“I know,” I told him. Not to the same extent, but I understand just the same. “Itishard. But you have people who care about you. Who want to help, if you give them the chance.”
Like Ace’s teammates, who were beyond supportive when Ace finally told them the truth about why he left the Army. During their weekly team meeting last week, he invited me to join them, and I sat by his side while he revealed the secret he’d carried for far too long. And just as I suspected, they didn’t judge him for a second.
It was Tyler who said it best. “I holed myself up like a damn hermit for years,” he told Ace. “I wouldn’t even see my family. I just sat in my cave of an office, fucking around on my computers. Shit, if Kaia knew I was doing that, she’d have been so pissed at me. It took you guys to knock some sense into me again.” Then he clapped Ace on the shoulder as he added, “You ever need anything. Someone to spar with. Go to one of those places whereyou pay by the hour to break shit. Skydiving. Let me know, and I’ll go with you.”
Because that’s something else family does. They hold you up when it feels like too much to do it on your own.
“I’m glad,” Ace says, pulling my thoughts back to the present. “That they didn’t tell you to ditch me, I mean.”
“It wouldn’t matter,” I reply. “I’m not going anywhere. Because I love you.”
His gaze softens.“Tink.”
“I really do. So much.”
Turning in his seat, Ace lifts his uninjured arm to cup my cheek. “I love you, too.” Then he leans in to kiss me. His tongue traces the seam of my lips, and I part them willingly, eager to take our kiss deeper. Not too deep, given that we’re sitting in first class on a crowded Christmas morning flight, with thirty or so people around us, but deep enough.
As it always does, my body comes alive with his kiss. Desire blossoms at my core, spiraling out. My skin turns electric, sizzling with heat wherever Ace touches me. His hand on my cheek. His thigh against mine. His lips, firm but soft, exploring mine.
Though my ribs are still sore, I pay them no mind. Not when I have something so much more pleasant to focus on. Kissing Ace, to start with, and the fantasies of what we’ll do later, in the studio apartment we’ll be staying in above his brother’s garage.
As we break apart, breathing hard, I ask, “We’re still staying in the garage apartment, right? At your brother’s place?”
“We don’t have to,” Ace replies. “If you’d rather stay in the house, there’s a guest room. I thought you might prefer the added privacy, but?—”
“I would. I will.” Checking to make sure no one’s looking, I rest my hand on the erection his pants aren’t coming close to hiding. “I was just thinking about later.”
He swells under my hand. “Oh? What were you thinking about doing, exactly?”
“I don’t know. Maybe giving you another Christmas present.” Dropping my voice to a whisper, I add, “One that involves me wearing just some red lace.”
His pupils dilate. “Red lace, you say?”
“Yeah. I know it’s not what I usually wear, but I?—”
“DON’T MOVE!”
My head jerks up in the direction of the bellowed command.
As soon as I spot its source, my heart stalls.
No freaking way,my inner voice of logic argues.No way. The danger is supposed to be over. Not standing in the middle of the aisle of first class. Not on Christmas morning, of all times. And it definitely shouldn’t come in the form of a man holding a 3D-printed gun and wearing a vest that looks like it’s armed with 3D-printed explosives.
But, alas, my voice of logic appears to be wrong this time.
Ace’s hand clamps over my arm, holding me still. As if I was about to launch myself at the guy to defend?—
Well, I guess that’s nottoounreasonable of an assumption, considering.
“Don’t move,” Ace hisses.
“I’m not,” I whisper back.
“Don’t move!” the man—sorry, hijacker is probably more apt—shouts. “Or I’ll blow the plane up with everyone on it!”
The father three rows ahead of us puts his arm across his wife and son protectively.
Across the aisle from them, a silver-haired woman with bright blue glasses asks, “What are you doing? It’s Christmas. This is no time for shenanigans like this.”
