The Centre - a Home for Pembroke (bxb+/poly)

6. Not So Perfect Timing

⚫️ J A C E ⚫️

Shit! What was I thinking?! Bad Jace! Bad, bad, bad!

I stood up to follow Vance out of the room.

I knew I just royally fucked up, I've never heard Vance's voice so hard, so pissed.

I couldn't know for sure that Pem would submit to me, but something was giving me the vibe, the way he leaned into me when I was checking his head or the way he looked at me when he came out of the bathroom the first night.

It's like he wanted to submit to me, almost like he needed to.

🌟 P E M 🌟

"Wait!" I rasped out, still trying to catch my breath from Jace's impalpable hold on me.

I stood up, my knees weak, fingers trembling. I felt like a newborn fawn walking for the first time.

I stood in front of Jace, he was slightly taller, about two inches, our chests barely touching.

Looking at his neck, I whispered, "I just need to know, will you hurt me?"

I watched as his Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed, he slowly raised his hands and then placed them on both sides of my face, cupping my jaw.

"No, never again, Pem," he whispered back to me.

He deliberately lifted my chin; my eyes followed up his neck, past his strong jaw, over his supple pink lips, all the way up to his mesmerizing blue eyes, framed by thick brown lashes.

"Please believe me when I say that I'll never hurt you again. I was a stupid kid back then and didn't stick up for you. You trusted your bother and me to have your back but we let you down, horribly," he took in a labored breath. "It will never happen again."

I stared into his eyes, they were so genuine, honest. This wasn't the same Jace that I grew up with, he's changed. As he looked back at me, his eyes watered, I saw the remorse; the guilt that was eating him up inside.

When I blinked, I felt a tear slide down my cheek. I didn't even know that I was crying. He took the pad of his thumb and wiped the drop away. I felt it smear across my face as another one slid down, he wiped that one away as well. Soon enough, tears were streaming down my face and he was attempting to wipe them all off, but there were too many, too fast.

His brows creased as he bit his top lip into his mouth in concentration. I started chuckling as his determined face, and then I couldn't control it any longer. I started belly laughing, I gripped my stomach with my hands as my gut clenched with hysterics.

He squinted at me, searching my face, trying to figure out what was going on; then he started laughing, low at first and then hysterical like I was. We stood in the quiet room, the only sound was our side splitting howls escaping our mouths.

He had one arm over my shoulders as my arm was wrapped around his taught waist, leaning into each other as tears escaped our eyes as the force of our laughter overtook us.

Only after I caught my breath and calmed down, did I realize how crazy we must've looked. I glanced around the room, still gripping Jace's shirt around his waist. Mostly everyone was staring at us in confusion. I noticed that Milo was beaming at us, and I smiled back at him.

"Ummm...does someone want to fill the
rest of us in on the joke?" Fox hesitantly giggled as he asked the question.

Jace shook his head next to me. Still chuckling, he looked over to me, one brow raised, "It's your story to tell...it's up to you, Pem."