“What have you called her?”
“Marmalade, ’cause of the orange stripes.” He strokes her gently, and she butts her head up into his hand, clearly enjoying the attention. Would I do the same if Ace tried to stroke me?
“Like the breakfast condiment?”
“Yeah. I normally go for more aggressive names, but it suited her.”
“You rescue a lot of cats?”
His warm green gaze meets mine, and my pulse speeds up a little. God, Ace really is a handsome man, and I realize with a jolt that I’m attracted to him.
No, I can’t be. Jack’s the one for me. I can’t go getting ideas of more than one man just because my friends are all happily shacked up with three men each. In fact, I tellmyself sternly, I can’t get ideas about havinganymen, as I’m going to be married after I graduate, and the one date I tried was a disaster.
“Hey, what’s that?” He leans closer and gently tips my chin up with two fingers.
The air escapes my lungs at his touch. It’s so gentle—careful, even—and very different from the way Ledger manhandled me.
“What?” I say on an exhaled breath.
“The sadness that crossed your face. What gives?”
Nibbling my lip, I debate whether to tell him. Screw it. I need to be able to talk to someone.
I blow out a breath and look back at him as he drops his hand but cocks his head to one side slightly.
“I finish my time at college soon, and that means my family, my father in particular, will expect me to get married. It’s what happens to the girls in our world, and just the way it is.”
I wonder if Jack knows about the direction my future is heading. It’s not a conversation we’ve had, but would Vani have told him? I doubt she’ll have willingly brought up my name to her father, though. How would he feel about it?
Ace’s eyebrows draw down into a frown. “Who will you marry?”
The laugh that bursts out of me isn’t one of mirth but rather bitterness. “I have no idea, Ace. That’s for Father to decide.”
“Fuck. What if you don’t like him?”
“It’s kind of beside the point. The marriage is to cement power and territory between families.”
“Jesus, that’s bad. People say some shit about us andthe way we live, but we’d never force any woman to marry someone or even be with someone.”
I pull off my heels, one by one, and shift my position, so my legs dangle off the edge of the hayloft as I swing my bare feet. “Well, I saw some racy stuff last night when I was outside the clubhouse.”
Ace shuffles so he’s sitting by me, his feet also dangling. “Doesn’t matter, though, right, so long as it’s consensual.”
What he says is correct, and I know it is, but it’s hard to get rid of years of conditioning that good girls don’t behave in such a way. And I believe my friends are good people and I don’t judge them, so why am I judging women I don’t know? It’s hypocritical of me, but it’s hard to overcome what I’ve been taught for so long.
“Hey, Ace?”
Jack’s voice booms from outside, and Ace jerks his head up.
“Come on,” he says to me. “The Prez calls. He’s probably got you those supplies.”
We climb down the ladder, Ace going first and helping me down, holding one arm. I put my shoes back on before we step out of the barn into bright daylight.
I shield my eyes and squint, and as they become accustomed to the light, I realize Jack is pissed.
9
JACK
