He bends over me to plant kisses between my shoulder blades, then carefully withdraws. The tender emptiness he leaves behind cramps with a sudden ache for more, making me sigh.
After cleaning himself up, he dives in behind me, wrapping his arms around my middle so we’re spooned on our sides in the middle of his bed.
We kiss and touch in the darkness, then we sneak down to the shower. Under the warm spray, with his arms around me, I bury my face in his neck, more at peace than I’ve felt in so long.
It’s time I tear down the last of my walls and let CJ inside. He’s waited so patiently. Now I’m restless to take that step.
Which means I need to tell Dad about us.
Chapter Thirty-One
“Wow,”Colton says, blinking behind his new glasses as he takes in the rows of bookshelves. Benjamin said Colton used to frequent the library when he was younger, before his mom joined Sons of Eden.
Keo pushes through the library door, dressed in a navy blue corduroy jacket, jeans, and a colorful scarf. I drink her in for an instant before her gaze finds mine. She smiles, and something kicks loose inside my chest. It’s pure, almost sweet.
It’s for sure helping settle my scattered thoughts thanks to yesterday’s events—not just the rescue but the message from Scott about CJ’s drug test.
Colton turns, his face softening when he sees her. “Hi, Miss Keo.”
“Hey, Colton,” Keo replies with a bright smile.
Benjamin slips through the turnstile, and we all follow.
“What books are you interested in?” I ask Colton as Keo comes in next to me, giving me a hit of today’s choice of perfume. It’s fresh, more floral than spice. It makes me want to bury my nose in her neck and drink it in.
I’ll have to make a point of doing just that later.
A circulation desk manned by two librarians takes up the middle of the space, with a row of checkout counters against one wall. Beyond are rows of bookshelves, with study carols hugging the walls on either side.
Benjamin eyes Colton with a curious expression. “Up here is nonfiction and adult fiction, and magazines and stuff like that. Downstairs is picture books, young adult, graphic novels, and the fish tank.”
Colton chews his bottom lip. “Are graphic novels the ones with all the cartoon drawings?”
Benjamin smiles. “Yep. There’s a whole section of ‘em.”
“Can we start there? Maybe come back up here later for volcanoes and wooly mammoths.”
“You got it.” Benjamin leads us to the stairway.
As Keo and I fall in behind them, I reach for her hand. “Hi, sunshine.”
She cocks her head, a shy grin tugging at her lips. “Hi.”
“It’s been ages since I’ve been down here,” I say as we follow Benjamin and Colton past a reading area with bean bag chairs and the giant fish tank. It’s a school day, so the place is empty except for a mom and a young boy back in the picture book section and a tween girl on one of the bean bag chairs, engrossed in a graphic novel with a stack of more of them next to her.
Keo gives the space an appreciative scan. “My kids loved the library too. This is nice. Cozy.”
A silver-haired librarian wearing a bug antennae headband peeks out from one of the shelves, a rolling book cart at her side. “Let me know if I can help you find anything.”
Colton chews his lip again, but Benjamin offers him a reassuring smile. “You can read anything you want. We can even get you a library card if you want to take any of the books back with you.”
Colton glances at the shelves, a soft yearning in his expression. “Really? They’d…let me do that?”
Benjamin’s serious eyes warm. “Yep. Really.”
“What kind of books do you like?” I ask Colton, stepping into the first aisle and scanning the spines.
His eyes light up but his hands are limp at his sides, like he’s afraid to explore. So I pull one out and flip through it, dragons and castles flashing. “Fantasy?”