by Taylor Lee
Struggling to free his grip on her arm, she stammered, “What…what are you doing, Jude? Why—” When she tried to pull away his jaw tightened and he yanked her closer to him. Fighting against him, she struggled to understand. “What could I possibly have done that you’re physically threatening me for?”
He barked a mirthless laugh, his breath hot on her cheek. His sneering threat was more alarming than his harsh snort. “Oh, sweetheart, you cannot imagine the physical threats I have in mind for you.” He fisted one hand in her hair, forcing her head back, and glared into her eyes. “But first, Skylar, tell me. When did you decide you were going to release your doppelganger? Bring out your Ms. Jekyll? Drop your ugly duckling façade and emerge as the white swan?”
Sky reeled back in shock at his litany of scornful taunts. “Tell me, Squirt, which Face of Eve am I gonna see next? The designer-clad diva or the bag lady?” Clearly growing angrier with each barb, Jude’s voice rose. “Who’s it gonna be, baby? Clark Kent or Superman? Princess Diana of Themyscira or fucking Wonder Woman? Or, hell, you gonna yank out Susan Storm and make yourself disappear completely?” He sneered. “But before you make yourself invisible, tell me this, dammit. Did you enjoy making a fool out of me? Is that how you get your jollies? Taunt any man who is brazen enough to show interest in you?”
Seeing his scorn morph into genuine anger and hearing him ridicule their private conversations, Sky felt her own anger rise. Finally understanding that he was reacting to the change in her appearance, her fury flared. Jerking her head free, she shoved at his chest and glared up at him. “Let me get this straight. You thought I was ugly, but now I’m not? And that’s a problem? I don’t get it, Jude. Are you saying that you liked me ugly? And now because I’m not, you’re angry?”
“Goddammit, Sky, you know that’s not what I mean. But, I do want to know. What’s the façade for? Were you trying to keep me from invading your weird space? Making sure I didn’t get too close? Just in case, God help me, I might have found you interesting?”
Sky’s anger flared red-hot. The injustice of his tirade—the sheer ugliness of it—catapulted her fury into heatstroke range. “Why would I do that, Jude? Why would I choose to be as ugly as you thought I was? So I wouldn’t be another notch on your belt? A ‘G2G’, like the rest of the women who spread their legs for the privilege of making your one-night roster? To make sure you didn’t want to fuck me? Is that why you’re angry, Jude? You thought the reason I made myself ugly was to keep you from fucking me?”
She knocked his hand off her arm and stepped back, her eyes lit with fiery blue flames. Scorn had rippled through her angry voice, but Jude didn’t miss the pain underlying her disdain.
“But, remember, I didn’t need to do that. You told me yourself. I’m the most unappealing woman you’ve ever seen. Right, Detective Justice? According to you, I’m so unappealing that fucking me was not an issue. Heck, and since sex with me was a no-go, you declared that you might even be able to respect me, treat me as a colleague.”
Seeing her anger and hurt, and knowing that he was being irrational, Jude still couldn’t get by his fury at how she’d misled him. How she’d used her fucking glasses and ugly clothes to keep him away. Not wanting to deal with what a shallow asshole that made him, he struck back. “Yeah, damn you, that’s exactly what I think. I think you wear those stupid glasses and ridiculous clothes to be as un-fucking appealing as you can be. Tell me, baby, what are you scared of? What are you trying to avoid?”
Throwing caution to the gods of indecision, he gave into the roiling, anger-fueled lust swamping him. He jerked her up next to him and shoved her against the bridge railing. Dragging her head back, he forced her to look at him. “I asked you a question, Skylar. Goddamn you, answer me. What are you trying to avoid?”
When she closed her eyes and thrashed against him, refusing to answer, he pulled her slender body up against his. Reaching behind her, he grabbed her ass cheeks in his big hands and growled in her ear, “Is this what you’re afraid of, baby? What you didn’t want?”
Ignoring her outraged cry, he grunted, “Or how about this?” He reached inside the top of her dress and grasped one full breast, then gratuitously pinched the taut nipple. Gratified by her shocked yelp that evolved into a sexy moan, he barked a harsh laugh. “Now I get it. You didn’t want me to hear you moan. Is that it, baby? Because you don’t want to get turned on? You don’t want to acknowledge those shivers that are wracking your body, making you wanna beg me for more? Is that the problem, Skylar? You don’t want me to know how goddamn fucking much you want this?”
At her sobbing groan, Jude breathed out a hard male sound. At one level, he knew he was traversing a hairpin curve that would be impossible to navigate, but his lust overrode the warning signals. Reaching for the hem of her dress, he jerked it up over her hips, baring her thighs. Seeing the lacy triangle covering her mons, his excitement flared. He snorted triumphantly. “Jesus, baby. A thong? You just gave yourself away, sweetheart.”
He whipped her around and bent her over the railing, intending to snap the narrow elastic string separating her ass cheeks. He stopped cold at the unbelievable sight meeting his shocked scrutiny. It took him a full ten seconds to conjure up enough spit to whistle his stunned reaction. “Jeaasus fucking Christ.”
Since their superhero conversation, Jude had done enough research to know that the apparition flaring from the top of her butt crack was a stylized version of the inimitable Invisible Woman. Jerking her ass higher in the air and ignoring her outraged shriek, he muttered disbelievingly, “Goddamn, Sky. You tattooed Susan Storm? The Invisible Woman? On your ass?” Wonder filled his voice. “I gotta tell you, sweetheart, this thong and this tattoo fucking say it all. Yeah, baby. You just revealed yourself big time! I think the reason you wear nothing under your dress but a strip of black lace covering your pussy, and have a tattoo on your ass, is because you do want it! And honey, you want it bad.”
She shoved at him, horrified. Her face was stark white, her voice shook. “No, Jude, honest. I…I did it for me. That’s all!”
At her panicked appeal, he taunted her. “You did it for you? So you could turn yourself on when you look at your hot ass in the mirror?”
At her soft moan, he snorted in disgust. “You wanna know what I think, Miss Bag Lady Pretender? I think you’ve been waiting all your sheltered life for a guy who’s fucking man enough to look at that hot tattoo on your ass and take you up on your dare.”
When she shook her head and tried to free herself from his grip, he drawled, “Well, sweetheart, I gotta tell you. You poked the stick at the wrong tiger. Unlike those other assholes you scared off with your ‘I’m hopelessly ugly and cold’ facade, I’m here to take you at your word—the words you’re afraid to say, but your body isn’t.”
Sky’s eyes were saucer-wide, shining with a mix of fear and another emotion he could only hope was excitement. But her words were fierce, frantic. “No, Jude. You don’t understand. I…I didn’t mean that, I don’t know how to do…what you’re saying…”
He scoffed, and turning her toward him, he cupped her mons with his big hand and slid his fingers under the satin triangle. Ignoring her surprised shriek, he stroked her swollen folds and gloried in the musky wetness coating his probing digits. Holding his moist fingers to his mouth, he made a production of noisily licking each of them.
“Is this what you don’t know? What you don’t understand? What you didn’t mean? How’s this for evidence, Analyst Woman? Evidence that you’re as hot for me as I am for you, and you want this as much as I do!”
Ignoring her heated cry and attempt to push him away, he stroked her puffy bottom lip with his thumb and stared into her stormy eyes. Now more purple than blue, he saw an emotion in the smoky depths that he recognized. It was lust, desire, as potent as his. A cautionary angel, or one of his slightly more thoughtful devils, warned him to be careful. At her agonized moan he lowered his voice and said softly, “Kiss me, Skylar. Taste your pussy on my lip
s.”
When she shook her head from side to side, he grabbed her chin and held it firmly. “No? Your choice, darlin’. Then I’ll kiss you. But first, baby, we’re gonna get you in a place where we can start connecting some critical body parts in addition to our lips.”
Yanking her dress up to her waist, he lifted her onto the top of the bridge railing. Spreading her knees apart he moved between them and pressed his engorged cock against her crotch. His reward was her deep passionate moan.
“Oh yeah, you can feel that, can’t you? Jesus, Sky, you’re so goddamned sexy, it’s a wonder my cock hasn’t broken through my fucking trousers.” Jude held her chin and began to kiss her, softly at first, gently nipping at the corners of her mouth, licking across the seam of her lips with the tip of his tongue. At her muted cry, he gave into the surge of passion storming him. He nearly lost his breath when she threw her arms around his neck and began to kiss him back. He forced her mouth open then began tangling with her tongue, her teeth, his groans as deep and ragged as hers.
Surprised, then elated at her eager cries, Jude lifted her up and clasped her naked bottom in his hands. Tugging her against him, he wrapped her slim thighs around his waist.
His gruff order rumbled from deep in his chest. “That’s the way, baby, spread your legs wide. Wrap them around me. God, yes, like that. Ride me, Sky. Christ, yes. Like that! Harder, honey!”
She was panting, gasping for air, crying his name. Knowing that he was by far the more experienced lover and that she was extraordinarily vulnerable, a warning voice from deep within his conscience sounded the alarm. At this point in any other coupling he would have had her flat on the ground, his throbbing cock inches from the entrance to her cunt. He admitted that the problem with this whole fucking scene was that this wasn’t any other woman. It was Skylar. Fighting against a need as potent as he’d ever felt, Jude managed to pull back. Holding her tight against him, he groaned, “Jesus, darlin’, I can’t take you like this, not the first time. I want you too much, too hard, too deep, to do it like this.”
Pressing her trembling body against his, he warned her, “So help me God, I am going to have you, Skylar. Maybe not tonight, but soon—so goddamn soon.” Jude stood her on the ground in front of him and eased her dress over her hips, then lifted her chin with his thumb to look deep into her stormy blue eyes. Her flushed cheeks, swollen lips, and trembling body mirrored the passion swamping him. Holding her gaze, he laid down his marker.
“Just so you know, Skylar, when I do take you, I’m going to spank your ass so hard you won’t be able to get anything over your bright red cheeks except those fucking three-sizes-too-big cargo pants of yours!”
Her surprised gasp and watery smile were overridden by a voice on the path.
“That’s quite a promise, bro, and I for one, am gonna hold you to it.”
***
Jared’s voice was laced with dry humor, but Jude caught the current of danger coursing through it. Jude knew his brother would never interrupt him at such a critical moment—for Sky’s sake as much as for his. Something was wrong, very wrong. Protectively holding Skylar in front of him, he looked over his shoulder and met Jared’s grim expression.
Jared took an audible breath. “Much as I hate to interrupt this X-rated porn fest, we got a problem, bro.”
“What is it, man?”
Jared sighed. “Car accident, drunk driver. DOA.”
“Who?”
“You’re not gonna believe it, dude. Charlie Berkley. Missed the curve on Pinetop and went over the cliff. Dead when he hit the ravine.”
Skylar’s shocked cry echoed the one Jude managed to swallow.
Chapter 17
“Now do you see why I wear cargo pants and a t-shirt on duty, Detective?” Sky’s scornful insinuation was clear as she scowled at Jude. He’d already made the mistake of telling her that she looked hot as hell wearing his five-sizes-too-big sports coat over her miniscule strapless dress.
Annoyance blanketing her face, Sky took his outstretched hand and allowed Jude to guide her down the steep embankment. She’d left her five-inch stiletto high heels in his car and was picking her way down the rock-strewn path in her bare feet. She growled and shoved at his hands when he impoliticly offered to carry her.
Her aggrieved mutter was barely audible, but he picked up on it. “Being a man who can wear whatever he pleases and still look like hot shit while on duty, of course you want the little women to traipse around half naked.”
Jude caught her as she stumbled, and chuckled. “Don’t misunderstand, Squirt. The only time I want you naked is when you are on exclusive duty with your boss. The rest of the time you can wear anything you damn well please, as long as it didn’t come from the Salvation Army store and isn’t eight sizes too big.”
At her annoyed grunt, he added, “Never thought I’d say it, Squirt, but you and I are going shopping tomorrow unless I can recruit Hailey for that mission. There’s gotta be somewhere in the Twin Ports cities where a curvy woman can buy casual clothes that are comfortable and flattering—something between an Ana Sui original and a Goodwill reject.”
Skylar stopped and glanced up at him, not hiding her surprise. “You know an Ana Sui original when you see one, Jude?”
He laughed and assumed a dopey expression. “Hey woman, jest ‘cuz I was raised in this here backwoods don’t mean I don’t know a fancy get up when I sees it.” He added with a grin, “Of course, it helps when you look at the label.”
Sky couldn’t suppress her snarky response. “That’s right, Detective. I forgot. You’ve had lots of opportunity to study labels on women’s clothes—on their bodies, and off.”
Seeing his emerald eyes harden, Sky wished she could take back her words. They’d managed to act almost natural after they left the garden to drive to the accident scene. She’d been grateful when Jude had started calling her Squirt rather than Skylar or, God forbid, ‘baby’. It made her feel it might be possible for them to go back to where they’d been before their torrential experience in the garden. She should have known Jude wouldn’t let her get away with throwing an unanswered stink bomb into their midst.
He reached for her arm and pulled her up next to him. In her bare feet, he towered over her. Jude chucked her under her chin and held it so she couldn’t look away. Pinning her with a narrow, emerald-hard gaze, he murmured, “Uh-uh, baby. You don’t get to throw a Molotov cocktail into the party and not expect an answer.”
Refusing to give in to him, she jerked her chin away and said with a dismissive sniff, “Really? Hmm, I’m not seeing anyone around who is going to stop me from doing anything I damn well please.”
He pulled her up close and slipped his hand under his jacket that hung to her knees, then slid it up her thigh and pinched her bare bottom. Ignoring her outraged squeal, he murmured dryly, “I dunno, Squirt. If you’re not seeing anyone who would not only stop you from throwing bombs, but would teach you a few hundred other things that happen to naughty girls, I think you better look a little harder. Or, maybe we’re gonna have to get you a stronger pair of Clark Kent glasses. Something is definitely off with your vision.”
Skylar was saved from answering when Jared came forward, meeting them at the bottom of the embankment. “We left everything the way it was until you two could get here. God forbid anyone should mess with a crime scene before the master and mistress of the universe get here to decode it.”
“Interesting that you call it a crime scene, bro.”
Jared scoffed. “Obviously, you haven’t noticed the expression on Ms. Hughes’s face, dude”.
Skylar startled and shook her head. “It’s nothing, Jared. I was remembering my conversation with Charlie. I think I may have been the last person to see Charlie alive. Maybe even the last one to talk to him.” She frowned as she moved toward the body crammed in the front seat of the smashed car.
Both Jared and Jude stepped back when she leaned in through the open window and put her face up next to Charlie Berkley’s sha
ttered visage.
Jared groaned. “Jesus, Sky!”
Jude raised his hand and shook his head, warning his brother back.
Skylar put on the gloves that Jude handed her and carefully unlatched the crumpled car door. She leaned in and for several moments examined the battered body. She sniffed his clothes then once again put her face next to his broken, bloodied one. Stripping off her gloves, she turned back to Jude. She glanced at Jared and sighed. “You were correct, Jared. This is a crime scene. Charlie wasn’t drunk. He was poisoned.”
***
Skylar jumped when Jude tugged on her arm. She’d been so absorbed in studying Charlie’s body that she hadn’t realized Jude was talking to her. She turned to see Jared and Jude staring at her. Both of them looked serious, concerned.
Jude grasped her arm and pulled her off to the side. Jared followed them.
“Listen up, Squirt, I don’t doubt for a minute that you’re correct, but before we announce your findings to the squad we need to work thorough the implications. Right now, I want to take you home. You must be exhausted. At least, you sure as hell look like you are.”
He glanced at her unusual clothes and fought a grin. “Damn, baby, if anyone had told me that you could look more odd, or,” he added with a groan, “hotter, I wouldn’t have believed it.” He leaned down and murmured, “Gotta tell you, sweetheart, I might have to start dressing you in some of my clothes—only with nothing under them.”
It was the first time since they’d left the bridge that Jude had called her one of the sex-inflamed blandishments that he used when he’d confronted her there. Dealing with the shocking crime scene and knowing that they now had three murders to solve, Sky had almost been able to suppress the memory of their torrid coupling. But from her body’s raging reaction caused by just being next to him, it was clear that wasn’t going to be an option. If she shoved a wet finger into a 220 electrical outlet the shock that would race through her hyped-up body wouldn’t be more powerful.