AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My entire being collapsed at the thought. “No. How could you ask me that?”
“I know you love Jude, but he’s gone so often, and youdolive with Benny. I thought maybe you’d caught feelings.”
“No, I haven’t caught feelings. I’m...is Jude going to think that?”
She wrapped her arm around my waist and leaned her head on my shoulder. “No, I’m sure he won’t. I’m a little bit drunk and a whole lot stupid. I’m sorry I asked that.”
I pressed my fingertips into my eyes. “I hate this. I hate Ben for doing this.”
“It’ll be fine, Tals.”
The lights dimmed, cutting off our conversation, and for a time, my endless train of thought. When Jude took the stage, there was nowhere else, no one else. When the lights turned back on, he was in the center of the stage, head tilted up, eyes searching the balcony. And then he found me.
My heart grew, filling me to the brim. He smiled, and it was full-on ecstatic. I blew a kiss at him, and he caught it. Nina whispered into my ear, “See? That man loves you like nothing else. It’ll be fine.”
I wanted to believe that to be true. As I watched Jude give the performance of his life, I clung to that hope.
The crowd went crazy for him…well, for them, since Jin, Jeremy, and Seven shared the stage, but Jude was the only one I saw.
They played the newer, slicker versions of their music.Theyhad become newer, slicker versions of themselves, at least on stage.
As soon as their set was over, I was plowing through the crowd, finding my way backstage to see Jude. When I got to their dressing room, he wasn’t waiting for me by the door like he had been over a year ago. I hadn’t been expecting it, but I wouldn’t have objected to being swept off my feet and forgetting everything for a little while.
Their dressing room was crowded, and at first, I couldn’t see Jude beyond the throngs of excited fans and staid reporters.
An arm slipped around my shoulders. “Tali-bear! You’re here.”
I laughed, giving Jin a hug. “You were awesome tonight.”
He scrunched his nose. “Did you take your eyes off Jude long enough to notice me up there?”
I squeezed his cheeks, smiling. “Maybe once or twice. But I know you were awesome anyway.”
He kept his arm around me protectively as he led me through the crowd. “I shall take you to your man.”
Jude was sitting on one of the couches in the center of the room. He had the biggest grin on his face, but it wasn’t for me. He was talking with great animation to the woman next to him, and she leaned in, lapping up what he had to say like he was revealing the secrets of the universe.
Jin pulled me closer, but I dug my feet into the ground. “You coming, Tali-bear?”
“I’ll hang back.”
He glanced from me to Jude and shook his head. “You don’t need to test him.”
I tore my eyes from Jude to meet Jin’s. “I’m not. But he seems busy.”
“Nah, baby girl. He’s talking to someone who’s not you while he waits for you to show up. Trust. That boy is devoted as hell. No one has ever turned his head.”
With that, he pulled me forward before I could stop him. When Jude finally spotted me, he was standing in one breath and taking me into his arms the next.
“Stripes,” he murmured into my hair. It had been three weeks since he last held me, and the instant his arms closed around me, the rest of the world ceased. His embrace was a glass dome around us, keeping us in and the rest out.
“I love you,” I whispered.
He brought his hands to my face, cupping my jaw. His lips found mine, coaxing them apart for his tongue to slip inside in a slow caress. We weren’t invisible to the crowd in the room, but I liked that. I wanted them to see. Jude was mine, and I was his. These people, his fans, the reporters eager for his words, they could have part of him. They could know his story and his songs and hear his voice when they closed their eyes. But this? The way he tasted after he’d performed for them? That was reserved for me. Only me.
Guilt seeped in from a crack in our dome. My lips hadn’t been reserved for him. They’d been tasted by someone else, and I’d have to tell him.
He pressed his forehead to mine. “I love you too.”
