intensity in the way his jaw was set. He sighed before he spoke. "The book's just got a few coincidences that are impossible to ignore. The main characters are Julien and Nadine, and they look a lot like you and I."
He could tell by the way she listened that it was the first time she'd ever heard any of it. There was no way to describe how he knew she wasn't lying, he just did. He felt as if he connected with her in a way he didn't even understand, and could trust she was telling the truth.
Once realization dawned on him, scenes from the book began flashing through his mind. He tried to sort out what was real and what was fiction. He felt better knowing that most of the details in the book about his life has been made up. But, Christ, if her name and her job and her mother fucking face were the same, then where was the line going to be drawn?
"Are you okay?"
Julien coughed a few times to buy himself a second to think. He needed to get more information from her, but knew she'd get suspicious if he started asking too many questions. "I'm good," he said. "Just went down the wrong pipe." He took a sip of the bottled water that had been sitting on the bench between them.
"I won't read the book if you think it'll give me nightmares," she said. She was only joking, but Julien flinched a little.
"No, no, no, it's nothing like that. Like I said, it's no big deal. It's just a romance novel. It's just that I like you, and I don't want the story in the book to affect whatever's maybe happening between us."
She was like putty in his hands. She was blindsided by how much she wanted this guy, and if he was asking her to not read a little book because he wanted to see how things would play out between them, then consider her a no-reading fool.
"I won't read it," she said.
"Thank you," he said. He touched her thigh for a split second when he said it, and her gut clinched at the contact.
"Julien?"
"Yeah?" His voice was still so deep, even though he was basically whispering.
"I like how you look."
He smiled, and the sight of it made her feel like she wanted to tear up for some reason. She had to look away to keep it from happening.
"I like how you look too," he said.
The way he looked in the light of the streetlamps was almost too much. There was an element of danger in his appearance, and sitting next to him in the dark, quiet park made her feel safe and vulnerable at the same time. The voice was another thing. Based on the simple laws of attraction, this guy Julien appealed to her in every way—even the sound of his voice. She couldn't think of a single thing she'd change about him.
They sat on that park bench for an hour before deciding to head back to the gym to pick up her car. He asked her a lot of questions and she did the same, and their conversation never slowed down, even in the Jeep on the way back to the gym. Her car was the only one left in the parking lot when they arrived, and he pulled up next to it and put the Jeep in park.
They talked for another hour, just sitting there in the front seat of his Jeep. There was never a quiet moment, and it wasn't because either of them felt like they had to make conversation. At one point, she plugged in her phone to show him one of her favorite rap songs, telling him he should use it as his next walk out song.
He laughed and told her he'd consider it. She turn ed down the volume of the stereo but, left it playing for the last twenty minutes or so of their conversation. The song Mirrors by Justin Timberlake had come on and was playing when she said she needed to be going. Julien ran a frustrated hand over the side of his head as if he was sorry for what he was about to do. Then, out of nowhere, he leaned over the empty space between the bucket seats, reached out and wrapped a hand around the back of her head and brought her toward him for a kiss. She willingly closed the distance between them, leaning in faster than his hand was pulling. Their lips met in what might as well