by Taylor Lee
Jude allowed a smile to curve his lips but not reach his eyes. “That’s where you are sadly mistaken, Professor. Yesterday, Skylar made it into the annals of her profession as one of the most brilliant, young criminologists the field has known. A remarkable feat for someone as young as she is. Indeed, it’s truly astounding.”
Hughes snorted derisively. “Her profession? Surely you jest. Playing cops and robbers with overgrown bullies who think that their brawn compares in any way to the work of people with brains cannot in any way be considered a profession.”
Jude considered him thoughtfully. “I disagree. Given that my father, grandfather, and all three of my brothers and I are military veterans and all of us chose to work in law enforcement, we know that it takes more than brawn to survive in this challenging profession. Your daughter proves that. It takes brains, humility, the ability to withstand extraordinary hardships, and most of all, it takes courage. Our willingness to work and die in this arena makes it possible for men like you to live your lives as you choose.”
Keeping Skylar firmly tucked against his side, Jude didn’t allow her father’s dismissive snort to deter him. “Don’t misunderstand, sir. You play an important role. Your research has made it possible for major advances in the study of mathematics that affect every element of our society. The world honors you for that. But, my friend, you have paid a significant price for your renown.”
He glanced down at Skylar, then focused on the clearly irate man glaring at him. “My family and I have had the great privilege of coming to know your daughter, who, like you, is brilliant. But unlike you, she is also kind, generous, and loving. And she is not careless. You, sir, are astonishingly careless. You are so consumed with the magnitude of who you think you are and what you’ve achieved that you’ve driven away the most extraordinary woman I’ve ever known. But then, Professor, that’s apparently what you do to the women who love you but can’t hope to shine bright enough to inhabit your cosmic galaxy.”
Professor Hughes visibly startled. His infuriated expression contorted with a mix of anger and shock. Jude doubted that anyone had ever dared to confront the imposing autocrat before.
Jude narrowed his gaze, then nodded. “You know, Professor Hughes, I think I understand what’s shoved that elephant-sized stick up your ass. Tell me, sir, when did you have your first international press conference? At the age of twenty-four? Unlikely. Even if you did, I doubt you were surrounded by people who loved and honored you. No, sir, my sense is that unlike Skylar’s, all your achievements have been lonely ones.”
Regarding the fulminating man who looked more like a strutting Banty rooster than the fearsome antagonist he clearly thought he was, Jude studied him thoughtfully. “One more thing, sir. Of all of us, you are the bully. The bully who tried in every way to diminish your extraordinary daughter. Who tried to ensure that she knew how inferior she was compared to her superior father, and that she would always be with you, an adoring, albeit lesser light, to your brilliance. How it must have shocked you when Skylar left that narrow, subservient path you chose for her and decided to carve out her own life. As her associate, who also happens to be the man who is ass over elbows in love with her, I will be thankful to the day I die that she was strong and courageous enough to escape the prison you built for her.”
Jude chuckled as he lifted Skylar’s chin and gazed into her eyes. He rubbed at the tear on her cheek with his thumb. “I will confess that your daughter surprised me as much as I’m sure she has surprised you. Under that academic straightjacket in which you attempted to imprison her is a passionate, feisty woman. A woman who doesn’t always listen. Who does what she pleases, when she pleases. Who thinks she can take care of herself, no matter what the danger. I can imagine how that would annoy an arrogant, domineering man like yourself.
“But I gotta tell you, Professor, I can do you one better. I am also arrogant, and frankly glad that I’m as overgrown and brawny as I am. Three times in the last two days this impertinent young woman has done the exact opposite of what I ordered her to do. Now if I were smart, I’d conclude that no one can tame this fiery woman.” He chuckled and added, “But I’m going to have a hell of a good time trying.”
Jude grasped Sky under her arms and unceremoniously tossed her over his shoulder, her ass in the air, her head and arms hanging down his back. At her surprised shriek, he patted her bottom with one hand and clasped her thighs tightly against his chest with the other. Ignoring her outraged demands that he put her down, he grinned at her father.
“I’ve been threatening to do this for several days. High time I make good on my threat.” He drawled as he stroked Skylar’s curvy bottom, “This is exactly where I’ve been telling her this glorious ass of hers belongs, as close to my hands as possible.”
Jude glanced at his grandfather whose rosy-cheeked face was wreathed in smiles. “Judge, I’m taking this naughty girl to my yacht where I plan to teach her the wild ways of living and loving in Justice Land. Although from my previous encounters with her, the student is likely to be doing most of the teaching. We’ll be unreachable for at least two or more days. But given how provoking—make that how provocative this little squirt can be, assume it will take me as least a lifetime to get her under control.”
Laughing at Skylar who was pounding on his back and threatening him with bodily harm, Jude smacked her butt and tightened his grip on her thrashing legs. “Now, now, Skylar. Be a good girl and say good-bye to the Judge and your father.”
He glanced over at her wide-eyed father who was gaping at him, clearly horrified at the spectacle. “I would say it’s been nice to meet you, Professor Hughes, but the Judge taught me that honesty is more honorable than diplomacy. That said, if you would like to visit your daughter again, have the courtesy to give us both advance warning. You are always welcome, sir. But on Skylar’s and my terms.”
Jude shot a peremptory nod at the incensed man who was sputtering incoherently and saluted the Judge as he strode toward the gate. “Good day, gentlemen. I’ve got me a woman to tame. Given how feisty she is, I have my work cut out for me and best get started.”
Chapter 34
“How could you, Jude? How could you do that to me? You embarrassed me in front of the Judge and my father. You treated me like a naughty child who needed to be punished. You marched into the garden and hauled me off like…like a…”
With effort Jude kept his tone civil, careful not to betray the pent up fury ravaging his mind, and more importantly, his adrenaline-stoked body.
“Like a what, Sky? Like a man who came to get his woman? The same woman that has flagrantly disobeyed not one, not two, but three direct orders from—”
Skylar interrupted him, her eyes flashing. Placing her hands on her hips, she raised her chin and glared at him. “That’s a good question, Jude. From whom did those orders come? My Commander? The Lead Detective of the Universe? My boss—or at least the man who thinks he is my boss? Or the self-declared arrogant asshole who thinks he’s in charge of my life?”
Jude pursed his lips thoughtfully as if considering her litany, then shrugged. “Choose your poison, Squirt. Given the options, they all work.” He eyed her from across the boat’s transom and added with an ironic shrug, “Although given what I have planned for you in the next couple of days, ‘Commander’ has a nice ring to it.”
Sky jerked back and held up her hands when Jude began to close the distance between them. “Stop, Jude. Now. Don’t come near me. I…I’m angry. I know you think just because you saved my life and stood up to the most tyrannical man who ever inhabited the earth, that I’m okay with being carted off over your shoulder with my ass in the air…”
Jude snorted, letting his anger flare. On their drive to the marina neither of them had spoken. He hadn’t needed to see her flashing eyes and flushed cheeks when he dumped her into the front seat of his Porsche and strapped her in place to know that she was furious. Anger was rippling off of her tense body in sheets. But her palpable resentment at the
admittedly high-handed way he’d carted her off was nothing compared to the fury that had been building in him over the last three days.
He focused on her. He wasn’t able to mask the suffocating anger that was making it impossible for him to take a deep breath, but he managed to speak relatively coolly. “Tell you what, Squirt. How about we get a couple of things straight before we begin our seafaring journey. Number one, I don’t give a good goddamn what you are or are not okay with. You got that, Sprite?”
Ignoring her surprised gasp, Jude stepped closer as she backed away. “No, honey, before we discuss the meeting we had this morning with, as you said, the most tyrannical man who inhabits the earth, we are going to deal with the issues that have kept me awake for the last three nights. But I shouldn’t exaggerate. I get a few hours of crappy sleep, only to be awakened once again by the nightmare of seeing you tied to a chair with a maniacal killer pressing a goddamned Glock 19 to the back of your neck. Oh, and the sight of two additional demented murderers pointing a couple of Sig Sauers at your gut played more than a supporting role in my horrific nightmare.”
Before she could speak, Jude continued, “No, sweetheart, before we leave this boat, if we have to stay here for a month you’re going to tell me why you didn’t wait for me before you went to the murder site. Even when you knew that the Parker sisters were the murderers. And after you have explained that remarkably dangerous oversight on your part, you’re going to promise me that you will never do anything like that again, ever!”
At her deepening frown and hardening glare, Jude fought to control his temper and managed a warning drawl. “Before that chin of yours goes an inch higher, Squirt, let me tell you what else you are never going to do again. If anyone, including lying bitches like Jerri fucking Ross tells obvious lies about their non-relationships with me, you are going to give me the courtesy of acknowledging that they are untrue. Of knowing that I would never walk away from the night that we had together, and consider even being in the same room or the same universe with another woman. Fuck it, you might even defend me instead of pushing me away like you couldn’t bear to be with a profligate heel like me.”
When Sky bit down on her lip and shook her head, her eyes teeming with emotion, Jude narrowed the physical gap between them further. “On that point, Skylar, let me be clear. When our crazy life gets even more unhinged? And I’m worried as hell about you, and I tell you how much I need you, how I’m aching to be with you?…Do you think it’s possible for you to find an inch or two of space in your encyclopedic brain to register the fact that I love you and will not permit you to push me away? Do you think you could do that, Skylar? Do you?”
When she’d moved as far back as the boat rigging would allow, he moved within inches of her. He could see the beads of moisture on her lip and hear her shallow breaths. He knew she was struggling, but goddammit, so was he. He glared at her and didn’t try to hide his anger or his hurt.
“Finally, Skylar, when frightening things are happening to you, and you are feeling insecure, afraid, you’re going to talk to me, reach out to me. You are going to let me know that you need me. For example, when the most tyrannical man in any of our lives swoops into town with the express purpose of spiriting you away, I am not going to hear about it from Jared, or Hailey, or the Judge. Unlike today, when I got a call from my very upset grandfather telling me to get my ass over to the mansion ASAP because the woman I love was being threatened by the most destructive son of a bitch that’s walked this earth! In the future, I won’t have to learn from my relatives that you need me because I’ll have already heard it from you!”
When she still didn’t answer him and turned her head to avoid looking at him, he grasped her chin and forced her to meet his gaze. “For the last time, Skylar, do you hear me? Do you understand that I will not permit you to push me away? That you will come to me when you need me? And that you will do what I tell you to?”
Skylar wrenched her chin free and returned his glare. Her lips were trembling but she tossed her head and said combatively, “What are you going to do about it, Commander, if I don’t?”
Her saucy rejoinder hit him in the gut, or to be more precise, in the groin. If she’d shot a round of buckshot into his cock the explosion couldn’t have been more intense. His pent-up anger roared through him and came to rest in the most dangerous place possible. Fighting the rage that had become the hardest damn arousal he’d ever felt, Jude was impressed that his voice was calm, although a deaf-mute could have heard the danger darkening his words.
“Oh, baby, that’s the easiest question you could have asked me. But since you asked, let me tell you.” Pressing her against the wall, he wound his fingers in her short hair and tugged, forcing her to look up at him. “I’m going to do what I’ve warned you repeatedly what I will do. I’m going to turn you over my knee and spank your bare ass so hard you won’t be able to sit down.”
Holding her in place, he felt her tremble and saw her eyes widen at his salacious threat.
“But first, damn you, I’m going to fuck you. Like you’ve never been fucked, or ever imagined. And, baby, I’m going to keep at it until you get it into that high-end computerized brain of yours that you are my woman, and, goddammit, that I am your man.”
Before she could stop him, Jude grabbed her and jerked her up against him so hard that she lost her breath. But Sky acknowledged that she hadn’t been able to take regular breaths since her father called her this morning and told her that he’d come to retrieve her and they would be leaving for Boston within the hour. Determined, but at base frightened, Sky had reassured herself that her father couldn’t force her to go with him. But when he pinned his commanding gaze on her and she saw the Judge’s concerned expression, she realized that she might not be able to refuse him. The first full breath she took had been when she saw Jude striding across the lawn toward her, clearly preparing to take on her father. Everything was fine until Jude donned his amused arrogance cape and tossed her over his shoulder, confirming that like her father, he thought he was in charge of her.
She was outraged that now he dared to tell her what she would and would not be doing. For God’s sake, who did he think he was? But undergirding his domineering commands she heard pain. She hadn’t realized how deeply she’d hurt him. She had thought he was too powerful to hurt. It was a challenging realization. But she knew if she didn’t take him on now, he would swallow her up the same way her father had.
She managed to shove him back and stammered, “You aren’t my father, Jude. And you’re not in charge of me.”
His voice shot sparks of erotic fire across her overloaded nerve endings. “No, Sky, I’m not your father. But I am your lover, and at the moment I am very much in charge of you. But don’t worry, baby, I know you want me to fuck you as much I do. And, honey I’m gonna give us what we both want, and you are going to be begging me not to stop. First, let’s get these off you.”
Skylar shrieked in outrage and beat helplessly at his hands when Jude ripped the zipper on her pants, then yanked them to her ankles and tossed them to the side. In one economical move he had her t-shirt over her head and on the floor next to her pants. Standing in the open boat clad only in her bra and panties, Sky knew she should try to cover herself, but the waves of heat flooding her body made her feel overheated, needy. When she tried to jerk out of Jude’s furious grip he pressed her harder against the wall, driving his knee up between her legs. Her body protected by a mere scrap of lace, she felt his fearsome arousal hard against her core and was horrified at the agonized wail that escaped her lips.
His taunting assertion drove her libido into the stratosphere. “Ah, so that’s what you want me to do, Skylar? Press my cock against your swollen pussy lips?” Shoving his fingers between her legs, he murmured, “Is that why your panties are wet? Mmmm, let me put my fingers inside your hot cunt and see for myself.”
His searching digits elicited a harsh cry from her parched throat. Torrents of sensation stole her breath, making her
wonder if she’d ever be able to breathe again. When she was sure she couldn’t stave off the climax tearing at her control, Jude shot her into a higher, more intense universe.
His silken query was intentionally provocative. “How about I run my wet fingers around your anus? First one and then another. Yeah, like that! Do you like it when I do that, baby? Press my fingers inside of this sensitive place? Does it drive you crazy with desire? Help me prepare your ass for my cock? Would you like me to do that, Sky? Bury my hard cock in your ass? Fuck you in your most private hole? In a place no other man has touched?”
Skylar cried out stunned at the waves of passion assaulting her body from his wicked words alone. He chuckled a lewd sound, and added, “If the juices coating my fingers are indicative, I think your answer is yes.”
He buried his tongue in her ear and bit down on the tender lobe. “Tell you what, darling, let’s agree that before we leave this boat I’m not only going to spank your ass, but I’m going to fuck it. When I do that, I’m going to drive you to a place you never knew existed and make you feel passion you didn’t know was possible.”
Unable to fight the powerful orgasm storming her, Sky clung to him and shrieked a shattered scream. Jude grunted in appreciation and held her writhing body as she struggled to come down from the passionate precipice he’d launched her to. He stroked her back and nuzzled her ear with his lips and tongue. As he licked the sweat from her neck and her chest, he murmured incredulously, “Damn Sky, I haven’t even come in you yet.”
Yanking at the zipper on his jeans, Jude freed his burgeoning staff. Knowing that he was beyond reason, he warned her, “Baby, feel this. Honey, my prick is about to explode. I gotta have you, Sky. I need to bury myself deep inside you, so deep you won’t know where I end and you begin. Can you handle that, baby? Can you take me deep and hard?”