Free RECKLESS - Part 1 by Alice Ward

little. “Is your fiancé normally like that?” he asked, his look indecipherable.
    “Not usually,” I answered honestly.
    He gave a slow, almost imperceptible nod. “Why do you think he behaved that way toward me?”
    “To be quite honest, I don’t really know,” I said. “Before he showed up here, he demanded I quit school and come home. Then, when I refused, he showed up, probably to try and haul me back home by my hair.”
    As soon as the words left my mouth, I clamped it shut. I hadn’t meant to divulge my relationship drama. And I certainly hadn’t intended to paint Sean as the bad guy; he wasn’t really. Just angry. Scared. Worried. I couldn’t blame him, yet my words and the anger brewing in my veins told me that I did, in fact, blame him for behaving so childishly.
    “I—I should go,” I said quietly, standing and pushing my chair in, all the while, refusing to give Jace so much as another glance. But as I passed by him, he reached out and gently clasped my wrist.
    His rough fingers sent a shudder through me, but he didn’t remove his hand. Instead, he stood, his body so close to mine, I could feel the heat radiating off of him. “You deserve more, Andrea,” he whispered softly, bringing his other hand up to my face. With a feather-light touch, he ran a finger from my cheek to my chin. “You are a strong woman, and you deserve a man with confidence, a man that will trust your judgment.”
    A lump caught in my throat, refused to let me speak or swallow. Not that I could have done either. My brain had gone on vacation again, leaving only the heat of his breath, the scent of his cologne, and the spinning room… at least it felt like the room was spinning.
    “But I have a feeling you already know that,” he continued, placing his finger beneath my chin and lifting upward, bringing my eyes to his. “Which would explain your anger and resistance. Such a stubborn firecracker.”
    Every inch of me felt like it’d been lit on fire and all the moisture from my mouth had found its way to the area between my legs as, for a few heady seconds, I thought he might bring his lips to mine.
    Maybe it was the way his chocolate eyes found their way into my soul. Maybe it was the way his touch demanded my complete attention. Or maybe it was just all the pent up feelings I’d refused to acknowledge—the feelings that told me Jace Richardson was, indeed, the god everyone thought him to be. Either way, I’d lost all sense of direction as well as any shred of loyalty I felt to Sean. All that existed was this moment, a moment that would stay with me forever.
    And then, just as quickly as it had come, the moment ended.
    Jace’s eyes clamped shut as he inhaled deeply through his nose. “You need to go,” he whispered, softly. “Before I do something we’ll both regret.” He removed his hands and stepped back away from me.
    I think a pained whimper may have escaped my throat, but I couldn’t be sure. All I knew was that I felt both relieved and rejected, all at once. And my skin still tingled from his touch. He was right; I needed to leave.
    Immediately.
    I’m not sure how I left, or if I even said good-bye. But as I drove away in the cab, his words and his touch settled in, carved out a place of residence in my soul. It was then that I finally realized what had changed: I was attracted to Jace Richardson, and not just in an innocent groupie kind of way. He had the means with which to take everything I’d worked so hard for—the relationship Sean and I had tended and cultivated over the years, my career, maybe even my entire plan for the future—and burn it all to the ground.
    And that meant I needed to stay far, far away.

CHAPTER NINE
    I practically fell through the door to my dorm room. I needed to think. To breathe. To… aw, hell, I didn’t know. I was in fight of flight mode, only the real danger here was myself. And where do you run when you can’t even trust yourself?
    No, scratch that.
    I