Page 75 of Wicked Temptations
“And?”
“And nothing.” Jude picked up a fork and started stabbing at the curry without eating it. “You two looked good together. The chemistry was there. Crowd seemed into it. What more do you want me to say?”
“The chemistry was fake, and you know it.”
“Looked real enough to me.”
“That’s because Simon’s a professional and I’m a decent actor.” I leaned back in my chair, watching him like a hawk. I could see the irritation simmering just under the surface. It was in the way his eyes narrowed and his lips pressed together—I doubt he even realized he did it.
“Is that why you’re here? Just to rub it—”
“But it’s bullshit.” I cut him off. He was right on the edge of where I wanted him, but it would do neither of us any good to let him tumble into his stubborn anger. “All of it. He doesn’t get under my skin. Doesn’t make me want to go off script and see what happens. He doesn’t make me feel anything except like I’m doing a job.”
“You are doing a job.”
“That’s not what I meant, and we both know it.” He always did that. He always twisted things I said, and I always had to pull him up on it.
Jude’s fork stilled. “Ash.”
“I fucked up, okay.” The words came out faster and sooner than I’d expected, but I couldn’t keep them in any longer. I hadto get the damn things off my chest and out into the open, and I had to make sure he actually paid attention. “That night in the storage room. The things I said about your parents, about you being scared. That was out of line.”
Jude blinked, and he let his fork clatter against the container. The shift in conversation had thrown him off balance, and I could see him scrambling to catch up, mouth opening and closing like he was sorting through responses and discarding each one.
His eyes met mine. Wary. Waiting.
And then he finally sighed.
“You weren’t wrong.”
“That doesn’t matter.” I ran a hand through my hair, feeling how greasy it was from the stage makeup I hadn’t bothered washing off completely. “I was angry, and I wanted to hurt you because you pushing me away hurt me. But that doesn’t make it okay.”
He was quiet for a long moment. When he spoke, his voice was low. Rough around the edges in that way that made me feral. “I said worse.Somuch worse.”
“You were a dick.” He’d been horrible, and if this was ever going to work, then he needed to know that. I wasn’t trying to lord his words over him, and I had no intention of holding a grudge, but if we had any hope in hell, we needed to be honest with each other.
Jude looked me right in the eyes and said, “I know. And I’m sorry.”
I wanted to throw everything else to the wind, pull him over the table and kiss him senseless. But reckless sex was what had gotten us into this mess in the first place, so now was a time for words.
“Thank you.”
Jude never liked to do things by halves. He was all or nothing, full pelt, and he proved that yet again by continuing. “I told you it was just sex when it hadn’t been ‘just sex’ for a while.”
My chest tightened. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” He finally ate a bite of the curry, grimacing slightly. “This is cold.”
“Want me to heat it up for you?”
“No.” He took another bite anyway, and I rolled my eyes. He was such a fucking stubborn bitch, but sitting here across from him, there was no denying that I was smitten. I could tell he wanted to say something. I could practically see the cogs working in his head.
I popped another chickpea into my mouth and gave him time.
He struggled through another half-dozen mouthfuls before he finally got started.
“My parents’ divorce taught me that people leave,” Jude said finally, staring down at the curry like it held all the answers. “That even when they promise they won’t, they do. And then you’re the collateral damage.”
I stayed quiet. Let him talk.
