Total. Hell.
Mind made up, he headed toward the front door. A walk on the beach. That’s all he needed. He’d be gone twenty minutes, tops.
He’d never been one to sit still and relax. After his teachers had all but given up on him, the school shrink tried to convince his father that he needed medication. David Wilde had told the shrink to stuff those meds in a very uncomfortable place, and then dragged his ten-year-old son out of the school by the scruff of his neck. Jude had half expected punishment from his tough-as-nails, Army-bred father. Instead, he got a trip to the Smithsonian. David walked him through the museum, quizzing him ruthlessly on everything they saw. It had been an awesome day. Fun. Interesting. Nothing like sitting at a desk for hours at a time, reading out of a textbook.
Finally, his father stopped walking and muttered under his breath, “Those effing teachers aren’t doing it right.” With a grin, he looped an arm around Jude’s shoulders. “Let’s go get some burgers, huh?”
Christ. A surge of intense sadness made Jude’s stomach hurt, and he stopped short halfway across the front porch. He hadn’t thought about that day in years. Hadn’t let himself because barely a week after that, his parents were gone, and it had been his fault. His carelessness, his reckless disregard for everyone around him, had gotten them killed.
He turned and studied the house’s brightly painted siding, imagined red splattered over the white front door, imagined coming back from the beach and finding a naked paper doll pinned to it. Worse, not red paint, but blood. Libby’s blood.
No. No way. Not happening on his watch.
Resigning himself to a fate of extreme boredom for the duration of this mission, he pulled open the door—
Libby tumbled into his arms. The light coconut scent of sunscreen filled his head as her bare skin, still warm from the sun, pressed to his. Her breasts flattened against his chest, and her arms wrapped around his neck, holding on tight.
Jude didn’t know what he’d done to deserve this sudden show of affection, but man, did it ever feel good. He dipped his head, sought her mouth with his, and some of the tension coiled up in him eased.
This. This was what he needed, not a walk on the beach.
For a moment, she not only allowed the kiss, but participated, her tongue meeting and mingling with his. Her nipples stiffened under the fabric of her bathing suit top, poked into his chest with unyielding urgency. She rubbed against him like a cat seeking its master’s hand, all needy and trying to be coy about it.
Well, he didn’t do coy.
He hauled her into his arms and spun, slamming the front door shut and pinning her up against the wood. He pressed his pelvis to her belly, showing her exactly what he wanted and how much he wanted it. She moaned deep in her throat and dug her fingers into his shoulders. Without breaking away from her mouth, he gripped her lovely ass in both hands and lifted her, pumping against her in a pantomime of sex. Her legs circled his waist, and she arched into each thrust, so ready he could feel the wetness of her desire through the layers of clothes separating them.
Too many layers. Fuck, he needed her naked, needed to pound into her until her orgasm locked her body around him and tore his own release from his cock.
Jude reached around and tugged on the knot of her bikini, but the movement was too fast, too insistent, and she froze in his arms.
Goddammit, she couldn’t keeping doing this to him, running so damn hot that her lust was all but combustible in one instant and then giving him the cold shoulder the next. He tightened his grip around her and stilled his hips. He tasted her again, softening the kiss, trying to tell her in action what he’d never be able to explain in words. She melted into him, and for a second, he thought he’d won this battle.
She bit down on his lower lip. Hard.
“Ow!” He jerked backward. “Son of a bitch!”
“What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded and shoved his shoulder. “Put me down.”
He did. His lip felt numb. He ran his tongue over it to make sure he wasn’t bleeding. Nope, no blood but he needed a cold compress or else he was going to end up with a swollen lip. “What was that for?”
“I told you—one night. Just one. We did it. It was fun. It’s not happening again.”
“Why the hell not? And, hold up a second. You hugged me. Your legs wrapped around my waist.”
She slapped his chest. “I tripped, you idiot. You startled me when you yanked open the door, and I reacted…badly. Where were you going anyway?”
“Nowhere.”
Crossing her arms over her chest, she gave him a look that clearly said yeah, right. “You were in an awful big hurry for going nowhere. Were you leaving?”