retrieving my jacket from the back of my chair, I follow him outside where there’s a group of men standing. Their breaths are a cloud of steam in the coolness of the night’s air. I glance at them, and I probably know the men, but my attention is on the one demanding it.

Jace doesn’t let go of my hand as he takes me around the back of Tilly’s bar. My back presses to the brick and I’m trapped in front of him, his jacket open revealing his blue and gray flannel underneath his familiar Carhartt jacket. I remember a time when I stared at it, afraid to meet his eyes when a secret had been eating at me.

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