Page 50 of Wicked Temptations
I looked wrecked too, in the brief glimpse before I’d bolted. Like I’d been hit by something I hadn’t seen coming and didn’t know how to handle.
Parker paused the video. “Keep doing what you’re doing. The park is seeing numbers it hasn’t seen in years. Upper management is happy, which means I’m happy, which means you two get to keep making my life easier and I conveniently forget all about your little fight in the staffroom.”
“We aim to please,” Jude said, dry as dust.
“Good. Now get back out there before Kelvin thinks he’s your permanent replacement.”
We filed out of the office in silence. The hallway felt too narrow, and I was hyperaware of every inch of space between us. Or lack of space. Our shoulders brushed as we walked, and neither of us moved away.
Outside, the drizzle had stopped. The air smelled like wet pavement and that particular metallic tang that came with the fog machines. Somewhere in the distance, a scream cut through the night, followed by laughter. Business as usual.
Jude stopped at the entrance to the scare zone. He didn’t look at me, just stared out at the path that wound through the fabricated darkness and flickering lights.
“That was weird,” I said.
“Yeah.”
“Watching ourselves, I mean.”
“I know what you meant.”
The silence stretched between us again, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Just heavy with things neither of us knew how to say.
I had no clue what was going through his head, but mine was a mess with one reckless thought fighting for attention.
I wanted to ask him out. Properly. Not to a diner after a bet or back to someone’s car for another round of rough sex that left us both bruised and wanting more. I wanted to take him somewhere we could talk without worrying about being overheard by coworkers. Where I could learn more about him than what he’d given me in fragments.
Not the right time.
But when would the right time come? When would he ever let me close enough to ask?
“Better get back to it,” Jude said.
“Yeah.”
He walked into the zone without another word, melting into the shadows like he’d been born to them. I watched him disappear, my heart doing something complicated in my chest that felt too much like hope and not enough like self-preservation.
I’m so fucked.
Chapter 13
Jude
Izippedmypants,fingers still unsteady from the pleasant tremors running through my body.
The storage closet smelled of industrial cleaner and sex, a combination that should’ve been disgusting but instead felt like victory. Or something close to it.
Ash leaned against the shelves behind me, breathing hard. I could feel his eyes on my back as I buckled my belt.
He’d pushed me against these shelves maybe twenty minutes ago, right after our shift ended. I’d been heading to my locker when he grabbed my wrist and dragged me in here. No words. Just the look in his eyes that said he needed it now.
And I’d let him. Fuck, I’d more than let him. I’d fought back, wrestled for control in the way I knew we both liked, then given it up somewhere between his mouth on my neck and his hands tangling in my hair.
Then he’d spun me around, bent me over and shoved my face into the table. One of his hands had gripped my hip while the other hooked under my knee, hauling my leg up until my knee scraped across the tabletop. All my weight balanced on my left leg leaving me stretched wide and vulnerable in a way that made my pulse hammer.
“Don’t move,” he’d said.
Like I fucking could.
