Wave after wave.
Rapture.
Revelry.
I was sure I’d never felt so good as right then.
He nuzzled his nose into my belly as I slowly came down.
But neither of us touched the ground.
We hovered there, our gazes tangled before Jud curled his hand around the back of my neck and jerked me to the demand of his kiss.
His tongue power.
His mouth truth.
He kissed me until lightheadedness swept over me again.
Until I couldn’t breathe, and my fingers were in his hair, his beard, burrowing into his shoulders and raking down his thick, muscled back.
Our chests were mashed together as our teeth and spirits clanged.
Desperate for this connection.
The energy whipped.
A tornado that swept up everything in its path.
My nails scraped down his chest.
Lower.
Desperate.
More.
His muscles flexed and bowed. “Careful, darlin’.”
“I’m pretty sure I left careful with my car the night I climbed onto the back of your bike.”
A wicked chuckle rumbled deep in his throat. I lapped it, like my tongue could gather the taste of it. I kissed down his pecs and his abdomen as I struggled with his belt.
Jud grunted, and those big hands found the sides of my face. “Salem.”
“Let me touch you.” It wheezed from my frantic lips, lips that kissed lower as I finally got the buckle free and jerked at the button and zipper.
My hands slipped to his cut waist, and that need was spiraling through me like compulsion.
Necessity.
“I see it, too, Jud, when I look at you. Beauty. The definition of it.” At his flesh, I rumbled the same confession he’d given me as I frantically pushed at his pants. “It hurts to look at you, I want you so bad.”
He pushed up high on his knees. “Fuck, darlin’, what are you trying to do to me?”
“A little of what you’ve been doing to me.”
I finally got his pants down his massive thighs and shoved his underwear down, too, and…whoa…
A shudder ripped through my being.
Jud chuckled again, and he reached out and traced his thumb over my bottom lip since my mouth was hanging open. “You see what you do to me now, Salem? You think it’s you who’s been lying in want? Been dyin’ to get lost in you.”
The man was giant. Thick and long and fat. Hot and hard and dripping at the tip.
He also wasn’t shy. “Let’s see what that hot little mouth can do, yeah?”
A fever ignited in my core, and every part of me clenched in want. A moan got free as I braced my hands on his hips and stretched my mouth around him.
I took in as much as I could as I moved to grip him at the base.
Jud bucked deeper. “Yes, darlin’. Just like that.”
I sucked him. Licked him.
He tightened both hands in my hair, and the man began to guide me in a hard, desperate rhythm.
He arched and groaned.
That feeling was in the air.
Shimmering.
Stirring.
“Salem.”
A rush of energy captured me, and I relaxed my mouth, let him take me as he wanted me.
His hips jutted, then he was roaring a deep, guttural, “Fuck.”
Both hands held me by the sides of the head as he pulsed at the back of my throat. I swallowed around him as he jerked with the waves of pleasure.
He clutched me tightly when he came. “Salem…gorgeous…darlin’.”
I could tell when he was coming down, the way the words went from grunts to these sweet little mumblings that fell from his mouth.
I slowly edged back, releasing him from my mouth just as he was brushing his fingertips over mine.
A rough jolt of laughter left him, those dark eyes dancing in the night. “Well, then, darlin’.”
That gaze turned adoring.
It panged somewhere in my reckless heart.
I knew better than falling for this man, but I was afraid Mimi might be right—we didn’t always get to decide when it was time. Which was why I was a fool for even allowing myself to be in this position.
Where I felt the world falling away and the steady beat of this man taking its place.
Jud tugged up his pants, though he didn’t take the time to button and zip them before he slipped his arm around my waist and gently laid us on the floor. He was on his back, and he pulled me on top of him, brought us chest to chest.
“Sorry about those knees.” He grinned up at me when he said it, brushing back the hair that fell around my face.
The playful, teasing boy was back in full force.
It pulled a grin from me. “They’re going to be scraped up for sure. It seems you need to get carpet in this place.”
I let my fingertips glide over the images on his chest.
“Does that guarantee me a repeat performance?” Mischief wound in the words.
I smacked him on the shoulder, though I laughed, fighting the smile as I peered into the depths of his eyes.