by Hazel Parker
“Jace, that was beautiful,” she gushed, allowing him to take her hands in his.
“I was hoping it wasn’t too showy,” he admitted. She shook her head adamantly.
“It was perfect.”
“Good,” he said, rising from his chair and taking her by the hand, “because I wanted everyone to know how I felt, but this part, I wanted to do in private.” Curiously, Jessica followed him out the back doors of the banquet hall to a smaller room off the side, probably normally reserved for smaller parties. The whole room was lit with hundreds of candles, each painstakingly placed so that the room was evenly and warmly lit. Jessica gasped softly as the lights danced in her eyes. Most beautifully of all, a large chandelier hung from the ceiling, catching the flames in its crystals and projecting it all over the room in little diamonds of angelic light. It was serene and heavenly. When Jace closed the door behind them, she also noticed that it was remarkably soundproof.
“Jace, what is all this?” she breathed, covering her open, smiling lips with one hand. Something about it almost made her want to cry, the way her heart was pounding in her chest at a mile a minute. After having marveled at the surroundings for long enough, so finally forced herself to look back to Jace, only to find that he’d gone down on one knee in front of her, holding a small box made of black velvet. She gasped audibly now, sharply, as if startled.
“Jessica Owens,” he began, “you’re the most incredible person I’ve ever met. I want to spend the rest of my life trying to show you just how amazing you are. If you’ll let me, I’d like to dedicate myself to making you happy every day forever.”
“Jace!” she exclaimed, unable to think of any words that weren’t his name, for, at that moment, he was all that mattered to her, all that ever mattered, and all that could ever matter.
“Will you make me the luckiest man in the world and be my wife?”
Jessica couldn’t stop the tears that spilled onto her cheeks now. “Yes!” she agreed without even needing to consider it. He opened the box to show her the ring, a gorgeous thing that matched her tastes entirely. “It’s beautiful; I love it!” she laughed, tears of happiness running down her face as he slipped the ring onto her waiting finger. She took his face in both her hands and bent down to kiss him. “I love you,” she emphasized in the short reprieve they took to breathe. He didn’t break the kiss as he stood, rising with her until they were both standing, Jessica on her tiptoes, with Jace’s strong arms supporting her lower back so she could lean into the kiss even further, pulling him as closely as she could, as her body felt as if it were on fire and only Jace could extinguish the burn. She needed him to survive and thinking about the life she could build with him was nothing short of exhilarating.
“I love you too,” he finally broke the kiss to tell her once they were both out of breath and overly warm. Her cheeks felt pink, and her head was spinning just a little, whether from the lack of air or just the general intoxication of Jace’s presence. He pulled her close to his body, not to kiss her but just to have her, to hold her, to remind both of them that this was where she was going to stay for the rest of his life: right here in his arms. “We should get back out to the party,” he said, and Jessica nodded, feeling no rush to be with anyone but him.
“In a minute,” she promised. “I don’t want to share you yet.”
He nodded, squeezing her tight. “You never have to.” Finally, Jace Oliver, the People’s Choice actor, the man whose life was on television so often that it barely even belonged to him anymore, was entirely, lovingly hers.
She wasn’t sure whether the door was locked behind him, but that was the furthest thing from her mind as she kissed him once more, breathless and desperate and firm. His hands were all over her body, this time with more assurance than the first time they’d probed her like this. She In a flash of fabric and heat, their clothes were thrown to the floor and they sank to their knees in the middle of the pile, still kissing passionately. Gently, careful not to push her onto the hard floor, Jace laid Jessica down on the ground and leaned in to continue the kiss. He trailed his lips from her lips to her jawbone, then down her neck, slowly and tenderly. His breath was warm and panting, eager for every moment that he was spending with her. Jace kissed down her chest, paying special attention to her breasts before trailing the rest of the way down her abdomen and to her bellybutton, where he paused, then skipped to her thighs. There, he pressed big, wet kisses to the insides of her thighs with one hand cupping her crotch, stimulating her with his thumb in circles that made her back arch in pleasure and anticipation. Though she didn’t think anyone could hear her, she tried to bite back her moaning and when she felt that she no longer could, she reached down to him and took his face with her hands, pulling him back toward her own face and wrapping her legs around his torso as he adjusted so that their interlocking parts aligned.
The sex was the best she’d ever had, and she was confident that she wasn’t just saying that because she was so in love. Sure, the love made it better, but the thought had definitely crossed her mind that whatever he was like in bed was what she’d committed to, which had made her nervous for only a fraction of a second, until his hands were all over her and his lips were on hers. Jace was attentive, his thrusting starting off slowly but building quickly until she found herself digging her manicured nails into his back. If that hurt him, he didn’t show it, too distracted by the task at hand: Jessica’s all-consuming pleasure. She was nowhere else but with him, which was something that didn’t happen often: it took a lot to get her out of her own head, particularly when she was naked and vulnerable and in a room where someone could potentially walk in at any moment. In his arms, she felt safe in the danger of it all, and instead of finding the lack of privacy horrifying, it actually added to the thrill of having Jace for the first time. However, she knew that it didn’t matter whether it was here, in a beautiful, romantic ballroom illuminated by the light of a hundred candles, or if they’d gone home and just snuggled up safely under the covers of her bed: all she cared was that she had Jace, every bit of him, to herself.
Even though she figured that the award ceremony was coming to an end right outside the door, even if she couldn’t hear it, they made no rush to get up and change back into their clothes after they’d finished. Instead, they just laid together, her head on his chest and his arm around her body. She could hear his heart beating fast and assumed that her own pulse matched his.
“I love you, Jessica,” Jace murmured, stroking her back gently with the tips of his fingers. She sat up a bit so she could look at him, beaming from ear to ear.
“I love you, too,” she replied, her own tone lighter than apparently his had meant to be, because when she met his eyes, they were wild and sincere.
“I mean it,” he maintained. “There’s no one else in the world like you. I’m lucky—so lucky that I didn’t ruin this. Or, at least that I haven’t, yet.” She laughed.
“You’re not going to,” she reassured. “Jace, I’m not just star struck or charmed by you. You don’t have me fooled into thinking you’re someone you’re not. I’ve seen who you really are. In fact, it’s the only reason I stuck around this long.” She leaned in and pressed a gentle, chaste kiss to his cheek, lingering there for a moment afterward with her forehead pressed to his temple. “And I’m so glad that I did.” He smiled, finally, seemingly convinced for now.
“I’m glad, too,” he said. “And I’m going to do everything I can to make sure I deserve you.” Jessica smiled, shivering a bit in the cold of the ballroom now that they weren’t being so athletic anymore, and Jace took that as his cue to sit up and pass her clothes to her. As much as she didn’t want to leave this moment, she knew that she was doing so with the promise of a million more just like this one: a happy life for herself and Jace, one which she couldn’t wait to begin.
Epilogue: One Year Later
Jace was already home and sitting on the couch by the time Jessica walked in, her hair still pulled up in a pristine, br
aided updo from work, though she’d removed the makeup. He listened to her shrug off her coat and take off her shoes before she made her way into the living room to sit on the couch next to him.
“Hi, babe,” she greeted, leaning in to kiss him before tugging the blanket down from the back of the couch over her thin body.
“Hello, sweetheart,” he replied, setting down the packet he was reading. “How was your day?”
She beamed, something she always did nowadays when he asked her about work, which she’d never done before. If he’d loved the Jessica that persevered through all the crappy gigs she’d had to endure, he loved this happy, alive Jessica who loved her job so much more.
“It was great!” she replied, as always. “My co-star is so talented, and you just have to meet the girl who plays my older sister. She’s so funny, it’s hard to even get through a scene with her without laughing.”
Jace smiled fondly. At every new film set she went to, Jessica immediately made friends, which meant that now Jace had a bunch of new friends, too. It was a rare weekend that they didn’t have a dinner party or a barbecue on the deck with everyone, which he never thought he’d like doing, but was now one of the things he looked forward to most. This was the biggest project she’d done yet: starring in a romantic period piece drama, one whose script she loved, with an all-star cast. Nora had promised that a movie like this would not only make her a standalone household name even without Jace’s influence but would show off her talents and open the gate to more movies just like this one. Jessica couldn’t have been happier at the thought.
“Glad to hear it,” he chuckled, reaching over and squeezing her hand. She adjusted herself to sit up against him and propped her head against his shoulder, pointing at the packet of papers he’d set aside so he could focus more intently on her.
“What are you reading?” He picked it up and showed it to her: Silent Footsteps, the screenplay in which he’d recently auditioned for the part of the lead. She gasped, taking it from his hands eagerly. “Oh, my God; you got the part?”
“Apparently so,” he tried for nonchalance but missed the mark and allowed a little of his excitement to seep into his tone. “I’m playing a Viking warrior whose infant son is taken by thieves, so he has to hunt them down and save his kid.”
Jessica grinned like mad. “I’m so happy for you!” she exclaimed. “You’re going to be amazing at it.”
Jace shrugged. “The nice thing is that it’s a dramatic role, but I don’t have to cover up my tattoos for the part. The director loves them, so I heard, and even put in for some rewrites to give them some backstory in the plot.”
“I told you that you were going to get it,” Jessica gloated. She had, in fact, told him that. There was never a time when she didn’t cheer for him, and she never had a single doubt in her mind that he could achieve whatever he put his mind to. But it was still a new feeling for Jace to be able even to be a realistic candidate for movies like these instead of just being written off as a daytime television actor. It had to be even more jarring for Jessica, he thought, to be cast in a movie for which she previously wouldn’t have even been able to get an audition slot. Nora had taken her on as a client once Jace had told her that they were dating in reality, now, and though she had demanded the fake ring back, she’d been nothing but happy for and supportive of them since.
“I’m hungry,” Jessica declared. “Do you want to get takeout, or should we cook?”
Jace looked at her face, beautiful and delicate. Her eyes were bright and excited to see him, and with her hair up so nicely, some of the loose strands having been tugged down to fall into a perfectly imperfect frame of her face… it’d be a crime to keep her all to himself.
“Let’s go out,” he said. “Anywhere you want to go.”
Jessica quirked an eyebrow. “What’s the occasion?”
“Just that you’re perfect,” he said, standing and then offering a hand to lift her to her feet, “and I love you.” Jessica rolled her eyes but still blushed when he placed a tender kiss to the base of her jawbone.
“I love you, too,” she smiled. As happy as she always was when she came home from work, Jace couldn’t help but notice that she managed to glow even more brightly as soon as she began to talk to him, like there was a secret flower of happiness inside her heart that only he could open, and when it spread its petals, the shimmer from inside was enough to bathe a room in sunlight and warmth. It made every day happier, every situation more manageable, and the future just that much brighter.
Yours Only
Chapter One: Anna
It had taken Anna Diaz a long time to develop a taste for black coffee, but somewhere between the start of nursing school and now, she’d been converted from an herbal tea fanatic to an avid coffee drinker. She could feel the eyes of her coworkers at the hospice center on her back as she poured her third cup of the night not even two hours into her six a.m. shift, but she didn’t care if they judged her; she needed this. Being fresh out of nursing school had a lot of downsides, not the least of which being that the more senior nurses got the better shifts and the newer ones got what was left. Everyone told her to count her blessings that she wasn’t working third shift, but she actually thought that she might enjoy that—she’d never been an early morning person. Glancing at the clock, she noticed that she still had a few minutes before she had to make her next round, so she allowed herself time off her feet to sit at the nurse’s station next to her friend.
“You sure can hold your caffeine,” Josh teased, his dazzling smile instantly improving her mood just like it always did.
“I’m pretty sure I could mainline this stuff and still take a nap,” she admitted around a yawn. She’d stayed up later than usual the previous night and was paying for it now, but she just hadn’t been able to put down the book that she was nearing the end of until it was finished. He laughed.
“I think that’s a sign that you need more sleep.”
“Probably,” she agreed, “but then when will I catch up on my favorite shows? I practically frickin live here.”
Josh lifted his cup of coffee in a sort of mock toast. “I’ll drink to that,” he declared, touching his paper coffee cup to hers before stretching and standing after a quick glance down at his watch. “Ready for rounds?”
Anna couldn’t help but groan in reply, but she nodded, downing as much of the hot coffee as she could manage in one swig before following him out of the room and down the hallway to the pharmacy to pick up the medication cart. That was another adjustment that she’d had to make: most of her patients here were on high doses of pain medications all the time. In nursing school, it had been drilled into her over and over that she should always try to give patients over-the-counter painkillers before asking a physician to prescribe an opioid, but here in hospice, the rules were a little different. Everyone here, as qualifying criteria, had to have a prognosis of six months or less to live. It was sad, but at the same time, it was a little freeing not to have to worry about anything but keeping patients comfortable and happy in their last days. Even on her worst days, she loved it.
Rounds were always fast. It was muscle memory, by this point, to make sure everyone’s vitals were stable and to refill automatic infusion pumps as needed. Because of both the medications and the time of day, she usually didn’t talk to patients very much for the first few hours of her shift. There were always a few early risers who wanted to chat, but other than that, she worked in relative silence aside from her breaks and the few encounters she had with coworkers, but even those were pretty quiet so as not to disturb the sleeping patients. She would likely be on first shift for at least another six months, she knew, when a few of the more senior nurses were leaving, and new nurses would be hired. Not that she didn’t like her job as it was, but she often used that thought as motivation to keep working hard even when she was too tired to think straight.
After her rounds, which had been boring and routine as usual, Anna made her way to the front desk to s
ee what else was on the itinerary for the day but was sidetracked when a family entered through the front doors. Their shoes squeaked on the linoleum, wet from the rain, and the man and woman who approached the front desk looked relatively young and a little confused.