JACE-1(Lane Brothers, Book 3)(37)

“Stop that, babe,” I scold, using a thumb to free her lips and wipe the blood away. “This is not your fault, so quit thinking it is.”

That lips starts trembling and she buries her face in her hands with a groan.

“I’ve been such an idiot, Jace. I…when Williams approached me about this instead of Jackson, like usual, I just accepted it. She offered me freedom if I managed to come down here and sew it all up nice and tight and I just jumped at it without thinking. When she mentioned the chance that Daddy was involved, she had me and I just…I wanted it to be over so that I could leave. I just—”

“Wanted to leave it all behind and finally have the chance at the life I promised you but never delivered,” I finish for her, closing my eyes as self-loathing courses through me.

That sad, desperate look I saw the first time I met her is back in her eyes and it makes me want to start hurting people. She’s been so happy these last three days, flitting around the house with Ma, Ellie, and Clari just doing things that she should be able to do without the worries that she’s lived with for years.

I did this. If not for my fear and stupidity, she would be my wife and the mother of my children and none of this would have ever touched her, never mind her having to accept that this is a very well-thought-out plot to draw me out and hit back at my family.

I have no doubt anymore that the Lane gang is involved and that using their resources this way was always the plan. For all I know…

“Shit. Shit. Shit!”

Trace jumps at my loud expletives and I soothe her with a kiss as my mind starts racing.

“What? Jace, are you okay?” she asks when I jump to my feet and pull her into me, squeezing her smaller body way too tight.

“I’m fine, babe. Or we will be. I think I know how to get the answers we need,” I say, almost tripping when I just grab her up and start running for Jared.

“Jace, slow down, you’ll break your neck getting us up the stairs!”

“No, I won’t. Now hush up and kiss me before we get inside and have to talk to those three gorillas,” I say, pushing her up against the wall beside Jared’s door and sealing my mouth to hers.

That feeling of home and belonging rushes through me when she opens her mouth beneath mine and takes my tongue into her mouth with a sigh, letting me taste and plunder at will.

For all this stress and the problems we face, I still can’t stop wanting her like this, thinking almost every hour on the hour about dragging her back upstairs to our bed and stripping her naked to feast on her lean body.

I’m always hard around her, even in times of crisis, and if things weren’t so urgent right now I think I’d drag her to bed and do just what I want to her for hours. Days. Weeks, if I had my say.

Tracy moans again and I almost die on the spot when she hops up and clamps her legs around my hips, grinding her jeans-clad sex against the bulge straining against my zipper.

“Christ, I always want you,” I groan, pushing back into her, searching, adjusting till she moans and I know I’ve found her clit.

We may not be able to cut out and go to bed right now, or anytime soon, but I can take this one moment to reconnect with my girl and give her the pleasure I need as much as I need air to breathe.

“Oh, oh, right there,” she moans into my mouth, her breath mingling with mine as I push harder and twist from side to side, causing friction on that little pearl between her folds.

Her moaning gets loud and I’m forced to stop and take a deep breath before clamping my hands to her ass and walking the ten steps needed to reach the small alcove hidden to the right of Jared’s door.

Once there I press her back to the wall and seal my mouth over hers tightly, starting up that rhythm again, almost wild with the need to hear her, see her, feel her come undone beneath me.

Nothing fills me like knowing that I give her pleasure—nothing—and as she starts sucking at my tongue and making those sexy noises deep in her throat that let me know she’s close, I swear I can feel my own orgasm trying to break free.

The pain in my dick is unbearable as it starts baying to be let out, but I ignore it and push closer to her heat, grinding herder when she digs her nails into my scalp and starts bucking beneath me in bliss.

“Hmmm, oh, oh, oh.”

I let her ride it out to the very end, kissing her softly the whole time as she comes down from the high of climax. I let her down minutes later after a few soft kisses and words of praise to let her know how good that was for me, though I’m still hard and aching for her.

The feeling is full and sweet as I fix her hair and steady her by the elbow, leading her directly to Jared’s door before pausing to face her.