Page 48 of The Plus One
Indira looked at Jude like she actually expected him to have an answer. His heart stuttered for a beat, then pounded in double-time.He was suddenly desperate to give her an answer that would soothe the ache etched across her features.
But he had nothing.
Indira blinked away, and Jude hated that he was one more disappointment causing that weariness in her eyes.
“Caring is kind of your thing,” Jude said at last. “I’ve known you since you were what, five? Six? Even when you were little, you cared about everyone. Everything. I imagine it’s hard to stop something that’s your nature.”
Indira stared at him in that way of hers, like she was reading a secret inscription at the very core of him, seeing him in a way that left him far too vulnerable. The effect was always unnerving…
At least, it used to be. Now, Jude found a sort of odd…comfortin it—that look shocking his system, but leaving a pleasant buzz in his veins.
Indira was silent for a moment, staring straight ahead at the carpeting as she bit the inside of her cheek.
Then her face crumpled. All of her crumpled, honestly. Her head fell heavily forward, her spine bending into a defeated curve as she sobbed into her knees.
And Jude…
He panicked a bit.
He didn’t know what to do with this outpouring of emotions and feelings, and he acted on instinct, sort of… awkwardly draping himself over her back. Holding her tightly, one hand rubbing (in what he hoped was a soothing manner) up and down her arm. It was weird and the angle caused a twinge in his neck, but Indira seemed to soften at the touch. At the pressure. So he stayed still. Very still. And held her as she cried.
Eventually, Indira’s tears stopped and she let out a deep breath. Jude disentangled himself from her, his cheeks hot and stomach rolling as she sat up, her shoulders maintaining a protective hunch.
“I’m sorry,” she said at last, still not looking at him. “I’m a weepymess tonight and I’m sure it’s annoying to deal with. There’s just been so much that’s happened the past few weeks and I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all and… yeah. It’s a lot. I don’t mean to emotionally dump on you like this.”
Without thinking, Jude reached for her, resting his hand on the back of her neck. She turned, looking at him with wide, vulnerable eyes.
“Don’t,” he said, his other hand cupping her cheek, guiding her to fully face him, little bolts of electricity ricocheting up and down his spine at the heat of her skin. “Don’t apologize. You’re allowed to tell me—anyone—when you’re upset. You don’t have to pretend to be okay.”
Indira’s eyes traced across his face, then she let out a tiny hiccup of a laugh.
“When did… this…compassionhappen?” she asked, scrunching up her nose as she waved her hand at him. “Talking to you used to feel like the verbal equivalent of a boiling enema.”
It was Jude’s turn to laugh, but it came out breathy, doing little to untangle the knot of tension in his stomach. “Trust me, I’m as horrified at this expression of feelings as you are. You bring out the worst in me.”
Indira rolled her eyes but smiled. And Jude felt that smile. He felt the way her cheek stretched and moved under his palm that still cupped her face. He felt it in the warmth that shot through his fingers straight to his chest.
Their gazes clashed, and, in the same moment, they both became aware of how intimately Jude was touching her. How they’d drifted nearer, their mouths only centimeters apart. The soft puffs of hot air on skin as they breathed so closely. Jude continued to search her face—for what, he wasn’t sure—but the moment clicked into place like the turn of a lock, and Indira’s body swayed, almost imperceptibly, toward him, creating an echoing tug in the center of Jude’s stomach.
Jude was frozen by a flood of sensations—terrifying and unsettlingand achingly sweet. Like he couldn’t breathe but at the same time his lungs were flooded with air.
She arched an eyebrow and sucked in a breath, parting her lips like she was going to ask a question. No words came out.
Jude was simultaneously relieved and terrified at her silence. A question would break him out of this bizarre trance. It would wake him up and jolt him far away from Indira and her warm skin and dangerously close mouth. But that would also mean he’d stop touching her. And, for some maddening reason, he didn’t want to stop touching her.
In the space between a breath and a heartbeat, Indira’s face morphed from a question to something different. Something soft and open and the tiniest bit hungry.
And before Jude knew what was happening, she pushed forward.
And kissed him.
Her lips were hot and searching, and she threw her arms around his neck, pulling him closer.
Jude went without a fight.
He kissed her back, his brain unable to keep up with all the sensations pummeling him at once. The slide of her tongue against his. The brush of her hair against his cheeks. The taste of her lips as he took them like a starving man.
A tiny whimper escaped from Indira, the vibrations rattling straight into his chest.
