Hayden pushed past him to get to the door. She’d endured enough humiliation for one night. She didn’t need Jace to rub her face in it. She jerked on the door handle, but it wouldn’t budge.

“Hayden, stop.” Jace stomped up behind her, caging her in with his heat. A shiver that did not belong there rolled down her spine as she recalled how all that heat had felt pressed against her skin just moments ago. “Will you wait a goddamned minute? Please? We need to talk about this.”

Hayden jerked on the door handle again. Why the hell wouldn’t the thing let her out? “Why do you care? You’re not even talking to me, remember? And why the hell won’t this door open?”

Jace’s breath feathered across the back of her neck, and she froze, gripping the handle.

“You’re not going anywhere.”

She closed her eyes, trying to ignore the fireworks igniting inside of her. Jesus, she needed to get it together! This was Jace. The problem was, her sex-starved hormones didn’t seem to know the difference now that they’d had a taste. Her body felt like a traitor, feeling things for the man standing behind her that she hadn’t allowed herself to give in to since she was a naive little high school girl, thinking he could ever see her as someone other than a buddy. “Why not?”

She didn’t know what she expected. For him to close the distance between them. Kiss the back of her neck. Slide his hands over her hips. She was surprised by how much she actually wanted those things to happen. They didn’t, though. Cool air replaced his body heat, and her eyes flew open. She spun around, and Jace was plucking a bottle of tequila from one of the shelves.

“Because that doorknob is broken. You can’t open it from the inside.” He picked out a spot on the floor and settled down, kicking off his boots.

“No.” Any heat that Hayden had been feeling disappeared in an instant. “You’re messing with me.” The universe would not be that cruel. Not after this disaster of a night.

He raised one brow. “Why do you think I had it propped open?” He took a swig and grimaced. “We’re not getting out of here until Nate sends someone to restock. And considering I just took a load out there…it’s going to be a while.”

She chewed on her bottom lip, and hope ignited inside. “Wait! What’s His Face. He was supposed to meet me in here. He’ll come.”

“What’s His Face?” Jace raised a brow. “You don’t even know his name and you were planning to fuck him? You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“It’s none of your business.”

“Yeah, well,” he muttered around the bottle. A guilty look crossed his face, and he averted his gaze. “It doesn’t matter anyway.”

“No, no, no.” Her heart stuttered and not in a good way. She’d seen that look before. “What did you do?”

Another swig of tequila. “I told him to leave you alone or I’d kick his ass from Charlotte to Wilmington. Needless to say, he’s not coming.”

Hayden wanted to rail at him. Punch him in that ridiculously handsome face for interfering with her life with his overprotective big brother act. Again. But no. Right now she just needed to get the hell out of here and away from Jace before she hurt him or jumped his bones. Both were very bad ideas. She scrambled for her clutch and groaned when she realized she didn’t have her phone. It was at home, where she hoped to God it would be functional again once it dried out. “Please tell me you have your phone.”

He set the bottle down beside him and closed his eyes. “It’s in my office. Face it, Summers. You’re stuck with me.”

Chapter Four

“How long do you think we’ve been in here?”

Jace sagged with relief at the sound of Hayden’s voice. She’d gone at least an hour ignoring him. He’d known interfering was a dickhead move, but he couldn’t help it. And he sure as hell didn’t regret it. If he hadn’t, she’d be in this room doing God knows what with that tool. “I don’t know. An hour maybe.” The club was still in full swing outside the door, and no one had come. He honestly didn’t expect them to until closing, which by his guess was still a couple of hours away. If he was being honest, he wasn’t ready for that door to open. Once it did, Hayden would be gone. After the shit he’d pulled tonight, maybe for good.

Hayden shifted and tugged on her dress. She had to be uncomfortable on the hard floor. The instinct to take care of her was almost overwhelming. It always had been, but something felt different now. They’d crossed a line, and he still didn’t know which side she wanted him on. She made a frustrated sound in her throat, and Jace reached back and stripped his shirt off over his head. It was hot as hell in that room anyway.

Hayden gasped. “What are you doing?”

He laughed and folded his shirt to make a cushion out of it. “Here.” He set it beside him on the ground. “But you have to sit by me if you want it.”

That probably wasn’t the best idea he’d ever had. Not when it was taking everything in him not to pin her up against the wall and finish what they’d started.

Hayden bit her lip, and he didn’t miss the way her gaze traveled over his chest, lingering on his ink, before landing on the T-shirt. He wasn’t the only one who couldn’t stop thinking about that kiss, then. Could she possibly want him the way he wanted her? She sure as hell had an hour ago, but that was also before she’d realized he wasn’t the asshole she’d met at the bar. Finally giving in, she crawled over to sit on the makeshift cushion.

He nudged her arm with his. “I’ve been told my lap is also a very comfortable option if you want to give that a try.”

“Don’t push your luck.”

He chuckled and rested his head on the wall. “You know, I haven’t seen you in a dress like this since—”

“Senior prom,” she finished for him.

He smiled and absently rubbed his thumb in a slow circle on her thigh. Thank God she didn’t stop him, because he needed that little bit of contact with her right now more than he wanted to admit.

“You looked so pretty in that pink dress. The one with the lace design around the bottom. It was wasted, but you still looked beautiful. I don’t think I told you that night. I should have.”

Hayden closed her hand over his, stopping the circles he was drawing on her bare leg. “It wasn’t a waste. It was where I wanted to be.”

She’d ditched her prom date last minute, showed up dressed to the nines, and helped him take care of his mom all night. Feeding her broth. Reading her Tennyson until she fell asleep. Holding his hand while he watched the cancer eat her away. Even Nate hadn’t been able to stick around to watch that shit; he chose to join the Marines and put an ocean of distance between himself and the pain instead. But not Hayden. She’d stayed. A constant companion in the hell of his youth. He couldn’t ask her to do that again. Give up such an important piece of her life for him. He had to figure out a way to let her go.

“I didn’t really want to go with Justin anyway.” She shrugged as if it were no big deal, and Jace couldn’t contain his laugh.

“Bullshit. You liked that douchebag since freshman year. Not that I ever understood why.”

Hayden shifted uncomfortably beside him and sighed. “I only told you that so you wouldn’t know the truth.”

“Oh yeah?” He raised a brow, feeling pleasantly warm with the tequila in his veins and Hayden by his side. “And what was that?”

“That I had a huge crush on you.”

Jace’s heart roared to life, and blood rushed behind his ears. Silently, he replayed a hundred memories with Hayden, trying to dissect them and see them through new eyes. Why hadn’t he known?

Because back then you were a fucked-up, hurt kid who didn’t want to see what was right in front of you.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he said, trying to keep the emotion out of his voice.

Hayden stretched her legs, pointing her toes toward the door, and laughed. “God, Jace, why? Because I knew you didn’t feel the same. Because I was just one of the guys to you.”

He may not have realized that he was in love with her back then, but one of the guys? “You were never one of the guys,” he said. “The guys didn’t give me hard-ons every time they pranced around the lake in their swimsuit.”

She burst out laughing and slapped her hand over her mouth. He didn’t have to look to know she was turning red, the color stretching up her neck to flush her cheeks. He loved it when she blushed. No. She was definitely not one of the guys. She’d always been more. It had just taken a decade for his head to catch up with his heart. And now it was too late.

Dragging up old memories only reminded him of how out of character tonight was for her. The Hayden he knew never would have taken a risk like meeting some random stranger for sex. He knew he shouldn’t push her, ask her the questions swirling around in his head, but he couldn’t help it.

“What was all this about, Hayden?” He watched her thread her finger through the belt loop of his jeans, just like she always did when she was thinking. “None of this is like you.”

“I know it’s not.” She made a frustrated sound that was probably sexier than she intended it to be. “That was the point. I just wanted one night of fun before…”

He frowned and rested his chin on top of her head. “Say it.”

“I know it’s dangerous, okay? I get it. I get why you don’t want me to go. But this is important to me, Jace.”

He shifted to face her, not missing the slight tremble in her bottom lip before she sucked it between her teeth to calm it. Damn it, he wanted that lip between his teeth. “Explain it to me.”

Hayden tucked her hair behind her ear, and an image of it wrapped around his fist as he consumed her flashed through his mind. He looked away to regain his control. If wanting Hayden the past year had felt impossible, having a taste of what it could be like was going to kill him. Touching her, tasting her…it had been fucking perfection. It was all he could think about now. He doubted he’d ever stop wanting more.

“It’s not just about the money or the spot in Time,” she said. “People need to see what’s going on over there. We sit here in our coffee shops and bars, blissfully unaware of what the guys over there are sacrificing for us. Guys like Nate. Guys like your dad.”

The passion in her voice combined with his brother’s name and the memory of his dead father caused a piece of him to crumble inside. She believed in this. She believed in it as much as she believed in him. In his family. He wanted to give her this. Just let her go and hope for the best, but…he couldn’t.

“I can’t lose you, Hayden.”

“You won’t,” she said. “Nate came back.”

He gritted his teeth. “Nate came back fucked up in the head.”

His gaze dropped to where her finger tugged on his belt loop. Her wrist brushed the bare skin on his side, and he shuddered with want. Did she have any idea what a simple touch from her did to him? Couldn’t she see how much he wanted her, or was she just as blind as he’d been all those years ago?

“If you’re so sure you’re going to come back safe, what was tonight about?”

Her finger slipped out of the loop, and she folded her hands in her lap. “If you had any idea how long it’s been since I’ve had sex, you wouldn’t have to ask.”

“Sex?” He raised a brow. “All of this was about sex?”

She scowled at him. “You try going without for eleven months.”

Little did she know he had gone exactly that long. He hadn’t been with someone else since the day that asshole had broken her heart and she had claimed his. He also knew it was a shit excuse. They both knew damn good and well she’d never been one for casual sex. She’d gone longer than eleven months before without doing something crazy like this. This was something else.