Reckless Faith

“And all you heard was breathing?”

Jace’s muscles tightened at Kayden’s question. “Yeah, just breathing. It was fucking creepy.”

His three brothers here in Misty Peak now knew all the details about his last mission with Dean. The conversation wasn’t easy, but they’d all done their time in the military. They knew the significance of losing a teammate, regardless of how it happened.

For what felt like the twentieth time that evening, his gaze shifted across the yard to Elle. She sat with the women and Avery, glass of wine in hand as they talked. She was smiling. Laughing. And she fit so fucking well into his family.

“I’ve done a check on his parents,” Eastern said quietly. “They’re still in Alabama and, as far as I can tell, haven’t left. But there’s no way to confirm if the messages are from them. I’ve also looked into the brother and sister. The brother’s a police officer in Georgia. Again, doesn’t look like he’s left. The sister’s in Charlotte. She’s a teacher, but when I dug a bit, I found that she’s taken leave. I’m going to keep looking into her and see what she’s doing with her leave.”

“How’d you get all that?” Cody asked.

Eastern lifted a shoulder. “I knew where to look.”

Jace frowned. That tourist he’d met on the skywalk had said she was from Charlotte. “Can you pull up her driver’s license so we have a photo?”

“Yeah, I can do that.”

Jace nodded, a frown etched on his brow.

“They still contacting you?” Kayden asked.

“Not since I blocked the number.”

Cody frowned. “I don’t like that you don’t know who this person is.”

“Me either, but I’m also not going to let them affect me.” That was exactly what they wanted.

“I’m sorry about Dean,” Kayden said quietly, gripping his shoulder.

Jace dipped his head. “Thanks. Me too.”

“You doing okay with it?” Cody asked.

“I wasn’t…” His gaze returned to Elle. “But every day becomes easier. Being here, living a different life… I’m starting to feel normal again.”

He watched as she laughed at something Tilly said. Damn, she was beautiful. How it was possible for one woman to be so gorgeous, he had no idea.

“What’s going on with you two?” Eastern asked.

That was a good question. He looked back at his brothers. “She wants to be friends. And when I first got back to town, so did I.”

“But something’s changed,” Kayden said when Jace didn’t continue.

“Me. I’ve changed. I fought my feelings for so long, and I’m done fighting. I get why she’s struggling to have faith in me. I cut off contact with her. I wouldn’t trust me either. I just have to convince her I’m a safe bet.”

“She’ll come around,” Eastern said quietly.

Cody grinned. “Yeah, just be your normal charming self and how could she resist?”

Jace scoffed, because the charm wasn’t exactly working right now.

Eastern’s phone rang, and he tugged it out. “Look who it is.” He answered the call and pressed a button. “Lock. I’ve got you on speaker with Kay, Eastern and Jace.”

Lock’s deep voice sounded over the line. “Hey, everyone.”

“Where have you been?” Kayden asked. “Haven’t heard from you in months.”

Wind whistled through the speaker. “Sorry. Been deep underground for a while. The team only just got back to base.”

Wherever the hell base was for Lock.

“You doing okay?” Jace asked.

“Yeah, it’s been a busy year. Missing you guys and Nylah and Avery. How’s everyone doing?”

Jace grinned. “Well, our three brothers are well and truly coupled up.”

Cody scoffed. “And Jace isn’t far behind with Elle.”

Lock blew out a long breath. “Whoa. Seems I’ve missed a lot.”

“Maybe it’s time to come home,” Kayden said soberly.

“Yeah. Maybe it is.”

They talked a few more minutes before their brother had to go, then finished grilling and took the food to the table. Jace made up a plate for himself and another for Elle before heading over to where she sat on a log around the backyard fire pit.

He held out the plate as he lowered beside her. “I got you a bit of everything.”

“A bit of everything is my kind of meal.” She slipped the plate from his hand, their fingers grazing. “Thank you.”

“Just trying to be a good friend.”

The corners of her lips lifted, and she playfully nudged his shoulder.

God, that smile in combination with the way she bumped him…he felt fifteen again, crushing on the same girl, only this time he wasn’t fighting it.

The group chatted and laughed around them, Avery even giving them a little glimpse of her school dance. He could barely concentrate on anything but Elle. Every curve of her lips. Every laugh that bubbled from her chest. He wanted to memorize all of it. Either that or pause this moment and stretch it.

Once he’d finished eating, he set his plate aside and slipped an arm around her waist. A part of him thought she might pull away, and yeah, that would gut him. She didn’t. She leaned into him like she needed the contact as much as he needed to be in contact with her.

It was half an hour later when she rose.

He frowned. “Hey, where do you think you’re going?”

“To the bathroom.” She raised a brow, a hint of a smile on her lips. “Is that okay?”

“You remember where it is?”

“I know this house better than I know my aunt’s.”

Right. Because this was where she’d grown up. With him. “Don’t take long.”

One more smile from her before she headed into the house, and the second she was out of view, he wanted her back.

When Elle stepped inside, the breath caught in her throat. This house, the memories within it…they were everywhere. Of Jace’s dad in the kitchen, cooking and laughing with Nylah. Of the guys in the living room, playing video games or wrestling or just being loud.

She walked through the rooms, running her fingers over surfaces and letting every memory slip through her. Some of the furniture was even still the same. The same brown leather couch. The same coffee table.

The memories felt good. Warm. Because when she’d come to this house as a kid, she’d felt at home. More at home than she had in her aunt’s house. But maybe that was because Jewel’s home was so quiet, while this place had been busy and loud…and Jace had been here.

With a sigh, she crossed the living room toward the bathroom off the hall. When she was done, she was about to head back outside when her gaze caught on a closed door.

Jace’s old bedroom.

For a moment, time stood still as her feet itched to go to the room where she’d spent so much of her time. It was silly, wasn’t it? It was just four walls.

She took two steps forward, only to stop again.

One look. She’d have one look inside the bedroom and go back outside.

She moved toward the door and wrapped her fingers around the knob. With a deep breath, she pushed inside.

It looked the same. Sure, there were no sheets on the mattress and no TV on the wall, but the bed was pushed up against the wall, beneath the wide window, just like it had been in high school. The built-in closet still had the floor-to-ceiling mirror, and Jace’s old oak dresser sat beside the bed like always. A bed that she’d lain on beside Jace so many times. A bed she’d laughed on. Eaten on. A bed she’d snuck into, sleeping beside him…just as friends, of course. Always friends.

How was the furniture the same? Jace’s father had sold this house before Jace bought it back. Even the wallpaper was still there—the moon and stars. She stepped forward, tracing one of the stars, remembering how, in an attempt to not stare at Jace, she’d traced the stars with her eyes. Counted them.

“Flint kept a lot of the stuff in the house.”

She gasped and spun at the sound of Jace’s voice. Jesus, she hadn’t even heard him come in. “What?”

His attention shifted to the bed, then the wallpaper. “Flint Matthews, the farmer next door who bought this property. He really just wanted the land, so the house remained untouched. And my father moved into the apartment over the bar, so he didn’t have room for a lot of the furniture. When I first stepped in here, I couldn’t figure out if I was happy or disappointed that my room was still the same.”

“Why would you be disappointed?”

He lifted a shoulder, slowly crossing the space between them. “I guess it made me feel like a teenager again. A kid who needed to prove his worth in a family full of heroes.”

She frowned. “You never needed to prove anything, Jace.”

“With you, I’ll always want to be better.” He stopped in front of her and slipped a finger into the waist of her jeans, tugging her toward him. “With you, I want to prove that I’m worthy.”

She gaped at him. “Jace, you’ve always been worthy.”

One side of his mouth lifted, but she was certain he didn’t believe her. “I haven’t checked, but I bet the lock on that window’s still broken. I should really make sure it isn’t…you know, safety and all. I just haven’t been able to bring myself to do it, because there’s a comfort in you having access to my home.”

Her lungs stuttered, and she had no idea why.

“Do you know how often I wanted to kiss you in this very spot? Do you know how hard it was to resist you every time you were in here with me?” His head lowered, his breath brushing her ear as he whispered. “It was torture.”

She shook her head. “No. It was me who had to distract myself with the stars on your wall to stop myself from kissing you.”

His lips grazed her cheek. “How did I resist you for so long? How did we not fall together as easily as I want to now?”

“I was different back then.”

“Kind of. But you were also the same. The same beauty. The same sweetness.” His head lowered to her neck. “The same soft skin that haunts my dreams.”

A shudder rolled down her spine. “What are you doing?”

“I have no idea. With you, I never know what I’m doing, Tink. But every day I’m around you, and I can’t touch you, I lose a little more of my sanity.” The hand on her jeans moved below her shirt to touch bare skin.

“You said friends.” The words were a whisper from her lips, but dammit, she could barely speak.

“I’m trying. God, I’m trying so hard…” His hand slipped farther under her shirt and moved up to her waist. “But I’m not as strong as I was when I was a kid, and you’re impossible to resist.”

His lips pressed to her neck. Then her jaw.

A voice in her head told her to push him away. But no matter how loud it got, the voice that said she needed Jace always seemed louder.

A part of Jace knew he needed to step away. Respect her boundaries. He’d told her he’d be her friend for a while. And friends didn’t kiss. They didn’t touch each other the way Jace needed to touch Elle.

But he couldn’t step away. He couldn’t handle even the smallest of spaces between them. And when her hands slipped below his shirt, running over his skin, he almost lost it then and there. He cupped her cheek, letting her heat run into his veins like lava.

When one of her hands moved around to his neck, the air got stuck in his lungs, and he couldn’t move. Every part of him needed to know what she was about to do.

He didn’t have to wait long. One second, then she lifted to her toes and kissed him.

It cut off every thought in his head. Every feeling except the one of her against him. And it awakened something deep within. Something hot and primal and territorial. Something that screamed his.

She was his.

He hauled her against him so there was no space between them and slipped his tongue inside her mouth. And there it was again. That spicy sweetness that was Elle. The perfect combination of candy and wine.

He ran his tongue over hers, his lips sliding and grazing.

When that wasn’t enough, he lifted her against him, and her legs immediately wrapped around his waist. They fit so damn well together, like two puzzle pieces that were always meant to find their way back together.

He kicked the door closed and twisted the lock before walking over to his childhood mattress and easing her down so she was lying on her back, covering her body with his, pressing into her.

“Jace.” She groaned his name and it rippled into him, guiding him somewhere only she could take him. Away from everything that came before this moment.

He tugged his lips from hers and worked kisses down her cheek, then neck. Jesus, every part of her was sweet.

When he reached the top of her chest, he gripped the hem of her top and pulled it over her head. Her pale pink bra called to him. And the way her nipples pushed against the thin fabric set his blood burning through his veins.

Fucking gorgeous.

He dipped his head and took one of those nipples between his teeth, sucking and running his tongue over the tip, the material a thin barrier between his mouth and her flesh.

She whimpered, her fingers fisting in his hair. He continued to play with her as he reached down, unfastening the button of her jeans and running down the zipper. When he slipped a hand inside both her jeans and panties, her sharp intake of air cut through the room.

Then he stroked her clit.

Another quiet cry from her, and his blood pumped faster.

He switched his mouth to her other breast, sucking and tugging, continuing to run circles over her clit with his thumb, listening to her changes in breath and learning what she liked.

This woman was a goddess, so fucking perfect that she deserved to be worshiped. Deserved for every inch of her body to be touched and kissed and adored.

He slipped the cup of her bra down, and this time took her bare nipple between his lips. She arched and cried out, her breaths now coming out in short pants.

“Jace…I can’t hold on!”

Good. He wanted her to break. To fall off that cliff and trust him to catch her. “Then don’t.”

He thrust a finger inside her, and her entire body tensed. He moved back up her body and caught her lips just as she broke, swallowing her cries, fucking drowning in them.

Her walls pulsed around his finger, her soft hums and moans burning him.

His mouth was still on hers, his finger still inside her, when the shout of his name sounded. “Uncle Jace? Are you in here?”

Shit. Avery.

Elle gasped, and he slowly slipped his finger out of her before pressing one more kiss to her lips. He grinned at her as he whispered, “Got to go, Tink. But just so you know, that wasn’t an accident or a mistake or a one-time thing.”

Her eyes flared, pink tinging her cheeks. “Go,” she whispered, shoving his chest.

He chuckled as he lifted off her.

Fuck, this was not a good time. He adjusted himself, hoping like hell that helped, before casting one more glance at Elle as she madly straightened her clothes.

That definitely wasn’t a friend move…but he couldn’t seem to care.