Page 93 of Dark and Dangerous

I shrug. “It’s true.”

Harlow

I stare at Jace, and the longer I do, the more vulnerable I become, becausenothing lasts forever.I’d often thought of Jace as the light in my darkness and our love the most brilliant star amid the night sky. But… it’s the biggest, brightest stars that burn out the fastest.

“What?” he asks, breaking the silence stretching between us.

“Nothing.” I smile through my heartache. “You’re just beautiful, is all.”

“Beautiful?” he scoffs, almost offended by my words. “Ruggedly handsome, maybe. But beautiful? No.”

“You can be both.” I feed him some fries, distracting him from pushing further. I don’t want to reveal my insecurities to him. Not now. Not ever. He accepts the fries, chewing as he grabs my hips and effortlessly lifts me and pulls me closer until I’m straddling his lap. He presses his lips to my neck, kissing me there, again and again. I squirm in his hold, muting my laughter, and God, I needed this. Neededhim. I push even closer so we’re chest to chest, almost every inch of our bodies touching. He’s so solid against me. So strong. So everything I’m not.

I lace my fingers through his hair while he continuously presses his lips to my flesh, and then I glance out the window. My house is dark now, the only light coming from the lamp on my bedside table. “You can really see into my room from here, huh?”

Jace tugs down on the sleeve of his shirt I’m wearing, dropping a kiss on my shoulder. “Uh-huh.”

“Did you really used to watch me?”

“Yep,” he says, no shame.

“What did you see?”

He pulls away, shrugging. “I saw that during the summer, whenever your mom was home, you would leave. You’d walk the field down to the tree line and disappear into the woods. At first, I thought you knew about the affair, and that’s why you couldn’t stand to be around her.”

I nod and, finished with the food, I toss the rest in the bag and put it aside. “What else did you see?”

“I saw you in your room a lot.”

“And?”

“That’s it.” He resumes his task, placing tiny kisses on my shoulder, my neck, my jaw. He does this a lot when we’re alone, and not because he expects it to lead to more. He just… likes to kiss me. Touch me. Hold me. And I revel in his embrace, in the way he makes me feel wanted.Safe.

“What did you think about when you saw me in there?”

He stifles his chuckle into my neck. “Trust me, you don’t want to know.”

I mock gasp, pulling back, and hold his face in both my hands. “Jace Rivera, did you have naughty thoughts about me?”

His head throws back with my quiet laughter, and I can’t help but smile at the sight of him.

“You dog,” I giggle, playfully slapping his shoulder. “Whatexactlydid you think about?”

“Nothing filthy,” he admits. “I just imagined this.” He runs his hands up and down my side. “You and me, together, exactly like this.”

Eying him sideways, I say, “But you didn’t even know me.”

“I knew enough.”

I search his eyes, find nothing but peace within their depths. “Thank you for being there for me. Not just tonight, but all the other times,” I tell him. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“I’m sure you’d survive.”

“That’s exactly what I was doing before you.Surviving.”

“And now?”

I shrug. “You make me wantmore.”

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