VIOLA
“Hello, beautiful.”
Sweet words, soft and seductive, pierce the cloudiness of my brain. I bolt awake, eyes blinking painfully open. It’s like my lids are glued shut. I pry them apart, forcing myself to look around and at the person staring down at me.
Jude, sexy Jude…
Fucking finally.
Blond hair messy and in disarray, twinkling hazel eyes, he smirks. “I want to ask what the fuck you’re doing in here, but I think I know the answer.”
“Ju…” I slur. Saliva dribbles down the side of my mouth. Fuck I can’t talk. I can’t move. What the hell did they give me? My brain kicks in. I took the trancs as directed, enough to knock me out about an hour before visiting hours. Adrenaline surges, as well as panic, making my heart thud nosily in my chest. I move my gaze about the room, trying to work out where I am. I’m laid on a single bed in a small rectangle-shaped room. There’s nothing else in the room, but I note the walls are sky blue walls, not eggnog yellow. I must be in the non-sectional psych ward. There’s a door behind Jude that’s closed over. We’re alone.
Jude is here, and we’re alone.
I try to sit up, but it’s like I’ve been zapped of all my energy. Jude smirks again, pushing me back down onto the bed with ease.
“Nah, don’t try to and move or talk. If it’s the same shit Jordan loaded me up with, it’s a bitch if you’re not prepared. Just chill. Let me stare at you some more.” He runs his eyes over me as sits on the bed next to me, dragging a hand through his unkempt hair.
“Fuck, I must be dreaming. You can’t be real. Can you?” A dark light fills his eyes as he takes me in “I need to know if you’re real.”
My throat is raw and parched, and my tongue feels thick and rough, like sandpaper in my mouth. I want to say, ‘kiss me and find out the fuck out’, but I can’t make my lips move. I blink my heavy eyelids at him instead.
“I’m going to take that as yes, beautiful,” he drawls, leaning down to run his tongue over my lips, teasing softly with his teeth as he explores my unusually pliant mouth.
I give a mild moan.
Eventually, he pulls back, the lust in his gaze now blazing.
I stare at him. How did he know I would be here? How is he even here?
“Jordan got word to me, and I bribed an orderly to smuggle me into your room,” he says, reading my mind. “What were you thinking? You can’t stay here, babe. You look nothing like Dahlia.” He must see my confusion because he adds, “The girl they switched you with.” He shakes his head. “Someone is going to fucking notice you’re not her.”
I can’t do anything but lie there and look at him, allowing myself to drink him in for once—the square of his stubbled jaw, the slope of his broad shoulders, and the corded muscle in his arms as he towers above me on the bed. Then I gaze back into his eyes…eyes that raze over me. Anyone else but Jude would have my body reacting to escape.
But I feel…
Calm.
Safe.
Slowly, he reaches forward to graze a knuckle over my cheek, down my neck, tracing lightly over my breasts. My lips part. My breath catches. His hand wanders down my stomach to my thighs. I’m still wearing the jeans and t-shirt from earlier when I took the pills, but even over the denim, his touch lights me on fire. That I can’t really move makes this whole situation unbearable and hot as hell.
As his luscious mouth curves into a dark smile, my body responds, clenching and fluttering awake.
“If I weren’t such a fucking gentleman, I’d fuck you raw right now,” he chuckles.
My usual mask is gone. Vulnerable and exposed, unable to fight it or hide it like I normally would, I give off a tight moan between breaths. It’s barely a whisper and a nod, but he gets it. What else can I do?
“Are you sure? You’re fairly out of it right now?”
My eyes flash with a feral look as I try to lift a heavy hand and grab onto his collar with every ounce of effort in my bones. Desire roars to life behind his eyes, and he climbs onto the bed and on top of me and kisses me desperately, I want to respond back, but my body is lead. Still, the sensation of his hands everywhere, mauling at my clothes and then under them, rough palms searing my skin with every, fingers digging into my flesh, is enough.
Jude isn’t gentle, and I don’t want him to be.
I’m where I finally belong.
The feel of my jeans being wrenched off and the cooling air on my skin sends shivers down my spine. Jude’s mouth and tongue are on my collar bone, my neck, and then my bare breasts as he hauls my top over my head to devour them.