Page 175 of The Fire We Make

She smiled up at him. “I didn’t even hear you come in.”

“That’s cause you in your own ‘lil world over there,” he chuckled, stepping deeper in the bathroom.

Joy sighed. It was true. She was in her own world, her guard down as she simply enjoyed it. She hadn’t even realized how much time had passed until she looked down at her phone seeing that it’d been a little over two hours. It wasn’t like her.

“Hey.” Ace pulled her attention back to him with a finger under her chin. “That’s a good thing, baby. It means you’re relaxed. As you should be. You can be comfortable here.”

The tension in her shoulders loosened slightly and Ace grinned, leaning down to take her lips in a slow kiss, his tongue exploring every crevice of her mouth.

“I missed you,” he mumbled against her lips as soon as he pulled back for air.

“It’s been two hours,” Joy laughed as Ace chased after her mouth once more.

“So?” He chuckled and stood straight. “Mind if I join you?”

He was already working the buttons of his shirt, slowly revealing the sculpted planes of his chest and abs.

He removed the gun from the back of his pants, disassembling it before placing the pieces on the counter and unbuckling his belt.

Joy licked her lips, following the movements and enjoying the slow tease.

“I don’t mind at all,” she said softly.

He approached slowly, then slid in behind her.

He released a slight hiss when he lowered into the still very hot water that smoothed into a groan of comfort. With a muscular arm around her waist, he pulled Joy back into his chest until they were flush.

“Not too hot?” Joy asked, leaning her head against his chest.

“Nah,” he replied. “I can take the heat.”

Ace took the oiled cloth from where Joy placed it on the wooden bath tray and began cleaning his own gun.

She smiled as she took her brass knuckles out of the cleaning solution and began scrubbing them.

When she was done, she snatched the cloth from Ace and began cleaning the pieces of her desert eagle, taking her time as she gently wiped down her baby. Ace chuckled but didn't speak on it, content to watch her.

She cleaned then reassembled her gun with expert ease and swiftness.

“How’d you learn to do that?” Ace asked, in awe of how she’d taken apart and put back together the weapon like she worked at the factory.

Joy sighed. “My dad. I had to learn every part of a gun before he let me shoot one,” she said. “‘A weapon is only as good as the hands that it’s in, Princess’,” she mocked her father’s deep twang.

She chuckled and Ace joined her. Not for the first time, he realized how similar their upbringings were. He couldn’t help but think about how perfect they fit together. They say that opposites attract but Ace knew that this was something much more than that. Something kismet and beyond either of their control.

Ace didn't realize how much he’d needed someone like Joy until he had her. His siblings understood his life but there was something different, a special type of pressure that came with being the heir to a criminal organization. A special type of loneliness that came with being feared. His siblings could empathize but they could never relate.

Not the way Joy could.

The discontent that had sat on his chest but never had a name had been replaced with a burning passion he felt for Joy that went beyond having something in common.

They stayed like that for almost an hour, lounging and cleaning until their weapons were immaculate and their skin had pruned.

Joy sighed contentedly. If she were any more comfortable, she’d have purred like a spoiled house cat.

Together, they scrubbed at their guns and knives, Joy wiping them clean and Ace drying them, then setting them on the towel they’d placed outside the tub.

Billie Holiday urged her lover to take all of her over the speaker and Joy couldn’t help but agree.