Page 149 of Dirty Deadly & Mine
Fuck. I don’t think I’ll ever wipe this grin off my face. That’s what she does to me. Makes me feel on top of the world.
Fuck yes. That’s exactly how I feel.
Climbing the stairs two at a time, I realise I must have left the light on in my room, as it flows out onto the landing.
Passing the bathroom, I grin wider as I remember that first night when Lily followed me up here and watched me.
Stepping into the bedroom, I skid to a stop, freezing in place as air gets stuck in my lungs.
Fuck.
Jude… is here.
His dark eyes lift from the piece of paper in his hands, locking onto me as his face twists in rage.
“What. The. Fuck. Is. This?” he hisses so low, so quietly, that I almost miss it.
My eyes fall to the paper in his hand as he tilts it towards me, the pencilled sketch of Lily, his mum, laying naked on her bed with her hair fanned out on the pillow.
Fuck.
FUCK!
I can’t speak, my mouth opening and closing, but no words make it free as I fight how to answer him.
How the fuck didn’t we hear him come in?
How fucking long has he been here?
Oh, shit… did he hear us?
Then, as if the situation couldn’t get worse, it does.
“Here you are.” Lily’s voice floats through the bedroom door as she does. “I’m all cleaned up and ready for round two.”
The heat of her hand sears a trail over my shoulder before her body presses against my back and her lips press to the column of my neck… and my blood turns to ice in my veins.
It’s like time slows as I realise… Lily can’t see him… her son standing in the room… I’m blocking her view.
I can see him, though. The way his expression morphs into a frown of confusion as he watches the way his mother’s hand touches me. Then, to clear recognition as he watches his mum kiss my neck.
It’s when I feel Lily’s soft body stiffen behind me, a gasp flying from her lips, that I know she has finally spotted her son.
“Mum?” The question doesn’t come from Jude. It comes from behind us, falling from Ronan’s lips this time.
Shit… he’s here too.
How the fuck didn’t we know they were here?
There’s so much confusion in the tone of Ronnie’s one word, like he’s trying to decipher what he just walked in on, while Jude’s face turns bright red with pure rage.
Lily spins from me, facing Ronan, and it’s in that moment that Jude launches himself at me.
I have a split second to prepare, bracing myself enough that when he crashes into me, we don’t go flying back into his mum.
We crash to the floor, hard, the wind flying from my lungs as pain splinters through my side where I’m pretty sure the stitches just tore apart.
The first blow of Jude’s fist is a surprise. Not that I hadn’t been expecting it, but the sheer power behind it rattles my brain. I try to cover my head, refusing to fight back, because unless Jude or Ronan are a threat to Lily, there’s no scenario where I would hit them. And since their angeriswarranted, I resign myself that I could possibly die here tonight.
