I’ve never bought anything like it before. Its midnight blue, lace over my breasts that is cut so low it barely covers my nipples. Below the bust, it sheer and see through, hitting the top of my hips above my ass with a thin band of lace along the edge. The thin spaghetti straps go over my shoulders and down my back, cutting very low well below my shoulder blades. The matching lace panties are Brazilian cut and not covering much, either. The whole ensemble doesn’t leave much to the imagination, but the color looks great on my olive skin making my eyes look bluer than normal. It’s flowy, sexy and I know Jude went out of his way for me on my weekend full of surprises so I wanted him to have one as well. Even though he already saw it since he was digging through my suitcase, darn it. But, whatever.
“It’s not like he hasn’t seen every inch of you, suck it up, girlie!” I whisper to my reflection. And with that, I let my liquid courage take over, turn, walk my barely clad body through Jude’s bathroom, bedroom and into his great room. The fire is crackling, the lights are low, just one lamp is shining next to the sofa and the TV playing a college football game with the volume set low. I can barely see the back of Jude’s head over the back of the sofa where he’s lounging, feet to the coffee table drinking a beer. Quietly on my bare feet, I tippy toe around the side of the sofa and sensing movement, I see Jude’s eyes instinctively come to me as he’s lifting his beer to his lips. With his beer suspended midway to his mouth, his head turns to follow his eyes and he takes me in from tip to toe. Feeling even more courageous, I spin around, pull out the hem of my little nighty and say, “Well?”
Jude’s eyes aren’t melty, they’re on fire and he lowers his beer to his thigh. Bringing his hand up, he points his finger down and makes a little circle with it rasping low, “Turn around again, sugar.”
Grinning at him, I turn again but slower this time and when I come full circle, I lift one eyebrow at him giving my head a little shake and say with more emphasis, “Well?”
Jude’s eyes narrow on me and he slowly leans forward, putting his beer on the old ugly coffee table as he says low and deep, “Baby, watch out, you prance your sweet ass out here in that little thing, I’m comin’ after you.”
The look on his face makes my eyes go big and he unfolds from the sofa, making wide strides toward me. Something in the way he is moving makes me squeal slash giggle and I turn and skip slash run back toward Jude’s room! Feeling a hand on my arm, he yanks me around catching me behind my back, swings me up and my legs fly every which way before they are swung up over his arm. I scream again, out of surprise this time, as he strides purposefully into his room where he puts me down in front of him beside his bed. My heart is beating from the chase, but I grin up at him and he takes a step back holding my hand. He takes another good look before he pulls his hand up and across our bodies doing a semi dance move, flipping me underneath and pulling my back to his front. His hand comes up and across to my breast at the same time his lips go to my bare shoulder. Cupping my breast, his thumb runs across my nipple over the lace and the feeling of the two makes me shiver. His other hand comes up to my stomach, dipping up under my nighty and he pulls me in tight to his chest.
"Gabby, you're beautiful," Jude rasps against my shoulder, giving me a squeeze. His hand at my stomach goes south straight into my panties at the same time his other hand gently pulls my nighty down to expose my breast.
"Jude," I whisper as my head falls back against his shoulder.
“Beautiful,” he repeats, and then goes on, “I didn’t know you could be more beautiful, but you are sugar, here, in my cabin and my bed.”
His fingers keep working between my legs lightly, but I’m still able to mutter back to him, “It’s not a cabin, Jude.”
I feel him smile against my temple and I lose his hands on my body and the next thing I know he’s whipping my nighty up and over my head. Turning me around, he pushes me down on the bed and I scoot to the middle at the same time he grabs my panties pulling them down my legs. Then he pushes my knees apart and crawls up in between my legs. I see his head descend, his lips hitting the inside of my thigh and I feel his tongue dart out. My head collapses to the bed and my hands fist the covers below me. He works his way up, licking, kissing, biting. Then I get to experience Jude’s three day shadow on my sensitive parts. It was scratchy like I thought it would be, but scratchy in a defy-gravity-off-the-charts-amazing way.
Thirty minutes later, Jude rasps, “Gabby, you undo me. Just when I think we can’t get any better we do. And I don’t mean just this,” he says, pressing his hips in to me one more time, “I mean everything.”
I answer him by tightening all my limbs around him, wrapping him up as best I can. He’s right. As the days go by, everything with Jude gets better. Especially now, since I’ve given up being scared and let myself enjoy all things Jude. I’m overflowing in a whole new way.
Letting my fingers run up his back and into his hair, I ask, “So you like my nighty?”
“Yeah, I think it’s safe to say, I like your nighty, babe,” he pulls up looking at me with a grin.
That grin, the look on his face made my warm fuzzies get even warmer and start to settle in my belly with everything else in my life that seems to be settling with Jude. As that happy starts to overflow and seep into my bones, I can’t help but think about what’s to come. So for the first time in a long time, I let these thoughts fill me up in a way I never had the courage to allow. And this makes me smile.
*****
“Come on, let’s go in here,” Jude said, pulling me into a local artisans shop.
Today is my twenty eighth birthday. Jude woke me up today making love to me soft and sweet. Seriously, the day could end now and it would still be the best birthday ever. But it was only nine in the morning, so after we showered and had breakfast, Jude told me he was taking me to Estes Park to show me around. The sun is bright but there’s still a nip in the air. We ate at a local deli with delicious sandwiches, eating outside on the patio under the heaters. Now we’ve been strolling up and down the sidewalks of Estes Park, window shopping and Jude even let me shop a little bit. But now he’s pulling me into a store filled with Indian Art, rugs, pottery and jewelry. I’m looking around, admiring the pottery when I feel a hand on my arm and turn around. Jude is looking down at my hand as he slips a cool as hell extra wide, hammered silver cuff on my wrist. It’s simple, but makes a statement because it is so wide and can easily stand on its own, worn dressy or causal. Holding out my hand and he looks back up to me he says, “Do you like it?”
Speechless at the sight of Jude slipping a kick ass piece of jewelry on me, I look up him and barely find the words to say, “It’s stunning.”
Jude leans in putting his lips to my forehead, kisses me and says there, “Happy birthday, sugar.”
“But, you’ve already done so much for my birthday. My shoes, the puffy vest, bringing me here. This is too much.”
“Babe, even though I know how much you love your new shoes,” he says with mirth. “You need something pretty on your birthday. Besides, your shoes will stay at the cabin.”
“Thank you,” I say quietly, still looking down at my latest birthday present and flooded with the emotion that he wants me to leave my shoes in his mountain home. Feeling overwhelmed, yet again, I look at my new cuff heavy, thick and feeling perfect on my wrist. Looking back up at Jude, I get up on tippy toes, and with meaning I respond, “Thank you, for everything.”
“You’re welcome, Gabby,” he whispers. “But I’m done shopping,” he goes on, now grinning at me.
“Yeah, I bet you’ve timed out,” I smile back. “But I saw a chocolatier next door. I think I might need a piece of fudge!”
“I think I can handle shopping for chocolate, sugar,” he says as he pays for my kickass cuff.
Walking next door hand in hand, I decide against fudge because they had the biggest chocolate covered strawberries I’d ever seen so I had to have two. Jude got a huge brownie covered with chocolate fudge icing. I didn�
�t think Jude could be more perfect until he told the chocolate lady to wrap up a dog treat to go. I smile up at him huge, thinking he really likes Mia and someday he’ll admit it! He just sighs at the look on my face and shakes his head and says, “I’ll give it to her when she starts clawing at me so she’ll leave me alone.”
“You buy her fancy-schmancy treats, she’ll love you even more, Jude. This is not the way to get her to leave you alone!” I say, trying not to giggle.
“Whatever,” he mumbles.
With that, he takes my hand pulling me down the street to the car, totally ignoring my giggles!
Chapter 18 - One More Surprise
The buzzer goes off the oven. Yes, an actual buzzer since the oven is probably older than me. I pull out the cake, even though we already had sweets today, we bought it and I was going to make it! It’s later in the evening, I know we won’t be able to eat the whole thing but we can have leftovers for breakfast with coffee and toss the rest. Jude is on the sofa again, this time watching Sunday night football. He told me he’s faring pretty well in the Carpino Clan Fantasy Football League, not that I really care who wins, but it’s always fun to win, so good for him.
Setting the cake on the stove top to cool, I grab my beer and take myself back to Jude. He’s laying out flat, taking up the whole sofa, so I sit my beer on the table and lay down on top of him, fitting myself into the back of the sofa but mostly on top of big comfortable Jude. His arm comes around me, I give him a kiss, lay my head down on his chest and his hand comes immediately to the back of my head and starts pulling his fingers through my hair. This feels so good, I snuggle in as deep as I can get and close my eyes.
“Cake done?” he asks.
“Yeah,” I answer and we lay like this, in comfortable quiet, for what seems like quite a while.
I start to doze when all of the sudden I feel my big comfortable Jude get tense and he mutters, “What the fuck?”
I scarcely hear a couple car doors slamming, then before I know it, there is pounding at the door and male voices yelling, “Jude, man, open up!”
Jude stands up taking me with him while rasping out, and not in his happy sexy rasp, “I can’t believe this.” Looking down at me he goes on, “Just a second, babe. Stay here.”
“Okay,” I answer quietly, wondering why Jude is so unhappy with his late night visitors, they certainly seem to know him.
He stalks through the mudroom to the front door and I can hardly see around him. Two pretty big guys are standing there, but not anywhere as big as Jude and his only greeting to them is, “What the hell?”
I hear a loud voice coming from behind Jude and that voice says, “What the hell? Man, I could ask you the same thing. You’re in Colorado and you don’t call us? What the hell is wrong with you?”
Then I hear another resigned voice say, “Sorry, Jude, he insisted on coming up. If I didn’t bring him, he was going to drive himself.”
Jude, still not moving out of the doorway or giving them any indication he was inviting them in, says, “I’m busy. I’ll call next time.”
“What the fuck is up with you?” the loud one yells way louder than necessary. “I haven’t talked to you in months, Mike runs into your dad, he tells him you’re here, we drive all the way up and you’re gonna tell us you’re fucking busy?”
And with that, Jude is bumped back out of the way and a light blonde charges through with a dark headed guy following him, shaking his head in apology to Jude. I’m standing at the far end of the sofa now and as soon as his eyes come to me, the blonde stops in his tracks to stare at me. The dark headed guy follows suit, stopping next to him. I can hear Jude slam the front door and he strides back though the room, looking none too happy with his guests. I don’t know what to do, the visitors are staring at me like I’m an alien and Jude is staring at his visitors like he wants to murder them. We are standing in a strange triangle around the stagnant room with no one uttering a word. So, remembering my manners I start with, “Hey. I’m Gabby.”
The blonde’s gaze on me turns even more intense and his eyes coldly scan my body, making me even more uncomfortable. His lip tips up on one side and turning to Jude, says, “Nice.”
What in the hell? I look to Jude who is glaring at the blonde, radiating fury and bites out what sounds like a warning, “Conner.”
“I’m Mike. Nice to meet you, Gabby,” the dark haired guy says, obviously having more manners than the blonde.
“Mike, a pleasure,” I return quietly and look back to the blonde who now has his arms crossed, staring at me. So I try again, “Conner is it?”
Conner, again, doesn’t speak to me but rather looks back to Jude to deliver his next blow, “What the fuck, man? I know you go through women like dirty socks, but you never bring pussy up here. She must be good if you want her for more than one night.”
I take in an audible gasp of air. I hear Jude growl, “Get the fuck out!”
I look to the side to see Jude advancing on Conner, but since Mike shares Conner’s point of our weird triangle, he was closer and steps in front of Conner to put a hand in Jude’s chest. But Jude is bigger and stronger. He reaches the twosome, stretching around Mike to grab at Conner’s sweater and the shoving and pushing begins. Conner detangles himself from Jude as Mike gets in a good shove separating the two.
“Jude, settle down. We shouldn’t have come. We were out and he’s been drinking since this afternoon. I mentioned I ran into your dad, he said you were here for the weekend, and Conner wanted to see you. He didn’t mention you had company. I’m really sorry, man. We’ll leave.” Mike turns to me, “I’m sorry, Gabby.”
I can’t move. My brain is racing and I don’t know what to say or do. But there’s no chance to think further because the man drama in front of me continues to unfold.
“Fuck you, Mike,” Conner says, feeling brave. “It’s like he’s fucking disappeared. He finally gets out of the Force, gets some government job that moves him everywhere and when he has the chance to be back home, he chooses to live in fucking Nebraska? And he won’t even return my calls. What, can I not come and see my brother-in-law when he’s in town?”
Jude’s head swings around to find my eyes. I immediately reach my hand out to the back of the sofa to hang on. Brother-in-law? How? The far part of my brain realizes how they could be related, especially with the look Jude is giving me. “Brother-in-law?” I murmur, asking to no one in particular, but needing an answer from someone, anyone.
“I see she doesn’t know about Julia,” Conner says, slurring his words a bit. Turning his head, he speaks directly to me for the first time dropping the final bomb, “My dead sister.”
Dead sister? Brother-in-law?
“Shit, she must be one hot piece for you to keep her here for a whole weekend,” he slurs to Jude.
I close my eyes, my face is hot and my ears are ringing. I start breathing hard, I’ve got to get out of this room, away from them. Opening my eyes, I look at the three of them and mutter, “I’m just going to, um…” I look around desperately for an escape and see the bedroom door, “go get ready for bed. The altitude, you know, makes you tired. I’ll just…well…let you all catch up. So nice to meet you both.” My last words were barely a breath and I turn to half run to Jude’s bedroom and try not to slam the door but don’t really know if I succeed. Locking myself in, I felt tears burning in my eyes and nose as I lean against the closed door sliding down to the floor on my ass. I hear Jude yelling at them both to get the fuck out of his house. I hear a scuffle and wince at the sound of glass breaking and scattering. Conner is yelling back at Jude, saying more awful things about me and I can tell Mike is trying to play mediator. I’ve got to get out of here. I can’t take anymore. Climbing to my feet, I move to get away from the voices and go to the bathroom but can still hear them. Turning, I look for somewhere to escape, anywhere, knowing full well there is nowhere to go. I open the shower to start the water and start stripping off my clothes. Not being able to rip them off fast enough,
I step in and the water hits me like a Mac truck, ice cold, not having a chance to heat up yet. Not caring, I put my head under the water to drown out the noise of fighting from the other room and my body starts to shake from the cold water, but I stay where I am. Finally getting relief from the voices, my brain has a chance to catch up with all I’ve just learned and the tears start to flow. Jude was married. Jude’s wife is dead. This news is so tragic, but why hasn’t he told me? Who hides that they have a dead wife? He’s asked me to trust him and I did. I trusted him completely. But those comments about all the other women in Jude’s life, comparing me to them, combined with the terrible things Conner was saying about me is too much. The possibility that what we have doesn’t mean to Jude what it means to me rips me apart.
“Gabby!” I hear Jude shouting from outside the bedroom. I don’t answer and hear him at the door pounding, again shouting, “Gabby!”
I want to go home. But I’m over eight hundred miles away from home. My only way home is in a plane flown by Jude. I’m trapped. And what felt like a sliver of heaven just thirty minutes ago now seems like my personal hell that I can’t escape.
“Gabby!” I hear one more time. Then I hear the crashing of the bedroom door. Holy shit, he broke the door open! Before I could process Jude breaking through the bedroom door, he is standing with the shower door open looking at me. “Please get out, Gabby,” he whispers.
“Jude, leave me alone,” I plead, not caring a bit that I’m standing here naked in front of him, his eyes on mine. “Please, just leave,” I beg.
“Gabby, let me explain. Let me talk to you, please get out,” he repeats.
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