Page 52 of Stolen Fate

I wondered how long he had been there and how much he had heard. And I wondered why my face felt so hot all of a sudden; I hadn’t done anything wrong.

Jace leaned down and picked up Elliot in his arms. And though he was soft with his son, his expression was glacial, and his eyes were like daggers aimed directly at Simon.

I let out a shiver, and Simon—who must have had a death wish—moved even closer to me.

“I think it’s about time you got back to work,” Jace said coldly, his eyes narrowing in on the small space between my body and Simon’s. I quickly moved away from Simon and walked to the kitchen.

I didn’t want to sit there and listen to them, and I shouldn’t have been feeling like a naughty kid who was caught with her hand in the cookie jar. I hadn’t done anything wrong, even if I had been interested in Simon. Jace didn’t have any right to be cold toward either of us.

I shook my head and pulled out some stuff to make Elliot a grilled cheese sandwich. They were his favorite.

Ms. Bennett, the cook, usually came in the mornings to prepare some meals for all of us, and she was usually gone by the time I got home with Elliot after school. But she had been away the past three days visiting her family in Delaware and wouldn’t be back for another two, so we had been surviving off of takeout and food she had prepared beforehand and stored in the freezer.

Jace and I were practically useless in the kitchen, but Jace was a little better than me—he could at least make breakfast. Grilled cheese was the only thing I knew how to make, and thankfully Elliot seemed to really like it.

I was just putting the cheese in the fridge when Jace walked in.

“Where’s Elliot?” I asked.

“Occupied with my phone on the couch.”

I nodded and shifted on my feet. When it didn’t look like he was going to say anything else to me, I turned around to turn on the stove.

Jace watched me, not saying a word, making my movements clumsy.

I didn’t like it.

I wished I didn’t feel the heat of his stare on my skin or feel the effects of his dominating presence behind my back. But most of all, I wished I didn’t know what it felt like to have sex with Jace—it was really hard not to think about it when I all I really wanted to do was touch him again.

I was screwed.

“What are you doing?” I finally asked when I couldn’t take his silence anymore. He was making me nervous, and I had no reason to be nervous.

I shouldn’t be nervous.

“Watching you.”

“Why?” I asked, turning back around after I scooped up the grilled cheese sandwich and placed it on a plate.

I left it on the kitchen island to cool a bit and took in the man standing in front of me. I had been too busy avoiding his gaze before to really take him in.

Now that I had the chance, I couldn’t not.

My eyes moved over his body, a slow heat that had started from my center slowly but surely spreading all over my body.

He was in a dark suit today, the jacket showcasing his large biceps and broad shoulders. A white button-up shirt lay beneath the suit jacket, and from what I had caught a glimpse of this morning, I knew he was wearing a dark gray vest that really brought out the definition of his hard pecs underneath.

With a dark navy-blue tie that did wonders to his skin tone, he was a sight to behold.

“Are you interested in him?” Jace asked, bringing me out of my reverie.

“What?” I asked, dumbfounded.

I swore a tiny smirk appeared on his lips, the arrogance that was always shrouded around him more noticeably present.

Almost as if he knew the effect he had on me…

I quickly pulled myself out of my thoughts.

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