Page 58 of Stolen Fate

“You’ve been calling me Jace since that day at the interview. And now you’re going back to Mr. Reed. Does it help remind you not to act on your attraction to me?”’

I gasped at the audacity. Taking a deep breath to compose myself, I looked him in the eyes without wavering. I wasn’t one he could back in a corner.

“Yes, I am attracted to you,” I admitted. There wasn’t a reason for me to lie, especially not when Jace could see through it. “But that doesn’t mean anything. Nothing can happen between us.”

“But something did happen between us,” he said standing up.

I resisted the urge to get out of my chair and run away. But I wasn’t some high schooler talking to her crush for the first time. I tilted my chin up stubbornly. Jace smirked, moving closer and spinning my chair around so that I was facing him.

“That doesn’t count. I didn’t know I would end up working for you.”

What a cruel twist of fate that was. I had been bummed that I wouldn’t be able to see my first and—I had decided—my only one-night stand again. I obviously didn’t know how to separate sex from emotion.

Jace’s eyes flashed dangerously, like a silent blue flame before a big explosion. “No? That didn’t count? Then we must have different memories from that night, because from what I remember, everything I had done with you, to you, counted in every way that mattered.”

He leaned close to me, his intoxicating scent messing with any rational thoughts I might have. I shook my head. “Fine, so it counted. But it’s not going to happen again.”

He cupped my cheek, the actions surprisingly gentle for such an intimidating man and also conflicting with the clear amusement in his eyes. “Because you don’t want it to?”

I shook my head, but I didn’t know why. I had a feeling Jace was fluent in responses from the opposite sex, and what my body was saying told him any words I may have said otherwise would be lies.

“We shouldn’t do this,” I said.

He angled my face upward so that I was looking at his blue eyes, blue eyes that had darkened with hunger… for me.

“It’s w-wrong,” I stuttered when he leaned in closer, his lips touching my temple in the softest, most agonizing way.

“Does this feel wrong?” he asked. “If it does, then why can’t I see it? Why can’t I fucking get you out if my head?”

He sounded almost angry.

I shook my head, and hearing Elliot’s laughter was the cold shower I needed to break the spell he had put me under. I pushed Jace away and moved from the chair.

He gave away easily enough, and he backed away from me, taking me in with closed-off eyes.

Shaking myself out of my reverie, I walked over to Elliot and watched him trying to get on the swings himself. I walked over to him on shaky legs.

“Can I help you up?” I asked.

He turned to me with a wide smile and held out his arms to me. My heart pinched at the sight. This was why I couldn’t get involved with Jace—I had already fallen in love with Elliot, and I didn’t want to have to leave him before we were ready.

And if things didn’t work out between Jace and me? Elliot would be stuck in the middle, and I couldn’t allow that to happen.

Getting involved with a single dad is complicated enough; getting involved with a single dad who happened to be my employer is beyond that.

And getting involved with the single dad of the kid I was nannying…

Yeah, I couldn’t do that.

I had to be smart about it.

I helped Elliot up on the swing and gently pushed him, trying to find my composure. I knew Jace was watching us, but I didn’t dare look up. I didn’t want the effects those eyes had on me. Didn’t want them, yet I craved them so badly all the same.

* * *

I haddinner with Jace and Elliot, which had never happened before.

I still wasn’t sure it was a good idea to spend so much time with Jace, though that was the first day since I’d arrived in New York that I had actually seen him for longer than a few minutes here and there.

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