Clash(56)

“The plan is always the same,” he answered, his eyes roaming over my face, likely inspecting the battle wounds a week later. The redness had gone down, but the bruises were still pretty gnarly. “Kick. Ass.”

“I think you’ve got that down,” I said, knowing a few members of the visiting team could personally relate to that.

“What are you doing here, Luce?” he asked, studying me.

“Watching you play,” I answered, knowing it wasn’t one he’d accept.

“Yeah,” he said, making a face. “That’s not going to work for me.”

Of course it wasn’t.

“You know why,” I added with a whisper.

“I need to hear you say it,” he said, swallowing. “I’ve gone too many days without hearing it.”

Sighing, I closed my eyes. “I love you,” I said, knowing it was the truth and that it didn’t change anything. “And I missed you.”

“Yeah,” he said, “me too.”

Just then, the crowd, not just the ones around us, took a collective gasp before unleashing a cheer that exploded through the stands.

“It’s you guys!” Danny hollered, pointing at the huge screen across from us.

“Shit,” Jude and I said in unison.

I was going to have the camera man’s head because, on that screen‌—‌as well as the other three around the stadium‌—‌was a close up of Jude and me in real time, the red, bubbly “Kiss Me” captions surrounded by floating hearts.

The stadium started chanting, “Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” while my face went almost as red as those damn hearts floating around our faces on the screen. Jude wasn’t red though; he didn’t even look uncomfortable. He was somewhere between a smile and a smirk.

If I hadn’t known better, I would have believed he’d set the whole thing up.

Looking over at him, I found him staring at me.

His smirk evolved into a full blown cocky, hot as hell smile.

“Get over here,” he said, weaving his fingers through my hair.

I didn’t have to do much “getting over here” because he closed the entire space between us until his lips rested into mine. The crowd went wild‌—‌full moon wild‌—‌as their hero didn’t just kiss me. He consumed me.

His other hand lifted to my neck, his fingers curling into my skin, his lips urging mine, pressing them to respond.

I wasn’t sure if it was feeling the eyes of thousands of fans upon us, or the length of time that had passed since Jude and I had last kissed like this, or if the feelings that were washing over me‌—‌drowning me in their intensity‌—‌ that was terrifying me. Because those feelings ascertained that Jude was meant to be my one and only, had reality not gotten in the way and screwed that all up.

Finally, he gave up. His lips stopped trying to work mine into submission. His fingers drooped against me, feeling suddenly cold.

The crowd was still buzzing, clueless to the two hearts breaking following that kiss.

“I’ve really lost you,” he whispered, his words even cool against my skin. “You’re gone for good this time, aren’t you, Luce?”

I stared into those silver-gray eyes, not able to imagine anything I could do that was worse than hurting them.

“You can never lose me, Jude,” I said, forgetting about the crowd. Forgetting about everything except every reason we should be together and every reason we couldn’t.

“But I can’t have you the way I want you,” he said, running his thumb down my cheek.

“I don’t know.”

“Then what are you doing here, Luce?” he asked, his voice elevating. “You want time? You want space? Fine. I gave that to you. But then you keep throwing yourself back into my life whenever the hell you choose. No warning. No apology. No permanence. You show up at my front door and sneak out the back without so much as a goodbye,” he continued, never taking his eyes off of me. “You couldn’t take the up and down. The roller coaster was going to kill you. You know what I can’t take? You in and back out of my life before I even knew you were there in the first place. You looking at me the way you are now and then able to turn your back and walk away five minutes later.” His hand clenched over my cheek before he lowered it. “That is what will kill me. I can’t live wondering if you’re still mine to claim.”

It was like he knew the exact words that could choke me up at the same time they’d fire me up. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I just wanted to see you play one more time before I left for winter break. I never even thought you’d know I was here.”