I'll Let You Set The Pace Novels & Stories

I said. Kaiden nodded. “Yes.” “Fast.” He shook his head. “No.” I frowned. "What do you mean, no?" “I mean not fast.” “I don’t have time to take it slow.” “This isn’t about speed.” “It is when Nate is…” “It’s about control,” he cut in. I stopped. “You’re not ready to move faster,” he continued. “What we can do is move smarter.” “That sounds like something Axel would say.” “It’s something that’s true.”

he murmured. I hated that the praise made something tighten in my stomach. He set the glass aside and crossed the room, stopping just close enough that the silk between us felt like no barrier at all. His fingers brushed my shoulder, trailing down my arm, and then he caught my wrist, guiding my hand to his chest. His heartbeat was steady, unhurried. Dominant. “This is how it works,” he said quietly. “I set the pace. I decide how close. I decide when.”

“But there are things.” “I know,” I said. “You know what they are.” “Yes.” He looked at me for a long moment. The open face holding something that had been living behind the management for a long time and that was now, without the management, fully visible, and I held it and felt it land in the specific place it always landed. “I’m not going to manage the pace,” he said. “Whatever pace you need. However long it takes to believe that what I’ve said tonight is true and not a strategy.” He paused. “I’ll wait.”

He paused again, a small smile tugging at the side of his mouth. “I told you, didn’t I? I’m going to start matching your pace, and that means that there’s no rushing when you want to slow down and slowing down when you want things to move fast.” He added, and I swallowed, forcing down the bile that had lodged itself at the back of my throat. “So, if you think you need a little more time to think things through and fully decide, I won’t—” “I don’t!” I yelled before he could finish talking. “I don’t need any more time to think about this, because I already did. I thought about it all night, and all morning, and I don’t need to anymore.”

Warm, unhurried, his thumbs moving once across my knuckles. "Listen to me," he said. "This ring is not a deadline." I looked at him. "It's a direction," he said. "That's all it is. It means I know where I'm going and I want to go there with you. It doesn't mean tomorrow. It doesn't mean this year if you're not ready." His eyes were steady. "If you need a year, two years? We go at exactly your pace." Something in my chest released the low grade tension I hadn't fully named until it let go.

I can feel it through the tie. “We should—” I start. “Middle pace,” he says quietly, his hand hovering near my back but not quite touching. “Match my stride.” “I’m not matching your stride, you’re like a giant—” “Then I’ll match yours.” “That’s not—” “GET SET!” “Just don’t trip me,” I hiss. “I wouldn’t dream of it.” “GO!” We lurch forward. Immediately, it’s a disaster.

My calendar fills, not because I said yes to everything, but because I said yes to the right things. And that’s when pace becomes the question. Not whether to move forward. But how fast. And together with whom. He notices the acceleration immediately. Not with suspicion—again, with awareness. “You’re moving fast,” he says one morning, coffee cooling between us. “I am,” I admit. “But it feels… intentional.” “I know,” he says. “I just want to make sure I’m not jogging while you’re sprinting.” There it is. Not jealousy. Not insecurity.

“You just stand there between Elliott and Jamie. If either one of them has to come help, you glue yourself to the other one. If both of them come to help, then you switch to Cale or Scarlet, the Healer from Philly. That’s it. You just stand there.” I sighed. The nervous energy welled up inside of me, so I stood and began to pace the small area between our two beds, trying to figure out how to better express myself. Cadence closed her eyes and fell backward onto her pillow, like she’d dismissed me, and the conversation was over.

This is a new beginning for you so it will be better for you to take things a bit slow and steady. Do not rush yourself, give yourself a steady learning pace and with time you will be able to do more. Also, I'll go with you now for you to settle in. Thelma is indeed a true friend. After everything she said, I felt so much better. I'm glad she was going with me. I need all the boldness I can get now because I would not want to put Thelma and Nate's effort into waste. Nate had called me earlier in the day to give me some pep talk like Thelma just did.

Vex exhales, slow and deep. “Then we don’t pretend,” he says. He lifts his hand—not touching yet. Asking without words. I nod. Only then does he rest his palm against my waist, warm and grounding through the towel. “This is your pace,” he says. “Your rules. We go slow.” His thumb brushes my skin—barely there. “And tonight,” he adds, “if all you want is to sleep and know we’re here—then that’s enough.” My eyes burn. I lean forward, pressing my forehead to his chest.