Made Marian, Volume One by Lucy Lennox
Derek
No doubt about it, something had gotten to Jude.
“I’ll be fine,” he mumbled as he straightened his tux jacket and combed his hair with his fingers.
“Let’s just go make the arrangements and then head back to the hotel. Do you think it’s a good idea to go to Puckett’s?” I asked. He’d made plans with some of his old friends to meet up at the popular bar in Leiper’s Fork to play for a bit after the auction.
He’d lost his sparkle again and looked exhausted. “No, probably not.”
“Come on,” I said, opening the men’s room door and peering out into the hallway before waving him through ahead of me.
When we arrived back at the coordinator’s table, the man who’d won the auction was waiting. The small hairs on the back of my neck stood up when I saw the way the man looked at Jude.
“Jude,” the man said with a giant smile before stepping forward to hug Jude. Jude’s entire body went rigid, so I put a hand out to stop the man before he embraced Jude. The unofficial rule about hugging a celebrity was it was acceptable if the star wanted to hug someone but not the other way around. Usually people were polite and asked permission first. Jude almost always said yes.
When the man looked up at me in surprise, I gave him my usual calm face and low voice. “Sorry, sir. Handshakes only.”
“It’s okay. Jude and I are old friends. Right, Bubba?” he asked with a genuine smile.
Jude said quietly to the man, “Ari, let’s make arrangements for tomorrow, then we can talk in the hallway.”
I wondered who this guy was. Jude obviously knew him, but it seemed to be throwing him. The way he was reacting to the man made it clear there was a history between them.
As the man gave his contact information to the woman at the table, I committed it to memory so I could get a background check before morning. He was a local named Ari Crowe. I quickly shot off a text to my office, requesting as much information as they could dig up on him.
After the coordinator told Ari when and where to meet with Jude the following day, the man acted like he was going to step forward and hug Jude again, and everything in my gut told me to stop him. I stepped forward again and the man stopped and put his hands up in a conciliatory gesture. “Okay. I’ll meet you out in the hall.”
“You going to tell me who this guy is, Jude?” I asked quietly after he walked away. Jude looked everywhere but at my face.
“Just an old friend from when I lived in Nashville years ago. I’m going to find somewhere to have a private conversation with him. He’s fine, Wolfe.”
“If he’s fine, then why are you acting strangely?” I asked.
His eyes narrowed as he finally made eye contact with me. The warm brown eyes I knew so well were glinty with steel. “None of your business, He-Man. I said I’m fine. You can leave me alone while I talk to an old friend, all right?”
Without waiting for my response, he strode over to the guy and led him to the corridor where we’d entered. I followed at a distance, trying to balance respecting his privacy with keeping him safe. I certainly wasn’t going let him out of my sight.
When they entered the hallway, I stayed by the ballroom doors to make sure no one interrupted them. They continued far enough down the hallway so they were out of earshot. Not that it mattered, because they were speaking at low volume to keep their conversation private even from me.
As they spoke, I realized how well I had come to learn Jude’s body language since I’d been guarding him. He was wound up tight in addition to the exhaustion plaguing him. I could picture him finally reaching his limit and collapsing right there on the carpeted floor.
Every time the man reached for him, Jude’s body tensed further until I wanted nothing more than to make up an urgent excuse and hustle him out of there. It was so obvious to me that he didn't like this, and it was making me crazy just standing there doing nothing. I could feel my back teeth grinding against each other.
Jude shook his head emphatically. The man leered at him like he was a slice of cake. The look was almost feral. Finally Jude threw up his hands at the guy in frustration and started to turn back toward me to return to the ballroom. The man grabbed him and pulled him into a tight hug.
Suddenly I was the one uncomfortable, and as I felt bile rise up my throat, I recognized it as jealousy. That was my Jude. As ridiculous as it sounded even to myself, I had been practically living with him all day every day for months. I was in charge of watching over his very body. Nobody got to touch him without my permission. Did that sound overly possessive and Neanderthal of me? Sure. But it was an actual logistical fact. Usually. Not today, apparently. I tried to respect Jude’s request for some space to talk to this old “friend.” But he sure didn’t look like just a friend anymore.
He looked like something more than that. The way he held on to Jude was equally possessive as the way I felt about Jude. More than friends. Sexual possession, or at the very least attraction.
Jude began to relax into the embrace, and I felt like I was intruding. My gut was sour and I felt like I should turn away. Next, the guy lowered his hands to Jude’s ass. Just as I was about to freak out on Jude’s behalf, Jude straightened and pushed the guy away. Thank god.
Realization dawned. It wasn’t the shove of a straight guy fending off advances from a gay guy. It was the resistance of something familiar, comfortable. Like an old lover.
Jesusfuckingchrist.
Was it possible Jude Marian was gay?
