Chapter 23 Violet
VIOLET
Dahlia
Viii! Lunch together?
Actually, no question mark. Lunch together. I’ll ask Kane to eat with his friends, so it’s only us.
Me
You don’t have to do that.
I want to. See ya!
As I’m about to pocket my phone while walking out of my building, it pings.
Unknown number
You should leave this town while you still have the chance.
I frown, my fingers gripping the phone tight.
This can’t be…Julian, right? For some reason, this seems way beneath him. That man would threaten me face to face or on the phone without having to resort to these tricks.
Besides, Kane clearly said Julian is taken care of. Not sure how, but it’s been a couple of weeks since I returned to Graystone Ridge with Dahlia, and I’ve had no contact with Julian, so I believe Kane.
From my understanding, and all the smart-looking people I saw surrounding Julian when I signed that contract, he’s powerful enough to eliminate me without threatening me.
Unless there’s a benefit in not eliminating me?
My head slams into a solid wall, and I recoil. “Sorry…”
The word bunches up in my throat when I look up from the phone and my eyes crash with the deep dark-browns from last night’s erotic dream.
And it was a dream.
It could have only been a dream.
“Do you lack the ability to watch where you’re going?”
The rumble of his voice drags over my skin like sandpaper and silk all at once. A shiver rushes through me, leaving goosebumps in its wake.
Jude’s so tall, so broad, his presence consumes the space and air around us.
The black leather jacket strains over his shoulders, stretched taut by muscle, the fabric creaking slightly as he shifts.
The T-shirt beneath it does nothing to hide the sharp ridges of his torso and the way his barely contained biceps flex.
But it’s his face that makes my pulse stutter and my fingers tremble at forbidden dreams I refuse to acknowledge.
He’s a grumpy, good-looking mess of closed-off but dangerously captivating features. Sharp jaw, full lips pressed in a firm line, and dark brows drawn together in a look that hovers between annoyance and something I can’t read.
The intensity of his dark gaze presses against my ribs, my skin, and even though we’re fully clothed and in public, it’s like he’s stripping me bare.
Like last night.
No. Absolutely not.
I step back, hide my phone, and start to sidestep him. I’m simply not getting myself into the Jude mess after I finally escaped him.
My stupid fantasies that would get me killed don’t matter—
A strong hand wraps around my arm and drags me back. The air whooshes out of my lungs as I stand in front of him, swaying slightly before I ground myself again.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“Away from you.” I twist my arm, trying to set myself free, but he only tightens his hold.
“You sure about that?” There’s a glint in his usually closed-off features, a rush of brightness and intensity that puts me on edge.
I still lift my chin. “Yes. How about you continue to ignore me like you have so far?”
“How can I ignore you when we have so much unfinished business?”
My lips part at the way he grunts the word unfinished. He steps into my space now, and I inhale his cologne that sets my skin ablaze.
Like it did last night when I was touching myself as the dream version of him watched me.
The orgasm was real, but I refuse to believe anything else was. I just…can’t.
“Kane said he gave you the list in exchange for removing me from it. You should’ve killed me that time when you put Mario in a coma.”
His jaw clenches, the pads of his fingers tightening around my upper arm. “You still think I attacked you?”
My lips tremble because his rage is seeping into my bones. I shouldn’t even feel his rage, let alone be affected by it, but I still lift a shoulder. “I told you. That’s what Julian said.”
He releases a humorless bark of laughter. “Julian said I attacked you and you believed him, then proceeded to become his fucking lab rat?”
“He said he’d give me and Dahlia a new start away from you.”
“Is that new start anywhere to be seen? Because you just came back right into my claws, Violet. Three months of slumbering did you no favors.”
“Well, they kept me away from you and your suffocating attention.”
I realize I’ve spoken too much when he narrows his eyes to slits. “Right. Risking death is definitely worth escaping me.”
“You would’ve killed me anyway.”
“If I wanted to kill you, no one would’ve been able to stop me, Violet. Not Julian and not fucking Kane. The only reason you’re not buried six feet under is because I chose not to put a bullet in your pretty little head. Are we clear?”
My lips part because he sounded…offended? Maybe I’m being na?ve again, but I believe Jude over Julian. It’s probably because Jude never lied to me, and he’s too straightforward to play games.
I swallow. “Am…I still a target?”
“No.”
For some reason, that doesn’t send relief through me. “Then why are you here?”
He lifts a brow. “I told you I’d see you tomorrow last night, remember?”
My heart stutters, thudding harshly behind my rib cage.
No. No, no, no, no…
“That was not… It’s not…” I stop talking because I’m sweating, my ears are heating, and my eyes are so wide, I think they’ll bulge out.
“It’s not what?” He cocks his head to the side. “You swallowed my cum like a good girl after you finger-fucked your tiny cunt for me—”
I place both hands on his mouth as I study my surroundings, and I feel his lips curving beneath my palms.
“Shut up.” I drop my hands. “It was just a dream.”
“Sure. Let’s call it that when I shove my cock into your tiny cunt the next time.”
“Stop that, Jude.”
“Mmm.” There’s a glint. No, a smile. How the hell does this man even know how to smile?
He’s done it twice now, and it’s giving me an existential crisis.
“I like the sound of my name in your voice.”
My lips part, but I clear my throat. “Just…forget what happened last night. I thought it was a dream.”
“Do you dream about me a lot?”
I step back, or try to anyway, because his grip forbids me from creating any form of distance. He’s so close, and his scent is so overwhelming; my body is reacting, and my brain is a jumbled mess.
“Tell me, Violet. Am I the fantasy man you write about and dream of?”
He read my journal.
Damn it, of course the freaking stalker would.
God. This is so embarrassing.
If the earth could split open and swallow me whole, that would be awesome. Thanks.
“Did you touch yourself to memories of me every night?” His low voice sends shivers through me.
Why the hell is it so hot in freaking February?
“Please. I don’t even like you,” I say in my calmest tone.
“Didn’t stop you from shattering to pieces in front of me.”
“I was thinking of someone else,” I lie through my teeth.
Something curious happens then.
A flash.
A tightening of his jaw and a gradual darkening of his eyes. “Someone else?”
His voice sounds impossibly deep, like it’s ringing from the wildest corner of hell.
“Yeah,” I whisper.
“Who is this someone else?”
“No one you know.”
“I know everyone in your fucking life, Violet.”
“That’s not something you should be proud of.”
“Don’t change the subject. Who is it?”
“Don’t be desperate.” I pause, biting my lower lip. “Just leave me alone.”
“So you can keep picturing someone else while you touch yourself at night?”
“What if I do?”
His lips lift in a snarl. “There will be no one but me, Violet. Your life is mine, and so is your fucking body. You hear me?”
“Yeah, well, you can have neither my heart nor my soul.”
He’s angry.
No, he has that enraged expression he wears when he’s about to beat someone up on the ice or snap a hockey stick in two.
Why the hell am I provoking him, really?
Because I’m embarrassed and he’s pissing me off, that’s why.
He leans down, his mouth so close to mine, I can feel his minty breath on my sensitive skin. “I will have your fucking everything, sweetheart.”
“I’m not your sweetheart. I’m not your anything.”
It’s a challenge to keep looking him in the eye, but I do, refusing to let him stomp all over me again.
Maybe because I already faced death, but Jude will no longer stop me from living my life.
“We’ll see about that.” He drags me behind him to where he parked his huge bike.
“What are you doing?” I try to shake off his grip, but fighting Jude’s strength is like going against a damn bull.
He offers me the helmet. “Hop on.”
“No, I won’t. I have school.”
“I’ll give you a ride.”
“No, thanks.”
“Hop the fuck on, Violet. Don’t make me repeat myself.”
“I won’t—” My words end on a yelp when he grabs my hips and lifts me up, then sets me on the bike as if I’m a rag doll.
Before I can say anything, he shoves the helmet on my head and then puts on his own and drives off.
The distance to campus isn’t that far since the place Kane bought for me is about a twenty-minute walk, but with the way Jude’s speeding, I feel like I’m fighting for my life.
And I have to wrap my unsteady arms around his waist, or I’ll fall.
The moment I try to loosen them, he speeds up.
We’re in front of the human sciences building at GU in three minutes flat, and judging by the annoyed breath he releases, it seems he doesn’t like the fact that we arrived in no time.
I’m ready to just disengage and disappear into school.
When I hop off on unsteady feet, I’m painfully aware of the multiple eyes flashing toward us. Whispers, stares, people stopping and looking, some getting their friends’ attention.
Gossip.
Words.
Hate.
Shit. It’s like Mama’s death all over again. Being the center of bad attention, of malicious stares and whispered words.
It’s excruciatingly painful for people who don’t know you to assume and spout rumors about you just for their entertainment. Almost as if I’m no longer human and just an object in their eyes.
My fingers shake as I try to undo the strap of the helmet.
God damn it.