Beauty and the Gentleman by Lucy Darling

7

Faith

“You okay?” Whitney asks, walking into our room and dropping her bag down. She spent the weekend at Knox’s. They tried to get me to come over and have dinner or something, but I wasn’t feeling it. They need their alone time too. I know when I’m at Ace’s I want all of his attention. At this point I think I’m going through withdrawal.

“I’m great.” I sit up, putting my shoes on. I know Knox is going to pop up here soon. At the moment I don’t think I can watch them be all lovey dovey. Things are so weird between Ace and me right now.

Ace tried to get me to stay at his place a few more times, but the reality is it only makes me miss him more. It’s a reminder that I should be living with him. I’m starting to get pissed about it, but I know how Ace can be. He respects our parents, and I get that. They’ve done so much for us. I hate all this time apart. I’m not used to it. You would think I wouldn’t feel lonely since I live with three other girls, but everyone has their own things to do.

“Are you going somewhere?”

“Yeah, I’m meeting Jason at the Perk.” It’s a small café where the college kids go to study together or catch up. “We’re going to go over our project for Cognitive Psychology.” She gives me a look. Okay, maybe I agreed to partner up with Jason to poke at Ace a bit. I know it’s immature, but I’m still a little upset that he was so casual about his assistant answering his phone.

“You hate group projects.”

“Yep.” When it comes to schoolwork, I can be a bit obsessive. I’m used to things being done a certain way. Which is my way.

I don’t like to let anything sit for any time frame. I want to do it immediately. Oftentimes when I’m in a group project I power through and do most of it myself. It’s not even my partner's fault. I bring it upon myself.

In fact, I’m kind of hoping he’s not going to be mad at me. The project isn't even due for another week. It was something I could focus on and not worry about what’s happening between Ace and me.

I grab my bag before heading out to the coffee shop. My mind as always drifts to Ace. He’s been holding back from me. The next morning after he spanked me it was as though a switch flipped. None of that man I’d seen the night before was there. I even tried to provoke him. It’s a terrible thing to do, but I wanted to see if I could draw it out of him.

He opened a box I hadn’t even realized existed. Now all these hidden desires have come tumbling out. Then he’d gone and put the stupid lid back on. I even loved that stupid nickname Kitten he gave me. I’m sure that when I get grumpy I look like a little kitten to him. He’s twice my size. But the name and the dominant man have vanished.

I don’t understand why he’s hiding part of himself from me. I chew on my bottom lip, trying to make sense of it all. The only reason I can come up with is that it scares him or at the very least he thinks it's going to scare me. If there is one thing Ace will always do it’s protect me above all else. How long has he had these thoughts in his mind? How many times has he had to tuck them away?

Ace has always been sweet and gentle to me. We never really fight either. I don’t know if it’s because we’ve known each other for so long or that we typically feel the same way about things.

I have to get him to break. We haven't talked a ton since he’s been out of town, but I know his schedule was packed from the second he got up ‘til bed. It had to be that way if they wanted to shove all they needed to do into a weekend. He texted some but not his normal amount. He didn’t ask if I was eating or remind me to make sure I charged my EarPods. It’s all silly things, but I do actually love it. What if he’s getting tired of doing it?

The only reminder he did give me was to make sure I’d taken my iron pills. Which I had forgotten.

Still, I thought for sure he would swing by Thursday night to give me a kiss goodbye. Nope. He worked late and went straight home after. This is another reason we should live together. It makes it easier for us to be together when we have the free time.

The only way to test this is to get him to snap again. I need to do something bigger, and the one thing that irritates him the most is other men around me. He’s got a jealous streak in him. I can’t even complain because I suffer from the same thing. Even though we both know the other would never do such a thing, Ace is convinced that someone might up and steal me away from him. He always says that’s what he would have done, but I came willingly to him.

I want all of Ace. Some people may not think you form a bond during sex, but I believe that you do. I want to know Ace on every level. Still, he holds himself back from letting go.

My phone vibrates in my pocket when I get to the coffee shop.

Ace: Landed.

Me: Cool. Busy. Working on a project with Jason.

I hit send and turn my phone all the way to silent before dropping it into my bag. I make my way inside to meet up with Jason. That should do the trick. I bet he has already sent a handful of texts and is most likely on his way here already. I locate Jason and head over toward the table.

“Hey,” he says when he sees me.

I pull out the chair and take a seat. “Thanks for meeting me here.” I know I don’t have a lot of time, so I pull my notebook out to show Jason what I’ve come up with.

“I feel bad. You did almost everything,” Jason says.

“Please don’t. Plus you’re going to type it up for us.”

“All right,” Jason agrees as he packs all of his stuff up to leave.

I glance over my shoulder when the coffee shop doorbell chimes. Ace fills the entire doorway with his huge frame. My body responds to him. That look in his eyes tells me my plan has worked. A thrill swirls through me.

He’s back.