Page 45 of The Bookbinder's Guide to Love

She’d always been adept at being what the people in her life needed her to be. Survival instinct maybe, but with Wes it felt different. She was being herself. Maybe that was what he needed. Just Sera.

It made it easier for her to let her feelings develop, if she was doing it for him. If she didn’t have to admit she wanted to revel, even for a few moments, in being enough for this man.

“I like you.”

The words just came out. She’d been firmly reminding herself that he was only here temporarily, but that didn’t matter. She’d cared for people before knowing they were just passing through her life. That was what this would be. A sweet epilogue to her time with Ford. That was all.

Her body’s reaction to his closeness told her thatwasn’tall. She wanted him. Wanted to feel him inside her again. Partially because she liked the shared bond it built between them, but also because he was hot and she hadn’t stopped thinking about him since that night.

Being the leading lady of her life meant she was allowed to take pleasure and joy wherever she found it. The rest of the six weeks with Wes would be good enough.

“I like you too,” he said. “But I suck at relationships.”

“Don’t tell me what you think. Your actions are different.”

She turned so she faced him and felt the tug on the strand of her hair as it was pulled through his fingers. He might think he wasn’t good at relationships, but that was because he’d been using some metric known only to him. By her standards, as she’d watched him with his father and brother, he had a good one with them. It wasn’t overly warm, but then, not every relationship was.

“You think so?” he asked.

“Do you need me to big you up?” she countered.

“No. I just... I want to tell you about my mom. I wanted to talk about it with my dad, but I knew it would set him off, so I couldn’t, but...I can’t stop thinking about it, and I know it’s because after we were returned to my dad nothing was the same.”

“Tell me,” she invited, putting her hand on his thigh. She felt the muscle contract. Then he put his hand over hers.

“I’m not sure what happened between my parents, but when Oz and I were four my mom took us, and we didn’t see my dad or Grandpa for two years. Then one day she dropped us off—here, and we never saw her again. She sent a single postcard when we were sixteen, but I tore it up and never heard from her again. Dad told us she’d held us hostage until he gave her a lump sum settlement, which almost bankrupted him and Grandpa. But that was all he said.”

She turned her hand under his. She wasn’t sure how to respond. She was horrified to hear that his mother had used him and his brother as pawns to get what she wanted. But Sera wasn’t surprised. She’d heard other stories like that, of parents using their children. And her own parents had died cooking meth in their mobile home. Their life had been hard, and she guessed they hadn’t found books to escape into the way she had. Drugs offered another type of escape, and she didn’t hold that against them.

She knew not everyone had a loving mom and family the way Liberty and Poppy did. But she wished she and Wes could have that.

“I’m sorry.”

He nodded. “Dad had to work a lot when we were growing up and I look like my mom, so I always felt like I was a bad reminder of her.”

“I like the way you look,” she said. “Even if you resemble her, you are definitely your own person.”

“What about you?” he asked after a beat, clearly changing the subject.

“I can’t remember what my parents looked like, so I’m not sure if I resemble one of them or not.”

“No one gave you any pictures?”

“There weren’t any left after the fire,” she said.

“God, what a pair we are” was all he said, and then he turned toward her and she leaned into him.

She wanted him. Wanted to feel like they were more than the messiness of their pasts. They weren’t perfect at all, and she knew this was probably a grief thing, or at least that was what she was going to call it for now as she shifted on the couch to sit on his lap and twined her arms around his neck.

She pushed her fingers into the blond hair she now knew was from his mom and pulled his head toward hers. His mouth was tentative at first, but then his hands moved to her waist as he deepened the kiss.

Sera had been so sweet, but talking always made him feel too much, so when she kissed him and climbed on his lap his body reacted as it always did around her. He was hard and ready.

The room smelled like old books and the pine from the wood he’d put on the fire. There was the subtle fragrance of lavender, which he knew came from Sera. The woman herself was anything but subtle. In this room that was rooted in so many memories, some good and some bad, most of them tainted with his own anger and grief, it was nice to have her on his lap. Nice to just feel Sera.

She sucked his tongue deeper into her mouth as he found the hem of her dress, pushing his hand underneath until his fingers skimmed along the material of her tights. He had missed this. They had said only one night. But that had been because she’d needed to hear that.

And maybe he had as well. But from the first time he’d kissed her, he’d known one time wasn’t going to be enough.

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