RECKLESS - Part 1 by Alice Ward Page B

can walk. I’ll be fine.”
    “I’ll walk her home,” a voice I would have recognized anywhere came from behind me. I widened my eyes as the sound sent my heart on a marathon—where it thought it was going, I’ll probably never know.
    Oh, dear God. Not now. Of all times, not right now.
    “Jace? Oh, thank God,” Becca gave a sigh of relief. “I had no idea what to do with her until I finished closing up. I can’t leave her out here, can’t have her inside, and as you can see, she’s in no shape to walk home by herself. Are you sure you don’t mind?”
    “Nonsense,” I cried out. Even in my own head, my voice sounded horribly shrill and rather slurred. And completely ignored.
    I could feel myself being passed from Becca’s soft arms into a set of muscular arms. I was enveloped in the slight hint of metal and citrus. I think I might have inhaled it as I tried to right myself and stand on my own. Unfortunately, I damn near sent myself out onto the sidewalk, and that sent me into another fit of giggles which only made it even more difficult to stand.
    “Alright there, firecracker. I’ve got you,” Jace said, wrapping his arms around my shoulders and then pulling me into his firm body.
    I wanted to fight a little more—if for no other reason than to stop the tingling sensation trying to take over my body from him being so close to me—but considering I’d almost ate concrete, I figured it was best to let him hold me up, at least for a little while.
    “Here,” I heard Becca whisper. “Call me when you get her home safe?”
    I didn’t hear Jace respond, but we started walking so I assumed he must have.
    “You sure you can walk?” he asked, his arm wrapped around me, hand under my armpit for support. “I can carry you if you need me to.”
    I belted out a rather obnoxious laugh. “Right, because I need good old Jace Richardson to go and rescue me again. I’m not helpless, you know.”
    He chuckled lightly. I could feel the vibrations of it coursing through my body. God, he was just too close. How was I supposed to walk straight when being this close to him made my knees weak?
    “I make your knees weak, huh?” he asked as he stopped my body from toppling into a nearby shrub.
    Oh, shit. I’d said that out loud?
    I decided to cover it up with some drunken sarcasm. “And nauseous.”
    “You need to throw up?” he asked, stopping and bending his body sideways to get a look at me.
    I narrowed my blue eyes at his chocolate ones… I think. “Just when I’m around you.”
    He laughed again, only this one sounded like it’d come from deep down in his chest. “Wow, now there’s one I haven’t heard yet,” he said, directing us down the sidewalk again.
    “Funny,” I quipped. “I’d think you would have. What, with you walking around all hero-like all the time.”
    “Only with you, Andrea. Only with you.” He almost sounded sad when he said it, only my hazy brain couldn’t begin to understand why.
    “Why?” I asked.
    “Why what?”
    I rolled my head when I’d meant to roll my eyes. “Do you rescue me? It’s not like I need rescuing.”
    “Well,” he said, shifting my arm up over his shoulder. “Maybe not in the traditional sense. But in the two instances I’ve done it, you have.”
    “Only because you cloud my head with all your tattoos, sexy voice, and hard muscles.”
    Where did that come from?
    Jace cleared his throat. “You’re almost home, Andrea.”
    “Home?”
    “Yeah, your dorm.”
    “I—I don’t think I can make it.” I really didn’t. The ground was starting to crack open beneath my feet, and my eyes felt like they weighed a ton. I wanted nothing more than to lay down on the cold concrete and sleep for the next ten years.
    Before I could even protest—not that I would have right then—I was hoisted up off the ground. I felt the sensation of movement as the entire world spun and swayed, but I’d never felt safer than I did right in that moment, wrapped in tattoos,