Page 73 of Dirty Like Jude
“Oh. My.Shit,” I stammered,horrified.
The fruit punch was bright red. Luckily, Jude was wearingblack.
“I guess that means you’re happy to seeme?”
When I peered up into his face, he was smiling a bit. His dimples flickered and my knees wentrubbery.
“Crap. I’m reallysorry.”
“No worries. I’ll find anothershirt.”
“Oh… good.” I stood there awkwardly, not sure what to do or say as he stared at me, that hint of a smile on hisface.
Then he grabbed my hand, lacing his fingers through mine, and pulled me toward the house. My heart swelled, like in some cartoon, and I hurried to follow him into the kitchen where Dylan’s mom and a bunch of aunts were prepping food for the barbecue. When she saw Jude, Mrs. Cope immediately pointed us in the direction of Dylan’s bedroom and told him to find a cleanshirt.
Jude kept hold of my hand as he led me down the basement stairs and into a bedroom where it looked like a small bomb had gone off, long ago, and no one had bothered cleaning up, so the disarray had just kind of feasted onitself.
Jude let go of my hand and I waited while he fished a clean T-shirt out of Dylan’s closet. I watched him slip his leather jacket off. He glanced at me, and I did my best to look absorbed in perusing the posters on the walls. Dylan had weird taste in music, though. I didn’t even know who or whatThin Lizzywas, but they had horrible fashionsense.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jude strip off his shirt and pull on the cleanone.
I looked at him again when he’d pulled his jacket backon.
Then we both just stood there, with Dylan’s giant unmade bed between us. It wasn’t exactly awkward, but it was…something.
“Sorry about your shirt,” I said,again.
“It’s kinda in my jeans,too.”
I glanced down at the front of his jeans. They were black, and I really couldn’t tell if they were wet, but I could definitely see the bulge of his man parts, and my stomach got allfluttery.
I met his dark eyes, which were fixed onmine.
“Sorry.”
“I’ll live with it.” His dimples flashedagain.
I smiled abit.
“So…”
“So.”
“I missed you.” He said it at the exact same moment that I saidit.
I grinned slowly, unable to stop myself. “You missedme?”
“Yeah. Imagine that.” He was staring at me and, as usual, I couldn’t totally tell if he was teasing me, flirting with me, or just giving me tough-guyattitude.
I shrugged, feigning indifference. “I mean, you’re okay to havearound.”
He kept staring at me. His eyes flicked down over my shirt; it was black and off-the-shoulder on one side. Then they drifted down over my jeans, before meeting my eyes again. Heat crept through my body as he looked at me thatway.
God, the shit I wanted to do with this guy… naked and rightnow.
“What’re you doing afterthis?”
I glanced around Dylan’s room. “After…this?”
