A Reckless Note (Brilliance Trilogy #1) - Lisa Renee Jones Page 0,86
I’m finally there, there’s a line from hell.
I twist around and head back into the crowd, but I just can’t go back upstairs. I can’t do it. I lean against a wall beside the DJ stand. I shut my eyes, fighting tears that I blame on the tequila. Kace doesn’t get my tears. A tingling awareness has my lashes lifting as Kace steps in front of me. He folds me close, his hand on my face, cheek against my cheek. “Whatever you think that was, it was not. I am crazy about you, Aria.”
I want to believe him, I do, but I’m terrified of being wrong. I press on his chest, feeling as if I’m suffocating in all his perfection that might not be perfect at all. He isn’t having it. He catches my hand and starts walking, taking me with him. We maneuver through the crowd and don’t stop until we’re not only at the exit, we’re outside the building, beside the Escalade. Kace waves Dan off and I don’t know where he goes, but Kace turns me and presses me against the building, his powerful legs shackling mine. “I do not want her. I have not ever touched her, kissed her, or considered any of the above. I want you. Just you. And this isn’t where I planned to do this, but baby, I’m telling you now. I want just you.”
“Then what was that, Kace?”
“I don’t know what the hell that was, but I won’t have her at the future shows. I didn’t expect that. I didn’t invite that.”
“As you say about Alexander wanting me: she wants to fuck you.”
“I’ve never heard you say that word.”
“Tequila and her is a bad combination. It felt like there was more to that than her wanting you. The words she sang.”
“Maybe she wants me.”
“Maybe, Kace?”
“I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter. She doesn’t matter. You matter.”
“I’m still really upset right now, Kace. She embarrassed me. And I felt like—I felt bad and—”
He kisses me, drugs me with his tongue and taste, and all I can do is what I always do: melt for him. It’s terrifying. It’s wonderful. It’s insanity, but it always feels so good. “I want you,” he says, when our lips part. “Just you. I don’t want you with fucking Alexander or anyone else. We are together now. Say it.”
“You want—”
“Us. Exclusive. You and me, baby. I want you with me in California. I want you with me in Paris for Christmas. I want you with me. Say it. We’re together.”
All the reasons I’ve ever had to say no to this man become yes in that moment. “We’re together.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Kace and I don’t stay at the party.
Dan and Savage drive us back to the hotel and the minute we’re in the room, we’re all over each other. We end up in the bed, naked, a new intimacy between us, tenderness, passion, lust, friendship—it’s all there. We sleep late Sunday and plan to find a fun lunch spot. We’re actually eating tacos on an outdoor patio when Kace brings up Gio. “Savage arranged to have his boss Blake Walker meet with us Tuesday in New York. It’s the soonest he could involve Blake and Blake is a world class hacker. The kind of man that finds men wherever they may be hiding. Not that Gio is hiding. I know the delay sucks, but—”
“Thank you, Kace.”
“I would have helped sooner, but I didn’t realize until last night how worried you were. And Monday gives you time to pull together anything you think might help Walker find him.”
“Yes. Yes, that works.” What also works, I think, is the time this gives me to decide what to tell everyone, including Kace. I’ve lied to him about who I am, but I think he’s the kind of reasonable man who will understand why. For now, today, I just want to enjoy Texas with him. And so I do. We do. It’s a wonderful day and we don’t board the private flight home until nearly seven, which will put us home at midnight.
We sleep most of the flight and when we land, we load up in his car and head to his apartment. Tomorrow, I’ll go home. Not tonight. Tonight, I sleep in his bed, his real bed, with him.
Come Monday morning, I wake to Kace wrapped around me, and a call from Alexander that I decline, but it drives home a bit of reality. I have to attend to my customers. I have