Chapter 29
***Ada***
I tossed and turned in my bed trying to get comfortable. That sense of deja vu with Jud wasn’t going away, even after finding out he was a creep. I couldn’t stop thinking about him, trying to find whatever it was that was eating at me.
I even got up and took a hot bath in an effort to make myself tired enough to pass out.
I crawled back in bed in just a t-shirt and lay there, staring at the ceiling with a frown on my face.
If it hadn’t been so late, I would’ve called Mom and talked to her until I was tired, but there was nothing I could do.
The sound of my bedroom door creaking open startled me into sitting up and I stared through the darkness, waiting and watching for whoever was creeping in.
My bedroom curtains were open and the moon cast enough light in that as Jud drew closer, I saw his face.
I gasped and started to scoot away but he held out his hands and said something that kept me planted right where I was.
“The paintings aren’t new, Ada. They’re not new.” He stood in front of my bed in just a pair of loose joggers and I saw that he’d shaved. His hair was trimmed, too. He looked like a Carrington for once.
“What are you talking about?” I frowned.
“Is it supposed to make me feel better that you painted me before I moved in here? How did you even know what I looked like or who I was? Why didn’t you say anything when I strolled in here with this face, the same face you’ve been painting?
Or is it still a creepy thing that’s going on? ”
He shook his head and inched closer. “I met a girl at a fair when I was younger, Ada. She didn’t give me her name or number but she promised she’d meet me at the fair the next night. She never showed. I couldn’t get her face out of my head, though. I couldn’t get...your face out of my head.”
I went up on my knees in bed, shock and disbelief burning me up. “You’re lying.”
“I’m not. I didn’t recognize you because.
.. I don’t know. I’m an idiot? No, that’s not completely true.
The first time I saw you here, I felt like I knew you and I thought you looked similar to my fair girl.
I’d just been locked away for days on end painting, though, and I convinced myself I was seeing things.
When I saw you in that room today, though, I knew.
You’re my mystery girl. You gave me your first kiss, Ada. ”
Tears filled my eyes and I shook my head. “No. That’s impossible. I’d recognize... I’d... It’s not true.”
He stood directly in front of me and I watched as he slowly lifted his hand, careful as if not to scare me away, to touch one of my curls.
“I went back every night. I went the next year, too. And the year after. I was determined to find you. Those paintings... I think it started as a way to not lose a detail of your face but it turned into somewhat of an obsession. You just became the thing I painted when I wanted to paint but didn’t know where to start. ”
I was transported back to that night outside of the fair, my heart racing after my first kiss and my lips tingling for more. Jud’s older face merged with my mystery man’s. “I tried to go back. I got grounded for sneaking out. My parents were so angry because I came home with a hickey on my neck.”
A dark smile transformed his face into something dangerously sexy. “I guess this was my fault then.”
I moved from the bed and stood right in front of him, chest to chest. “You shaved to come in here and tell me?”
His hands came to rest on my waist and I saw his throat move as he swallowed. “I wanted to look less like a creep.”
I winced. “I’m sorry.”
He shook his head. “Don’t be. I was creepy. You’ve been here for over a month and I’ve just been lurking around in the shadows. There was something about you... I just didn’t know.”
I rested my hands on his chest and heard his sharp intake of breath. “This is crazy, Jud. It’s been a decade.”
“You stopped looking at me after that first time in the kitchen. Did you feel something, too?”
“Yes.” I couldn’t lie to him.
“I feel like I’m fucking dreaming, Ada.” He let out a quiet laugh. “Ada. Three letters that you refused to hand over back then. I could’ve found you with those three letters, sweet girl.”
Searching his gaze, I let out a shuddering breath and melted into him. “Kiss me.”
Just like the first time, Jud was feather-light with that first kiss.
His lips were a breeze over mine. When I opened my eyes, I saw he was looking at me, just the same as before.
He was seeing if I remembered, if I remembered the exact way our first kiss happened.
I grabbed his shoulders and kissed him harder just like the first time.
Jud groaned against my lips and wrapped his arms around me, holding me to him like he was afraid I’d vanish.
I shifted backward and pulled him with me until my knees hit the bed and I was able to pull him down on top of me.
He barely stopped kissing me as he moved me to the middle of the bed and slowly undressed me.
When I tried to push his pants down, he stopped me. “I need to keep as much space between you and my dick as possible if I’m going to last, Ada.”
I cupped his face and smiled. “I don’t care if it doesn’t last. I just want to touch you.”
He let me roll him onto his back and watched me with heavy-lidded eyes that flared when my knuckles bumped into his erection.
His lip was caught between his teeth so hard that I was afraid he’d break the skin.
I finished undressing him and sat on his thighs, admiring his body.
His cock was deep red at the tip and it jumped as I ran my fingertip over it.
I looked up at him and licked my lips. He was beautiful, even more beautiful than I remembered.
The boy I’d given my first kiss to was still there, in the eyes and smile, but his body had grown even longer and wider.
I felt small sitting across his muscular thighs.
“You ruined me for a while, you know? When I decided I’d never see you again and tried to date, no other kiss felt like yours. ”
He sat up and gripped my thighs in his rough hands. Calloused and stained from oil paints, his hands made me shiver with need. “Good.”
I smiled and ran my finger over the tip of his nose and cupid's bow. He caught it when I moved over his lips and gently nipped the end before sucking on it. My breathy sigh made him smile but that smile vanished when I wrapped my fingers around his length.
He grunted and tipped his head back. “Jesus, Ada.”
With one hand pressed to his chest I pushed him back down and then slid over his thighs until I could lean forward and flick my tongue over his tip. He swore and shocked me by sitting up and twisting me around like I was no heavier than one of the pillows.
When I realized what he was doing, I stopped breathing.
He adjusted my knees on either side of his head and wrapped his arms around my thighs to hold me in place.
I’d never... A million questions worried the edge of my consciousness but then Jud growled and tugged my hips lower until I was pretty much sitting on his face.
“Jud!” I braced my hands on his thighs and whimpered.
His tongue burrowed into my sex and twisted, making me gasp and desperately suck in oxygen.
He fucked me with his tongue and I was frozen in pleasure until I looked down and saw his cock leaking precum and begging for attention.
I wrapped my hands around it and lowered my mouth over as much as I could, determined to finish what I’d started ten years earlier.