Page 79 of The Plus One
Preteen Jude clearly hadn’t been thrilled with her forgery, because he’d taken a black crayon and turned the big heart into a skull-and crossbones, then circled her whole note and scribbledLIES!!in his own signature spiky scrawl.
It looked like they’d gone back and forth on the sheet for hours, Indira covering one corner with hearts and stars, Jude drawing a weird bird-man-monster punching said hearts and stars. They’d chased each other around the page until every inch was covered.
Indira stared at every letter, every line, until her vision blurred and the memories of them as children were projected onto her soul.
Jude cleared his throat again. “Sorry. I feel like it’s kind of silly,” he said. “I know the page is in bad shape and it’s ugly. I’m not really sure what I was thinking.”
He reached out like he was going to take the frame from her, and Indira clutched it to her chest and looked at him, eyes wide and brimming with tears.
“How old is this?” she asked in a whisper.
Jude shrugged, dragging a hand across the back of his neck. “I’m not sure. Probably close to twenty years old? It’s the back of a menu from that pizza place your mom used to take us to when you moved to the apartment.”
“You kept it for that long?” Indira’s heart was in her throat.
Jude blushed harder, reaching for it again. “Yeah. I don’t know why. I, um, well, it’s super weird, but for some reason I took it with me when I left on that first assignment. I found it a few days before I was set to leave and something about it felt… I don’t know. It felt like a small reminder of home.”
Jude swallowed, eyes boring into the frame.
“I… I used to keep it in my pocket. The doodles were really indented in the paper and, um… running my fingers over the drawings when I’d get really stressed in the field kind of calmed me.”
Could bones break from tenderness? Indira was worried hers might.
“Sorry. I should have known it was ridiculous to frame something so ratty. I, uh, clearly worked to cover up your cute doodles.”
Indira shifted, placing the frame gingerly on the floor near the mattress. She then turned and launched herself like a torpedo on Jude. He let out anoofas he collapsed back on the pillows.
“This is the best gift I’ve ever gotten,” she said, placing happy, sloppy kisses anywhere and everywhere her lips could reach. “Dammit, it’s so us. It’s so perfect.”
“You like it?” Jude said, words muffled in the mass of her hair.
“I love it, you wonderfully clueless man,” she said, pulling back just enough to look at him. Incandescent happiness radiated out ofher, warming everything. He’d been writing love on every inch of her heart since they were kids, and he’d found the most beautiful, messy, ridiculous reminder of that and put it in a frame.
She started kissing him again in earnest, nibbling at his lips, pressing herself against his body until she pulled a soft groan from him.
“I feel like I should giveyoua present now,” she said, giggling at the bubbly type of pleasure filling her chest. Jude shook his head.
“The best present you could give me would be lying on your back and showing me your pretty pussy,” he said gruffly.
The sudden, dirty words shocked Indira, sending flames lapping through her veins like a struck match. She loved it.
She quickly and gracelessly rolled off him and lay on her back, ripping her skirt and tights off with record speed. She generally preferred to be as contrary as humanly possible toward Jude, but she was suddenly very keen to do whatever he asked of her.
Fancy that.
Jude hovered over her, his smile wolfish as he took her in. He stared at her for so long, her skin started to buzz, and she squirmed on the bed.
“I need you,” she whispered, reaching for him.
Jude caught her hands, pressing them back to the mattress with a soft force that sent a thrill shooting though her body.
His smile grew.
“Too many clothes,” he said, more to himself than to her, as he got to work on the buttons of her top, popping them free with self-assured flicks.
Jude pulled the edges of her shirt open, licking his lips as he stared at her body. Carefully, he moved her, tugging the blouse off and unhooking her bra. Indira watched him swallow, his pupils blown wide, before he bent his head and started kissing up and down her body.
Desire dragged down her spine, pooling low in her belly as his lips skimmed each inch of revealed skin, his clever hands caressing her curves, cupping her breasts. He spent his time there, alternatingbetween thick drags of his tongue over her nipples with deep sucks on the hard peaks, placing light bites into her.
