Page 65 of Knockout (Whiskey Dolls 2)

We’d spent the evening before with Sybil, drinking at the hotel bar. We laughed every time a Kingsley tried to invade our private party and she’d put them in their place in a blunt, almost painful fashion that was so totally her.

Once the three of us were good and soused, we’d headed to our respective rooms to sleep it off, or in our case to break the desk in the hotel room during a rather adventurous round of sex.

I’d woken up with a bit of a hangover, but was more than happy to join Sybil when she called to tell me she’d booked us treatments down at the resort’s spa for our own private little girls’ day. While I’d spent the day being massaged and pampered to within an inch of my life, Jude had hit up the hotel gym, then spent the rest of the day on a long hike in an effort to stay as far from the hotel as possible so as not to run into any of his family. So far, it had been an amazing weekend, but sadly, the fun had to end.

“Yes, I’m positive,” I said regrettably. “And haveyouforgotten that I already lived up to that bargain last night andagainthis morning.” I gave him a wink, drawing a low, quiet laugh from him. I really freaking loved that sound. He’d been laughing more and more lately, but there were still times when it was harder than normal to pull it out of him, and after that brief encounter with his despicable cockroach of a cousin the day before, I knew all too well the cause behind his lack of humor. “So tell me what I should expect at this dinner. All you’ve done is talk about how terrible it’s going to be without giving me any details as to why. How about some bullet points of what’s to come so I can be prepared?”

He let out a heavy sigh as he reached up to rub his jaw. “You think I should shave?” he asked offhandedly, having gotten sidetracked by the scruff on his cheeks.

“Don’t you dare,” I said in a rough warning tone. “If you do, I’ll never forgive you.”

He lowered his eyelids to half-mast, the look he was giving me turning my blood to molten lava. “Knew you liked my stubble rubbing across your skin, baby.”

My nipples hardened, my breasts felt swollen and heavy, and if I didn’t get my head in the game he was going to end up getting what he wanted—namely, skipping out on this dinner—and I’d never hear the end of how he won thatonetime. Best to just nip that in the bud right now.

“Stop avoiding the question,” I said as sternly as possibly, given I was turned way the hell on.

He shot me a wink from across the room and shrugged into his shirt, covering those massive, sexy shoulders. Who knew shoulders could be sexy? But Jude’s sure as hell were, and it was a crying shame he was hiding them behind clothes.

“Well, first off, you should know that my mother is absolutely for sure going to get shit-faced drunk before the night is through. That is, if she isn’t already. If she’s still functioning enough by the time we get down there, you can expect some sort of passive aggressive backhanded compliment disguised as a greeting. It will be obvious to everyone close enough to hear, and it’ll definitely offend whoever it’s directed at, which will most likely be me, but quite possibly you. Don’t take it personally. She’s a miserable shrew, incapable of being nice to anyone.

“My father will be much more obvious about it. He won’t tiptoe around his disappointment in me, he’ll just come right out and say it. He and my mom really make the perfect pair, meaning they’re both complete assholes.”

“What could he possibly be disappointed about?” I asked with bemusement. “You have a successful business where you and the people you employ create beauty on a daily basis. You’ve worked your ass off for absolutely everything you have.”

“That’s where the disappointment comes in,” he muttered, working the buttons of his shirt into their respective holes. “In their eyes, I’m a disappointment because I chose to sully the Kingsley name by becoming a lowly blue-collar worker. They don’t see the company I’ve built from the ground up as a success because I spend each and every day getting my hands dirty. They’d have less of a problem with me working if I sat on my ass behind a desk all day long, or had a corner office with a view, but for a man like me, that kind of job would have been a slow, painful death. My dear old dad never forgave me for choosing to work in the mud and dirt. It’s an embarrassment to him.”

“God, I knew your dad was a dick, but this is next level stuff right here, Jude. If that’s what he thinks of what you do, I can only imagine how he’ll react tomyjob.”

“Hey,” he spoke gently, pulling my gaze from where I’d dropped it to stare at the white down comforter I was sitting on. He sat at the foot of the bed, bracing one hand on the mattress so he could lean in and take my chin in his other. “I won’t let them hurt you,” he said with so much conviction my heart performed a gymnastics routine in my chest as his palm slid up to cup my cheek. “You have my word baby, I won’t let those vipers infect you with their vile shit, no matter what I have to do. I swear.”

Closing my eyes, I pulled in a deep breath as I nuzzled into his touch. Everything just felt...right when he touched me. It was as if we existed solely in our own little bubble, and all the problems of the outside world simply washed away. “I know you won’t. You’re too incredible.”

“I won’t let them make you feel less than the amazing, sexy, incredible, talented, funny, beautiful woman you are.”

I wasn’t worried about that. I stopped caring what people thought of me a long time ago. His family had absolutely no power over me. I just hoped Jude could say the same. These people didn’t deserve him, and I hoped to God he knew that. “Good use of descriptive words, honey. A plus effort right there.”

“If it gets to be too much, just say the word and I’ll get us the hell out of there.”

I smiled brightly, lifting my eyebrows in question. “Yeah? And what word would that be.”

He took a few seconds to give that some thought before settling on something that made him smirk. “Nifkin.”

My eyes went so wide it was a wonder they didn’t fall right out of my skull. “Nifkin?”

“It’s the—”

“I know what it is,” I cried. Only Jude would think of a safe word that was slang for a person’s taint. “I’m not saying that in a room full of people. Especiallythosepeople.”

“Why not? It’ll be hilarious. Most of them won’t even know what it means, and the ones who do will be completely scandalized. It’ll be awesome.”

“Fine,” I relented on a grumble. “If it gets to be too much, our bail-out word is nifkin.”

“If either of us uses that word, we drop whatever we’re doing right at that moment, and run back to the room where the other person is responsible for consoling the offended party—most likely me—with hours and hours of acrobatic sex.”

I let out a laugh, feeling a lightness in my chest that I could only hope would last. “Deal.”

Instead of shaking on it, I leaned in and pressed a kiss to his mouth, gently tracing the seam of his lips with my tongue and dragging a groan from deep within his chest. That sound never failed to light my entire world on fire.

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