Page 95 of The Fractured

“Only because you wanted me to stay.”

“Because I knew you wanted to.” I leaned closer to his face, screwing up my nose as I smiled.

He mirrored my expression but then kissed the tip of my nose. “Fair enough.”

A little smug, I straightened where I sat and yawned.

Dean dropped his head back into my lap, pondering something as he looked ahead.

I couldn’t help but admire his eyelashes. Why did guys always have such pretty eyelashes?

“Do you remember heading into the King’s County Courthouse ten-ish years ago?”

The question was so random, I stalled before responding. “I guess? I’m not sure about ten years ago, to be exact, but I did go there a lot to meet up with Dad sometimes… Why?”

“I don’t suppose you remember a young guy leaning against the wall outside it once? Puffing on a cigarette, thinkin’ he was abadass…” He looked up at me. There was a nostalgic light in his gray-blue eyes.

I frowned and shook my head slowly. “No, I don’t think so—”

The day of my first violin lesson.

I hated every second of that lesson and every one that followed — my fingers ached, the teacher was mean, and all I wanted to do was read or draw. That same afternoon, I was meeting with my dad at the courthouse after school before going home.

And there was a boy, with black hair, and sad gray-blue eyes, leaning against the building.

My eyes focused on Dean again as he watched me come to the realization. “No way.”

All he did was smile up at me.

“That was you?”

“Who’da thought?”

I was happily speechless, until I remembered something else from that day —someoneelse. “Your dad… He held the door for me, didn’t he?” The man who had brought so much pain and sadness to Dean and his mother had held the door for me.

And smiled at me.

Dean inhaled as he looked ahead. “Yep…”

I pressed my lips together, hit by a wave of empathy, and guided his head back to rest in my lap again. Providing enough distraction to pull him from those thoughts, I lightly brushed several dark strands of his hair from his forehead. His eyes slid shut, and his body relaxed against the seat. After a moment, his eyebrows twitched with a thought.

“I’ve gotta ask…” He turned halfway around and slung his arm on the edge of the seat. It brushed against my thigh. “What happened to the glasses?”

“My eyes improved.”

His mouth twitched. “Did you have a lazy eye or somethin’?”

I lightly back-handed his bicep as I laughed quietly. “I had bad headaches, you ass.”

“Oh. I’m an ass, am I?” He raised his right eyebrow, putting emphasis on the scar running through it.

I brought my face closer, keeping my mouth inches from his. “Hottest ass around,” I muttered, and kissed him.

He angled his head back for better access as my hands smoothed down to his chest.

There was a pattern of short pauses between each slow kiss, along with tongue and nibbling that sent butterflies zooming around my stomach.

Dean’s heart thundered beneath my palm as he hummed deeply, and then moved his hand up my thigh, over my hip, and settled it on the side of my waist. When we pulled apart, there was a shadow of the smile from earlier still lingering on his face as he took in every inch of me with his lust-filled gaze.