Page 47 of Primal Bonds

Jace’s lungs heaved. His heart slammed hard and fast beneath her palms. He nodded, his gaze on her mouth.

“He’s going to be home any minute.”

“Okay.” He brushed his lips over hers and stepped back. He picked up her beer and offered it to her. As she took a gulp, he said, “We’re going to finish that someday,” with a little half-smile.

Something about that silky self-confidence made her womb clench. But hey, if it weren’t for Kyler, Jace would be taking her up against the counter right now.

“Maybe,” she returned. Now that he was a few feet away, common sense had returned, cool, pragmatic. Sometimes she hated how damn sensible she was.

She tilted her head. “Why are you here, Jace? Not for this.” She waved a hand between the two of them.

“Don’t be so sure about that.” His gaze raked up and down her body. “But I did have another reason. Suha says the reason I healed so fast was because of you and your brother. If you wouldn’t have flushed the iron out of the cuts so fast, I’d be dead. We take those things seriously. I owe you my life.”

Her jaw tightened. She did not like where this was going. “No, you don’t. Not the way I think you mean it. Like I told you guys last week, I would’ve done the same for anyone.”

His face set. “Yes, I do.” She went to say something and he raised a hand. “Let me explain. Here, I brought you this so you can contact me.” He fished a quartz from his pocket and held it out to her.

She eyed it without touching it. It was a clear rose pink, flat on one side and a conglomerate of crystals on the other side. “A quartz? But what good is that to me?”

“It’s a kind of a smartphone. If you need me for anything, you just tap it.”

“A smartphone? But it’s just a rock—a chunk of quartz.”

“It’s quartz engineered to be a phone. You tap here.” He touched a small depression on the flat side and an orange light glowed on in the center. “Then just talk into it. It’s set to contact me directly.”

He tapped the depression again and the light turned off.

“How does it work?”

He moved a shoulder. “A mix of engineering and magic. It doesn’t work for humans, but with your fae blood, you should be able to operate it. Try it and see.” He offered it to her again.

When she still didn’t take it, he took her hand and pressed the phone into her palm. “Please, Evie. We want to help you, me and Adric both. He—we—would’ve said something last week, but we wanted to give you a chance to cool down.”

She pressed her lips together. “I don’t need help.”

“I thought you’d say that. But you don’t have to use it, just keep it on you.”

She stared down at the quartz in her palm. It was warmer than she’d expected.

“Try it,” he urged. “Just once, so I know you understand how it works. You never have to use it again—but please, keep it with you at all times.”

She blew out a breath. “If it will make you happy…” She touched the depression and the orange light came on.

“Speak into it.” He tapped his own quartz.

She brought it to her mouth. “Earth to Jace,” she said, and then jolted when her voice came out of his pendant.

“That’s all you have to do,” he said.

She shrugged and put the quartz into her back pocket. “Fine. But don’t expect me to use it.”

“I thought you’d say that, but you’re wrong. You need help. You’re trying to do everything yourself, and that’s hard. I bet you’re working two jobs and going to school.”

“One and a half. And it’s not forever.”

“And your brother—where is he, anyway? Shouldn’t he be home by now?”

She stiffened. “That’s none of your business,” she said evenly.

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