Page 11 of Saving Tatum (Trace + Olivia 4)

His pace was quick, trying to get me to a bathroom before I got sick. I had news for him, he better have me there in seconds if he wanted to avoid that.

He stopped at a door, pulled a key out to unlock it and shoved me inside.

It was obviously a bedroom, but bless his heart there was a bathroom. I ran for it, collapsing to my knees. My stomach heaved, trying to rid itself of those dang bears.

I startled when Jude’s fingers gently coasted against my neck, but then he was pulling my hair back and I was sick again, so there was nothing I could do to stop him.

Jude was the last person I would ever want to see me like this, so of course I was stuck in a bathroom with him. That’s just how my life worked.

And the most ironic part of it all was the fact that I was drunk on gummy bears. I didn’t even drink! How did stuff like this happen to me?

Once I was done emptying my stomach, Jude let go of my hair. I hoped he was going to leave me alone, but my luck wasn’t that good.

He grabbed a washcloth from under the sink, dampened it, and knelt in front of me. I blinked heavy, shock-filled, eyes at him as he gently cleaned my face.

I knew he saw the surprise in my eyes. Jude Brooks was taking care of me. The only words to describe this situation were: what the fuck? Clearly, I was drunker than I thought and I’d stepped into some parallel universe. This was not good. I did not want to start liking him. He was the reason my brother was dead, and that was enough ammunition to hate him for the rest of my life.

“Gummy bears are the devil,” I muttered, causing him to belt out a deep, throaty laugh. Taking a deep breath, I told him, “I’m fine.” I stood shakily, using the bathroom wall for support.

“You’re not fine, Tatum,” he growled, using his body to close me in so I couldn’t edge towards the door. “You’re clearly not used to drinking and those gummy bears will really get to you.”

“I don’t need you to look out for me.” I groaned. “I’m fine on my own. I don’t need you or anybody else to try and save me.”

I put a quivering hand against my forehead, feeling dizzy from my outburst.

“Tate,” he grabbed my shoulders to keep me from wobbling.

I collapsed against him, unable to hold myself up anymore. His strong arms wrapped around me. I was never going near a gummy bear ever again. Those things were dangerous.

Jude swept my legs out from under me. Before I could protest he laid me down on the softest surface imaginable. Maybe I wouldn’t argue with him.

I curled my body around the pillow and smiled. “This feels nice.”

He chuckled in response. He laughed at me a lot. I didn’t know why. I wasn’t very funny.

“Is this your room?” I asked, crooking my elbow over my eyes to block out the glow of the light. It hurt my eyes. “Why’d you lock the door?”

“So no one can get in.” His tone of voice told me exactly what he thought of that question. “No one is allowed to have sex in my bed that isn’t me.”

“Does this mean you want to have sex with me?”

I don’t know what made me ask the question. I guessed I’d blame it on loose lips courtesy of gummy bears.

I felt the bed dip down beside me. For a moment, my heart stopped, as I feared he’d taken my words as invitation. I rolled my head to the side to look at him but found that he was staring at the ceiling. I looked up to, and noticed the ceiling was decorated with those peel and stick stars and moons lots of kids have on their bedroom ceiling. I wondered why he had them here. He wasn’t a kid anymore and I wouldn’t think Jude, being a twenty-two year old male would want something like that in his bedroom. I hated to admit it, but maybe I was wrong about him. I really didn’t know that much about him as a person. Everything I knew was based on assumptions from what I saw and heard. I did know one thing, and that was that he was responsible for my brother’s death. I wondered if that fact weighed heavily on his shoulders. Probably not. Based on what he’d said about not being able to figure out why I hated him so much, I’d bet he wasn’t even aware of the damage he’d caused.

I wished I could be more like him—not caring what other’s thought of me and doing whatever the hell I wanted.

I’d stopped being carefree a long time ago.

“I want to have sex with you.” I startled at his voice. He’d taken so long to answer that with my foggy brain I’d completely forgotten that I’d asked him anything. “But I know you don’t want that.” He turned his head slowly to look at me. His warm brown eyes caused something to stir in my stomach that I didn’t even recognize. Despite my hatred of Jude there had always been something between us, and I’d always tried my hardest to squash it. The last year, having to share my best friend with him, had somehow managed to soften my heart towards him—and I hadn’t even realized it was happening. It didn’t mean I actually liked him, though. That would never happen. “When I touch you like that,” he reached out with his index finger to graze my lips, “you’re going to beg for it. You’re going to want it, and you’re going to scream my name because it’s the only word you can remember.”

My breath faltered. “You’re crazy.”

“No, I’m not.”

He rolled onto his back once more, crossing his arms behind his head, looking up once more at the glow-in-the-dark stickers on the ceiling.

I was too tired to move and my heavy eyes soon closed. I was asleep within minutes.

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