Chapter 26
Claire
“I’ll come with you to get your stuff, and then we’ll come back here to chill while I get over this hangover,” he says once he’s dressed.
I smile up at him, threading my fingers in his hair. “Stay here, I’ll be back.”
He shakes his head. “Fuck no. I don’t even want to know how many guys hollered at you while you rushed over here in that, so I’m going to make sure no one else does on the way back.”
I roll my eyes. “Jude, I made it just fine, and you’re dead on your feet. Go to bed. I’ll be back.”
I don’t even know why I wasted my breath, because he pulls me out of the house and we walk, our fingers tangled together, toward the Bullies’ arena. I shiver once the cold air hits me and lean closer into Jude. Pulling off his own long-sleeved shirt, leaving him in a black tank, he hands it over to me, and I smile in thanks before putting it on as we continue to walk.
Wrapping his arm around my shoulders, he pulls me in, kissing my temple before saying, “That shirt looks good on you.”
I look up at him with doubt in my eyes. “It’s huge on me.”
He smiles. “Yeah, but it’s mine and it’s on you. That’s hot.”
Giggling, I cuddle into him, loving the way he smells. It’s a woodsy and spicy smell, and as I bring the collar of his shirt up over my mouth and under my nose, all I smell is him. Looking up at him, I say, “I’m stealing this shirt.”
“That’s fine,” he says and it saddens me how sick he looks. Then again, I hope it teaches him not to be drinking his problems away.
“You look like crap,” I say as he pulls the door open for me.
He nods. “I feel like it.”
As I pass by, he grabs a handful of my butt and I roll my eyes. “Obviously not, since you’re getting frisky.”
He laughs, snaking his arm around my waist and pulling me so that my back is to his chest. Nuzzling his nose in my hair, he whispers, “I’m always up to get frisky when it involves you, baby.”
Butterflies go nuts in my belly as we head toward the dancing room. Kissing my temple, he whispers, “I missed you last night. Did you sleep good?”
Ugh. Nodding, I say, “Just fine.”
“That’s good. Saturday you aren’t getting away. You’re staying to party and then sleeping with me.”
I smile. While I love this side of him, the demanding one, the one that needs me so much he can’t breathe, I love giving him a hard time even more. “Is that a demand or a request?
He smiles in my hair, his teeth tickling my earlobe, and then he says, “Let me reword that.”
“Good idea,” I tease.
“Please, come party with me Saturday and sleep with me afterward.”
“I think you keep forgetting I’m not one of your quick lays – you have to respect me.”
“No way, I’ve never mistaken you for one,” he says, kissing my neck. “You’re too special.”
Smiling a little too hard, I say, “Well, then good, I’ll be there.”
“That’s right. You better say yes,” he says roughly in my ear before nibbling on my neck and making me weak in the knees. I laugh out loud as we reach the door to the studio. I push it open, trying to get away, but he takes me in his arms, crashing his mouth against mine, slamming me against the door. Moving my hand
s, I wrap my arms around his neck, holding him tight as we kiss hungrily.
His hands slowly move up my waist and climb up my ribs, but before he can reach my breasts, someone says, “You two aren’t alone.”
Breaking apart, we both look to the side to see Skylar and Rachael sitting on the wall with their phones out in front of them. Rage fills me from the top of my head to the tip of my toes when my eyes meet Rachael’s. She’s wearing a hurt look, almost devastated, and I don’t understand it. Why is she looking at us like that?