Page 60 of Wicked Temptations

And then he left us there in the corridor, alone with each other.

The machinery hummed, and over it, I could hear the distant, distorted carnival music of Riley’s zone.

I had to say something.Anything.

“We should talk.” The words scraped out.

“Pass.”

“Jude.”

“I said no.” He pushed off the wall.

My response was automatic—my hand shot out, fingers closing around his forearm to pull him back to me.

Jude twisted away so violently I stumbled back a step.

“Don’t fucking touch me.”

I held my hands up in a position of surrender as something acidic burned the back of my throat. “Right. Understood.”

The silence stretched between us like a wound that wouldn’t close. Every instinct screamed at me to reach for him, to bridgethe gap, to pull him against me and feel his heartbeat against mine. My fingers curled into fists at my sides.

“So what now?” My voice sounded hollow even to my own ears. “We just keep pretending nothing happened?”

“Nothing did happen.” Jude’s tone was ice, sharp enough to draw blood. “We fucked a few times. It’s done.”

The casual cruelty of it stole my breath. “You’re such a liar.”

“Believe what you want.”

“I know you felt something.” I hated how desperate I sounded, how close to breaking. “You wouldn’t be this much of an asshole if you didn’t.”

His laugh was bitter. “You don’t know shit about me.”

“I know you’re terrified.” The words tumbled out before I could stop them. “I know that scares you more than anything.”

“You think too highly of yourself.”

“Then why can’t you even look at me?”

Jude’s head snapped toward me, dark eyes blazing. The force of his stare hit like punch to the face. “There. Happy now?”

Everything in me wanted to close the distance. To grab his face and kiss him until we both forgot why we were fighting and he forgot we did nothing that intimate. Until nothing existed except us. My hands ached with the effort of staying still.

“No.”

No, I wasn’t happy. I didn’t want Jude to look at me like that. I wanted him to look my way and smile, or gasp and moan as I took him apart.

“Yeah, well, you only have yourself to blame for that.”

Jude’s jaw worked. For a second, something raw flickered across his face. It vanished just as fast. “Now, apparently, we’re professionals. Let’s act like it.”

“That’s rich coming from you.”

Jude flinched like I’d struck him.

Good. I wanted it to land and hurt. I wanted him to feel a fraction of what he’d carved out of me.