Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Mortal Instruments or any of its associations.
''What the hell happened to you two?''
It was Magnus that voiced the question, just as Clary and Jace caught him sneaking out the front door of the Lightwood's house.
''I take it your date with Alec went well,'' Jace said with the raise of an eyebrow, making his words a statement rather than a question.
''I'm sure you and he will have plenty of fun talking about it later, like the girlfriends that you are,'' Magnus replied, boredly inspecting his nails.
But there was a twinge to his lips, a pleased look about him, and Clary felt her heart warm inside her chest with happiness for him and Alec. It was obvious that Alec struggled with his sexuality, and this was a victory for him.
''I feel like it will slip my mind while I am in bed tonight with my actual girlfriend,'' Jace replied with a smirk. ''But I am sure he will mention it in the morning if it is worth mentioning.''
''It is,'' Magnus said with a wink.
He moved to leave, but not before surprising Clary and pulling her into a hug. The reality of her presence there must not have been lost on him, her need to stay with Jace and away from her family. Or maybe it was just the desolate look on her face that had been evident since they'd left Luke's bookstore.
To further her surprise and Jace's, he didn't seem to mind that some of the ash from Clary's skin and clothes had rubbed off on his own.
Once he left, Clary turned to look at Jace.
''Girlfriend?''
Jace smiled, but didn't answer, just pulled her behind him and into the house.
Clary gasped when her back hit the cold tile wall of the shower. Jace ran his hands up her stomach, careful of the still-healing bruises, to cup her bare breasts, his mouth on her neck.
She had insisted that he have the shower first, because he would take less time than her and use less of the hot water. But just as his pants had hit the floor, leaving him in nothing more than his black boxer briefs, she'd barged into the bathroom in only her underwear and thrown herself into his arms.
Jace bit at the pulse in her neck, his hands leaving her breasts to grip her thighs, lifting her up until her legs found their way around his hips and she tangled her hands in his hair.
He pressed his hips into hers, forcing her back roughly against the wall, craving to fill the space between her legs with a specific piece of his own anatomy.
''Jace,'' she gasped. ''Please.''
It wasn't happening like he had wanted it to. He wanted it to be soft, and sweet, and everything every girl wanted it to be.
But Clary had a very different idea of what she wanted, and he found himself more than happy to oblige.
She kept one hand in his hair while the other ventured down between their bodies, and Jace couldn't help but gasp as her nimble fingers brushed his aching shaft as she yanked down the band of his boxer briefs.
''Clary,'' he breathed, a pitiful protest, but he did not fight her as she forced them the rest of the way off of his hips to fall to the wet floor of the shower.
The water poured from the faucet and fell over them like rain, and Clary blinked through the spray to look down at him, so hard and ready, with only the thin fabric of her underwear between them.
''Clary,'' Jace said again, his voice more forceful than before. ''I don't want you to rush into this, you're upset-''
''I'm not upset,'' she said, her hand stilling on his waist, the nails digging into the sensitive skin there. He hissed, fighting to stay strong against her seduction.
''We had a setback today. I admit that I am disappointed, and discouraged,'' she explained softly. ''But I need something good. Something to outweigh the bad.''
''I can assure you I will be good'' he said with a smirk, but it didn't reach his eyes. ''But I do not want you to regret it in the morning.''
''I can assure you that I won't,'' Clary quipped back, looking up at him with fire in her vibrant green eyes. There was still some ash evident on her skin, streaking down her face and body like black-tinged tears, staining the teal cotton panties that covered the elegant vee between her legs.
Jace gently set Clary back down on her feet, and the disappointment on her expression that resulted from the action faded when he reached for a bottle of citrus scented soap and poured some of the orange liquid into his hand.
Clary watched his face as he smoothed his hands over her shoulders, down the soft planes of her back, and around her body to once again cup the sweet mounds of her breasts. He pressed her back against the wall, massaging the skin deeply with his fingers, and neither of them seemed to mind the way his hands faltered slightly due to the nerve damage the beating in juvie caused in them.
His hands smoothed lower again, to grasp her waist, and he gently turned her body until her breasts pressed up against the cold tile wall and her back was exposed to him.
Jace was a hot presence behind her, but he was careful not to touch her with his body. Not yet.
He smoothed his hands down her back, over the sharp angle of her lumbar spine, to skim over the elegant curve of her ass. Jace watched her hands clench against the tiles, wanting something to claw and scratch as his hands drew closer and closer to where she really wanted to be touched.
Jace left his right hand behind, on her hip, while his dominant hand continued its path down, slipping beneath the back band of her underwear. He dipped lower, feeling the heat of her against his fingertips, and he felt her jerk away from his touch.
''Clary?'' he asked, his hand freezing.
''It's okay,'' she said, her voice unsteady. ''I just... I wasn't expecting it to feel like that.''
It was obvious in her tone that it was not an unpleasant feeling, so once she relaxed again, he pressed one of his fingers inside of her, as deep as her body would allow, and she gasped in response to the invasion.
Once he started to move his hand, he watched her breath catch with each gentle thrust. She was wet, but also so very tight, so when Jace carefully added a second finger, he heard a small hiss escape her lips.
He slid his hand from her for a moment so that he could move closer to her, mold his body along the back of her, his mouth seeking the soft skin of her throat. He reached his hand around the front of her, sliding his hand under her panties again and over the soft mound of curls there.
He started with only one finger, but when Clary squirmed against him impatiently, her laughed against her skin and added the second. She tensed, but remained silent, and he moved his hand until her silence became little pleased sounds with each thrust.
When Jace couldn't wait any longer, he stopped his ministrations to turn Clary around and lift her into his arms. He shut the water off, not caring that neither of them had thoroughly washed away all of the ash from their bodies, and trailed water from his bathroom and across the floor of his bedroom.
He dropped her down gently to the bed, and her vibrant green eyes followed him as he reached for something in the drawer by his bed. They widened fractionally as he pulled out a condom, and Jace watched as her pulse jumped nervously in her throat.
He looked down at her, his expression as gentle as his hands as he reached down to smooth them over her sopping wet locks. ''We don't have to, Clary,'' he told her. ''We can stop.''
She swallowed hard, but she smiled and shook her head.
''Then get your sexy ass under the sheets,'' he said with a smirk. ''You're ruining my comforter.''
''Jerk,'' she mumbled under her breath, but she rolled over and pulled back the covers, sliding obediently beneath them. She laid down on her back and pulled them up over her hips, and Jace stilled in the process of joining her, the sight one he wanted to imprint in his mind forever.
Clary's fire hair was spread over his pillow, her creamy skin still streaked with ash, and the beautiful mounds of her breasts were exposed to his eyes. But it was her expression that caught him the most, the confidence in the slight upturn of her pink lips and the trustfulness in her eyes as she looked up at him.
Jace finally pulled himself back to action, sliding beneath the covers until he settled in the space above Clary, held over her on his forearms. She gasped when she felt him against her, whether from the feel of him so happy to be there with little to nothing between them or from the heat that his body was radiating.
Jace leaned down and kissed her, while his hand reached between them to apply the condom. She reached up to wind her fingers in his golden hair, pulling his face back from her, her eyes searching and finding in his eyes what she needed to see to continue.
Tenderness. Admiration.
She had never felt more treasured, more beautiful. Except maybe in the storage room at the back of Pandemonium, when he had first called her an angel.
He leaned down again to kiss her and she let him, and her back arched when one of this thumbs brushed over her breast. His other hand gently wound around her thigh to spread her legs, and his finger hooked into and pulled aside the wet fabric of her underwear.
''Are you ready?'' he breathed against her lips.
She closed her eyes and smoothed her hands over his shoulders, before nodding ever so slightly.
She caught her breath when she felt the head of Jace's shaft against her opening, and with the slightest addition of pressure, he sunk an inch or so inside of her. Her hands tensed against his shoulders, but he felt no nails and Clary was silent beneath him, so he carefully continued.
She made a pained sound and he felt fire as her nails dragged across his skin, and he stopped to let her adjust to him. He pulled back to watch her face, and he reached up to smooth his thumb over the crease between her eyebrows.
Jace pressed his mouth to Clary's as he sunk the rest of the way inside of her, swallowing her pained cry and settling against the end of her as she writhed beneath him, in obvious pain. He kissed the corners of her eyes before the tears could escape.
He gave her a few, long moments to recover before gently rolling his hips, making her hiss in pain, knowing that once he started moving the pain would alleviate.
An irrational thought crossed his mind that Clary would hate him for hurting her, and it made his second thrust falter. When the thought didn't immediately dissipate, he pulled away from her completely.
Her eyes opened at the loss of him, the crease between her eyebrows lessening as the pain left her. ''Jace?''
''I'm hurting you,'' he breathed. ''I didn't think about it... How much it would...''
To his dismay, she started laughing. Not giggling, or chuckling, full out laughing, until tears streamed down her face.
His concern drained from him, and despite himself, he felt a smile force itself onto his lips. ''It's not funny,'' he said, trying and failing to sound serious. ''Clary-''
She stopped laughing, although it was a slow process to do so, and hooked her legs around his hips, her expression growing serious again. He let her guide him to her, back inside of her, and he thrust his hips to meet hers.
She sucked in a breath, her body tensed for pain, but when it didn't come, her eyes were wide and bright when she gazed up at him.
Jace pressed a chaste kiss to her lips, to her cheek, bending his spine to suck at her breast, and if there had been even a trace of amusement left in her body, it was gone with his next thrust.
Jace was gentle at first, staying on his elbows to watch her face and her reactions to each thrust, each roll of his hips to hit that special place inside of her. But once she was truly adjusted to him, to the feel of him inside of her, he thrust faster, more forcibly sinking himself into the tight depths of her.
For the most part, he and Clary were quiet, but he liked when he would move just so that a pleased sound would escape her lips despite herself, those rare moments like a badge of honor on his chest.
There were no interruptions, and he would be sure to buy Isabelle a pink, fluffy anything in thanks for giving them their privacy. Especially when the movement of their bodies became erratic, and they both cried out as they met the ends of their pleasure together.
Jace left Clary briefly to dispose of the condom and clean up. He returned to find her buried beneath the thick covers of his bed and her eyelids drooping against her cheeks.
Jace felt his heart flutter in his chest at the sight of her, and after adorning a fresh pair of boxer briefs, he slid beneath the covers to join her.
It wasn't until morning that someone burst the bubble of their happiness, in the form of a loud crash from downstairs and the sound of Isabelle screaming.
Before Jace and Clary could even react, there was stomping on the staircase and the door to Jace's room burst open, knocked nearly completely off of its hinges.
Jonathon stood in the doorway, anger swimming in the deep black pools of his eyes. The black orbs swept the room violently, taking in Clary and Jace barely more than naked and in bed together, the empty condom wrapper on the nightstand beside the bed that Jace had missed while cleaning up.
''I hope it was good,'' he said to Clary, his voice ice, chilling the blood in her veins. ''Because you won't be seeing the light of day again.''
Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter! And all of the fluffy goodness inside of it. I tried to stay classy with it, but on the request of some of the readers, I made it slightly more graphic than I had originally intended. Sorry if the ending was confusing, it will be explained in the next chapter. REVIEW PLEEEEEASE! You guys have been awesome about reviewing. I love it.