“All right, all right. I’m going to let go.”
I wasn’t giving in. I was trying to stop a rather embarrassing moment occurring. My body craved her. I wanted to slide my hand lower and feel her soft flesh, to hear her come around my fingers.
When she turned around, her eyes were fire, a mirrored fantasy reflected in her irises.
It made it nearly impossible to step back. But I did. Clearing my throat, I sat back down and wiped my hand on a kitchen towel, hoping it’d also wipe away the raging hormones that just wanted me to grab her.
“I’ve been trying to convince Jasper not to come to the trial.”
“Oh.” I shook my head, trying to clear my lust-filled brain. “Why don’t you want him there?”
“Why would he want to hear what Dad did?”
“Probably for the same reason as you wanting to give evidence in person.”
She sighed and rested her chin on her hands. I knew what she was thinking. “I feel guilty.”
“Fucking hell.” Sometimes she completely gutted me. “Why doyoufeel guilty?”
“Jasper lost his dad, and as much as he says he hates him, there must be some part of him that still cares.”
“Some part?”
“Yes. You know, the part that remembers Dad teaching him to ride a bike and drive a car. Every Christmas when Dad would make a fort out of the empty boxes. When he took Jasper to the park or helped with his homework—”
“Okay, stop. That man wasn’t real.”
Her eyes glazed over, and I felt the temperature drop so low there was no chance of the ice cream melting. Our earlier playing around felt like it’d happened weeks ago.
“But that’s not true. He was real to Jasper.”
I moved quickly, sliding in beside her and wrapping my arms around her, needing the hug more than ever.
“The guilt shouldn’t be with you. It’s not your fault. Jasper might have lost his dad, but that’snotbecause of you.”
She nodded, leaning into my side.
“You don’t believe me, do you?”
“No one believes you, Cole,” she said with a shaky voice, trying to make a joke.
“That’s because you all suck,” I mumbled against her hair.
Her body shook lightly as she laughed.
“Sorry. Again. You must think I’m an unstable mess.”
“Not unstable. Although you are getting a little more like Jasper,” I teased.
“That’s the same as unstable.”
I chuckled quietly and closed my eyes, pulling her closer. Her body radiated a heat that I wanted to lose myself in.
“Do you want to go when the trial starts?”
She shook her head. “No. I don’t want to be in there any longer than I have to be. I’ll go the days I’m on the stand and for the verdict… and that’s it.
“Me, too.”
