Page 99 of Jace
I’m here.
But opening the door whips Loch’s hungry focus from Alena and their bodies fucking, to my intrusion.
“Oh!” I gasp. “Oh! I?—”
Want to die. Want to join them. Want to run. Want to hold Jace and never let him go.
But I fucked up. “Oh! Oh, I’m so sorry.” I should know better.
This is private. This is trust. This is passion shared. This is an intimate act you don’t violate. You don’t take or exploit or extort or shame.
It’s everything I’ve been through. Everything I desired that was defiled.
Turning, I run away from the memory, from the shame. Dashing down the hall, I race down the stairs, hearing the voice that owns my soul shouting after me.
“Vivian!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
JACE
“Vivian! Vivian, wait!”
I keep shouting her name, chasing her down the stairwell. On the second-floor landing, I bump into Wilder, wielding a glow-in-the-dark dildo.
What the hell?
He laughs. “Your little filly escape?”
“Fuck off,” I growl over my shoulder. “You’re free to go.”
“Not when it’s just gettin’ good!” he shouts down the stairwell.
“Wilder.” I snap my glare up at him. “You fucking owe me.”
“For taking my sister to the prom?Youwere the glutton for punishment, not me.”
I don’t have time for his shit. Racing down the stairs, I pray Vivian’s not running out the front door.
What is she doing here? I told Wilder to take her to my place and fuck… should’ve known better.
He assumed I meant Delta’s, not my home only a few know about, like his untrustworthy ass. I told Grant this would happen.
“Vivian?” I stand, breathless by the front door. It’s closed and locked; the parlor is empty. She can only go one way. I charge down the hallway after her.
Wilder calls out, “Don’t let that one get away, hoss,” before I hear the front door slam, automatically locking behind him.
Pushing open the door to the darkroom, I almost bowl Vivian over as she’s darting out.
“Umph.” She runs into me.
I grab her arms. “Vivian. Wait. Stop. Talk to me.”
“I… I’m sorry.” Her eyes look frantic and full of an emotion I don’t recognize.
“No,I’msorry.” I won’t let her go, but I try to be gentle so as not to bruise her arms. “It’s an initiation, and I should’ve told you; it just wasn’t my place. We don’t violate a queen’s privacy, and?—”
“I know.” She squirms. “I know, and that’s why I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have spied. I shouldn’t have barged in and interrupted. It was private and it’s my fault and I’m sorry.”
