Page 44 of Beautiful Vengeance
Jude shut the door behind them and stripped out of his wet clothes.He didn’t give Sloan a chance to voice whatever was going on in her head before he was stripping her down, too.He led her into his bathroom and turned on the shower, his words from earlier echoing in his mind.He’d called her his.He’d told her that he’d hunt her down like some sort of madman if she left him.
He had passed the point of no return with this woman.
It didn’t make a damn bit of sense.The sex was out of control, but it was sex.It shouldn’t be enough to derail his entire plan.Then again, his plan hadn’t counted on Callista being pregnant.Jude guided Sloan beneath the spray, ignoring her pointed look.She was playing along, and that was all he asked for right now.He needed time to process, to get his head on straight again.
If that was even possible at this point.
Already, he wanted her again, but they had shit to iron out first.Fucking her until they weren’t capable of moving might sound like a dream right now, but it wouldn’t solve a damn thing.He shut off the water and handed her a towel.“Now we talk.”
Sloan wrapped herself in the big fluffy towel, the sheer amount of fabric dwarfing her.It made her look younger, innocent, and even though he knew it was an illusion, it didn’t stop a pang of something like guilt from going through him.She frowned.“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Because everything’s changed.
He didn’t say it.Instead, he grabbed a towel for himself and dried off.“You will take a pregnancy test tomorrow.It’s not negotiable.”
“Okay.”
He glanced over, having expected her to argue, and she sighed.“While living in denial a little while longer wouldn’t be a bad thing, it’s also unrealistic.If I am, I need to know—”
“Weneed to know.”
“—so I can plan accordingly.”
“That sounds an awful lot like you making plans that don’t include me.”He should be grateful—he needed a kid like he needed another hole in his head—but the thought of her out in the world without him, let alone out in the world with hischild, didn’t sit well.He’d told her she washis, and it didn’t matter that he’d said it while he was inside her.It felt like the truth.
Jude hadn’t had anyone to call his own before.Not truly.He didn’t know what to think of that.
Sloan toweled off her hair and stood there, gloriously naked and without so much as a blush.“I’m being realistic.It’s only in the last twenty minutes that you’ve changed your tune, and that’s on the heels of some rather large news I’m still reeling from.So forgive me if I don’t take what you said in the middle of sex as the Lord’s honest truth.”
“I can protect you—both of you.”If there was a baby.If there wasn’t, well then, they’d figure that out, too.
She opened her mouth, hesitated, and finally shrugged.“It’s all a moot point until I take the test.We’ll know more once we have the results.”
Which also sounded a hell of a lot like she was making more plans without him.He couldn’t blame her.He had more than enough money to last several lifetimes, but what else did he have to offer a woman like Sloan?Sure as fuck not stability.
And there was his vendetta to consider.He might be pathetically relieved to have his options taken away when it came to Callista—and Sorcha, for that matter—but that didn’t mean Sloan would forgive him for killing Colm.Taking that bastard out would hurt Sloan’s sister-in-law, which might hurtSloan.Something he never could have taken into account when he put his plans in motion—or when he took that goddamn contract from Romanov.
He’d laughed when Dmitri talked about him having a change of heart.Fast forward twenty-four hours and he couldn’t help weighing his vengeance against the woman who stood before him.Even after such a short time together, could one really compare to the other?
Killing Colm might be enough to make her walk away from me for good.
For so long his revenge was everything.Now?Now he wasn’t sure of anything anymore.
***
Sloan pulled one of Jude’s shirts over her head and sighed.“I need to go get some clothes.”
“You don’t need clothes.”He didn’t look up from his laptop.
She crossed her arms over her chest.“Am I allowed to have a book?Or should I just quit my job and plan on being here and naked for whenever you’re ready for me?”
He looked up at that, brown eyes so dark, they were almost black.“Don’t tempt me.”
“For goodness’ sake, Jude, I have a life.It might not be a fancy one, and it might be changing dramatically, but it’s still mine.You can’t lock me up as a prisoner and try to tell me it’s for my own good.”She still had shifts for the next four days, and she wasn’t about to jeopardize that when Marge had finally put her on a regular schedule.And there was Sorcha to consider.Though the woman would disappear for hours on end, she’d be sure to call Callie if a day or two went by without her seeing Sloan.
He looked like he wanted to do what she’d said and lock her up, but he finally gave a short nod.“Make it quick.”
They were going to have to have a talk about the fact that she may like it when he was overbearing in bed, but she had no intention of bowing to his every whim when it came to the rest of her life.For now, she’d settle for some clean clothes, a book, and something resembling a plan for going forward.
