Page 61 of Jude

My face burned as he cleaned me between the thighs, his touch clinical now, devoid of his previous fire.

He tossed the towel aside and jerked his chin toward the washroom.

‘Get a shower, Sofia. I’ll go back to my room.’

My eyes followed him as he pulled his shorts on, his muscled, power-driven body moving to the door.

He paused at the jamb, keeping his back to me.

‘Let’s not discuss this again, alright?’ he rasped, his timbre reverberating through the silence.

‘Sí,’ I said, reverting to Italian in my distress, in hot embarrassment at how wild I’d been.

With a jerk of his sculpted chin, he prowled away.

His sudden coldness made no sense.

Unless, of course, he was thinking of the woman whose name he called out when half asleep.

Abby.

Now that he’d found his release, he was switching off, retreating behind a wall because of another woman.

Heck, what had I expected?

I begged for his touch, and this rejection was the tax I had to pay for crossing the line.

I locked myself in the bathroom and turned the shower dial, stepping under the spray.

I let the water beat over my hair and body, unable even to summon tears because the pain ran too deep for crying.

I had just experienced the most incredible bliss of my life, and right after, my heart shattered into pieces.

JUDE

I strode down the hallway toward my bedroom, guilt clawing at my chest.

The feeling hit me from two sides.

It was as if I was cheating on Abby with my wife, and second, I never planned to cross that line with Sofia.

My soul, fractured as it was, belonged to another; at least it had for years.

Was this poetic justice?

Lately, Sofia had been a slow burn in my blood, but I never expected the woman to hit me like a damn explosion.

A wildfire. An incandescent, scorching blaze.

Hell, I’d just ripped through the best fucking sex of my life with Sofia, the kind of raw release that threatened to shatter every wall I had left.

I cursed at the thought as I prowled into my primary.

Marching to the sliding bifold doors, I stepped out onto the terrace to drag the cold night air into my lungs.

Guilt hit hard, yet every muscle in my body craved turning right back around, throwing her down, and making her scream my name until sunrise.

What about Abby?