He’s waiting for me. He won’t do it unless I want it too. Do you care?
“I don’t care,” I say softly. “Whatever it says won’t change how I feel. How I’ve always felt. If it
weighs on you, burn it.”
He picks up the edge and hesitates. “You’re right, it doesn’t matter.”
The light snaps off.
Jace shifts, fingers stroking the top flap. He wedges one finger under and slides it to the other side.
The flap waves in another breeze. He dips his fingers in and starts to draw out the papers, but I cage his
hand with mine.
What if he thinks it doesn’t matter now but later it does?
Do I want to risk that?
I free the lighter from his other hand and command the flame to rise once more. I do not hesitate. I
draw his hand away and light the envelope. It catches the flame and it curls with the fire. Cinders break
off and float away on a breeze.
We watch each other over the burning DNA results. My skin prickles from head to toe.
When there’s nothing left except us and ash, relief washes away the tension in my shoulders.
Jace closes the distance, brings me in close, and wraps me in his warmth. We hug like this, shifting
from foot to foot and nuzzling closer, closer—
I press a kiss under his ear. It’s soft and light but only for a second. Jace stills.
We look into each other’s eyes, and much like the first time, we stir up a whirlwind of passion.
Kissing, touching, and stumbling to his bed, we collapse. Jace lays on top of me, kicks off his shoes and
pushes mine off with his toes as he kisses me deeply.
Our cocks align and we rut against each other through our pants. Somehow I work off his jacket
and our shirts.
He pulls me into a sitting position, straddling my hips. He kisses me once more and leans over to
pull something out from under his bed.
I rest my forehead against his shoulder and kiss his upper arm. His skin pebbles against my lips.
“What are you doing?” I whisper.
He pulls out a mirrored mask from under the bed and dangles it between us. When it spins, it hits
both our noses.
“This time when we make love,” he says softly. “There’ll be no pretending.”
* * *
Raw, honest, naked. His hot skin presses against mine as we kiss. My fingers push through his hair,
squeeze his neck and skate over his shoulder blades. I press him closer. His greenstone hook is cool
between us, imprinting on my chest.
Jace is right. This is it.
Just us. No masks. No double meanings.
I suck on his neck, drawing in his scent to make it mine. My lips work up to his ear. Our hearts
hammer like music.
I capture his ear lobe and tease it with my teeth. His hips swivel and his hard cock slides against
mine. “I need to be close.”
Jace pulls back enough to look down at me. The heat, passion, and need in his eyes reflects my
own. A swelling tenderness—
He dips and kisses me lightly. “I need that too.”
He kisses me again as he rips open the condom package. My cock throbs as he squeezes me and
rolls it on. He’s generous with the lube and takes his time stroking it onto me. I gasp at the firm, slick
touch, and desire plows through me, jerking me up. I cup his neck and kiss him again, and push him
down onto the bed. My mouth roams his chest, lightly biting his nipples. My fingers run through the
lube at my cock and push at his entrance.
I’m impatient. Needy. I try to be gentle but I drive my fingers into him. He’s pleading me for more.
Nothing is enough. A decade of heat begging to be released.
“Please, Cooper. I need you.”
I align myself and pause, cock nudging his entrance. Our eyes meet. “I love you, Jace.”
I press into him. We both moan. He’s so tight, gripping me so hard. His hands are on my hips,
urging me closer—
Another moan.
Memories crash into me with every thrust. We’re standing in the cave on our toes, arms wide,
imagining what it would be like to fall into the stars.
Like this. It feels like this.
We’re at Rainbow’s End, sitting in the stern of a giant swinging ship. It rocks us so high I think
we’re going full circle. For a second, it hovers. Gravity steals my scream and tickles every inch of me
senseless before slamming back into me as we fall.
I thrust again and again and again, and Jace lets out small pleasured grunts. He arches into me, head
slamming against the pillow as if he’s lost to everything but the love and the mounting pleasure between
us.
I scratch along his arms and urge them upwards, where I knot our hands together. My hips swivel,
my thrusts short and slow.
We are talking on the phone, one of our weekly conversations when he first moved. I am lying on
his bed, the heel of my hand resting on my hard groin.
Then we are in the cave again, and I’m confessing my feelings for him.
As if he can read my mind, he lifts his head and catches my lips into a kiss. “Cooper!”
My name falling so deep and urgent from his lips spikes our passion toward climax. I take hold of
his cock and stroke him in time to my thrusts. The build of his orgasm makes his ass clutch my cock.
We ride the last waves as they peak, peak, peak—
“Jace!” I moan as my orgasm rushes over me, zipping from my groin to my fingertips. Jace lets out
a cry and his body jerks. He spills warm come between us.
I collapse on top of him, his breath panting at my ear and tickling me into a shiver. Jace wraps his
arms around me.
“Beautiful.”
I shift to look at him. He’s looking right back at me. No shame, no doubt, no question in his eyes.
Perhaps he sees one in mine, because he touches my cheek. “I’m sorry I was such a fool. I’m sorry
I thought it had to matter. It doesn’t. All I Want Is You.”
pounamu
Pounamu—also known as nephrite, greenstone or jade—is a balancing stone used to ensure
harmonious relationships.
Uplift and erosion bring these metamorphic stones to earth’s surface. Heartbreak, loss, grief,
friendships, family, and love have led me to this moment. Have brought me home.
Jace and I sit at the dining room table with Dad, Annie, and Mum, who we have invited over here.
Dad’s brows furrow as he cradles one of Lila’s favorite china teacups.
“We asked you here because we want to share something with you,” I say carefully, glancing at
Jace next to me.
He smiles at me, nervous but determined. We’re on our balcony, staring at each other as flickering
flames devour the envelope. “This is the truth,” Jace says.
I glance at Mum and Annie, who give me a soft, understanding nod. They know what this is about.
Annie gives me an encouraging smile, while Mum carefully lifts the teapot and refills Dad’s cup.
“Share?” Dad says, looking between us. “What’s that?”
Jace’s Adam’s apple juts out with a swallow. “Do you have those stones?”
I pull out the stones Jace asked me to bring downstairs, and I line them on the table.
Jace’s lips twitch and he murmurs, “Already in chronological order.”
I smile, rubbing his thigh under the table. He shifts nearer as if to absorb my strength.
He picks up the first stone, small and round. “The first stone I gave Cooper.” He rolls it between his
fingers. “This is when we began.”
Dad frowns but doesn’t say anything.
Jace picks up the blue lazurite, stone of universal truth and friendship. “This was the stone Cooper
collected on my seventeenth birthday.”
“You’ll have to explain better,” Dad says, and sips his tea. “I don’t understand what exactly you’re
sharing.” But his hands are shaking a bit, and I think maybe he’s guessed after all.
Gently, Jace sets the blue lazurite down and gestures to the next stones: limestone, quartz, granite,