38. Jude
JUDE
“Fuuuuccckkk.”
Soft splatters echo around the room as he fists his cock, coming all over me.
Warm ropes hit my cleavage as he paints the sweetheart neckline.
Then heavy drops fall against the fabric over my ribs, before hitting the layers bunched around my waist. The wet heat of him runs down my thighs as he makes sure to soak my pussy in him too.
His brow creases as he grunts, fisting himself harder to drain every drop.
The final ones are saved for inside me as he thrusts back into me, groaning my name.
“I love you,” he rasps, his brow smoothing as a look of utter bliss settles over his handsome face and he stills inside me.
“I love you too.” I gaze at him, and his lips curl into a soft smile that steals my breath.
Nothing else exists in this moment except me and him. And I want to bottle this feeling of pure contentment, so I always have it.
“You look beautiful,” Slade says, his eyes dropping over the layers of silk between our bodies.
“I think we tore it,” I say, not caring as I move a layer to discover it’s ripped.
“I’ll buy you a new one.”
He looks at me with a smoldering heat.
“You will?”
His lips curl into a devastating smile and he lowers himself on his hands to kiss me, keeping his dick firmly nestled inside me, as if he’s in no rush to leave my body.
“I’ll pray I get that chance,” he murmurs, teasing my lower lip between his teeth and kissing me.
“I’ll pray too,” I breathe.
He looks at my dress. “I like these,” he says, running his finger over the two pearl earrings that Mel fixed to the fabric.
“No grit, no pearl,” I muse, loving the way his dark brows pull together when he’s giving something his full attention.
“No grit, no pearl,” he echoes, admiring them.
“They were my grandmother’s. She wore them on her wedding day. So did my mother. They’re earrings.”
Slade peels back the fabric, uncovering the back of the earring. “You didn’t want to wear them?”
“I did. But Callum ignored me and bought me new earrings to wear. Beaufort Diamonds ones. I already had doubts, but him not respecting how important that was to me only made them grow.”
Slade’s eyes lift to mine, darkening. “You mean my family helped ruin your wedding?”
I bite my lip, a giggle bubbling. “Yeah, I suppose they did a little.”
“Hm.” He dips his head, kissing along the swell of my breasts above the pearls. “So your fiancé gave you diamonds bearing the name of the man who would give his life to marry you?”
My breath stalls, and he brings his forehead to rest against mine.
“I know things are a mess right now, Jude. But I promise you, if there’s a way I can make that happen, one day I will.”
“Slade—”
Knocking at my front door has him snapping his head in the direction of the hallway.
“Do you think it’s them?” I ask, my heart clenching that our time alone could be up already.
“You expecting anyone else?”
“No.” I sigh.
“I’ll speak to them.”
He presses a kiss to my forehead, then pulls out of me and puts his clothes on, looking more and more like he belongs in a billionaire family as each designer layer is reapplied.
“Jude?” Worry etches his face as he looks at me from the doorway. “I love you.”
I smile back.
“I love you too, Cowboy.”
Slade’s leaning back against my kitchen counter with his arms folded as I walk into the room, cleaned up and dressed.
The back of a dark head of hair turns, following Slade’s attention to me.
“My brother came by,” Slade says, looking at Sullivan like he’s preparing to swing at him again should he say the wrong thing to me.
I school my features at the sight of him. He really does look identical to Slade apart from a few subtle differences. And right now, he also has a swollen cheek with a rapidly developing bruise on it.
“Looks like it hurts.” I tip my head toward his face.
Sullivan purses his lips. “Not the first time someone’s wanted to hit me. Probably won’t be the last.”
He’s fully suited and looks immaculate apart from his cheek. But where he had this air of authority about him when I’ve seen him before, now he looks… worried.
Slade’s gaze burns into his brother, arms still folded like he’s waiting on something.
Sullivan clears his throat. “I apologize for the way I spoke to you, Jude. It was uncalled for.”
“It’s a hard situation… for everyone,” I say, sliding past him so I can stand beside Slade.
“Indeed,” Sullivan clips, his attention fixed on the way Slade visibly relaxes as I rest a hand on his arm so I’m touching him.
“What did you come for?”
Sullivan drags his gaze to Slade’s face, and he hesitates, an emotion I can’t identify passing through his eyes. Something about it makes Slade’s arm tense beneath my palm.
“You’re my twin. I should have known you weren’t really gone,” he says, a pained undercurrent to his voice.
My gut tightens. If he’s about to tell Slade he should have stayed gone, or that any of this is his fault again, then he’s going to have a matching bruise on his other cheek. From me.
“You didn’t know about her. That’s what I’ve had to remind myself of.
If you did, then you’d have come back sooner.
You wouldn’t have left her. What you did to all of us was…
” He sucks in a sharp breath, his nostrils flaring.
“That was bad enough. But you wouldn’t have done it to her on purpose.
I still know you well enough to know that.
Something I lost sight of earlier when I lost my temper. ”
“What are you talking about?” Slade says.
Sullivan looks him right in the eye, and I notice his are bloodshot. He looks like he’s falling apart from the inside out.
“Molly,” he says, achingly softly. “She’s your daughter. Not mine.”
“What?” I gasp.
Slade’s staring at Sullivan, the color draining from his face. “That’s impossible. I haven’t—”
“Natasha. Miami. Over three years ago.”
The energy flowing off Slade beside me is enough to knock me over. I feel the moment realization hits him as if it’s a living breathing entity in the room with us.
“She’s mine?” he chokes.
Sullivan nods tightly, his lips pressed together hard like he can’t physically tear them apart.
“Her mother?” Slade frowns.
“Dead. Accidental drug overdose. All self-inflicted. Although I’d suggest you allow any empathy you have for her to end here and now. She abandoned Molly on my doorstep when she was a few months old. She put her in a goddamn peaches box. She was never a mother to her. Not like Molly deserves.”
Slade runs a hand around his jaw, his eyes wide and glassy.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
“I don’t know.”
His heart breaking honesty has my throat burning, and I look at Sullivan.
“Are you sure?”
“We had a standard paternity test. Molly showed a high match to me, because of course she would, we’re biological twins.” His eyes flick to Slade. “It was the one thing I was able to hold against Natasha when she threatened to take Molly away. It was her word against mine.”
“Jesus,” Slade whispers.
Sullivan sniffs, his tight expression giving little away.
“We’ll need to discuss when to tell her, of course.
And how. She’s still getting used to the fact you’re here.
She’s seen photos of the two of us together.
And she’s heard your voice. So it’s not a complete shock to her to see us looking so alike. ”
“She’s heard my voice?”
“Yes,” Sullivan says, not elaborating any further.
“We’ll need to discuss how we…” He presses his finger and thumb into his eye sockets.
“Fuck… I…” He clears his throat again but can’t mask the crack that’s in his voice when he speaks.
“We’ll need to discuss her arrangements. What’s best for her, and—”
“What’s best for her?” Slade echoes.
Sullivan drops his hand, and my heart clenches. Panic’s mixed with cold stone fear in his eyes, and I feel sorry for him.
“She’s your daughter, Sull,” Slade whispers. “She knows you. She loves you. I’m no one to her.”
“But you should be. You’re her father.”
Slade shakes his head. “No, brother. You are. Anyone can see that.”
Sullivan turns away, his shoulders trembling. He curses quietly and blows out a breath. It takes him another moment before he turns to face us again.
“She’s the most amazing little girl. She’s the reason I kept going after what happened.”
Slade’s face crumples. “That day, I—”
“Do you think your reasons for doing it will ever make sense to any of us?”
Slade stares at him, his voice barely a whisper as what Sullivan’s saying sinks in. “No.”
My heart bleeds for him, and I wish I could take the pain from his face. Your reasons for doing it. They still think he’s guilty. They still blame him.
“Precisely,” Sullivan says. “I’m not sure any of us could ever understand why you’d do it. Maybe trying to will only bring more pain we don’t need. Especially Sin. She’s struggling with it. She needed you.”
“Sull, that day… before the fire—”
“Did you start it?”
“What? No!” Slade rushes out.
“Of course he didn’t!” I snap.
Sullivan flicks his eyes to me, narrowing them as I glare at him.
“Why would I do that? Listen, I’ll tell you everything that happened, everything I did. If I end up in jail, then so be it.”
“No!” I cry.
“What the hell are you talking ab—”
Sullivan’s cut off by a shrill ringing from his pocket. He pulls his phone out and brings it to his ear.
“Okay. Calm down. What’s her temperature? Okay. What’s the rash look like?” He pauses. “I’m coming now.”
He pockets his phone. “I have to go. Molly’s sick and Tate’s worried about her.”
“Will she be okay?” Slade asks.
“I’ll let you know.” He nods at me. “Jude.”
He strides from the room, already back on his phone, barking out orders to someone about calling the doctor as the door shuts behind him.