AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Tali
After two shows in London,the tour was over. We were headed home in just a few hours. It didn’t seem possible six weeks had already come and gone, but here we were: another ending.
I’d been up for two hours, checking over my suitcase, showering, and getting dressed. And then checking my suitcase again, all while Jude slept in my bed.
I’d spent some time studying him too. Counting the lines around his eyes and mouth, wondering which ones I’d given him. Running the very tips of my fingers over the silver in his hair—the silver I never thought he’d live long enough to grow. It still twisted and tugged at my heart to see my Jude older, but no less beautiful.
When we parted, I’d only been twenty-one. So very young to experience all I had. Wholly unprepared for it.
But now, at thirty-four, I’d been around the world more times than I could count. I’d worked with both baby and veteran rock stars. I’d seen heroin being injected into the veins of people I cared for, and paid off hookers for men I’d once respected. I’d arranged for more trashed hotel rooms and rental homes to be cleaned up than I could count, and had even been slapped by a jealous girlfriend.
I understood life. I’d experienced some of the ugliest parts of it. If nothing else, I’d learned humans were fallible. Not because people were awful or weak, butbecausewe were human. It was part of the condition.
Trust wasn’t easy for me to give, but forgiveness was. I’d learned it from my parents at an early age and had cultivated my ability over the years.
I forgave Jude. My heart still ached for the younger versions of us, for what could have been and what we lost, but I couldn’t hold onto my anger any longer. Not when he was laying in my bed, older and healthier than I ever thought I’d see him.
Trusting Jude was another matter. At face value, he was perfect. But I’d learned long ago perfection was a facade. The stuff behind it was what I needed to see. To know if I could live with the cracks and weak spots.
For now, we had a little time before we had to go our separate ways—Jude on a commercial flight to D.C., and me on a private plane with the band, headed to Baltimore. After that, I wasn’t sure what would happen, but I knew this wasn’t the end.
I laid down next to him, kissing his parted lips. “Wake up, sleepy Jude,” I sing-songed. “Time to face the day.”
He groaned, throwing an arm around me. “If I wake up, then this ends. So I’m going to keep sleeping.”
“This ends, but something else begins.” I scratched at his thick scruff with my fingernails. “Come on, Hazel Eyes.”
His eyes cracked open, and he gave me a slow, sexy smile. “Why am I not surprised you’re already dressed?”
“Because you know me.”
“That’s right, I do. Are you packed too?”
“Do you really need to ask?”
“Nah, baby. I know you are.”
He eventually got up and took a quick shower. It pained me to watch him toss his clothes in his suitcase, but I held my tongue. When he smirked at me as he tossed a T-shirt, unfolded, into his bag, I smacked him square on the ass.
“Do not taunt me with your disorganized ways.”
“But you look so damn cute when you’re all dismayed.” He put one shoe—one—on top of his clothes and zipped up the suitcase. “You’re all twitchy too.”
I threw his other shoe at him. “You know, I was just starting to like you again.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Were you? Was that what last night was about?”
Last night had been kind of crazy, but when I was with Jude, I had no boundaries. He could fuck me in any way, in any position, and he’d make it good. Last night, though...I could only compare it to the time we took ecstasy together.
“Don’t get cocky, Mr. Goldman.”
His arms shot out, and he snagged me, pulling me close to where he sat on the edge of the bed. His face pressed to my belly, arms wrapping my hips in a tight embrace.
“Never, Stripes. Not about you.”
The temptation to melt into him and forget about our flights was strong, but I stayed on my feet.
“Come on. We have to get out of here,” I said.
