Chapter Forty-Two
Morgan
“Does King know any of this?” I asked. Jude shook his head, and if I had to guess by the look in his eye, he didn’t plan on telling him. “What does that have to do with me?”
“While I was in the hospital, Justin got word that the Society had found out about you. They knew we were married, and that you were pregnant. And my father found out. When you lost the baby, they no longer had any use for you. They wanted our child because they were a Peterson. With me dead, and our child gone, you wouldn’t have been able to give them what they wanted. So I let you go and I stayed dead.”
“To protect me,” I whispered.
“You are the most important person in my life, Morgan. Even more than my brother. I can’t let you get hurt. I’d never planned to make contact in Rosewood, but then I saw you dancing with your friends. All I wanted was to feel your body against mine again. And the moment that fucker touched you…”
“You got jealous.”
“I got jealous, and I had to see you. When I found out who your father was, who your brother was... I knew they would protect you, so I let you go again.”
“You’re such an asshole, Jude.”
“I know,” he agreed. “When you showed up here and told me you were pregnant, I almost lost my mind thinking someone else had touched you again.”
I rolled my eyes at his passive aggressive way of bringing up my brief fling with Gunner.
“I guess you know how I felt seeing Jenna come out of your room.”
“I do. And Jenna won’t be a problem again.”
“Did you kick her out?”
His hand went to the back of his neck. “No, but she is confined to her room and only allowed out with one of the birds.”
“The birds?” I asked, confused by what that meant.
“Eagle, Falcon, and Hawk.”
I barked out a laugh, and Jude smiled. “I like hearing you laugh.” He took a step closer. “I hate seeing you cry. I saw you at the lake.”
“The lake?”
“In Rosewood, on the anniversary. It took everything in me not to pull you out of your car and hold you in my arms.”
“I named him,” I said quietly. “He was barely a person, but I gave him a name.”
“Tell me,” he ordered gently as his hands held my hips and he pulled me closer.
“Keegan. Keegan Jude Peterson. It means little flame. Because he’ll always be the light in my heart.”
“It’s perfect,” he whispered.
“I know you didn’t want a Bible name, but I wanted him to have a piece of you.”
Jude pressed a finger to my lips. “I love it,” he said. “And I love you.” He leaned down and replaced his finger with his lips.
My hands pressed against his chest, but not to push him away. My fingers grasped at his cut, pulling him closer to me. I missed his kiss, his hands on my body. That first night in Rosewood was magic, even if I did believe it was all my imagination.
I opened my mouth to him, and his tongue warred with mine. He tasted like coffee and I wanted to drink him up. My hands slid up around his neck, and I lifted on my toes.
His hands went around to my ass, and he squeezed and kneaded my butt before lifting me off the floor. My legs wrapped around him without question, and he spun us around and tipped me back onto the bed, his body following mine, crushing me to the mattress.
The feel of his weight made me breathless. His kiss stole every moan, every whimper I offered.
“Take off your clothes, Jude,” I mumbled against his mouth, not wanting to lose the moment, but needing to feel his skin.
He pulled back and stood up, kicking off his boots and removing his cut. I lay there watching, my eyes getting their fill as his hands ripped the shirt from his body.
The moment his scars came into view, my eyes filled with tears at what he’d endured. The physical pain he must have lived through, combined with the emotional pain of losing me and the baby.
I finally understood the sacrifice he’d made for me.
“I love you, Jude.”
“I love you too, baby.”
His hands made quick work of his belt and jeans, and then he was standing in front of me, naked. Every scar visible, every muscle flexing as he held himself back while I took him in.
I scooted to the end of the bed and reached out, taking his dick in my hand. He groaned as I stroked him. His eyes bored into mine and I leaned forward and licked the tip.
“I’m on the edge here, baby.”
“I know.” I smiled and engulfed his cock with my mouth. Swirling my tongue around the head, I rubbed the sensitive spot beneath the crown, and his hand went to the back of my head.
“Fuck, Morgan. I won’t last like this. That mouth will be the end of me.”
I didn’t relent. I sucked him to the back of my throat and exhaled through my nose, taking him deeper. His hands fisted in my hair as his hips bucked against me.
“Take it, Morgan. Make me come, baby.”
My hands rubbed against his thighs, reaching around to grab his firm ass. I pulled him closer as he held my head and fucked my mouth. His moans were music to my ears. I loved hearing him lose control.
He didn’t last long. I buried my nose against his pelvis and swallowed, letting my throat contract around the head of his cock. With a shout, he cried out my name and came.
When his dick stopped pulsing, I slid my mouth off him, licking what remained. I held him in my hand and stroked him, licking every drop of cum that still dripped out of the slit on the end.
“Stop, baby, you’re killing me.”
I looked up at him, and his eyes burned with desire.
“Get on the bed,” he growled. “I need to fuck you,” he said, as he replaced my hand with his, stroking his cock until he was hard again.
“I thought once you hit forty, you had to rest in between,” I said with a grin.
His chest rumbled as he kneeled between my legs and snarled at me. “I may be fucking forty, but I haven’t had anything but my hand for seven fucking years. You’ll be lucky if you can get out of this bed tomorrow.”
My body shivered with his threat, and I ripped the shirt I was wearing off my body. When we made it back to the clubhouse, Jude had insisted on putting me in his room and Sully in mine, so Brian could guard us both. I took a shower and put on one of his shirts, wanting to be surrounded by him.
Jude stared down at my naked body and his eyes turned to steel. His voice took on an angry tone when he said, “Morgan, tell me you weren’t fucking naked under that shirt when you put your hands on my brother.”
I bit my lip and grinned at him. He grabbed my hips, and I squealed as he flipped me over onto my stomach, and a crack echoed in the room as his hand made contact with my butt cheek.
“Ow, fuck, Jude.”
He did it again on the other side, then leaned over me and whispered, “You ever touch my brothers again and your ass will be so red you won’t be able to sit down for a fucking month.”
Then he slammed into me as I screamed out his name. He pulled back slowly and rammed his hard cock into my wet pussy. Over and over, he fucked me as I panted and whimpered, begging him for mercy I didn’t really want.
“You are fucking mine, Morgan. Say it,” he demanded.
I couldn’t find the words. I opened my mouth to obey, but nothing came out but a long, low moan as he pulled my hips up so I was on my knees.
His hand trailed down my spine until he wrapped it around my neck. “Say it, Morgan.”
“I’m yours,” I rasped, barely able to form the words, let alone say them out loud.
“Louder,” he pressed. I felt his balls slapping against my pussy lips. His hand reached under me and his finger pressed against my clit, rubbing it in circles.
“I want to hear you say it, Morgan. I want you to scream it so loud the whole fucking clubhouse hears you and knows your mine. That I won’t let you go. Hell, I want you to scream so loud he can hear it in fucking Nebraska.”
He rammed his cock inside me, hitting me so deep. I felt my body start to spasm and I cried out, “I’M YOURS!” as the orgasm swept over me. No one had ever made me feel the way Jude Peterson did.
I belonged to him and I always would. Whether I left or not, there would never be anyone else.
Jude thrust three more times before he came inside me with a roar of his own. He collapsed on the bed beside me, and all I could do was let my legs slide down. I didn’t have the strength to turn anything but my head so I could see him.
We looked into each other’s eyes and I knew then, I wasn’t going anywhere. I couldn’t leave him. I’d only be hurting myself as much if not more than I would be hurting him.
And then there was the baby. He or she deserved to have a father. Not one that lived hundreds of miles away, but one they could see every day. A father who wanted them. Who would protect them.
“I won’t let you leave me, Morgan,” he whispered as he leaned over and kissed the side of my head. “I’ll tie you to the fucking bed if I have to.”
“My father would kill you,” I said with a smile.
“Death is the only thing that will ever separate us. Plus, he tried once already and failed. You’re mine. You’ve been mine since the day I saw you in that coffee shop.” He brushed the hair away from my face and said, “Tell me you’ll stay. Tell me you forgive me and you’ll never leave me.”
“What about my business?” I asked, already planning to call Scribe tomorrow and have him get started on finding me a buyer.
“Franchise.”
“What?” I asked, leaning up on my arms, my body suddenly more alert than a moment ago. Filled with energy from that single word.
“Open another spa here. The one in Rosewood is doing fine with the woman you left in charge, right?”
“Yeah, I mean I talk to her every few days and it’s like they don’t even need me.”
“Then open a second location. Run them both. We always talked about visiting Rosewood. We can drive up there a couple of times a year so you can check things over, and if you need to, you can be there in a few hours if there’s an emergency.”
He wasn’t wrong. Plenty of people ran multiple businesses in different locations. I guess I just never saw myself expanding. I’d always thought I would grow old in Rosewood running my spa.
“What about my mom?”
Jude chuckled. “Baby, if you think Smokey is letting your mother leave Arkansas, you aren’t as smart as I thought you were.”
I smiled, because I knew he was right. All you had to do was look at him when he was watching her to know he was already in love. But she was holding back for some reason.
“I think she’s afraid.”
“He won’t give up on her, any more than I was willing to give up on you.”
“But you did give up on me, Jude. If it weren’t for the baby, I wouldn’t be here right now.”
“No, you wouldn’t. But I was coming for you, Morgan. I wanted you safe while we fought this war. But, baby, as soon as it was over, I would have been in Virginia, charming my way back into your heart and charming you right back into my bed.”
“And you think that would have worked?” I asked.
He gave me a smug grin. “I know it would. Because you love me.”
I sighed and smiled in his direction. “I do love you. I always have.”