“Baby…Savy…”
When he trails off again unable to find words my stomach flips in concern. This is so not like him at all so I grab his hand and squeeze it.
“Jude, what happened? Tell me what happened?”
He brushes his thumb over my knuckles and looks up to meet my gaze.
“You. You happened, baby doll.”
All the concern I felt leaves me and I try and pull my hand away, done with being toyed with but he holds it tighter and then brings it up to his mouth to swipe hot lips over where his thumb had just been.
“I’m serious, doll. I miss you. I liked having you at the house and not just because you bake for me, either. And yes, I want to strip you down and do all kinds of wrong to that curvy body you keep hidden but it’s more than that too.”
He rubs a finger over his mouth, dragging my eyes to it and making me wonder just what kind of wrong he would do with it. I squeeze my thighs together to try and stop the ache that blooms at the thought.
“I want to spend time with you. I want to know you. I don’t really know much of anything about you but I want to. Like, why are you doing a double major in Business and English? What do you want to do after you graduate? Where are you from?”
He pulls my hand to his chest and flattens it over his heart. “I want to cuddle on the couch with your hands in my hair while we watch movies. I want to read Faerie porn books with you and then act out your favorite filthy scenes. Savy, I want tobewith you.”
Butterflies take flight in my stomach at words I never thought anyone would say to me but the realist in me also cautions that those butterflies might be my intuition telling me to run. I pull my hand away from him and swallow the “Me too” that wants to pop out of my mouth.
“That sounds nice, Jude, but I’m not real big on watching other girls blow you on a daily basis.”
He groans and smacks the side of his head twice. “Stupid, stupid, peen! I’m sorry! I don’t even know why I let her up into my room. All I got is…habit? As soon as you left my door, my dick sagged like an elderly lady’s tits and curled up to cry. It doesn’t want to play with anyone but you, doll.”
There’s a visual I didn’t need in my head. Nice words and all but trust is earned, not spoken.
“Sure, Jude, whatever you say. What about the others? Tate? How is he going to feel about you chasing his ex fake girlfriend?”
A grin tugs at his lips and he makes a ‘tsk’ sound. “Fuck them kids, baby doll. They can do their own groveling.”
I let out a deep sigh and then push to my feet. “I need to think about it, Jude. I don’t want to be played around with. I just need to think.”
He bounces to his feet and pushes the bucket of chicken at me. “Okay, I get that, but here, eat. A hangry doll doesn’t think clearly. Also…umm… do you think you might still come to the booster dinner tomorrow night? You could be my date. Fuck Tate, get dressed up for me, doll!”
I narrow my eyes at him. “Like I said, I need to think. If I’m there, I’m there.”
TATE
Istand out in front of the library where Savy works and go over it in my mind again. I need to convince her I’m not faking it this time. The very last thing I wanted was a girlfriend and yet here I am trying to come up with the words to convince her to take a shot on the real deal, not the fake one. I scrub a hand through my hair in frustration.
Fucking Jude. Who would have seen that coming? He's dead serious about wanting her for his own and he’s like the energizer bunny when he fixates on something. There’s no way he’ll give up until he gets what he wants. I can’t sit back and watch her be with him. It’ll drive me fucking crazy thinking about him being the one to make her moan the way she did for my fingers.
What the hell is this? I don’t get jealous. I don’t get invested in women, ever. I don’t get distracted by them and yet here we are. The whole point of having Savy be my fake girlfriend was to avoid all this shit. Now I can’t stand the thought of her being with anyone but me for real. Fuck it, I’ll just have to wing it and hope I can charm her into giving me another shot.
I find her in the stacks shelving books. She’s wearing another one of those dowdy skirts that do nothing to flatter her form and a bulky tan sweater and it makes me want to strip her bare right here to see the curves I got to touch the only time she was in my bed. Like she can sense a predator, her head comes up with a start and her eyes dart around. When they land on me, her pretty pink lips flatten and her eyes go cold and it fucking kills me that I make her feel like this.
“Go…away…Tate.”
“Come on, Savy, we need to talk about this.”
She glares and pushes her cart further down the row. “There’s nothing to talk about. The deal is off. You’re just upset I ended it before you had the chance to…how did you put it? Oh, right, drop me.”
I trail along behind her as she shelves books from her cart. “I was being an idiot, Savy. I didn’t want to believe that what was happening between us was real. Please, let me prove that it is.”
Savy huffs out a bitter little laugh as we come out of the aisle into the main section of the study area. Half of the tables are filled with students working and I catch the small, mean little smile on Savy’s face as she turns her head to look at me.
“It wasn’t real and I’m done putting on a show for you but here’s a free encore.”
