I swallowed and lifted my gaze to his. The warmth in his eyes almost made me melt. “I-I’m always quiet.”
He huffed a quiet laugh and brushed a finger against my sleeve, which I tried to ignore. “Not with me. At least, not anymore.”
That made my face go hot. I hadn’t meant to speak more with him. It just… happened. The walks made something inside me loosen.
But after what happened during the last confession—after the way my whole body reacted, how my breath broke apart under his touch—I didn’t trust myself. I didn’t trust whatever that feeling inside me was.
“Tell me what’s got you looking like you’re thinking too hard.”
The path stretched straight ahead, but everything in me pulled sideways, pulled toward the sound of him. My pulse fluttered embarrassingly fast.
“I’m just… worried,” I murmured, dropping my gaze again to focus on the ground.
“About?” he asked.
I took a big breath, then blew it out. “It’s almost confession night again…”
There was a beat of silence, then Jace murmured, “Elior, look at me.”
I did.
His expression softened, and I trembled as he reached out his hand. My heart raced in my chest as his eyes then appeared todarken, like molten chocolate, as his fingers stopped midair just inches from my face.
He said quietly, “What do you want?”
I blinked, puzzled at his question. I wasn’t sure I was following. “W-what do you mean?” My eyes flicked back to the fingertips still floating in front of me.
“Do you want me to touch you?”
I shook my head too fast. “N-no!”
One of his eyebrows lifted, amused. “No?”
“No,” I whispered, my mouth suddenly feeling bone-dry. I licked my lips as I kept looking at his tan fingers.
Uncomfortable wasn’t the right word for what I was feeling. Nothing in my life had ever made me feel like Jace made me. Warm and too full and dizzy and… alive.
I looked away again, heat racing up my neck.
Jace was silent, then his voice dipped lower, gentler. “Not even just to brush against your cheek?”
“I’m not sure how this is relevant to what we were talking about,” I mumbled.
He chuckled. “Well, I assumed you were worried about whether I would try to touch you again, like what happened last time.”
“…Okay?”
I flinched as his hand suddenly crossed the short distance between us, and he pushed a finger under my chin to raise my head. I stiffened at the contact and looked anxiously at Jace.
Jace’s lips tipped up just slightly at the corners. “If I touch you a little each day, you’ll eventually get acclimated to it.”
My throat tightened. “I—Why? Why would I need that? You could… could just not touch me.”
“I’ve been thinking about the Light a lot,” he said, catching me off guard.
I lit up in excitement, momentarily forgetting about his lingering touch. “Really? I’m so glad, Jace! Oh, we must tell Father—”
A breath of laughter. His finger slid up from my chin to lightly press against my lips.
