Though, he suspected that wouldn’t stop her and he knew this due to the conversation they’d had with her mother and Duncan just last weekend.
“My dad needs a shakeup too,” she retorted. “And I’ll point out, you have met him, and you cannot argue that he’s wretched.”
He wouldn’t use the word “wretched.”
But he couldn’t argue that.
He wouldn’t say Tom was wallowing.
That said, the man had made a massive mistake, lost what was most important to him in this world, and that did not often find a quick recovery.
“Give him time,” he coaxed.
“I have,” she returned.
“Chloe.”
“Judge.”
He gave it a beat.
Then he lowered his voice meaningfully and repeated, “Chloe.”
She didn’t respond to that.
He heard her humph though.
That was often indication she was giving in.
In this instance, he fucking hoped so.
“I’ll look at the file when we get home,” he allowed, though only to read it to find things to use in it as more fodder to get her to shred it.
“Thank you,” she said shortly.
He shook his head at the road, regardless of the fact his mouth was smiling.
Any man would want a woman with a big heart.
But Chloe’s?
It just might kill him.
* * *
He pulled out and looked into her eyes.
She read his look and knew she could do anything.
Anything.
She didn’t take him to his back.
She forced him to angle up so she could turn to her stomach.
And then he pushed all the way up, because she kept her front down, but came up on her knees, presenting her ass.
And her pussy.
Judge took hold of her sweet ass in both hands and gave himself some time to watch her take his cock, her body rocking and then surging back to meet his thrusts.
Then he got busy, curling over her and diving in with his fingers.
He gave her an orgasm and then she pushed up on her hands, knowing he got off on that too. Tossing her hair back, letting Judge see the dark waves and curls sliding over her skin, her ass slamming into his groin, her pussy pulsing around his dick.
When he was close, Judge shifted position so his knees were between hers and grunted, “Up.”
She pushed up to sitting on his dick. And angled together, he pounded her down on him as he powered up inside her, one arm slanting across her chest so he could wrap his hand around the side of her neck, the other hand full of one of her tits.
He listened to her breath catch with each thrust, felt her fingers curl around his wrist at her neck, her other arm reaching back to grab as much as she could of his ass.
And that was when he exploded, shooting inside her.
She rode him through it, her head dropping back to his shoulder. He turned his and grunted his orgasm into her skin.
Christ, she was everything in bed.
And just everything.
As it was receding, Judge opened his eyes, gazing down the length of her body. Her full tit almost too much for his hand, her trimmed bush sheathing his cock. He felt her soft hair crushed to his chest, all over his shoulder. And his dick twitched inside her.
They fucked everywhere. Her bed. His bed. Her couch. His. Her shower. His. On the basin in her bathroom. On his. He’d dropped to his knees in her kitchen and eaten her out. She’d dropped to hers in his and sucked him off. They’d fucked on her desk at her office. They’d fucked in his car after they got back to it when they took Zeke walking on a remote trail.
They fucked in the morning and they fucked at night. They fucked all day on Sundays, and it wasn’t usual, but it happened where she’d wake him up in the middle of the night to fuck her, or he’d do the same.
Hell, they didn’t make it out of her foyer when he brought her home from her trip to LA, they’d been so desperate to go at each other after they’d been apart. And that had been repeated in his entryway when he got back from New Mexico and Denver.
They couldn’t get enough of each other.
And staring at her beauty sitting on his dick, he knew they never would.
Chloe loved looking at him and didn’t hide it. Her face grew hungry whenever she’d see his cock. But even dressed and out doing shit, he’d catch her eyes on him, and she wouldn’t look away. She’d smile softly, and the fact she liked what she saw shined right from her eyes for him to see.
She loved his dog and her family.
She cooked like a fucking dream.
She liked to hike. She enjoyed being busy. She knew how to relax.
She’d traveled and wanted to do more. They’d talked about vacations they dreamed of taking and they’d planned one in a break from his travel that summer (it was glamping, and he was looking forward to it).
She had a stack of books she wanted to read, it got bigger, but she made her way through them.
She was ambitious and fully supported the fact he was the same, but it came of a different variety.
She dressed great and she loved kissing him, and if he didn’t pin her down at night, she chased him around the bed.
She was it.
She was his.
This was it.
This was theirs.
This was forever.
He wasn’t in love with her.
It was easy for a man to fall in love with a woman like Chloe Pierce.
No.
He loved her.
Bottom line, heart, guts and soul, loved her.
This was it.
She was it.
Forever.
“Honey?” she whispered.
“Yeah?” he answered.
“Okay?”
Fuck yeah, he was okay.
He kissed her jaw, shoved his face in that long, graceful neck and gave himself a minute with all he’d just realized.
Then he pulled her off his dick, but he kept her in his arms.
“Am I clean up duty, or you?” he asked.
She twisted slightly and he lifted his head to catch her gaze.
But he couldn’t catch it, it was roving his face.
It finally settled on his eyes.
“Judge, are you okay?”
He was fucking perfect.
“Absolutely.”
She got it. Immediately. She either heard it in that word or saw it in his eyes, or both.
Because her eyes melted, her body did too, and her mouth got soft.
And it shimmered between them.
What he felt.
And she felt too.
“Clean up together,” she whispered, like speaking louder would shatter the moment, but she didn’t want them to disconnect.
Not now.
He moved out of bed, dragging her with him and lifting her in his arms.
He saw her eyes get wide at the gesture, but she simply slipped her arms around his neck and held on as he carried her to her bathroom.
Message clear.
That being he agreed.
This was their moment, and nothing was going to shatter it.
She let him clean him from her pussy and he let her wipe her from his dick.
They bumped into each other as he pulled on pajamas and she put on panties and a nightie.
They slid in bed, one right after the other.
Judge turned out the lights.
Zeke jumped up, did a little roaming, then settled in at their feet.
In that time, Judge had gathered Chloe close.
“Judge?”
“Yeah.”
She didn’t say anything.
Well, she did.
She kissed his throat.
He pulled her closer and tilted some of his weight into her.
“Go to sleep, baby.”
“All right, mon beau.”
She kissed his neck again.
> Judge Oakley thought little of his life. He’d learned a long time ago that what was done, was done. When he was young, it was out of his control, and he knew instinctively he simply had to keep his shit together and survive it until the day he could get out.
When he hit Phoenix and his time was his own, his life was his own, and the people who had been in it were far away, he felt a freedom that was so unreal, so precious, he latched on to it with everything he had.
And he’d vowed he’d never let it go.
He’d emotionally let them go, but he’d never let that freedom go.
His first day in his dorm at ASU, Judge considered the first day of his life.
The rest of the life he’d lived was just one thing.
Over.
But this night, this night Judge understood was something new.
It was the first night of the rest of his life.
And he was grateful for the whole of his life also for one thing.
It brought him right here.
And in that moment, Chloe in his arms, his dog at their feet, shit for her having evened out, and knowing they loved each other without that word passing their lips, Judge was seriously fucking looking forward to the rest of his life.
He did this calm and happy having no goddamn clue that the deeper you bury your past…
The more brutal it is when it comes back to haunt you.
Chapter 25
The Storm
Judge
The next morning…Sunday…
His phone rang.
They’d both had the same ringtone, but Chloe changed hers so they could tell them apart.
And that was his.
Waking them both up.
On a Sunday.
He twisted at the waist, reached out, found it on the nightstand, and hit the side button so the ringing would stop.
Then he curled back into Chloe.
She snuggled closer, shoving her face in his throat.
She kissed him there.
Judge had learned what that meant.
It meant she wanted to get fucked.
He hadn’t even opened his eyes.
But he was smiling.
His phone rang again.
That was when his eyes opened.
It was also when Chloe’s body stiffened.
He tipped his chin down as she looked up.
They shared a glance before, wordlessly, he twisted again, reaching for his phone.
She’d had a charge pad waiting for him the second time he’d stayed over. It was the same kind he used at his house, plugged in and resting on his bedstand.
She’d put the one she bought him in the same spot.
He took his phone off the pad and looked at the screen.
His dad was calling.
“It’s early,” Chloe whispered, staring at his screen, seeing the time.
At any given moment, Jameson Oakley knew what time it was in pretty much every corner of the world.
He wouldn’t mistakenly call at six-thirteen on a Sunday.
He wouldn’t call at all that early on a Sunday.
Unless something was up.
He turned his gaze to Chloe, took the call and put the cell to his ear.
“Hey, Dad,” he greeted warily.
“Judge,” Jamie Oakley said, his voice heavy.
No.
Weighty.
Christ, it weighed so much, some of it landed on Judge.
He’d heard his dad sound like that once.
When Rosalind had passed away.
Judge turned onto his back, pushing up on the pillows against the headboard, hauling Chloe with him.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
Chloe wrapped her arm around him, held tight and pressed close.
Zeke moved from the foot of the bed and pressed close too, on Judge’s other side.
“Son…shit.”
Judge sat up straighter, gut twisting, hoping like fuck whatever this was, it was not about Dru.
Zeke’s head popped up.
“What’s happened, Dad?” he demanded.
“Last night…yesterday…they found her.” An audible sound of a forceful blown-out breath as Judge held his own on the word “her.” “Goddamn it, son, a friend of your mom’s found her last night. She’d overdosed. She was, I’m so sorry, Judge, by the time anyone got to her, she was already gone.”
Judge didn’t move.
“Judge?”
Judge said nothing.
“Judge!” That was sharper, authoritative, meant to be heard and obeyed.
He stayed still.
His phone was slipped from his hand and he heard, “Mr. Oakley? This is Chloe Pierce, Judge’s girlfriend.” Pause and, “Yes, that’s right. What’s happened?”
He felt her jolt against him when she heard the news, felt her push up farther.
Then she said, “Okay, right. What now?” Pause and then, “Yes. You’ve sent a plane? Okay. Yes.” Pause and, “No, can they divert? He’s in Phoenix.” A shorter pause and, “We’re in Phoenix.” Another and, “Yes. Thank you. Yes. I’ll handle it. He’s…reacting right now. I’ll get him to call you when he’s had some time to let this sink in.” One last pause, “All right. Of course. We’ll see you soon. Thank you.”
Then there was a clatter of phone to nightstand, and she was straddling him, his face in her hands.
“Baby, you with me?” she called.
She’d overdosed.
“Judge, honey, are you with me?”
She was already gone.
“Judge, darling, you’re worrying me.”
“I assume I’m required to attend the funeral?” he asked.
She blinked.
Then she said, “Yes.”
“Dad’s sent his plane?”
“Yes.”
“Now?”
“Erm…yes. I…of course. He’s meeting us there. In Dallas.”
“Right,” he muttered. “I’m all she’s got so I should probably sort that shit.”
He then lifted her off him, tossed the covers from his legs, and knifed out of bed.
Zeke jumped off with him and followed, close to his heels.
He was in the bathroom preparing to use the toilet with Zeke as his witness when she arrived.
“Baby, I’m about to take a piss,” he told her.
They spent a lot of time together, and it wasn’t like they closed the door anymore when that went down, but she didn’t tend to keep him company, and vice versa.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
“Sure, though I’d be better if I could empty my bladder.”
She hung on that a beat before she nodded and made a kissing noise to Zeke.
In the past months, Zeke had defected to his beloved Chloe. Judge didn’t mind, he totally got that.
But now, Zeke wasn’t moving.
“C’mon, baby,” she cajoled, “Daddy needs some privacy.”
It took a second, but when Zeke looked up to Judge and he jutted his chin toward Chloe, his dog trotted to her, and they both walked out of the room.
He did his thing, including brushing his teeth, and when she came back, he was in the bedroom, having pulled out his overnighter that he’d left there and hadn’t touched for weeks. He hadn’t because he didn’t use it much anymore. After she made the herculean effort to clear a couple feet of space out of her closet and a drawer and a half, he’d packed heavy a few times and left a bunch of shit at her house.
She had two mugs of coffee in her hands and no Zeke. This meant she’d either fed his pup and he was busy scarfing, or she let him out in her small back yard. Food or outdoor time were the only things that kept Zeke out of Chloe’s sphere, or Judge’s.
Her eyes went to the bag on the bed.
She came to him.
He took the coffee, also a sip.
She said, “I’ll call Rix and ask him to stop by your place and bring one of your suits when he comes. You don’t have one here. But you do hav
e one, yes?”
“Rix?” he asked.
“Yes. Rix.”
“What do you mean, when he comes?”
She stared at him.
And hesitantly, she said, “When he comes to Dallas. For you.”
“He doesn’t have to do that.”
Still hesitantly, she replied, “This isn’t a ‘have to’ situation.”
“It is for me, it doesn’t have to be for him. If you can, I’d like for you to come. It’ll get meeting Dad out of the way. Not great circumstances, but one thing Jamie Oakley is good at is a crisis. You’ll see him at his best. But if you don’t want to come, I’ll get it. I’ll only be gone a few days.”
Her mouth opened.
Shut.
It opened again.
Shut.
Then she stated, “I’m calling Rix and getting him going. He can drive down here and fly to Texas with us. I’ll also call Sasha. She can come get Zeke. He can stay at Mom and Bowie’s.”
“Chloe, baby, really, Rix does not—”
“If you think for a second he won’t want to be at your side through this, you’re mad. He will be hurt and offended if I don’t call, and he isn’t asked to come.”
That was probably true.
Judge gave in. “Okay, but I’ll call. It’ll probably take you longer to pack anyway.”
He then moved to his phone.
He didn’t make the call because she made her own.
His name.
He looked to her.
“You’re concerning me,” she announced.
“Why?” he asked.
“Why?” she parroted.
“Chloe, I told you, whatever I felt for the woman who was supposed to be my mother is gone. Not even gone. It was never there. She wasn’t that person to me. If she wasn’t out of it, she was partying. If she wasn’t partying, she was mean and bitter. Maybe not to me, but life done her wrong, according to her, when that was bullshit. Even as a kid, I knew that. She made fucked-up choices. I couldn’t get away fast enough, and I never looked back. It sucks she’s dead. It would have been nice if she’d eventually gotten herself in hand. But I lost hope a long time ago she’d do that. I gotta get her in the ground or whatever. She probably didn’t make any plans, something legal that would share what she wanted. Maybe Dad knows. But once that’s done, it’s done, and we’ll get it done and come home.”
Chasing Serenity Page 35