Take Me (Take Me 1)

His ass cheeks flexed and released as he pumped into her, his strokes short and deep. Forceful.

“That like, Jude,” she pleaded. “Just like that.”

He fucked her fiercely, until her pleading became more urgent, more desperate. Until everything inside her tensed and erupted and she called out his name.

Jude’s eyelids flitted open. He was rock-hard and exploded in his hand.

Jude arrived at Kate’s front door at seven on the dot. And stood in her doorway for another minute or two, searching for something to say, because she’d rendered him speechless.

On the other side of the threshold, Kate eyed him suspiciously.

“Too risqué for The Plaza?” she asked, a hint of insecurity in her voice Jude had never heard from her before. And never wanted to again.

“You are stunning,” he assured her. “Don’t think twice about that.”

She wore a siren-red dress. One-shouldered with a sheer scarf-type effect where the wispy material gathered at her shoulder and flowed along the front and back sides of her arm. The hem was short. Almost scandalously so. Enough to turn Jude’s blood to magma. Her long, sleek legs were toned and tanned, and her red heels were tall and spiky. She carried a tiny purse in one hand that matched the ensemble, and a wide diamond bracelet encircled her wrist. On her other hand, she sported a large oval ruby ring trimmed with diamonds.

Her hair was secured on the sides in a strategically haphazard manner, with loose tendrils at her temple and plump curls cascading down her back. Smokey makeup made her tawny eyes smolder and the other neutral shades accentuated her high cheekbones and flawless skin.

His gaze lingered on her glossy lips for suspended seconds, and Jude could not stem a dozen other fantasies he’d had of her, of Kate taking him deep into that lush mouth of hers. Sucking him hard until he lost it…completely at her mercy.

He bit back a groan. Kate Stockman revved him like nothing he’d ever known. A greater rush than winning a fight or the most difficult of legal battles.

She was the ultimate high.

And goddamn it, the woman was hedging as to whether she’d gone overboard on her selection for her brother’s engagement party. As if she was uncertain about measuring up to others’ expectations of her, and it gave her pause.

This infuriated Jude—on her behalf.

“Kate,” he said as he took a few strides forward, forcing her backward so he could enter her apartment. “You are absolutely breathtaking. If you have even an ounce of hesitation about that, I will hunt down and torture whatever asshole planted seeds of doubt in your mind.”

“I—” She shook her head. Stared up at him with wide eyes, clearly startled by his intensity. But then she seemed to realize that she shouldn’t be—she knew this side of Jude.

When he was passionate about a conviction, it radiated from his every pore.

Kate let out a long breath. And more surprisingly confessed, “I’m not without my own personal complications, Jude.”

“Demons, Kate. They’re called demons.”

“Right.” She licked her bottom lip, her gaze sliding away for a moment. But as was her custom that he knew of, Kate held fast to her solid constitution and made direct eye contact with him again as she added, “I’m just not fully prepared to face those demons this evening. My family dynamic can be a bit complex. Be forewarned.”

He’d already ascertain this, hadn’t he? He’d been spun up after their phone call, wanting desperately to know what plagued Dr. Kate Stockman.

Even now, he yearned to release her from, cure her of, all that ailed her…with his own brand of therapy.

But he innately suspected it was more than a few rounds between the sheets that Kate needed. While that certainly might help to relieve some of her tension—as Jude’s fantasies of her did for him, to a small degree—he had a feeling what Kate really needed at this moment was an ally. Someone who truly saw her, accepted her and helped her to accept herself in this “complex family dynamic” she was obviously wary of becoming ensnared in this evening.

“You have a family, Kate,” he more casually commented, forcing himself to dial down the intensity. “

That’s an inherent complexity unto itself. One you should be grateful for.”

“I am,” she asserted. “Though they can be overly judgmental and of the ‘we know what’s best’ variety. That’s all I’m saying.”

Jude didn’t miss the tinge of self-deprecation in her voice. Perhaps the choices Kate had made in her life didn’t suit her parents’ vision for her.

He said, “I have immense respect for the way you follow your heart, Kate. At the end of the day, you alone have to be able to look yourself in the mirror, correct?”

Her head inclined to the side. She thoughtfully regarded him, then said, “Interestingly, Jude, I’m noting some inconsistency on your part. A similar appearance to when I was in your office, applying those bandages. Something’s eating at you that you’re not sharing with me.”