AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I worked at UCLA hospital in their pediatric unit. I had a ton of terminal patients, but also their siblings who were trying to deal with their impending losses.”
His face froze. “That sounds really hard.”
“There were definitely points when it felt like a lot, and on some level it was kind of a relief to leave and go to private practice. But I loved the patients at UCLA.”
“Can I ask—”
I nodded at him.
“You said you went to art school. Wasn’t there a part of you that just wanted to be an artist?”
I shrugged. “Kind of? But I always remembered my therapist when I was younger, so when I finished school, all my friends and I went on to start our support jobs and make art, and I started taking night classes at community college so I could get the requirements for my PhD.”
“You really worked hard, didn’t you?
I shrugged again, smiling a little wistfully. “It ended up being so worth it.”
The look that he gave me wasn’t pitying, but there was definitely some sorrow there for what I’d had to surrender for the sake of my safety. “You must miss it.”
“Every day. And I couldn’t look for a job doing art therapy here because it would leave a bread crumb for Alex to follow.” The breath started catching in my chest, and I swallowed, but I couldn’t suppress the tears as they came up.
Dillon set his bowl aside and gently took mine from me before pulling me into his arms. I blinked up at him in surprise before surrendering to the affection, feeling so grateful for the surge of humanity I’d gotten from him after we’d slept together. I’d worried that I might not see this side of him again.
“You’ll do it again,” he said into my hair, tilting my face up to his. “One day soon, when all this bullshit comes to an end, you’ll be able to get back to yourself.”
I nestled down into his chest, giving in to the fantasy.
13
DILLON
The stiffness in my back the next morning told me that I was officially too old to fall asleep on the couch, even for just one night. Even when it was made even better by the fact that the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen had fallen asleep on top of me, and I’d woken up with the scent of her in my nose for the second morning in a row.
After she’d opened up to me about her work and how she’d loved being a therapist, we’d talked more about some of the toughest cases she’d ever treated and about how she’d dealt with them. I loved hearing her stories, and I’d kept asking her for more and more of them. Eventually she’d just bent over and laid herself down on top of my body, leaning forward to crush my mouth with hers in a searing kiss.
I didn’t know how much time we’d spent like that, simply kissing, but I could’ve taken days just enjoying her soft lips and their interplay with mine. Eventually, when she’d broken off the kiss, we’d just gone back to talking, and I was amazed by how easy it was with her.
When she’d fallen asleep on my chest, I hadn’t wanted to disturb her, so I’d just let her stay there, running my fingertips over the soft skin of her arms. It wasn’t long before I’d fallen asleep too.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d fallen asleep that easily or slept that well. I tucked my fingers into the long hair that flowed over her back and ran the tips over her scalp, pushing just hard enough to get a reaction from her. She groaned, and the sound reminded me sharply of the other sounds that I’d elicited from her only two nights before.
“Macy,” I murmured, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.
“Noooooo,” she said, the word coming out plaintive, as if she was begging not to be disturbed.
“Macy, we’ve been here all night. Do you want to get up and go to bed?”
She lifted her head up from my chest, and her face looked so adorably bleary that I couldn’t help leaning forward to kiss her. Her lips were soft with sleep, and they gave as I moved mine with them.
“Do you want to go to your bed, Macy?” I asked.
She looked around, blinking sleepily at the detritus left around us from the dinner she’d made. “We didn’t clean up from dinner. I’m just gonna wash the dishes, and then I’ll go to bed.”
I couldn’t help watching, entertained, as she got up from the couch and stumbled off toward the kitchen, but she was clearly so tired that she could barely follow a straight line. I got up and followed her, scooping her up into my arms and carrying her down the hall.
“I’m not letting you near my dishes until you can walk in a straight line. You’d probably drop all of them.”
“Probably,” she said, her head dropping back against my chest as she curled into me. I felt a pang in my chest as I held her, and when I laid her in her bed, she gripped my shirt tightly in her hand for a minute. I was tempted to lie down with her, but this was already getting dangerously intimate, so I softly unclenched her fingers from my shirt and headed back to the kitchen, where I started putting everything away from the night before.
