Page 12 of Places in Time
Chapter 7
Myhandstrembled so much I couldn’t get the key in the door. Thankfully, it swung open, and Jude pulled me inside before slamming it shut and turning the deadbolt.
“Thank God you’re okay!” He clutched my shoulders and stood at arm’s length, looking me over from head to toe. “Where have you been? You called me three hours ago saying you were on your way, and then nothing. I’ve been calling your phone but you didn’t answer. I drove the route back and forth to your house twice and I didn’t see you.” Apparently satisfied that I was in one piece, he pulled me into a hug and held me tightly against his chest. “I thought you’d been in an accident.” His entire body shook. “Damn it, E, I thought I’d lost you.”
It should have been terrifying, being held in Jude’s arms and knowing for the first time that he felt more than friendship for me. But it wasn’t. It also should have been scary to pull my head back and look into his eyes knowing for the first time that I felt the same way. But it wasn’t.
Making the first move by leaning in for a kiss, well, that was knee-bucklingly frightening. But I did it anyway.
I brushed my lips against Jude’s, just barely at first, then again with more pressure.
He stood perfectly still, stiff and unyielding in my arms. “Are you drunk?”
“Not this time, no.” I shook my head. “Why didn’t you ever say anything after that day at The Other Team?”
His eyes widened. “You remember that?”
“I do now.” I slowly raised my hand and trailed my fingertips over his eyebrows.
“E, what’re you doing?”
At any other place in time, I would have pulled back. But now that I knew how he felt about me, how I felt about him…now that I knew what we could have together…nothing and nobody could have stopped me from going after Jude, not even our own fears.
“What I should have done a long time ago.”
I pressed my lips against his a third time, and when I darted my tongue out to taste his flavor, something in Jude snapped. He made a strangled noise, curled his hand around my chin and pried my jaw open while he tangled his other hand in my hair and held me still as he plundered my mouth.
I had no intention of going anywhere, so I pushed closer, reveling in the feeling of his hard muscles and broad frame against my slightly narrower one. He dragged his hand down my nape, then my back, and settled on my ass, rubbing, caressing. And all the while he ate me alive, pushing his tongue into my mouth, licking and biting at my lips, nipping his way across my jaw, and then covering my mouth with his and starting the whole process over again.
“Jude,” I moaned.
Seemingly encouraged by my response, he wedged his knee between my legs, pressed his thigh against my groin, and grasped my ass, encouraging me to rock forward. Our desperate whimpers and heated groans combined with the sound of the surf outside and ramped up my already out-of-control arousal even further. He was all I could taste, his scent surrounded me, and I found myself rutting against him, rubbing my impossibly hard cock against his thigh and crying into his mouth as I neared completion.
“God, E, yes.”
I’m not sure where I found the self-control to pull back, but somehow I did it, and then I pushed him an arm’s length away and gasped for air. “Not…not like this,” I eventually managed to say.
Jude’s entire body shook, and I could see first confusion and then shame in his eyes. “I’m sorry, E, so sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
I covered his mouth with my palm. “Not what I meant. I want more than a rub-off, J. I want everything with you. Take me to bed.”
He clutched my shoulders and searched my eyes.
“I’m not drunk. I’m not stoned. I’m not crazy.” I paused, tilted my head to the side, and blinked. “Well, I might be crazy, but I know what I’m doing. I know what I want.” I stepped closer and draped my arms over his shoulder. “I knowwhoI want.” Finally.
Thankfully he didn’t argue. He dragged me back into another drugging kiss, dug his hands under my sweater, shoved it up my chest, and pulled his mouth away just long enough to push it up over my head. I worked on my pants while he took care of my shirt, somehow managing to kiss me at the same time. We stumbled through the living room and down the hallway to his bedroom, leaving a trail of my clothes along the way.
By the time the back of my knees hit the mattress, my chest was bare and my pants and briefs were tangled around my ankles, held hostage by my shoes. I toed them off and shook my legs until everything came free and then I scooted backward on the bed and held my arms out to Jude. “C’mere.”
He tore at his clothes, sent them flying, and then he was blessedly naked and crawling across the mattress toward me, looking like some sort of wild animal stalking his prey. Isowanted to be that prey.
“J,” I said breathlessly.
He braced himself with his elbows propped on either side of my torso and blanketed me with his strong, hot body. “You’re shaking. I don’t want to scare you, E. We don’t have to do anything you don’t want.”
“Not scared.” I brushed his hair off his forehead. “There’s nothing I don’t want, not when it comes to you. With you, I want everything.”
“Christ,” he rumbled. He squeezed his eyes shut, and when he opened them, the raw yearning in his gaze reached into my chest and constricted my heart. “Say the words, E.” He turned his face, brushed his lips against the inside of my wrist, and peppered kisses across my jaw to my ear. “I need to hear you say the words, E.” He sucked my earlobe into his mouth and thrust his hard cock against my hip, and I knew I’d say anything, do anything to have him.
