Over. It was finally over. Which was a good thing, she told herself. No more stalker, no more threats, no more hiding.
So why had a lump lodged hard and hot half way up her throat? And why were her eyes stinging?
Across the room, her father cleared his throat and Jude abruptly set her back on her feet. His entire body hardened under her hands, his muscles going steely, jaw tightening, suppressed hostility humming through every vein and tendon. She glanced back and forth between the two of them. What had Kenneth meant when he spoke of the bad blood?
She opened her mouth to ask, but her father took hold of her elbow and pulled her away from Jude. “It’s time for us to go home.”
Yes, she supposed it was, but she didn’t want to. The realization hit her full force in that moment as she watched Jude all but steam with rage, his hands opening and closing into fists at his sides. That’s why she wanted to cry. No more hiding equaled no more Jude and she wasn’t ready to say goodbye again. Not yet. Not when he was finally starting to show his true colors after all these years.
As gently as she could, she extracted herself from her father’s grasp and turned to give him a kiss on the cheek. “Dad, you know I love you and I will do most anything for you, but I’m not going home yet.” She felt Jude’s surprise at her back as keenly as she saw the ripple of shock over her father’s face. To drive the point home, she backed up until Jude’s arms encircle her. “I have ten days of vacation time left and I’m entitled to take them.”
“Here?” her father demanded.
“Maybe. I like it here. I like the company.”
Jude didn’t make a sound, but with her back pressed against his chest, she felt him exhale with something a lot like relief. Her father, on the other hand, looked like he was going to blow his top. His teeth clenched so hard she heard the grind of them from across the room.
“Sweet pea,” he said in the same let’s-be-reasonable tone he’d used on her when she was a teenager. “That’s not a good decision.”
“I’m an adult,” she reminded him. “I think it’s time I start making my own decisions, good or bad.” Then she gentled her voice. “Go home to Mom. I’m sure she’s worried sick about you. Tell her I’m fine and I’ll be home in a couple weeks.”
A long, stubborn moment passed.
“All right. We’ll have a talk when you get home.” With that, her father spun on his heel and marched out to meet the cops, barking orders at them as if they were his men.
“Holy shit,” Jude muttered. “He actually listened to you.”
“I didn’t give him a choice.” She turned in his arms to smile up at him. “Like I said, I’m an adult. It’s past time he realizes that. I’ve indulged his need to hang on to his little girl long enough.”
Jude’s eyes rounded. “You’ve indulged him?”
“For years. Mostly, I just did what I wanted to do and then made him think it was his idea from the start. Like law school.”
“You indulged him,” he repeated slowly.
She smoothed her fingers over the frown lines that had appeared in his forehead. “Yes, of course. Did you really think I’d let him dictate my every move? C’mon, Jude, you know me better than that.”
“Well, shit.”
“What?”
He shook his head. “I’m a fucking idiot.”
“I’ve been trying to tell you that for weeks.”
“No, I’ve been one for much longer. I—”
A phone rang. Libby had forgotten she’d slipped his cell into her shorts pocket before coming out to face Kenneth. She grabbed it, checked the screen, then held it up to him. “Your brothers.”
“Yeah, I should take that.” He removed the phone from her hand, but hesitated. “Uh, Libby…”
“Hm?”
His mouth worked as if he was struggling to find the words he wanted to say. Finally, he just shook his head again, turned away, and lifted the phone to his ear. “Hey, Cam.”
She watched him walk away, frowning a little herself. What was that all about?
…
That afternoon, the skies opened up and rain fell in sheets, splashing into the pool and sounding like bullets against on the tin roof of the portico. Thunder rumbled, long and low. Lightning flickered over the tops of the palms.
Libby curled up in the wicker love seat and basked in the warmth of the blaze Jude had started in a slate and marble fire bowl. The rain was so loud, she could barely hear the crackle of the flames, but she enjoyed the storm. It seemed like a fitting end to a day that had included multiple interviews with the police followed by another go-round with her father about her relationship with Jude. He’d said it was dangerous, reminded her of the wreck she’d been after Jude left last time.
But that was then. They were both different people now and she could admit to herself that she wanted to see what would happen between them. Maybe it wouldn’t last when they left Key West and returned to D.C. but she wouldn’t know unless she took this chance. And she wouldn’t be able to get on with her life until she knew for sure.
Jude appeared in the doorway, two mugs of coffee in hand. He left the French doors open and music carrying the sounds of the tropics drifted out. “Did I miss anything?”
“Saw some lightning.” She curled her legs up to her chest to make room for him.
“Bolt or flash?”
“Flash.”
“Mm.” He sat, handed her one of the mugs, and slung an arm along the back of the seat as he sipped from his own.
They watched the storm for a long time in silence, his fingers playing with a strand of her hair, her toes tucked underneath his thigh for warmth. The music, the rain, the fire… It was so perfect she didn’t want to ruin it with more conversation, but it was time. She had questions for him, ones that had waited too many years for answers.
Sitting up, she set her empty mug on a side table and turned to face him. After a moment, he met her gaze. Gave one nod, finished off what was left of his coffee, and set his mug down beside hers.
“You know what I want to say,” she started.
“Yeah, got an idea.”
“Will you give me a direct answer?”
He hesitated. “You won’t like it.”
She exhaled as if she’d been holding her breath for nearly a decade. “It can’t be any worse than wondering for eight years what I did wrong.”
“Nothing.” He looked stricken and angled his body so that they sat face to face. “Libs, you did nothing wrong, okay? It was all me. I thought I—” He stopped short.
“Thought you could have your cake and eat it, too?” she offered. “That’s what Dad told me. He said all you young Marines were the same—it was just a part of your lifestyle. You didn’t know how to commit. I didn’t believe him, but he tried so hard to cheer me up afterward. Took me to ball games, even suffered through a Renaissance fair because he knew I liked them. He can be a jerk, but he has such a big heart and it’s always in the right place.”
Jude’s jaw tightened. “I know.”
She waited, but he didn’t seem inclined to say more.
“Jude, it’s okay. I get it. We were so young and we rushed everything.”
His shoulders slumped, the steel going out of his spine. “Yeah. Yeah, that’s it.” There was an odd hollowness to his voice and a flatness in his eyes that she decided to analyze later because she was just too damn happy that he was finally talking to her. “I was young. Had no impulse control.”
Working up a smile, she poked him in the side. “And you do now?”
“I’ve learned. It’s still not my greatest strength, but there are some lines that I won’t cross anymore. That’s one of them.”
“So where does that leave us?”
“I don’t know. I guess that’s up to you.” He lifted his gaze and his beautiful blue eyes were as serious as she’d ever seen them. “But I do know I want a second chance.”
And here it was, she thought. The choice. Now that there was no reason
to stay together, the smart thing to do would be to leave the past in the past, let these last few weeks go down as a pleasant fling, and go their separate ways. No damage. That’s what the old Libby would do, but this experience had changed her. He had changed her and the new Libby wasn’t so adverse to a little risk. Some things were worth it.
Jude was worth it.
She closed the distance between them and laid her hands on his cheeks, pressing her lips to his. “I seem to have two weeks left of my vacation with nothing to do.”
He caught her waist and dragged her onto his lap. “Is that so?”
“Unless you have some ideas.”
“Tons.” His lips skimmed the tendon along the side of her neck. “But I need to warn you, babe. Most involve a bed.” Grinning, he scooped her into his arms and placed the cover over the fire bowl to douse the flames.
“Sounds like fun. But, Jude?” As he carried her toward the bedroom, she nipped his ear, flicked his earring with her tongue, and felt his groan rumble through his entire body. “Don’t call me babe.”
“You got it.” His lips twitched. “Baby.”
She sighed and settled her head on his chest. This was one battle she wasn’t going to win. Time to plea bargain. “Okay, you can call me baby or babe—whatever—as long as I can call you Sugar Cheeks.”
“Sugar Cheeks. I like it. Suits me.”
She laughed. “You’re hopeless.”
“You wouldn’t have me any other way.” Jude kicked open the bedroom and playfully tossed her on the bed. She bounced once, but then he was there, his big body covering hers, his mouth claiming and devouring, until the storm outside paled in comparison to the one raging between them.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Jude downed the shot of Jack the bartender set in front of him, and then went back to nursing his beer. The call he’d expected all day had come in just before midnight. He’d set his phone on vibrate so as not to wake Libby and snapped it up before the end of the first ring, intent on telling Colonel Pruitt to go fuck himself.
He never got the words out. They stuck in his throat, caught and held by all of his personal demons, just like they had eight years ago.
After he hung up, he’d suddenly found himself unable to breathe with pressure building to uncomfortable heights inside his chest. He’d needed air and had planned only to go for a short walk. Somehow, he’d ended up on Duval Street and then in this bar. He barely remembered sitting down, but by the pleasant buzz he had going, he guessed he’d been here long enough to have had a few.
His discussion earlier with Libby weighed heavily on him. He should’ve told her the truth about what happened eight years ago. When she brought it up, he’d had every intention of telling her, but then she started going on about how big of a heart her father had and he just…couldn’t.
And, now, coupled with that phone call…
That was the crux of the matter, wasn’t it? He’d never be able to tell her the full truth without hurting her, without forcing her to choose between him and her father. Any way he saw it, he was bound to break her heart and, damn, he didn’t want to put her through that again. He never should have asked for a second chance.
“Hi. Mind if I join you?”
Jude lifted his gaze from the depths of his beer, focused on the woman who had sidled up into his personal space and pressed her surgically enhanced breasts to his arm.
She didn’t wait for his answer and sat on the empty stool next to his. Her skirt hiked up her thigh, leaving nothing to the imagination. “I’m Sienna.”
“Hello, Sienna,” he said politely, but had to wonder if that was even her real name. He lifted his glass and clinked it to the rim of her margarita. “Jude.”
“Like The Beatles song?”
“Yeah,” he said on a resigned sigh. Different bar, different woman, same old conversation. Usually, he played it up but not tonight. Tonight, he was tired of it all. It felt like they were rehearsing a scene off a well-used script. “Like the song.”
“Sorry.” She laughed. “I bet you hear that a lot.”
He did a double take. Now this was an interesting diversion from that script. “All the time. I’ve even heard it used as a pick-up line.”
“If you’d like, I’m sure I can think of something cute, but I’m not as subtle as that. I see a hot guy, I introduce myself, carry on some light conversation, then ask if he wants to go back to my place for the night. So…you interested?”
Jude turned on his stool to give her an assessing up-down. She was exactly the type he went for when he came to places like this. All glitter and gloss with an undercurrent of desperation. She wore a mini strapless dress tight enough to strangle with her breasts nearly spilling out the top, and looked a mere shade better than a streetwalker only because she obviously had money and liked to spend in on bling—the real stuff, not gaudy imitations, if that huge diamond on her finger was any clue.
A wedding ring never used to be a deterrent to him. Now he found himself wondering why he’d ever thought that ring meant nothing but empty promises.
Cam was right. Their mother would be disgusted by him. Hell, he was disgusted by himself.
“I’ll give you points for honesty, but no.” One truth, he supposed, deserved another. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the ring he’d kept there for eight long years. The diamond was small, pathetic really, but all he’d been able to afford as a freshly minted second lieutenant. He’d bought it the morning after spontaneously popping the question during their “We survived college-slash-Officer Candidates School” celebratory dinner. He still wasn’t entirely sure what made him ask Libby right then—he’d just looked over the table at her in her little black dress as the waiter cleared their plates, and realized he never wanted to be without her, so he’d let the question fly over dessert. Part of him had steeled up for the rejection he thought for sure was coming, but she’d said yes. Without a ring. Without even an “I love you” from him. She’d said yes and that still amazed him to this day.
Jude remembered the way the tiny diamond had sparkled when he’d given it to her—almost as bright as her smile. It had looked so lovely on Libby’s finger and he wanted nothing more to see it there again. .
He showed Sienna the ring. “I might’ve taken you up your offer at one time, but you’re about a month too late.”
“Oh,” she said with a hint of disappointment. “Good for you. When’s the big day?”
“Soon I hope.”
“You haven’t asked her yet?”
“No.”
Sienna laughed. “Well, what are you waiting for? You’re obviously a one woman man. Make it official already.”
Damn, Jude thought as her words struck a chord inside him. He wasn’t the least bit interested in any woman but Libby. His Libby, all soft and warm in their bed. He should be there with her now, arms tucked around her, his face buried in her hair, his leg trapping both of hers.
Libby was it for him. His all. His everything.
He’d always known he loved her, but kept pushing it away. Making excuses for himself because, fuck, what had he done to deserve a woman like her in his life? Maybe it was a big cosmic joke, but he didn’t care anymore because he was never letting her go again.
“Thank you,” he said and pocketed the ring.
Sienna’s lips puckered into a frown. “For what?”
“For making me see what a fool I am.” He finished his beer in one swallow, peeled off several bills from his wallet for the tip. “I’m going to tell her the truth. All of it. Maybe then I’ll have a shot at making it forever. A real shot.”
Sienna’s hard blue eyes softened as she reached up, flicked a lock of hair off his forehead with a finger, then dragged one talon-like nail lightly down the side of his jaw. “She’s a lucky woman.”
“You wanna tell her that?”
“Oh, I’m sure she knows it. Deep in her heart, she knows.”
…
She should’ve known. As soon as she
felt Jude leave the bed, as soon as he left the house and she decided to follow him, she should’ve known they’d end up here.
Libby stopped cold just inside the door of the bar as the past flashed before her eyes. Except it wasn’t the past. It was happening again, right now, in living color. The brunette with the skin-tight dress showcasing a great body, tracing a nail along his jaw, her body language screaming come-and-get-me. Jude fresh from bed with Libby, his hair still mussed from her fingers, smiling, learning toward the woman…
No. Not again. She wasn’t watching it happen again. Wasn’t even going to confront him about it again. He didn’t deserve even that much effort.
Bastard.
With angry tears burning her eyes, she slammed through the door and hailed one of the pink cabs sitting on the street. Yes, the hurt was there and she was sure it’d come out later to torment her, but right now it was buried so deep under a layer of pissed off that it barely rated. God, she’d been such a fool thinking he’d changed. Players always play—and the stupid thing was she had known that from the start. So why was she surprised? This was her own damn fault for letting herself fall for him yet again.
Last Man on Earth Wilde.
“Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid.” She kicked the seat in front of her with each word and the driver eyed her in the rearview mirror.
“Hey, you gonna do that to my car, you can walk.”
“Sorry.” She pushed her hands through her hair and sucked in a calming breath. Realized she’d knocked her glasses askew and straightened them with as much dignity as she could muster. “I just caught the man I love cheating. Again.”
The driver’s expression softened. “Lotta that around here, unfortunately. People get drunk off booze and island life and lose their minds.”
She straightened the hem of her lightweight jacket, which had bunched up around her belly during her tantrum. “That implies he had a mind to lose in the first place.”
Wilde Nights in Paradise Page 17