Shatter (Unbreakable Bonds Series Book 2)

by Jocelynn Drake

  They stayed on top of each other, breathing hard. Jude let go of his leg and fell all the way on top of him, his heart pounding against Snow’s chest. Snow felt boneless, replete, floating on the after-haze of a great orgasm. An unbelievable orgasm. The man’s weight on top of him was so good.

  “Holy hell,” Jude muttered into his neck.

  Snow stroked a hand down his back, enjoying the taut, sinewy muscles. The smooth, sweaty skin that felt like silk under his palm.

  Jude rolled off him, kicking the covers away from his legs as he tied off the condom and dropped it into something beside the bed.

  The room was still a little chilly, but it now felt good on Snow’s sweaty skin. He sprawled back on the bed, one leg still tangled with Jude’s. His fucking mind was blown, his heart hammering through his chest. His thoughts couldn’t merge into anything rational. The rest of the world had faded and dropped back so he could breathe. He’d opened himself up to this man more than he had with anyone else, let him see something he didn’t let others see. And he didn’t understand why—what made this man special?

  He was gorgeous. Sexy. But he seemed so…nice. Then there was that dominant side that came out of nowhere. He liked it. A lot.

  Snow turned his head and caught Jude watching him. His jaw, covered in that tenacious beard growth, tapered into a sexy, pointed chin. His nose sloped, long and elegant. He had eyes so dark a brown, they looked black in the low light. Full soft lips that Snow now knew would probably wrap his cock like a dream. When they got around to that.

  Wait, when?

  Snow didn’t plan beyond one-time hook-ups. Ever. But he would be pretty fucking stupid not to do this again. It was too good. And nothing like any first time he’d had with anyone else. It hadn’t even felt like a first time at all—their bodies meeting in a smooth rhythm Snow had only imagined came with familiarity before.

  Jude propped his cheek on his palm and scooted closer, sliding his thigh along Snow’s. Silky hair on his leg rasped over his skin and he swallowed the lump forming in his throat. Jude placed his free hand on Snow’s belly beneath the now cold pool of his semen. He stroked his fingers through Snow’s pubic hair.

  Snow needed to get up. Get out of here. He couldn’t make himself move.

  Jude chuckled, patted his stomach and rolled off the bed. “I can almost feel how hard and fast your mind is working. How much you want to run. I’m getting something to clean you up. Stay there.” But he didn’t move right away, his gaze moving slowly up and down Snow’s sprawled form. “I mean it. Stay.”

  Snow tucked his arms beneath his head. “Sexy fun time is over. You can drop giving the orders now.”

  “Sexy fun time is certainly not over. You think that’s all I want out of you? After that?” Jude smiled over his shoulder as he turned. “Just stay the hell there. Warm, wet rag coming up.”

  He watched Jude’s ass all the way into the bathroom, which was on the other side of the tiny apartment. The man’s backside was round, firm, perfect for sinking his teeth into—that ass was the thing of dreams. He’d been eying it under the man’s uniform for months now. Bare was better.

  He looked good from the front, too, as he hurried back. Jude had to be cold now that the sweat was drying on his body. He wiped Snow down, tossed the rag into a basket of clothes and pulled the covers over Snow. “Not that I want to cover up all that gorgeous skin and those unbelievably sexy long legs, but it’s freezing in here. I’m going to turn up the heat.” Sexual dominance wasn’t the only kind of streak Jude had. Seemed he had a hell of a protective one as well.

  Again, Snow felt like he was teetering on the edge of something—like he balanced on a high beam, afraid to open his eyes because he’d get dizzy. But he literally couldn’t close his eyes, not while that man walked around naked. Jude strode to the thermostat, completely unselfconscious, muscles tightening and flexing. Strong. Firm. He made Snow’s mouth water. “What’s with the wooden boxes?” Snow asked, trying to direct his thoughts somewhere other than wanting another round with this man.

  Jude turned up the thermostat, walked to the brick wall of shelves and brought one of the boxes to the bed. He handed it to Snow, then crawled under the heavy comforter and slid his leg back over Snow’s. His cock, soft now, nestled against his hip. Snow focused on the box in his hands and tried to ignore the instant flare of lust that began to fill his own.

  “Open it,” Jude urged, slipping his hand under the cover and onto Snow’s stomach again. He seemed to have a fascination with that part of Snow’s body. Jude traced his stomach muscles, then stroked the trail of hair under his belly button and again, Snow’s cock jerked. Unfortunately, today’s gamut of seesawing emotions had taken a toll. Exhaustion crept over him along with the warmth of the blanket and Jude’s body. It would win over lust at this point. He turned the box, admiring the crisscrossed patterns of the different woods. “I’m not going to open a door to a demon dimension, am I?”

  “It’s not LeMarchand’s box. But funny you should ask that.” Jude chuckled softly, still stroking his fingers over Snow’s belly. “It’s a Japanese puzzle box. I collect them. Each one has a new way to get inside. Want me to show you how to open this one?”

  “I do not.” He sent one tentative smile at Jude before directing his attention back to the box. Snow wasn’t one to shirk a challenge. He studied the box. Nothing stood out. There wasn’t a row that looked different from the next. He started pushing areas with his thumbs, trying to slide a row or find one that pushed in. It took him a few minutes but he got into the box. He tilted the empty middle toward Jude. “No prize inside?”

  Black eyes met his. “You got inside,” he murmured, low voice sending rumbles along Snow’s spine. “Isn’t learning something’s secrets prize enough?”

  Snow didn’t answer. The last thing he wanted was anyone learning his secrets. Hell, he’d already shared enough with him. “What made you start collecting these?” He handed him the box.

  Jude set it on the small table beside the bed, then rolled mostly back onto Snow again. The man was a cuddler. A big, muscled, silky-haired cuddler who smelled so damn good and made Snow want to burrow. Or run.

  “That stupid horror movie,” Jude answered, sounding almost embarrassed. “Hated it. It scared the shit out of me when I was a kid. But I loved the box. Then one of my uncles found a wooden one that looked similar and that was the beginning. My family has a lot of fun finding new ones for me for Christmas every year.”

  “So you aren’t a horror fan?”

  “I don’t mind a good thriller and the scarier the better, but I hate torture and slasher stuff. Give me a good action flick any day.” He kissed Snow’s ear. “Or good porn.”

  When he shivered, Jude laughed, his voice so close, it rumbled in his ear. “I think your ear is quite the erogenous zone.”

  “I think you have an oral fixation.”

  “Guilty.” Jude lightly sucked on his ear lobe. “Here, in a few minutes, I’ll show you just how much of an oral fixation I have.” He leaned back, watched Snow. “You get tested regularly at the hospital, right? I do. I have a clean bill of health in the drawer from a week ago.”

  The question threw him off completely and his stiffening body must have alerted Jude because he propped up on his elbow and rested his head in his palm so he could look down at Snow. “Hey, look at me.” He laid his palm back on Snow’s belly and rubbed along the muscles there. “You’re such a damn flight risk. I’m not talking about losing the condoms for fucking. A relationship would have to be a lot further along than this for that sort of thing. But I want your cock in my mouth pretty damn badly and I’m not a fan of the taste of latex.” He smiled. “Being in the medical profession made me fussier than I used to be.”

  “The odds of contracting HIV orally are pretty low but you have to know that. What do you usually do in your hookups?”

  “Don’t usually do hookups, General.” His hand came back down on Snow’s belly.

  That shocked him
. “Ever?”

  “Oh, I have and yeah, I’ve used condoms even orally for those, but most of my sex has happened in relationships. I have a couple of friends with benefits—one in particular I call if I get needy enough. But it’s been awhile.”

  For some reason, jealousy flared in Snow at the thought of Jude having one guy he went to for sex. He immediately wondered if he got off manhandling that man, too. If he turned all that sexy dominant personality on him. When he realized he was wishing he might be the only one getting manhandled, he quashed those thoughts down fast. Just what the fuck was he doing here?

  “Hey!” Jude lightly took his chin in hand and turned his face so that he was forced to look directly at Jude. “Just breathe. It’s like every muscle in your body just screamed run.”

  Snow closed his eyes and slid down in the bed so that his head was on a pillow rather than being pressed against the headboard. Or back of the couch. He was too tired to figure it out and he needed to get a grip. Jude had him scattered, balancing on the edge of a knife of too many things that couldn’t be, wouldn’t ever be.

  Jude’s hand returned to his stomach in a slow caress that was like magic when it came to relaxing him. His breathing evened out and Snow could feel the warmth seeping deeper into his muscles, lulling him. He would just close his eyes for a second, lay there and enjoy the warmth before he had to leave.

  Chapter 10

  Snow crept out of Jude’s place like a sleaze around dawn. It wasn’t his proudest moment, but he’d awakened and found himself running his gaze over the stunning lines of Jude’s sleeping body and as he reached out to touch, he’d panicked.

  He’d dressed, shivering, in the stairwell to keep from waking him, then walked slowly out into the gray morning. The sun rose and fought the clouds, a backdrop of orange that seeped in thin streams behind city buildings. The air was so cold from the rain that breathing felt like sucking razor-sharp icicles into his lungs. Remnants of the night’s storm shimmered in puddles everywhere.

  The entire drive home, guilt weighed him down like a heavy tarp and it pissed him off. It was an emotion he’d never had time for and to feel it pressing on him now left him feeling off-kilter and angry. He’d left Jude, big body sprawled out, unaware he wasn’t going to wake to give the blow job he’d promised. The one Snow wanted to experience. The man was beautiful, a work of art that had been bathed in the early morning light coming through the one window he had in that tiny apartment. Snow had given a part of himself to him and even though they’d fallen asleep before anything else could happen, what he’d felt in that first connection was something he hadn’t experienced before.

  Jamming his fist against his thigh, he glanced at the passing trees, blurry from the continued rain. Everything looked dull and depressing in this weather, but that was just Cincinnati in winter. He needed to focus and stop thinking about Jude. There was an auction coming to Cincinnati and they needed more information if they were going to not only catch fucking Gratton but stop the auction as well. Getting involved clearly meant crossing Jagger’s path, but that seemed inevitable with Gratton back in town. They weren’t going to sit back and do nothing. Not with Mel dead and Ian back in Gratton’s sights. His heart clenched. He couldn’t afford to think about Mel. Giving in to the grief would have to come later when he knew Ian was safe.

  The smart thing would be to call the cops in on this. An auction was not something to fuck with, but there wasn’t much to go on and Snow wasn’t willing to let the cops screw this up. Rowe’s hacker and possibly even some of Lucas’s money could get them a little closer, a little more information, and then the cops could come in. Keep them out of it. Well, at least the worst of it. He didn’t want to have to step back into that life, and he definitely didn’t want Jude to ever see that shit again.

  But even as he thought it, a reluctant smile tugged at his lips. Jude had really impressed him. He’d come through in a big way, ready to have his back and he’d faked his way through that night with a calm head.

  Pulling into the first floor garage, Snow sighed with relief as he punched in the code to open the door. Rowe had installed a top of the line security system the afternoon he’d signed the papers on this place. Thinking about Rowe made his chest hurt. Thinking about Melissa made him want to curl up somewhere and rail at the world for being fucking unfair. He trudged up the stairs and knew something was wrong before he even hit the lights.

  One of his favorite things about his condo was the high number of windows in each room. He’d first viewed the place in the early morning and it had been a sunny day then, cheerful light pouring into every room. When he wasn’t working night shifts, he was an early riser and one thing he did like about night shifts was getting home around the time the sun rose so he could enjoy coffee in the window seat of his kitchen. He liked it because he could sit there, looking outside at the river while he enjoyed the scent of fresh ground coffee beans.

  Coffee beans that now littered his wood floors.

  Their container was also on the floor, along with the shattered coffee pot and two dining chairs were on their sides. Snow stood perfectly still as he took in the rest of the mess. His couch was on its back, a lamp had been broken—the shade completely bent out of shape. His one vase had been thrown across the room, knocking a hole in the wall—the shattered blue glass all over the floor. He closed his eyes, remembering when Melissa had given it to him because she said his place needed color.

  He pulled out his cell phone but before he could dial, a spot of red caught his eye. As a surgeon, it was a shade of red he knew all too well. It was in the shape of a shoe, at the base of the staircase leading up to the other floors. There were two bedrooms, two bathrooms and the laundry room on the second floor. The master suite was on the third. He thought about going back to his car to get the gun he’d stashed in the glove compartment but instead strode around the kitchen island, and grabbed a knife out of the drawer.

  More blood splatter covered the stairs. Partial footprints. He knew he should go back outside and call the police, knew he could be messing with a crime scene, but it hit him that Lucas, Rowe and Ian all had keys to his place. They were the only people with access to his home. Heart pounding in his throat, Snow crept around the bloody places on his stairs, following the trail. There was a bare foot at the top. A bare, male foot. The rest of the body was out of sight around the wall that kept the stairs enclosed.

  All the breath left his body.

  He couldn’t take the next step over that foot to see who was lying on the second floor landing. A sob of terror lodged in his throat and he braced one hand on his wall so he didn’t fall. It was only the thought of whomever that was still having life and needing help that finally forced him to step over the foot. Confusion washed away the fear over it being one of his friends. It wasn’t.

  It was the man he’d hit at The Dock the night before. The giant who had towered over him and hurt Geoffrey.

  Naked.

  Bloody.

  With a fixed stare.

  Shock kept Snow’s feet glued to the floor. He couldn’t compute any of this. Couldn’t understand the smears of blood on the walls. The way the fluid had soaked into the beige carpet. Why the man was here—why a familiar baseball bat rested on the floor by his body.

  Why his cheek had been split open in the same place Snow had split another’s cheek years ago.

  Bile rose so hard and fast in his throat, he bent and clutched his stomach. But the light was on in the room behind the body and he couldn’t stop himself from going farther.

  Snow was careful to avoid blood as he walked into the guest room he only used when he brought men home. The green comforter and sheets laid in a tangled mass at the bottom of the bed, clothes littered the floor, and the nightstand held empty beer bottles and a condom wrapper. The blood splatter on the wall behind the bed and across the pillows told a horrific story of what had happened here.

  His gut clenched in pain and sympathy. And absolute horror.

&n
bsp; This man had come here expecting sex. He’d done the hardest thing possible for a man to do—make himself vulnerable to another person. And he’d been killed in cold blood. In the house of the man who’d punched him hours before. He’d been used in some psychopath’s twisted idea of revenge.

  The room narrowed around him, his vision going gray. Snow reached for his cell phone, feeling as if his arm moved through thick sludge as he slowly patted his pocket. He shivered once, twice. Then he couldn’t stop. His body quakes uncontrollably. Where was his phone?

  Downstairs. He’d left it downstairs.

  Snow turned away from the blood, only to face more blood. And the body. Dizziness swamped him and he closed his eyes tight to try and get control. When he blinked his eyes open and managed to bring them into focus, the first thing he saw was a gore-covered tooth.

  He turned and bent over as acid boiled up into his throat. He vaguely registered the sound of feet coming up the stairs as he heaved.

  “Police! Don’t move!”

  But he couldn’t stop the fall to his knees as his stomach emptied.

  ###

  Jude woke up alone and cold. He thought about getting pissed, but realized the futility of giving in to that emotion when it came to Snow. It would be too easy to stay angry with the doctor all the time with that prickly personality of his. Jude had known he’d be difficult going into this, so being surprised that he’d sneaked out during the night was just stupid. So what if the man had run?

  Jude could chase. He even liked the chase.

  After last night, he knew Snow would be worth all the trouble it would take to catch that man. This thing between them burned off the charts. He hadn’t felt that kind of molten heat before in his life.

  He wanted a lot more of that feeling.