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THIRTY-THREE

Violet

“Trust me?”

No more frightening words have ever been spoken.

Ever.

But Ace has paused, his fingers wrapped loosely around mine, his eyes an unfathomable deep brown from the illumination of the twinkly lights hanging overhead.

And he’s waiting.

Not pushing.

Waiting for me to decide the answer to that question.

Completely patience as I sort through my thoughts.

But even as I do exactly that, I watch it creep into his handsome face.

The uncertainty—or maybe it’s the certainty.

That he’s going to fuck up. That it will be his fault.

“Yes,” I say before more than a tendril of that forms in his expression. I step closer, pressing my front to his, kissing him because it feels as though I’ve just launched myself off the top of a mountain with only a squirrel suit to break my fall and I need him close.

I need his lips on mine, his arms around me, his soft groan on my tongue.

Reminding me that he’s strapped on a suit and jumped right beside me.

“Get a room!” I hear Noble call and pull back, my lungs working hard.

Ace glares at him then tugs me forward, away from the bar, away from the party happening beneath the tent and twinkly lights, and I feel obliged to say, “I don’t think he meant to get a room right now.”

Though, I wouldn’t mind it, precisely.

It’s just…we’re in the middle of a wedding and we really should be keeping up the energy on the dance floor, doing our best to make sure everyone’s having a good time.

Especially since Jenny has clearly reached her limits of social interaction for the day and could use a break.

Ace just glances over his shoulder and the heat in his eyes has my words about going back and checking on Jenny stoppering up in my throat.

Then we’re on a darkened path, my heels clicking, the lights fewer and farther between the longer we walk. The noise fading, seclusion closing in.

Apart from the wedding taking place on the opposite side of the green, of course.

But that’s so far away now it barely registers.

I can’t hear the music, no guests are milling around.

It just Ace and me because the rest of the world has disappeared.

“Um,” I say, “is this you channeling your inner serial killer, off to take me into the woods and—” He glances down just as I draw a finger across my neck. “Or do you have another reason for bringing me all the way out here?”

“Kind of like that beautiful head on that beautiful body, baby.” He bends, flicking out his tongue then dragging it along the path I’d just traced with my finger. “So yeah, I have another reason to bring you out here.”

I shiver, heat bleeding out, spreading through my body. “Um, going to clue me into what that is?”