Chapter 18
Jude
“Jude!” she shrieks, clinging to my shoulders as I carry her through her bedroom door and kick it shut behind me.
Reaching the side of her bed, I slowly bend down to lay her on the mattress, loving how she’s looking at me with her blown pupils full of lust and need.
I go to lean over her but stop when she covers her mouth and starts giggling like a loon. So much so, it becomes uncontrollable. Soon enough she’s rolling from side to side with it, sneaking looks at me before laughing all over again.
What the hell is going on?
“Em…” I say. OK, half-growl.
“You just…” She snickers, waving her hand toward the door, “out there.” She points to my hips. “Lookin’ like…” Then she laughs again.
Glancing down, I realize I'm still wearing a towel. Just a towel. That’s all I was wearing in front of her brothers for the entire duration of our conversation.
A snort escapes me before I ditch said clothing item and jump on the bed, covering her body with my own. Gently wrapping my fingers around her wrists, I lift them over her head and hold them to the mattress before burying my face in her neck, turning her giggles into breathy moans. Much better.
Lifting my head, I gaze down at her, loving the way she smiles up at me.
“Are you–” I say at the same time she says, “We don’t–”
I nod for her to go first.
“I was goin’ to say that there’s no rush. We don’t have to do this if you’re not ready,” she says, running her flattened palms over my chest and resting them over my galloping heart.
Adjusting my hold to free one of my hands, I lean on one arm in the bed and trace her hairline with my finger. “That’s what I was goin’ to say to you.”
“Though, in the interest of honesty, I want to be with you, Jude. I want to complete the Call. I want to make love with you.”
I stare at her in disbelief. This amazing, beautiful, woman told me in front of her family that she loves me, making me feel like the luckiest man in the whole world.
“I’d choose you with or without the Call. It’s only ever goin’ to be you.”
“Jude?” she asks, her voice breaking my trailing thoughts. Something I thought should be impossible.
Then again, it’s not every day that the woman you fell for at first sight, who you married at your family’s rivals request, who you thought you’d be happy with having in your life in any capacity, is now spread out in front of you with love in her eyes and lust coursing through her veins.
And it’s high time I do something about that.
There’s just one problem. “You’re overdressed, wifey.”
She cocks her head and shoots me a challenging stare that I feel shoot straight through to my core. “I was hopin’ you’d do somethin’ about that.”
Kneeling on the mattress between her legs, I pull her up into a sitting position before dropping my fingers to the hem of her t-shirt and stroking my knuckles over her soft warm skin.
Then I slowly drag the top up and off, throwing it to the side.
Once that is done, she slides her bra off and chucks it in the same direction with a saucy wink.
Then I move to her jeans, undoing the buttons one by one as she collapses back onto the bed and lifts hips up just long enough for me to strip off everything else until finally she lays naked in front of me. Utter perfection.
Bending down over her, I dip my face closer to hers so she’s all I can see. “This is it, Em. You and me,” I murmur against her lips. “Whatever comes our way, we face it together. Whatever happens, I’ll always be there with you.”
“That sounds like real vows,” she whispers.
“As real as you and me, and the call, and the bond we’ll complete. This–you and me–is as real as anythin’ I’ve ever known, Mrs. Wilson-Cooper.”
“I want that. I want you. I want the name. I want this.” Her fingers flex over my heart that has been hers since the moment we met.
I cup her cheek with my hand. “Marry me, Em. Say you’ll be mine knowin’ what it means. Say yes knowin’ that I love you and you love me. Let me spend the rest of our lives always makin’ sure you’re happier today than you were yesterday.”
Tears fill her eyes. Her lips part as she stares at me with wonder.
Then she’s flipping me over onto my back, her weight pressing me into the mattress as she grabs my face and smashes her lips to mine.
We both pour everything into the kiss, my body reacting as if I’ve put my hand on a livewire as I wait for her answer.
“Yes,” she murmurs in between kisses. “Yes. Yes. Always yes.”
The taste, smell, and feel of her overwhelm me in the best possible way, and all I can do is hold on tight as she plunders my mouth, her whimpers and moans sending my libido through the stratosphere.
Just as I’m reaching my limit and about to wrestle back control, she drags her lips down my throat to my chest, her skin sliding against mine and setting my nerves on fire.
Desperation clings to me as I cling to the blankets letting Em continue her discovery tour of my body, loving the way she gazes up at me with that devilish grin of hers.
Positioning herself between my legs, she presses barely-there kisses between my hips before wrapping her fingers around my cock and stroking the full hard length before bringing her mouth to the tip and swirling her tongue over the head before taking it inside.
The sound that comes out of me when her fist moves in rhythm with her lips is guttural and raw, the double assault scattering my brain and leaving me with nothing to do but close my eyes and feel.
Too soon I feel myself diving headfirst toward a far-too-early end. So much so, I have to gently pull her away from me to preserve my dignity and allow myself to give her all of my attention.
Hooking my arms under hers, I drag her back up and over me, claiming her mouth hungrily, driven by some unknown force threatening to take control.
I roll us over, kissing deeply at the same time I reach between us, cupping her breast and grazing the stiff peaks, loving the way she arches up into the touch. Wanting to do nothing more than make her breath hitch and her body tremble.
I move down her body and run my tongue around the edge of her nipple, loving the whimpered mewl that escapes her when I switch to pay homage to the other one too. “Need you so much.”
Gliding further down the mattress, I make myself home between her spread legs. Em sits up on her elbows, her hooded gaze ramping up the burning hunger building inside of me to take her, claim her, and finally make her mine in every way.
At the first lash of my tongue over her sensitive skin, I feel more alive than ever before. When she wraps her legs around my shoulders and lifts her hips to meet me, I morph into a man possessed, my own body rocking against the bed to try and quell the growing ache deep inside me.
Shifting a hand between us, I lock eyes with hers again while slowly easing a finger inside of her, her body pulling me, her moans filling the air and making my heart soar and my body burn.
“Jude…” she moans, absorbing the pleasure I give her.
Adding a second finger, she whines and whimpers like she can’t get enough.
Wrapping my lips around the sensitive bundle of nerves, I suck deep, making her hips stutter before she stills mid-arch, crying out my name before rocking against me and riding out her climax.
Softly, slowly, I ease her down from her incredible high before kissing my way up her body and grinning down at her. When her lashes flutter open, I’m met with the most satisfied smile I’ve ever seen.
Grabbing my jaw, she pulls my mouth to hers, nipping at my bottom lip in a move she must know by now drives me crazy with want.
“Need you, Jude. Need you so much,” she whispers against my skin before shifting her attention to my throat, peppering wet-mouthed kisses all over my sensitized skin. “Want to feel you. Want to make you feel good.”
My answering groan rumbles out of me. I take control, kissing her hungrily. All while I’m reaching down and running my hand over her thigh, urging her to wrap her legs around my back.
The moment I notch myself at the apex of her thighs, I lock eyes with hers and murmuring, “Love you, Em,” before pushing inside, staring deep into those beautiful blues of hers that I want to spend the rest of my life getting lost in.
“Always,” she replies reverently, one palm pressing against my cheek, the other resting over my heart.
The moment my hips meet hers and I’m buried deep, we groan into each other’s mouths, the pleasure, the rightness, the certainty so overwhelming it brings tears to both our eyes.
“I’m right where I’m meant to be,” I murmur as I slowly withdraw and push forward again.
I do it over and over again, my body feeling like I’m being swallowed whole, losing myself in her as our tongues tangle, our labored breaths mingle, and our hearts beat in a perfect rhythm uniquely our own.
Time loses all meaning, all of the questions surrounding us and our future fade into nothingness because this, us, our connection, our love, that’s what matters.
That’s when something shifts inside of me, it’s as if a switch has been flicked and suddenly I can’t get enough. I want to crawl inside of her and never come out, I need more, I want more. Need everything. Need her. Need to feel her clench around me and scream her pleasure as she gives me the same.
One look at my just-as-dazed-as-I-am wife and her hunger-filled eyes tells me she feels it too.
“What’s happenin’?” she asks, clinging tight.
“I… don’t… know…,” I grind out as I drive deeper, kiss her longer, and Em lifts her hips to meet mine, pushing back and urging me on.
“It’s like it’s everythin’ and not enough… all at once,” she rasps. The whole bed starts rocking against the wall with a thump. thump. thump that matches the staccato beat of my heart.
Our breaths come hard and fast now, my muscles taut and tense with anticipation. Gritting my teeth, Em’s body clenches around me as she throws her head back, crying out my name and dragging me along with her, our peaks hitting at the same time without warning and seemingly never-ending.
My mind goes blank, my vision filled with nothing but white. All I can do is hold on for the ride as wave after wave of pleasure the likes I’ve never thought was possible washes over me.
When we finally drift back down from our highest of highs, I pull my wife into my arms and softly stroke her skin as she nuzzles into my chest. And when she finally speaks, she says the very last thing I expected.
“Good call.”
I jerk my head and shoot her a questioning look. “Not sure I’d ever call that good. It was… I don’t think there’s even a word to describe what that was.”
“Addictive. Amazin’.”
“Better than any virtue losin’ activity on a riverbank, that’s for sure.”
She giggles. “And to think, we’ve got a whole life of that to look forward to.”
My eyes bug out before they crinkle at the sides and a slow growing smile takes over my face. “You sayin’ I’ve got me a dirty girl for a wife?”
“You’ve got me however you want me, hubby, and if it’s like that every time, then often… always.”
I press my lips over her temple. “I like that.”
“What?”
“The idea of always, often, only with you.”
“I do too.”
Unfortunately, our time to enjoy the afterglow is interrupted by my phone vibrating with a text message.
“Reality creepin’ in already?” she asks, her lips twitching.
“Unfortunately,” I sigh. “But don’t worry, I’ll get us back here at the first available opportunity.”
She cocks her head and arches a brow. “Just the first?”
“Every,” I murmur against her lips before kissing her one last time and letting her go, but not before grabbing a throw blanket from the bottom of the bed and draping it over her beautifully bare body.
“Who is it?” she asks, sitting up with the blankets held to her chest, still looking irresistible as I grab my phone and read the message.
Wyatt: Is it safe to return? Dare wants to know.
I sit on the bed and show my phone to Em, who just giggles.
Jude: Give us twenty and we’ll be ready.
Wyatt: Figured you’d build up an appetite.
Jude: Wy….
Wyatt: Tell me I’m wrong.
I snort and shake my head.
Jude: See you soon. And thanks for… you know.
Wyatt: Don’t thank me. Thank the mountain. I’ve lived through many Calls. This isn’t my first rodeo.
Jude: Your turn next.
And It doesn’t escape my notice that Wyatt doesn’t answer. Lucky for my best friend, he has time.
Then again, Em and I do too.