Page 46 of Stolen Fate

Jace

We leftfor New York two weeks later at six o’clock in the morning.

Though it wasn’t Elliot’s usual wake-up time, he was wide awake on the way to the airport, excited to be going home, and excited that his new friend was coming with him.

We had met Evelyn at the airport and walked quietly to the private jet I had waiting for us. The sun hadn’t risen yet, the weather dark and gray and humid. It wasn’t much different from New York, yet it felt colder.

I had entertained the idea of living in Boston before, and it seemed more doable now since my grandma was no longer with us, yet I couldn’t deny how pleased I was over the prospect of going home.

Now that Elliot and I were living at Richmond House—my grandma’s house—and no longer in the house we used to share with Camila, things felt more bearable.

I looked down at Elliot when he hopped excitedly beside me, his grip on my hand loosening. I was sure he would have made a run for the plane had I not leaned down and picked him up.

“Dad, I want down.”

I smiled a little and shook my head. I was Daddy when he wanted something; Dad when he was disgruntled.

“Will you promise not to leave my side?”

He pouted a little, and I had to work hard to keep from smiling. It wouldn’t do me good to look like I was joking when we were talking about something serious.

“I promise,” he said, letting out a long and suffering sigh.

I put him down beside me and gave in to the temptation, smiling when he was no longer looking at me.

I caught Evelyn’s gaze then.

I couldn’t hold her eyes for longer than a few seconds.

I had never met anyone with such expressive eyes before, except for Elliot, but he was a child. The world hadn’t taught him that he needed to hide his feelings yet.

But Evelyn was a different story.

With all she had been through, I figured she would be hard. I was wrong, though it made sense that she wasn’t. Not when she had made most of her career in working with children.

We hadn’t said more to each other this morning beyond a perfunctory greeting, and for that, I was grateful.

I didn’t know what to say to her.

I didn’t know how to look at her without being affected, and that wasn’t like me.

I had been prepared to meet her, to discover the kind of woman she was. I hadn’t been prepared for how much she got to me—even with a single glance. I hadn’t been prepared for how badly my heart hurt seeing her interact with Elliot, and if I was being truthful, I didn’t plan on them meeting so soon, if ever.

Then she singled me out at the bar, and I made the stupid mistake of taking her home. And since then, I couldn’t get her out of my head, no matter how much I tried.

Settling into the jet, I grabbed a seat on one side of the plane, farthest away from the window, and Evelyn sat on the other side of me. There was probably six feet of space separating us, so I didn’t mind too much when Elliot took the seat next to her, closest to the window.

He automatically rolled up the blinds and looked out the window.

I pulled out my laptop and tried to get some much-needed work done, considering I had been so damn unfocused these past couple of weeks, yet I found my mind drifting.

Despite the space, I could smell her from where I sat, a light floral scent that teased my nostrils and made me hard.

She had smelled like that when I had her beneath me. When I had moved inside her tight heat and wanted nothing more than to stay there for days.

I would have taken her again, but I caught her sneaking out of my room around midnight, and I didn’t stop her. I watched her leave in the dark without saying anything, hating the way I felt at the sight of her walking through the door, but still doing nothing to stop it.

I still didn’t understand what it was about her that got under my skin—and I really wished it would go away sooner rather than later. Because if it didn’t, I didn’t know if I could pursue anything with her, considering her position in Elliot’s life—yet there was this thought in the back of my head that if I did, and things worked out for us, it would solve all of my problems.

It would make my life a hell of a lot easier, that was for sure.

I shook my head and looked back at the computer, ignoring the soft chatter between her and Elliot, and ignoring how much it affected me to hear it.

I was so fucking screwed.

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