Page 45 of The Heiress

He came back in pajama pants and white t-shirt. Also a gun he placed on the nightstand. “Is that necessary?”

“I thought I was here for your protection.”

“I thought you said I was safe.”

He grunted, glanced back at the weapon, then to me and shrugged. “It’s part of why you’re safe here.”

Well then, for the first time in my life I was going to sleep in a room with a gun in it. I crawled under the covers while Jace checked the doors and windows. The long day in the sun was a lot and I was pretty sure the minute my head hit the pillow I’d be out.

Only funny thing is...it turns out it’s pretty hard to sleep with Jace beside me. I kept holding my breath. It was like being a pair of magnets but instead of letting them slam together, something was holding them apart. The pull was still there, trying unrelentingly to join the two pieces.

“Hey Sam?”

“Yeah?”

“Want to come lay on me?”

I moved so fast. One second there were two feet between us and the next my cheek was pressed against his chest, just over his heart. I knew because I could hear how hard and fast it beat. His arm secured me to his side.

“That’s better,” he sighed.

I tried so hard to be good. I didn’t move my hands over his body, exploring all the inches I wanted to explore. I didn’t nuzzle his neck or try to kiss him. I didn’t even wrap my leg around his.

So I’ll give myself a lot of credit for giving Jace the space to figure out what he wanted on his own. Because when his hands began roaming my body, his lips nuzzling my skin, I knew he meant it.

And that was oh, so good.

Especially when he rolled on top of me and grinned. “Hey Sam.” Jace on top of me. Heavy. Clothed. Excited.

It was a sexy trifecta. “Well hello there.”

His gaze kept moving like he couldn’t believe he was looking down at me. “So I was thinking…”

“Yes Jace?”

He shook his head, chuckling. “Did we really spend the evening making out?”

I nodded, my chest flushing.

“Sam and Jace? We kissed?”

I squirmed as my entire body heated. “Yes. Yes we did.”

“And we liked it?”

I could barely breathe. “I certainly did.”

His smile softened. “I did too.” And then to drive the point home he angled his lips and softly kissed me again.

The world spiraled around me, my muscles tensing and releasing on their own. I wove my fingers into his hair, feeling the individual strands slide against my skin, under my nails. Felt his body shudder and the groan that vibrated his chest.

“I don’t want to ruin us,” he whispered.

And that was a very important, serious point. So I summoned all my strength to stop kissing him. “This won’t ruin us. It’s...inevitable. I just didn’t know it.” I could look back now and see how true our friendship had been before I ended it, and how genuine it had been since we picked it back up. I loved everything about Jace from his quiet brooding that covered his traumatic childhood to his near-obsessive love of baseball. No one knew Jace—the real Jace—better than me. And I knew the same was true in reverse.

“I don’t ever want to lose our friendship again.”

I took a moment to study the worry lines of his face. They showed the years of growing and learning we’d both done over the last decade. The years of worrying and hard work. “We already lost it. We already know what it feels like to lose it. We won’t make the same mistake again.”

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