“Give me a minute,” I breathed out, pressing my hand to my forehead as I gasped air back into my lungs. “You are full of surprises, aren’t you?”
“I surprise myself when I’m around you too.”
He drew me closer, kissing across my cheek until he went back to my mouth. I kissed him as if I were drinking him in, licking into his mouth with long strokes, tasting myself and quenching the constant thirst that only seemed to sharpen with time.
I was right. Once I was all in, there was no getting out.
I glanced over my shoulder. The motorboat had already retreated to a little dot in the distance.
“You gave me a great idea, though,” I said with a little more of my voice. I pushed him onto the blanket and climbed underneath the towel.
I nipped at his abs, gliding my hand up to sift my fingers through the dusting of hair in the middle of his chest. As my hand went higher, my mouth went lower. I kissed the tip of his cock over his swim trunks, drawing out a moan from him when it jerked against my lips.
“I think it likes me,” I whispered, pressing more kisses up and down his length.
“It more than likes you. Don’t tease.”
“So, is that how it is, Sergeant?” I peeked out from the towel, peering up at his hooded eyes and heaving chest. “You break one rule, you break them all?”
I yanked down his shorts until his cock sprang free, and I swallowed him whole, taking him right to the back of my throat. It had been a long buildup, so many intrusive fantasies of what had become present reality that I didn’t know where to begin. I wanted to please him until he lost his mind and forgot everything. I’d make everything good for him,beeverything good.
I’d never existed for anyone else but me, but something had shifted when Jude had come into my life. As much as it didn’t make sense or how I’d reasoned it away, he’d changed me already.
He’d said he was better with me, and he was the part of my life missing all this time that I’d never thought to look for.
He reached under the towel and wove his fingers around a fistful of my hair. His legs were stiff and rigid, as if he were bracing himself or holding back.
I let him go with a wet pop and lifted my head, locking eyes for a long minute.
“Don’t hold back, baby. Fuck my mouth and come down my throat.”
I took him back into my mouth, and a muffled cry fell from his lips as he did just as I asked. I swallowed every last drop, pressing kisses across his stomach as I lifted his shorts back up.
“You’re going to be the death of me.” He cupped my cheek. “You know that, right?”
I laughed as I climbed on top of him and dropped my head to his chest, nestling my cheek against the rapid thump of his heart.
“Funny, I was just thinking the same thing about you.”
21
JUDE
“Letme know if you need a ride.”
Dad stopped rolling his walker to glare at me.
“I’ll be fine. It’s a few hours at a friend’s house playing cards with other old and differently abled men. Your uncle is picking me up and taking me home, and Hugo’s house has everything on one level like us, so I can get around fine. I intend to have a good evening, and you should too.”
A laugh escaped me at the snide grin tilting my father’s mouth. He’d made small but significant progress in therapy in the past few weeks, finally acclimating to his new leg enough to get around much easier, at least from what I could tell. He usually hated playing cards, but I didn’t blame him one bit for wanting a change of scenery and company—even though he’d come home complaining about my uncle and most of the guys there tonight.
Claudia and I hadn’t been truly alone since the lake a couple of weeks ago. The closest we’d come were the long goodnight kisses in my truck that stopped right before they turned obscene and rushed foreplay in Jake’s basement bathroom.
While I worried about my father, I was happy to have the house—and Claudia—all to myself tonight.
“And I’ll text when I’m coming home. Not because I’m checking in or want you to meet me at the door, but in case…” Dad trailed off and jutted his chin toward the hallway. “That should give you enough time to…get dressed or whatever.”
I burst out laughing before I could help it.
