Page 82 of Stolen Kiss

Emilia

I climbedout of my car, and before I could even take a step further toward the house, the front door opened.

I looked up at Jensen’s huge form standing at the door.

He wasn’t smiling.

I supposed that to some, he could look quite intimidating when he needed to be. Formidable and unattainable in every sense of the word. It was one of the many things that had attracted me to him when we first met.

I had wanted to attain the unattainable.

I had come straight here from Evelyn’s after spending most of the day with her. Our time together had been long overdue, and I had enjoyed spending the day with her.

I hadn’t been avoiding her like everyone thought.

I had just been enjoying the little independence I’d suddenly found, and I hadn’t wanted to disrupt that by spending time with my nosy family.

I hadn’t gone into the studio today, mostly because I had been somewhat caught up in the accounting side of the business, and Jensen had called and said he was spending the afternoon with Elodie so I didn’t have to worry about her class.

Jensen hadn’t really mentioned her ballet class much, now that I thought about it, which made me think the whole thing had been a ruse to get me and Elodie to spend time together. I still didn’t know why.

I always assumed meeting the child of the man you were seeing was a huge step and it would require more time before we got there, but Jensen had jumped right in, and what was more, I caught him looking at me and Elodie with this strange, unidentifiable look on his face.

The sun had long ago set. It was past Elodie’s bedtime, which meant she was probably asleep in her room right now, in her new bed that she couldn’t stop gushing about.

I hoped she didn’t have any trouble falling asleep. This would be her third night in it, and sometimes it took a while before you became accustomed to such a big change in your life.

The porch light shone on Jensen. It was surprisingly bright, and I knew he had left it on for me when I had texted him I was coming over.

I hadn’t planned on coming over at all tonight. We probably needed to spend some time apart. Especially me, because I could already see myself drowning in him.

He could overwhelm me.

He could give me something to believe in.

I waved at him from where I stood, like some smitten prepubescent girl seeing her first crush from across the room.

I felt stupid.

I quickly put my hand down, and that was when I caught sight of some sort of emotion on his face.

His eyes twinkled and his lips curved up slightly, the beginning of a smile. I took a step toward him and nearly went down when the muscles in the back of my thigh protested.

The amusement in Jensen’s eyes died away, and he walked quickly toward me.

“You okay?” he asked when he was close enough. He wrapped his arms around my waist and held me close. I resisted the urge to snuggle into him.

“Yeah. Sometimes I get these aches in my thighs and back from wearing the prosthesis too long.”

His frown deepened. “Does this happen often?”

“Not too much. It’s just lately, for some reason,” I told him.

He nodded and moved.

I suddenly found myself in his arms.

“What are you doing?” I asked, hanging onto him.

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