Oh god. Shoot. Me and my stupid mouth asking the wrong questions.
Dean surprises me by laughingagain.
“What’s so funny?” I’m genuinely confused.
“Out of everything,” he wipes beneath his eye. “You ask me abouthobbies and not why I was there?”
“It’s weird asking that considering when I first met you and your brothers, Callahan seemed the most likely to go to prison.”
Dean goes quiet. His muscles stretch in a painful way. His neck stiffens. “What makes you say that?”
“As broody as you are, Callahan has that vibe to him.” Nervously laughing, “Plus, he scares me.”
Then I lengthen my strides to get away from him.
Dean grabs my wrist, pulling me to him.
His chest meets my back, I gasp. “The only time you should have your back towards me is on a bed with your face down on a pillow, do you understand?”
Holy.
I swallow hard, licking my bottom lip. Here I was thinking that Dean’s this innocent, soft, macho-ish man. But my goodness…
Themouthon him?
Call an ambulance, I can feel a heartbeat in my ears.
“Yes, sir.” It’s quiet, submissive.
But he hums in approval.
“Now,” he laces our hands together and takes the lead walking. “I read a lot in prison.”
I turn my head to look back at where we just were. So, we’re gonna ignore whatever that was? Alright then.
“TV makes prison seem like there’s groups that’ll rally up against you, but the truth is everyone minds their own business unless you get up in theirs. I had a lot of alone time and books were a privilege, but two years in, I was labelled the prison’s good boy.”
I grasp onto the new pieces of knowledge.
“They let me pick out three books for two weeks.” His voice goes hoarse like the memories taste of ash. “In the beginning, I pickedfiction. It was a pick-me-up. But eventually I realized that it wasn’t enough. So, I started going for textbooks. Language, business, science, history. Whatever you can think of, I read. Some of the books were outdated, but it was better than sitting in a cell and counting down the days until my release.”
Four years in prison. All spent on acquiring knowledge.
That’s a manual for undoubted attraction.
“I’m very impressed right now,” I smile at him. “Studying when you could be lashing out is sexy.”
He turns his head and looks down at me. A strand of hair falling over his forehead in a perfect curl. “Is this turning you on, lovebird?”
“I’ll let you figure that one out yourself, ogre.”
It’s a harmless joke, but Dean’s eyes darken like he’s thinking about taking my clothes off right in the middle of the street and checking himself.
Clearing my throat, I pull at his hand. “What else did you do?”
“Exercised, got tattoos.” He walks with his right front first. Same as me. “Every month before the last day, they’d ask inmates to sign up for a workshop. There’d be five in total. Some were knitting, others were origami, but I loved the woodworking one. Remember how I mentioned living on a ranch?”
“How can I forget?” I say with a nod.
