“I do.”
“Right. We know where we stand then.” She’d gotten what she’d aimed for.
“Do we? I don’t know what you think.”
He let himself look at her. She had to know. He’d worn his feelings for her on the outside of his skin all weekend. He reached for her hand and she didn’t pull it away, but colour stole up her neck, into her cheeks.
“You’ve given me a problem, Mace.”
He let her hand go. “I’m sorry about crashing your weekend. As soon as I can I’ll be out of your face. You and Jay can—”
“You are jealous.”
He looked back towards Jay, still engrossed. Dillon was talking at warp speed. Yeah he was jealous, tense and pissed off, when he should’ve been beyond jacked with excitement.
“Jay is my friend. He’s protective of me because he was the one who picked me up when I let a relationship get out of control.” She sighed. “He’s gay.”
He brought his eyes back to hers. He couldn’t stop the obscene grin that near split his lip.
“An hour ago I wanted you gone.”
“And now?”
“Now, I—”
“Mace.” Jay stood in front of them. He held his hand out. Mace stood and took it without risking a breath. “I like what you’ve got. If it’s as good as you say it is. If the business plan holds up under examination, we have a deal.”
He heard the words, but he had Dillon’s ears on and they sounded like a prank. This was Jay Summers-Denby talking about funding his dream.
“You need to develop your pitch skills, but your work is impressive, truly impressive.”
“Thank you.”
Jay waved a hand. “Don’t thank me yet. I’ve given Dillon a list of what I need to take this forward. You’ll work with one of my people. There are a dozen or more failure points before you see any money. Don’t disappoint me, Mace.”
Jay wasn’t the only venture capitalist in town. But he was the best connected. And he was the one making the offer. “You won’t be disappointed.”
“If that’s the case, we stand to make serious money together.” Jay held his arm out to Jacinta and she took it and walked into his hug. “I’ll leave you two to finish your weekend.” He kissed the top of her head and left the room.
When the apartment door shut Mace moved. He backed Jacinta up around the low coffee table till her knees hit the lounge.
She put her hands up to stop him. “You did it.”
“And now? Finish your sentence.”
She rested them on his chest. “You celebrate.”
“That’s what you were going to say?”
“No.” She was breathing quickly, her eyes were skipping over his face.
“Am I scaring you?”
; “No.”
“What do you want?”