Heartbreak Lover (Broken Hearts Academy #2) - C.R. Jane Page 0,54

not before the date even happened.

His rock-hard leg was pressed between my thighs, rubbing against me, and it felt so damn good. My body responded with a gluttonous flush that I felt from the top of my head down to the tips of my toes.

He sighed and leaned his forehead against mine. Beneath the cocky bravado, there was so much sadness in him. It was in me too, but I wondered for the first time if it had to be that way forever. If together, we might not be able to figure out a way through all the bullshit, that although not a happily ever after for most people, might be a happily ever after for us.

But that was just crazy talk. Right?

He leaned against me for a long moment more before he moved back and took my hand, dragging me towards the garage and then into his truck.

“So, are you going to tell me where you’re taking me?” I asked as we set off down the road, my favorite James Arthur song playing softly in the background.

“You’re still terrible at surprises,” he remarked with an amused grin thrown my way.

I thought about it for a moment, and a big grin spread across my face. “Yeah, I guess I still am.”

I laughed giddily at the thought that there was still something about me that was the same as the girl he once knew. Jackson did still know parts of me, even though he still had a long way to go to get the whole picture.

It was a relief quite frankly.

I managed to keep my impatience to a minimum, and when he turned out of town and set off down a literal red, dirt road that led into the woods, I bit my tongue and didn’t ask him if he was taking me out in the middle of nowhere to kill me.

Because we were past that point, right?

The woods blocked out almost all traces of sunlight as the trees stretched over the road. Jackson drove a little farther down and then pulled off to the side of the road.

“You okay with walking a little bit?”

“Yeah,” I responded, definitely intrigued by now.

Jackson grabbed a picnic basket from behind his seat that I hadn’t seen him place there, and then he grabbed my hand, as was apparently his way now, and he started to lead me into the woods.

We walked through the forest, Jackson holding on tightly to me for around a mile. I was just about to tell him that my leg couldn’t take it anymore when the tree line suddenly broke, and I stepped into a scene that I couldn’t have imagined, even on my best day.

It was a field of wildflowers that stretched on for at least half a mile. Flowers of all colors, shapes, and sizes covered every square inch of the ground. Explosions of riotous color and sweet smells overwhelmed my senses, until it was all I could think or feel.

It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

But then Jackson turned to look at my reaction, and I saw him standing there, a golden god with the sunlight dancing across his features…and I had to amend that thought.

This field was the second most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

Jackson Parker, stepping into the light from the darkness definitely took the top spot.

“What do you think?” he asked almost shyly.

“If I’d known a place like this existed, I would have done everything I could to spend as much time as possible here,” I admitted. “It’s beyond words.”

A boyish grin lit up Jackson’s face, and he closed his eyes and turned it up to the sun. It was like the field of flowers had stripped away all the shadows he usually carried, and before me was standing a Jackson who’d been freed.

What I would give to see him like this always.

After a long moment, where I just watched as the wind brushed across his golden hair and the light caressed his face, Jackson opened his eyes, smiling wider when he saw that I was watching him.

“Come on,” he told me, taking my hand again and leading me right into the center of the field.

Opening up the picnic basket, he pulled out a blue checkered blanket and spread it carefully on the ground. I watched in amazement as he pulled out at least ten plastic dishes and then a bottle of wine and two plastic wine glasses.

“I thought about trying to make us dinner, but then I thought we might want