Page 41 of Amor Prohibido

Lozza whipped the door open in a rush. “Oh, hey, J-dogg Malone, come on in.” Without waiting for me to reply, she turned on her heel and powered back into her room.

Stepping inside and shutting the door, I removed my jacket and shoes, then followed her. I peered around her doorframe. “Whoa! What’s with all the packing?”

“Marc asked me to move in with him,” she beamed.

I laughed and shook my head. “That poor motherfucker.”

“You meanlucky motherfucker.”

Jax’s muffled voice came from further within the room. “Yeah, the bitch who is supposed to be my best friend is moving out to be with her boyfriend. Go figure.”

I spotted Jax sitting in the bottom of Loz’s wardrobe, surrounded by shoes and boxes, now fending off Lozza’s playful attack by wielding a high-heeled shoe as a weapon.

“You’re fun to cuddle, but Marc has a penis, so…”

“Too much fucking info, woman,” I boomed and dragged a hand down my still-bruised face. Impatient to talk to J alone, I cut through the girls shrieking, gruffer than intended. “Jax. Your room,now!”

I gave her a smile to make up for my rude interruption and guided her from the room with my hand on her lower back.

“Practice safe sex,” Loz sang.

“Too late for that, bitch,” Jax called back, leaving Lozza laughing hysterically at her own stupid-ass wit.

FIFTEEN

JAX

“You can’t be serious! Are you high right now?”

“No, I’m not, and, yes, I am,” Jace answered both my questions at once, confusing me more.

“So, you’re high and not serious?”

He rolled his eyes, clearly exasperated, then clenched his jaw while spelling it out for me. “No, I am not fucking high. Yes, I am serious.”

“So…” I started again, not caring that his jaw ticked. I needed to be absolutely clear on his proposition.

I sat on my bed, legs crossed like a pretzel, back up against the headboard and arms folded across my chest—but not too tightly because my boobs were killing me.

“You think we should get married? And youwantto marry me for who I am, not our situation? Because I refuse to be a pity bride.”

“Jax. If I didn’t want to, I wouldn’t have asked. Besides, we both know you can’t be forced into something you don’t want,” he added flatly.

“This has to do with what Darren said, doesn’t it?”

His eyes narrowed, which emphasised his irritation. “It’s nothing to do with Darren aside from the fact he was the one who suggested it in the first place. He’s not forcing my hand though.”

Exactly what I thought.A pity bride.

“Oh, hejust suggested it,” I angrily air quoted, unable to stop the icy tone. “Do you want this for him, me, you, or us?”

“For us,” Jace countered without hesitation. “No one else but us.”

I raised my chin defiantly. “Do you love me?”

“Of course I love you, J. Jesus. I’ve loved you since you were born. I just never thought of you… intimately... before I returned to town.”

My heart hung on tenterhooks as I asked, “So, what you’re saying is that you love me non-romantically because we grew up together, but you aren’tin lovewith me?”

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