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Slowly, I lifted ht that afteru" I trailed off as he lifted ht what? That I didn’t want you up here with me?" He prowled onto the bed There was no other word for what he was doing One leg was on one side of mine, and the other on the other side His hands were still on reat you looked today? And not once did you turn your cheek to the left to hide?"

Oh ht I didn’t want to sleep beside you again? You guessed that wrong if that’s the case" His fingers curled into hto sleep next to you and waking up next to you Which is new tofan of that, but youyeah, you’re different"

I never wanted to be ed upgood all day, in spite of the shit we dealt with in the ot run over, but you still smiled afterward You handled it, went to work Then Aimee showed up"

Jax dipped his head and brushed his lips across mine "Aimee and I never dated"

My muscles locked up as my brain called bull crap on that "I don’t think that’s really any of my business"

He ht now, right?"

"Well, yeah"

"And my mouth was just on you, correct?"

I nodded

"My hand has been between those pretty legs, too?"

OhThat wars

His forehead pressed againstyou out to dinner later So tell ing all overto do with you?"

"Okay," I whispered "When you put it that way, I guess it does"

"Guess?" He drew back, shaking his head And then he sat back, his legs on either side of et that you haven’t done this before"

I raised my fruit punch and took another drink while there was a flutter in my sto I’ve already told you that I like you I think I’ve et done with this conversation, I’ to lie Big parts of me liked the sound of this

"Aily feeling lit up ured it out "She nore up north I don’t know, and honestly, I don’t care Things were casual between us She’s been to ht here Not once And she sure as hell never got to drink fruit punch in my bed"

"I’rin flashed across his face "Aiirl She kno to have fun, but she isn’t the girl for ain

He shifted his hands as he tilted his head to the side "And I know that what’s going on in your head isup It’s what she said tonight"

I tensed all over again "Jax--"

He placed his forefinger overme Normally, if anyone did that to er off, but the subject matter was too intense for that

"I know," he said quietly "I know all about the fire"

Air lodged in my throat I planted one hand in the bed as I leaned back froet very far I couldn’t do this I could feel the slight grip on

"Mona talked about it every once in a while and Clyde filled in what she didn’t go into," he continued in that low, patient voice "I kno it happened"

My heart started pounding in my chest, and when I spoke, my voice was hoarse "I don’t want to do this"

"I know" Jax scooted closer soht was supported by his legs He was close, too close for this "The bar was a hit in town Always busy Making a ton of money Your parents decided to build their dreaging into the comforter "I don’t want to do this," I repeated in a whisper

He lowered his head, pressing a quick kiss against the center of my left cheek, and my breath hiccupped "It was the kind of house your parents drearow, especially Kevin and Toh my chest, and I shook my head "I can’t do this"

Jax didn’t let up "What your parents didn’t realize is that they’d hired an electrician asn’t on the up-and-up Who cut corners on the job sites so he could pocket -up job on the previous house he worked on What your parents didn’t knohen they , was that the electrician hadn’t followed the installation codes on the dimmer switch in the hallway on the second floor--the floor with all the kids’ bedroo my chin, I squeezed ht clearly To the day I died, I’d be able to see that night, to waking up with my brand-new room, with its pink walls and my name spelled out in block letters attached to the wall, filled with sed in had scorched the very inside of my throat and chest Panic poured intofrom the walls, the terror when I opened the bathroom door and the entire world exploded Smoke had turned yellow and brown--I remembered that--athrough the air, slicing intoto crawl across the floor and lick over the ceilings and walls It was like a giant flash And there had been screams Horrific screams that no horror movie could even really replicate and some of them had been mine Some of the There was no air and" I drew in a shaky breath and I didn’t realize that I’d spoken out loud until his lips pressed against ain