“I won’t use him for his connections,” I say once we’ve taken the steps to the Observatory. It’s beautiful and littered with somuch food and wine of all types I can see why everyone goes and why she forced it on me.
“Just sex then? And his amazing body?” she teases.
I roll my eyes. “No.”
“How disappointing,” comes Jude’s voice. “I shaved and everything.”
“Aww, see and he’s funny.” Charlie grabs a glass of champagne from a waiter. “Nice to see you clean up well Jude.”
He looks stunning in a black suit. He has no tie, and everything about him fits custom. He’s beautiful to look at. I can barely breathe. He hands me a glass of champagne and eyes me up and down. “Had I known you ladies were coming I would have been more excited.”
“Axel didn’t tell you?” Charlie takes a sip of her wine.
Jude snorts into his glass. “Things you need to learn about my cousin, you have to give him very specific instructions, from the bedroom to the boardroom, he needs maps, notes, that sort of thing.”
“Good thing I’m an artist.” Charlie winks. “I’ll draw him the best damn map he’s ever seen as long as he uses it well.”
“Ignore her.” I wave her off. “There’s been a dry spell.”
“Not anymore! Hey, Axel!” She waves him over. He’s dressed similarly to Jude, but Jude stands out as…more.
We walk in together even though we arrived apart, and as much as I tell my body to calm down, it really does feel like a date. Which is further proven when Jude casually wraps an arm around me and guides me through a crowd.
I open my mouth to ask what he’s doing when he leans down and whispers, “Your dad’s watching, make sure you smile. I’m not sure who’s behind the Dean’s List, but we’ve both been targeted so we may as well make it appear that we’re following directions.”
“To get close to each other?” I smile through the sentence.
“Yup.” He grins down at me. “Also, your dad hated me before prison. Pretty sure he still hates me despite the fact that our fathers looked like best friends in that photo.”
A chill runs down my spine and I know it’s not from the photo, it’s from something far worse. I don’t move. I can barely breathe. I stare him down the way he’s staring at me. “He’s coming this way.”
“Your dad?”
“Yeah he’s?—”
I have no time to say anything before Jude’s mouth comes crashing down onto mine. It’s not a romantic kiss, it’s not slow and inviting, it’s punishing and claiming. I want to pull back, because…not like this, not in front of everyone, not in front of faculty, not in front of my dad.
I’ve never felt more like a pawn in my entire life—except the day I was asked to lie, and now it feels like I’m being asked to do the exact same thing by Jude, except I can’t say no because I owe him. For how long, I wonder, will I owe him?
He pulls away. “Kiss me back next time.”
Angry tears threaten. “There won’t be a next time, I never agreed to this.”
“Too bad.” He grits his teeth. “You agreed to this the minute you admitted you lied. You owe me this. Now, play along nicely before I show you what it’s really like to live in hell.”
I’m an idiot.
I’m suddenly embarrassed I dressed up for him.
Ashamed I thought maybe, just maybe, he was seeing me in a different light, that he cared, that he wanted me, that there was something still there beyond this façade.
I was wrong.
Axel and Charlie are lost in the crowd, and my dad’s walking toward us with a frozen smile in place. Jude is holding me in place. I’m trapped. I didn’t tell Jude how far my hatred went formy dad, for what he did to my mom, what he made me do, and now Jude’s making me lie the same way my dad did.
I don’t think I can hate Jude more.
For being alive and coming back into my life and forcing me back into the dark hell of deception. He’s dragging me down with him and calling it pure retribution. It’s just a pretty name for hatred. Revenge.
