Page 45 of Fighting For You
The feeling invading me was not hatred. It wasn’t the usual knee-jerk repulsion and fight-or-flight response begging me to spew something mean or bolt and make for my office.
Instead it was… warm.
Soft,somehow.
Confusing.
I couldn’t have been sure he actually acknowledged me, but somehow during the seconds our gazes had locked, I’dfelthis greeting. Or, if not an actualhello,then a proverbial one I could almost hear.
Then he joined Stone, Bruce, and Wilder, and extended a hand to Stone and—oh.
I sucked in a breath at the sight of Jude’s wide smile as he shook Stone’s hand and pulled him into a quick hug before releasing him and saying something just quietly enough I couldn’t hear it over the din of conversation buzzing in the room.
I’d thought Jude was handsome the minute I met him, but I wasn’t the kind to get mushy for someone based on looks alone. Then Kurt came in and just… blocked him out. We were friendly until something shifted and… well, now I wondered if maybe it shifted when he caught feelings for me? Or, was it right around when I’d gotten engaged? I couldn’t recall exactly because it had been gradual but inexorable.
And all of it led to me standing here gazing at a man I’d convinced myself I hated for the last five years with decidedly non-hatey feelings.
What a mess.
“He looks good, doesn’t he?” Cookie asked, his words quiet as usual.
He was more like Tristan but not as introverted or shy. Simply less in-your-face than many of my friends, though none of them were all that bothersome. Although maybe now that I wasn’t fuming over Beast all the time, they’d be more grating?
“Stone?” I asked, since we were both watching the smallcircle chat and he couldn’t possibly be asking me if I thought Beast looked good.Why would he ask me that?
“Yeah. Proud of him.” And his tone and expression spoke to the sentiment. He had a soft smile on his face and a genuinely affectionate feel to his words.
“Me, too.” I didn’t know Dorian as well as some of the guys, including Cookie, but I’d witnessed some of his ups and more of his downs the last few years. I’d seen him struggle and work to get to a place where he could even leave his property. The fact that he was here was just freaking great.
Cookie excused himself, and when I looked up, Jude was coming toward me. His face was typically unreadable, but now, this countenance gave me more mysterious vibes than how I used to interpret it, which was something along the lines of assuming he was lightly fantasizing about murdering me.
But now… maybe he’d been fantasizing about something else entirely… something equally passionate but far less likely to end in literal death. I swallowed hard, the thought sending my heart to my throat as my pulse knocked up and I braced for the first words between us since his confession.
But none came.
He just stood there, and even crossed his arms.
What?
He was giving me that impatient stare, and it had to be thanks to my poor sleep and coming off of having the flu or whatever virus I’d hosted at his cabin, but every bit of frustration and anger I’d felt in the wake of his truth bomb exploded inside me.
“What do you want?”
His eyes narrowed.
“I don’t have time to pretend I can read your mind.Obviously, I’ve failed spectacularly at that for the last few years.”
“’Bout a decade, I’d say.”
The deadpan tone.Funny guy.
I gritted my teeth. “I’m sorry, but in what universe do you walk up to me with an attitude?Ishould be the one having an attitude!”
My voice had raised just a touch, but most people had filtered out of the room, apparently not interested in witnessing our face off.
His eyes blinked slowly—pointedly. “Aren’t you?”
A bitter laugh escaped, and I pressed my hands to my eyes, grateful I hadn’t bothered with makeup today.
