Page 58 of Lies Like Love

It doesn’t matter what Jude did or how much it hurt when he walked away after what happened last night. He’s gravity, and I’m incapable of resisting. No matter how much I hate my mother for leaving me or resent my grandparents for trying to sell me to the highest bidder after college, no one has wielded the ability to cause damage like Jude Carlisle.

For years I convinced myself to stay away knowing that fact. But the more time I spend around him at his shop, the more he makes me the girl he met in the library. A girl capable of peeking through his hard exterior to the man underneath. A man who made me question my seemingly perfect life for the first time, testing my limits because he knew I could handle it.

Limits we reached the edge of last night. And even if it was for the best that he walked away, I’m stupidly tempted to circle back and finish what we started.

Jude can be as angry as he wants, he played me as much as I played him. While I knew I was baiting him, he was the one who used it against me.

Why did that have to be such a turn-on?

Grandmother narrows her eyes, and I wonder if she sees the havoc the reminder of last night rattles within me. My cheeks are hot, and my arms are prickled with goosebumps. My core throbs at the simple thought of him.

“Miss.” A waiter stops beside me and hands me a glass of champagne.

I take an immediate sip and wish the bubbles could pop the thoughts in my head.

“I have some people I’d like to introduce you to.” Grandmother wraps her hands around my arm and tugs me along beside her.

This scene should be comforting because I know what to expect here. Pleasantries, familiarity, everyone putting on a show. But as Grandmother leads me through the crowd, all I want to do is disappear—to run until I’m standing in front of Jude at his fight night, pissing him off.

He might pretend he’s strong, but I want to be the girl with the power to break him. I’m tired of him acting like I can’t.

“Misty.” Grandmother releases me to lean in and give a pretentious hug to a woman wearing an ear full of diamonds and the smuggest expression in the room. “This is the granddaughter I was telling you about.”

Misty pulls back and skims me over. “Ah yes, so nice to meet you, Felicity.” She turns and latches onto someone’s arm beside her, drawing him into this conversation. “This is my grandson, Mark.”

I’ve been here five minutes and they’re already setting me up.

“Nice to meet you.” I nod my head, not enjoying how Mark’s grin bares his teeth.

One tick of his smile and any niceness he wants me to see is clearly only surface level. A guise of the person he’s pretending to be.

Almost as if Mark senses I’m looking straight through him, his grin falls the slightest bit. His eyebrows pinch, and he scans me over. The veil of charm falters, and he nods once before turning back to his conversation.

“You’ve been staying with family in the city, right?” Misty asks, not noticing the exchange.

“Yes, with a friend.”

“I thought—”

“She’s been spending time with her stepbrother.” Grandmother nods, cutting her gaze in my direction. “Haven’t you?”

“How do you—” but I don’t finish the question because of course she knows. No matter how loose they let the leash, they always know.

While I was shocked to run into Jude at Twisted Roses, she doesn’t seem the least bit surprised. I can’t help but wonder if she’s known all along that he never left LA eleven years ago. If so, why would she hide that from me?

“How is Jude, sweetie?” She smiles, but it isn’t the least bit friendly.

“Excellent.”

His voice coming from behind me sends a shiver the full length of my spine. I must be imagining him because there’s no world in which Jude would be here tonight. Except, I feel him—his closeness sending goosebumps skittering. His scent fogging the air around me.

Tension that only ever pulses when he’s close.

Spinning around, I’m met with his wicked amusement, and I’m certain my imagination must be playing tricks on me.

“Pretty as always, Red.” He smirks, and I feel the warmth of it crawl inside me.

Those green eyes beg me to fall for him. Pupils dilated as he takes me in. And I can’t help but do the same because I’m caught off guard by the grown-up version of the boy I once met at one of these events. He might no longer accept this life, but he stands before me in a perfectly tailored dark gray suit like a temptation. Or a threat.

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