Free To Hold and to Heal (BWWM Interracial Romance) by Naomi Lecroy Page B

That thing. That intense stare thing you keep doing.”
                  He laughed. “I'm not staring at you! I'm just not looking away.”
                  “Well no one else looks at me that way.”
                  He thought for a moment. “Why didn't you stay? That night with me, why didn't you stay the whole night?”
                  She was stilled by his question. “Stay for what? For breakfast? With the man that was only in town for one day? Why did you want me to?”
                  “Why wouldn't I want you to?”
                  She looked at him. “I don't know. Because I wear too much makeup and my dress was trashy?”
                  “I'm pretty sure that you would have wiped off the makeup in the morning,” he said. He quickly ate the last bits of food on his plate. “Let's try something easier.”
                  “What? I'm ruining this,” she said, defeated. This was a mistake. She was too awkward. Alden was calling the server over for the check. She sipped at her water self-consciously. Why had she worn the dress? What was she trying to do?
    I should have told him I couldn't see him. What am I even doing here?
                  “Thank you.” Alden was handing the bill folder back to the server. She perked up as he stood. She pushed her chair back and he took her hand, helping her to her feet. “Come on,” he said softly.
                  “I shouldn't, we should just-” she started.
                  “We're going to play some games.”
                  “What?”
                  “Games, lots of them. You're going to relax and I'm going to win you something. Time for you to have some fun.”
                  Alden turned out to be terrible at games. Every game was a bust for him. She snorted with laughter, shaking her head and rolling her eyes. He laughed it off and handed her a roll of tokens. “Here you try it, I'm terribly unlucky.”
                  “You knew you were bad at this so why would you want to do it?” she asked, laughing. The light of the camera flash caught her by surprise.
                  He turned the phone to face her. She was looking at her own laughing face. The girl in the picture was happy and carefree. Not her. “Alden. . .” she started.
                  “Here, take a picture with me,” he said, wrapping his arm around her shoulders, holding the phone up to capture them both in the frame. The girl staring back at her was frowning slightly, eyebrows pushed together. “Smile,” he said and then he kissed her cheek. In that moment her expression changed and the girl from the first picture returned. The camera flashed again.
                  “Alden!” she said, laughing, “Stop! I hate having my picture taken.”
                  “One more then. That’s all.” He wrapped his arm around her, drawing her close. She fit perfectly in the crook of his neck. “Smile for me. I want a photo to keep.”
                  His hand traced a line down her arm.  His scent filled her nostrils, clean, like soap. The slight chill in the air was gone. There was only his arms, his body against hers. “Why are you doing this?” she whispered.
                  “You're beautiful. Take a picture with me.”
                  She looked up at him. “What?”
                  He kissed her forehead. “Look at the camera and take a picture with me.”
                  She turned and smiled, a real smile for a change. It felt natural and easy with him. The camera flashed again, capturing them together, perfect.
                  He laughed and kissed her, pressing his mouth against her protests. “And now that your defenses are lowered, I can finally start winning at these things!” he