Page 158 of Jace
My skin.
My woman.
When it comes to her, I don’t need logic. It’s pure love that’ll make me slice, smash, and slay anything that touches her.
Anything that makes her cry like this.
“Leave us!” I bark at the others. Lacing my hand through Vivian’s hair, I pull her head to my chest, holding her there while I growl at my brothers, catching Axel’s eye. “I want every king downstairs waiting. Now!”
He nods.
Quickly, Mom ushers them and Sasha out of her office. Glancing back, she looks at me holding Vivian. Noting the phone. The pregnancy test. The tears Vivian’s silently soaking into my shirt.
Mom lifts her chin. “Sometimes you don’t forgive, Jasha; you avenge.”
Quietly, she closes the door behind her.
And I fall to my knees before Vivian. Holding her hips. Kissing her belly. Cherishing something so small, it’s my entire world now. “This is mine; do you understand?”
I gaze up at her, and she nods, tears streaming down her cheeks, leaving little wet drops on her soft white T-shirt dress.
“Say it, baby.” I squeeze her hips, her power, her promise. “Say, no matter what, you’re mine. Both of you.”
“Yes.” Her fingers slide through my hair, grabbing, holding on, never letting go. “Yes, I’m yours.”
Softly, I nuzzle my forehead into a bump that’s not there yet. A dream I’ve dared to wish with her. A baby that’s mine. I’m the man who’ll show this child how to love because I love this woman more than my life.
She’smy family. My future. My light.
“But Jace.” She gasps, fighting sobs. “What if it?—”
“There’s noifwith you and me, Viv.” I grip her harder, not hurting—vowing. “We can say we were friends. We can say we were waiting. We can say we went slow or fast, but we’re lying to ourselves because it was alwaysus. Always. My soul isyou,like the sun is light. I’m notmewithout you. Do you understand?”
“Yes.” She nods, her chin trembling. “Yes, because I talk to myself like you’re there. Like you’re always with me because you are. In my head. In my heart. In my soul. I can’t picture myself without you.”
“We’re doing this. Together.” I rest my cheek on her womb. “This is our light, our love, our baby.I’mthe father.” I pull back, anchoring to her baby-blue eyes.Baby blue.My past, present, and future are colliding like a supernova in my chest. Bursting. “I’m the man who’ll love you, who’ll never leave you, who’ll always protect you and my baby. I’m?—”
“My king,” she whispers, cupping my jaw.
“My queen.” I rise.
Cradling her wet cheeks, a war rages inside me.
Never abandon her; kill him now.
I am the devil’s son when it comes to another man hurting my woman. I’m every evil thing I escaped. Every act I abhor. Every ounce of abuse. Every punch of brutality and violence.
I’m a soulless beast who’ll protect my soulmate.
That scumbro is dead.
AfterI torture him.
Vivian reads it in my eyes. She’s always seen straight through me; she always will.
“Jace, listen to me.” She fists my shirt. “I don’t remember much. Just flashes. Just what Luna said she heard. She was there that night. She said he drugged me; his phone proves it. And that picture he took makes me assume what he did. But I don’tfeelit. I didn’t feel it in my body the next day, and I don’t feel it in myheart now. And if there’s anything I’ve learned, it’s to trust my instincts.”
“I trust them too.” Gently, I swipe a tear off her soft cheek. “I also trust torture, and that’s what I’ll do to him for touching you.”
