Page 24 of Judas

The younger woman laughed under her breath, “What? The original sexual tension so thick you could cut through it or the current angst that seems to have swallowed you both whole? Because they’re both pretty clear.”

“Well,” Eliza began, “Well, I… We… It’s done. So, I hope everyone will just move on and not worry about it.”

Georgia looked even more sad, “Girl, that’s a pity because whatever was happening between you two seemed like that super rare, special, thing of fairy tales, real deal kind of stuff. Not to mention, that man is a major snack.”

Eliza couldn’t help but smile at this, “It really seemed like that?”

She playfully shoved Eliza’s shoulder, “Oh yeah. You two had that whole starry eyed, I just found my soulmate kind of buzz around you. I don’t know… It was just kind of special, you know?”

Eliza did know. She’d been feeling that since the first moment she laid eyes on Judas. She didn’t know what it was, but there was just… something. Romance and love, dare she call it that, had never really been on her radar. She was career minded. She wanted an education and a job she could love for the rest of her life. Aside from this little tangent into politics, she’d had that and she was happy. Wanting more wasn’t something she craved or needed. She figured you could have one or the other and she chose work that filled her life with purpose. Then he walked in and, and for the first time in her life, she wondered if she might’ve been able to have both. Could she be that lucky? She now knew the answer was no.

It seemed silly to her to even be thinking something so crazy so fast, but somehow it just fit.

Eliza gazed toward Judas again and found him already looking back at her. She felt that spark in herself again and wanted what she’d had with him back again. She wanted it so badly that it felt like a necessity.

Georgia nudged her, “Listen, I’m usually only into the ladies but I would absolutely make an exception for that hunky dreamboat.” Georgia shrugged her shoulders unapologetically, “I mean, if you’re really done and it’s really over. You just let me know.”

Alarm spiked through Eliza’s heart at the thought of seeing him look at another woman the way he was looking at her and she panicked, “It’s not! It isn’t done. Maybe I thought it was, but it’s not. I’m still invested, okay?”

Georgia answered with a wide smile, “That’s kind of what I figured, but now you know too, right?”

Eliza smiled back. Now she knew.

Chapter fourteen

Soft, bluesy music wafted through the candlelit apartment as Judas poured himself two fingers of a sixty-year-old single malt scotch. He’d settled into his spot on the overstuffed sofa and just opened his book when the light rapping happened on his door. Judas took a sip of his drink before setting the glass on the table in front of him and getting up to turn the knob. Eliza's piercing eyes stared back at him.

"I'm…sorry for barging in unannounced," she apologized.

He noticed she looked a little disheveled as though she was in quite a hurry to leave wherever she came from and her demeanor radiated anger. Judas immediately hated the idea that someone had upset her and he could guess who that person was. He knew he shouldn't, because that same person would never allow it, but Judas would do anything to be everything for this woman.

Opening the door wider, he gestured for her to come inside, "No problem."

He watched her from behind as she sloughed off her blazer. He swore after their last tryst several weeks ago that he would keep his desires for her in check, but it was hard not to imagine his fingers tracing the tattoo on her ribcage again.

"Can I get you a drink?" he shut the door.

Eliza saw the tumbler of amber liquid sitting on the glass table, "Sure…whatever that is."

A small grin pulled at the edge of Judas's mouth as he plucked a glass from the bar and handed it to her.

"Do you know what it's like to work for the most infuriating and frustrating human on the face of the planet?" She railed suddenly. "I mean…he is such an asshole. I can't believe I chose to do this job. I mean, I could go anywhere else and not deal with half the bullshit I do with him." She took a quick look around the dim apartment, "Well, apparently my father pays you whatyou're worth. Too bad I can't say that about everyone else."

Judas poured the liquid slowly into her glass, listening intently.

Eliza took a quick sip, "It's almost like he does this crap to intentionally piss me off."

Taking his glass from the table, Judas sat on the corner of the sofa's arm, "I suspect we're talking about your father."

"Who else?" Eliza sat carefully on the sofa's edge next to him, savoring the burning sensation in her chest.

"Tell me what happened."

Sipping her drink again, she shook her head, "It doesn't matter. Nothing changes with him…his way or no way."

She sat her drink on the glass coffee table, hanging her head in silence for a long moment. She was making a choice by coming to his apartment tonight. She knew how to hit her father below the belt and having a relationship with his bodyguard openly; his brown-skinned bodyguard, would be the ultimate act of rebellion. She might even be lucky enough to be disowned.

From the minute he walked into her father's office, she knew this man would change her whole world and nobody had ever made her feel the way he did. Her thighs quaked thinking about every time he had touched her. Her mind flashed to her conversation with Georgia and the immediate jealousy that roared through her at the mention of him being with anyone else. She chewed her lip, contemplating her next move. She wasn’t content with letting this go. There is no way she could let this go.

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