Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 66997 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66997 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
We break apart briefly, or I come up for air while she tugs my hair and digs her hands in against my scalp. It feels amazing as I press her up against the railing lifting her leg and wrapping it around myself. My hands inch up her skirt until my fingers find her thong, I shove it to the side. I wasn’t going to go this far but I can’t help myself. I need to touch her feel her. She lets out a gasp when I tug the small piece of material free sliding it down her leg and putting it in my pocket. “You won’t need this.”
“Jude,” She moans my name and reaches for my belt while I try to angle her leg better so I can give her what she wants—scratch that, what I want. I can feel her slick heat, so close, one more inch and I can make her feel good, one more slide of my hand.
A throat clears.
We jerk apart.
Axel is standing in the doorway with a half empty champagne glass. “Was just going on a stakeout for a place to hook up. Didn’t the sign say off limits? Pretty sure the sign downstairs said this area was closed."
Lilah groans. "Oh, thank God it's you."
"That is an incredibly concerning thing to say." Axel points out.
I immediately start fixing her hair, her dress, her smudged lipstick.
Axel points at us. “Question.”
“No.” I interject.
“I haven’t even asked yet!” He says loudly, then points again. "You two trying to start a rumor that professors are sleeping with students because if so the current optics are aggressively terrible."
Lilah chokes.
I let out a laugh.
Axel looks between us with a smirk, then up at the stars, then back at us. “Hmm, interesting.”
“What?”
He shrugs. “Higher stakes than I thought.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
"Nothing." He just keeps smiling. "Just wasn't expecting either of you to actually commit to the bit, you know?"
My eyes narrow. “The bit.”
"Yeah."
Axel gestures vaguely.
"The fake relationship between you two because we all know you’re not dating you were ready to kill each other less than forty-eight hours ago, so what gives? Trying to throw people for a loop? Hide from the many undergrads?"
I say nothing.
Lilah just shrugs. If he knew it was for The Dean’s List and about my mom he’d want to involve himself and I wasn’t sure I could trust him yet. Back in the day he’d been at the funeral with me but he’d looked up to my dad like he was his hero and while I loved him, money made people do crazy things.
"Unless it isn't fake anymore." He says in a teasing tone.
Silence.
Complete silence while Lilah looks away from us like she couldn’t be more fascinated by the room we’re in. She stares at the telescope, the walls. “Oh look, the moon.”
I clear my throat. “Be annoying elsewhere Axel.”
"You're annoying."
"I know." Axel shrugs. "I'm just saying, seven years of hatred, prison, your mother's death, a revenge plan worthy of a psychopath..." He shrugs. “And what? All it takes is one kiss? Pussy? I don’t get it.”
I rage.
I don’t see anything. I simply lunge for him and start hitting. “What the fuck did you say?”
He smiles through the blood on his teeth. “That all you got?”
“Fuck you!”
I grab his shirt and slam him against the wall. For a second all I can see is red.
The prison walls.
My mother's grave.
Lilah standing in court.
Every sleepless night.
Every damn year.
Every second I spent convincing myself I hated her enough to survive it.
Seven years. Seven years. Seven long years.
"Jude!" Lilah screams, but her voice barely registers above the roaring in my ears and the rage in my soul.
Hands grab at my arm. I hear Charlie.
Charlie.
Lilah.
Both trying to pull me back.
I shrug them off.
"Jude, stop!"
Axel wipes blood from his mouth. The bastard is still smiling. Because he knows. He knows exactly why I'm angry. Not because he's wrong. Because he's right.
Guilt crashes into me so hard I nearly choke on it. The room suddenly feels too small.
Too loud.
Too full.
I take a step back.
Then another.
I can't look at Lilah.
Can't look at any of them.
"Don't follow me." The words come out harsher than I intend. I turn and I walk. I’m numb, but I need to leave, get away from Lilah from Axel from everything. It’s the same feeling I had before when I got out of prison, the need to escape. The need to run, to get out, to solve nothing despite knowing that my mom would never commit suicide. Her and dad had been fighting more she said she’d tell me when she had more information.
“It’s a burden a child should never have to bear.”
“And you do?” I said.
“It’s my job to protect you even if it means from your own father. He said he was done with all of this. It’s so much worse than I could imagine.”