“No. I’ve been frightened by you, but I don’t think I’ve ever been truly scared of you.”
“I can’t say the same.” He tightened his arms around me as he whispered into my hair, “You scare me.”
23
JUDAH
Sunday, May 25 | 3:58 p.m.
Icouldn’t remember the last time I had held someone. Sure, I had thrown people over my shoulder. I had carried people like groceries. Like trash. Like something disposable. But holding someone gently was entirely foreign after the last few years. It felt like my humanity was returning.
Amelia had closed her eyes and tucked her head beneath my chin. I held her a little closer as the wind caressed her skin the way I wanted to.
I tilted my head down and kissed her. It was soft. Sweet. The antithesis of everything I had become.
Without even trying, Amelia had snaked beneath my armor like tree roots cracking through layers of asphalt.
She didn’t kiss me back, but she didn’t pull away. Amelia simply lingered there with her lips on mine. “I never understood why people liked kissing,” she whispered. “It just . . . seemed like a waste of time.” Her throat constricted as she swallowed. “I get it now.”
“You’re not too bad at it,” I teased as I skimmed the bridge of her nose with the tip of mine.
A smirk pulled at the corner of her mouth. “I’m a fast learner.”
I cupped her chin and pressed my thumb to her bottom lip. “Practice makes perfect.”
She moved first, turning between my bent knees. “Teach me.”
I chuckled as I stretched my legs out and settled her on my lap. “Slow down, Dr. Hawthorne.” I cupped her cheek. “You’re stressed. You need to think about whether this is something you truly want or if it’s just helping you get through another day.”
Part of me wanted her to decide that this was a line she didn’t want to cross again. That the kiss we had already shared was enough. That boundaries were necessary to keep things from getting even more complicated than they already were.
Amelia trailed her fingers down the front of my shirt.
Fuck . . .
“What if I just need a distraction?” she asked as the tips of her fingers touched my beard.
I swallowed as her honeyed scent wrapped around me in an invisible embrace.So fucking sweet.
I slanted my mouth over hers. “I don’t think you have any trouble letting off steam on your own. I’ve seen what’s inside your bedside table.”
Her cheeks turned pink like the sunrise. “So what? Just because I’ve never been with other people doesn’t mean I don’t know whatIlike.” The corner of her mouth lifted. “I have an active imagination.”
“Tell me what you like then.”
Amelia’s eyes turned comically wide, and she stammered.
I brushed her hair out of the way as I cocked my head and kissed up the side of her neck, then lingered behind her ear. Her skin tasted just as sweet as her words.
Her gasp was razor-sharp. “That.”
I swept my thumb across her collarbone and teased the goosebumps that peppered her skin. “Cold?”
“No,” she hissed as I nipped at her ear.
Amelia whimpered as I kissed down her throat to the dip in the neckline of her T-shirt. “Jude?—”
“Tell me what you want, and I’ll give it to you.”
