“No.”
His laugh broke loose then, helpless and wrecked, and I kissed it from his mouth as I followed him over. I held him through it, forehead pressed to his, both of us shaking, both of us too far gone to pretend this was only hunger.
Afterward, I moved carefully. He made a low protesting sound that went straight through me.
“I’m coming back,” I said.
“You better.”
I cleaned us up without ceremony, then returned to bed and pulled him into me. He came willingly, long limbs tangling with mine, face tucked against my chest like he’d done on the couch, only now there was no dog between us and no office door waiting to open.
For a while, neither of us spoke.
The silence didn’t scrape at me. It settled.
Then Jace said, muffled against my skin, “I meant it.”
I stroked a hand down his back. “Which part?”
“The groceries. The booth. My dad. All of it.” He lifted his head. His eyes were tired, but steady. “I know tomorrow doesn’t get easier because we had one quiet night. Work is still work. Olivia still deserves the truth when the time is right. Roman’s going to keep watching me like he’s one suspicious look away from interrogating my soul. The team doesn’t disappear. Vanessa doesn’t either. None of it disappears.”
“I know.”
“But I’m not confused tonight.” His voice stayed low, deliberate. “I love you. I’m choosing this with the consequences attached. Not because it fixes what we broke. Not because wanting you makes it clean. Because it’s true.”
My throat tightened.
I touched his face, thumb moving over his cheek. “I love you. And I’m choosing you too.”
He closed his eyes and leaned into my hand.
Outside the bedroom, Tiny barked once, offended by both solitude and the closed door.
Jace sighed. “Your son has terrible timing.”
“He’s persistent.”
“He’s going to ram the door.”
“He might.”
Tiny barked again, louder.
Jace looked at me, then started laughing, quiet and exhausted and warm. I kissed him because I could. Because for this one night, in this room, he was in my arms and not across the ice, not behind a locked door, not waiting for a text he was trying not to need.
Tomorrow would ask more of us than tonight could answer.
But Jace settled against me again, his breathing evening under my palm, and I let myself hold him without reaching for the next problem.
For now, we had this.
For now, I stayed.
Chapter 32
Chapter 32
DECLAN
