Wanna Be Yours

chapter eighteen: jude

The rasp of his voice was intoxicating, sultry, and so delicious. It wrapped around her, demanding her desire to hear more of it. He was hypnotizing. The entire performance was. He rolled his hips as he sang, the two serpents showing thanks to low-rise jeans. All his other tattoos were visible too, as his long-sleeved shirt was black, sparkly, and see-through. He looked unreal.

Jude wanted to resent him, even now. He was a star. A natural born star that, with a band or not, could reach success. His songs were addicting, his performance was filled with electricity and passion, and his stage presence was enormous. It sent tingles through Jude's skin, and seeming as if his eyes were locked on hers, black and endless, she felt more intoxicated as the seconds passed.

But despite it all, she couldn't resent him anymore. Once upon a time, she'd seen an asshole up on that stage, now she saw someone different. Sure, it was someone she hadn't completely deciphered yet. Someone she still did not understand. She'd seen glimpses, stolen moments of someone she'd completely didn't expect. Other times, she saw a reflection of herself.

She never knew what to do with that, so she'd retorted to resent him even more. But now, after everything, looking at him with a guitar painted pink, her name bright against it, after that karaoke night, after working with him, after catching those tiny bits of a person he never fully showed everyone, Jude wasn't resentful, but curious.

And sure, two weeks ago, she'd scold herself for being curious. She still did. After all, everything came to the same conclusion: She needed to focus on the competition. But with the growth of their strange friendship, with the time she'd spent with him, something within her couldn't help but allow herself the question.

Who really was Cardan Greenbriar?

What did he think about? Where were his parents? Who was he?!

But then again, she focused on his show, on this show, and herself. Even if she had accepted some sort of truce with Cardan, even if she didn't hate his guts anymore, even if they were 'friends' she could not let herself get too lost in the thought of him. She had things to focus on. And whether she liked it or not, the conversation she'd had with him that night after the weird bar night had been true.

In the end, one of them would win.

In the end, one of them might truly resent the other. Even if they didn't want to. Because if there was one true thing, Jude and Cardan wanted—needed—to win.

Jude and Cardan's eyes did not leave one another's, not even when Jude was lost in thought. But once she remembered once more, and she saw him wink, she felt a blush on her cheeks, and she was glad the summer heat still lingered even as the day became night...

Scoundrel. Thought Jude. Absolutely shameless.

He smiled wider at her as if he knew she'd been lost in thought. Or maybe being spaced out meant she was looking at him more intently, maybe that had enhanced his ego because, of course, it would.

She knew Nightfell was beside her giggling and making comments. But just like the first time Jude and Cardan had done this, she wasn't going to look away. This was another of their stupid competitions. And Jude never lost. She watched him as he smirked at her, as he sank to his knees, and his curls flowed with the wind. He looked like some sort of other creature. Something majestic. A prince.

A king.

Anything but human.

Jude hated how pretty he was. How, even if she tried to look for an imperfection on his face, to remind herself he wasn't some secret fae, some secret god, she couldn't find it. It was impossible.