“Very true. Well I guess I’ll let you go, then we’ll meet up tomorrow.” I glanced around my empty home and thought about what my next move would be. I needed to do something to get out of my head, anything to keep my depression from collapsing over me like a weighted blanket.
“Selene, are you doing OK? My turn to ask you. Everything is good here. You can talk to me.” Phillip’s offer made me smile. We got along really well, so when he had the time to talk, I almost always took the opportunity to do it.
“I think I’m falling for Jude, which seems crazy since we haven’t known each other long, and he is destined to die in seventeen days. I tried to plead my case to him that we should enjoy the time we have, but he wouldn’t budge. Everything is happening so fast. Ghosts can do real damage, the gates to the other side are falling apart, and I miss him.”
My long-winded ramble silenced Phillip on his side of the phone. Only the sound of sirens echoed from the speaker.
“I put myself out there and it didn’t help.” I plopped onto my sofa and pulled my legs in close, wanting to curl up into myself and cry some more.
“You did the right thing, getting your feelings out. If you would have kept them in and he died without knowing you wanted him, then that regret would have haunted you longer than you realize. He is at a crossroads in his life. One way is the easy way, the other not so much. It’s up to him now.” If Phillip was with me, I’d give him a big hug. Despite feeling hurt and rejected, I knew I made the right choice.
“I think you need to make some tea. Start the water for the big bathtub of yours, and don’t forget to check your mail. Might be something important in there to cheer you up.” I heard Phillip’s conspirator grin through the phone. Whatever letter or gift waiting for me was bound to make me smile.
“Alright, you doing ok?” He wasn’t asked that question often, knowing all the futures made life sometimes a little easier for him but I understood the strain it caused on his mind. Constantly paying attention to the scenes playing out in his head and making difficult choices that sometimes led to people getting hurt. It wasn’t an easy gift to have, but he made the most of it.
“Yeah, I’m good. Ready to get home to my girls.”
“I’ll let you go then and get started on those orders you gave me,” I said. While tea and a bath sounded relaxing, along with a good book, it wouldn’t soothe my heart completely. However, it would help for now.
I put my teapot on the stove, and then put Epsom salts and lavender essential oils in my bath water to help calm my nerves. While I waited for the bath and tea to be ready, I opened the door to get my mail, only to see Jude standing on my porch with his hand raised, ready to knock.
Chapter Twenty- Four
Jude
I knew I made a mistake as soon as I saw Selene walk past the gates to my home. My chest hurt so bad I thought I was having a heart attack. I had been ready to suffer alone, take on the weight of my morbid destiny on my own, but as I watched her walk away with her head hung low, I knew I couldn’t do it. Having Selene as mine was worth the pain in the end, even if we only could be together for a short time. I’d grabbed my keys and ran to the car after staring at the road for a few minutes while I thought about how I’d make it up to her.
Seeing her now, with those wide eyes and shocked expression, every word I’d rehearsed in the car failed me.
“I missed you. Immensely.” I took a step closer, daring to reach out and touch her cheek with my thumb as tears swelled against her long lashes.
“You were right. We are worth whatever hurt in the end as long as while I’m alive, I can call you mine.” Selene’s shoulder quivered, and those tears flowed freely down her cheeks. I hoped it meant she was overwhelmed with joy, but I was afraid I had showed up too late. I had been a dick and a coward. But I hoped she knew it wasn’t easy for me to let someone else in and share the load of my destiny. I’d been avoiding this type of connection all my life, and now with only seventeen days left, I was willing to let my walls down. All for her.
I caressed her cheek and waited while she released whatever emotions she felt so she could speak to me. “Should I go?” I half-teased, as my other hand cradled her face, her glistening eyes staring at mine with something I didn’t understand.
“No, you jackass. Get inside here and kiss me.” She laughed and I stepped into her house and lowered my lips to hers.
The barrier between this undeniable pull between us broke, and I sure as fuck wasn’t stopping it now. Her hands buried themselves in my hair, pulling me closer as her body writhed against mine. My touch moved to her breasts, to her waist, then to her ass, lifting her up against me to move somewhere more comfortable.
“Bed’s that way.” She pointed while her lips roamed my neck. Her hot mouth and tongue against my skin caused me to growl from a primal part of me.
“Fuck,” I cursed, as I flexed my hips against hers. The need to bite, to claim, to fuck constricted all my thoughts.
“Too far.” The thirty feet to her bedroom was way too far. I needed her now, against the wall, bent over her couch.
“Jude, please . . .”
I set her down, sandwiched between me and the wall close to her bedroom. Our hands franticly yanked and gripped at the clothes in our way of what we wanted. I’d thought about her body so often, and despite the desire to lick every inch of her, nibbling and leaving my marks, the need to claim was too powerful. I ripped her bra off with a snap, and her black panties were the next to go. My hand went to her sex. She moaned as my fingers found her wanting and ready. A guttural growl reverberated from my chest, as a shiver broke over my skin as her delicate hand wrapped around my cock, once it was sprung free from my denim. The kisses I had been pecking on her bare shoulder turned into a bite on the sensitive flesh, and her knees went out with a moan on her lips.
“Jude.” My name on her lips was a plea, and I wouldn’t be denying this woman a damn thing. Not anymore. I wasn’t going to let my shitty hand at life stop me from giving Selene the best seventeen days of our lives.
Her hand left my cock, and I lifted her up, ready to slam home inside her.
“I’m clean. Trust me?” I held her body over me, waiting, wanting to hear she was OK with this before I buried myself within her heat.
“Me, too. I trust you, Jude. Please, please . . .” she murmured against my lips, and I didn’t need another please from her. Without hesitation I impaled Selene on my cock. My body tensed as her teeth bit into my lip. The taste of blood tinged with the pleasure of her warm sex squeezing my cock almost made me come.
“You’re my heaven.” An admission that felt stronger than any declaration of love. My fingers gripped her ass as I pulled back slightly, then slammed home, over and over. Her tits bounced and I was torn between watching her hooded eyes on me and my body as I lifted her up and down or watching my dick as it slid into her pussy, disappearing like a new magic trick. My favorite magic trick.
