“Fucking perfect,” he finished. He thrust into her again, releasing her hands to prop himself up. Slowly, methodically, he rubbed circles over her nipple with his thumb as he moved his hips, faster, rougher, gaining a momentum that was driving them both over the edge.

“Jace…please. I need…I need…”

He kissed her neck, then nipped her ear and thrust harder. “You need me to make you come.”

“Yes!”

“Say it, Hayden,” he said against her ear. “Say you need me.”

She dug her fingers into his ass and lifted her hips to meet him, moaning. “I need you, Jace!”

How long had he dreamed of having her just like this, on the razor’s edge, his touch about to push her over? His imagination was shit, though, because none of it compared to the real thing. He moved his hips, giving her what she wanted, and she shattered in his arms, crying out his name so loudly the neighbors probably heard. One, two, three hard thrusts later and he was there with her, pumping between her thighs, groaning his release into her mouth.

After, he rested his forehead against hers, sharing her breaths, feeling her heart pound against his as he etched this moment in his memory. Finally, he pulled out and disposed of the condom in record time so he could climb back in bed beside her. She grinned up at him, her eyes looking sleepy and sated. He brushed the hair off her forehead and kissed her.

“We should have done that a long time ago,” he said.

She opened her mouth to say something in return but then bit her lip and nodded as if she’d changed her mind. He didn’t want her holding anything back. Not anymore. Her fingers trailed over his bicep, and she leaned up to press her lips to the ink over his heart. He swallowed, feeling himself harden against her thigh all over again.

She laughed. “What’s the matter, hotshot? Once wasn’t enough?”

In that moment he knew, down to the depths of his soul, that anything less than forever with her wasn’t ever going to be enough. He had to find a way to make this last. Had to find a way to make her his forever. Because there was no fucking way he was letting her go now.

He smiled down at her, a hopeless, tight feeling filling his chest. “Not even close.”

Chapter Seven

Hayden rolled over, grinning at the delicious soreness in her muscles, and reached out for the man who had caused it. Instead of smooth, tattooed skin, all her fingers found were warm, wrinkled sheets that smelled like him. She sat up, confused, squinting against the sunlight streaming in through the flimsy white curtains.

“Jace?”

No answer. She looked at the clock. Damn it! Her flight was leaving at noon. That only gave her three hours to get to the airport. Where the hell was he? Hayden grabbed her cell phone off the nightstand, turned it on, and breathed a sigh of relief when the screen lit up. Thank God it was working again. No way would she have had time to buy a new one before her flight. No messages from Jace. Just one from Lilly, asking what had happened to her last night.

She climbed out of bed, a sense of dread washing over her. His clothes were gone. No. Jace wouldn’t have left like that. Not without saying good-bye. She padded barefoot into the kitchen and then into the empty living room, wrapping her arms around herself to prepare for the disappointment she knew was coming.

There wasn’t even a note. Jace was gone.

Hayden stumbled into the bathroom in a daze and touched her chest where the pain throbbed, making it hard to breathe. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. It wasn’t supposed to hurt this badly. They were supposed to walk away from this and still be best friends, but could she do that now? She gripped the bathroom counter and stared at her sleep-mussed reflection in the mirror. No. She couldn’t go back to the way things were.

She took longer in the shower than she’d intended, wasting time sobbing into her loofah rather than getting her shit together for the most important trip of her life. She should have seen this coming. Jace had promised her one night of sex to erase that bastard Shane from her mind, and he’d done just that. She could barely remember anyone who had come before him. She didn’t want to. What she wanted was more. More of him, more of what they’d shared last night, but his little disappearing act this morning proved he obviously didn’t.

She was in love with Jace, and now she’d lost him for good.

The next three hours went by in a mind-numbing haze. By the time the cab pulled up to the airport terminal, she was pissed. Not at him, though. She wanted to be—she’d fallen back in love with him, and he couldn’t even stick around to have a waffle and say good-bye?—but she couldn’t. She’d agreed to this, knowing from the start what it was. The only person she could be pissed at was herself. She swallowed the pain, hating how much she missed him already, and paid the cab driver.

She wrestled with her bags through security, and once she was through, her phone started to ring. She dropped everything, digging in her pocket, hoping, praying it was…

Lilly. She sighed and answered. “Hey, Lil.”

“Hey, yourself.” She sounded hungover. “Where are you?”

“Airport,” she said. “Are you still going to be able to meet the movers today? And you have a key to the storage building where they’re taking everything, right?”

“Will you stop worrying? I’ve got everything covered, babe. I swear.”

Hayden sighed. “Do you have any idea how much I wish you were coming with me?”

“I wish I were, too,” Lilly said. “But you know I can’t leave my brother. Not for that long. For now, I’m just going to have to live vicariously through you and your badass adventures.”

Hayden gathered her bags and made her way to the gate. She glanced up at the big screen. Twenty minutes until boarding. Twenty minutes until she was on her way to putting an ocean between her and Jace. Feeling hopeless, she sank down into a chair, listening to Lilly go on about her night, which of course did not include being trapped in a storage room or screwing her best friend. The universe apparently didn’t hate Lilly as much as it hated Hayden.

“So what happened last night?” Lilly asked. “Did you get down and dirty? You left your emergency bag in my car, so I’m assuming things didn’t get too exciting.”

Hayden chewed on her lip, waiting for an older man in a business suit to make his way past her, and then blurted out, “I slept with Jace.”

Lilly hesitated. “You’re fucking with me. Right?”

“I wish I was.” She pinched the bridge of her nose, fighting off a headache. She relayed everything to Lilly in as much detail as she could, with so many people surrounding her. When she was finished, she felt drained.

“You love him,” Lilly said softly on the other end.

“Yeah.” Hayden sniffled. “I do. I love him. And now everything is ruined. He was my best friend, and now I’m just another notch on his belt.” She shut her eyes, trying to quell the suffocating pain in her chest, when someone plucked the phone out of her hand. “Hey, what the—”

Jace stood in front of her, his dark eyes intense as he clutched her phone in his hand. Slowly, he lifted it to his ear. “She’s going to have to call you back.” He pressed a button to disconnect the call and knelt down in front of her. He set the phone on the empty seat next to her. Seeing him here, having him this close, made the emotions swirling around in her chest almost unbearable. He wore a pair of dark jeans that hugged his narrow hips and a gray T-shirt that showed off nearly the full stretch of artwork that branded his arm. His hair looked damp, as if he’d just jumped out of the shower.

“Jace…what are you doing here?”

Don’t get your hopes up, Hayden. He just came to say good-bye. Jace wouldn’t have let you leave without saying good-bye.

“First of all, you are not a notch on my belt.” He slid his fingers up her long skirt and wrapped them around her calves, sending a fresh wave of heat through her thighs. He raised a brow. “Understand?”

She nodded, not knowing what to say. Not fully understanding why he was here. She was too afraid to hope. “Are you here to say good-bye?”

He shook his head and pressed his lips together. “I’m here to give you this.”

He set a cup of coffee next to her and on her right knee, a little paper Amelie’s pastry bag that smelled like warm chocolate and almonds. His lips tipped into a half smile that melted her from the inside out.

“It’s Saturday,” he said. “You missed our date.”

She choked on a laugh and nodded, disappointment washing over her, drowning her. God, this hurt. Part of her wished he hadn’t come. Walking away was going to be so much harder now.

“And…” He didn’t break eye contact as he dragged a duffel bag over and began to dig through it. Wait…a bag? Jace finally produced a little velvet box and balanced it on her left knee. “This.”

No. It couldn’t be. They both stared at the box silently until a woman’s voice rang out over the intercom.

“Flight 1442 to Atlanta is now boarding.” People started to shuffle around them, rolling their bags to board the plane.

“Jace…”

He held up his hand to quiet her, though her heart didn’t listen. It beat in an almost deafening rhythm, filling her with emotions that were just too tangled to sort out.

“I’m coming with you.” He wasn’t joking. His eyes matched his tone, deadly serious.

“What?” Her voice squeaked, and she felt dizzy. “You can’t. What about the club and your home…”

“It’s all worked out,” he said calmly. “Nate’s going to cover everything while I’m gone. And as for home…you are my home, Hayden. It doesn’t exist without you.”

He released her calves to stand on his knees between her legs and trap her trembling fingers between his palms. So, he hadn’t left her. He’d been working out a way for them to be together. A tear slid down her cheek, scalding her skin almost as much as his touch.

“I don’t understand,” Hayden said. “How did you do all this so fast? It’s impossible.”

Jace grinned. “I think Nate sort of saw it coming after last night,” he said. “It didn’t take too much convincing to get him to help. There are still a lot of loose ends that need to be tied up, but it’s nothing he and I can’t handle over the phone. And you said they’d let you take an assistant. Since Lilly couldn’t come, I just thought…”

Her heart sped up and she feared it might burst through her chest. “Why? Why would you do all this?”

He looked down at their twined fingers and swallowed before meeting her gaze.

“I love you. I always have.” His voice was gruff, reminding her of the way he sounded last night when he was all over her, inside of her, owning her in every way. His gaze flicked down to the closed box on her knee, and he popped it open to reveal a glittering ring inside. “You don’t have to give me an answer today. Hell, you don’t even have to say yes next week. But I’ll be damned if I let you walk out of my life and lose the chance that you might say yes someday.”

He pressed his forehead to hers, leaving her awash in sensations she shouldn’t be feeling in a room filled with this many people. “I’ve wanted you for far too long, Hayden,” he said. “I’m not waiting anymore. I want you for the rest of my life, and I want the rest of my life to start right now. Marry me. Please.”

Hayden shut her eyes against the tears. She’d been so stupid to think she could ever live without this man. For a year. For a day. He was her best friend. Her everything. No one had ever come close to touching what she felt inside for him, because of this. They belonged together. She belonged to him.

Hayden choked on a sob and threw her arms around his neck, unable to hold back any longer. Jace loved her. He wanted to marry her. If this was a dream, it was one she never wanted to wake up from.