I froze, and I felt Jude do the same. I understood that he acted unconsciously, and he did so because he saw that I wasn't in a good state.
Still, the way Jude smelled, the way he held me, I was unable to think of anything, my heart somersaulting in my chest. Either from the danger, the door unlocked while I was hugged by my stepson and student intimately in his school, or because the way he acted was the way a man would towards a woman.
My ear near his chest, I could also perceive his heartbeat picking up, strong and mighty as it hammered against his rib cage, against my head, and I didn't know what to make out of it.
If I could do what I wanted, I would lock the door, and stay like this, letting the class wait outside forever, while I let myself be fall into the darkness, in the abyss that had ascended upon me.
"Jude." I mumbled, not hearing myself speaking with my heartbeat, his heartbeat, and my ears ringing.