Page 126 of Jace
“Care to clarify?” Jace murmurs.
“Care to explain why you’re working with Ruslan Kholodov?”
“I’m not working with him.” Jace keeps his eyes closed, trying to look Zen for me, while it’s clear Nash is zapping his nerves. “I’m setting him up. I want him at the meeting, and ready to surrender, and the only way to do it is to give him a white flag: us.”
Jace tenses. My lens focuses on his hulking muscles hardening, his veins defined. It’s like he’s expecting Nash to rage, to accuse him of letting Ruslan go unpunished.
I can’t shoot them like this; I wait for the moment to pass.
“It’s wise,” Nash surprises him, “and about fucking time. It’s why Vale and I aren’t having kids yet. Not until we’re out of his crosshairs.”
Jace exhales, and I lower my camera, understanding.
It’s one of my concerns as well. I’m torn between two forces: one tired of waiting to start a life with Jace, and one worried we’ll lose it.
Nash is already a father. From what Jace has told me, Nash has seen Alena put in harm’s way many times.
The other kings and queens with their babies? I guess they’re willing to take the risk. I understand that too. Life is what you lose when you wait to live it.
“Thanks, man,” Jace mutters. “Gonna need your backup at our meeting, and?—”
“Enough shop talk.” Vale sighs frustratingly. “We’re supposed to look relaxed for Vivian.”
“You’re good,” I chirp. “Take a break while I adjust this softbox.”
Jace opens his eyes, watching me move a light to eliminate the shadows falling over Vale.
But something looks like it falls over him.
Maybe it’s the sauna, the steamy setting, or our sexy foursome gathered. “You know, Viv,” he coaxes, “I’m supposed to test you somehow.”
“Test me?” I lift my camera, focusing on him.
“Yeah.” Jace grins at my lens. “Every queen has had a test, a chance to feel what an initiation is like.”
Vale adds, “It’s like a chance to dip your toe into shallow play before you dive into deep, erotic waters. It’s how we broke the sex swing last year. It was during my test.”
Jace reads me too well. He knows what I want, and now he wants me to try it. I swear he can smell the lust between my legs. “What does the test have to be?”
“It’s whatever a king and queen want,” Nash explains. “Ultimately, it’s to see if she’ll be comfortable with the other kings.”
Something stirs inside me. “Doallthe kings have to test me?”
“No.” Nash practically barks back. “It never has to beallthe kings.”
Jace huffs a laugh. “So rules the father of one of our queens. I heard Alena’s test was at a?—”
“Speak and die.” Nash tilts his head back, closing his eyes, his muscles tense.
“Okay…” Vale chuckles. “Change of subject: read any good books lately?”
“Yeah,” Jace answers with his smile aimed at me. “Blair’s new one is hot. It’s an alien, why-choose romance.”
Blair is Vale’s identical twin. She used to work with us, but now she’s a full-time romance author, popular for her kinky paranormal romances, and Jace is her biggest fan.
I’ll never forget the first time I saw him.
In a depressed mood over my ex, I trudged up the wooden steps to the piazza of Delta’s, fuchsia azaleas blooming in the courtyard, but I was awestruck by the image of the biggest man I’d ever seen, clad in a charcoal designer suit, sitting on a stool by the black door. His handsome nose was down, his sexy smile beaming at his book.
