More of You (Confessions of the Heart 1)

“You don’t know what you did, Jace Jacobs. The pain you caused. And now you’re back, and you think I’m gonna stand here and watch you hurt my daughter all over again? You might have rolled up here in a fancy car and wearing a fancy suit, but that doesn’t change who you are.”

I whirled all the way around to face him, anger coming off me in menacing waves. “Are you joking right now? Have you forgotten why I left? You were there that night, remember?”

“Yeah, I do remember.” There was a threat behind it. “It was the choices you made that got you there.”

A disgusted snort blew through my nose. “You don’t know the first thing about me. You never have. You saw what you wanted to see, just like the rest of the town. If you knew me at all, you’d know the last thing I want is to cause Faith any more pain.”

I was there to stop more of it.

Do my best to fix what had gone wrong.

His gaze narrowed. “Is that so? Then what exactly are you doing here?”

My attention swung to the car.

Faith was angled to the side, watching us, like she was trapped inside.

My eyes flew back to her father, hard and emphatic.

“I’m here to fix what Joseph wrecked.”

Uncertainty blanketed his face. “What are you saying?”

My head shook. “Don’t act like you didn’t know Joseph was rotted to the core. Or did he have you blinded, too?”

Her father fidgeted.

“And you thought he was what was best for her, didn’t you?” I continued, unable to stop the accusations from dripping from my tongue.

“You were the one loaded down with all that shit.”

You have no idea the circumstances. What I was protecting, I wanted to scream. I didn’t. I knew it wouldn’t matter, anyway. It wouldn’t change who he thought I was.

Disgusted, I started walking backward as I faced him, my head held high.

Right where it should have been back then.

“Think you should know, I’m not the same scared, pathetic kid I was back then. I cower to no one, least of all you. I’m not going anywhere.”

Not until I was sure their world was a safe place. Until I could give back a little of what I’d stolen.

The asshole almost grinned. “We’ll see.”

Twenty-Five

Faith

Jace hustled around the front of his car after he passed off the key to the valet.

I shivered watching him, the way his lithe body moved beneath his fitted dark-gray suit, his face striking in the spray of headlights that lit him up like he was supposed to be the jaw-dropping finale of some Fourth of July fireworks display.

At least that was the way he left me.

Feeling awed and stunned and a little stupefied.

Foolish girl.

But it didn’t matter how much I chastised myself or tried to scold my thoughts into submission.

It didn’t matter how many times I tried to tell myself it was too soon.

That I wasn’t ready.

That I was never going to be ready for someone like Jace Jacobs.

The reaction was the same when he got to my side, opened the door, and reached in to help me out.

I let him wrap my hand in his.

Heat flashed up my arm at the contact, and my breath left me on a stuttered rasp, every inch of me shaken by the force of the energy that roared. So loudly I could hear the howl of it in my ears.

He helped me onto unsteady feet, and still I wobbled forward.

“You okay?” he asked, his own voice seeming a little strained, which I was betting had a whole lot to do with whatever my daddy had told him back at the house.

I’d warned my father not to say a word. Told him I was grown, and I could make my own decisions and that I got to make my own mistakes, too.

The fact he obviously hadn’t listened had made me angry, but I’d decided to hold back, figuring it was better to let them get out whatever the two of them needed to say to the other, anyway.

Jace had my hand clasped in his, held between us and up close to his chest, watching me with concern where he stood a few inches from me. That space between us felt just as heavy as the night.

I swallowed hard. “I’m fine.”

“Are you sure about that?” A tease glinted in those copper eyes.

Getting away from the house had seemed to lighten Jace. Something easy gliding into his demeanor the farther we’d gotten away from Broadshire Rim. Maybe, to him, it’d felt as if we’d been leaving the threat behind.

To me, it was as if I were getting the chance to put some distance between all the grief and hurt.

I huffed out the semblance of a laugh. “Um . . . no, Jace, I am definitely not sure that I’m fine. But I’m tryin’ to be.”