Page 90 of The Fire We Make

She bit down on his lip hard, the pain making him buck his hips into her.

He’d never come in his pants before but at 34, he might if Joy didn’t stop.

Joy broke the kiss, her lips trailing to the base of his neck, kissing and sucking on the skin there before she sat back fully, her hands rested on Ace’s shoulders as they caught their breath.

“You think you wanna know me?” she panted, her eyes blazing. “You think the reality will live up to whatever fantasy you’ve made up in your head?”

“I know it will.”

“What if I told you I wasn’t good?”

Ace shrugged. “I wouldn't care.”

Joy scoffed. “No?”

Ace shook his head. His vision was hazy with need and the restraint needed not to take her on this bench in his grandparents’ front yard. His grip on her waist tightened when a sinister smirk spread across her smeared crimson lips.

With eyes crazed and hard, she retrieved the discarded blunt from the bench beside them and before Ace could even inquire about her intentions, the searing heat of the tip of it singed the base of his neck where Joy had kissed him only a few moments before.

His eyes widened but he held her eye contact with a hard dick as he accepted the pain.

She held it there until he winced.

As if the sound snapped her out of her daze, Joy pulled back abruptly. Dropping the blunt in the grass like she was the one who’d been burned.

“I-…” she breathed, horror making her almond shaped eyes round like the full moon above them. “I’m so sorry, are you hurt?”

“I’m fine,” Ace assured her. His tone cool and collected, unlike someone who’d just been burned with the butt of a blunt. “It’s okay.” He held her hands as she tried to remove herself from his lap.

She snatched away from him. Her breaths came quicker, shock and panic making her more frantic than Ace had ever seen her,

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me. I-I might’ve drank too much,” she tried explaining her action away. Ace had watched her nurse two shallow glasses of champagne all night. Alcohol wasn’t the cause for the sadness and sick thrill whirling in her eyes.

“It’s okay,” Ace promised again, his voice soft as he tried to soothe her. “Just sit back down, baby.”

Joy shook her head so rapidly that her bun loosened. “I-I gotta go. Tell April I left when you see her, please.”

“Rose,” Ace called but she was damn near sprinting towards the circular driveway. “Joy!”

For the second time since they’d met, he’ watched her run off after fucking with his mind. He watched her run from him and her own desires she wasn’t ready to accept yet.

Ace sighed and leaned back, wishing he had another blunt. Instead, he remained where he sat, flicking his lighter open and closed, savoring the taste of her on his tongue and the pain from her burn.

Chapter Twenty-Three

If Joy’s eyes could shoot lasers, Ace and Stephanie would have burst into flames on the spot.

Through the glass pane beside her office door, she had a perfect view of Ace as he stood at Stephanie’s office door, engrossed in conversation.

Stephanie’s smile was wide and she looked up at him like a god that had graced her with his presence.

Joy’s vision was washed in a hue of green as she watched the pair interact closely and she couldn’t help the envy that sat on her chest.

Stephanie was probably the type of woman Ace needed.

Physically, there weren’t many differences between them. They were both beautiful and elegant but Stephanie seemed…brighter. Softer. She didn’t exude a darkness that made people wary of her like Joy did. Aside from her slight cattiness towards Joy, she emanated the soft feminine and sunshine that put people at ease.

She looked normal.