JACE-1(Lane Brothers, Book 3)
Chapter One
Trace
His lips on mine are like a dream, but as I enjoy the sensation of being owned by him again, I also want to scratch and bite and hit because he’s here. He’s here and I hate him for it as much as I want him.
I’ve always loved Jace Lane, even when he left me. I knew that he had to leave me eventually.
We’re just not cut from the same cloth. Jace is a rich boy who had to scrape and struggle to survive because his parents refused to just hand everything to him until he made something of himself, and I’m…well I used to be one of those little daddy’s girls who didn’t know how to do washing or even what a cleaning rag was.
We were always polar opposites, and in the beginning that is exactly what attracted us to each other. He saw the outside and set out to help me change the inside, because he always said my beauty should be more than skin deep, that I was worth more than the designer label my family tacked on me.
At the time I agreed and tried to become my own person, bucking against Daddy’s rules and the plans he had for me, deciding to be happy and free instead of numbing myself with the country club get-togethers and the shopping trips with women who only pretended to like me.
Sure, it was not easy to have to take a long hard look at myself and see what Jace saw—a spoiled little senator’s daughter with more vanity than personality.
I showed him, though. I proved that I was more than the diamonds and money. I finally got up the courage to change my major and went for the psychology degree I’d been looking into before Daddy told me that economics was my field.
Then I managed to do the one thing that no young woman should do. I fell for the bad boy—the tatted, rough-neck military man who breezed into my life and told me from the get-go that I was a ghost of the woman I was meant to be.
To love someone so different, someone my father did not approve of no matter how rich or connected his family is…that was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.
You see, I was good for Daddy’s public image. Senator Howard Patton had the perfect wife and the perfect socialite daughter.
Or he did, till Jason Lane bamboozled me into cutting ties with my family. I loved him enough then to believe that he’d be my new home, that he’d love me, and more importantly, that I could trust him with my newly awakened heart.
Hell, I gave him my fucking virginity not six weeks after first laying eyes on him, and even went so far as to start picking out the freaking China patterns in my head.
And then he broke my heart.
He left me one day without so much as a freaking choice in the matter, telling me that his career was too important and that he had no room in his life for the burden that a young wife and family would bring him.
That was it. One day he loved me as much as I loved him, and the next he was flying out to God knows where while I was left to crawl back to my family with my tail between my legs.
When I returned home, Daddy made it very clear that I was expected to play the part, but I was no longer trusted. The worst part was that he wanted me to marry a man of his choice.
I was twenty-two years old, and I was no longer allowed to make my own decisions.
That’s what my life was like after Jace left me. Even worse, the guy Daddy chose for me was a total dick. Not one of those elitists who are just barely tolerable, but one of those assholes who use mind games and a small amount of force to keep his property in line.
I’m here in New Orleans now for a few good reasons, the most important being that I need to make sure Jace—no, the Lane brothers, are aware of what I overheard a few weeks ago.
Thanks to the social circles that I am in, I’ve heard a lot of gossip in recent years that usually flies right over my head. This last thing, though, I’m not likely to forget, and the only reason I haven’t come right out and just told Wyatt or Jared is that I’m still waiting on Digg to confirm a few things before I go all in and commit myself here.
I’m a good person, and altruistic to the core on a good day, but one thing that my experience with Jace has taught me…it’s that going all in on something that’s not going to be good for me is not an option.
The last time that happened, my mother had to convince my father to let me come back home. I’m now engaged to a man who has a mistress and cheats on her with someone else.
No, I’m in it for me now. All the way.
If telling the Lanes what I’ve learned won’t prove detrimental to my life, then I’ll spill the beans and move on again. But if Digg comes back to me with anything heavier, I’m out of here in a flat second and they can sort out their own mess.
First though, I have some revenge to unleash on Jace’s ass. Now that I’m here and I have the chance to make another run at the guy, I feel really good.
Trace
His lips on mine are like a dream, but as I enjoy the sensation of being owned by him again, I also want to scratch and bite and hit because he’s here. He’s here and I hate him for it as much as I want him.
I’ve always loved Jace Lane, even when he left me. I knew that he had to leave me eventually.
We’re just not cut from the same cloth. Jace is a rich boy who had to scrape and struggle to survive because his parents refused to just hand everything to him until he made something of himself, and I’m…well I used to be one of those little daddy’s girls who didn’t know how to do washing or even what a cleaning rag was.
We were always polar opposites, and in the beginning that is exactly what attracted us to each other. He saw the outside and set out to help me change the inside, because he always said my beauty should be more than skin deep, that I was worth more than the designer label my family tacked on me.
At the time I agreed and tried to become my own person, bucking against Daddy’s rules and the plans he had for me, deciding to be happy and free instead of numbing myself with the country club get-togethers and the shopping trips with women who only pretended to like me.
Sure, it was not easy to have to take a long hard look at myself and see what Jace saw—a spoiled little senator’s daughter with more vanity than personality.
I showed him, though. I proved that I was more than the diamonds and money. I finally got up the courage to change my major and went for the psychology degree I’d been looking into before Daddy told me that economics was my field.
Then I managed to do the one thing that no young woman should do. I fell for the bad boy—the tatted, rough-neck military man who breezed into my life and told me from the get-go that I was a ghost of the woman I was meant to be.
To love someone so different, someone my father did not approve of no matter how rich or connected his family is…that was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.
You see, I was good for Daddy’s public image. Senator Howard Patton had the perfect wife and the perfect socialite daughter.
Or he did, till Jason Lane bamboozled me into cutting ties with my family. I loved him enough then to believe that he’d be my new home, that he’d love me, and more importantly, that I could trust him with my newly awakened heart.
Hell, I gave him my fucking virginity not six weeks after first laying eyes on him, and even went so far as to start picking out the freaking China patterns in my head.
And then he broke my heart.
He left me one day without so much as a freaking choice in the matter, telling me that his career was too important and that he had no room in his life for the burden that a young wife and family would bring him.
That was it. One day he loved me as much as I loved him, and the next he was flying out to God knows where while I was left to crawl back to my family with my tail between my legs.
When I returned home, Daddy made it very clear that I was expected to play the part, but I was no longer trusted. The worst part was that he wanted me to marry a man of his choice.
I was twenty-two years old, and I was no longer allowed to make my own decisions.
That’s what my life was like after Jace left me. Even worse, the guy Daddy chose for me was a total dick. Not one of those elitists who are just barely tolerable, but one of those assholes who use mind games and a small amount of force to keep his property in line.
I’m here in New Orleans now for a few good reasons, the most important being that I need to make sure Jace—no, the Lane brothers, are aware of what I overheard a few weeks ago.
Thanks to the social circles that I am in, I’ve heard a lot of gossip in recent years that usually flies right over my head. This last thing, though, I’m not likely to forget, and the only reason I haven’t come right out and just told Wyatt or Jared is that I’m still waiting on Digg to confirm a few things before I go all in and commit myself here.
I’m a good person, and altruistic to the core on a good day, but one thing that my experience with Jace has taught me…it’s that going all in on something that’s not going to be good for me is not an option.
The last time that happened, my mother had to convince my father to let me come back home. I’m now engaged to a man who has a mistress and cheats on her with someone else.
No, I’m in it for me now. All the way.
If telling the Lanes what I’ve learned won’t prove detrimental to my life, then I’ll spill the beans and move on again. But if Digg comes back to me with anything heavier, I’m out of here in a flat second and they can sort out their own mess.
First though, I have some revenge to unleash on Jace’s ass. Now that I’m here and I have the chance to make another run at the guy, I feel really good.