Page 115 of The Pack Next Door
When I realised what he’d been doing.
The bat fell to the floor with a clatter as I drew closer. Hands shaking, I picked up the nearest bowl, tracing the lines of gold along the surface, marking the damage that had been done to it and somehow becoming more beautiful as a result.
“You…?” My throat was closing up as if I was having an allergic reaction to the stink of epoxy. “You did this?”
“Um… do you like it?” Jace smiled nervously, and that was weird on an alpha. “If you do, then yeah. If you hate it, Mads did it.”
“It’s…” How the hell did I put this into words without sounding completely pathetic? “It’s…”
“Definitely blaming Mads for this one.”
Jace looked impossibly tired, going to shove the piece in front of him away, when my hand shot out. Unable to span hiswrist, I gripped him as tightly as I could. Treating something so beautiful in a cavalier way went against something deep in my core.
“If you let me get this out, I was going to say it’s beautiful.”
“It is?” Jace looked from me to the ceramics and back again. “Really? Because I was only half joking about the praise kink thing. Like I really, really need you to like this, Briar.”
When I laughed, there were tears in my eyes, and that had his face falling. I brushed them away and said, “I really, really like it.”
Would Tom? Would the clients? My mind wanted to race ahead, plotting and planning, but with effort, I let a long breath out and then came back to the room.
“When…?” My hands went up in the air. “How…?”
“Seb talked about a line of them you had. Thekintarushithingo?” Jace said.
“Kintsugi?” I sagged against the table, this bone-deep tension bleeding away. Half the reason I was avoiding dealing with this issue was because I knew throwing out all of Tom’s hard work would be like each shard was lodging itself deep in my flesh. “And how did you become proficient in an ancient Japanese art form?”
“So…” He pushed a couple of boring white coffee mugs my way and I could see his early attempts. “I might’ve broken a couple of the cups in the kitchen, accidentally on purpose.” With a shrug he shot me a smile. “Didn’t want to practise on Tom’s pieces.”
“Smash every bit of crockery in the kitchen with my blessing.” Carefully, I cradled the closest one in my hands. The sensations, of smooth glaze, the subtle undulations created by Tom’s hands as he drew the form up from a lump of clay and now the faint indentation of the gold repairs. It felt good, right in my grip, making it hard for me to put back down. “Likeseriously. This…” When I turned to face Jace, his eyes were purest silver right now, as if his wolf wanted to witness this too. “This is incredible. I could just kiss you right now.”
“Don’t let me stop you.”
The growl was back in his voice as his eyes dropped down. Focussed entirely on my mouth, a hidden force had me setting the pot down because my hands needed him, not the bowl right now.
That harsh bone structure, those full lips, they parted to let out a shuddering breath as my thumbs brushed across his cheeks. Strength and vulnerability, he didn’t know how much more attractive that was than the cocky bullshit he pulled back in the forest. I kissed him because he needed it as much as I did, something that slammed into me as soon as my mouth touched his.
It’d never felt so right with a beta. With no heat to obscure my observation, it hit me hard. We were perfectly matched, duelling for control in a fight we were both going to win.
“Fuck, Briar…”
He plucked me off my stool, putting me between him and the table, my legs straddling his, when someone cleared their throat. Guiltily, we both turned to see Gideon appear, a small smile on his face. Those amber eyes seemed to take everything in for seconds, right before he said, “No need to stop on my account.”
But the moment was gone. When I tried to dismount, Jace’s grip tightened, so I asked my questions on his lap, feeling a hard lump pressing against the core of me.
“How many have you done?” I asked.
“I’m about halfway through them,” he replied, gazing up at me. “And with this kind of incentive.” His grin was back as his hips swivelled, because I may have let out a little moan at that. “I think I could be done in a couple of days.”
“What did you use? The lacquer the Japanese apply is a known poison and many people develop an allergenic reaction to it.”
“Nourushilacquer.” His smile dimmed then. “The girl at the art’s supply store had no idea what that was. The gold powder is pure though. Just mixed it with some ten-minute epoxy glue. It takes longer to cure properly, but it's doing the job.”
“An amazing job.” Jace almost preened as I pushed a lock of his hair behind his ear. “I can’t believe you did all of this for…”
For me, that felt arrogant to say, but that’s where Gideon came in handy. He settled down on the stool adjacent to ours.
“For you? There isn’t a lot we wouldn’t do, Briar. You’re our mate. We thought we knew what was best for you,” Gideon said in that deep voice of his.
