Page 68 of Stolen Fate

The room was tense, or at least it was tense for me. I didn’t know what to do about it—not when all I wanted to do was to fully look at Jace, to take in his devastatingly beautiful face, to chase every perfect curve, every line, intimately with my eyes until I finally got my fill.

I couldn’t do that.

I could barely look the man in the eyes without thinking about our kiss yesterday, and that was just stupid, dangerous, and so fucking tempting.

“All done?” Jace asked Elliot when he pushed his plate with the small remains of the sausages away, and Elliot nodded, patting his belly, as if to indicate he was full.

“Yeah.”

“Good.” Jace turned to me then. “Why don’t you keep eating? I think I’ll take Elliot to school myself, and you can take a few hours to rest.”

“Oh, are you sure?”

He nodded. “Positive.” He looked back at Elliot, who was now standing up on his chair, grabbing onto Jace’s shoulder for balance. “We can even go to a coffee shop on the way and buy some hot chocolate. How about that?”

Elliot’s wide smile could probably light up the entire state of New York, I was sure of it. “Yes! And can we get some donuts, too?”

“I think the hot chocolate will be plenty sweet, don’t you?”

Elliot looked down in disappointment, then mumbled, “Okay, Daddy.”

I looked away from them and hid my smile, only to look back when I felt eyes on me. I met Jace’s soft blue eyes, and I didn’t know what that softness in them meant—and I didn’t want to know.

I looked away again, hating that I wanted to be held by him.

“Why don’t you go get your jacket so we can go?” Jace said.

“Okay,” Elliot said, jumping off the chair and sprinting out of the kitchen. I pretended to have an intense interest in my eggs, even as I could feel Jace’s eyes on me again, his gaze leaving a raging fire across my skin in its wake.

Suddenly, it was just too damn hot in the kitchen.

“See you later, Evelyn,” he said quietly, standing up and walking silently out of the kitchen before I could even reply.

I managed to hold onto my self-control for about three seconds before I gave up and turned so I could watch him leave.

He was about five steps away from the doorway when he suddenly stopped.

Please don’t turn around, I begged silently.

He turned around.

We looked at each other for the length of one small inhale, right before Elliot crashed into the room, almost running into Jace’s legs, with his school jacket in one hand, and his black backpack that was too big for his small body in the other.

I watched as Jace helped his son put his jacket on and hooked Elliot’s backpack onto one shoulder before shooting me one last lingering glance and walking away.

I stared at the spot they had been standing at for a long while after that, and when I finally turned back to breakfast, my eggs were cold.

* * *

Jerry metme at the front steps of the house when it was time to pick Elliot up from school. Jerry and I had come to an understanding since our time in Boston that Elliot would always be his priority—as he should be—but that Jerry didn’t mind that I was there as well.

I think he might even like me.

“Where’s Simon?” I asked.

“It’s his day off. You’ll just have to put up with the disappointment that I am here today,” he joked, though if I didn’t know him better, I would have thought he was serious. He didn’t even crack a smile when he said it.

I let out an exaggerated sigh. “I guess I’ll just have to deal with it.”

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