Jace didn’t leave.

He stood in the entrance to the living room and looked at us — at Liam’s hand still under my shirt, at my flushed face, at the clear evidence of what had just happened — and the quiet intensity in his expression only deepened. Liam didn’t remove his hand right away. He simply met his younger brother’s eyes and waited.

“So it’s like that,” Jace said again, softer this time.

Noah’s car pulled into the driveway a few minutes later. The three of them ended up in the kitchen while I stayed on the couch, hoodie pulled tight around me, heart still slamming. I couldn’t hear every...