His wide, wide chest jutted and heaved, and every muscle in his body strained.
I knew we were concealed behind the wall, but there was something about this that made me feel exposed.
As if there was an audience watching as I slipped into recklessness.
As I tiptoed into sin.
My stomach twisted in want, and my nipples hardened beneath his stare.
Jud groaned as if he felt the desire ravaging my flesh, and his hands were splaying wider at my ribs, so big they nearly wrapped all the way around.
Harsh air puffed from his nose when he brushed his thumbs over the rock-hard peaks of my breasts.
A whimper fled from my lips. “Oh, god.”
“Beautiful. Losing my fuckin’ mind over you, Salem.” He rubbed harder, watching me like he wanted to devour me as he stoked that long dimmed flame.
He seemed to war, his body rocking in indecision, lost to his own battle before he snapped.
In a flash, the last bit of oxygen remaining in my lungs was gone.
Because his mouth crushed against mine.
As if any barrier between us had been floored.
I couldn’t do anything but give. No control but to open to the demanding ferocity of his kiss.
Desperate to feel anything different than the constant fear that raged.
To feel supported.
Seen.
Held.
Real.
For just a moment, to touch on something that might feel like hope.
It was wrong. So wrong. But I couldn’t stop.
I wrapped my arms around his neck in a desperate play to feel.
I opened to his kiss.
Surrendered.
Gave.
His tongue stroked out and swept over mine.
Hot and warm and sending a crash of lust blistering through my blood.
A moan got free, his or mine, I wasn’t sure.
He pressed closer, that giant body eclipsing me.
Every inch of him was hard.
The muscles that bunched his arms.
The crash of the beating in his chest.
His huge cock that begged at my stomach.
Sounds climbed my throat. Needy and wild.
Our breaths turned ragged as our mouths clashed and demanded and fought for possession.
Reckless.
So reckless.
Jud took more with every lick of his tongue. Raw, rough rumblings rose from his soul. “Sweet. So sweet. What are you doing to me? Blowin’ my mind.”
Desire consumed.
Blinding.
I ached in a way I wasn’t sure I ever had.
Like maybe if I let myself fall deeper into him, things might not hurt so bad.
But I knew better.
Knew better.
I tried for resolve, for clarity, for restraint.
I made a vain attempt at slowing the kiss, but the man just licked down to kiss along the scar on my jaw.
He moaned before he ran his nose along the mangled flesh.
The gentlest caress.
God.
If I let him, he could do me in.
Then he was lobbing for a breath, like I’d somehow affected him the same way he’d affected me.
He eased back when I finally found the strength to roll my head against the metal to stop this madness. That smile tweaked beneath his beard, his sexy lips red and wet, his words a rough scrape that rumbled my spirit. “Black-fuckin’-magic.”
He was right.
It had to be.
This spell that curled and whipped and bound us together.
I blinked through the stupor and tried to push at his chest. “Jud, we can’t do this.”
I might as well have been pushing against a boulder.
“Yeah, and why’s that?”
“Because I work for you.”
“Huh. Weird. Didn’t see you on the payroll.”
A frown pinched my expression, regret coming in fast. “That’s not fair.”
He softened, and he ran his thumb across my scar.
A tremble rocked me through.
That wasn’t fair, either.
His touch.
His charm.
His charisma.
This tenderness that butted up against all his bad.
This call that made me feel like I was where I was supposed to be, when I knew letting my guard down was the most foolish thing I could do.
He stared down at me, searching.
Looking for the answer to this unspoken question that ravaged between us. I figured after everything, I at least owed him a little bit of truth.
“I’m in no position to fall in love, Jud.”
His hand was still spread across my face, the thumb caressing along my jaw doing that thing that twisted through me like agonized comfort.
“Who said anything about love, Salem?”
His response might have stabbed if I didn’t see the stark, gutting pain slash across his face.
The way those obsidian eyes went dim with grief.
My heart panged.
And I wondered if it were possible that he might be as broken as me.
That was a big, big problem.
The truth that it only made me like him more.
This rough, sweet man who could so easily rip me apart.
“Then what are you—” My words clipped off when a door slammed. We jumped apart, Jud flying back to the opposite counter while I hopped away from the file cabinets deeper into the recesses of the lobby office space.
Anxiously, Jud roughed his fingers through the longer pieces of his hair, doing his best not to look my direction when Brock sauntered in, all smirking grins and salacious smiles.
His gaze darted between the two of us. Glee lit on his face. “Well, hell. I was just comin’ in to see if Salem here would like to grab a drink after work, but it appears I’m a few minutes too late.”
Jud actually growled.
Massive hands curled into fists, and I was a little scared he might actually rip a limb or two from Brock’s body.
Brock just cracked up, no care in the world, his voice packed with suggestion as he pushed his hands out in surrender. “Down boy. No need to get up in arms. A man knows when he’s been outbid.”
He backed away with a smirk dancing over his face.
“Not sure what you think you’re talkin’ about, Brock, but I suggest you get your ass back to work and don’t come sniffing around in here again. Hear me?”
Brock swung his attention to me, and his eyes raked down my body.
Jud’s lie hung in the air.
The falsity of it was clear in my mussed hair and disheveled clothes, my blouse untucked on one side of my dress pants.
Crap.
I tried to inconspicuously readjust things.
Apparently, that made things worse because Brock’s smile only grew. He looked back at Jud. “Loud and clear, boss, loud and clear.”
He dipped back out through the door, and Jud was coming my way again, and I was pushing out my hands like I could protect myself from the impact of him. “No, Jud. I don’t think I can do this.”
He was in my face, dipping down, a heated whisper at my ear. “I’m taking you home tonight. Want to make sure you get there safe.”
I could feel the refusal curl between my eyes, every reason we shouldn’t do this pouring out. “I ride with Darius, and you know it’s a bad idea, anyway. I think we should just leave it at that. You don’t know me and I don’t know you and—”
Jud leaned in and softly smoothed the wrinkle out, cutting off my refusal. “Don’t get those pretty panties in a twist. It’s just a ride.”
Then he started to saunter away, only to pause at the organized stacks I’d made, his index finger jabbing at the papers. He looked back at me. “And for the record, you’ve already earned me far more than the cost of your car. You’re off the hook, darlin’， but I sure as fuck hope you’ll stay.”