Chapter 21

Something twisted up, hot and powerful, in the middle of Anton’s chest and—just for a minute, because he wasn’t stupid and he’d only known Jude a few weeks after all—he out-and-out loved Jude. Just for a split second, but it was there. By not being the freak he’d been at his old school, by being able to check Natasha at the door and just be Anton and nobody else, he’d caught someone’s attention in a good way, for once. Just by being able to do that one thing. And Jude was so…so Jude, so amiable and easy-going, that he wasn’t even put off by Anton’s weird little sceptical quirks. He even seemed to like them.