Page 114 of Stolen Fate
I pulled back and gasped at him. His smile widened. “We are not doing that,” I hissed, making sure to keep my voice quiet.
“You’re right. There’s no such thing as a quickie when it comes to you.”
I rolled my eyes. “I wouldn’t be so sure.”
Jace let out a choked laugh and pulled me in closer to him. I couldn’t help the cheeky grin I shot at him after that, glad to see he wasn’t mad about my little jab. We both knew it wasn’t true. There was nothing quick about sex with Jace. His stamina was quite impressive, even with as little experience as I had, I knew that much.
Jace turned to Jensen and Elliot then, and I moved off his lap before Jace could react. I was with him, and Jensen obviously knew about it, so I didn’t think I needed to sit there. Jace scowled at me, but I only smiled, taking a seat in the recliner farthest away from him. Elliot moved away from Jensen once he saw I was sitting by myself, and ran over to me, climbing onto my lap without saying anything.
I wrapped my arms around him and planted a small kiss on his forehead. When I looked up, both Jace and Jensen were looking at me, Jace with that soft and content look on his face that I had been seeing these past nights, and Jensen, with a happy one.
I was glad at least Jace’s friend didn’t think of me as unprofessional and unfit to care for Elliot—something I had been fighting with since the moment I decided to give in to Jace.
I cleared my throat a little, not exactly comfortable with the silence, and thankfully, Jensen spoke before I could try and come up with a topic that wouldn’t be weird.
“I see you and Elliot have gotten really close.”
I nodded, wrapping my arms around Elliot’s middle. If I could, I would keep him with me like this. I felt very protective toward Elliot. “Yes.”
“That’s good. Because Elliot needs a lot of love in his life, especially from you.”
I frowned at that. Why especially from me? Jensen looked away a bit, shifting in his seat, almost as if he were uncomfortable. Though I doubted that was the case. Jensen didn’t look like the kind of man to be uncomfortable in any situation.
“You said you’ve known Jace since he was five?” I asked to change the topic and get away from the heavy tension that was forming in the air. Unlike these two men, I wasn’t very good at dealing with uncomfortable silences. My instincts were usually to ignore them or change the topic.
Jensen smiled a little and looked over to Jace. “Yes. Believe it or not, Jace was a scrawny little kid. I was stopping this other kid from taking his lunch money.”
I looked over to Jace, not really sure I should be smiling at that. It was hard to believe Jace was ever scrawny, even as a kid. If Elliot took after Jace, and he was the tallest one in his class now, then I highly doubt Jace wasn’t when he was Elliot’s age.
Jace rolled his eyes. “I wasn’t scrawny. Jensen was just a big motherf—, uh, I mean, a big kid. And he wasn’t stopping anyone from taking my lunch money. He was the one taking it.”
I looked at Jensen in surprise and he shot me a sheepish look. “We got over that, though, didn’t we, buddy?”
“Sure,” Jace answered drily, and I couldn’t help the giggle that escaped my lips. Jace gazed at me with that soft look in his eyes again, before standing. “I’ll get some drinks,” he said, pointing to Jensen’s empty beer bottle. “Want to come with me, buddy?”
“Yes, Daddy,” Elliot responded, perking up a little now that he wasn’t being ignored by the adults in the room. He jumped off my lap and ran over to Jace.
“Do you want something to drink?” he asked me. I shook my head.
We stared at each other for a while, and it looked like he wanted to say something more to me, but then Elliot tugged on his pants and the spell was officially broken. Jace looked away first.
I tried not to stare at them as they made their way to the kitchen, but I failed.
And for the first time in a long time, I admitted to myself that I could be happy.
“Do you love him?” Jensen asked, startling me.
“What?”
“Do you love him?”
When I looked into his eyes, I didn’t see judgment. I didn’t see anything. It was as if he was asking me something as simple as asking me for the time. But there was nothing simple about what he asked me. And he was nothing more than a stranger to me.
I shook my head. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be rude, but I don’t think it’s any of your business.”
“I’m sorry if this comes off as intruding or abrasive.”
I raised an eyebrow at that, and Jensen shot me a small smile. “It is intrusive and abrasive.”
