“You like cake?” I ask, while holding the door into the building open for him.
“Who doesn’t?” He grins—the panty dropping one.
Sigh.
Anita buzzes us in, and I can’t help but notice the knowing glance she gives us as we pass her.
“Um, you want to call the elevator?” Jace raises a brow with his lips twitching.
I blush and quickly step forward to press the call button. I seriously need to get my act together before reaching my uncle’s office. I seem to be a blundering idiot today.
Seeing the elevator is on its way down, I turn to Jace and ask, “Weren’t you on your way out?” I frown.
Jace stays quiet.
He was, and I’ve delayed him. “If you pass the cakes to me, I’ll make it upstairs on my own without dropping them.”
The elevator arrives and Jace dodges by me and my reaching hand as he steps inside.
I, of course, follow. I have a feeling that I’d follow him anywhere.
“I’m not,” he looks between the cakes, “letting these babies out of my sight until I’ve sampled some of each.”
“Is that right?” I lean against the wall, but get the feeling he’d prefer to sample something else.
As the doors close, I feel my chest tighten. The elevator is slow, and the longer I’m trapped inside with Jace, the more I want to fidget. Not just the fact that I hate elevators because of the enclosed feeling, but because the heat from Jace is all-consuming. I’m not even sure he knows what he’s doing to me. At least I have a distraction from one of my biggest fears.
Meeting his gaze, I can’t quite keep the panic from entering my eyes.
Jace straightens and takes a step closer when the doors whoosh open.
I jump out and try to place a smile on my lips but with the look Jace is giving me, something tells me I’ve failed.
“Savannah, what a lovely surprise,” Uncle Ned calls from the hallway moments before he pulls me into his arms in one of his bear hugs. Putting me away from him, he looks me over. “You look pretty…now tell me what brought you down here today?”
At this moment, Jace steps out of the elevator brandishing the cakes just as the doors start to close.
My uncle’s face lights up as he swipes the red velvet out of Jace’s hands.
“Hey, now,” Jace protests.
“She’s my niece, so I get to choose first.”
I laugh at the two of them not wanting to share.
“Besides,” my uncle pointedly stares at Jace, “I thought you’d left.”
Jace grins. “I did, until I spotted homemade cake in the parking lot.” Jace winks at me, and my heart thuds in my chest.
“Hmm, I suppose I can offer you a slice…but only one.” My uncle turns and disappears into his office with the baked treat.
“We better follow,” I suggest, “or there won’t be any left.”
“Wait.” Jace ignores the laughter in my voice as he grabs hold of my arm. His voice and expression turning serious, “Are you all right?”
I stare up into his eyes and I want to say something. I want to tell him how I’m unsure about everything…how I’m unhappy about being engaged. The words hover on my lips and just as I’m about to say them, I hear Richard’s demanding voice snarl, “What’s going on?”