Page 113 of Sweet Venom

From my understanding, and all the smart-looking people I saw surrounding Julian when I signed that contract, he’s powerful enough to eliminate me without threatening me.

Unless there’s a benefit innoteliminating me?

My head slams into a solid wall, and I recoil. “Sorry…”

The word bunches up in my throat when I look up from the phone and my eyes crash with the deep dark-browns from last night’s erotic dream.

And itwasa dream.

It could haveonlybeen a dream.

“Do you lack the ability to watch where you’re going?”

The rumble of his voice drags over my skin like sandpaper and silk all at once. A shiver rushes through me, leaving goosebumps in its wake.

Jude’s so tall, so broad, his presence consumes the space and air around us. The black leather jacket strains over his shoulders, stretched taut by muscle, the fabric creaking slightly as he shifts. The T-shirt beneath it does nothing to hide the sharp ridges of his torso and the way his barely contained biceps flex.

But it’s his face that makes my pulse stutter and my fingers tremble at forbidden dreams I refuse to acknowledge.

He’s a grumpy, good-looking mess of closed-off but dangerously captivating features. Sharp jaw, full lips pressed in a firm line, and dark brows drawn together in a look that hovers between annoyance and something I can’t read.

The intensity of his dark gaze presses against my ribs, my skin, and even though we’re fully clothed and in public, it’s like he’s stripping me bare.

Like last night.

No. Absolutely not.

I step back, hide my phone, and start to sidestep him. I’msimply not getting myself into the Jude mess after I finally escaped him.

My stupid fantasies that would get me killed don’t matter?—

A strong hand wraps around my arm and drags me back. The air whooshes out of my lungs as I stand in front of him, swaying slightly before I ground myself again.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Away from you.” I twist my arm, trying to set myself free, but he only tightens his hold.

“You sure about that?” There’s a glint in his usually closed-off features, a rush of brightness and intensity that puts me on edge.

I still lift my chin. “Yes. How about you continue to ignore me like you have so far?”

“How can I ignore you when we have so muchunfinishedbusiness?”

My lips part at the way he grunts the wordunfinished. He steps into my space now, and I inhale his cologne that sets my skin ablaze.

Like it did last night when I was touching myself as the dream version of him watched me.

The orgasm was real, but I refuse to believe anything else was. I just…can’t.

“Kane said he gave you the list in exchange for removing me from it. You should’ve killed me that time when you put Mario in a coma.”

His jaw clenches, the pads of his fingers tightening around my upper arm. “You still think I attacked you?”

My lips tremble because his rage is seeping into my bones. I shouldn’t evenfeelhis rage, let alone be affected by it, but I still lift a shoulder. “I told you. That’s what Julian said.”

He releases a humorless bark of laughter. “Julian said I attacked you and you believed him, then proceeded to become his fucking lab rat?”

“He said he’d give me and Dahlia a new start away from you.”