Page 108 of Unleashing Chaos

“I will as soon as I get you where I want you,” he growls against my hip as he ascends the stairs.

I grin, pinching the roundest part of his backside, and his palm promptly lands on my ass, sending shock waves all the way to my center.

My yelp echoes through the house. “Jace!”

“Oh, I know you can do better than that. Just wait until I get you in my bed.”

He enters his room and kicks the door closed behind us. I brace myself to hit his mattress, but he gently lowers me to sit on the edge of the bed. He reaches for the hem of my shirt and pulls it over my head before working me out of my pants.

“Get dressed, get undressed, get dressed all so you can undress me again,” I say while laughing.

“This time it’s necessary. Let’s get you into a hot shower.”

The thought of that after being out in the cold—with snow and ice dragged across all my private parts, no less—has me practically salivating. I stand and run my fingers under the hem of his T-shirt.

“Tell me you’re getting in with me, or I think I’ll pass,” I say, standing on my tiptoes and pressing my lips to his neck.

“You’re going to pass even after the mess I made of you?” He shifts his hand between us and dips his finger inside me. His thumb brushes my clit and when I hiss, he smiles. “Although, I like knowing you have a piece of me deep inside you.”

My knees nearly go weak, but I manage to stay upright. “Fine, I’ll admit it. I don’t want to be apart from you even long enough to take a shower. Sue me. Now, are you getting in or not? I’ll do your back,” I say with a wink.

Jace doesn’t say another word. He disrobes and pulls me into the bathroom with him. When the water is warm enough to fog the mirrors, he guides me under the stream and sets to work lathering his soap between his hands. I groan when he massages my frozen muscles, starting with my shoulders. He works his thumbs along my spine and down my hips. His front presses to my back and he treats the front of my body with the same euphoric touches.

“We should have done this before today,” he says, pressing a sweet kiss to my neck.

I nod. “Absolutely. We should’ve done this every day.” I lean back against him, and he returns to my shoulders. “That is perfect. Don’t stop doing that.”

He doesn’t, and before long I’m stifling a yawn, and his lips are next to my ear. “You’re sleepy, princess. Let’s go lie down.”

I don’t want to do that because lying down means bedtime, bedtime means sleep, and sleeping means our day is over and tomorrow will be here far too soon. But I just nod, step out of the shower, and let Jace dry me with one of his big fluffy towels.

After I slip into one of his oversized T-shirts, we hop into bed and click off the overhead light, leaving us in total darkness.

Turning over on my side, I reach out to touch him and find him in the exact same position, already facing me. I run my fingers down his jawline and whisper, “I don’t want to go to sleep.”

“Me either. Just talk to me about anything, I don’t care how mundane it is.”

“I always thought it was weird that humans domesticated animals. I felt bad that cats weren’t allowed to climb trees and chase after rodents. But now I realize some animals have better lives than some humans. That’s strange.”

Jace chuckles and says, “I always wanted an owl as a pet, or an Ewok. They would have been fun to hang out with.”

“Hades forbid that we go a day without a Star Wars reference.”

His arms tighten around me and he kisses the top of my head, pulling me on top of him. “You’ll miss it.”

Tears fill my eyes and I try to swallow them back, but I can’t, and they spill onto my cheeks and his bare chest. “I will. I’ll miss everything about you, Jace. That’s something I’ve known since the moment I realized you wouldn’t be coming back to Infernis with me.”

“I wish . . .” He clears his throat like he’s stifling his emotions and tries again. “I wish I was as brave as you, Desi. You ventured into a realm you’ve never been to and opened yourself up to finding someone to be with you for eternity. I want you to know that I never thought your purpose for being here was a fool’s errand. You took the leap to find love and believed it could last forever.”

“But I—”

It’s on the tip of my tongue to say that it was a fool’s errand, that I didn’t find it. But that’s not true. I did. I found it.

I was too scared to admit it before, but I can’t run from it. I’m in love with Jace Wilder. I’ve been in love with him for weeks.

But I can’t tell him.

Why do it now when all it will do is make things harder?

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