One corner of his mouth kicked up in a half-smile. “Yeah, been there.”
“From what I’ve seen, you’re still there,” she said.
He actually laughed. “You know, Reece said the same thing to me yesterday. Sure he’s not your brother?”
She vaguely remembered Reece and Greer. And the twins, but she couldn’t remember their names. She’d met them all once at Jude’s apartment, but only very briefly. Jude had rushed through the introductions and then hurried his brothers out the door, making a fake excuse about having dinner reservations.
That should have been her first clue their relationship was doomed.
Young, stupid, and horny.
She looked at him again, let her eyes trace the line of his long, muscled frame, and a spark of pure desire heated her from the inside out.
Yeah, so what was her excuse for wanting him now?
…
When Jude pulled to the curb in front of her house, her father’s car already waited in the driveway and he stood in the open doorway, his big body backlit by the lamps in the living room. He held a gun in his hand.
Libby sighed and got out of Jude’s truck. “Dad, put that away.”
He merely grunted.
“Daddy, please. You’re overreacting.”
With the tip of his gun, he pulled her front door shut. “Is this overreacting?”
“Shit,” Jude said from behind her.
Heart in her throat, she stared at the streaks of dark red splattered over the door. Here too? No, not here. Not at her home, her sanctuary from the world. “Is that…?”
“Paint,” her father said. “Now come inside out of the open.”
“Oh.” Relief shook her to the bone. Her legs didn’t seem to want to move. “Paint. Right. Just…paint.”
“Wilde.”
“Yes, Sir,” Jude said and suddenly her feet were no longer touching the ground. She wanted to tell him to put her down, that she could walk herself, thank you very much, but her vocal cords had also stopped cooperating. Jude carried her into the house.
How ironic, she thought. Here he was, finally carrying her over the threshold after all these years. Tears threatened and she focused on blinking them back. She must be an emotional wreck right now if something as ridiculous as an old romantic fantasy brought on the waterworks.
“Plan B,” her father said.
“I didn’t know we had one,” Jude responded and set her down on her favorite overstuffed leather recliner.
“We do now.” Her father tucked a chenille throw around her shoulders and she clutched it, welcoming the warmth. “You have to take her away from the city. Hide her somewhere, keep her safe until the trial.”
“How far are you thinking?” Jude asked.
“I own a hunting cabin in the mountains in Vermont—”
“No.” Jude moved away from her, over to one of the three front windows. He nudged the curtain aside and peeked out as if he expected her stalker to be across the street, watching…waiting…
Oh God.
Libby buried her face in her hands.
“Why the hell not?” her father demanded. “The cabin’s defensible, remote. A perfect place to hide.”
“Yeah, until a storm blows in and strands us up there with a psycho killer. Haven’t you ever seen a horror movie?” When her father said nothing in response, Jude let the curtain fall and turned back to them. “You don’t want her trapped someplace all alone. Sure, she might be harder to find, but once she’s found, she has no way of getting help fast. You want her someplace well populated, someplace where the locals see new faces every day and don’t question it.”
“And you have such a place in mind?”
“One or two,” Jude said and the undercurrent of laughter in his voice finally snapped Libby out of her fog.
Wait. They wanted to take her out of the city?
“Stop.” She shook off the blanket and stood. “Don’t I get a say in this?”
“No,” they said at the same time and in that moment, the similarities between the two men struck her speechless—except one meant everything to her and the other she wanted nothing to do with.
She turned to the only one who mattered. “I’m not going anywhere, Dad.”
His expression softened and he soothed down a flyaway strand of her hair. “You don’t have a choice, sweet pea. Whoever this is knows where you live. I won’t take a chance with my only daughter’s life.”
“And I understand that, but you can’t just ship me off somewhere. I’ll get a hotel.”
“Not good enough. You need protection.”
All right. If that was how he wanted to play it, she could be stubborn, too. She was her father’s daughter after all. She crossed her arms over her chest and lifted her chin. “Then hire someone else because I’m not going anywhere with him.”
Her father looked at Jude for a long moment, then back at her. “He saved your life tonight.”
“Yes.” And did that mean she owed him something? Because she really didn’t want to be indebted to Jude Wilde in any way. She could only imagine his version of a repayment plan. “But I can’t stand him. He’s selfish, hedonistic, reckless, and…and I don’t want to be near him.”
Jude grinned. “You’re full of compliments.”
She propped a hand on her hip and held her other out as if to say, see what I mean?
“Yes, he is all those things,” her father agreed with a long-suffering sigh. “And he can’t take an order for shit, but he’s also good at what he does, the best I’ve ever had the misfortune to command. He’ll keep you safe for me.”
Oh no, this couldn’t be happening. Frantic, she searched for another excuse. “I can’t leave my job.”
“I already talked to your boss. He said you have plenty of vacation time coming and agrees that you should take it. Please, Elizabeth,” he added softly. “Please. For me.”
She studied his face, noted the new lines around his weary eyes. “You’re really worried about this, aren’t you?”
“Very. You should be, too, and it terrifies me that you’re not.”
Closing her eyes, she let out a breath in defeat. There would be no winning this battle and honestly, she wasn’t sure she even wanted to. Elliot Pruitt never admitted to such weaknesses as worry or fear. That he would do so now only went to show exactly how concerned he was.
“All right.” She took a moment to fortify herself before she faced Jude. “What should I pack?”
The man grinned and tendrils of heat curled through her belly at the sight of his dimples. Damn him.
“Swimsuit,” he said.
“Figures.”
As she stalked toward her bedroom, she heard him laugh. This was going to be one long, headache-inducing vacation.
Chapter Four
The house was exactly the way he remembered it: smack dab in the middle of the city and completely secluded behind a stone fence and a lush tropical garden.
Perfect place to hide from the world.
Jude pulled up to the gate at the backside of the property and leaned out his open window to wave at the camera. As he waited for the gate to slide open, he glanced over at Libby, asleep in the passenger seat. Her hair was loose for the first time since their reunion. A sudden visceral memory all of that sleek gold spread across his thighs as she did the most amazing things to his body with her mouth hit him hard in the gut and made his jeans painfully tight.
And yet he couldn’t look away. He’d missed seeing her like this, completely relaxed, her defenses down. Somehow, she looked smaller when she slept and he wanted to wrap himself around her, shield her from all the bad in the world. No other woman aroused that protective instinct in him like Elizabeth Pruitt, and it was irritating as hell.
Damn, she was still as gorgeous as she’d been in college—maybe even more so now because her body had curves it had lacked back then. Lush, intriguing curves that had tormented him during the entire flight to Florida. Thanks to her reclined pos
ition, her baggy T-shirt pulled tight across her chest and showcased her bigger breasts. What he wouldn’t give to see those babies bare as she sat astride him, riding him hard until they both came screaming.
Fuck.
Annoyed and uncomfortable, Jude shoved open the rental’s door and slid out. Why was he torturing himself with something he’d never have again? He’d burned that bridge but good eight years ago and there would be no crossing back over it. So he needed to chill with the X-rated fantasies.
Leaning against the hood of the car, he jingled the ring in his pocket and took a moment to enjoy the warm night air, fragrant with salt, sand, and flowers he couldn’t begin to name. Someone played a guitar on the beach a block away, and the dulcet tones of the song soothed over him like a lover’s caress.
Ah, Key West. He’d missed it here, hadn’t been back since his very short visit last year. He winced at the memory as a figure stepped into the splash of his rental’s headlights. A vice tightened in Jude’s chest, but he plastered on an easy smile and faced the house’s owner.
“Hey, Seth.” He walked slowly toward the gate, hands held in plain view at his sides, the poster boy of non-threatening. Even though he’d called ahead and his arrival had been expected, he didn’t dare make any sudden moves.
Last time he’d seen Seth Harlan…well, it had ended badly. He’d thought that after his best friend’s experience overseas, a friendly face would do him good, help him heal or some shit, so he’d traveled to Key West as soon as Seth was stateside. But he’d been wrong. The mere sound of his voice had sent Seth hurtling into a flashback. The guy had smashed a beer bottle, then threatened everyone in the bar with the shards of glass. After that, as much as it had killed Jude to keep his distance, he’d stayed away.
Until now.
Christ, first Libby and now Seth. All the skeletons from his past were rattling to life this week.
“Been a long time. How you doin’?” he asked. The guy had lost a lot weight and no longer resembled the muscular man Jude remembered from their days of raising hell together on and off base. “You holdin’ up?”
“Working at it.” Seth’s voice sounded rusty, like he never used it, and his gaze was a little wild as it bounced from Jude to the car, where Libby slept in the passenger seat. “That the woman?”
“Yeah, that’s Libby. You remember me talking about her during OCS, don’t you?”
A ghost of a smile drifted across Seth’s lips. “You wouldn’t shut up about her.” The smile disappeared. “Then one day you wouldn’t talk about her at all.”
“Shit happens, people drift apart.”
“I know. Believe me. And yet here she is with you.” He stared at the ground. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t jealous you got her back.”
Jude winced. “Yeah, I was sorry to hear about Emma calling off the engagement like that. You two were great together.”
Seth raised one shoulder in a half-hearted shrug, then unlocked the chain on the gate and pulled one side open. “She’s better off. I’m…not right anymore, ya know?”
After what he went through in Afghanistan, Jude thought, who would be? Nobody came back from that kind of torture in one piece.
“But,” Seth added with steel in his tone, “I’m gonna get right.”
Jude couldn’t help it, he strode forward and embraced the man who was once his best friend in a hard, backslapping hug. “Nah, man, you’re golden. You’re a walking miracle and I am so fucking happy to see you back in the world.”
Behind them, the car door opened. “Jude?” Libby said.
“Hey, you’re awake. Come on over here and meet one of the best men I know. Libby, Seth Harlan. He’s lending us his house.”
Libby nodded and held out a hand. “Thanks for letting us stay here.”
“It’s no problem.” After only the slightest hesitation, Seth accepted the handshake. “I won’t be around and I feel better knowing someone else will be. Speaking of…” He fished in the pocket of his hoodie and produced a ring of keys that he handed to Jude. “You remember where everything is?”
“Sure do.”
“All right then.” Seth grabbed a rucksack that sat propped against the edge of the stone fence and slung it over his shoulder. “I have a…plane…to catch.” He said the word “plane” in the same tone other people used for “cockroach.”
Jude squeezed his shoulder in a show of support. “You’ll be fine. I’ve been hearing nothing but good things about HORNET. Vaughn went through BUD/S with the two guys heading the team and he says they’ll take care of you. Do you need a lift to the airport?”
“No.” He drew a breath, gazed up and down the street, and then pulled up the hood of his sweatshirt. “I’ll walk.”
Jude recognized that action for what it was—a defense mechanism, a way to hide from the world—and suddenly he wasn’t so sure about letting Seth go it alone. “You sure?”
“I need to walk,” Seth corrected himself and hitched the pack up into a better position on his shoulders. “I have to prove to myself…yeah. I just have to.”
Jude tried for a smile. “Man, you always did have more balls than brains. Probably the reason we got along so well.”
“That hasn’t changed.” He started down the drive, but paused at the sidewalk and turned back. “Hey, Wilde, I never blamed you for what happened to me. When I get home, let’s grab a beer. Catch up.”
The lump that formed in Jude’s throat made speaking impossible, so he just nodded and lifted his hand in a salute. Seth returned the salute with a smile. Then, after another moment of hesitation, he stepped out onto the sidewalk and headed toward a second chance at life.
Christ knew he deserved it.
Jude watched the empty sidewalk until fingers brushed his wrist. He glanced down to see Libby staring at him with an unreadable expression on her face.
“Your friend is a strange one,” she said.
Jude shook off her hand and strode to the car. “You have no idea the hell he’s been through.”
She waited until he pulled the car into the driveway then shut and locked the gate. “I didn’t mean to offend you.”
“Well, you did.” He slammed the door and went to the trunk to grab their bags, but she caught his arm before he could stomp off into the house like he wanted.
“I’m sorry.”
He shook off her grasp. “After what happened to that man, he could’ve just said the hell with it and put a bullet in his brain. But he didn’t. He’s got a job with a private hostage rescue team, he’s pulling his life back together. He’s stronger than any man I know and deserves nothing but your respect.”
“I-I really am sorry. I didn’t know.”
Of course she didn’t know. Damn. Feeling like a heel, he shut his eyes and tried exhaling his irritation. After spending his entire day camped out on the floor in front of her office, then getting clipped by that car, followed by the plane ride to Florida, his entire body was one big throb and his eyes felt like he’d scoured them with gravel. And that was before the emotional humdinger of seeing Seth again.
What he needed was to get unpacked and take a nice long soak in the hot tub.
“Let’s get inside,” he said. “I’ll show you the house.”
“Okay.” She held out a hand for her bag, but he ignored it. Not because he wanted to be a gentleman, but because his muscles had stiffened up. The less unnecessary movement he engaged in, the better. He tilted his head, indicating a stone path lit with solar lanterns. He’d deal with pulling the car into the two bay garage later. “This way.”
“It’s beautiful,” Libby said after they’d traveled several feet into the garden. The path dumped them out next to the in-ground pool and she stopped to stare. “Wow.”
Jude also paused to take in the view, remembering his own similar reaction when, fresh out of Officer Candidates School, he’d first visited this place. The pool was long enough to swim laps and glowed an inviting blue from the underwater lighting tucked along th
e edges. An overhang of tropical trees provided shade during the day and gave it the feel of a hidden oasis.
Tons of fond memories here. Seth’s house had been the hotspot whenever he and his Marine buddies got an extended leave. Lots of barbecues, all-nighter parties, women, and drunken good times had happened here over the years.
Part of him missed it all.
Jude crossed the concrete pool deck to the open-air seating area, passed the covered pool table and comfortably padded wicker furniture arranged around an iron fire pit, and opened the French doors into the kitchen.
Libby followed and sucked in a surprised breath. “This is not what I expected when you said ‘safe house’. Does Seth live here by himself?”
“Yeah.” He set their bags down by the island counter and studied the house’s open floor plan. The place looked less like the bachelor pad it used to be and more like a showroom example of snazzy Key West real estate. Seth had bought new furniture in a creamy off-white leather and had painted the living room walls a bright red-orange. For christssakes, the striped pillows on the couches even matched the color of the walls exactly.
Man, Seth had way too much time on his hands.
“He must be wealthy to afford a place like this in Key West,” Libby said and ran her hand over a baby grand piano, which matched the color of the furniture.
“Inheritance,” Jude said. “His father’s a big wig in the agricultural industry in Iowa. Seth’s always had money to burn.”
“I love the windows, the colors…it’s all so cheerful.”
Jude didn’t mention that if she had spent a year as a prisoner of war, she’d need to surround herself with light and color. Instead, he just picked up their bags again and stifled a groan. He needed to get into the bedroom and change into his swim trunks. That hot tub was all but screaming his name.
“Well, this is it,” he said. “Kitchen here, living room there. That little nook by the piano’s an office area. Bedroom’s down this hallway.” He hitched a thumb behind him at the short hallway beside the galley kitchen. “It has an en suite, and there’s a half bath off the living room.” As he spoke, he headed toward the bedroom, moving as fast as he dared. “Home sweet home for a while.”
Wilde Nights in Paradise Page 4