I had no idea how I’d lived without this for so long. Without him. Because he’d always been my person. And without him, my life had been so much emptier.
“Did you mean what you said in the letter?” he asked, confirming what I’d suspected. He’d opened the gift and he’d read the letter and had waited until now to ask me about it.
“You weren’t supposed to read it.”
“Then why did you write it? Why did you bring it to my room if you didn’t want me to have it?”
“I did want you to have it but then I changed my mind.” I paused, letting the words sink in, just as if we needed a reminder of what had happened that night. I didn’t think he was so drunk that he’d forgotten it. “When I went back to look for it, it was gone. And you were pretending to be asleep.”
He chuckled. “As soon as you left my room that night, I hid it.”
“You’re a jerk,” I said, but my words had no bite. I didn’t really mean it. Although sometimes he was a jerk and sometimes he was a downright asshole. But nobody is perfect.
“Where’d you go last night?” he asked.
“A party.”
“A party. Did you let anyone kiss you?”
He probably knew exactly where I’d been last night and had gotten a full report. Or maybe Austin told Brody. They were good friends and Brody worked on Austin’s family’s ranch. Let’s chalk it up to mistake number nine hundred and ninety-nine. I’d lost count of all the mistakes I’d made over the past ten months. “Maybe.”
His left hand tightened on the wheel, and his right hand landed on the top of my thigh. “And how was it?”
I looked down at his right hand then at the one on the wheel. There were cuts on his knuckles, the skin red and raw. “What happened to your hands?”
He squeezed my thigh. “Stop avoiding the question.”
“I don’t kiss and tell.” I laughed. I’d just given him a taste of his own medicine. He growled and squeezed my thigh again.
“You’re rock hard, baby,” he said, giving it another squeeze as if to test it out.
“Isn’t that what I’m supposed to say to you?”
“Such a dirty mind. Where’d you get all this muscle?”
“Running. Climbing at the climbing wall. And working out in your gym.”
“Yeah?” He glanced at me. I nodded. “We can start working out together.”
“Let’s not rush into anything.”
He laughed and pulled his hand away, transferring it to the wheel so he could hang his other arm out the window and tap out the beat on the roof of the truck as “Howlin’ For You” by the Black Keys started playing. I stared at his profile, at his straight nose and full lips and the chestnut hair that was tousled and messy, a warm breeze ruffling it. He didn’t look like a boy anymore. There was stubble on his jaw and I wanted to brush my lips across it. Let it rough up my tender skin. I had the irresistible urge to kiss his neck. To drag my fingers through his hair and lick his abs. I wanted to bite him and leave my mark the same way he’d done to me.
He glanced at me and graced me with a slow, lazy grin as if he could read my mind and knew where my thoughts had taken me.
“So... does this mean we’re friends again?”
He snorted and returned his eyes to the road. “Don’t even think about friend-zoning me.”
“What zone do you want to be in?”
“The one where I get to rip off your clothes and do dirty things to you with my tongue and my hands and my gigantic cock.”
I rolled my eyes. “Oh please. It’s not even that big.”
He snorted again. “Yes, it is.”
Since I had no basis for comparison, I couldn’t really argue with that. And it had seemed pretty big. “You’ll be lucky if I let you kiss me with that dirty mouth of yours.”
“You’ll be lucky if you get to find out what this dirty mouth of mine can do.”
Oh my God.
What a difference a year makes.
“How is this going to work? Now that we live together.” I thought aloud as we headed for home. On Sundays we had dinner as a family so we needed to get home.
“Leave it up to me. Where there’s a will, I’ll find a way.”
Typical Jude. He hadn’t changed a bit. He still thought he could take care of everything. He still needed to be in charge. But why would I fight him on something that would only benefit both of us? We were on the same team again so we’d both be winning. Why fight something I’ve wanted for so long?
Chapter Seventeen
Lila
“What’s happening now?” Jude asked.
“They’re having sex.”
The weights clanged as they hit the rubber floor. I stifled a laugh and bit into my green apple, the tartness making my cheeks pucker as my eyes scanned the page in front of me.
“She’s having sex with the dude in the kilt?” Jude asked.
“Jamie, yeah. He’s a sexy beast,” I taunted, the apple making a satisfying crunch as I took another bite and side-eyed him from my spot on the leather sofa. A few weeks ago, Kate got a new sectional for the family room, so we moved the old sofa into the barn. I was sitting with my back against the armrest, knees bent, paperback propped up
