I knock on the door, an unfamiliar action for me as I've been walking in without knocking for the past 7 years. Please be home, please. I sign in defeat. He's not home. I reluctantly start walking back down the path, I start shivering from the coldness of the rain. "Hello?" I hear the voice I've been longing to hear all night, I breath out in relief, I turn to him.
"Jace" I whisper out. His eyes widen when he realises its me. "Clary!" He rushes out and crushes me in his bear hugs that I've missed. "Clary, you're freezing! Come on get in." Putting his arm around me, he leads me inside. Even though its only been a week, I've really missed him. He leads me into the living room, "Coffee?" He offers.
"Yeah" I whisper, almost inaudibly, "Thankyou" He smiles, and walks out. I look around the room I've been in a million times before whether it's watch movie marathons or if one of us is going through a hard time and we'd talk for hours on this very couch. But it doesn't feel the same. Something's changed.
Last week, one of the buyers of my paintings and Jace and I's former classmate, Sebastian asked me out. Naturally Jace wasn't very happy about it. It wasn't really news to anybody that me and Jace liked each other, but neither of us acted on it, I just wanted Jace to make the first move but it never happened so I guess I only accepted Sebastian's offer because I was trying to make him jealous. Well, one would say that my plan didn't really go according to plan. We got into a huge argument and I stormed out and we haven't spoken to each other since then. Looking back at it now, it seems petty.
Earlier today, I invited my best friend since kindergarten and also Jace's sister, Isabelle, to help me get ready for my date because let's face it, my fashion sense is non existent. She lent me a short, red, backless dress to wear. When she was finished she left, saying that she "didn't want to get in the way" only then sending a very cryptic wink my way, then knowing that she didn't mean that quite so innocently as I thought. Then it was just me, sitting in my small living room, waiting for that small hand on the clock reach 7 and then I would hear the door buzzer go off to invite him up and then he would take me to the nice restaurant downtown like he said in my shop. When the hand reached 7, there was no buzz, thinking that he was just caught up in traffic. It was then at 7:45, when Sebastian sent me a very blunt text that basically meant that he wasn't coming and had chosen an hour after he was suppose to pick me up to text me to say he couldn't make it, and a sarcastic reply from me that would no doubt be harmful to his ego, that I realised how stupid I've been that I had gotten into a fight with my best friend over an asshat like him. I got my jacket and rushed out, I didn't even realise it was raining. I tried to run through it but I mostly work from home and my undeniable love for unhealthy foods, I'm incredibly inactive so I just let the rain soak me, believing that it was just punishment for being a bad friend.
"Clary! Hey, you back with me?" Jace chuckled half-heartily.
"Yeah sorry" I said, shaking my head. Jace pulls a very soft blanket around me, that I might have to steal from him, and hands me an inviting cup of coffee. "Thanks" I say sheepishly. He nods at me. There's soft music playing on the iPod dock, Fall For You by the Secondhand Serenade, I smile and point it out to him, "Nice choice."
He scoffs, "Haven't you met me?" I laugh and roll my eyes. Jace walks round the expensive looking glass coffee table, of course I know it's expensive, he practically begged me to go furniture shopping with him. He just sits next to me and just stares at me. I look around wandering why he's staring. "What?" I ask him, he know I hate it when people stare at me.
"So your not gonna tell me what happened?" he just keeps staring. But me being me, I don't like being wrong.
"With what?" I try to play dumb but I know its not gonna hold out. "Come on, Clary, I know your date with Sebastard was tonight, and apparently you were very excited about it and yet your here all dolled up, looking very beautiful I might add." He paused then, having realised what he just said. He cleared his throat and continued, "I was talking to Isabelle the other day, she wouldn't shut up about it. Either, you and Izzy lied about that date, or you flaked because of me. So, which one is it?" He looked at me, with a smug look plastered on his face.
I was still flushed from his compliment, I nearly turned away but I didn't want to give him the satisfaction. "Neither actually, and as much as it pains me to say this, you were right from the beginning" A puzzled look crosses his face.
"Of course I am, but in which part?" I pick up my iPhone from the coffee table and scroll through my text conversations and click on Sebastian's text and hand my phone to Jace.
He smirks and laughs "Ahh that's my girl, I am sorry though, Izzy said that you were excited about it" he says quietly. He hands me back my phone.
I breath out heavily, "Nahh, well to be honest, I didn't really like him" The crease between his eyebrows deepens, I lean over and smooth it out with my thumb before I even know what I'm doing, Jace grabs my hand. I look up at him his golden eyes already burning into mine, his eyes narrow.
"You were trying to make me jealous" His smirk widening with every second I'm not denying it, his eyes widen, "you WERE!, Clarissa Fairchild, you horn dog. I knew you couldn't resist me" he says very proudly.
I gape at him and I thrust my finger in his face, pointing at him, "Only because you tried to make me jealous first, so you have no right to do that annoying smuggy smile!" Still keeping my finger pointing at him.
He looks taken back just for a second and then his stupid smirk crosses his face. He reaches up grabs my hand, and there it is. That stupid spark that I've been feeling for the past couple of years, "I'm not denying that, only because, Clarissa, you are an incredibly stubborn woman but one that wont admit her true feelings." His grin grows, if that was even possible.
"And what would my true feelings be then?" I raise an eyebrow, that little something I learned after college, yes I have done so much with my life. "Youuu like me" Jace's inner 5 year old comes out.
As it turns out, being stood up for a date, completely ruins your good mood and the ablity to joke about liking someone. But it isn't a joke. And he knows that. "Jace come on." Pulling my hand out of his, only to have him tighten his hand around it, "Jace, let me go" He frowns at me, "what's wrong? Clary?" He goes to grab my other hand but I pull it away.
"I'm just tired, I think I'm gonna get going" I stand up, picking up my phone and I start walking towards the front door.
"No, your not going to do that, your not going to leave me like this again. I like you Clary okay, there I said it. Isabelle told me that you wanted me to make the first move. So here you go, I'm making the first move." We stare at each other, my emerald eyes meeting amber.
He slowly moves his way towards me, and stopping just a few inches away from me. Never breaking eye contact. He reaches up to a stray curl that had come loose and tucks it behind my ear, keeping his hand on my cheek. I close my eyes and lean into his touch laying my hand over his and lacing my fingers between his. Just as he leans in, Cut by Plumb starts playing. Our song. We danced to this at Senior Prom. I look up at him. He remembers. Our gazes remain locked "Dance with me Clary" He whispers. "Always" I breathed, repeating what I once said to him all those years ago. He chuckles lightly as he places his hand on my back pulling me closer to him, I place my hand on his shoulder and my free hand sliding down his arm till our hands finally meet.
We start moving, our bodies in perfect sync with each other. As the song progresses, I let a small smile form on my lips. With Jace's tank top and sweatpants and my little red dress, we didn't at all match together but we didn't care or even noticed. For a split second, Jace pulls away. I open my eyes to see what he was doing. I didn't even know I closed them. He pulled off his tank top revealing his perfectly chiselled abs showing me that 25 year old Jace's body is nothing like the lanky 18 year old from High School. He then pulled me back into his arms. Both of his hand exploring the exposed skin from my backless dress sending shivers all over my body. I gasp at the contact. I kick off my heels behind me, hearing the hard clunk of them hitting the hard floor and then a bang of something that had fallen over. I look behind to see what had been broken, his moves his hand to my cheek "It's fine, leave it" he whispers .
He turned elegantly, his body in tune with the slow music, and yet there is a sort of intimacy about what we were doing. It feels like flying, like if one of us were to let go, the other would fall. We were communicating in a way that no one could even possibly understand. Was it because I was falling for a man I had known my entire life or was it because I had already there. The warmth between us grew more powerful by the second. My heartbeat beating erratically along with it. The moment was perfect, like we never wanted for it to end. Feeling braver than I had ever felt, I moved my head, planting kisses along his chest, his breathing faltering ever so slightly. He skimmed is hands down my back and over my hips, almost feeling like he's touching every nerve in my body, grabbing round my thighs and picking my up, wrapping my legs around his waist. He leans forward so my hair is nearly touching the floor and pulling me back up, kissing his way up my stomach and my chest. Unhooking my legs from his hips, I slide down his body and he twirls me slowly never taking his eyes off my. We became one with the song. We continued like this until the song came to a finish. A blush immediately creeps on my face when a thought of what just happened. Jace smiles lovingly down at me. Wait. Lovingly? Realisation dawns on me. What are we waiting for? What is stopping us? Not really realising what Jace has been saying to me, I look up at him, he stops talking, looking very concerned and scared? I smile at him, I put my hand up against his cheek and around his neck and pull him close until our lips locked. He moved both his hands to cradle my face. At first, the kiss was small but then, it grew bigger and more intense. I suddenly felt pain in my spine as he pushed my against the wall, with many things happening all at once. He grabs me at the waist and picks me up and I hook my ankles around his waist and he hold me and starts walking, never releasing his lips.
We get to his bedroom door and it seems that he is struggling with the handle for a minute until I get frustrated and I lean back to turn the handle, he pushed the door open and he kicks it shut with his foot. He slowly walks towards his bed and gently lowers me down, and without any thought I pull him on top of me, keeping my legs wrapped around his waist. I managed to flip us over so I was straddling him, never letting our lips disconnect, he sits up moving his hands to my back and up to my top button he unclasps it and my dress becomes loose, pulling my arms out the sleeves so my dress is pooling at my waist, our lips meet almost immediately with my hands exploring his chest, moving my hands down towards the zipper on Jace's jeans, he then somehow manages to shimmy out of his jeans with me still straddling him. He has no idea what he does to me, I may make myself appear confident on the surface but on the inside I'm a quivering mess, Jace makes me feel a way I never could dream possible and he sets my stomach on fire with every glace, makes my insides melt with every touch. I've always been confident but Jace is unmatchable, so it was always difficult for anyone to feel attractive near him. He moves his hands and puts them on my thighs under my dress and ever so slowly moves his hands up my waist to my ribcages, taking my dress with them and pulls it over my head. "I love you. I've always loved you. I just needed you to know that." He whispers. My breath leaves my body as I look at Jace. He looks unsure, as if he's crossed a line. He's staring at me, gauging my reaction. I place my hands on his cheeks keeping his gaze on me, "Your such an idiot" A confused and lost look crosses his face. I chuckle at him and lean down and kiss him with love and passion. "I love you too" I peck small kisses all over his face and when I pull back to look at him, I am faced with a big cheshire grin, I smile back at him and our lips meet once more.
He flips me over so he's on top of me, he starts kissing me...everywhere, from her legs, his kisses travelled upward, which each and every kiss adding fuel to the fire in the pit of my stomach, my moans getting louder with each kiss. Jace's kisses both of my hips, moving upwards over my navel, my stomach, in-between my breasts up to my neck and back to my lips. Lifting his hand, he brushed my hair away from my face their chests pressing against each other with both of us trying to catch our breaths.
I arch my back up and reach to undo the clasp of my bra and throwing it aside. "Clary, you're beautiful," he breathed as he reached her breasts with trembling hands at first and then caressed me with more confidence. He moved his hands in ways that made waves of heat rush over me, and each touch flipping on another level of desire that had never been reached before, not even with past boyfriends.
Jace's hands then moved back down to my hips and then down my legs pulling my panties off, I slightly arch my back offering a little bit of help and he goes to take off his own boxers so we're both bare. Since Jace had come in to my life, I have seen some pretty amazing things but the way Jace was looking at me in that moment, nothing in the world could compare. In this moment everything disappeared but me and Jace. The scent of his hair mixed with sweat, the feel of his muscles contracting under my hands and the way our bodies were moving against each other. Their hands going everwhere. Only when I heard the sound of ripping foil, that I had become all too familiar with in my mature years, I knew there was no going back from this, no going back to being 'just friends' this was it. Joy filled me, all I wanted was to be closer to Jace and now it was finally happening the longing only intensified. When we looked into each others eyes we knew how right it felt, I nodded to him, urging him forward. He looked down at me with his characteristic love and determination, a small loving smile on his lips. His eyes were as if they were holding all the secrets of my heart. Our hips pressed together and we are one. Jace's movements was the lead I needed to start moving in ways that caused Jace's eyes to role back into his head. We moved in rhythmic motion as if we were back in the living room dancing without a care in the world, as if we were the only thing that mattered. We moved as one in the same way that our souls are joined. With each movement, I felt myself being pushed further towards the edge of desire.
There wasn't a doubt in my mind that Jace's ego was getting a kick out of this allowing himself to move in a firm yet gentle motion that was causing me to moan involuntary and shudders spreading throughout my whole body. We were nearing the same edge by the way his body shook against mine. His moans were like secrets of his heart being whispered in my ear. We both arched in completion holding on to each other as if we were the air to each others lungs unwilling to let each other go. We both collapsed onto the bed, not letting each other go, not saying anything, just listening to each others heartbeats.
I would have probably dropped off to sleep if it weren't for soft raspy voice of the Golden Boy next to me, "I'm going to take you out for a date." I laugh at the bluntness of it.
"Are you now?" I turn on my stomach and lean on my elbows to look at him. "Yes." He nods to himself, looking like he's already thinking of all the possibilities.
"Okay then, it's a date" I grin at him and I lean up to him and he meets my lips with his. He tries to deepen the kiss but I pull away, "No, I can't, I have to get home" I run my fingers through his hair, not even risking looking at his face knowing I'll cave if I do.
"You can stay here" He grins at me with a wink. "You know I can't, I have no clean clothes here, I have work tomorrow but I have nearly finished this family's portrait, and when I get that done, I'll be all yours" I smile up at him. "I'm not ready to let you go yet" He looks away from me. I smile widely at him.
"I do live alone you know, why don't you come to my place? Then I have clothes for work and we can spend more time together."
He looks at me, and for a second, I worry that I may have crossed a boundary that's until he jumps on me and hugs me around the waist. "I thought you didn't want that, I thought you were avoiding it" He kisses me softly.
"Nah, you wont get rid of me that easily." I smile at him and lean up to and our lips connect.