I gulped at the sight.
The man so big.
So massive.
So intimidating.
So right.
He climbed back over me.
I felt delirious.
Fevered.
Frantic, he drove two fingers deep inside me, murmured, “Magic.”
Dizziness barreled through, my lungs heaving to find air, but the only thing they found was the sanctuary of the man.
Citrus and spice. A warm fall night.
I lifted my hips, our movements frenzied and rushed as he situated himself between my thighs. Our bodies begged. Heaving and straining to reach the other.
He gathered me up, curled an arm under my back, and pulled my face closer to his.
He brought us nose to nose. “Tell me you want this, Salem.”
“If you don’t touch me, I’ll stab you.” I managed the choked, desperate tease.
Jud chuckled a low growl. “There’s my girl.”
My girl. My girl.
The softest smile curled my mouth as I watched him dig into his pocket then rush to cover himself with a condom.
Quick to come back to me.
While I wished this was more than a fantasy. More than a dream.
I could already feel my heart being crushed, knowing it couldn’t last.
I also knew the pain would be worth it to live here for a little while.
He smiled back.
So tender.
So sweet.
Then I whimpered when I felt the blunt head of him pushing at my center. As the man burned between my thighs, as he slowly, slowly, nudged himself deeper.
Thunder cracked.
The sky opened up and began to pour.
Tears filled my eyes again.
Pleasure and pain.
Pleasure and pain.
The man so big I felt him in a way I’d never felt another in my entire life.
As if I were whole. Real. This man a true part of me.
My legs dropped open wide to make room for him, and the air raked from my lungs as he filled me full.
Jud’s jaw clenched, and he dropped his forehead to mine and muttered, “Darlin’。”
He mumbled it like praise.
“Take me.” I demanded it.
He angled back and greed flashed in those dark, dark eyes.
He pulled out then slammed back home.
A rasp rocked from my lungs, and my shoulders bowed from the earth, every part of me arching to join with him.
“Fuck, baby…my sweet enchantress, what have you done to me?”
One hand fisted in my hair as the other fisted at my hip. He picked up a rough, jagged rhythm.
Deep.
Obliteration.
Jud fucked me hard.
In the way I knew that he would. As if he would own every cell. Every piece. Overtake the places I couldn’t let him go.
Too big. Too much.
Never enough.
My hips began to meet him thrust for thrust, and my hands slipped under his shirt, clawing at the muscles of his back, desperate to find a way in, too.
Where his secrets lived and mine wept.
Where there wasn’t a day in our pasts that mattered except for the ones we could live together.
Whimpers fell from my mouth, “I need you.”
“You have me,” he grunted through the pouring rain, through the drive of his body, as he wound us into a frenzy that I was sure neither of us would survive.
Flames.
Friction.
It burned and lapped.
He thrust his big body into mine.
Faster. Harder. Deeper. More.
Pleasure gathered from the ends of the earth, poured down with the rain, sprung up from the ground below, gathered in that broken place.
Then it split.
Broke apart in a thousand glittering lights.
Bliss streaked.
The brittle pieces where I’d held myself together fractured and fell.
Light and darkness blinded my eyes while the man seeped deeper.
Body and spirit and soul.
He rocked and grunted and thrust, met me where I fell apart, a roar coming from his mouth when he came.
Every muscle in his body flexed and bowed and danced with mine, and he clutched me desperately when he burrowed his face in the crook of my neck as our orgasms throbbed through our bodies.
He never let go until we were nothing but a slow buzz of satisfaction.
He edged back and sent me a lopsided grin. “You are something, darlin’。”
It was sweet, sweet affection.
A minute passed before I whispered, “Jud.”
He pushed back onto his hands and gazed down at me with that tender smile twitching all over his face. I didn’t know if he saw the fear written in mine, if he felt it, if he could hold it, but he was brushing back over my scar.
“I will burn the world down for you.”
Everything trembled.
The heavens, the earth, and my heart.
“I don’t…” I couldn’t form the words.
He caressed away the fear, let a slow grin take hold of his mouth, though the words were heavy. “Don’t worry, baby. Friends.”
A frown curled my brow. He eased in and kissed it before he sat all the way back and resituated my dress.
Then he hopped to his feet and managed to pull his drenched jeans back up his thick thighs.
I tried not to ogle the man, but his cock was still hard. I had no doubt if I asked him, he’d be happy to climb right back over me and make me forget my name.
A tremble rocked me as I lie on the ground and stared up at him.
So gorgeous, my insides burned with the heat of a flashfire.
His hair, face, and beard were soaked.
Shirt stuck to his wide, wide chest.
A force that covered me in the storm.
He stretched out his hand to help me to stand.
I accepted it, arching a brow at him as he eased me to my feet. “Is that what we are, Jud? Friends?”
Dark laughter rumbled out and he pressed his face to the thrumming pulse that raged at my neck. He mumbled at the sensitive flesh, a balm to my soul, “Good, good friends.”
Then he curled his arms around me and whisked me back into his hold and carried me to his bike. I looked up at him through the raging storm. “What now?”
“Tonight? I take you back to my place, get you a hot shower to warm you up, then I’m going to fuck you right. Tomorrow? That’s up to you.”
TWENTY-TWO
JUD
There are moments in our lives that we know are going to change everything. That once we take one step deeper, there will be no turning back.
We will be irrevocably changed.
Permanently marked.
A new tattoo that doesn’t just cover your skin, but the ink bleeds way down deep, deep enough to imprint your soul.
I had to wonder then which moment had permanently changed me with Salem. When I’d known if I took one more step, it’d be over for me.
Tonight? When I’d wrapped her up and whisked her away? When I’d touched her and taken her? When I’d filled her up and she’d taken me over, branding our bodies in the most magnificent way?
Had it been when I’d crossed the line and kissed her down in the office, overcome with my need to hold her and keep her safe?
When I’d breathed out in relief when she’d shown with that ad to take the job?
Or had it been the second I’d first found her in the rain?
Or maybe…maybe…it had been every single one that had brought me closer to this girl. Each one life-altering, each step warning me if I got any nearer, I was never going to be the same.
And I kept at it, anyway. Unable to stop myself from the lure that called to me in a way that felt unavoidable.