Page 86 of Healed Hearts

That’s way too much for me to process right now, so I don’t even try. But itdoesmake me smile. I close my eyes, snuggling into Julian’s chest, and fall asleep thinking about our future. And for the first time in a long time, I feel hope for it.

When I wake up with the sun streaming into my room, I’m still encased in the warmth of Julian’s arms. I feel a little emotionally wrung out, and a little sad that I couldn’t stand up for myself, but I’m still happy overall. Roman is right that I probablyshould talk to my therapist. It’s been too long and between everything happening in my personal life and my professional life, it wouldn’t be the worst thing to talk to her. But this is not how things usually go for me. I rarely wake up mostly okay after being triggered that badlyandhaving a nightmare on top of it.

I tilt my head back, just enough to look at Julian. He’s completely lost in sleep—face relaxed, lips slightly parted, lashes fanning across his cheeks. He stayed. He stayed for me. I pushed him away, and he didn’t run. I guess, in a way, hedidstay to fight my monsters. He gave me the space I asked for and respected my boundaries, but then the second I realized I wanted him, he was right there. Ready for me. My heart thuds heavily at the thought.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Julian

When I open my eyes, I’m immediately greeted by emerald green framed in dark lashes. “Now there’s a sight I could get used to,” I murmur. Holden gives me a shy smile and drops his face, hiding against my chest. “I need to give you a couple more shirts, huh?”

He shrugs, but looks back up at me. “I like this one.”

“I can tell, but we need to get you a selection to choose from.”

He hums. “This one doesn’t smell like you anymore.” The pout on his face makes me chuckle.

“Well, maybe I’ll have to sleep in one and give it to you. Let you swap off when it stops smelling like me.”

His eyes dart away from me, but the faint pink on his cheeks is unmistakable. “Okay. Um, thank you.”

“For the shirt?” I rub my hands up and down his back, loving the feel of his sleep-warmed skin. “You don’t have to thank me for that.”

He shakes his head. “No. For staying.”

My heart clenches. “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Fuck, darlin’. You swooped in with those big green eyes, your huge heart, and those fucking back dimples and snatched my heart right out of my chest. I knew from the very first night I didn’t stand a chance.”

He wrinkles his nose. “Back… dimples?”

“Yeah, Hold. The back dimples are lethal.”

He lets out an incredulous laugh. “I do not have back dimples.”

My eyebrows shoot up. “Oh, you so fucking do, darlin’.”

Pulling out of my embrace, he sits up. His hair is a fucking mess, all wild and wavy, probably from falling asleep with it wet, but he looks adorable. So gorgeous.Mine. I’m not even usually the possessive type, but what can I say? I kinda want to kidnap him and bring him home with me and never let him leave. In like, the least creepy way possible.

The glare he levels me with makes my heart thud. He’s in fine form this morning, and I love his playful outrage almost as much as I love the way he melts into me. “I think I’d know if I had back dimples.”

“Trust, Hold. You have them, and they are entirely too sexy for words.”

His jaw drops. “Are you serious?”

I can’t help but laugh. “I’m dead serious.”

He stares at me for a few minutes, then pulls his—my—shirt over his head, tossing it to the floor before lying on his stomach. “Prove it.”

Prove it? How? “How am I supposed to do that?”

“I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, Jules, but your phone has a camera. I know it seems crazy for an old man like you, but it exists.” My heart goes haywire.

“So I get a nickname, huh?” That thought fills me with endless joy. I feel like Holden is very much the type to only give nicknames to people he really cares about, even if they’re less than favorable, like Beck’s. Even though he hasn’t called me that since our little date night the other night, it still makes my heart happy.

“I’ll take it back if you don’t take a picture of my back. Can’t wait to prove you wrong.”

I chuckle. He really doesn’t know. How is it possible that no one has ever pointed them out to him before? How has he never seen them himself? “I’ll be happy for you to eat those words.”

Grabbing my phone off the nightstand, I open the camera app. His briefs are pulled up over them a bit, so I can’t actually see them, but they’re definitely there. When I tug the band of his underwear down enough to see the two dimples, my cock swells. They’re really so sexy, and I don’t even know why I like them so much, but I definitely do. “Fuck, Hold,” I murmur, brushing my fingertips over them. This is the first time I’ve been able to touch them. At least like this. The fact that he’s even trusting me to lie like this, especially after everything that happened yesterday, makes me feel so good.

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