“My best friend also my cousin so I have no choice but to keep him.” He rolls his eyes. “Takes him forty years to cross a room because apparently every living organism wants his attention.”
Something cold slides down my spine because that sounds exactly like Jude, smells exactly like him, feels exactly like him.
“He can’t help it,” he continues. “Good genetics and too much money. Tragic really.”
Slowly—
Too slowly?—
I turn around.
And there he is.
Jude. Mere feet away from me.
The object of my fear.
The object of my guilt.
And one of the most attractive human beings I’ve ever seen in real life, walking slowly toward us, eyes only for me.
Seduction the note said.
Him?
He wouldn’t write that.
Someone else had to.
So, someone else wants to use me to get to him.
Again.
I won’t fall for it twice though but if I don’t then does that mean my name appears on the list? Do I risk letting history repeat itself to keep my new identity safe? My new life? Or do I break him again the way he’s promising to break me? Do I hurt him first out of fear?
Tit for tat?
If it’s not love. It’s war. It has to be.
So, for the first time since seeing him, I manage to conjure up a smile as he finally makes it to our table, stares down at me and says. “I’m going to marry you someday.”
And just like that my stomach plummets.
Because more than seven years ago, it was the exact same thing he said to me in front of his mom.
And the first time I fell in love with him.
“Isn’t that what I said last time? When I saw you? Or maybe it was just every time I saw your face until suddenly I didn’t.” He holds out his hand like we haven’t already met. “It’s been a while.”
“Wow,” Charlie claps her hands. “You’re right about this one, better be careful, Lilah he’s dangerous.”
“De-lilah.” Jude corrects still not taking his eyes off of me. “I like the full version better, maybe it’s the dark side of me that hopes when I fall asleep you’ll steal all my strength…in exchange for the hottest sex of my life one can only hope.”
Old Jude would never have said that to me. He would have never taunted or teased me to make me uncomfortable, he always knew that it was a no-fly zone because it was playing with my feelings, just like he was right now. In front of people.
Old Jude was my friend and my first love. This Jude was my enemy. And my shame.
“Wait, you two know each other?” He points between the two of us. “For real?”
