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“Really, Elevator Girl? I thought you swore off men.” My head popped up, and I grinned at Ben.
Tino’s arms tightened around my waist. “She’s mine. I just learned about her addiction to snuggling, and I’m not giving her back.”
Ben folded his long body next to Nina, and Jude took a seat on the other side of me, nodding in greeting. I saw Ben twice a week in class, but I hadn’t seen Jude since he rode the bus home with me. I’d pushed him out of my mind...sort of. Several times, it had been on the tip of my tongue to ask Ben about Jude’s girlfriend, but that was none of my business.
Suddenly self-conscious about being on top of Tino, I wiggled my way off him, winding up next to Jude in the process.
“Long time, Stripes,” he said in a smooth, velvet voice only meant for me. “Thought you might’ve scampered back to New York.”
“I don’t scamper. And clearly you and Ben have some communication issues, because we’re in class together twice a week.”
His eyes flared. “He did not share that little tidbit.”
“Well, I’m here. No plans on leaving. Sorry to disappoint.”
He leaned in a little closer. “Definitely not disappointed. Surprised I haven’t seen you out.”
“I think you got the wrong impression of me that first night. I know I seemed like an achingly cool party girl, but I’m really just a nerdy bookworm.”
The corners of his mouth pulled into a wicked grin. “Yep, that is absolutely what I thought of you.”
Tino wrapped his arm around my waist from behind. “I’ve bribed Tali into coming to my place tonight. You in?”
“I’m working, but I’ll stop by late,” he said.
Tino rolled the other way, interrupting a debate between Nina and Ben about Linkin Park versus Staind. I wasn’t a huge fan of either, so I didn’t offer my opinion, which was rare. I almost always had an opinion about music.
Jude wasn’t subtle in his perusal of my half-naked body. His eyes felt like fingers gliding over my warm skin, sliding beneath my clothes and plucking at my every sensitive part.
“Where’s your girlfriend?” I asked.
He smirked, and his eyes lifted to mine, but they took their time getting there. “Not here. And I’m allowed to look.”
“You could be a little more subtle about it.”
“Why though? You’re gorgeous. I’d have to be dead not to notice.”
I crossed my arms over my stomach. “Don’t say things like that to me.”
He blinked, nodding slowly, then circled his fingers around my wrists and pulled my hands away from my middle. “You’re right. I didn’t come here to make you uncomfortable. Consider it unsaid.”
“Whatdidyou come here for, Jude?”
His hand shot to his chest, and he rubbed tight circles. “I don’t know what it is about hearing you say my name, but it gets to me.”
Seeing him rub his chest and look at me like he had no idea where I’d come from got tome.I didn’t want it to. Not now. Not while he had a girlfriend and I wasn’t out to be gotten.
I flipped my sunglasses off the top of my head to cover my eyes and stretched out on the blanket. “I’m going to take a nap.”
My eyes were closed, but I still felt Jude’s on me. Feathery touches on the dip of my belly and swell of my breasts. And then he laid down next to me, and there was an intimacy to our closeness I wasn’t ready for. A minute ago, the sun had been the brightest source of warmth, but now it was Jude’s arm, half an inch from mine, turning my blood to molten lava and heating me down to my core.
He shifted next to me, turning on his side, casting a shadow over me. “I came because I knew you’d be here.”
“What?” I whispered.
He pushed my sunglasses up with one finger so he could see my eyes. “You asked what I came here for. And that’s my much too honest answer, Tali.”
For a long moment, I was frozen. Not just my limbs, but my breath, my heart, my brain all got caught in one tangled web of a second. Time stretched forward like a rubber band, slow, slow, slow, until Jude slid my sunglasses back over my eyes and took up his spot next to me, catapulting me into the present.
