10. Taylor
Taylor
The house settles around me with a chorus of old-timber creaks, but sleep refuses to come.
I lie on my back, staring at the ceiling, my muscles buzzing with a tension I can’t shake.
Every part of me aches after a long day of physical work, something I never imagined I’d ever say.
My shoulders are sore. I have blisters on my palms. My legs feel as if someone replaced the bones with wet cement.
That should be enough to knock me unconscious. Instead, I’m wide awake.
Rolling onto my side, I stare at the old bookshelf, my thoughts returning to earlier tonight. Maybe it’s not the effects of a ten-hour workday that are keeping me awake. Maybe it’s him. The way he looked at me.
And I know I’m reading too much into it because there’s no way Roman is attracted to me. He’s too uptight— someone who would never cross certain lines like lusting after his stepbrother’s son. No, he would never dream of doing that.
My stomach knots anyway. My body liked that look far more than it should have, regardless of whether I imagined it. But then again, I’ve always had a talent for wanting things I shouldn’t have. Things—people who are off limits. It never ends well. Noel was a perfect example.
With a frustrated groan, I throw back the blankets and swing my feet onto the cold floor.
Fresh air might help. I cross the room, pulling the curtain and sliding the window, immediately getting blasted with frigid—but welcomed— air.
Moonlight spills across the ranch, casting a silver glow on the snow-covered ground and highlighting the figure running up the driveway.
Naked.
What the hell?
“This can’t be real,” I mutter under my breath as Jude sprints through the snow like the freezing temperature doesn’t exist, his long legs eating up the distance.
My curiosity soon takes over, and I grab my boots, tug them on without socks, and slip on my jacket on the way downstairs.
The cold slaps me wider awake as I move toward the porch railing, staying mostly in the shadows.
I only mean to watch, but then Jude slows down near the end of the drive. His gaze lands on me immediately. A grin spreads across his face. “Busted.”
I look away so fast my neck protests. “Get over yourself. I wasn’t spying on you.”
“No?” His amused voice draws closer. “It’s almost one in the morning. Nothing is interesting out here for you to look at. Well... except me.”
“Joke’s on you,” I reply, keeping my gaze on the ground. “I came out for fresh air.”
“Convenient timing.” His boot steps crunch in the snow. I shift my eyes to a pine tree beside the barn. He chuckles. “You act as if you’ve never seen a naked guy before.”
Heat creeps into my face. “I have a gym membership. I’ve seen naked men.”
“But?”
I wave in his direction without actually looking. “But I don’t usually see them standing in the snow.”
He laughs outright. It’s deep and unrestrained, flooding my insides with heat. “I sense you have a question. Ask.”
Risking a glance toward him, I keep my gaze focused on his face. “Why are you running without clothes on?”
His smile softens. “I’m clearing my head.”
“From what?” I ask with a frown.
Silence. It goes on long enough for me to wonder if he’d heard me. Eventually, I chance another glance at him.
Huge mistake.
My eyes drop for the briefest moment. Pleasurable tingles cover my skin. Despite the cold, Jude is unmistakably hard as stone.
Fuck.
I jerk my gaze away. Too late. My body has already noticed.
Already responded.
Every single muscle tightens as a sweet ache settles in my groin.
The snow crunches again. Before I can retreat, Jude invades my space.
He doesn’t touch me, but he stands close enough for me to feel the heat radiating off his body.
Close enough that looking anywhere but at him becomes impossible.
I lift my eyes. His expression has changed.
The teasing is still there, but beneath it is something darker.
Something hot and intense.
His voice drops to a growly whisper. “I run to clear my head.”
Another beat passes. My breathing pauses.
“Otherwise...” His eyes don’t leave mine. “...I’d come pounding on your door.”
Every ounce of warmth rushes to my face as his gaze flicks downward. A corner of his mouth lifts. “Something tells me you wouldn’t mind.”
I manage one shaky step backward. Then another. Jude doesn’t follow. Instead, he lets his gaze drift over me. It’s slow, unblinking, piercing, sending chills up my spine.
A soft smile spreads across his face, and then he turns and runs back up the driveway. I stand frozen long after he’s disappeared, replaying every word, every look, until one undeniable truth settles over me.
That wasn’t harmless teasing or a figment of my imagination.
Jude isn’t straight. And he’s definitely attracted to me.
The realization should terrify me; instead, it sends another dangerous rush of heat through my body.
I haven’t been with a man in months. Not since everything fell apart.
Not since I convinced myself it would be easier to give my mother what she wants.
It was safer that way.
Lonelier.
But I’m not in San Francisco anymore and Hallow Creek feels cut off from the rest of the world. No photographers. No gossip bloggers. No one trying to ruin my mother through me. For the first time in months, temptation feels... possible. A temporary distraction. A secret that stays buried here.
Except that there’s something about Jude, something that makes me think he might be more than a temporary distraction. Something dangerously easy. It’s his warmth. His confidence. The way he looks at me is as if he already knows what I’m trying not to admit.
I cast a last glance up the driveway before heading back inside. A deep, internal instinct whispers a truth I don’t particularly want to hear. If I let myself cross that line with Jude, walking away won’t be easy, not like it had been with Noel.
And that frightens me almost as much as the cops linking me to a dead man.