The kids aren’t painting today, but are instead raptly listening and watching a tattooed female artist who’s demonstrating how she works with metal sculpture.
Avery signals to the instructor with a friendly wave. “Sorry to interrupt, Lita.”
“No problem,” she says, setting down the piece of hammered metal she was displaying for the class. “We were just about to break for a few minutes, anyway.”
Some of the kids file out as we step inside, offering smiles and chatty greetings to Avery, Nick, and Jared. I’m a bit taken aback when one of the girls in the class, a petite, curvy brunette with big doe eyes and a sweet, crooked smile walks straight up to Jared and wraps her arms around him.
Immediately, I recognize the affectionate embrace is simply that. Jared chuckles, releasing my hand to return the girl’s brief hug.
“Hey, Alyssa. What’d I do to deserve this?”
When she draws away from him, tears shimmer in her eyes. “The restraining order was approved. I just found out around an hour ago. Chad isn’t allowed to come anywhere near me again or I can have him arrested.”
“That’s great news.”
She sniffles, giving him a jerky nod. “Thank you for doing it for me. If you hadn’t helped me through all the legal stuff, Chad and his stupid friends might’ve never left me alone.”
“No.” Jared rests his hands on her shoulders, looking at her intently. “You understand it wasn’t me who made this happen, right? It was you. It took real guts, Alyssa. I’m proud of you.”
She hugs him again as if she just can’t help herself. Belatedly, she notices me standing beside Jared and gives me a shy smile.
“This is Melanie,” he says. “Melanie, this is Alyssa.”
I smile back at her. “Hi, Alyssa. Jared tells me you’re a wonderful artist.”
“He said that?”
“Yes, he did. He also said he thinks you have a great future ahead of you.”
She glances at him, then smiles down at her weathered sneakers for a moment. “Okay. Well, I gotta go get some water before the class starts again. Nice to meet you.”
“You too.”
“Good kid,” Nick says after she’s gone.
“They all are,” Avery adds. “All they need is a chance, and someone to show they truly care, that they can be trusted.”
“Isn’t that what we all need?” I ask, my gaze returning to Jared.
He nods, but doesn’t speak, his expression pensive and somehow distant.
In silence, he takes my hand again as Avery and Nick bring us into the art room to review the newly arrived equipment and supplies.
28
MELANIE
After an amazing day spent with Jared, and a restless night alone in my bed at home, I’m practically giddy when he calls me at work the next day to invite me out for dinner.
Rather than going somewhere trendy or exclusive on a busy Friday night in the city, he surprises me with an intimate rooftop table at a quiet little French restaurant in the Meatpacking District. We spend three unhurried hours talking and laughing over five delicious courses and a dessert of chocolate soufflé that’s so heavenly it makes me moan almost as blissfully as I do for the impossibly sexy man seated across from me.
As far as perfect evenings go, I’m hard-pressed to think of anywhere I’d rather be than caught in the smoldering, fathomless heat of Jared’s eyes. If I’ve tried to stop myself from falling for him, I realize now that there’s no use in denying it.
I’m already halfway in love with him.
More, my reckless heart corrects.
And if being together feels so right, so effortlessly natural, this soon, I can only guess at how good things between us have yet to be.
Jared pays for dinner, then leads me out to his car waiting with the curbside valet. A nod and a large tip pressed into the attendant’s palm sends the young man away. Jared opens the passenger door for me, but I’m not ready to get in yet.
Wrapping my arms around his neck, I kiss him right where we stand, a soft summer breeze stirring the skirt of my red dress and the sounds of the city buzzing all around us.
“Thank you,” I murmur against his lips. “Not just for dinner tonight, but for yesterday at the beach and at the community center . . . for all of it, Jared.”
His mouth curves, his dark eyes so tender on me it sends a pang of yearning straight to my soul. It’s not only his body I crave right now, but this—the connection I feel toward him when he looks at me, as if I’m the only woman in the world.
The only one for him.
There is a part of me that’s desperate to believe that.
If I’m only imagining our bond—or worse, if it’s only me who’s feeling it so profoundly—I don’t want to consider how much it will break me if I’m the only one falling.
“You belong to me,” he says, his deep voice vibrating with solemnity as well as demand. “You’re mine now, Melanie.”
Maybe he senses the fear bubbling up inside me, the uncertainty that I can trust everything I’m feeling. Maybe he reads it in my eyes. God knows he’s been able to tune in to my feelings, good and bad, ever since we met.
His gaze burns into mine. “Let me hear you say it.”
“I am,” I whisper, barely staving off the emotion that swells inside me. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be, and with no one else, Jared. I’m yours.”
Pulling me into his arms, he kisses me with a sweetness that rocks me even more than the explosive passion I know he’s capable of. I sway against him on the sidewalk as he holds me, our bodies moving in a slow rhythm all our own.
A low, rolling sound builds in his chest, somewhat like a purr. “I love the way you feel like this in my arms. I should take you dancing sometime.”
“I’d like that.” I lift my head and smile at him. “How about now?”
“Tonight?” He chuckles. “I had
