Page 161 of Still Bruised
Jude laughed.
“You slept in my arms after.” Foster caressed the side of Jude’s cheek. “I liked waking up with you beside me.”
“I liked waking up beside you, too.”
“I’d say all that’s enough of a start, hmm? We can add more over time.”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?”Foster asked, frowning while fighting a smile. “I didn’t even mention the mind-blowing sex. Add that in and we’re golden.” He pressed his lips against Jude, stealing a brief kiss. “Oh, one last thing I forgot. Chemistry. We have it.”
Jude stole a kiss of his own. “Do we?”
“In spades…” Foster snuck another kiss. “That’s something you can’t manufacture. It’s either there… or it’s not.” He stole one more kiss. “It’s here… between us.Loadsof it.”
“We’ve had that all along. It’s what led to that first kiss,” Jude said.
Foster nodded. “Yep.” He chuckled. “I had the biggest crush on you.”
“You did not.”
“I did. You used to wear those damned skinny jeans, and I couldn’t stop looking at your ass. I was terrified someone would catch me staring and tell the world I liked boys.”
Jude couldn’t believe that. “I had a crush on you. I hated that, of course, and I tried to fight it, but I’d see you and my teenaged heart would go all aflutter.”
Foster grinned. “Should we add mutual pining to our list?”
“I suppose it can’t hurt.”
“We’ve been given a second chance to make this work,” Foster said.
“I’d say we’re on number three at this point.”
Foster grinned. “We had five minutes the first time around, so you can barely call that number one… and during my repayment plan, we weren’t officially a thing, according to you. If we want to get technical, this will be our firstrealattempt.”
“Just wipe away all those silly mistakes and start fresh.”
“We can’t ignore there’s a past between us or brush it under the rug, but a fresh-ishstart sounds pretty good to me,” Foster said.
“Me, too.” Jude took a deep breath, a little of the panic rising at the thought of a fresh start he could soon fuck up.
The deep breath turned into a massive yawn.
“We’re both exhausted. I know there’s likely a lot more for us to talk about, but I think we’ve covered enough for tonight, don’t you?”
Jude nodded.
“It’s been a long day,” Foster said. “Why don’t we get inside and have some pie… and then go enjoy our turkey coma somewhere quiet together?”
Jude grinned. “I like that plan.”
Foster caressed Jude’s cheek. “I like that smile.”
Jude frowned. “Is it different than the others I have?”
“I’ve never seen one before.” Foster searched his face. “At least, you haven’t smiled with me. Not until tonight.”
“No,”Jude said, shaking his head. “That can’t be true.”
