Page 56 of Beautiful Vengeance
She turned to find him at the bottom of the stairs.“It’s clear?”
“No one’s been here but the local woman I have come in every couple of weeks to clean.Her family has lived on the island for a couple generations and she’s got no ties to any of my enemies, though I monitor the situation.”
He would.Even without taking his family into account, being a hit man would generate enemies.It had to.“How does it work?”She motioned in a general direction.“The killing people thing.”
Jude raised an eyebrow.“‘The killing people thing’?”
“Don’t do that.Don’t patronize me.It’s a perfectly legitimate question.”
“I didn’t say it wasn’t.”He rubbed a hand over his face.“It’s a business transaction.I have an in-between man who accepts the jobs, and then I double-check the target and the information—no innocents under any circumstances.If I’m satisfied, I accept payment—seventy-five percent up front, the remainder after the kill is confirmed.”
It seemed so cold, but then she supposed it’d have to be.A hit man was the very definition of distanced and icy—to be any other way was to invite mistakes and an inevitably short lifespan as a result.“How many?”
“Do you really want to know?”
She started to say yes, and then stopped and thought about it.Would it make a difference?The facts of their meeting and the gray area that represented their future weren’t affected in the least by how many people he’d killed.It felt almost like asking a lover how many partners they’d had—something she most certainly wouldnotask Jude.The past mattered only in reference to the present.“I suppose it doesn’t matter.”
“I’ve killed enough people to get good at it.I’m one of the best.”
“Do you like it?”
“I won’t spin some bullshit fairy tale about how they all deserved killing.Some did, some didn’t, but they all did something to earn the contract on their lives.I don’t love it, but I don’t lose sleep at night, either.I’m not a good man, sunshine.I’m one of the worst the world has to offer.Don’t try to make me some hero.”
Was that what he really thought?
She lifted her chin.“Well, I’m not exactly a blushing innocent, either.If I were the precious good girl you seem to think I am, I would have done something to stop all the hurt my family caused, even if it meant turning them over to the authorities.I know where the books are kept.I know where some of the bodies are buried.I could have.I didn’t.Sitting passively by might not make me a full-fledged monster, but I’m not a saint, either.So stop expecting me to flinch away from you or faint into a dainty puddle at your feet.”
“Strip.”
She blinked.“I’m sorry, what?”
“You’ve convinced me.”He didn’t grin; his expression didn’t so much as give a flicker of warmth.“Take off that tease of a sundress or I’m going to rip it off like I did the last one.”
Her body went warm and then hot, her legs shaking a little, her nipples pebbling against the thin fabric of her dress.One sentence was all it took and her body readied itself for him.She pressed her lips together, considering.“How much property around the house do you own?”
“I own half the island.”He narrowed his eyes.“Why?”
Maybe it was the darkness making her bold, or the fact that he was here and sharing bits of himself in a way he never had before.Or maybe she was just a little wilder than she could have dreamed.She took a step back, and then another, shrugging her dress off one shoulder.
He tracked her movement, his whole body going still like a predator about to pounce.“You’re playing games.”
“Yes.”She inched her dress off her other shoulder and it fell to her hips.A slight shimmy and she was left in only her panties.She reached the door, hooking her thumbs in the band and pushing them down.“I am.”
And then she ran.
***
Jude gave Sloan a five-second head start—not because he was being generous, but because he couldn’t believe she’d just stripped and then run away.He made it to the door in time to catch sight of her pale skin disappearing into the trees surrounding the house.His cock went so hard, it was a wonder he didn’t pass the fuck out.
He’d never stuck with a woman long enough for her to figure out what made him tick.He’d never wanted to.He was more than capable of getting off whoever he was with and getting himself off in the bargain.Doing more—wanting more—had never entered into the equation.
Fuck, if someone had asked him if he got off on the idea of chasing a naked woman through the woods, he would have said no—saidhell no.But then, he’d never put much thought into that sort of thing.
Now he was.
Jude stalked after Sloan, purposefully letting her get a little distance on him.He knew these woods.This was one of the places he came after a job to unwind and center himself before he was fit for polite society again.He had a house in Florida and another in Maine, but this was the one he preferred.It was quiet.Peaceful.
He didn’t feel the least bit peaceful right now.
