Page 9 of Sun Kissed Moments

“It was a sign,” he surmised.

“I took it as one,” I confirmed.

“Explain.”

My eyebrows rose questioningly. “Excuse me?”

His grin was unapologetic. “Explain to me what happened after you got that sign.”

“Oh, you wanna know all my innermost thoughts, huh?” I teased him.

“This is deeper than wanting to know ya thoughts, Justina.”

His response commanded me to pause and take note of the way his eyes softened to reflect whatever lay on his mind.

“I wanna know what frequency ya heart beats on, so mine can fall,” he stated.

Breathlessly, I questioned, “Fall?”

“In line,” he replied lowly. “I want us to be so connected that I feel when you so much as think about runnin’ from me. By the time you make it to wherever you runnin’ to, I’ll already be there, waiting for you.”

It was tragic the way I blushed. Meanwhile, Dane stared into my eyes, his face unreadable, but his eyes were an open book.

The sun loved Justina. As I sat here staring at her, the sun mocked me, making love to her skin in a way that made me jealous as hell. It kissed her skin perfectly. All I could think about was making love to her underneath its rays.

If I was a fuck boy like her ex, I would take the look in Justina’s eyes and capitalize on it. I wasn’t a fuck boy, though, so I cooled down the desire blazing through my loins and shifted the heated atmosphere.

“Tell me why you fell in love with music,” I requested. “I want the real answer. Not the one you feed to the media.”

Justina scoffed. “What makes you think the story I feed the media is a lie?”

“You claim to love music because you grew up listening to all the greats. That’s likely part of the truth. There’s something deeper, though. That’s the part I wanna know about.” The story she fed the press was thin enough for anyone to see through. If they paid attention.

She shrugged as her face softened. “My mama would kill me if I got in front of cameras and told the people how she and my father argued so much that I sat in my room all night wearing headphones just to block them out. I grew up in a mansion, and somehow, that still wasn’t enough space for me to flee the sound of their voices. I was eight when I fell in love with music. It was the only constant sound that blocked out the madness. At nine, I fell in love with the artistry of writing. I wrote my first song on my ninth birthday.”

“Nine?” I was listening so intently that I almost missed her admission.

She giggled. “Nine.”

“What was this song about?” I had to know.

“It was about a freaking puppy.”

We both laughed.

“Our neighbor had a brown poodle that gave birth to four puppies. I wanted one so badly. The way Claire cussed me out from point A to Z is still stored in my memory bank.”

“Wow,” I said, then chuckled. “So, we all had an I wanted a pet, my mama said no childhood?”

She burst out laughing. “Not you too!”

I nodded. “My mama wasn’t goin’ for that shit. I did all that begging knowin’ damn well I wasn’t gon’ take care of that lil’ muhfucka.”

Justina laughed harder before sobering. From the looks of it, she wanted to pry. Silently, I encouraged her to do so.

“If it’s not too much to ask, tell me about her,” she finally was brave enough to say.

That’s my girl, I thought. “Tellin’ you about the best woman in the world is gon’ take longer than this dinner will last.”