Page 125 of Stolen Fate

Kissing Jace had always felt so good, and sometimes I wished we had more time than a fleeting taste here and there. I wished we had a lifetime.

I pulled away from him at the thought and looked into his blue eyes. They were darkened with desire for me, and I didn’t know how to slow down the beating of my heart.

“What is it?” he asked, obviously sensing my turmoil.

I shook away the thought and attempted a small smile. “I—”

“Daddy!”

I tried to pull away at the sound of Elliot’s voice but Jace only tightened his arms around me and pulled me in closer.

We turned and found Emilia and Elliot standing there. Emilia’s eyes widened the sight of me in Jace’s arms, and she looked down at Elliot and winked. They were obviously sharing some sort of secret moment between them. I should probably tell her not to get Elliot’s hopes up when this relationship was still so new, but I couldn’t find my voice.

Because both Emilia and Elliot were wearing wide smiles on their faces. And for a moment…

My heart thudded sharply in my chest and my arms became lax around Jace’s neck as I took them in.

Jace shot me a curious stare. I unwound my arms around his neck and pulled away. He let me, but I knew he only did it because Elliot was running toward him, expecting to be held.

Emilia walked over to Jace and introduced herself. I knew I should probably be there, too, but I was still reeling. Their voices dropped to the background, and I was no longer paying attention to what was going on.

For a moment, when both Emilia and Elliot had smiled at each other, I swore they had the same smile.

But that wasn’t possible.

It had to be my paranoia talking, but still, it made my heart skip a beat. I shouldn’t put a lot of weight into a smile. Sometimes people looked like each other when they smiled.

Elliot pulled me out of my thoughts when he tugged on my shirt. I looked down and found him holding out a piece of paper to me.

I took and smiled. It was Elliot’s attempt to write everyone’s name.

“Oh, my. This is absolutely wonderful! Did you do this?”

He nodded, his eyes glinting proudly.

“Well, I love it. I know you must have worked really hard on this, huh?”

“I did. And the little ‘e’ is the hardest to write, Evelyn, but guess what?”

“What?”

“Emilia said my little ‘e’ looks really good.”

“Well, she’s telling the truth. We have to hang this up on the fridge.”

His eyes brightened. “That’s what Daddy said.”

“Then what are we waiting for? Go pick out your favorite magnet and we’ll hang it up.”

Jace walked over to me, smiling happily. He wrapped his arms around my waist, and I couldn’t bring myself to protest. Not after seeing the happiness in his eyes. I didn’t want to be the one to take that away, so instead I did something daring. I moved my head down and rested it on his chest, listening to the steady strum of his heartbeat as we watched Elliot contemplate over which Spider-Man magnet he wanted to use.

Jace tightened his arms around me and kissed the top of my head.

Yeah. A lifetime with him sounds about right.

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