Part 23 (1/2)

Again. This time he reached under her with one hand and stroked her c.l.i.t. She almost collapsed. If he hadn't supported her body with his hand, she would have.

She was at the edge of sanity in seconds, the strange new pressure inside her a.s.s combined with the maddening strokes of his fingers, making her need increase.

She pressed back into him, engaging in the thrusting and helping set the pace. He met her speed and his fingers moved faster at the same time. When he pinched her c.l.i.t, she couldn't hold back any longer. She came hard and fast. Too many o.r.g.a.s.ms in less than twelve hours changed their quality. They were shorter and more forceful.

Jude followed her, his c.o.c.k pulsing inside her a.s.s. When he finally pulled out, she collapsed onto her stomach, breathing heavily.

He brushed her hair from her face and kissed her temple before settling against her side. ”So beautiful, baby.” His fingers danced down her spine just as they had when he woke her up. ”I love you.”

She turned her head to face him. He set a finger on her lips.

”Shhh.” He wouldn't let her respond. She would have cried if she'd had the energy. Instead she gazed at him, memorizing his face. She'd told him already. He knew how she felt.

Doom filled the room. It was strange because it was absurd, but somehow she knew. Like a psychic skill or something. She could tell by his expression, the way he touched her, the look in his eyes. h.e.l.l, even the air was thick.

The clock ticked and they stared at each other as the sun rose higher and filled the room with a ray of light. They hardly blinked.

Jude stroked her face, her cheeks, her lips. He kissed her temple and nibbled a path to her mouth before setting a chaste kiss on her lips.

She remained unmoving, watching him. Soaking in his warmth, his obvious love.

Suddenly a phone rang. She should have flinched. She should have jumped and grabbed his cell from the bedside table and flung it across the room to make it shatter into pieces. She should have screamed. Fought.

She did none of those things. As though on cue, the ringing occurred to break into her picture-perfect moment and destroy it and her life.

Jude reached for the d.a.m.n device, not breaking eye contact until the last second when he flung himself onto his back and opened the call. ”Cavanaugh here.”

She couldn't hear the person on the other end, and Jude lay still for long breaths, listening. It was so quiet she could almost believe it hadn't happened. Or maybe the caller wasn't really on the line. Maybe it had been a wrong number or a hang up.

”Okay.” When he finally spoke that word, she did flinch. It was so final. The only thing he said and then he hung up.

He turned his head to face her, stared for a second and then eased back into her side. Maybe it wasn't what she thought. Maybe everything was going to be okay. He kissed her reverently on the lips and held her head to gaze into her eyes. ”We have to go,” he whispered.

She nodded. There was only that for a response.

In the silence of the early morning, they rose, showered together quickly and dressed in street clothes.

She wasn't his submissive now. She was his lover. She wouldn't fight him on this. It was no use. Whatever issues Jude had, she couldn't alter them. He would leave anyway and she wouldn't see him again. To argue would only taint their last minutes together.

She gathered her purse and slipped on her shoes. She followed him to his car, leaving hers in the driveway. She knew where they were going just as well as she'd known about this doom.

When they pulled up to Jason's house, Jude exited the car and circled to help her out. He held her hand as he walked her to the door.

He knocked and then turned to her, took her face in his hands and kissed her hard. He set his forehead on hers for only a moment, and then he released her and jogged back to the car. He was gone so fast she didn't have time to say the ten thousand thoughts running through her head. It didn't matter. Words weren't necessary.

Still she wanted more minutes.

Jason opened the door behind her. She stared at the street where the illusion of Jude's car had been. The only way she knew it had been real was that she now stood on Jason's doorstep.

Jason took her hand and pulled her inside. He shut the door and embraced her in a thick hug.

Then the tears fell. There were no sounds. Only tears that fell without ceasing. Jason led her down the hall to his spare room, pulled back the covers and sat her down. He pulled off her shoes and tucked her into bed, clothing and all. He sat next to her.

The tears still fell as she stared up at him through the haze.

He stroked her hair away from her face. ”I'm so sorry, sweetie. I'm here for you. Sleep now. We'll talk later.”

Heavy with sorrow and exhausted from a night of s.e.x and stress, Lori let sleep take over. She closed her eyes against the world and drifted off.

Chapter Nineteen.

Leaving Lori the first time had been the hardest thing Jude thought to ever endure. Leaving her again this morning had been ten times worse.

She hadn't spoken a word. He was glad for the reprieve and angry at the same time. In some ways it would have been easier if she'd gone down kicking and screaming.

Jude had a man to kill. That man wasn't in the Middle East this time. He was on American soil. He was close enough Jude could practically sense his presence. He knew Abdul Sharik better than anyone alive.

It didn't matter that Jude had already accomplished this mission. Clearly he hadn't killed Sharik quite well enough, because the guy was back from the dead and hunting Jude down with revenge fueling his veins.

Sharik would have reinforcements. Not the men he'd had with him the last time Jude's team had confronted him on his turf; those men were all dead. But a new group had been groomed to guard him. They would be bigger, better and more numerous.

How the man had slipped into the country was anyone's guess, but luckily Special Forces had picked up on his location and followed him from New York to the Southeast for two days. He was in the vicinity now, holed up in an abandoned warehouse.

Jude had people too. Some of the same guys he'd worked with from his Special Forces unit, some new guys. All were trained to kill. All were excellent shots. None would be as good as Sharik.

The man personified death. He killed first and asked questions later. The list of his victims was so long no one knew quite how many people had died on his watch.

Jude would be added to that list today, but Sharik would be going down with him.

Jude gripped the steering wheel hard with both hands as he drove the twenty miles to the army base to meet up with his men. They would have a plan in place, every detail plotted out, but in the end, it would all be in vain.

Jude had no intention of anyone else's blood being shed at the altar of Sharik. One man would give up his life today. And that man needed to be Jude.

Jude pulled through security and watched in the rearview mirror as the security gates closed behind him.

His commanding officer stood outside the door of the building Jude was approaching and nodded. Stanton said nothing as Jude parked and exited his car. He was dressed in the civilian clothes he'd left the house in. He'd change later.

The entire event was unprecedented. He'd already been rea.s.signed as an advisor after his vacation. But this was an unusual circ.u.mstance. His unit needed him.

Jude had spent years of his life tracking this a.s.shole and following his every move. Most of his surveillance had been spearheaded from this army base. When intelligence told them Sharik's precise location, Jude had led his Special Forces unit into the Middle East to nail this b.a.s.t.a.r.d.

The mission had been one of the most dangerous in US history. Neither Jude nor any of his men believed they would return unscathed. And Jude had intended to die trying. Several of his troops had died that day, but Jude had miraculously survived.

Sharik and all of his people had been killed in that underground bunker. Except for the small detail that Sharik had apparently not. Jude had personally shot Sharik in the chest and watched him fall. He'd leaned over while the dying man took his last breath. But the gunfire had continued around him as reinforcements had moved into the bunker.

Trapped and without a means of escaping this turn of events, Jude and his unit had turned around and fired hundreds of rounds at the incoming terrorists. They'd killed all of them, even with their backs against the wall. Jude had lived. Five of his men had lived also. Bodies had lain strewn across the bunker on top of one another.