Warmth hit his gaze. “Then of course you miss him, baby.”
“Yes,” I whispered.
Warmth hit his entire face, he bent his head and touched his mouth to mine.
He then lifted it and declared, “In case you didn’t get this, I am not fine at all with us not being an us.”
One could say I got that.
I pressed my lips together.
Judge did not.
“It wasn’t hard to sense your hesitancy, that something was messing with you. I thought I could play that. Then, at your pad on Wednesday, you laid it out, and I pretended I didn’t give a fuck. You stood up and freaked me out, though I thought for sure I’d called your bluff with the look you had on your face before you took off upstairs. But you just did what you said you were going to do. You changed clothes, came back, and you were totally over it.”
Oh Lord.
“And that fucking stung.”
Hmm.
“So, being a guy, instead of feeling hurt, I got pissed. And at this juncture, I hate to have to share that, if certain buttons are pushed, I can be a hothead.”
Well then.
“And so I spouted my own shit. Which obviously hit the mark, but you were behind your armor, so I couldn’t tell.”
Damn.
“And then you didn’t reach out, at all, and I knew you were serious. I’d read it wrong. You weren’t into me. Or I didn’t do it for you. Or whatever.”
Fuck.
“But this morning, I knew you were full of shit when you made that remark, throwing in my face my own words about us lasting a minute, and I realized I had to get my own head out of my ass.”
Well…
“And I felt like a motherfucker that I’d left you hanging for so long after I said that crap I did not mean.”
The remorse.
God, he was so sweet.
“You’d barely started your car to take off before Rix filled me in on your convo.”
Ugh.
“And here we are.”
We were that.
Right here.
With him flat out on top of me.
“So, let’s get some shit perfectly straight, yeah?” he declared.
Oh dear.
“Judge—”
“Nope, quiet and listen.”
I shut my mouth and narrowed my eyes.
He grinned.
Then he said, “I like you. A lot. I think about you. All the time. I barely know you, and I know I want to explore a future with you. You fascinate me. You turn me on. You piss me off. You make me laugh. You’re completely predictable, and you surprise me all the time. I could stare at you for hours, but I’d rather kiss you for days. I can’t wait to be inside you. I want to know everything about you. Zeke digs you. Rix thinks you’re the total shit. I want you immersed in my life. I want to dig deep into yours. I know I could fall in love with you because that’s already happening. So this is happening, because I know you feel all that too, and we’re done with you pushing me away. We’re doing this.”
As if that declaration wasn’t enough (which it was), he kept speaking.
“I can’t make any promises. I can’t heal that hurt that’s making you skittish to open your heart. All I can do is be steady for you as you do that work yourself. And as you do it, then beyond, promise to give everything I got to protecting you against those who would fuck with you, including your sister…”
Well then.
It seemed clear Sasha had far more to contend with than just me holding the grudge I had just decided to hold for at least a month.
Her bigger challenge was going to be winning Judge.
“…and guarding your heart, and Chloe, honey, I swear to fuck, I’m gonna do just that.”
That heart he’d promised to guard was beating a mile a minute, I could feel it slamming against his chest.
“So?” he pushed.
There was only one answer to that question.
And I gave it.
“Fine.”
He went still a moment.
He came out of that stillness when he burst out laughing.
The richness of that washed over me, and I basked in it gleefully.
For a second.
And then Judge lowered his head and kissed me.
I enjoyed basking in that a whole lot more.
Chapter 19
The Wildcat
Judge
He was expecting it.
The soft knock that came at his door after he and Chloe made out, then he’d made her comfortable and got them a couple of beers. They snuggled in his couch and discussed the totality of the shit she’d been facing with her brother, her sister, her mother, Duncan, her dad and her Uncle Corey.
She went to clean up, came back, snuggled again, and they got into what to do for dinner.
A conversation she fell asleep during, passed out so bad, if she wasn’t curled into him, she would have spilled her beer.
He was used to witnessing emotion draining a woman, grew up with it, so he’d been ready to set her up, make her comfortable.