Chapter 22

In the full twenty-four hours they’d spent together, Jag hadn’t once seen Brace this happy. The man he had met had been self-conscious and nervous, his eagerness in his eyes and in his touch. But Brace was relaxed now, and he moved with a grace Jag had suspected but hadn’t witnessed until that point.

Brace stepped back and gazed approvingly at Jag. “You look perfect. But…” His smile turned into a frown. “There’s something missing. Where’s your hair-tie?”

“I think it’s in the bathroom. Wait a minute.”

The small leather tie was on the side of the tub. Jag wasn’t sure how it got there, but he had found one shoe under the bed and the other on the table, and his jacket on the floor, and his pants by the window. Clothes had been flung from one end of the bedroom to the other as soon as they returned from their walk. He pulled his hair back and secured it, then studied himself in the dressing mirror.