Page 40 of Lies Like Love

“Fel, wait.” I’m not sure how he caught up with me when he was inside the shop talking to Brea only moments ago, but I barely make it around the corner before Jude grabs my arm and spins me to face him.

His green eyes trap me like honey I can’t escape.

“Why didn’t you come in?” His eyebrows pinch, as he lets me go.

The step of distance he places between us isn’t enough. The city closes in, my bracelets weigh me down, and I’m trapped by his gaze.

“You were busy.”

Jude grips my chin between his thumb and forefinger when I wish he wouldn’t. One brush of his skin on mine, a match to gasoline. I’m ablaze, and he’ll burn me up until nothing is left but ash.

Back when we were younger, Jude used to touch me often. Not in a sexual way, but in a way that made me feel safe and protected. He wasn’t shy about holding my hand in a large crowd so I wouldn’t get lost or wrapping his arm around my shoulders in a half hug. It was innocent.

Standing here now with his thumb below my lip, toying with the line between sweetness and sin, I want everything I shouldn’t.

Jude watches me wet my lips. His tongue piercing clicks against the back of his teeth as he grits his jaw. The city rages on, but I’m close enough to hear it. Close enough for every tick of metal against teeth to vibrate through me.

Electricity buzzes in the air. My nerves, one graze of his thumb away from snapping this tension. Jude must sense it too because he drops his hand.

“Your jewelry’s selling well.” He tucks his hands in his pockets.

“Seems to be.” Not that I know what the standard is at his shop. “Thank you.”

“Anytime.”

It’s odd how someone who used to be as close as family can also now be a stranger. How someone’s gaze can both break you and put you back together. How things that once felt safe can no longer be trusted.

I want the boy from the library. Something impossible judging from the man standing in front of me.

“Don’t you need to get back to Brea?”

“How do you know B—” he cuts off his own question in realization. “Fight night?”

I nod, not giving much more. None of the girls were particularly nice to me, but Brea made sure I was especially uncomfortable.

“Brea’s just a friend.” Jude’s expression is flat.

“I didn’t ask.”

“You were thinking it.”

“Stop acting like you know everything about me.”

A menacing smirk tilts his lips. “You always were jealous of those cheerleader types, if I remember correctly.”

Something I said pissed him off, so he’s bringing the devil out to play.

Good.

My defenses were faltering. But one smug statement is enough for me to salvage them.

“And you always were such a fan.”

Jude’s jaw tightens at my comment. He shifts in closer, tilting his chin down until his mouth is beside my ear. “I see you’re just as blind as you were back then.”

“Stop trying to get under my skin, Jude.”

“Stop pretending I’m not still there.”

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