“Why? You have something better to do?”

“Not a thing in the world.” He sniffed the air in my direction. “But you do smel a little ripe. Maybe you should go run a bath.”

I laughed, jiggling the bed and the plate of food. “Nice try, but I’ve been granted restroom clemency.”

“It was worth a shot.” He shrugged, popping a cube of sharp cheddar into his mouth. “So, was it Marc’s leg, or the hunter?”

“Neither.”

“What then? How could you possibly have had time to get into any more trouble between then and now?”

That was a very good question. I speared a chunk of honeydew on a toothpick topped with a strip of green cel ophane, making him wait while I chewed extra wel to prolong the suspense. Swal owing, I motioned for the Coke we were sharing. Jace grunted in impatience as he handed me the can from my nightstand. He chose another sandwich while I drank, and I waited until he took the first bite before final y answering. “I told Daddy I was leaving the Pride.”

His eyes widened, and he made a wet, strangling sound, nearly choking on the bite in his mouth. I pounded his back, and he turned angry eyes on me. “That’s not funny, Faythe.”

I shrugged. “I said I’d stay within the territory. And don’t worry, I didn’t mention my winning our little —” Before I could finish the sentence, he flew out of his chair, launching himself at me before I had time to do anything more than drop my sandwich on the comforter. I landed flat on my back, the top of my head pressed against my headboard. Jace’s right hand covered my mouth, and his knees straddled my stomach.

Damn. Pinned again. I was going to have to work on my reaction time.

“Are you trying to get me kil ed?” he demanded in an urgent whisper, brown hair flopping onto his forehead.

I shoved his hand away, grinning at how familiar our casual play felt. Along with Ethan, we’d been chasing and tackling each other since I was ten years old, and deemed sturdy enough to run around with the boys. I’d kind of missed being with people who wouldn’t break if I played too hard.

“Daddy wouldn’t kil you,” I said, beaming up at him.

“Shit, I’m lucky Marc didn’t. If you take my car, he’l tel your dad about our bet, and Greg wil skin me alive and hang my hide in his office as a warning to al future enforcers not to mess with his daughter.”

I laughed, but he never even cracked a smile. “Promise me you won’t go.”

“I already promised Daddy I’d wait til we find Sara and Abby. Then we’re going to ‘revisit the issue.’”

He relaxed and sat up, moving back to straddle my thighs instead of my stomach. “How’d he get you to listen to reason?”

“It was either that, or have my mail permanently forwarded to the cage.” I propped myself up on one elbow and gave him a shove with my free hand. Jace fel over sideways on the bed, rebounding into a sitting position almost instantly.

“Oh.” He pouted for effect. “Surely a few hours with me is better than a night in the cage.”

“Tough cal .” I grinned, watching him sulk. “But he wasn’t talking about just one night. Seriously. We’re talking long term. Months, at least.” I sat up, noticing that Jace had knocked the food over when he’d tackled me.

He rounded up several stray grapes while I righted the plate and started picking up the sandwiches. His hand brushed mine as he dropped the fruit on the plate and a tiny spark of excitement charged up my arm, making my next breath sharp.

Jace paused, a glint in his eyes and a cube of cheese in his free hand. “Your dad was exaggerating. He had to be. He’s never locked anyone up for more than a couple of weeks.”

Of course, that was me, the last time I’d run away. Two weeks in a damp, dark basement, with nothing but an old can for a toilet and not so much as a magazine to distract me from my mounting rage.

“Nope, he was completely serious.” I brushed crumbs from my comforter onto the floor. “So, I guess you’re stuck with me.”

“Wel , if that’s the case—” he flopped back onto the pil ows, lacing his fingers behind his head as he winked at me suggestively “—we might as wel make the most of the next few hours. After al , it’s either me or the cage.”

I laughed to disguise the tremor his heated look sent thrumming through me.

“I doubt that’s what Daddy had in mind.”

“It could have been. What did he say, exactly?”

I tilted my head, pretending to think. “Wel , he did say something about letting you watch me in the shower…” Jace’s eyes widened comically in surprise, and I laughed for real. “He meant it as a threat.”

“So, if you misbehave, I’m your punishment? What a fascinating punitive system.”

“I’m glad you’re amused.” I lay down next to him, my hands folded over my stomach.

Jace propped himself up on one elbow, looking down at me through eyes just a shade lighter than my mother’s cobalt wineglasses. A girl could get lost in those eyes—if she let herself.

It took every bit of self-control I possessed to pull my gaze from his. Suddenly, Daddy’s threat wasn’t so threatening anymore. It wasn’t funny, either. How could I have thought of Jace as a brother for so long, then suddenly find him so exciting, so tempting in a forbidden-fruit kind of way?

Jace was starting to step over some pretty wel -defined boundaries, and Daddy wouldn’t be very forgiving of either of us if he found out. Not to mention what Marc might do. Yet even knowing the consequences, I wanted to look into his eyes again.