Page 13 of Dancing with the Enemy

Thump. Thump. Thump.

It slams against my ribs like a battering ram.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Violet is scorching hot, melting against me, kissing me back, and I don’t need air. Don’t ever need to breathe again. Who needs oxygen, anyway? Not me. Don’t need anything except Violet’s hands tugging at my shirt and her body bowing against mine and the scrape of her teeth on my bottom lip. The faint sting of pain.

Figures that when we finally,finallybreak down and kiss, it’s a battle for dominance. A power struggle, just like everything else in our fraught relationship. And that isn’t what Violet confessed she wanted, it’s not what shereallyneeds from me, but maybe we’re not there yet. Guess we can’t go from zero to one hundred when it comes to trust.

That’s fine.

I’ll put the work in.

And in the meantime… this is the best fucking thing I’ve ever felt. Violet moans when I move to her throat, sucking and nibbling at her warm skin. Her breath hitches when I press a thigh between her legs, gripping her hips, encouraging her to rub against me. To ride my thigh right here in the dark.

“Oh my—god. Jude! Oh, shit. Holy shit.”

Violet’s babbling, lost in the moment. Incoherent. I love it so much. Loveherso much, especially when she grabs my shoulders for balance and starts rocking, chasing the friction she needs. And maybe she’s not kneeling or begging, but there’s vulnerability in this too. There’s a lot of trust brewing between us on this rooftop.

Plus it’s really goddamn hot. The damp heat between her thighs sears through my pant leg, and Violet is such a goddess in the way she rolls her hips, head tipping back. In the way she gasps and grunts and bites her bottom lip, completely shameless in her pleasure as I kiss her throat, her earlobe, her cheek,her chin, any part of her I can reach. Her dress ripples in the moonlight.

One day I’ll get Violet Moore naked and spread out on my mattress. One day soon I’ll catalog every inch of her, kissing and tormenting until she loses her goddamn mind.

Yeah.That’sthe power struggle in our future. That’s the way we’ll one up each other from now on, competing to win.

I just need to show her that. Somehow.

Need to drag us to that promised land.

But for now as Violet stills, pleasure shuddering through her body, her eyes drift closed. She cuts me off; won’t let me see. Won’t give me anything except her fractured moan, and the way her limbs tremble as she comes and comes.

And as reality creeps back in, as Violet slowly returns back to herself, she retreats. An invisible shutter goes down behind her eyes, and the cold breeze slips beneath my collar, chilling my skin.

“Whoops.” My rival stumbles back a step, tugging her dress straight, and she smiles at me, embarrassed. At least she’s not yelling this time. “Guess I got carried away. Sorry about that.”

Sorry? She’ssorry? For the highlight of my life so far?

It’s an effort to smile at her, sliding my hands into my pockets. If Violet needs to take a step back, if she needs things to be less intense for a minute, if she needs lighthearted Jude, I can give her that. Listen to me: Iwillbe what she needs.

“Any time.” I wink, and my chest burns when she rolls her eyes. “Consider me at your service, sweetheart.”

Iwillbreak down those walls. Somehow or another, I’ll do it.

Nothing else matters.

Seven

Violet

Sneaking back to join the party, it feels like there’s a neon sign flashing above my head that says, “JUST HOOKED UP!” My hair is wind-ruffled, my cheeks are permanently hot, and I’m so swollen and slick between my legs, I feel like I’m walking funny.

Made Jude check the front and back of my dress for damp patches before we came back over here, shining his phone light on the silk. That was a new low.

But shockingly, he didn’t mock me for that request. Didn’t make me feel like a screw-up or even joke about the size of my ass. No: Jude Jenkins let me ride his thigh and then was a perfect gentleman in the aftermath, and it does not compute.

Whoishe?

Who am I?

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