Page 468 of Tis the Season to be Bullied

I don’t even think I can speak. I inch closer, trying to take in everything all at once, but as soon as I’m within reach, Jude grabs my wrist and pulls me down beside him. With a roll of his hips, he’s pinning me to the bed of soft blankets, the bulge in his jeans digging into my thigh.

He pushes my hair out of my face and drinks me in with a sweep of his darkly intense eyes. “Did you do what I told you to?” he asks quietly, and then drops his head to paint a soft kiss on the corner of my mouth.

“Yes,” I sigh.

“Every night?”

“Yes.”

“And you were thinking of me the whole time?”

“Of course.”

“Not Brody or Shane?”

I shove at his chest, and he chuckles. “I can leave,” I tell him.

“But you wouldn’t,” he murmurs, grazing the side of my neck.

Shivers tear through me. “No,” I admit grudgingly.

He cups my face with one hand, the other stroking my hair. When our lips meet, the world stops spinning. Jude groans, his fingers wrapping around my jaw, forcing my head back so he can skim his lips over my chin, down my throat, across my collarbones.

We’ve had a few moments like this, but they’ve always been so fleeting. A stolen kiss between classes, heated glances when we pass each other on the property. He told me to make myself come every night at midnight, and to think of him while I was doing it. It was torture, of course, but since I knew he was doing the same thing at exactly the same time, I could pretend we were beside each other, that it was his fingers touching me, not mine. I like to think he thought the same.

Now my hands are all over him—stroking his neck, digging into the hard flesh of his shoulders, dragging down his back. He’s wearing a T-shirt and jeans, his sculpted flesh barely contained by the thin fabric. I forgot he was this ripped, this...perfect. It feels like a century has passed since our splash in the pool.

I can’t believe how much has changed since then.

He glides a hand over my breast, then my belly, before slipping it under my clothes. When he finds out I’m not wearing a bra, the pleased rumble he makes sends an ache through my core. I’m already wet for him, already anticipating a hundrednasty things he can do to me. I scrubbed every inch of my body for him, put on perfume, slathered myself in lotion. I shaved everywhere, even in places I haven’t shaved before.

He lifts my torso and slips off my puffy vest, then pulls my shirt over my head, bundling both under my head for a pillow. My nipples tighten as air slides over my naked skin, and for a long moment all Jude does is stare down at my breasts like he’s never seen them before. Slowly, teasingly, he pulls my nipples into his mouth, gently sucking on them until they soften against his warm tongue. Then he blows on my damp skin until they’re hard...and does it all over again.

“God, that feels good,” I murmur, arching my shoulders.

His only response is another low rumble that I feel all the way to my fucking core. I grab his hand and try to make him touch me through my pants, because I’m fuckingachingfor him already, but he twists his hands and catches hold of my wrists, pinning them to my belly so he can take his time grazing on my tits without me interfering.

“Jude, please, I...”

“I told you I was going to take my time.”

“But Ican’t,” I whimper. “Please.” I stretch out my fingers, managing to brush the tip of his cock before he can pull away.

He burrows his head into my neck, groaning as he shudders against me. “Fuck, Harper,” he mutters angrily. “You touch me again, and I’ll torture you until you’re screaming for mercy.”

“You’realreadytorturing me,” I whine.

Jude chuckles darkly against my hair. “Princess, if you thinkthisis torture, then you should get on your horse and fuck off out of here right now.” He draws back, black eyes latching onto mine, sending a shiver through me. “Because you won’t be able to handle what’s coming.”

My lips are parted, a shallow breath easing in and out of me. “No, please.”

He narrows his eyes at me. “You’ll behave?”

I nod. “I’ll be good, I promise.”

“No, no,” he tuts as a smile pulls at his mouth. “I want you to bebadfor me. Will you do that? Will you be bad for me?”

He drops his head before I can reply, sucking my nipple back into his mouth. This time, his teeth graze against the tender bud, dragging a gasp from me as my back arches. I’m dimly aware that he’s urging my leggings down my hips, that more of my naked skin is being exposed to the warm stroke of afternoon sunlight, but it’s too easy to get lost in the masterful swirls of his tongue.

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