REVELATION | MAFIA ROMANCE | SMUT

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

"I love you," Jace said, and I nodded. "But it's your turn to do laundry this week."

I burst out laughing. "I only left a few items in the basket."

"Alexa, every time you visit, I find at least a rolled-up sock on my bathroom floor." He sipped champagne. "Also, what's with the white box on the kitchen counter."

"I got you a cake." I put cosmetics in my bag. "I know how much you love sugar, so I ordered an extra layer of chocolate frosting."

Jace groaned in approval. "I'm salivating already."

In the hallway, a room door rattled. Harlyn, modelling a simple black dress and pink shoes to match her vibrant hair, strolled ahead.

The silence lengthened in the room. I looked back to Jace to find a severely unamused expression on his face. "What?"

"I can't believe I let you talk me into that," he huffed, tousling his brown mane. "And before you try and convince me otherwise, Jared and Shane agree with me."

"Oh, well, if those pair of short-sighted dimwits agree with you, then, who the hell am I to argue the matter?"

Jace curled up his lip. "Harlyn sings in the shower."

I sing in the shower. "So?"

"She leaves her shoes in the hallway, like, all over the floor."

Okay, that's annoying. "Ask Harlyn to keep the shoes in her bedroom."

"I did," he deadpans. "You will still see an unimpressive amount of ugly shoes outside my door."

Giggling at the preposterousness of this conversation, I stood taller and secured the satin bow around my waist. "You spit toothpaste everywhere—the basin, taps and mirror."

Jace fixed his nose ring. "What's your point?"

"You almost never wash your cereal bowls. You put them in the kitchen sink and expect the cleaning fairy to come along and do your chores."

Swinging his arm over my shoulders, he trudged beside me as we ambled down the hallway. "Where are you going with this?"

"Flinging the duvet over the mattress and leaving the pillows wherever they land? That's your way of making a bed. You, much like my former-self, drink so much vodka it borderlines alcoholism. You live on takeout food, grouse when harmlessly inconvenienced by others, judge everyone who isn't part of your inner circle and relish the fact your big, burly, formidable body of ink intimidates others. You, my dear old friend, are not a walk in the park."

With the darkness as our witness, Jace put a hand on the door adjacent to the studio, preventing our expected arrival. "Why are we fault-finding?"

"I couldn't care for your flaws, Jace. I love you, regardless. What I am saying, though, is you need to look in the mirror from time to time. So, Harlyn clutters the halls. Big deal, right? If you actually allowed yourself to tolerate her—"

"Please stop talking." He covered my mouth with his big, meaty hand. "You're spinning me out."

Latterly noticing his blood-shot eyes, I peeled his inked fingers from my lips. "You are stoned."

He gave me a lopsided smirk. "I know."

"Why did you wait until I was pregnant to be reckless?" I was unfathomably jealous. "God, now I crave marijuana, and I don't even know how to smoke it."

"Smoking has nothing to do with skill, Alexa." Staring at me through heavy-lidded eyes, he put his back to the closed door. "How about I save you some for when the baby's born?"