“No, I don’t know,” I lie. My stomach is starting to knot.
“Really? Because you’ve had sex with him twice in that office of yours.”
A chill runs down my spine. He could just be talking shit, but I don’t think he is. My office does have a window that opens to the alley, but I thought the blinds had been drawn.
The guy laughs a little, almost like he’s embarrassed. “Look, I don’t mean anything by it. Jude’s just…troubled. Always has been. I don’t mean to overstep. He must be staying with you, like how he rooms every other place when he’s on the road. He thinks I don’t know that he’s been fucking his way across the country in exchange for room and board, but I wasn’t born yesterday.”
“That’s enough.” The words are tight and quiet as they rush out of me. I don’t know who this guy is, but his words are twisting my gut. So what if that is how Jude travels? It’s not my business. And it sure as hell isn’t this guy’s either.
The guy holds up his hands. “Look, next time you see him, just do me a favor and tell him Grant’s looking for him, all right?”
I don’t respond, and eventually the guy turns and leaves the cemetery. As soon as he’s gone, I blow out a breath and try to get my trembling hands under control. I don’t know what it was about him, but I do know there’s no way in hell I’m passing that message along to Jude.
***
When Jude shows up at my door at nine, his shoulders are tense. He’s wound up in a way I haven’t seen since the night we fucked in the bathroom of that bar.
“Hey,” I say when he steps inside my apartment, and I close the door after him. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” He rubs the back of his neck before looking up at me. “Would you feel taken advantage of if we fucked without any preamble?”
My lips pull up in a small smile before I can stop them. “I think I can live with that.”
Heat fills his eyes as he grabs my hand and pulls me toward my bedroom. “I want to know what else you have in that side table.”
When we get to my room, I flick the light on and start for the side table.
“No, no,” Jude says. “You sit on the bed. I want to look.”
“Okay.” I do what he says, anticipation building in my stomach.
He shifts stuff around in the drawer until he pulls out a blue dildo, and his lips turn up at the corners. “Glow in the dark? Really?”
“I didn’t buy that,” I reply, my face warming. “A…friend bought that for me like a year ago. That other unopened thing in there is from him too.”
That had been some other guy—Dane—we’d known through Gary. He’d given them to me in an attempt to get me “back in the saddle” after Patrick’s death. I’m still not sure how I feel about that.
Jude pulls up another object still sealed in its packaging. “Ah.” Then he turns to me. “Color on these?”
“Green.” The word is out of me instantly. Then I say, “And I’m going to try really hard to start answering you with words, but I don’t want the spanking thing to stop.”
Jude grins. “I’ll give you whatever you ask for, all right?”
“Okay.”
He palms the dildo before meeting my gaze. “I want you to attach it to the wall in a way that feels comfortable to you.”
I take it from him and waste no time attaching it to the wall. I’ve gotten off plenty with the use of these, so I know where it needs to go without any preamble.
Jude hands me a bottle of lube. “Get it ready for yourself.”
My hands are steady as I spread the lube over the dildo. My dick is rock-hard behind the zipper of my jeans, and I resist the urge to palm myself.
“Out of your clothes.” Jude’s voice is strangled, and I glance over my shoulder to find that he’s already naked. Sweat glistens on his chest, and his dick is standing at attention.
I strip quickly and toss my clothes on the floor.
“On the bed,” Jude orders softly. “Get yourself off just using that. I don’t want you touching yourself at all.”
