~JACE~
Tanner’s talking.
Something about his brother’s birthday party last week, a helium balloon arch catching on fire, and how it ended in a fistfight with a pro-golfer. I think. I don’t know. I stopped listening ten minutes ago.
I’m too busy not throwing a plate against the wall.
The dishwasher clicks open beside me, steam curling out. Tanner hands me a dish towel and I dry the same fork three times before realizing what I’m doing.
Outside, the rest of the guys are setting the table on the patio. Someone’s lighting candles, someone else is salting the meat on the grill with way too much enthusiasm, and I’m two seconds from losing my fucking mind.
“You good, man?” Tanner asks, squinting at me.
“Yeah.”
Lie.
“You’re grinding your teeth like you’re chewing glass.”
“Just hungry.” I shrug.
Another lie. I’m not hungry. I’m starving and furious. Starving for Melody. Furious because of Zed.
The sound of her laugh from outside makes my knuckles whiten around the plate I’m holding. I can’t fucking focus. Not when Zed’s little tease keeps replaying in my head like a goddamn virus.
I can’t stop imagining another man touching her—or even thinking about it. And that fucking dementor, Zed, planting the idea in her head like it’s right.
Something inside me twists. I’m jealous, sure. But I’m also getting possessive. I don’t just want her body—I’m past that. I’ve been past that since the second month of texting. Now I wanteveryone to know she’s mine. I want to be the only one who gets to plant little fucking fantasies in her head. The only one who ever gets to.
And Ghost? Fuck him too.
Because she gives him things—things she won’t give me. She talks to him, confides in him, fantasizes about him. AndJaceis just the brainless asshole she fucked last night.
I know she thinks she’s cheating on Ghost with me. And cheating on me with Ghost, maybe? I don’t know. The point is, I let her—because I can’t give either one up without her shutting me out for good.
I grab another plate and set it down a little too hard. Tanner flinches and looks at me.
“Maybe sit this one out, man. You’re about to shatter the dishes.”
“I’ll help you load up the dirty ones,” I say absently, wiping my hands on a towel.
My jaw aches. Didn’t even realize I was clenching it this hard.
I walk to the window and stare outside.
There she is. Laughing at something Dom said. Hair curled, legs crossed, glowing like she didn’t just give me a mental breakdown a couple of hours ago. She hasn’t looked at me since. I triedto talk to her—she ignored me. I texted her as Ghost—cold shoulder.
Is it because of what Zed suggested? She tried one of her brother’s teammates out, and now she wants to hop on another?
No, that isn’t it.Then what the fuck is it?
“She’s real cute, but she’s not worth it, bro,” Tanner says from behind me. I turn to look at him and he shrugs. “Dom’s sister. That’s who you’re looking at, right?” He huffs out a laugh, shaking his head. “Hey, I’m not judging you. The whole team’s talking about her. But we know better than to stick our dicks into the Captain’s family.”
“Yeah,” I mutter.
My chest tightens. My fists curl.
No one sticks their dick in the ‘Captain’s family’ but me.
