Page 9 of Entangled

Placing my hands on the bar, I lean in, bringing our faces alongside each other and my mouth to his ear.

“But Jace,” I whisper, pausing, prolonging the moment. “Be sure it’s a good one.”

I feel numerous eyes on me as I drop back into my seat but I don’t bother dimming my smug grin one bit. If I’m being honest with myself, this is the most fun I’ve had in ages, so fuck ’em.

“Damn,” he mutters, eyes filling with heat as he watches me bring the shot to my lips.

“Mmm,” I drawl back in agreement.

That brilliant smile flashes across his face and he shakes his head. “Always did love a challenge.”

“Jace!” the middle-aged bartender hollers from down the bar again, this time with a beat-up-looking guitar in her hand. “Sometime today would be nice!”

“Right.” The smile falls from his face as he turns, taking a step before stopping and turning back to spare me a glance as if he’s worried I might disappear. “Don’t move.”

My lips twitch up into a grin as I watch him walk away, grabbing the guitar on his way out from behind the bar. The lightness I’m feeling has me wondering if this one really is miraculous. Or maybe all I needed was time and to stop pressuring myself. Either way… I’m all in for where tonight leads. It’s long past time to pack away the damage of last summer and maybe a little orgasmic distraction while I’m here wouldn’t be the worst thing. God knows whatever I find out here is most likely to be depressing as fuck. I’ll probably need all the endorphins I can get.

“How y’all doing tonight?” Jace’s voice comes through the mic and draws my attention to where he sits on the stage.

I take in the guitar slung across his body as I turn in my seat to get a better view and find his playful eyes already on me from where he sits on a stool in front of the mic. Making sure I don’t move.

Oh, yeah. Definitely miraculous.

“Now I know it’s not a regular crowd favorite but I’m going to start off with something a little different tonight,” he continues, dimples flashing as his gaze sweeps the bar. “You see, there’s this girl I’d like to impress and well… let’s just leave it at that.”

Jace’s eyes come back to meet mine and I feel the gazes of the entire bar rest on me for a moment before returning to where he sits on a stool in front of the mic. He turns to his guitar then and proceeds to pick at a few strings as if checking their tune before giving a solid strum. I watch in fascination as he nods to himself before launching into the song he chose to impress me.

He’s not even ten seconds in before my entire body freezes. Even in acoustic form, I’d recognize those chords anywhere. That lightness that was just filling me turns into a feeling of pure gravity and I slowly exhale all the breath from my lungs, trying to alleviate some of the weight pressing on my chest.

This can’t be happening.

The universe cannot be this cruel.

But if anyone should know better… it’s me.

And as he sings those first words, they hit me like a blow, each word causing further and further damage until my mind checks out. Some rational part of me that looks on at the situation like a bystander recognizes that Jace is good. But I’m not here, not really. I’m a thousand miles away with the waves of the past pulling me further under by the second.

It still amazes me, even with the way my life started out… the way simple words, a single person, a unique moment with a song can cause the most excruciating pain. An unbearable physical ache in your heart. All ofhiswords rise at the sound of that song and I feel that pain try to gain a foothold in me to spread.

I have to get out of here.

I stand suddenly from my chair, almost toppling it over in my rush to escape. Digging into the back pocket of my shorts, I pull out enough cash to cover my tab and slam it down on the counter before turning to walk as fast as I can from the bar. Avoiding every questioning gaze along my way. Hoping that if I flee fast enough I can outrun the past trying to drown me. And though I feel one particular set of eyes burning into me as I make my escape, I don’t look back. My only focus is on getting the hell out of there before the memories win and pull me under completely.

Chapter 4

One Year Ago

I take a sip straight from the bottle of añejo as we make our way down the beach. Let it never be said that I’m not classy in my tequila preference… maybe not so much the form in which I drink it though. I meet Coop’s amused eyes and pass the bottle over to him, watching as he brings it to his lips. The act entirely too erotic for someone taking a simple sip of tequila.

He’s been quiet since we left the bar. I’m used to guys trying to talk their way into my pants at a mile a minute, but not him. I’ve felt his eyes like a current running along my skin with every step and the silence has proven to be more seductive than any pretty words he could give me. Up to this point, I’ve been content to ride the wave of anticipation… but now he seems to be holding my tequila hostage.

“You planning on giving that back to me anytime soon?”

He arches a brow at my question, so similar to the way I do that for a moment it’s a bit disconcerting.

“I figured holding on to it was a surefire way to get you to talk.”

I cock a brow of challenge in return. “You could have asked me a question.”

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