Chapter 34
JUDE
The hellscape of the past few weeks gave way to bliss.
I was hit with a surge of triumph and a rush of love for Sofia, so epic it made my head spin.
My hand clamped around hers, my fingers locking her in an iron grip as I led her out of the chapel.
We walked back to the boarding house, tapering my long strides to keep pace with her smaller ones.
She was coming back home, with me.
Upstairs in her cramped cubicle within the shelter, I loomed by the door, while she shoved her few belongings into a canvas duffel bag.
As she was stuffing one item in, I narrowed my eyes on it.
‘Is that my hoodie, the black one with the really good lining babe?’
She jolted and turned to me, her face a study in guilt.
She bit her lip and nodded.
‘I took it from the house, to remember you by, to have your scent on me. I might have slept in it every night too.’
‘So I had my mark on you all this time,’ I growled, pleased as fuck, lips quirking.
Taking two strides, I wrapped my arms around her, my mouth falling on hers.
I let her go a few moments later with a growl, heated, scorching for her.
‘Now you get the real thing, woman. Always. Starting the second we get home.’
Her eyes glittered at my promise.
‘Can’t wait.’
As she cleared out the small space, my jaw tightened as I made a silent vow to myself.
She would never sleep in a confined cage like this again.
We left her Civic in the gravel lot.
‘I’ll let Linda know she can pass it on to someone else,’ Sofia said, tossing the keys onto the front chair. ‘That OK with you?’
I shrugged. ‘It’s your car, woman, do what you want.’
She’d no idea I’d give her the sun, moon and stars if she asked for them.
‘I’ll say my goodbye and settle my bills, too.’
She tracked back inside to have a brief word with the manager, Linda, before returning to settle into the passenger seat of my Ram.
I shut her door and rounded the hood, taking the wheel.
As we drove through the quiet streets of Nashville, we held hands all the way.
On occasion, I brought her hand to my lips for a kiss as we shared long looks so poignant and moving they left my exhalations ragged.
She was back where she belonged, beside me.
When we pulled up to the house, I scooped her into my arms, carrying her upstairs.
‘What’d do you need, babe?’ I asked as I laid her on my bed.
‘A bath, then you.’
I huffed as her husky, sensuous words sent a shot of need through me.
Leading her to the bathroom, I turned the brass taps and filled the porcelain claw-foot tub with scalding water.
I stripped her down, lifting her into the heat before kicking off my own clothes.
I stepped in behind her, hauling her back to my chest and wrapping my hand around the sponge.
‘Let me take care of you, baby,’ I growled into her ear, so fucking gone for her that it made my chest ache.
‘I’d like that, Jude,’ she sighed, her head falling back onto my collarbone.
My hands trembled as I dragged the warm suds over her skin, washing away the grief, the scars, and the hell of those weeks apart.
‘You’re shaking,’ she whispered, turning her face to press a soft kiss on my jaw.
‘I’m out of my mind touching you again, woman,’ I growled, squeezing the sponge over her collarbone. ‘I thought I lost you for good.’
‘I’m right here,’ she murmured, reaching back to tangle her fingers tight in my hair.
I sank my head into her nape, breathing her in, cupping her tits, holding her close, still in awe that she was mine, and she was home.
After drying her with a thick towel, I lifted her into the bedroom, sinking a knee to settle us onto the fresh sheets.
She rolled over my chest, her eyes locking with mine with an intensity that burned through my remaining defenses.
When she initiated a slow kiss with desperate tenderness, a savage hunger flared in my gut.
I didn’t want this slow and unhurried; I needed to consume her, to fuse her to me with urgency so she could never vanish again.
I upped the tempo, taking her mouth with wild passion.
She bucked into me as my hands mapped her waist and I hauled her body over me.
‘I’m going to make it all up to you, babe.’
‘Stop talking and prove it already.’
She made the challenge in a throaty whisper as her hips parted.
I flipped our positions, pinning her wrists beside her head, tangling my fingers with hers while my mouth traced a fiery trail down her neck.
She wrapped her thigh around my waist and cupped the back of my head, as I lashed her nipple.
‘You taste so good, babe,’ I groaned, ‘so sweet.’
Her fingernails grazed my spine, and I shuddered.
‘I need you now,’ she growled, and I shook with silent amusement at her ferocity, nipping her lips, earlobe, and down again to her nipples.
She was getting impatient with me, canting her hips and swirling them up at me, and I finally felt pity for her.
I parted her thighs, kissed her forehead, and positioned my cock.
Her breath hitched as I slid between her thighs, guiding my shaft inside her with one hard, fluid push.
I went fast, hard, rough; our lips locked, tongues clashing.
She gasped, arching her back off the mattress as my chest pressed to hers, matching my savage rhythm.
I slid in and out of her, making her feel every inch of me as I throbbed inside her.
Every slide, glide, shiver, and touch obliterated the weeks of cold silence and agony.
My hand went to her throat, thumb on her pulse as I stared into her eyes.
‘Say my name, babe,’ I demanded.
‘Jude,’ she cried out, her nails digging into my shoulders as her body shuddered.
‘Come for me, baby,’ I muttered. ‘Let your pussy go wild around me.’
I knew it’d be so freakin’ amazing when she came and convulsed on my cock.
So I continued thrusting, chasing our shared high; her limbs locked around me.
This was heaven.
She blew with a mewling cry, trembling as she was wracked with ecstasy.
On and on I fucked her as my forehead rested on her brow and the bliss coiled tight in my pelvis.
She came again with even more breathless cries, and her release triggered my own.
A brutal wave of rapture, savage and unleashed, crashed through my veins as I poured everything into her.
‘Fuck,’ I groaned into her nape as I exploded, drowning in unimaginable bliss, more than I’d ever imagined.
She rippled all along my length, extending the rapture on and on as I groaned long and hard.
Her thighs remained around me as I slicked in and out of her before one final thrust as I growled and took her lips once more.
‘Forever mine,’ I finally growled as I rolled to the side, chest heaving.
Sated, I wrapped my arms around her waist to lock her in place.
‘Per l’eternità,’ she whispered, closing her eyes as she drifted off to sleep in my hold.
Exhaustion tanked my remaining energy.
I fell asleep fast, her heart beating in sync with mine.
The rich aroma of ground coffee woke me the next morning, drifting up from the kitchen.
I bit my lower lip as a fresh wave of adrenaline surged through my veins.
She was here.
She was real.
She was back.
I tossed the covers aside, pulled on black sweatpants, and stalked downstairs to find her standing over the stove.
Closing the distance, I wrapped my arms around her waist from behind, pulling her to my chest.
Sofia tilted her head back, her gorgeous eyes glittering with a soft smile.
‘You slept for ten hours straight, rockstar,’ she murmured, tilting her face to me.
‘I only sleep that well when you’re beside me, Sof,’ I rasped, tracing her lower lip with my thumb.
‘Then get used to blissful nights because I’m not going anywhere,’ she whispered, her hands sliding up my chest.
I took her mouth in a deep, bruising kiss, claiming her with raw, possessive heat.
We tore our lips apart only when my stomach growled, shattering the moment.
Sofia laughed, turning back to the stove to serve hot espresso, crispy pancetta, and toasted ciabatta brushed with olive oil.
We ate at the counter, but desire took over, our fingers tangling between bites while I nipped at her jaw and neck.
‘You’re not even eating, mi alma,’ she teased, her breath hitching as my teeth grazed her collarbone.
‘I’m starved for something else altogether,’ I rasped, setting my coffee cup down on the butcher block.
I lifted her into my arms, ignoring her small gasp, and marched back up the stairs.
I set her down on the mattress in the quiet sanctuary of our bedroom, stripping her clothes away before shedding my own.
I pulled her hips to me as she knelt on the bed.
Gripping her ass and thighs, I drove my cock inside her with scorching, unyielding passion.
Sofia ground her backside into me as she gasped, her hand between her legs, pleasuring herself.
I growled, loving the image before me.
‘You like that?’
‘Love it, I love you.’
Her words hit me hard, and needing her lips, I pulled out, flipped her over, and surged over her.
My hands traveled to frame her face, forcing her to lock eyes with me.
‘Look at me, Sofia,’ I commanded, my voice gravelly and husky with desire. ‘Tell me who you fuckin’ belong to.’
I drank in the vulnerability, love, and heat shining in her gaze.
‘I’m yours, Jude,’ she gasped, her fingers digging deep into the muscles of my back. ‘Always and forever.’
At her words, I took her mouth, working it hard as I slammed my cock back into her.
Our hips locked in a frantic, rising tempo.
There was no more distance between us. I stripped away her last defenses until there was only the untamed reality of our bond.
Her pussy walls clenched around me, sending a wave of intense pleasure crashing down my spine.
I poured everything into her, groaning as my body shuddered with a deep, violent release.
‘Infinity, babe,’ I whispered, brushing my mouth over her lips, my timbre thick with devotion. ‘You leave again, I’ll hunt you down to the fuckin’ ends of the earth.’
‘I like the sound of that,’ she breathed, kissing my jaw.
Afterward, as sunlight spilled across the hardwood floorboards, we remained tangled together in the middle of the bed.
I pulled the duvet over our shoulders and tucked her head beneath my chin, locking out the rest of the world.