Page 24 of Jude

At some point, his eyelids drooped, and he jerked awake.

‘I’m hitting the sack,’ he muttered in a gravelly rasp as he pushed back his chair, grabbed his plate, and headed to the kitchen. ‘Happy birthday, Mom.’

‘Thank you. Now, go on, honey, rest up,’ Maggie said, kissing his cheek.

I, too, begged off, the exhaustion of my own ordeal and the whirlwind of social activity catching up to me.

When I reached for my cutlery, Maggie shook her head. ‘You go straight up; guests don’t help clear up on their first night in my home.’

Ready for bed, I nodded my appreciation.

Waving at the remaining party, I slipped away from the dining room to seek the sanctuary of my room.

The hallway was dim, illuminated only by the moonlight filtering through the high clerestory windows.

As I walked down the narrow passage, the thick oak floorboards groaned behind me.

I stopped, my heart leaping into my throat as I turned my head.

Jude was walking a few paces back.

His chest seemed to fill the corridor, his shoulders brushing the family portraits hanging on either side of the drywall.

The sheer physical size of him, combined with the shadows catching the harsh angles of his jawline, sent a sudden, electric shiver racing down my spine.

My fingers found the cool brass of my bedroom doorknob and twisted it to half-open it.

By the time I stepped in, Jude was at the threshold of his own door, opposite mine.

I turned to face him, not wanting to be rude, and was jolted as I got hit with the sudden need to stroke his jaw.

The hell?

His dark, unreadable eyes locked onto my face, holding my gaze for one long second before his throat cleared with a rough sound.

‘Good night, Sofia,’ he growled, the timbred, resonant pitch of his voice giving me goosebumps.

‘Good night, signore,’ I whispered.

I slipped into my room, clicked the lock into place, and sank into the bed.

My chest heaved as it hit me that the trajectory of my life had just altered, perhaps forever.

Chapter 6

JUDE

The blue light from my smartphone illuminated the gloomy corners of my room.

Despite my bone-deep weariness, I struggled to sleep.

My mind was churning from the madness of the day, the adrenaline crash from the show, the flight, and my unexpected encounter at the airport.

I doom-scrolled for a little while until a text message popped up on my screen.

With a sigh, I blinked at yet another rapid-fire succession of messages, all from Abby.

I leaned my head against the headrest of my bed, my thumbs scrolling through the texts.