Page 61 of Dark and Dangerous

Too willing to give so much of myself so soon…

It never mattered before.

But it matters with Jace.

He shoves his hand down his shorts, adjusting himself, before saying, “Come on.”

I shake my head, keep my eyes downcast. “Can we just go home now?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because it hasn’t been an hour yet.”

I lift my eyes to his, roll them.

“Come on,” he repeats, holding his hand out for me. I stare at it for as long as I can before finally giving in to him and slapping my hand into his. “Good girl.”

I really wish those two words didn’t make my insides pulse with need, but here I am. Alone in the woods with Jace Rivera, having no idea what he wants from me.

Again.

40

Harlow

Jace finds a rickety old bench seat right by the lake’s edge, and for a state as dry as Texas, this area sure has a lot of bodies of water. Weird. So is Jace’s apparent fascination with sitting by them to talk. I look out over the lake while Jace leans forward, elbows on his knees, staring down at the ground. “So there’s this girl,” he starts, and I groan in response, cross my arms and kick out my legs.

“Please don’t tell me you have a hidden girlfriend somewhere.” The fucking audacity. “I cannot be that person again, Jace. I just can’t.”

“No,” he’s quick to respond, momentarily flicking his eyes to mine. “Fuckno.”

The tension leaves my shoulders, but I don’t relax completely. Any conversation that starts with “There’s this girl”hasto end with emotional damage.

“She’s a friend,” Jace adds. “She just left for college.”

“Reyna?”

He stills, but doesn’t face me. “You know about Reyna?”

“Jonah told me about her.”

Jace nods, still focused on the ground. “So… anyway. Reyna—she didn’t want to go to college a virgin, so…”

“She asked you?”

“Yeah.”

“And you did it?”

“Yeah.”

“And…?” I push, because there’s obviously more to this story. Jonah had already disclosed the possible friends-with-benefits situation, so I’m not surprised by that. I am, however, surprised Jace is telling me about it.

“She called itexperimenting… and so that’s what we did. Alotof things, alotof times, and?—”

“Okay,” I cut in, my eyes shut as if it’ll somehow stop the images flashing through my mind. “I really don’t need to know the details.”

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