Page 36 of Between the Stars

“I know you wouldn’t have, but we had a lot of growing up to do.”

Sadness stirs inside me when I think about that baby. I was only eight weeks when I miscarried at school one afternoon and Jace held me all night in the back field of the Grady Ranch. I remember being sad that a part of Jace and I had died, and I think about that life often, and what he or she would have been like.

“I know you wouldn’t have gone to college,” Jace adds.

“When you let me go, did it have anything to do with losing the baby?”

Our eyes meet and I can see a flick of sadness in his. Slowly, he licks his lips, and then his brows pull together as he regards me carefully. “You deserved a chance to make something of yourself outside Amarillo. And you weren’t going to do that with me around.”

I see his point to an extent. Nothing else mattered to me but Jace. “And now what?”

Setting the whiskey down, he turns toward me. He leans in, so close our mouths are nearly touching, his stare ablaze. The ruggedness of his voice makes his words resonate deep inside me. “I can’t offer you the life he can.”

“Maybe I don’t want that.”

His eyes lock on mine and I don’t see anger in them. I see devastation, maybe even agony. His palms find my face and he lilts my head. He watches my internal struggle to maintain indifference. He blinks, thick dark lashes lowering, a stark contrast to his green eyes. Unexplained darkness flickers across his face. “We’ll see about that.”

CHAPTER12

Leave us where we left it

ABBI

Easier said than done.

The day after Christmas,Jace and I head back to Amarillo and the tension in the truck is undeniable. We haven’t talked about what happens next, but I know we need to.

I’m scared. I cheated on my fiancé, and the worst part is that’s not my worry here. It’s leaving Jace. For the first time, I don’t think he wants me to. I’ve always wondered where I stand with him, but the idea of leaving him this time seems unforgivable to him.

I avoid conversation until Jace pulls off the side of the highway and onto a backroad. And even then, I don’t say anything to him. Not at first.

He unbuckles and turns toward me.

“What?”

His jaw tightens, the emotion in his face unreadable. “I can’t let you go without reminding you why you need me.” Hunger sparks in his eyes and I know where this is going.

He gathers my wrists together tightly and pulls me into him. His mouth finds my shoulder again. He rips my shirt and I tear the buttons on his flannel.

I let him take me inside his Jeep because he’s right. I can’t go back without the reminder he’s the one I should choose. We move to the back seat and though it’s not easy to fuck in the back of a Jeep Wrangler, we manage. It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you’re horny and living on the edge of your own sanity.

It’s desperate, pleading, and everything I know him to be.

I fuck him hard.

He bites my shoulders until he draws blood.

I scream and cry from pleasure and pain.

I ride him as snowflakes hit the windshield and the roar of the nearby icy highway is no competition for our moans of pleasure. I grip his neck, my hands fisting in his hair. He moans quietly again, a noise that’s barely heard over my own, but the plea to stay follows. Admiring the raised marks across my shoulder, he smirks. He loves that he marked me.

There’s a moment when I lose myself in him completely, staring up at the headliner, the Jeep rocking with the wind, and he holds me so tight I know I’m going to have bruises. I want to tell him this is us forever—him holding on, me letting go, but not because I want to. His lips trace the curve of my neck, his breaths broken and desperate. “I’m coming,” he whispers, his length flexing inside me, pumping in time with his release.

“Me too,” I tell him, holding on tighter.

“Don’t go back to him.” He holds my face in his hands, his eyes locked on mine. I can feel the tension rolling off him. “I’mfuckingbegging you, baby.”

He’s begging me and I want to assure him I won’t.

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