Page 14 of The Plus One
“No,” Jude answered. Too fast. Too harsh. But he also knew spending the night in this cozy house with his wonderful parents would hurt far too much.
“No thanks,” he said, softer now. “I really just need to get back.”
He stumbled through goodbyes, hugging both his parents and promising to come back soon.
The tension holding his body taut unwound a bit on the drive home, Jude losing himself in the glow of headlights. In these moments, when he hovered in his body, not deep enough to actually feelits hurt, he could almost convince himself he was okay. That his sharp and fluctuating reactions to things weren’t out of the norm. That no one sensed a change. That being back, even for these short weeks, would be okay… wouldn’t destroy him.
Part of him did like being home. He enjoyed being around Collin, watching his best friend happy and in love.
Jude even kind of… liked seeing Indira. Mainly because his annoyance by her was untouched after all these years. It was nice to know there was at least one thing in his life that was never at risk of changing.
When he finally pulled into Collin’s driveway, he was exhausted, wanting nothing more than a hot shower and to collapse facedown on his bed. He quietly let himself in, leaving Collin’s keys on the entryway table before dragging himself up the steep staircase.
He stopped at the bathroom, the first door on the left, to quickly rinse the day off and brush his teeth before calling it a night.
He pushed the door open, one hand on the hem of his shirt while the other reached behind him to shut the door.
And a sharp intake of breath set off a domino effect through his system, every sense being slapped awake.
First, was the feel—hot and humid air already pressing against his skin as he stood in the bathroom. Next, was the smell—something earthy and soft and undeniably sensual, mixing with the heat to envelop him like a hug. His eyes were delayed in processing, going in and out of focus as some of the steam lifted. But when his vision cleared, he saw everything—every single inch—in high definition.
Hot-pink toenails accenting a foot propped up on the toilet seat. Hands halted around the calf of a long, lotioned leg. Miles of olive skin. The curve of a hip. The dip of a waist. Sharp points of elbows. Soft ellipses of shoulders. Dark tangles of curls plastered against a slender neck and the angle of a jaw.
His gaze finally stopped traveling when he landed on wide brown eyes and a parted mouth, staring like a horrified owl at Jude.
Who stared, equally horrified, back.
The bloodcurdling scream came last.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Indira shrieked, jolting upright in a movement that dragged Jude’s eyes down.
“No. No!” Jude bellowed back, slapping a hand over his face as he hurled his body against the closed door.
“Get out!” Indira yelled, the sound of her hitting the glass shower door emphasizing the point.
“Oh my God, no,” Jude repeated, fumbling for the door handle, which seemed to have dissolved away in the seconds since he’d witnessed Indira Papadakis. Naked.
He’d seen Indira naked.
He’d seen her naked and she was undeniably hot as fuck and Jude absolutely did not know what to do with any of this information because his brain was short-circuiting and his heart was slamming against his chest and his brain kept looping the different parts of naked fucking Indira and her sleek, gorgeous skin through his head.
The notch of her ankle. The curves of her collarbones. The slopes of her…
“I’m going to kill you, Jude Bailey!” Indira said, chucking something that felt like a wet loofah at Jude’s head. It landed on the tile with a squelching noise.
“Get me out of here!” Jude howled, turning fully to the door as he continued to search for the handle.
“Open the door, you loser!”
Jude finally wrenched it open, tumbling out into the hall and scrambling down the stairs, scaring Indira’s lurking cat in the process. Grammy let out a disturbing growl as she jumped, then latched onto his pant leg, sinking her claws in.
“Jesus Christ,” Jude said, tripping and landing with a loud smack on the hardwood floor.
Freeing himself from Grammy’s clutches, he jumped up and started pacing the living room, panic and horror and something that felt way too close to lust pumping through his veins. He needed toget as far away from that bathroom as possible, but he couldn’t actually get his brain to work long enough to have himgosomewhere.
Pounding footsteps overhead and doors slamming made his pulse double, and he tried to cram all mental images of a wet and thoroughly moisturized Indira into a box in his brain that he could then set on fire and never think of again.
There was one peaceful, blessed moment of silence that lasted long enough for Jude to delude himself into thinking the chaos was over.
