Page 55 of Fighting For You
He stepped closer, and something told me if we were truly alone, he’d hitch me up so he didn’t have to bend to meet me quite so far down. He’d pin me against the wall with my legs wrapped around his hips and—I gasped as he did just that in one swift movement. His hands slipped down my hips and around to my hamstrings and we played out my vision in the most cinematic move of my life.
He groaned as he pressed me into the wall, one palm returning to cup my jaw and position my head just so. Then he utterly devoured me with kisses both generous and demanding, a give and take that nipped at my bottom lip to saythis is mine nowand followed with a soft slide sayingtake whatever you want.
I’d never felt dizzy from a kiss. I’d never had one so commanding and generous at the same time.
Because I’ve never kissedhim.
I didn’t want it to end. I’d gladly take up residence in this hallway. Julian Grenier owned some part of the resort, and he was also part investor in Saint Security—there had to be some way we could get a cooperative rental agreement so Jude and I could stay here and make out until the world burned to ash.
Far sooner than the crumbling of the planet, Jude pulled back and gave me another searing look.
We breathed together for a moment, the absolutely paradigm-shattering kiss effectively rattling us both based on the way we practically heaved in breath. He lowered meto standing, stepped back, hands settling firmly on my waist like he wasn’t quite done with me.
What does one say after one’s former enemy kisses one into oblivion?
I cleared my throat, searching for words, but he beat me to it.
“That should’ve happened a long time ago.”
The low rumble made my toes curl in my shoes and I exhaled a, “Yeah. Probably so.”
He released me then, those dark eyes holding me in place just as well as his hands had.
Well, no. Because there was nothing quite as delectable as Jude Rawlins’ giant bear paw hands spanning my waist. I might be addicted to the feeling.
His eyes sent my stomach swooping around like a drunk eagle, and I waited for something more. He notched his head to the side and turned. “We both have the early shift.”
So… that was why we’d stopped. Well, and because if we’d kept going, we might’ve been charged with public indecency. I couldn’t argue the logic of the point or action.
The urge to slip my palm against his and lace our fingers flashed through me, but I resisted, mind racing with what would happen next as I followed him out.
But then we reached the parking lot and he stood by my car while I got in. He shut the door and waited, like he’d stand there and grow roots in the ground if I didn’t start up the vehicle, so I did. Moonlight lit one side of his face and left the other in shadow as he waited.
No more words tonight, then. I guess I’d gotten all I would get during our conversation, which certainly left me more than enough to mull over.
So I eased out of the lot and left him behind, standingthere following my progress with his impenetrable mask of a face.
As the distance between us stretched, I heard his words echoing in my head.That should’ve happened a long time ago.
I’d agreed because… well, I had. Maybe if we’d kissed—if he’d told me he’d had feelings and we’d gotten through all of this nonsense, we would’ve gotten past the anger and hurt and gotten to… whatever this was.
But there lay the real question. What was this? What did that kiss mean?
And did his statement mean what I’d thought it did and agreed to, or did it mean…
I swallowed hard as I pulled into my driveway and stopped my car in the garage.
Did it mean it should’ve happened a long time ago andnotnow? That it happening now came too late?
Did it mean that our first kiss had also been our last?
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Jude
Morning dawned with a silvery tint to the clouds, then the sun painted a cranberry sky as it rose.
So sue me if the world looked brighter. For the first time in weeks but more like months, I’d spent days thinking about something other than loss. I’d spent them thinking about Jess.
