Damn Good Reasons **DISCONTINUED - SEE NEW VER!**

35 Beyond Words

I shook my imaginings away, cursing them for causing me such anguish. Yes, it would have been a cold-blooded, heartless thing for Ace to take such a beautiful life like Chris from this world. But, it didn't happen. For whatever reason - whether it was circumstance, pure luck or some divine intervention, it didn't happen. Chris was still alive and well. And all the months I'd been with Ace, I had convinced myself that it was a one off; that Ace was better than that. That he had learned from it. And I still believed that could be the case. I just needed Ace to believe it.

"You're not a murderer. Remember? You told me that."

Ace let out a throaty chuckle with the whisky bottle swinging at his side. "Not if we're talkin' past tense."

"Why are you telling me all this?" Granted, I was rather chuffed that he was telling me this. For him to open up to me and talk feelings, that was big.

"To make sure you know what you're in for."

I chewed the corner of my lip for a moment as I planned my next move. I rose from the edge of the tub and stopped in front of him, his bare chest closing into mine as I blocked his pacing. I wrapped my arms around his war-torn waist and tucked my hands into the back pockets of his jeans.

"You gonna pretend like it doesn't matter to you?" he asked.

"No... it does matter. But not as much as all the good things you do."

Ace laughed sharply. "Good things, huh?"

"Yes! Good things."

"Like... ripping off cars, taking from the rich and the poor to give to myself? Yeah, I'm a fucking saint."

I scoffed at his cynicism, rolling my eyes. "You do do good things. You look out for me. You solved my Lewis problem, you... 'dealt' with Kyle. And you did it because... you care about me," I shrugged coyly. Sappiness didn't sit well with Ace - or at least, he thought - and any suggestion of it would usually make him pull up his staunch barriers and tease me about it. But not always. And I felt it might be easier to get my point across if I could soften him up. I tucked myself in a bit closer and peered up to him, hoping he'd let those barriers slip for me.

The corner of his mouth pulled up into a smirk as those cunning, stony, blue eyes flicked down to my chest before meeting my gaze again.

"And not just me," I continued. "What about June? That night, you made sure she got home safely. And... and Ants..." I said more cautiously. "You cared about her a lot. That's what matters to me. That's what keeps me with you."

"Yeah?" His smirk grew as he chucked in his husky voice, and he gently pressed his groin into me. "And all this time, I thought you were into me for entirely different reasons."

"Well... you do have your other uses."

"Oh? Like what?"

I chuckled at him for being so suggestive and then turning the spotlight on me.

"You've always got good whiskey in the house." I snatched the bottle from his hand and poked my tongue out at him before bringing it to my lips. It was a big, bottom-heavy bottle, and when I tipped it up to take a swig, Ace smartly hit the base of it in an upwards motion, dislodging its mouth from my lips and causing a large portion to splash down onto my chest.

A sip of the spicy liquid caught in my throat, choking me a bit, and I sputtered as I peered down at myself. My new, light-blue shirt now had a large, wet patch growing at the chest as the whiskey soaked in. "Asshole!"

"Oh, so, I'm an asshole now. I thought I was your knight in shining armor," he smirked.

I was a little annoyed, but you know... I got where this was heading. I gave him the evil eyes and undid the buttons of my shirt before peeling it off. I was now in just a bra, and I modestly hid myself as I went to the sink and did my best to rinse the whiskey out. "This is gonna stain," I sighed. I squeezed the water out and, I'd been a little overdramatic as it actually washed out OK.