Page 70 of Amor Prohibido

“Son of a—”

There was a loud thud, and I imagined a wall somewhere in the house now sporting a fist-sized hole. I tried to ignore the sound of a beer cap being flicked into the sink and his angry curses filling the kitchen.

Now that I was alone, my mind took the opportunity to wander. It felt like a cavernous black hole had opened out of nowhere and sucked all that was perfect out of our relationship. Jace was on one side, and I was standing precariously on the other, slowly getting drawn in by its dark yawning entrance. If only I could time-hop back twenty-four hours to where everything between us was peachy and unquestionable. I knew we should sit down and talk it through like rational adults, but it had only been a matter of time before our smooth sailing hit troubled waters.

Regardless of how pissed we were at each other, I understood within my heart of hearts that Jace would move Heaven and Earth for me. So, that begged the question: what was the secret in his past that he was so desperate to keep hidden?

I wanted to pry. Go all Magnum P.I. on his ass. I tossed and turned between the sheets and remained a stewing mess of insomnia until well past midnight. I hated going to bed angry. Issues and grievances were always amplified tenfold when you took them to bed. Tonight was no exception.

Sleep hadfinallytaken me when I subconsciously heard the door quietly click open. A couple of tentative footsteps shuffled into the room and the movement snapped me awake.

“No you don’t,” I croaked through my sleep-thickened throat.

Jace sighed heavily, then made his way back out of the room, rudely shutting the door louder than necessary.

* * *

I woke with a start when my alarm vibrated on the bedside table. I purposely set it for earlier than normal so I could have a shower before Jace got up, then leave while he was going through his morning routine. With a tired grumble, I snatched up my phone and jabbed at the alarm.

Shuffling into the kitchen while massaging my scalp with my fingertips, I let out a quiet moan when I touched on an extra satisfying spot. Chuckling from my right almost had my full morning bladder weakening past the point of no return.

“I missed that sound last night.”

Through the dim morning light, I saw Jace leaning against the bench with a coffee mug poised halfway to his mouth—the mouth that wore a groggy, and an infuriatingly sexy, morning smirk.

My eyes automatically travelled the length of his body, taking in everything from his beanie and long-sleeved thermal top to the well-worn track pants hanging low on his hips. He stood with his legs crossed at the ankle, which shamelessly emphasised his morning wood. The sight chipped at my armour and the ice wall within started melting away—fartoo easily.

His next words added another chip. “I missed you rubbing yourself against my hand right before waking too. And the way the crook of your neck smells after sleep. I missed your warmth; it’s fucking cold sleeping alone. You over what happened last night yet? Or you still gonna pretend to hold a grudge for as long as humanly possible?”

While spoken carefully, like he was torn between being up front and not wanting to cause offence, his ending remark reopened fresh wounds. All the ice-melting refroze on impact.

No goddammit, I wasn’t “over it”. And for Christ’s sake, I hadn’t even peed yet.

Leaving him eyeing me carefully, the smirk now replaced with a narrowed, calculating stare over the top of his mug, I ignored him and continued my journey to the bathroom.

After ten minutes alone in the shower, and you can bet your ass I firmly locked the door, I was still shaken by the fact that he was up early and wanting to hash things out so soon after our fight. Jace had always been the patient one, the one who would bide his time and let the storm blow over before breaking the ice. Evidently, the three years he spent in the city had changed him more than I’d realised.

Hastily wrapping myself in a towel, I unlocked the bathroom door and went to take a step when a hard mass stopped me in my tracks. Jace gathered me into his arms and hugged me fiercely. His embrace was filled with longing and tenderness, plus a huge amount of determination. It was the kind of hug you knew you needed and craved but weren’t ready or willing to accept yet. The kind of hold that said, “I’m here, times are shit, but you are my everything and I’ll hold you like this until my dying day if that’s what it takes to make you happy.”

“Fuck, you feel good in my arms,” he murmured into my neck, nuzzling me seductively and making me squirm against the tip of his cold nose.

Damn this man and his invisible kryptonite ways.

“Off me, now,” I snapped; words and tone contradicting every cell in my entire body. “This isn’t a one-night fix, Jason. You can’t weasel your way back into my good books with your smooth words and your rough hands and expect me to become a pool of apologies. You can’t just… just…”

The words on the tip of my tongue evaporated as his fingertips teased under the edge of my towel, dangerously close to the curve of my ass. His hum ofI like where this is goingstarted the blood rushing to my core.

Slapping his hand away and levering his head out of the delicious spot on my neck, I singed him with a glare, then hurried to our room before I could turn around and throw myself at him like a naked, sex-starved, pregnant harlot.

Between my hormones, my badass inner sassy bitch, my libido, and my heart, I was being pulled every-which-way, and it was beyond complicated.

Jace still hadn’t emerged from the bathroom by the time I left. I was sure he was emphasising his absence to add another chink in the ice wall. Despite my stubborn tenacity, I didn’t know how long I could keep up the charade. Now, in the light of day, his explanation seemed plausible, and I instinctively knew he was telling me the truth. Whoever blondie was, she no longer meant anything to him. Hell, even Leon picked up on that just by watching their body language for a few minutes.

When should I wave the white flag and surrender to the shame of admitting I overreacted? I had no idea. But I knew I needed to disembark the bitch bus before I could no longer turn around and fix things.

As it turned out, Father Fate found a way of throwing us back together.

* * *

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