Chapter 9

                                    

                                          
Ariana stepped out of the shower in a towel and walked into her room to get dressed, letting her hair down and patting it dry before leaving it to air dry. She'd been in Jace's gym for an hour and she'd worked up an appetite. She'd ordered pizza before she'd hopped into the shower. She quickly got dressed in a pair of grey sweat pants and a black tank top before she left her room. 
                          
Ariana walked into the kitchen and stopped when she saw his bare feet and the fridge door blocking the rest of his body. She was about to take a step and head around the kitchen island but froze when he closed the fridge and Jace stood there, shirtless. Locks of his wet hair fell over his face and she wanted to walk to him and push it back, away from his face. Jace did a double-take when he saw her standing there, her eyes on him.
                          
They both stood there, a couple of feet away from each other staring at each other. They both knew the other was staring and yet neither of them cared or wanted to look away from the other. Ariana noticed the look he had in his eyes. It was the same one he had earlier that day when he'd tucked her hair behind her ear.
                          
Ariana wondered how someone could make your heart race just by looking at you and now she knew the answer to that question.
                          
Jace hadn't seen her with her hair down and seeing her standing there with her hair down and wet, it was like he was seeing her for the first time. Without the bun or the badass outfit she always wore. He didn't have a problem with her outfit but seeing her in something less uptight was refreshing. Her tank top clung to her body and the hem stopped right on her navel. Her grey sweats hung low on her waist and all that skin showing just made him swallow.
                          
Jace unconsciously took a step towards her and Ariana's gaze dropped to his body. 
                          
Oh Damn. She liked the whole view better.
She slowly ran her gaze from the top of his black sweats, up his body, not missing an inch of him until she was staring into his eyes again.
                          
Jace almost smirked at how hot she looked checking him out. The pull between them got stronger by the second and soon Jace was standing less than a foot away from her. The woman he was looking at was not the woman who'd been with him throughout the day. She wasn't an agent undercover as his bodyguard, she was Ariana.
                          
He was about to reach out and place his hand on the naked part of her waist when the doorbell rang snapping them out of the sexual tension and away from each other. Both their gazes were in the direction of the door.
                          
My pizza!
                          
"I'll get it." Ariana was gone before she got out.
                          
Jace watched as she quickly made her way towards the door and wondered who it was. He smiled when she walked back in with medium-sized pizza and a smile on her face.
                          
Ah! A way to her heart.
                          
Ariana placed the pizza on the kitchen island and walked around the island. She grabbed a glass and went to the fridge to get some juice before going back around and taking one of the seats behind the kitchen island. She opened it and picked up her first slice, she closed her eyes and moaned in satisfaction as she took the first bite and Jace looked away from her, jaws clenched.
                          
Jace walked around the kitchen island and stole a slice. Ariana's eyes snapped open and were on him, accusingly.
 "What do you think you're doing?"
                          
Jace froze with the slice halfway into his mouth,
 "Eating?"
                          
"This is my dinner, I didn't invite you." Ariana teased but at the same time was serious.
                          
"I invited you for lunch?" He sounded unsure.
                          
"Exactly. You invited me. I didn't invite you."
                          
"Which is why I invited myself?"
                          
Ariana almost smiled but held it back as she narrowed her gaze at him, before sighing dramatically,