Chapter 23 #2
‘Jude, what’re you doing?’ I whispered, my face heating up as one of the young servers walked past. ‘People are staring.’
‘Let ‘em,’ he grunted into my neck.
His thumb brushed over the inside of my wrist, pressing my pulse point.
He was aware of exactly how he was lighting me up, I thought, trying to keep my breathing even while my heart thudded.
He cupped my jaw with his palm and leaned forward until his forehead rested on mine.
Then he tilted his head, placing a soft, quick kiss on the bridge of my nose.
As Jude caught a stray drop of chocolate from my lower lip with his thumb, my stomach did a frantic, dizzying flip.
The flaming intensity of his gaze made my throat tighten.
Yet, gazing at the fierce devotion in his eyes, I decided with reckless abandon that caution could take a hike, for now at least.
By the time we reached the door of our hotel suite, our playful banter evaporated, replaced by a wild, arcing desire that turned my breath shallow.
Jude unlocked the door, but the moment the deadbolt clicked into place behind us, he dropped the room keys onto the marble table.
He caught my waist in his hands, lifting me off my feet and pressing me to the door.
I threaded my fingers into his hair, pulling his head down.
The kiss began with a deep, passionate hunger that we could no longer contain.
His mouth glided over mine, soft and firm at the same time, undoing me.
I moaned as his hot exhale trailed down to my nape as he cupped my breasts.
Moments later, he bent and scooped me into his arms.
He carried me into my bedroom, our clothes scattering across the parquet floor in a frantic, desperate blur.
We knelt on the bed facing each other.
My hand trailed down his stomach toward his groin. His muscles were taut beneath my touch, and his throat flexed when I grazed his hard cock.
I was hit with a rush of wet and the need to taste him.
A flutter of desire surged in me as I reached for him, starting with a stroke, then a pump.
Jude’s head fell back with a groan as his chest rippled from trying to maintain control.
‘Babe, you don’t -.’
‘I want this.’
Jacking him, I inched closer, my mouth falling on the corner of his, then gliding over his nape, his muscled chest, and his rippling abs.
His musk hit me, so evocative and masculine, flooding my nostrils as my eyes fell on the prize.
His cock was throbbing, veined and already dripping.
Unable to resist, I bent down and licked.
Jude shuddered and fell back to the bed as I suckled the head.
Gripping his throbbing shaft, I pumped him with an upward motion, mewling, as he spurted into my mouth.
His hand thrust into my hair, stroking and gliding my strands as I suckled, and swirled my mouth all over him so that he groaned until I was drenched.
I was so turned on, so wet as my eyes flitted past his pelvis to lock with his as he stared down at me from the pillows.
‘Damn woman, you’re going to make me come.’
His raw, hoarse rasp set me off even more as his head fell back again, hips surging to push more of him into me, his bliss sculpting his chiseled features.
Unable to take more of his length, I released him from my mouth but kept jacking him with my hands.
With a growl of protest, he reached for my hands.
‘No more, babe, I’m going to blow.’
Gripping my hands, he pulled me up and over him, then flipped me to my back.
I lay bared before him, tits heaving, soul flying, so gone for him.
His stubble rubbed my sensitive clit as his mouth and tongue lashed my clit.
Clamping the back of his head to my pussy, I shuddered as he kept laving me before he shifted again, his mouth settling on mine.
I tasted me on him as his fingers plundered my clit and slid inside me.
With a grunt, he tore his lips from mine, and, heaving, he studied me.
Legs wide part, pussy rippling, tits heaving.
‘So fuckin’ beautiful.
His fingers lifted off me, wet and sopping, and with a smirk he stroked my nipple, covering it with my juices.
Then he bent and sucked and licked them off my nipple.
It was so hot, I bucked as my first orgasm hit.
‘Not without me,’ Jude growled as he surged over and slammed into me.
I blissed out with a cry as we came together with a raw, fierce intensity unlike the tentative slowness of the previous night.
This was a total surrender.
Jude kept driving into me, his groans ragged and savage.
Even more pleasure hit me, cresting into a deep and overwhelming sensation as a sudden wave of emotion crashed over me.
I locked my arms around his neck, burying my face into the warm, damp curve of his nape as silent, hot droplets spilled over my eyelids.
It wasn’t sadness; it was the terrifying, beautiful realization that my heart belonged to him.
Jude felt the dampness on his skin and shifted, his sinewed touch cradling me close to his bare chest.
He swept away the tears and stroked my hair with a slow, soothing rhythm.
His sinewed hand traced the length of my spine until my breathing hitched and finally leveled out.
‘So stunning, Sofia,’ he rasped with raw certainty. ‘You’re blowing my mind.’
I shifted my head on his shoulder, my hand resting over the steady beat of his heart.
Wrapped in his heat, listening to his heartbeat, I drifted off to sleep in his arms.
JUDE
Waking up to Sofia in the morning was heaven.
I pulled up on one elbow, staring at her asleep beside me.
My eyes traced her honey-gold skin, her gorgeous features, her glossy hair all over the pillow, and the swell of her tits under the covers.
She was so freakin’ beautiful, and my soul wrenched as emotion hit hard.
Our lovemaking last night, scorching the sheets several times, was still blowing my mind.
I couldn’t get her out of my psyche; she was like my favorite song, her name repeating in my head.
I just wanted to rock her again to ecstasy, so I’d sink my nose in her nape and breathe her in.
This was getting serious.
A few nights in my bed were never going to be enough.
She was a fever under my skin, and I sensed that very soon waking to her every morning would become my only instinct and my utter addiction.
I studied her tresses falling over one shoulder, and the honey-gold of her skin.
I followed the arch of her spine, and recalled the stroke and glide of her touch over my body.
Damn.
As much as I wanted to linger, wake her and make love to her again, then later have breakfast with her, I had to get going.
With great reluctance, I unwound myself from her limbs, slipped from bed, showered, and hit the road.
We were getting in one last rehearsal before the doors opened for our first Rome show at the Stadio Olimpico.
We practiced on the new soundstage, my fingers flying over the fretboard of my Gibson Les Paul as I ran intense, aggressive scale patterns.
Across the stage, Angel adjusted his microphone stand while Reign tapped out a rolling beat on the snare.
‘You’re rushing the tempo, man,’ Levi called out to him as he plugged his bass into the stack.
‘You’re just getting slow, Levi,’ Reign shot back, throwing a drumstick in his direction. ‘Can’t handle my heat.’
I chuckled at their banter, dangling my guitar beside my hip as I pulled out my phone to dial Sofia.
‘Hey, babe,’ I rasped when she picked up.
‘Hey, handsome.’
Her husky alto sent an arc of feeling through me.
I dropped my timbre into a murmur.
‘How are you holding up today? Not too sore from last night, I hope?’
Sofia let out a soft laugh, the sound warming my chest through the receiver.
‘I’m perfect, Jude. Just missing your arms around me when I woke up.’
‘Where are you now?’
‘I’m just finishing up in Trastevere,’ she said. ‘I spent the morning at the Roman Forum, and now I’m hitting a small market over here for more gelato. Can’t get enough of it.’
‘Can’t get enough of you,’ I growled. ‘Can’t also wait to see you tonight.
Listen, the crowds outside the stadium are getting unruly.
Don’t try to navigate the main gates on your own.
I’ll send Enzo from our security detail to pick you up.
He’ll accompany you to the best seat in the house, by the soundboard. You good with that?’
‘Perfect,’ she replied. ‘See you soon, mio caro.’
Later, Sofia made it to the venue just as the house lights dropped.
Her brief presence in the green room and her sweet energy amped me up for the show.
Heck, I’d be playing for her the whole night.
I stole a kiss from her before I followed my bandmates, and she took off to watch us play.
I took to the stage hyped up as sixty thousand fans unleashed a deafening, vibrating roar that shook the structural steel of the stadium.
This was what I was born for, as our devotees began shouting back every line of our favorites in the repertoire.
I led the brothers through our discography, from up-tempo favorites to a few of our new, unpublished tracks.
Levi bewitched the crowd on the piano with our ‘Tokyo Drifting’ ballad.
At one point I turned and caught Sofia dancing and singing along to one of my tracks, which blew my mind.
There was nothing sweeter than seeing your woman going off to your lyrics.
We closed out with our evocative hit ‘Dreams of Stars.’
I was still on a natural high when we finally made it back to our hotel after midnight.
The lobby, most of it deserted, was redolent with the scents of expensive tobacco, perfume and citrus oil.
Sofia was walking beside me, my arm around her, when I noticed a shadow detach itself from the leather wing-back chairs close to reception.
I blinked, not quite believing what I was seeing.
When the individual raised their hand to attract my attention, I let out a huff of surprise.
‘Sofia, babe, do me a favor,’ I said, pausing near the elevators.
I turned to her, keeping my voice smooth so she wouldn’t catch the sudden spike in my adrenaline.
‘The crew is up on the top level having a midnight meal at the late-night restaurant. Grab a plate and tell Mason and the rest I’ll be up in a few minutes. I’ve got to check a couple of documents at the front desk.’