Page 74 of Jace 4Ever
“It’s fine if you don’t,” I prompted. “It really is. I’m not feeling enthused myself. Gardenia is a sweet person for inviting me, but she’s much more a Gen Z actress who has too much money all of a sudden and the sense of a typical nineteen year old.”
“Oh, God, that sounds like a nightmare. And we’ll probably leave after dawn, won’t we?”
“I’ll send our regrets. We can go home, before sunrise.”
“She won’t be mad?”
“She probably won’t even get the message until sometime after three tomorrow afternoon.”
He laughed. “Okay, fine. I’m beat and I need to get out of this tux.”
I hummed in his ear. “How tired are you?”
An eyebrow lifted. “Not that tired.”
“Good.”
The limo slipped up to the curb and I opened the door for him. “Mike, let’s go home!”
“You got it, Mister Powers.”
Jace cozied up to me, and I could see his eyes drifting closed. We’d both had a lot to drink and a lot of people to talk to tonight. I was still riding my triple Oscar high, and I had the feeling he was crashing because of all the activity around us. He looked absolutely adorable resting there on my shoulder, and I almost didn’t want to wake him when we pulled up nearly an hour later at the gates of the house.
“Come on, Jace. We’re here.”
“Mmm?” He sat up and rubbed his eyes. They went wide for a second when he saw me, and then a slow, sweet smile spread across his lips. “Oh. I wasn’t dreaming.”
“Not at all, baby. Let’s get inside. I think someone needs to go to bed.”
“Mm, next to you.” He sighed, happy.
“Mike, thank you. I think our flight out is tomorrow evening?”
“Saturday morning, Mister Powers,” he corrected.
“Ooh, good. I’ll double-check the itinerary tomorrow after breakfast.”
Mike laughed. “I’d put that more accurately at lunch.”
“Too true.”
He swung out of the car and pulled the back door open for us. “Congratulations again, Nelson. It takes hard work to do what you did tonight.”
“Thanks, Mike.”
I wrapped my arm around Jace’s shoulders and led him through the gate to the front porch. I disarmed the alarm and popped the door open.
“I’m going to get something to drink that isn’t sweet or loaded with vodka.” Jace chuckled. “I can’t believe how much I drank and remained relatively sober.”
“That chuckle wasn’t too sober.”
“I said relatively.” He wandered down the hall in a drunk-but-more-tired shuffle and disappeared into the kitchen. I closed and locked the door, then rearmed the alarm. I was going to have a busy afternoon and evening tomorrow with all the interviews I knew were coming, but I wasn’t going to deal with a single thing until I’d gotten some sleep.
Jace was dancing around to some unheard music, happily bending over in the fridge, digging out a drink. There was no way I was resisting that ass.
Walking up directly behind him, I put a hand on his hip. He squeaked, but it was followed by a delighted laugh. Carefully, he backed up and stood, handing me a water.
“Thirsty?”
