Page 104 of Undeniably Corrupt

“She has my stubbornness too.”

“And your playful side. When you allow yourself to have one.”

“Broke single moms don’t have a lot of time for those.”

“I came home to you as a tiger dancing and singing your ass off.”

“That was with Hazel. I don’t have one when I’m not with her.”

“But you’re smiling now.”

I am. I’ve been smiling a lot recently. More so since he came back into my life two months ago.

“Where did moody Vander go? Who is this hot, soft-hearted guy?”

He shrugs and starts swirling patterns on my belly with his finger. “As long as I’m still hot.”

“Always hot. Insanely hot. Bad boy hot.”

He chuckles but sobers quickly. “I think I became moody because I forgot how to smile.”

“That’s the worst thing I’ve ever heard. And a bit cheesy in a Hallmark TV special kind of way, but still epically sad.”

“Probably. That was pretty lame, though it’s no less true. Cass died and I left you, and shit got bad for me at MIT. Since then, I’ve been all about work, and I don’t trust many people. All work and no trust makes Vander a dick. At least a hot one.”

“With piercings, so you have that going for you too. But it’s like me. You don’t trust me.”

His expression grows earnest. “Give me a reason to.”

I shake my head against the pillow and bring my hand to his face, tracing the lines, playing with the fierce dimple in his chin. “I don’t trust anyone either.”

A slight frown tugs down the corner of his lips, but it doesn’t last long. He knows I’m keeping a world of secrets from him.

“Does that make us wiser or more cynical?”

“Both,” I state flatly. “I’m less idealistic than I used to be.”

“Still fighting the world, though.”

“Not well. Most days I feel pretty beaten by it,” I admit, and that has him leaning over to kiss me. Just a quick peck before he goes back to his pillow.

“You’re wrong. You fight like hell. Not many could do what you do, live the life you’ve been living, and still smile the way you do.”

“Life gets awfully dark very quickly if you allow it to. Hazel deserves a better mother than that, and frankly, I don’t want to be that woman.”

His eyes hold mine for a very long, intense moment. To the point where I get jittery and smile and want to bite my lip to cut this…feelingall at once. He makes a girl want to giggle and squeal, and he does it all with a look.

“Did you like living in California?” he asks, sliding us back into comfortable territory.

“I loved it. I would have stayed there forever.”

“But you moved back to Boston.”

I know where he’s going with all of this, and I have to be careful with my answers. “I met Mattia?—”

“His name does not get mentioned in my bed.”

“Such a caveman, bro,” I tease. “I started dating the loser?—”