Just Before My Wedding: Trapped By My Ruthless Boss novel Chapter 35

Chapter 35

KISAREL.

“I almost thought you were trying to wash your sins away,” I teased the moment he stepped out of the bathroom.

“Jesus, babe.” He stopped dead, genuinely startled, one hand going to the towel at his waist. “How long have you been here??

“Long enough to almost doze off waiting for you,” I replied, my heart already racing.

He crossed to me immediately and kissed me, before pulling back and looking at me with that easy smile of his. “You could have joined me or something.”

He crossed to the vanity and reached for his brush, the surprise already settling into something more comfortable. More like himself.

“Yeah. But no, thanks,” I replied.

We were quiet for a while. I watched him apply his favorite night cologne, with my hands folded in my lap, and waited.

He came and sat beside me, close enough that his warm arm grazed mine. “You’re gradually beginning to become a disobedient girl, you know?”

“How?” I turned to look at him.

“Coming unannounced.” He smiled, “Someone has forgotten her lessons.” He kissed my cheek like he wasn’t offended at all. “And you know how I punish bad girls, huh?” His mouth moved to my ear.

“Haven’t we gone past that?” I pulled back slightly.

“Of course, we have. But that doesn’t mean I can’t punish you for it, you know?” He drew closer again, and I had never been more desperate to switch topics.

“Don’t you plan on dressing up?” I asked, feeling even more uncomfortable with his proximity.

“Not when you’re here…” He teased, drawing closer until his warm body grazed my arm.

I shifted slightly. “It’s a bit cold, don’t you think?”

“I’ll keep you warm, baby.” His lips found my jaw.

“Jace…”

“Mm?”

“I actually came to talk about something.” I pulled back enough to put some air between us. “Something has been bothering me for a while now.”

He sighed against my skin and wrapped his arm around my shoulder, “And what could that be?”

I cleared my throat, “The night I slept here.” I paused. “It felt strange. The way I fell asleep. And I keep seeing these fragments that I can’t fully place.” I forced myself to look at him. “Did I sign any papers that night, Jace?“

so small I almost missed it, so brief I immediately started questioning whether I’d seen it at

For one fraction of a second

all

something moved through his face.

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was gone

He pulled back just enough to look at me properly. “Papers?” He repeated. “What papers

The confusion on his face made me feel immediately, thoroughly stupid.

“I felt myself signing something I pushed through it anyway. I keep seeing fragments of it. A pen. Paper. Your notes something I can’t quite- I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose.

Jace burst into a genuine, delighted laugh that filled the room and bounced off every surface. I sat there and felt my

conviction shrinking with every second he continued laughing.

“What’s funny?” I asked.

“Arel. He tried to stop and couldn’t quite manage it. “Did you also happen to see penguins? Maybe a unicorn sitting on my table while you were busy signing these mysterious papers?”

I rolled my eyes, “It’s not funny”

“Baby” He got himself under control, barely, his eyes still bright with it. “You have been running yourself into the ground- The new job, the trip, everything with your family-” He shook his head. “You need a proper holiday. Seriously.”

His hand came to my jaw, tilting my face toward his, his thumb moving slowly against my cheek. His eyes softener inte something that looked very much like the Jace I had fallen in love with two years ago

“The only papers I would ever get you to sign if given the opportunity,” he said quietly, holding my gaze, are the ones that give me all of you. Every single part of you. Your heart, your body, and your soul. He paused. “That’s it, baby. Thar’s oil

ever want.”

Oh, shit.

My stomach dropped.

He had led us right back to the exact path I had spent all night avoiding, and he had done it so smoothly and so gently that) didn’t even know how to escape it anymore

I smiled and tried to turn away with a light smile. Jace. Stop it. His hand on my jaw didn’t let me

“Why?” His thumb traced my cheekbone slowly. “Why should I stop?” His voice had dropped into that register he used whe he wanted something.

His hand left my jaw and traveled to my waist, pulling me incrementally closer, and then it moved to my back lietings underneath my blouse, his warm palm flat against my spine.

“I miss you, baby,” he murmured against my lips. “Not just this. All of you. The way you laugh. The way you overthin everything” His other hand found the knot of the towel at his waist and loosened it. I miss my girt I want herh

He kissed me.

that specife, involuntary heat that his south

I waited for the warmth that used to come automatically me without effort. The pull. The surrender The need. All of it

But it didn’t come.

my face into the kiss and told my body to respond the way a used to and felt norlog exp

mune and a vague persistent wrongness that I couldn’t les me prrowh

10:35 am Pppp.

Chapter 35

His kiss was tender, careful, and everything a kiss was supposed to be.

But it still felt like a stranger’s mouth.

He lay me back against the bed slowly, following me down, his hands moving over me with a patience and a gentlene normally would have undone me completely.

“I want to make slow love to you tonight,” he whispered against my neck. “Like we have all the time in the world. His lips pressed softly against my jaw. “Just you and me. Like it’s supposed to be”

My stomach turned, but it wasn’t with desire. It was with something closer to revulsion that I immediately felt guilty for feeling and couldn’t stop feeling regardless.

This was Jace. The man I had loved for two years.

So why did his hands on my skin feel like an intrusion?

Why did his tenderness feel like something I needed to endure rather than receive?

I knew why.

I knew exactly why, and I wasn’t going to think about it right now.

I nodded when he pulled back to look at me.

He smiled and kissed me again.

And somewhere between all that, I heard my phone ring. Something in my gut told me that wasn’t a call I should ignore. even though, deep down, I knew Mr. Stark was still angry with me and wouldn’t call me. But the nagging feeling to answer the phone increased when it rang for the second time.

I turned my head slightly toward where my phone sat on the bedside table.

“Ignore it, baby.” Jace’s voice was low and tight against my ear, his breath warm on my neck.

“But…” I tried to protest, but he pushed his length into me in one deep, slow stroke that drove the breath clean out of my lungs and scattered every thought I had been trying to hold onto.

“That’s it,” he breathed. “Right there. Just the two of us.”