His mouth landed hot on her neck, and he kissed his way up to her earlobe. Her brain started going fuzzy again. Fuck, she wanted to just forget all the questions she had been asking. This felt so fucking good.
She pulled back and gave him a stern look. “Are you trying to distract me?”
“I’m going to make you come. Are you objecting?”
Well, when he puts it that way… “No.”
His fingers dug into her thighs as their lips came together once more. He was intoxicating. Their chemistry was electric. Every touch threatened to push her over the edge and liquidate her very existence. She was already lost in the moment, in his tender caresses, and in thrall to his mesmerizing ways.
Jude pushed her back until she was lying flat on the island and then slid her down until her ass was almost hanging off the edge. He dragged her underwear to the ground, and his followed. His fingers gently probed her pussy, swirling around her opening until it was slick, and then he rubbed his thumb along her clit. Her body heated as he warmed her up to his touch.
If Jude was purposely diverting her, this was clearly the best kind of distraction.
“Tell me you want me,” he said. He teasingly slid his dick along her opening, not going in but making her want him more and more.
“Fuck, Jude. I want you. Just fuck me.”
“Maybe if you ask nicely.”
He pressed the tip against her, and she gave up the illusion of control. She tilted her head back, closed her eyes, and arched toward him.
“Please,” she groaned. “Please take me. I’m yours.”
“Yes”—he shoved inside her pussy—“you are.”
After his declaration, their bodies smacked together in time. It was feral and possessive, a joining of two beings out of a basic primal craving. No thoughts crossed their minds of what awaited them once they rejoined reality. There was nothing else but the thrill of taking what they wanted, living without guilt for their choices and enjoying every fucking minute of it.
BRYNA SILENCED HER PHONE for the second time that morning. Celia kept calling her, and Bryna did not want to talk to her. If my own father hadn’t called, why would my stepmother think that I would want to talk to her?
She had thought about calling her father in New Zealand, but he was the parent. Shouldn’t he care enough to call or at least text? He was a modern man. He knew how to use a smartphone, and he had an unlimited international package plan, so he could use his phone anywhere at anytime. Apparently, that time didn’t include calling his daughter on Christmas.
She didn’t want to let that bother her. Not today while she was spending the wonderful day with someone who actually cared for her.
Her eyes cut across the pool to where Jude was swimming laps. His shoulders and back were ripped. While he wasn’t bulky, he had great definition. She couldn’t tear her eyes away. They’d had sex before breakfast, but when he was half naked in front of her, it wasn’t fair how much she wanted him. He made her insatiable.
Her phone started buzzing again, and she grumbled under her breath. How distracting!
She went to silence the ringer when she noticed that Gates was calling, not her stepmother. She rolled her eyes but answered anyway.
“Merry Christmas,” she said faux-cheerfully.
“Bri, where the fuck are you?” Gates asked.
She froze. Gates sounded freaked out.
“Why? What’s wrong?”
“I just got a call from Celia. You haven’t answered your phone all morning, so she called your mother.”
“She what?” Bryna shrieked, sitting up in her lounge chair.
Jude’s head popped up out of the water at the commotion. He wore a concerned look on his face. “Everything all right?”
She covered the phone to hopefully muffle any noise and nodded at Jude. She hoped she didn’t look as terrified as Gates had sounded. Because this was fucking terrible. “Yeah. Just a call from home,” she told him, trying to hold on to a smile.
“All right,” he said. His brows furrowed, but he went back to swimming. At least there was one benefit of his sneaky conversation this morning. No questions.
“Who are you with?” Gates demanded.
“It doesn’t matter. I cannot believe Celia had the audacity to call my mother. What a bitch! How dare she question me like that and reach out to my mother just because I didn’t answer some stupid phone call. You would think she suspected me of doing something wrong!”
“Well…aren’t you?” he asked.
“Whatever,” she said. “Wait, how do you know all of this?”
“Because when Celia realized that you weren’t, in fact, spending Christmas break with your mom, she went off the deep end trying to find out where you actually were and called me.”
Bryna’s stomach dipped. This wasn’t good. This wasn’t good at all. “Why would she call you?”
“I don’t know, Bri,” he said exasperated. “Maybe because I’m the only friend you have.”
Bryna rolled her eyes again. “Please.”
“And I’m your ex, so it would be reasonable to assume that we had snuck away together, which is what I told Celia when she called.”
“You covered for me?” She breathed out a sigh of relief. Thank God!
“What the fuck was I supposed to say?” He groaned and muttered curses under his breath. “Fuck, Bri. I don’t want to be in the middle of this shit. You’re obviously with some other fucking guy somewhere, and here I am, still covering for you with your family.”
“Cut the shit. You didn’t have to cover for me. I know you too well. You did it because you want something. What is it?” she asked. She was grateful that Gates had told Celia they were together, but he hadn’t done it out of his own good grace. He was a schemer much like she was, and if he had done something generous, it was because he wanted something from her for the favor.
Gates exhaled softly into the phone. “I did have to cover for you. While you might choose to believe you have other friends, I know that you’re the closest thing to a real friend I have. Even if you are a total psycho sometimes, Bri.”
“How charming.”
“Come with me for New Year’s.”
“There it is,” she muttered. Of course. She should have known. “I knew you wanted something out of this.”
“You already knew I wanted you to come with me.”
“You have to fucking promise not to tell anyone about me being gone,” she insisted.
“It’s not an I’ll-fucking-tell-if-you-don’t kind of thing,” Gates cried. “I told Celia you were with me, and you will be until you get back. I’m a man of my word.”
“Good, because if that isn’t the case, be sure to remember that I know about you and Chloe.”
“Jesus, Bri!” he griped. “You don’t have to blackmail me to keep a secret.”
“Just making sure.”
She couldn’t let anyone find out about her being away with Jude. Things were finally starting to get on the right track, and she couldn’t risk anything going wrong. As much as she wanted to trust Gates, it was always easier to have dirt on the other person to ensure that they kept their mouth shut.
“Well, are you going to come with me?” Gates asked.
She glanced back down at Jude slicing through the water. He had said that he would be out of town for business on New Year’s. It wouldn’t hurt anything to go with Gates. “Fine. I’ll go but just as friends.”
“Sweet,” he said, excitement in his voice. “Have fun on your trip.”
“Yeah, thanks. Tell Chloe I said hi,” she said, laughing lightly at the end.