Chapter 135 Chapter One Hundred And Thirty Five
I snatched the book from his hands. "Out. Now."
“Alright, you’re the boss. I’ll leave.” He said, but he made no move to leave.
Instead, he settled himself on the edge of my bed, long legs stretched out, looking far too comfortable. “I’ll leave in an hour… after you take a break," he announced.
"What? I don't need a break."
He just stared at me, one eyebrow raised in disbelief. “Really?”
“Okay, maybe I’m having a headache after all that dancing and running about and studying and—”
“Don’t forget falling on your ass.” Jace cut in, a smug smile on his face.
I gritted my teeth and folded my arms stubbornly, “Whatever. I still had too much work to do so I can’t possibly slack off right now.”
"Everyone needs a break. It's science, isn’t it? They probably have that in one of your nerd books.”
"What part of I’m busy do you not understand?”
Jace walked up to me, coming closer and closer and tilting his head down until we were eye level.
Then he reached out to pull my hair tie off my hair, causing it to fall in curls down my shoulders.
"Beautiful,” he whispered, and I forgot what I was supposed to say.
I finally gave up and returned to my work, dropping into my work chair in front of my pile of books and pointedly ignoring him.
He must have gotten bored after twenty minutes of sitting there, because he suddenly said, “Be right back.” And left.
By afternoon, I'd made decent progress, though my eyes were starting to blur from staring at text for so long.
I was just about to go downstairs and make myself my tenth coffee of the day when I heard a loud knock on my door.
"Come in," I called without looking up, assuming it was my mom.
"Lunch delivery."
I looked up to find Jace carrying a plate loaded with sandwiches, chips, and what looked like apple slices. He set it down on the only clear spot on my desk.
“You just think I’m a stray cat since you keep bringing me food all the time,” I grumbled, even though my mouth was watering at the sight of the spread.
“With that attitude of yours, you’re definitely a stray cat.” He quipped.
“Hey!”
“I remember the good old days when you were still afraid of me,” he sighed dramatically, “Now you bite my hand when I try to feed you, it’s a travesty.”
"Thank you, Jace, for the food and for letting me know what animal I act like," I said, trying to sound firm through a mouthful of bread.
"But I’m trying to focus and you're being a little distracting. So if you would quit being a smart ass…"
"I'll be quiet," he promised, pulling my desk chair over and settling into it. “Don’t worry about it, you just focus on your reports, princess.”
I stopped to think, “Don’t you also have reports to work on? I mean if I have this much leftover work then you probably have… a whole mountain of books probably.”
“I don’t trust myself not to fuck that up. I’ll just wait till our session tomorrow, otherwise I won’t be able to do it without you.”
He pulled out his phone and started typing, muttering under his breath “There isn’t much I can do without you, to be honest.”
I went red as a tomato, beaming with pride at his praise, “Thank you. That… means a lot.”
He looked up from his phone to smile at me, “Sure thing, princess. Now go on and eat your food.”
I was already halfway into the sandwich when I realised he’d tricked me into calming down and doing what he wanted.
I sighed and rolled my eyes, polishing off the rest of the apples because, “I've already eaten most of them. Might as well.”
Jace never left, he waited there, seated next to me on my backup work chair and taking up space, our arms nearly touching on the table.
I felt the urge to close the distance, to shift my hand just the tiniest bit, just so I could touch his own.
I was already so close when he moved away from me to steal a chip off my plate and eat it, grinning shamelessly at me.
I blinked, realizing what I was doing, trying to touch him like some hormonal, overly infatuated, love sick teenager and snatched my arm away,bblushing hard.
I tried to concentrate,I swear I did, but if it wasn't his strong arms next to me distracting me, then it was his scent, like soap and well… like him.
"You okay, Lena? You went pale all of a sudden." Jace asked, his voice tinged with worry.
I bit the end of my pen, frustrated with myself for reeling, now at the sound of his voice. "Yup. I'm just peachy."
After a while I picked at what was left my sandwich, hyper-aware of every movement he made; how way his fingers moved across his phone screen, the slight furrow in his brow when he concentrated, the way he occasionally glanced at me when he thought I wasn't looking.
"You don't have to stay," I said after a while, desperate to make this stop. “I’m sure you have better things to focus on.”
"Better than you? Impossible.” Cue another sly smirk.
“Wow,” I looked away so he wouldn’t see me go red, “You can't help yourself, can you?”
He looked up, his eyes suddenly going serious. "No. I can’t.”
My heart flipped in my chest, doing somersaults better than I could’ve ever done them. I glanced down at the ground, refusing to look at him. "Whatever. Just don't bother me."
"Wouldn't dream of it."
More hours bled together, the afternoon light faded into evening, then to night.
I changed into even more comfortable clothes, my tatty pyjama shorts and a tank top, my hair twisted into a messy bun on top of my head.
My desk lamp became my only source of light as I wrote and wrote and wrote, filling pages with notes and essays and problem sets.
And through it all, Jace stayed.
He left once to get me dinner, then he returned with water when I forgot to hydrate.
Occasionally made a joke that made me laugh despite myself. But mostly, he just... stayed with me, keeping me company so I never felt too burned out.
So I got used to his presence. I would forget he was there, then I would look up and be startled all over again by the sight of him.
His larger-than-life body sprawled across my bed now, his own laptop open, supposedly doing his own work.
It felt domestic. Intimate in a way that had nothing to do with kissing or touching. Just two people existing together in comfortable silence like they’d been doing it for ages.
Finally, around eleven, he stretched and stood. "Okay, nerd. Time for bed."
"I'm not done—"
"Yes, you are. You've been working for like fourteen hours." He started gathering my books, stacking them neatly.
"Go get ready for bed. Whatever is left you can probably explain away. I’m sure they’ll let you take an extra day to do it, teacher’s pet that you are.”
I scoffed, “You're not the boss of me. I still have—“
"Lena." He gave me a look. "Shower. Now."
Maybe it was exhaustion because my eyes were already closing and my whole body felt like lead, but I didn't argue. Instead, I grabbed my stuff and headed to the bathroom, grumbling under my breath. “Jerk.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
When I came back, clean and tired and smelling like lavender body wash, he was still there. He looked up from where he'd been tidying my desk.
"Better?"
"Yes," I admitted. “Much better, actually. I needed that.”
He walked to the door, and paused to ask "Good work today. Sane time tomorrow?"
I stood there watching him, I wanted to move and do something, say something. His being here with me all day, taking care of me…
Sure it probably wasn’t right considering our situation, and Noah definitely wouldn’t like it, but it wouldn’t be fair to him if I just let him leave. I felt like I owed him somehow.
I was just about to go to him and say something when he turned and left, the door clicking shut behind him.
“Wait I...” I sighed, whispering into the empty room. “Same time tomorrow.