by L. Steele
That, and the fact that she'd still been wearing his ring.
He reaches for his third glass of whiskey only to have the glass snatched from his hand.
"Getting drunk in the middle of the day now, big boy?"
Karina.
He swivels around on the barstool, to find himself flanked by Damian and Arpad, Karina in the middle.
"Ah." Jace tries to speak. Find himself tongue-tied. His friends had been worried about him. He'd known that from their calls, emails, and messages. He hadn't thought they'd hunt him down here, like this, in the middle of the day. Just as the whiskey was beginning to numb some of the pain too.
He reaches for his drink, not meeting Karina's eyes. Perhaps something of his despair must have shown on his face, for she hands over the glass to him.
"What happened in London?" she asks, her voice quiet.
Jace downs the rest of the drink.
Arpad takes the empty glass from Jace, sets it aside.
"I fell in love," Jace says.
Karina claps her hands. "I knew it."
She holds out her hand to Damian who hands over a $100 bill.
"Jerry," Arpad calls out to the bartender. "Whiskey. Laphroaig, for everyone!"
Jace tells them the entire story, ending with how Sienna's waiting for him at the Four Seasons later this evening.
"And you are here getting drunk? Are you going to roll in smelling of stale booze and cigarette smoke?" Damian asks, his voice sad.
"I wasn't thinking," Jace replies.
"Of course you can't think straight, you're in love. Which is why you need us to tell you what to do." Arpad tells him.
"You didn’t call us." Karina's voice is stern.
"I'm sorry." Jace swallows the guilt that twists his gut.
He reaches out, touches Karina's cheek, his gesture affectionate, before turning his eyes on Damian, then Arpad.
"I didn't want to worry you—ow!"
Jace looks stunned as Damian smacks him on the head. "Seriously? It's a lot worse trying to chase you down to figure out what the hell is happening."
"While all you did was sulk like a woman with a broken heart," Arpad adds.
"A woman with a broken heart?" Karina turns her gaze on Arpad, who meets it right back.
"A man with a broken heart too." He holds her gaze.
To Jace's surprise, Karina reddens, looks away without retorting.
"This is what you are going to do," Damian says, his voice stern. "Go home, shower. Wear your best casual. Nothing fancy. Comfortable yet fashionable clothes. Then you buy her the one thing you know she loves."
"Buy her what?" Jace asks, mind gone blank.
"What does she love? Flowers? Wine? Woo her, man." Damian slaps him on the back. "For a start-up investor from Silicon Valley, you sure have forgotten the basics of being a man. Of sharing what you truly feel. Have you tried telling her what you told us?"
"Tried telling her what?" Jace asks.
What is Damian alluding to?
Karina bursts out laughing. "That you love her!"
"Ah! Okay." Even as he says it, he knows they're right.
He'd never bothered to woo her. Treat her with the charm and respect she so deserves. Yeah, he's going to make up for it. He's going to make her feel special. Tell her how he feels.
He slips off the barstool, walks past them, heading to the exit.
"Jace," Karina says.
He turns.
"There's one more thing you need to do."
"What?"
"Eric," she says. "He's waiting outside."
Eric's here?
His friends have outdone themselves. They know all he needs is a chance to put things right between him and his friend and business partner. That he'll never forgive himself otherwise.
"You guys are all awesome." He flashes them a grin.
"We know." She blows him a kiss.
He turns and walks out.
Only to be hit by a punch to the jaw that takes him down.
44
Jace
"What the fuck—" Jace groans from where he's fallen on the sidewalk.
A hand grabs him, pulls him up. His vision clears enough for him to see it’s Eric.
He touches the cut above his forehead, winces. "I deserve that."
Eric's fists, raised in front of him to attack again, hover midair, before dropping to the side. "Yeah, you do," he agrees.
"I was an asshole to you." Jace adds. "Was too caught up in my emotions, in what I was feeling for Sienna. I also felt guilty for what I'd done to us, Eric. For running the business into the ground."
Eric folds his arms over his chest, "You made some bad judgment calls. But that's how we learn. Chalk it up to experience," he says. "I won't apologize for being attracted to Sienna," Eric adds. "But I'm here to help you. I'm Sienna's business partner now."
"What?"
A familiar anger flares, then dies. "So, she chose to work with you?" Jace asks, his spirit sinking by the minute. "Are you two—?”
"Business partners," Eric confirms. "That's it. Nothing romantic between us. There couldn't be. Not when she only thinks of you. Sienna loves you. I've seen it in her eyes. Her reaction whenever you come up in conversation. Which is not that often, by the way," Eric clarifies, eyes twinkling with humor.
"She needs you now more than ever." Eric's voice turns serious, "When the entire world is scrutinizing her, judging her. She's putting up a brave front but she could do with a partner. Someone she'll allow herself to lean on."
Is Eric right? Can Jace get Sienna to trust him enough, to let him take care of her? Cherish her? Give her the space she needs to spread her wings and soar.
"You know about the video?" Jace asks. "Who could have done that to her?"
"Tom," Eric says.
"Tom? The guy from the wedding?" Jace explodes, "When I get my hands on him, I'm going to make him pay for this. Make sure he never dares come near Sienna again."
"I called YouTube, had the video taken down." Eric adds.
"Thanks, man." Jace holds out a hand, then changes his mind. "What the hell." Jace throws his arm around Eric's neck, hugs him. An awkward man hug.
"At least hug me properly." Eric swears. "Where I come from men don't hesitate to show their feelings for each other. It only makes you stronger to share what's inside. Know what I mean?" He throws his arms around Jace and lifts him off the ground.
When Eric releases him, Jace says, "You're right. It's what I need to do now. Show her the depth of my feelings."
"Go, she's waiting." Eric waves him on.
45
Sienna
I'm waiting for Jace to arrive in a suite I've booked at the Four Seasons. I'd chosen the most expensive hotel in the city. To make a point.
I want to rub in how much our circumstances have flipped. That now I have the money. I hold the cards. This round is mine.
Yet, my emotions are all over the place, tying me up in knots. I think of him striding into this suite, and my mouth goes dry. Earlier, at the parking lot he'd come straight for me, those eyes burning me up. Those lips taut with desire, the slide of his hair roughened skin on mine. I curl my fingers into the palm of my hand.
Damn!
My thighs clench.
Already I'm aroused, so turned on. And he's not even in the room. Not even here yet.
The bell to the suite goes off, and I start. A shiver of anticipation runs down my back.
Still, I don't go.
I can't.
I'm rooted to the spot.
This is it. Open the door and there's no turning back.
Not till I've faced up to what I feel for him.
I know he wants me. And I want him too. It's the one thing I've been sure about since we first met.
It's what gives me the courage to finally move toward the door and fling it open.
And that's when he takes me by surprise.
He's freshly shaven, hair slicked back as if still wet from his shower.
He has on an open-collared white shirt, over which he wears a khaki colored jacket with sleeves rolled up casually to his elbows, and a fresh pair of jeans fraying at the knees.
He looks calm, composed. Those silver-green eyes still, observant, but with a lingering warmth in them that makes me wary. As much as the bunch of flowers in his hand.
Lilies.
Starlight Lilies, distinctive large petals clustered over delicate filaments.
My favorite flowers. He remembered.
A wall around my heart cracks.
I take the bunch from him, inhaling their honeyed fragrance. Yeah, he's trying to be nice to me. Trying to get through to me.
He's succeeding.
I meet his gaze. A pleased look on his facesays he knows he's surprised me. In a good way.
Then I notice the butterfly bandage above his forehead.
"It's nothing." He shrugs it off before I can ask. "Just went a few rounds with a friend."
"Does it hurt?" I ask, curling my fingers into my palm when I'd have reached out.
"And what if it does? Will you kiss it better?" he asks, voice serious.
The last time we had a similar conversation, also after he'd been in a fight—with Eric—it had led to us making love.
Liquid desire streaks through me as I remember that night.
He tilts his head. His lips curve, those sensuous lips that had brought me to the breaking point. He knows. Knows what I'm thinking.
I bite my lips trying to stop from smiling back in reply. Fail. My head is too full of the scent from the lilies to be angry.
"If I'd known flowers were all it takes to get you to smile, I'd have filled our suite with them." His voice is rough.
Silver-green sparks smolder.
His charm is once more lethal. I let it overpower me. Sink into that potent magnetism that is so uniquely Jace.
Nothing has changed.
Here I was, foolishly thinking I was in control, that I could play him at his own game. I am playing with my own emotions. My feelings for him. I had fallen for him, right from the moment I'd first walked into his penthouse in The 99.
Known already my life was going to change.
I'd resisted him then.
I don't want to resist him anymore.
The events of the last month, the death of my birth mother so soon after I'd found her again, has shown me how fragile life is.
Shown me that I, too, have limited time. That I want to fill my life with moments of beauty, of happiness.
Yeah, Jace made me happy.
Turning, I walk to the window, carefully place the flowers down on the small table. My view from this window is not dissimilar to the one from his apartment at The 99. Except he didn't live there anymore.
The Valley gossip blogs had been full of Jace, the fallen Angel Investor. How he'd broken up with his business partner, then moved out to a more affordable area, joining the 'normal' people.
Jace follows me inside, closes the door of the suite behind him. He walks into the room, stops halfway across the floor.
His stance is hesitant.
And that takes me by surprise.
My eyes swivel to his face. His eyes are clear, his face open. His features are relaxed. He, too, has been stripped of the walls he's put up to the world.
Without money, and with a company gone bust behind him, he feels more approachable. Vulnerable too… Sexy.
Yeah, it's very appealing to see him. See past his skin to the man inside for the first time.
There's also a determined glint to his eyes. He's hit bottom, tasted the bitterness of failure. But he hasn't given up. It's tempered him, made him even more determined to succeed. He'll overcome this setback. Make a new life.
Like me.
Even as I'm thinking this, he says softly, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I didn't mean for it to come out like that. It's just…"
I open my mouth to speak but he stops me with, "Eric made sure the video is down."
It takes me a second to get my head away from that haze that always seems to envelop me when he's around. He means that video.
I redden, and my eyes slide away. I feel exposed, as if I've been caught doing something I shouldn't have. Yet the rational part of me insists it's not my fault. It isn't.
And then a thought strikes me. "You and Eric made up?"
"Yep." Jace nods. "Eric told me he's been helping you, that he's now your business partner.
"Eric and I, we—"
Jace shakes his head. "I know there's nothing between the two of you. I was an asshole earlier, that's all. Jealous and a little insecure that perhaps you'd prefer him to me."
"You're right," I say. "He's everything a girl would want. Strong, reliable, warm. Trustworthy."
"He is?" Jace frowns, eyebrows slashing down. Eyes haunted. Glowing with the beginnings of anger.
An expression I'm already familiar with. So, endearing. My heart twists.
"But he's not for me."
His eyes go stormy, the green swirling in a way that takes my breath away.
"You're beautiful," he says, and I flush.
"No I'm not." The words burst out. "I left you in the lurch. You lost your inheritance, because of me."
"I found you." His voice lowers even more. His words reach out to me, whisper over my skin. It's as if he's touched me across the space.
"Sienna."
I clear my throat, "What?" I ask. My voice comes out husky, aroused.
"You're doing it again."
I stare at him, uncomprehending. His eyes drop to my mouth and I realize I'm biting my nails.
I redden, and he chuckles.
The sound pushes right past the barriers I've put up over the years, touches that secret part of me. So, vulnerable, hidden so deep I've forgotten it ever existed. Until now.
The heat from his body surges over me.
For the first time, he too feels open. Really, open.
The last barrier around my heart falls.
A closeness, a connection, that feels so right.
We've seen life through each other's eyes, been through similar experiences, and this has only brought us closer.
When I move forward, he matches me, step for step.
Then I'm in his arms. His familiar scent, pine and cloves, surrounds me. He holds me close, placing his chin on my head.
A shudder runs through him. I grip him tight, pushing myself as close as possible to him.
Then his palm slides down my arm, sending a shiver down my spine. His fingers settle over mine, toying with the ring I wear.
The one I'll never take off again.
"I love you, Sienna," he says.
My heart stutters. Stops. Starts again.
Tears prick my eyes as he brings my fingers to his lips, kisses the ring.
"I'm sorry I left the way I did, that morning."
"Shh." He brings his finger to my lips. "You don't have to explain anything." That smoldering voice sends shivers down my spine. Will I ever be able to listen to it again and not be turned on?
My eyes lock with his. Silver-green temptation. I shudder as he traces the curve of my lips, then grip his wrist with my fingers, to stop him. "I want to tell you what happened. Why I had to leave that morning. I had a call from India, from my blood family."
After all these years, it's still difficult to accept that my blood family had tracked me down. That my mother never gave up hope of finding me. And she'd survived, waited, hung onto life till we met, till she got to know me again as a daughter.
I swallow the emotions that twist my heart.
His arms tighten around me. My soul mate holds me, as I tell him about going to Bombay. About my family, how my father had been killed while on duty. My mother dying in my arms. About Neil and how he'd taken care of my mother. Neil had loved her, I realize.
"He sounds like an amazing man. I'm glad you went, that you had a chance to meet your mother."
I lean my head against his chest and listen
to the beat of his heart. Strong. Vital. Mine.
Turning my face up to his, I say, "I love you, Jace."
He bends, brushing his lips over mine. A touch. A sizzle. Filled with so much heart. Filled with... the essence that is him. Only him.
I feel safe with him. Protected. Safe enough to surrender to him. With him I am free. To be myself.
"Don't ever leave me again," he says.
"Never." I intend to keep my promise this time.
Epilogue
Three months later
When you lose everything, only to get it back a second time, you'll never take anything in life for granted again.
I fling open the window of the house Jace and I bought a week ago and lean out as far as I can, breathing in the crisp morning air. It's autumn, the colors across the valley reflecting amber and gold.
A dense wave of heat rolls over me and I sense him even before he slides his arm around me. Pulling me close, Jace places his hand protectively over my belly.
Bending, he lifts the hair away from my neck, rubbing his cheek against the delicate skin.
The familiar tug in my belly ... this time joined by a rolling sensation. Tiny waves travel out from my belly button, almost like little bubbles popping inside.
I stiffen, then whisper. "Did you feel that?"
When he grows still, I place my hand over his and we wait, both of us focused on that tiny space inside of me, where life sprouts anew.
Another flutter followed by a tiny punch and I gasp, caught by surprise. The life inside me knows us, wants to be part of our little circle.
I laugh this time, and then gasp when she kicks me as if warning me I only have a few months more before she joins us and takes over our life.
"We're still going ahead with the adoption, aren't we?" I ask, and sense him nod above me. We'd decided to adopt a child the very day I'd found out I was pregnant. I intend to adopt many more. Create a home filled with laughter and love, the way my adoptive parents had for me.