WINTER'S MATE: FATED ON ICE Chapter 22: Are you an alien

Rosie

I’ve been noticing sothing peculiar about Jude and though we’d settled into a routine where Jude and I spent nearly every evening together, study sessions and walking ho or riding on his bike that he called ‘Baby’ which made roll my eyes at the cringy na every single ti, those monts felt sweeter than any dates I’d only imagined before. Just staying together without doing anything felt peaceful and worthy and right.

But I wasn’t blind to so hints that were happening and Jude was terrible at masking them, whatever was going on with him.

It started small and I almost didn’t notice at first.

One day I muttered that I was craving Thai food under my breath, barely a whisper while I was reading my textbook, but sohow Jude heard from across the library table and looked up imdiately. “There’s a good Thai place on Main Street, we could go after your shift if you want?” he’d offered and I’d stared at him because he wasn’t even close to , there was no way he should have heard that.

Or whenever I just murmured his na quietly, not even calling him really, just saying it to myself, he would imdiately turn and look at with this attentive expression like I’d shouted. I brushed it off as a coincidence at first because what else could it be?

Then there was his temperature and that was harder to ignore.

He always ran warr than normal. Sotis when he touched his fingertips were almost warm against my skin but instead of pulling away I found myself leaning into that warmth, craving it like I was always cold and he was the only thing that could heat up.

And there was the scenting and sniffing thing that I didn’t even have a na for.

I noticed, he mostly didn’t realize he was doing it, I was sure of that because if he knew how obvious it was he’d probably be embarrassed. Whenever I was near him Jude would lean slightly closer and inhale softly near my hair, my neck, my jaw like he was breathing in. Sotis he made this low quiet sound that wasn’t a hum or a sigh but sothing deeper, sothing that ca from his chest like a rumble, and that made my stomach flip every single ti.

I pretended not to notice because I didn’t know what to do with it, and didn’t know how to ask “hey why do you keep slling ?” without sounding completely insane.

But the mont that really got , that made start seriously wondering if sothing was different about Jude, happened in the library yesterday.

We were studying quietly, both of us focused on our work when I dropped my pencil and it rolled away across the floor. I watched it disappear under and groaned because of course it did, nothing could ever be simple.

I knelt down to look for it, getting on my hands and knees to peer under the table in the dim light, frustrated because I couldn’t see anything.

Jude stood behind and said casually, “It’s behind the far leg of the table, on the left side.”

I froze and turned to stare at him because there was absolutely no way he could have seen that from where he was sitting, the angle was completely wrong and it was too dark under there. “How did you—”

“Lucky guess?” he offered but his voice ca out strangled and nervous.

I reached under and sure enough, there was my pencil exactly where he said it would be and I grabbed it and stood up slowly, studying his face. “That was a really specific lucky guess.”

He rubbed the back of his neck and wouldn’t et my eyes. “I just, uh, saw the direction it rolled?”

“Jude,” I said and grinned at him, deciding to just ask outright because curiosity was killing . “Are you secretly an alien or sothing?”

He froze completely, his whole body going rigid and his eyes went wide with what looked like panic. “What? Why would you—what do you an?”

“Nothing,” I shrugged my shoulders, still smiling because his reaction was kind of adorable in how obviously guilty he looked. “Just wondered. You know, super hearing, running hot all the ti, knowing things you shouldn’t be able to know. Very alien-like behavior.”

“I’m not—” he started then stopped and laughed nervously, the sound coming out too high. “I’m not an alien, Rosie.”

“Okay,” I said easily and dropped it because as soon as I did his shoulders dropped and he sighed in relief. But I filed it away in my mind because there was definitely more to it, more he wasn’t telling .

Well, I didn’t mind if he was an alien honestly, aliens were cool and I’d read enough sci-fi romance to know that aliens made excellent boyfriends. And books always said sex with aliens was always top-notch with their weird biology and—

I imdiately shoved that thought away from my mind, my face flaming hot. What the heck was I thinking? Where did that even co from?

Stop it, brain!

After my shift at the café that evening, Jude was waiting outside to walk ho like he always did. He’d said his bike was back at the dorm getting so maintenance done so we walked instead and I didn’t mind because walking ant more ti with him.

The evening was cold and crisp and our breath ca out in visible puffs while we walked side by side through the quiet streets. Jude’s hand brushed mine for what had to be the seventh ti and each ti it happened I felt sparks shoot up my arm and my heart would skip.

The air between us felt warm despite the winter cold, thick with sothing unspoken.

I stopped walking suddenly and turned to face him, my heart pounding because I couldn’t take the tension anymore, couldn’t take the almost-touches and the heated looks and the way he kept leaning into my space like he couldn’t help himself.

Jude stopped too and looked down at , his amber eyes catching the streetlight and the way he was looking at stole my breath completely. Intense and soft and hungry all at once, like I was sothing precious and desired and necessary all at the sa ti.

For a second it felt like he was going to kiss , like he was finally going to close that distance that had been driving crazy for weeks.

Instead, he quietly said my na like a prayer, just “Rosie” in this rough broken voice that made my toes curl and my stomach flip. Then he stepped back like it physically hurt him to do it, like he was struggling with sothing I couldn’t see, so internal battle I wasn’t part of.

“I should get you ho,” he said quietly and his voice was strained. “It’s getting late.”

I nodded because I didn’t trust my voice and we walked the rest of the way in tensed silence, his hand brushing mine twice more before we reached my cottage.

“Goodnight, Rosie,” he said at my door and his eyes were still burning with that intensity that made shiver.

“Goodnight, Jude,” I whispered and watched him walk away, his hands shoved in his pockets and his shoulders tense.

I went inside and lay awake that night staring at my ceiling, my mind racing with questions I couldn’t answer.

The way he always knew where I was, he could find in a crowd without looking. The weird monts where his eyes seed to flash a different color in certain light.

What was he? What was Jude hiding?

And why did it feel like I should be afraid, should be running in the opposite direction, but I wasn’t? Why did the mystery of him just make want to know more, want to get closer instead of protecting myself?

I’d wait till he was ready to tell but a tiny part of was secretly hoping he was an alien.

And I fell asleep with his na on my lips and warmth spreading through my chest, wondering what secrets he was keeping and knowing that whatever they were, they wouldn’t change how I felt about him.

Nothing could change that now.

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