Take Me (Take Me Series Book 1)

by Calista Fox

  Her silky skin and soft curves against his hard body felt like heaven. The way she clutched at him—with her pussy and her hands—had him driving more vigorously into her, pushing them both to that precipice he was so in need of cresting.

  “That feels incredible,” she said. “Nik’s not the only one who won’t be leaving her bed all weekend.”

  Jude grinned, though his head was burrowed in the crook of her neck, in her lush hair, so she couldn’t see the gesture.

  But he was in complete agreement with her.

  His hand cupped an ass cheek and he tilted her hip further as he plunged deeper, more assertively.

  “That’s the spot,” she said on a sharp gasp. “So good…so perfect.”

  Her body moved in-sync with his and Jude’s eyelids drifted closed. He fucked her passionately, with all the desire that had been eating away at him. Their stolen “quiet” moments together over the past several months had been gratifying, without doubt. But when he could make them both forget their own names as he lifted them higher and higher… This was when he knew there was nothing that could ever rip them apart, nothing that could destroy them.

  “Jude,” she whimpered. “I’m going to come.”

  “Yes,” he urged. “I want to feel you, Kate. I want nothing between us, nothing holding us back.”

  He thrust more forcefully. She held him in a vise grip.

  Then she screamed his name as she came.

  Jude rode the rush of her orgasm and it sparked his own. His cock surged and his body convulsed.

  “Fuck, yes,” he growled. “Kate… Goddamn. You are so amazing.”

  Jude gave himself over to the powerful release. Knowing nothing ever felt quite as right as when he and Kate were—

  25

  An unexpected jolt rocked the bed and rattled the glass panes of the floor-to-ceiling windows.

  Kate’s eyes flew open.

  Her orgasms had been strong enough to rock her world, without doubt…but the whole damn bedroom?

  Jude jerked away from her. “What the fuck?” he roared.

  Another vicious rumble made the knickknacks crash to the floor, and the mirror over the dresser jumped off the wall.

  “Jude!” Panic seized her.

  Had the Honduras earthquake caused a ripple effect up to Mexico City?

  Jude alighted from the bed, bringing her with him. He braced them under the doorframe leading into the bathroom as another magnified jarring caused the heavier objects on the dresser and nightstand to vibrate over the edges, the thudding of their impact resonating in the quiet room.

  Then a more monstrous explosion lit the night sky and sent debris flying, some of which shot straight through the hotel windows, shattering them.

  Kate screamed as shards littered the room.

  Jude had a steady grip on her. He pulled her away from the doorframe, telling her, “It’s not an earthquake.” He hastily gathered up the clothes she’d left in the bathroom before taking her shower and thrust them toward her. “Get dressed. Quickly.” He did the same.

  Then he yanked on her hand, forcing her down to the floor, alongside the bed for protection.

  “Stay here until I come for you,” he ordered.

  Then he disappeared. But he returned seconds later, the straps of their duffle bags crossed over his body, along with his laptop bag.

  He reached for one of her hands while shoving her medical tote into the other. Kate crossed that strap over her body and they were on the move as a fiery building halfway down the block continued to ignite and erupt.

  “Could be a terrorist attack,” he deduced, “or a gas leak.”

  “Holy shit, Jude…” She followed him out of the suite.

  Nikki was already in the hallway, dressed and carting her own luggage, directing other guests to the stairwell as the emergency alarms went off, along with flashing red and white strobe lights. People frantically vacated the floor.

  Over the frenzied din, Nikki said, “That’s some serious shit when I’m waken from a death-sleep.”

  Another thunderous explosion shook the building.

  “That one’s even closer,” Jude pointed out. “We have to go.”

  Nikki raced toward the stairwell, yelling at people to not use the elevator. They didn’t listen—or didn’t understand English.

  Kate reiterated her words in Spanish. No one budged, desperate for the lift to take them to the lobby.

  Kate grabbed a woman’s arm and hastily explained she didn’t want to get trapped inside the elevator.

  Terrified of that prospect, the woman followed Kate—as did others.

  Kate, Jude and Nikki held back as everyone on the floor scurried down the stairwell.

  “I need to do this on each level,” Kate asserted, knowing this was the exact scene she’d find on all fifteen floors of the hotel.

  Jude’s jaw clenched. “I want you out of here.”

  “Agreed,” she concurred. “But… Jude.”

  His eyes squeezed shut briefly. Then he speared her with an intent look and insisted, “You warn them. They either come with us or not, Kate. That’s it. That’s all.”

  She glared at him.

  He scowled in return—because he knew that she knew he’d never abandon anyone.

  “Let’s get a move on,” Nikki said. She wouldn’t leave anyone behind, either.

  They rapped on doors and yelled for anyone lingering to vacate immediately.

  They cleared out the top floor. Then the one below it. And the one below that.

  They were in the stairwell when another boom shook the foundation of their hotel.

  “Fuck!” Jude bellowed.

  This was precisely how the building halfway down the block had progressed—one rumble, one larger explosion and then—the whole thing had lit up in an inferno.

  “We have to go, Kate,” he repeated in a terse tone.

  The stairs below them were filled with people making a hurried exit. She had to believe everyone was smart enough to escape.

  Yet… She couldn’t will her feet to move.

  “Kate.” He clasped her shoulders. “No one benefits if you die here tonight.”

  “But—”

  “Kate.” This from Nikki. “Jude’s right. We have to get the hell out.”

  Kate tore her body from Jude’s clutches. She raced down a flight and jerked open the door, screaming down the hallway for everyone to evacuate—and finding extreme relief in seeing an empty corridor.

  They took another flight and she repeated the process. Then another. They were five floors away from the main landing when the next explosion hit.

  Nikki cried out as she was slammed against the brick wall.

  Kate’s body crashed into the railing—and went sailing over it, her hand slipping on the smooth metal, but miraculously hanging on.

  “Jude!” she screamed as her fingers curled tighter while she dangled in the empty space between the stairs, her low heels slipping from her feet and making the treacherous descent to the ground floor.

  One glance down and she realized she wouldn’t survive if her grip loosened.

  Which it began to do as she struggled to get a second grip on the railing.

  Jude’s hands shot out to cover hers.

  Nikki peeled herself off the wall.

  Jude yelled, “Help me!”

  He and Nikki pulled Kate up as her heart pounded in her throat and her body quaked. She hooked her leg over the top of the railing and they hauled her over. When she was on her feet, albeit shakily, she drew in a long breath.

  “Holy shit!” she cried.

  Jude’s hands cupped her face. He stared deep into her eyes.

  Neither said a word for several suspended seconds.

  Then he kissed her soundly.

  Nikki said from beside them, “We can’t hang here, peeps.”

  Kate tore her mouth from Jude’s and her gaze flashed to Nikki, who’d paled at Kate’s near-fall—and the injuries Nikki herself had sustained.
She was bleeding from a gash on her forehead and likely had a broken nose as the blood spewed over her lip. Tears pooled in her eyes, but Nikki powered through the pain and terror.

  Kate reached for the golden clasp on her medical tote.

  “Not now,” Nikki contended. “We’re on the move.”

  They started down the stairs again. Only two flights were left to go when a door flung open.

  A little girl came racing out, crying and trembling as she dragged a hot-pink backpack alongside her. Her mother followed close, speaking rapid-fire Spanish Kate could barely keep up with. Something about the federales and the woman’s esposo. Her husband was nowhere in sight, so Kate deduced he was in prison. They must be visiting?

  There was no rhyme or reason—or time to dissect the dialogue. She hurried the two along. Just as another blast blew the recently closed door of the exit to that floor off its hinges.

  Jude yanked Kate and Nikki backward so that they fell against the steps they’d just descended, thereby saving them from getting knocked out by the door.

  The little girl immediately collapsed to the ground, the heavy piece of metal whizzing over her body—only to hurl across the opposite side of the stairwell, clipping the woman before it bounced off the wall and clamored to the ground level, to meet the same fate as Kate’s shoes.

  The inertia involuntarily propelled the woman forward, so that she took a violent tumble down the steps and then lay sprawled on the landing, unconscious.

  The little girl began to shriek.

  “Goddamn it!” Jude helped both Kate and Nikki to their feet. “Kate, get the girl!” He rushed down the stairs to the woman.

  Kate scooped up the daughter and held her tight.

  Nikki reached for the fastening of Kate’s medical tote at her hip and flipped up the smooth leather flap. She dug through the bag and retrieved bandages and other paraphernalia, then rapidly joined Jude, pressing gauze to the woman’s cheek, which was split wide open. Her leg was twisted in an unnatural position as well, and Kate gently turned the crying child’s head away to block the view.

  “This building can go at any moment,” Jude said between clenched teeth. Smoke was billowing up from the ground floor. No flames had reached the main exit of the stairwell, indicating the fire was currently contained within the bowels—and most likely in the lobby.

  Neither containment would last for long.

  Jude whisked off the strap from his duffle bag, set it on the floor and unzipped the top, retrieving a belt for Nikki to fashion a tourniquet. Then he doubled up a long-sleeved shirt within a stiff, sturdy suede jacket to create a makeshift stretcher that would at least somewhat stabilize the broken leg so he could carry the woman out of the building, with Nikki’s help. They carefully, though quickly, made their way down the last couple of flights and Nikki kicked the metal bar on the door with her foot, so it flew wide open.

  They coughed from the inhalation of smoke and the sting of the suddenly fresher, clearer air. Their ears rang from the blaring of the emergency signals that echoed down the stairwell.

  First responders were on the scene and there was a melee of screaming and crying people, some clearly injured, others disoriented or searching frantically for someone in their party who’d gone missing.

  A fireman rushed forward to help Jude with the woman. Federales had rolled in with tanks and trucks and semi-automatic weapons and were directing people out of the area as they set up barricades.

  Red Cross was at the ready and they took the child from Kate’s arms so she could accompany her mother to the hospital. Kate then turned to Nikki and tended to her wounds as Jude joined the federales and others in clearing the immediate vicinity.

  The crowd was successfully pushed back two full blocks when the hotel erupted.

  26

  “We’re going to be arriving later than anticipated,” Kate delicately explained to her mother on the phone. “Please don’t worry, but we’re still in Mexico City, helping to sort out missing persons reports—and Nik and I took on several traumatized patients, following an explosion.”

  Kate didn’t bother telling her mother that she, Nikki and Jude had been involved in the catastrophe as well.

  “Katherine,” her mother said with agitation and exasperation, “you missed Charlotte’s bridal shower. Jude missed Denison’s bachelor party. If you miss their wedding—”

  “We’re not going to miss their wedding, Mother,” Kate avowed. “It’s not until Friday evening. We’ll be here a few days more, then we’ll fly over.”

  “You can’t just show up at the last minute! You’re a bridesmaid, Katherine!”

  Not a duty she’d willingly taken on—or had even expected. Though as she’d gotten to know her soon-to-be-sister-in-law better, Kate had relished the idea of standing beside Charlotte during the ceremony.

  Unfortunately, that was the extent of the responsibility she’d been able to commit herself to, since she’d been overseas during much of the engagement period. Well, she’d offered endless amounts of solicited advice and had calmed Charlotte’s frayed nerves over one potential wedding mishap or another… But still… Prized bridal-party material that did not make.

  Thank God Charlotte’s entire nuptials weren’t predicated on Kate’s appearance one way or the other.

  She pulled in a deep breath and assured her mother, “We have no intention of showing up late. We just need to tie some loose ends here.”

  “What makes those loose ends so much more significant than your brother’s wedding, Katherine?”

  Kate felt the sudden urge to scream. She didn’t, though. Couldn’t, of course.

  Myriad emotions and conflicting aggravation welled within her.

  She loathed that her mother was so stringent with formality, calling her Katherine with no personal inflection whatsoever.

  Beyond that…her mother trivializing what had happened in this latest tragedy in Mexico City twisted Kate’s insides. It was as though anything that occurred beyond her mother’s borders, beyond her backyard, was not worthy of anyone’s time and effort to help reconcile. And that infuriated Kate.

  Yet…she knew she couldn’t agonize over someone else’s lack of insightfulness.

  Thus, Kate willed an even tone as she said, “Mother, several buildings blew up due to a gas leak. People died. Others were severely injured. Some are still missing in the rubble. Many are traumatized and need mine and Nikki’s help. There are also tourists who have no passports or money because everything they brought with them was destroyed in the fires. Jude has to help them return to their own cities or countries.”

  Kate hoped her mother would grasp the severity of the situation. Once again, she inhaled slowly, letting her mother process all that she’d said.

  Her mother, in turn, let out a heavy sigh.

  “You made a promise to Charlotte,” Betsy Stockman said, completely avoiding the true extent of Kate’s obligations related to the devastation that had occurred.

  Rather than tell her mother that Charlotte was not only adult enough to understand the predicament, but also compassionate enough to comprehend Kate couldn’t leave just yet when there was still work to be done, she simply said, “Jude and I will be there. In the morning, on time, precisely at the right spot required of us.”

  “You know this is important, Katherine.”

  She held her tongue on that one. Yes, she knew her brother’s wedding was important. So was what Kate, Jude and Nikki were doing. But she knew it took a backseat in her mother’s eyes.

  The only more critical event would be Kate’s own wedding—her mother’s only daughter getting married.

  Oh, the event of the century that will be!

  Kate couldn’t think of that now. Instead, she remained focused, telling her mother, “Jude and I will be at the Plaza early enough to handle our duties. I will be there one-hundred percent for Charlotte.”

  “Nikki, too,” her mother contended. “She’s a very special guest for our family.”

&nb
sp; “Yes, Mother. She’ll be at the wedding as well.”

  Betsy Stockman was pleased by this, as evidenced by the calmer tone as she said, “Very good, Katherine. We’ll see you then.”

  Silence ensued.

  Her mother had hung up on her.

  Kate simmered.

  There’d been no “travel safe,” or “I pray everyone’s okay in Mexico City” or… anything along those lines. No nothing, in fact. Other than the unspoken sentiment that her mother would be highly disappointed if there were even the tiniest fly in the ointment when it came to Denny and Charlotte’s wedding, like say, Kate and Jude were five minutes late.

  She sighed.

  Her mother’s initial reaction to Kate’s announcement of her going to Afghanistan for disaster-relief training aside, it was business as usual with the Stockmans.

  Making Kate none too enthused about her impending trip home. Though…she had to admit she was thrilled for her youngest brother and his blushing bride. Charlotte was a dream, and Kate was pleased Denny had found such a wonderful woman.

  Also…Kate actually was looking forward to all the wedding-morning excitement and helping Charlotte to get ready, sipping champagne with her friends and making cute jokes about the wedding night.

  She smiled as she slipped her cell into the back pocket of her jeans. She was at the hospital with Jude and Nikki. Jude was in the breakroom the nurses had ushered him into that night of the explosions, not only impressed that he was going to help everyone locate their loved ones and do what he could to assist with legal matters and getting everyone back home, but they also visibly swooned over his devilish dark looks and hunky body.

  Naturally, Kate couldn’t blame them. And Jude’s ability to easily sway the female persuasion did come in handy from time to time.

  Meanwhile, Kate and Nikki had patients to counsel. Kate wrapped up her rounds and then stepped into the more dormitory-styled hospital suite where several children had slept since the explosions, their parents being inpatients or were still missing following that night. Most of the kids were in decent shape—just scared and uncertain of what was happening, why they couldn’t return home yet. Others suffered various degrees of injury, but were under good care.