“What the ever-loving—WHAT THE FUCKING SHIT HAPPENED TO MY GODDAM DOOR?” Candy roared as she stormed into the room carrying a large metal baseball bat.
Jace and I stared back at her, blinking.
“Uhhhhhhhh…” Jace drawled, staring up at her like a deer caught in the headlights.
“That better’ve been the biggest fucking ‘uhh’ in the goddam world!” she growled, starting to investigate the extent of the damage. “Do you have any idea—Jesus fuck… Jace! Fucking hell! You son-of-a-cunt! You couldn’t knock like a regular fucking human being? Who the shit told you to go all Incredible Hulk on my love-hut?”
“I… uh, I thought I heard…” he started, trying to explain.
“It was my fault, Candy,” I explained, blushing. “He knocked and… and I was all worked-up; I got startled, screamed, and… well, he must’ve thought that something was wrong, so…”
Candy groaned as I trailed off, and she slumped against the wall. All of the energy that she’d built up to confront whatever was happening was almost visibly seeped from her as she caught up with what had happened.
“Motherfucker…” she sighed, shaking her head at Jace. “I have half a mind to clock you with this,” she held up the bat. “But I’ll let Mia decide your fate.”
“Well, thanks for that,” Jace said, offering a half-smile in her direction.
With things calming down a bit, I realized for the first time that she was wearing a bright pink bathrobe, the whole thing looking like a ratty piece of shag carpeting and sporting a pair of frilly balls on either side of the loose-fitting tie.
The visual was enough to get me laughing again.
“C-Candy!” I panted around my fresh bout of laughter, “What are you wearing?”
This only drew both her and Jace’s attention to the robe, which chose that moment to slip open and reveal that she was, in fact, wearing nothing underneath.
“Oh jeez!” Jace muttered, looking away as quickly as he could.
“Son-of-a—” Candy growled, dropping the bat and snapping the robe shut. “Don’t think you got to see that for free, Presley! You’d better start cutting me a check for fifty… no, wait, a hundred bucks! I’m uppin’ my prices! And don’t think you ain’t paying for the door! Just make the check out to ‘CASH’ for a grand and we’ll call it even.”
“That’s fair, I guess,” Jace grumbled, still averting his eyes.
“Damn right, it’s fair!” she growled at him, starting to retrieve her back. “I’d tear more out of your ass for what you put Mia through, but I’d rather see you put that money towards her!
“I have every intention of it,” he promised after her.
“GOOD!” Candy, ever in pursuit of having the last word, roared back.
I was still laughing after she’d left the room. “Did… did you see that she… was wearing matching slippers?” I asked between hushed giggles.
“I saw… a lot,” he answered, shaking his head. “Sorry for that.”
“Why?” I asked, “You want her instead now?”
He bit his lip at that and looked down, shaking his head. “No,” he said. “I’m here because, despite what an ass I was, I never stopped wanting you. I just… I just wanted to apologize. I was a grade-A dick yesterday and…well, you didn’t deserve—”
“Before you say another word,” I cut him off, frowning, “just answer me this: did a man named Mack talk to you the other day?”
Jace stared at me, dumbfounded. “Y-you mean your brother? How did you—”
“That fucking ASSHOLE!” I screamed, managing to grab one of the cushions from the couch to muffle the shriek that capped the end of my sentence.
“You… you knew he was out?” Jace asked, still wearing his mask of confusion.
I groaned and nodded, sniffling—the threat of tears becoming very real in that instant—and I looked at him, remembering what sort of awful thoughts my brother had plant into my own brain, and wondering what Mack had said to him. I felt like I had an unfair advantage having grown up with him; I’d grown used to his manipulative ways, how he could twist words and situations to fulfill his desires. His desires, I remembered, almost always involved hurting people or breaking them down so that they would give him what he wanted.
“What’d he say to you?” I finally asked.
Jace told me everything then, and, in response to his honesty, I told him everything that Mack had said to me.
****
“Remember all that awful stuff I said about your brother the first time you told me about him?” Jace asked me.
“Yeah,” I said, smirking at where I already saw him going with this.
“I feel I was too tame with my choice of words,” he confessed.
I giggled and nodded. “Yeah, I think I’m ready to agree with you wholeheartedly there,” I said.
“Mia,” Jace groaned, a look of desperation filling his gaze. “I’m sorry for even beginning to fall for his tricks. Can you ever forgive me?”
“I already have,” I said, tears beginning to fall down my cheeks.
“I’m sorry I made you cry,” he said, moving his hands to my face, gently wiping the tears away. “I love you, Mia.”
“I love you too,” I answered him.
He leaned down, slowly capturing my lips in his in a gentle kiss. I wrapped my arms around his neck, not wanting to lose this connection. The last twenty-four hours had felt like such a bad dream and now, with Jace by my side, I felt that things could go back to how they had been. Mack had tried to break up and failed and it was our turn to fight back.
Together we could stop anyone.
Jace slowly pulled away and looked down at me, his face serious as he moved his hands to my shoulders. “Mia, will you come home with me?” he asked.
“I thought you’d never ask,” I replied, smirking playfully. “But first, you should probably at least try to fix Candy’s door.”
“Yeah…” he drawled, rubbing the back of his neck. “I… uh, I don’t think there’s much hope of that. It’s pretty thoroughly fucked.”
“Oh…” I said, staring back at it. It certainly looked that. “So what should we do?”
****
I couldn’t be sure which one was angrier at Jace for the turn of events, Candy or Danny, but, as Jace pulled away from Danny’s bright-pink house, where Candy was condemned to stay until she managed to get her door fixed, it occurred to me that they at least had something to complain about together.
And, lucky for Danny, Candy had brought her fuzzy pink bathrobe with her.
The thought had me laughing into Jace’s back as he started to drive me home, and I felt him cringe slightly from the contact.
“You okay?” I asked over the roar of the engine.
“I will be,” he said. “I just messed up my back the other night.”
“How?” I asked, biting my lip with worry.
He tensed, either in pain or embarrassment. “I… uh, I slept in the cemetery,” he answered after a long pause.
I chastised him for this, but could only commit so much to it after everything that had happened. Though I had found his reaction hilarious when he’d come barreling inside, the other part of me was touched at how much concern he had for my wellbeing. He had been ready to kill at the sound of my scream and he had done a lot of damage all the same to Candy’s door. I smiled warmly, squeezing his waist even harder—trying, at the same time, to keep the pressure on his back at a minimum—and relishing in just how loved and protected he made me feel. His free hand moved to mine, squeezing back.
“What’s on your mind?” he turned his head slightly so I could hear him better.
“Just… getting lost in the moment,” I answered honestly.
“Same here,” he said.
The rest of the ride was mostly quiet aside from a few smaller comments on how nice the night was. The silence that the remainder of the ride had hadn’t bothered me at all and I still marveled at just how comfortable I was with Jace.
As we made our way to the apartment, Jace moved to his parking spot, pushing out the kickstand and helping me down. I thanked him as he led me towards the condo, holding my hand as we entered.
“So what are your thoughts on all this?” I finally asked.
“On all what?” Jace asked back, looking over at me.
“On my brother, the Carrion Crew, us… everything, I guess,” I answered, feeling the heat in my cheeks intensify as my answer expanded on itself.
The elevator doors opened and we stepped in together.
“I think your brother’s a lousy fuck,” Jace started, noticeably holding back a lot more anger towards him. “I think the Crew needs to be handled, but I’m not sure how just yet…” he paused, taking a long, deep breath and noticeably relaxing as he did. “And I think you’re the best thing that’s happened to me in a long time.”
I blushed at that, smiling and moving to lean against his shoulder.
“And I think you should stay inside for the time being,” Jace said as the doors opened to his condo.
I cringed at that, the words biting deep when said aloud, but, after what Candy and I had already discussed, I couldn’t bring myself to argue. “Yeah,” I sighed, “Candy and I were sort of thinking the same thing.”
Jace nodded at that, obviously appreciating that I wasn’t about to argue with him on the matter. “It’s just for the time being,” he went on. “Until the situation’s smoothed over. Then… well, then I was thinking we could take a trip somewhere.”
“Somewhere?” I asked, looking up at him.
He nodded, smiling. “Wherever you want to go,” he said.
I already had a place in mind, and while I didn’t say it then and there, I thought that maybe Jace already knew.
Seeming to read my thoughts, he smiled, nodded, and kissed the top of my head. “I asked Danny to try and see what he could find on Mack through his sources,” Jace said then. “He’s usually pretty quick with intel, probably be even quicker this time around. I’ll go see him tomorrow and see if they’ve found anything yet. With any luck we can be through this before the end of the week.”
“Do you think his sources will be of any help?” I asked, sitting down at the dining room table.
“Haven’t let me down yet,” he answered with a shrug. “But nothing’s an exact science with this sort of thing. You want a glass of wine?” he offered, surprising me with the subject change.
“I’d love one,” I said. Then, looking down at my purse, I remembered the keychain and smiled, though he was already turned away and unable to see it.
“Even if his sources can’t dig up much,” he went on as he poured us each a glass of what looked like (and most likely was) a very expensive bottle of red wine. “It’ll still be more than the information we currently have.”
“And what’s that?” I asked, both curious and stalling for time as I rummaged for his gift.
“Jack-and-shit,” he grumbled, obviously not happy about that fact.
I managed to palm the keychain just as he turned back towards me with the two glasses of wine. Unsure, I had to scan his face for any sign that he might have spotted my hand darting out of my purse at the last instant, but he showed no sign of suspicion. The smile I extended back at him was motivated in equal parts by the sight of him walking towards me—something I’d been terrified I’d never see again—and the satisfaction of a covert extraction successfully pulled off. He moved to sit in front of me and, as he did, gently set my glass in front of me. I moved with my free hand, still working to keep his gift concealed, to take a sip and almost dropped it—and myself—as it came in contact with my taste buds. I actually caught myself moaning at the taste.
It was definitely expensive.
“1947 Cheval Blanc,” Jace said, letting that stand as explanation enough for what I was experiencing. The smirk alone, however, told me that he’d been expecting that sort of reaction. “I figured you deserved the best given what a jerk I was.”
I groaned and nodded, feeling my eyelids flutter as I did. “Consider yourself forgiven all over again,” I whimpered into the glass, letting the aroma swirl in my nostrils. Then, grinning up at him, I said, “Close your eyes.”
“What?” he asked. “What for?”
“Just do it!” I pouted.
“Alright, alright,” he said, laughing.
I watched as he closed his eyes. I moved forward, waving my free hand in his face, testing to see if he could see anything. Deciding that I was being overly dramatic, I pulled the keychain and took his hand, opening his palm and placing the hand-carved raven keychain in his empty hand.
“Can I look now?” he asked, feeling the new object in his grip and already beginning to blindly test it.
“Go ahead,” I said, moving back to my seat.
He opened his eyes, glancing down at the keychain in his grip and I watched, not even realizing I had been holding my breath at what his reaction would be. He smiled warmly, holding the keychain out and then looked at me.
“This is incredible!” he smiled a broad, sincere smile. “Oh my… when did you get this, Mia!” he asked.
I blushed at the question and shrugged. “The night we fought,” I explained. “I wanted to get you something after my lunch with Danny, but I had trouble deciding. I…” I sighed and shrugged, “I guess it took me longer than I thought.”
He blinked, first at me and then down at the keychain. “This… this is what you were doing? I… oh fuck! Shit, Mia, I’m so, so sorry! I’m a—”
“You’ve already been forgiven two times over,” I reminded him, smiling reassuringly and holding up the glass of wine. “And you just opened a ten-grand bottle of wine for me,” I paused and made a show of taking a sip. “That was—what?—about a hundred dollars I just swallowed?”
He blushed, looking back at me. “You know your wines?”
I sighed and shrugged. “I know this wine, at least,” I offered. “Let’s just say my time working with the Crew taught me a bit about the ‘high life’ and the sorts of things that I would never get to indulge in.” I smirked at that, eyed the glass, and took another sip. “Feels good to prove them wrong.”
Jace stared at me for a long moment, then glanced back down at his gift. “You really are incredible, Mia. And I’m going to cherish this forever,” he said, moving to slip the gift onto the rest of his keys.
“Well, with how much I cherish the necklace you got me,” I said, my hand absently rubbing the bird pendant on my neck. “I wanted to get you something in return.”
He smiled again at me and moved back towards me. I gasped as he lifted me from the chair, pressing his lips to mine. “Now to show you my thanks,” he whispered into my ear, the lustiness of his voice immediately turning me on.
“Mmph,” I groaned into his mouth. “B-but what about the wine?” I asked, worrying about the price of the bottle we were leaving behind, open and exposed to the air.
“There’s more important things for me to think about right now,” he said, bringing his lips back to mine.
And, just like that, Jason Presley carried me off towards the bedroom, ignoring a freshly-opened and barely drank ten-thousand-dollar bottle of wine.
Moaning, my passion for him intensifying with each step, I wrapped my legs around his waist as he carried me to the bedroom. He smirked, throwing me down on the bed and I watched him, my body thrumming in anticipation. I needed this so bad and I could tell it way the same for him. I glanced down at the bulge in his pants and smirked, crawling forward in the bed.
“Let me help with that,” I said, cooing as I began to unzip his pants.
He watched, slipping out of his shirt as I pulled both his pants and boxers down. His cock sprung out, fat and eager, begging for my touch.
I happily answered, leaning down and wrapping my mouth around the head and beginning to work my way deeper. I moaned, sucking his cock deep as I let my tongue run ahead, tracing a path for the rest of my mouth to follow. I felt his hands move to my he
ad, gently working to follow the pace I set. There was power in that grip, enough to pull me all the way down if he wanted to—something that plenty of weaker men had done before—but, with him, his hands were just there for the ride; occasionally weaving through my hair but never taking control.
I loved that about him.
I could fully trust him.
I moaned, running my tongue over his cock one last time before pulling back.
I didn’t want to waste his release in my mouth.
Watching me pull away, he smirked, misinterpreting my motivation, and said, “Mm! My turn.”
And then he was pushing me back on the bed.
I let him. I let myself fall back, loving the feel of his bed this time around—now that he was sharing it with me—and watched him work, shivering in pleasure as he began to slip my top off. He grinned, throwing my shirt away and began to work on my bra. I let him work, watching my chest rise and fall from my heavy breathing. I knew that even the smallest touch from him was about to set me off.
I was desperate for him.
He answered just as I had him, moving his head down and capturing one of my nipples between his lips. He suckled gently as his other hand squeezed my other breast, not wanting either to go without attention. I gasped, arching against his touch. I was already so close to losing it and he’d only begun to play with my breasts.
Every time we made love, it was an explosion of all my senses and it didn’t seem to be lessening. I moaned as he finally moved from my breasts, moving down my taut stomach as he began to slip my skirt off, taking the panties off in one quick motion. In mere seconds, I was full bare to him and I wouldn’t have it any other way. He grinned down at me, admiring the way I looked and causing me to become that much more crazed.
“Hurry,” I said, embarrassed to find that I was panting.
“Not just yet,” he said, his eyes continuing to take in the sight of my naked body under his.
“Please, Jace,” I pleaded, arching up, begging for his touch. “Don’t make me wait any longer!”
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