Page 57 of You Had Me at Chocolate

And Clem reveled in it, her hips rising to meet his every thrust, their bodies practically sparking with each slam of his hips, the depth exquisite, the angle perfect, stoking and stoking, tossing her higher and higher chasing the orgasm that was rippling along her pelvic floor, starting to fray the line between heaven and earth.

Wanting it. Needing it. Needing Jude to give it to her. Only Jude. Jude who’d been back in her life for such a short time but had fast become everything.

Jude who was starting to tremble now—starting to grunt.

“Jude.” Her voice was a low keen as the muscles that cocooned his every thrust started to tighten, started to clamp, the ripples turned hotter, growing stronger. “Oh god… Jude…”

“I know,” he muttered, his mouth tearing from hers as he buried his forehead in her neck, leaning in to the angle, his hips snapping with each thrust, his shoulders shaking beneath her palms.

Her head jerked and her breasts jiggled and her orgasm broke.

In a sudden crash, it was upon her and Clem cried out with the force of it, clamping around him good and hard and tight as he gritted his teeth and pushed through, grunting with the effort of it until he bellowed and came, too, his movements jerking to a halt for one beat, two beats, three beats, clutching her close as he spilled inside her, their hearts beating as one, then resuming again, driving them through their release, driving them all the way to the end until they were done and were slumped in each other’s arms, two panting wrecks.

He eased back a little when their breathing had returned to something more like normal but he didn’t withdraw and Clem’s breath stuttered out as the action emphasised just how hard he still was inside her. God, she must look utterly disheveled—her skirt hitched up, the tatters of her sweater hanging down around her elbows along with her bra, red marks on her chest from the scratch of his stubble, her nipples swollen from his attention.

If only there were any fucks to give in her post-orgasmic hum.

“So…” He smiled, his hand raising to brush at the curls on her forehead. “That happened again.”

Clem returned his smile with a half one of her own. “Yeah.”

“You want to talk about it?”

“I suppose we should.” She bit into her bottom lip. Man, being an adult sucked sometimes.

But… the thing was, this time didn’t feel as clear-cut as last time where a little bit of oblivion had been her goal and Jude had gladly obliged. This food-fest sexy time hadn’t sprung from an emotional situation. It wasn’t about her needing comfort and him wanting to provide it. They’d gone into this with no agenda and their eyes wide open.

And Clem didn’t know what that meant.

Except this suddenly didn’t feel black and white. It felt… blurry. Like maybe the situation had moved into a gray area where all kinds of possibilities lurked.

One thing was for sure, right here, right now wasn’t the place for that discussion. With him still hard inside her and the sweet sticky residue of mousse still clinging to her skin.

“Or maybe we could… do that tomorrow?”

He grinned an utterly wolfish grin. “I like the way you think.” He dropped his head and kissed her neck and the ridge of her collarbone and the hollow at the base of her throat. “Wrap your legs around me and hold on tight,” he muttered, his warm breath creating delicious havoc.

Clem did as he asked, yelping a little as he scooped her off the counter then laughing against his mouth as he walked her to her bedroom. When they got to their destination, he eased her down onto the mattress withdrawing from her body at the last moment, an action that caused both to shudder.

“I’m going to turn the oven off,” he said, his eyes raking over her body one last time as he backed out of the room. “Get naked.”

He turned and was gone and Clem smiled as she stripped off her clothes, refusing to think beyond tonight to tomorrow, to their conversation and the possibilities that might be there if she opened herself up to the gray. Rhonda’s voice whispered, what if it didn’t have to end? and for the first time she asked herself the same question.

*

Jude was also trying not to think about tomorrow as he raced to his bedroom, dealt with the condom and shucked off his clothes. He had two weeks before he moved into his new rental and he didn’t know what was going to happen next with him and Clementine. Did she want to move into a friend’s-with-benefits setup for the remainder of his time here?

Did he?

Thinking about it rationally, if she’d been any other woman after something casual, Jude wouldn’t have hesitated. But Clementine was the opposite of causal. More than that, they’d reconnected when they were both at a crossroads in their life. Not the best time to start something when they were heading in different directions.

If she wanted to boink like bunnies, Jude doubted he could say no because they were good together. And he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about being with her again since that first time. But he’d be foolish to pretend their relationship hadn’t moved beyond friends to some kind of otherness. Foolish to ignore the implications of pursing that too—both good and bad.

Because when he boiled it down, he knew he wanted Clementine in his life. They could be friends. They could be lovers. But could they be ex-lovers and friends?

That was the question.

Impatient with his thoughts, Jude pushed it all aside as he made a quick visit to the kitchen, switching the oven off and leaving the door slightly ajar for the pies to cool. As he turned, his gaze snagged on the piping bags loaded with chocolate mousse and he grinned.

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