Chapter 14

Arsen

How doyou fall in love?

Slowly and then all at once.

I was slow to watch him from afar. Brief glances and curious glimpses across campus, puzzling over the AirPods but never even close to guessing the reason they were there.

What was fleeting curiosity, perhaps even just genial attraction, morphed into lingering glances beneath neon light while loud music drowned out any thought as to why I should look away. At first, when our stares would cross, he averted his gaze. The disinterest never bothered me… until it did.

Until he swayed his tight swimmer ass to the beat of the song I’d composed and his aloof attention turned interested. And then the slow progression of awareness snowballed into something that quite frankly took over.

Now the rest was details. Doing anything but loving this man was not an option. Doing anything but keeping him would be impossible.

God help anything that tried to get in the way because some love might be fickle. Some love might be fleeting.

But this love?

It defied time and logic to simply exist.

I meant it when I said we didn’t have to fit to belong because fitting denoted changing ourselves to conform to a predetermined shape. But belonging meant change wasn’t required. Belonging meant acceptance no matter the shape.

The second my G-Class rolled into the parking lot of the Westbrook police station, the glass doors opened and Niles stepped out. Despite his high-class, put-together look, he was perturbed. It clung to him like a bad odor that his thousand-dollar cologne couldn’t mask. He didn’t cross his arms or even tap his polished loafers. He did, however, spare a glance at the expensive watch around his wrist.

If he thought his clear disdain of my lateness would make me contrite, he clearly didn’t know me at all. I didn’t exactly plan to be late, but the princess riding shotgun got priority. I would literally stop the clock to listen to anything he wanted to say.

Misophonia. Tinnitus. I wondered more and more if he was on the spectrum, but he didn’t say, and I didn’t ask. The mention of his parents torpedoed him into an anxiety attack, and I didn’t want to make it worse. I’d learn about him slowly, something that bothered me a lot less than it did an hour ago.

Probably because I was already all at once in love with him.

After pulling into a spot in the back of the lot, I shot him a glance. “Stay there. I’ll come around.”

Exiting the SUV, I pocketed the keys and went around the back, lifting my hand to acknowledge Niles. I swear he huffed in annoyance. I don’t know what the fuck he was so pissed off about. He was getting paid by the hour. My delay was just more cash in his pocket.

Forgetting about my salty lawyer, I went around the passenger side where Matthew was already out of the seat and standing in the open door.

Glowering, I said, “I told you I’d come around.”

He scoffed. “I can get out of the car by myself.”

“That’s not the point.”

He turned, tugging the hem of the hoodie he’d brought with and slid on. The edge of his T-shirt stuck out beneath it, creating a little white band around his hips. Something about that little detail charmed me immeasurably.

“Then what’s the point?” he asked, having no idea the hold he had on me.

As I stepped into the open door with him, our bodies nearly bumped with how close we stood. His cheeks flushed when I adjusted the hood that was crooked against his back. When that was done, I gently tugged the strings lying against his chest. “The point is I want to help you.”

His eyes strayed to the building behind me.

“You nervous?” I asked.

He shrugged.

“It’ll be fast. It’s not like we know anything anyway.”

He nodded.

Hitching my chin toward the interior of the car, I asked, “You gonna bring your coffee?”

“You mean my cup of whipped cream?” He smarted off.

I smiled, and he rolled his eyes but leaned in to grab the paper cup from the center. We made it to the fender of the Mercedes when Matthew’s feet stuttered.

I glanced around, but he was staring ahead. “Why does he look like that?”

He meant Niles who was standing on the sidewalk like he had a major case of hemorrhoids and constipation.

What a tool.

I grunted. “That’s just his face. Unfortunate, isn’t it?”

The side of his mouth curved up, but the half-smile didn’t last. Usually, other people’s irritation didn’t bother me. I was good at being unbothered because, frankly, whatever crawled up someone else’s ass wasn’t my problem.

Until Matthew.

Until it became painfully obvious the way other people reacted and the energy they put out in the room affected him profoundly.

“Hey,” I said, nimble fingers unclasping the bracelet he seemed to favor. “How about you hold on to this for me?” Moving so I was in front of him and blocking the view of Niles, I fastened the leather strap around his wrist.

He glanced down. “You’re giving me your bracelet?”

“If you get nervous in there, you can fidget with it.”

Saying nothing, he just stared.

Clearing my throat, I adjusted the sleeve of the hoodie so the leather strap could touch his skin. “That feel okay?”

He nodded, eyes straying to my wrist. “But now you have an uneven amount.”

“I do?”

“Mm, there were twelve. Now you have eleven.”

Ah yes, the sets of three.

I unfastened another one, this one braided, and added it to his wrist. Holding up my hand, I offered, “Pick another one.”

His fingers went right to one with black beads, and I slid it from my wrist to his. “Now you have three and I have nine.”

His eyes lifted from the accessories to meet mine. “Thank you.”

The urge to kiss him was so strong I didn’t even think twice. Leaning in, I brushed his lips with mine and then dropped another on the tip of his nose.

Niles glared the entire time we walked across the lot, and I made sure to angle myself slightly in front of Matthew. The second we stepped onto the sidewalk, I turned, ushering Matthew ahead of us through the door.

He went on in, and I stopped abruptly, Niles cursing under his breath as we nearly collided.

“First, you are late, and now this,” he spat.

I turned the rest of the way, using my shoulder to hold open the door. The second the full weight of my stare met the lawyer’s, his cleared.

“Is there a problem?” he asked, arrogant.

“I don’t have a problem,” I said conversationally.

“Then let’s get on with this. I have a plane to catch.”

I didn’t move. “But I will have a problem if you don’t yank that stick out of your ass and at least attempt to act human toward Matthew.”

Surprise lit his eyes, but it was quickly replaced with indignation. “I’m here to make sure this entire situation is let go and kept out of the headlines. I am not being paid to wipe noses and hold hands. If he can’t take the way I do my job, then perhaps he should find his own counsel.”

My tongue slid over my teeth, and I laid my palm on the glass of the door to lean toward my lawyer. “Today, you are his counsel, and you’re getting paid very well for it, might I add. If you don’t want me to call my father, your boss, and suggest he find new counsel, then cut the shit and be the professional that fancy degree claims you are.”

“How dare you?” He seethed.

“Arsen?” Matthew called from inside the station.

Just hearing his voice made me that much more determined to shield him. “I mean it, Niles. You make sure he walks out of here spotless and unbothered. Anything less and I’ll have your job.”

I didn’t wait for him to respond. I turned and went the rest of the way into the station, stopping at Matthew’s side.

“Is everything okay?” he asked me quietly.

“Yeah. Just routine lawyer talk,” I replied.

I shot a glance at Niles as he approached.

Adjusting his tie, he smiled. “Mr. Prism. Nice to see you again today.”

“I hope you didn’t have to wait very long for us,” Matthew told him.

“It’s not a problem at all. It’s my job to be here for you,” Niles answered.

Detective Paul appeared and waved us to his office.

“Ah, perfect timing,” Niles announced. “Let’s go, gentlemen. I’ll have you both out of here in no time.”