Page 52 of Lies Like Love

Jude stares into my eyes, and I can’t help holding his gaze, unblinking. Wondering if he feels the pressure as I do. One wrong step and everything might break.

“Maybe.” I shake my head. “Thanks for the new bookmark.”

I hold up the peacock feather and spin it between my fingers, before setting it aside. I’m not sure when it started, but he’s been leaving them in the pages of my books more frequently lately. Hints he knows exactly what kind of fairytales I’m reading.

“That was a dirty fucking page.” Jude grins. “Good little virgins always trying to think of ways around losing it.”

“I guess.” I can’t help but blush because the most I’ve done with a guy is kissed him. Every time I get close, all I can think about is the one person I shouldn’t. “I don’t want to think about what you know about virgins.”

The idea that Jude’s even been with another girl makes me want to scream.

“Don’t know that much.” He shrugs, leaning his back against the other side of the window seat to face me. “Too much pressure. You take that from a girl and they’re going to expect things.”

“How rude of them.” I roll my eyes. “Aren’t you Prince Charming.”

“Oh, I’m no prince, Felicity. I just speak the truth.”

“Not all girls care that much about their virginity. Just because she gives it to you, doesn’t mean she’s going to fall in love with you.”

Jude leans forward and traces a finger up my calf, offering me the most devious smirk. “You would.”

“Who says I still have mine?”

He pauses, biting the inside of his cheek at my comment, before starting to trail his hand back up again, circling to the underside of my knee when he reaches it, and trailing down the back of my bare leg. Pausing at the line of what might be appropriate and teasing me with it.

“You do.”

I glare at him. “Doesn’t matter. It’s not like I’m saving it for anything special.”

“Well, you should.”

“And what do you care? You just said girls expect way too much for it anyway.”

Jude leans in and wraps his arms around my bent legs, resting his chin on my knees. “You’re not ‘girls’ Felicity. You’re special.”

It’s the closest Jude’s come to admitting something like that to me. He might do little things like leave feathers in my books, but ever since our parents got married, he always does it under the pretense of caring about me as family. Nothing more.

“I just hope you don’t give it to a guy like me,” he says. “Give it to someone good who deserves it. Who’ll treat it right.”

“That’s surprisingly sweet.” And I’m not sure what to make of it.

“Your innocence is important,” he says before a slow grin crawls his face. “And then once that’s gone, you can be who you really are without the guilt of your purity holding you back.”

I swallow hard at where this is going. “Meaning?”

His eyes drop to the book in my hands. “Meaning… tell me what you’re reading, and I’ll answer your question.”

My fingers grip my book, but he doesn’t try to take it away. He holds my legs, the stubble on his jaw scratching my knees as he waits for me to answer.

“It’s a fairytale.” It’s nearly a whisper. “Sort of… it’s a retelling.”

“And what happens in this retelling, Fel?”

“She’s trying to make it to her family, but she gets lost in the woods. And that’s where she meets the wolf who’s hunting her.”

“What does he do when he finds her?”

I can’t say it out loud. Jude knows I haven’t opened my legs for anyone, and unlike him, there are still things I’m shy about.

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