Ace in the Hole by Marissa Dobson

through her, until she was almost willing to forget the dinner and let him take her. “Ace…”
    “Yes?” He kissed along her neck until he reached her earlobe.
    “Tonight. After Wynn’s. Let’s go before my control snaps.”
    “That’s almost an invitation to keep going. Once your control is gone we can forget going out and make it up to Wynn later.” He stepped back, and straightened his dress shirt. “Let’s get this over with.”
    “You should be happy to spend the evening with your family.”
    “She’s inviting us to see how things are progressing with us. Wynn has always been the nosiest of all of the Diamond clan.” He slipped his hand in hers, and headed for the steps.
    “You do realize that is a major accomplishment, right?”
    He stopped halfway down the steps and raised an eyebrow at her. “Are you saying my family is a bunch of nosy busybodies?”
    “Oh, look at the time, we need to be going.” She slipped past him, quickly coming down the last steps.
    “Gwyneth London.” There was a playfulness in his tone as he called after her. “Don’t you walk away from me.”
    “On the risk of repeating myself, we need to be going.”
    “Answer me, then we can go.” He came down the final steps.
    “You’re not blind, you know what your family is like better than me.” She opened the closet door and grabbed their coats. “Lucky and you aren’t much better than Wynn.”
    He took her coat and held out it for her. “I’m going to make you pay for that comment tonight.”
    “Promises, promises.” She handed him his coat and waited while he buttoned the double breast jacket.
    It was amazing they were able to have such ease between them after what had separated them. If only the ease would continue through the rest of the family. She hadn’t told Ace about the conversations she had with Lucky and Wynn urging her to stay away from him, because she didn’t want to cause any problems between the siblings. Things were going so well now, she could only hope they held their tongues tonight, and didn’t bring up what happened when he went off to boot camp.

    A ce stood on the balcony, the salty breeze from the ocean beating against him, cooling the desires that ran through him. His last shred of control was hanging by a thin thread, and every ounce of him wanted to rush back inside and whisk Gwen away. In his line of work he could be called into action any time, and all he could think about was having Gwen naked beneath him before he had to leave again.
    The way that short black dress hugged every curve of her body had his shaft hard since she’d stepped out of the bedroom. He never wanted something as much as he wanted her that very moment. Damn Wynn for inviting them. Keeping him here was pure torture.
    “We need to talk.” Lucky closed the balcony door behind him.
    “Then talk.” It came out edgier than he meant, but he didn’t want to talk, especially not about what Lucky thought they needed privacy for.
    “Man, I think you’re wrong. Gwen doesn’t need this. She doesn’t need to have her heart broken again. You weren’t around to see what it did to her before, but I was. You either stay with her, or leave her alone. Don’t screw with her, she deserves better than that.”
    “This isn’t your business. Stay out of it, Lucky.” He clenched the wrought iron banister, refusing to give into his brother’s taunts.
    “You weren’t here before. I was. That makes it my business. Wynn and I helped her put the pieces together. She was a mess, and I don’t want to see her go through that again.”
    Ace spun toward his brother and let the anger flow through him. If Lucky wasn’t going to back off, Ace had to make him do it out of self-preservation. “If I didn’t know any better I’d think you had something for her. All those years when she was alone you didn’t make your move, but now I’m back and you’re jealous. I’ll kick your ass if I need to, but this is between Gwen and