Page 209 of Malice and Surrender
“I’m going to kill him,” Kai and I said together.
Raine
I was beyond baffled and so angry that I couldn’t even form words as I stomped around backstage. I stared at the fancy ring on my finger, terrified to even ask how much it cost because it was definitely more than my house.
I stopped pacing long enough to get a deep breath in, but it didn’t stop the shaking. Oh my god, if Kai saw that…I cringed, knowing exactly what he would be like when he found out, even if he didn’t see it. I’d be lucky if I lived, let alone Jace. He was a dead man, and I could feel a panic attack threatening.
“Why?” I spun around and growled at Jace. He was leaning against the wall and looked way too relaxed. “Is this a game to you,” I asked, and a couple of the stage crew glanced over.
“Come here,” Jace said and took my arm. He smiled at everyone we passed, but I was too angry to keep up the act. Pushing through a metal door that led to a stairwell, he looked down before walking up to the next landing to make sure we were alone.
“Talk to me Jace. Help me understand what the hell just happened out there. I can’t marry you,” I said. It felt like I was going to combust. If I hadn’t known better, I’d have said I was melting on the stage. Yes, his words were beautiful and moving, but I didn’t even know if they were real. So much of what Jace did was staged. Was I just another act for him to gain sales?
“Why can’t you marry me?” Jace crossed his arms, his face the same perfect arrogant mask it always was.
“For starters, we haven’t had one discussion about this between us or all of us, and even if I wanted to hop on a plane and fly off into the sunset with you and never see Kai or Avro again, Kai would track us down and kill us both.”
“I never thought that. Okay, maybe I did, but we’d bring Avro, but not anymore. I’m not trying to cut them out.” Jace crossed his arms over his chest.
“Then what the hell is all this for? Is this just a way to one-up Kai and piss him off? Is that why you decided to bring me? Am I a pawn of drama for you to move around on a board? If it is Jace, so help me, god.” I was gearing up for a real rant.
Jace placed his hands on my shoulders and made me look at him. “Stop it, Peaches. Seriously, you look like you’re going to pass out.”
“Can you blame me? You just proposed to me in front of however many thousands of people out there, and I had no warning at all.”
Jace smirked, and it was too sexy for as angry as I was. “First, no one sees a proposal coming. At least if it’s done right, they don’t. That is kind of the point. Second, it’s millions cause everyone watching in their homes just saw too.”
My eyes narrowed into a glare, but my stomach flipped at the thought. “Oh god, I think I’m gonna be sick.”
Stepping away from Jace, I grabbed the cold railing and closed my eyes. The jittering inside my body wasn’t getting better, and it felt like my heart would jump out of my chest. My head swam a little, and I could feel the old panic attack wanting to rear its ugly head. No, I would not pass out. I was stronger than that now. Counting to ten very slowly, I concentrated on my breathing and the seconds between each breath. If Avro were here, he’d help calm me down. Oh no Avro. Wait did he know?
Jace touched my shoulders, but I shrugged him off and stepped away. “Don’t touch me Jace.” Turning around, I backed away from him until the cool of the concrete stairwell touched my back. “Did Avro know what you were planning?”
“No, no one did because if you want me to be honest, I hadn’t planned it myself.” My mouth dropped open, and I lifted my trembling hand to look at the ring.
“None of that was real? You made me cry and say yes to a proposal in front of however many people, and none of it was real?” I growled and grabbed the ring to yank it off my finger.
Jace reached out and stopped my hands, cupping them in his. “Stop. I mean it, Peaches. I want to tell you what’s going on, but I refuse to talk to this version of you.”
“Version of…” My nostrils flared, and I opened my mouth to give him another piece of my mind, but he pushed me up against the wall. The impact shocked me, but not as much as the kiss that followed. I should’ve been used to the demanding, lightheaded kisses that affected every part of my entire body. My lips moved like he had willed them while my hands gripped his tux jacket.
Every nerve ending was alive and on fire with his touch. I moaned as he deepened the kiss and pressed his body into mine. The air was stolen from my chest as he rubbed his trapped cock against my stomach.
“Fuck I want you right now,” Jace growled, his lips still touching mine. “Don’t ever take that ring off. I meant every word I said, and it stays on your finger as long as any part of you wanted to say yes. Do you understand?”
I nodded, not sure I could even speak.
“I do love you, Raine. I know it’s soon, and I get all the what-ifs and other factors like Avro and, yes, even Kai, but I wouldn’t have proposed if I didn’t want to marry you.”
Pushing himself away from me, he placed a hand on either side of my body, trapping me in place. It reminded me of the first night we met.
I took a shuddering breath and had to look away from his intense stare to think straight. “Then why Jace? Why now? Why like this? Why not tell even Avro? I don’t understand.”
Jace lowered his voice. “Allen got wind that I’ve been shopping around to replace him. I didn’t like what he was planning and had been arranging for the band lately. Things have been tense. I expected not to see eye-to-eye all the time, but this was different. I wasn’t comfortable with the things he wanted me to do.” He looked over his shoulder to ensure no one could hear and whispered. “He wanted me to pretend I’d gotten drunk and got this other girl pregnant.”
My mouth fell open. “He what? Who?”
“Doesn’t matter who, I never let him get that far. I shut him down and told him to forget about it. He’d mapped out how we’d live together for four months, and then she’d pretend to lose the baby, and we’d part ways. It would make a big splash, but this is just too much. A few risqué photos are one thing. This shit he was coming up with was next level.” Jace shook his head. “He said as long as it sold records, he didn’t care, that everything was repairable, and I could play the part of a broken hearted, wannabe dad.” He held out his hands. “I was livid. I mean, that is just…no. Not just for me, it makes a complete mockery of all those who have lost a child. Fuck.”
