Page 80 of Entangled

“Good night, Blondie.”

I narrow my eyes at him. “This is by far the strangest date I’ve ever been on.”

He rolls his eyes at me dramatically. “I’ll see you soon.”

And with that, he flips the light switch, plunging me into darkness, and shuts the door.

Chapter 21

Present Day

I thought I’d never be able to fall asleep. When I’d felt the boat pull away from the dock, I’d been sure that I was doomed to spend the next however long staring up at the dark ceiling while my mind ran in circles pondering the possibilities. But the next thing I know, Jace’s soft voice is waking me up after what felt like only minutes of being asleep, his body a comforting weight on the bed beside me.

“As tempting as you are right now.” I feel his fingers softly push the hair back from my face. “It’s time to wake up, pretty girl.”

Cracking my eyes, I roll over and snuggle into his warmth, groaning groggily. “Ugh. What time is it?”

“The right time.” He laughs softly, pressing a kiss to the top of my head.

I squeeze my eyes shut against his words. “Then why do I feel like it’s still dark outside?”

“Come on.” He trails his hand down to lightly tickle at my side. “You can come back to bed as soon as we’re done.”

Pausing for a moment, I try to muster up some kind of willpower to rise.

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

He drops another kiss to my head and whispers. “I have coffee waiting for you.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

I take a few more breaths and almost slide back into sleep before his fingers tickle my side again, making me groan. “Ugh!” I force myself to sit up and shoot him a glare. “Fine.”

A soft laugh escapes him as he grabs my hand, pulling me from the bed and opening the door. I squint my eyes against the light trickling in from the windows, clueing me in to the fact that it’s not actually still nighttime and step into the cabin. The boat sways under my feet as I follow Jace to the deck and come to a halt when nothing but the sight of endless ocean greets me. The sun is just cresting the horizon, drenching everything I can see in soft orange and brilliant red. Lighting the entire world around me on fire and driving out the dark night, fighting zealously to bring about a new day.

Jace tugs on my hand gently, prompting me into motion again as he leads me to the staircase heading up to the second deck before standing back so I can go up first. I give him one last questioning look, to which he only replies with a grin before turning to climb the stairs. As the deck comes into sight, I see a folding table set up between the two lawn chairs with a small cooler beside it and a bottle of champagne peeking out. But when I make it to the top of the deck and the table comes fully into view, shock stops me in my tracks as I take in the breakfast spread laid out on the table.

There are homemade waffles and whipped cream, strawberries drizzled with chocolate, a frittata topped with bacon, and what I’m pretty sure is grits drenched in butter. And most importantly, coffee. A whole freaking carafe of it sitting right there in the middle of the table beside the coffee and champagne glasses.

Holy shit. Between cooking and piloting the boat… He must have been up all night.

The gesture alone is thoughtful, but the effort he put in, the effort for me, sends my stomach somersaulting and well and truly twists me up inside. Shaking out my unacknowledged feelings for him to the forefront of my mind. Forcing me to own up to the fact that I’m pretty sure I’ve gone and fallen again. The realization leaves me fighting against the terror trying to lock me up as I try to figure out exactly how and where it happened.

But the truth is, I don’t know. I have no freaking clue. There isn’t one moment I can point to. I only know that he picks locks. He picks locks and is ridiculous and clever and shines like the sun while doing it. And I think he started to pick mine somewhere along the way more than I noticed. Somewhere along the way, it stopped being about needing someone and became about needing him.

I wiggle my fingers and take an unsteady breath, turning my head back to look at him. “How in the world did you do this? You were at work all night.”

He gives me a small grin and grabs my hips. “Tiff might’ve helped me out with that part. I sent her to the store when we were at the bar last night.”

I snort a laugh and step forward, taking a seat. “I’m sure she loved that.”

“Uh, yeah. That would be an understatement.” He takes the seat across from me, eyes darting around the table as if checking the placement of everything before lifting to mine. “Do you like it?”

My lips twitch up and I cock my head at him, his obvious nerves making me feel better about my inner meltdown. “Are you nervous, Dawson?”

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