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Nina. He’d tried to impress her. And he had. As her friend. They’d been great friends, the best, had had lots in common, but Charles was who she’d given her heart to. Wonderful, perfect, brilliant Charles.
He wondered a moment if he was crazy when he began comparing the past with the present, when he wondered if there was something dark inside him that had caused Nina to fall for Charles instead. Jude had wanted to love her, to give her the world, and protect her. She’d loved his cousin and Jude hadn’t been able to forgive her for that, not even when it had cost him her friendship and undermined his relationship with his family.
Since then, he’d not dated anyone, just had a flurry of one-night stands that had meant nothing more than physical satisfaction and reminders he didn’t have to be alone but chose to be.
He glanced at Sarah, his mind racing in a thousand directions as he watched the play of expressions behind her ridiculous glasses.
Perhaps sensing he was looking at her, she squeezed his hand, her gaze glued to the lavishly dressed cast on the stage. “This is amazing,” she whispered.
She was right. This was amazing, but he didn’t mean the production.
He lifted her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss there, momentarily distracting her from the show.
She blinked at him. “What was that for?”
“For coming with me tonight.”
“I should be the one kissing you for inviting me tonight.”
Wanting his melancholy thoughts gone, he waggled his brows. “I’d be okay with that.”
Smiling, she rolled her eyes. “I bet you would.”
The stage caught her attention again and Jude forced his attention back there, too. Not that his focus lasted more than a few seconds. Because to his surprise Sarah leaned over and pressed a kiss to his cheek, then went back to watching the show as if nothing had happened.
Something had happened.
Something intense and deep and as swirling with rich emotion as the show.
Sarah had kissed him and he’d swear whatever that dark something inside him was, her sweet kiss had just cracked it wide open.
* * *
Sarah doubted Jude would accuse her of being quiet again that night. From the moment the show had ended and they’d gotten back into the limo, she’d been talking non-stop.
With an amused look on his face, he let her chat away, which was just as well because she didn’t think she’d have been able to hold back her excitement if she’d had to.
“I thought my heart was going to stop when...” She elaborated on one of the scenes.
“I noticed tears rolling down your cheeks in that part,” he pointed out, his smile indulgent.
“My glasses were supposed to keep you from noticing things like that.”
His brow rose. “Is that what they were for?”
She knew what he meant and she wasn’t going there. “That and the things glasses are usually for.”
“Have you forgotten that I know you don’t need those things to see?”
“I haven’t forgotten.”
“But felt the need to wear them tonight to shield yourself from whatever it is you don’t want me to see?”
Something like that, she admitted to herself. They were part of the armor she’d been wearing for years.
“I think you see plenty despite the fact I have my glasses on,” she accused.
“You hungry?” he asked, surprising her by his subject change.
