Chapter 12

It turned out that Lisa,Judah's cook, was a fifty-two-year-old Scottish woman with a stronger accent than mine and a bounce in her step, and she made some of the best cock-a-leekie soup I'd ever tasted, rivaling even Mum's.

"Oh, fuck me." I groaned as I took another spoonful and shoved it into my mouth, sucking the liquid noisily off the utensil. "This is the best cock?—"

"Lies," Judah interrupted, but I kept speaking, ignoring Ellis's choked laughter.

"—a-leekie soup I've ever tasted. Better than my mum's." I sent them both a glare for the rude joke in front of a woman like Lisa, but she didn't seem to mind.

She whipped Judah over the back of the head with a tea towel, shaking her finger at him. "Mind your manners, laddie. This is the first time we've had guests that weren't your parents, and I won't be havin' you scare them away." She winked at me and tucked a wayward strand of brown curls behind her ear as she took a seat beside me at the wide dining table.

The spread of food was amazing, but she'd specifically put the soup in front of me, and I'd never been more thankful than I had in that moment.

"I haven't had this soup since my mum died." It was funny, but in the presence of Lisa, my accent solidified, which had only happened when I'd been with my parents.

"I'm sorry for your loss. Judah's told me a lot about her." Her gentle smile sent a soothing wave of emotion through me, and I gave her one back.

"She was a wonderful lady."

She patted my hand, then gave it a squeeze. "I've made some mince and tatties, too."

My heart soared and the grin that slid onto my face was unstoppable. I turned it toward Judah, because I knew by the way he ducked his head that he'd told Lisa to make some Scottish dishes for me, and I was going to show him later how grateful I really was.

"No haggis?" Ellis straightened in his seat and shoved another forkful of chicken into his mouth, and I shook my head at his teasing. I'd told him about haggis once or twice.

Lisa chuckled. "Ack, bonnie lad, I don't think you could handle haggis." She stood and strode toward him to plop a kiss on his forehead, an action that had him tensing, then relaxing again as something akin to longing washed through his expression. I understood that feeling well. Despite what his mother had done to him, he'd missed having a maternal figure in his life.

Ellis shook his head and glanced between me and Judah. "You didn't tell me how you met, and why he knows your mom." He tilted his head toward Judah, some of his black hair falling into his eyes, causing him to push it back again.

Lisa left us to return through the door to the kitchen.

I scooped my spoon through the soup, thinking of where to even begin. "We met when we were about thirteen. I'd just moved to the States and Mum got a job at Judah's house. She was their maid." My attention slid to Judah, and he was already watching me, eyes soft and mouth curled.

It felt like a lifetime ago when I'd walked into his parents' large mansion for the first time. I'd been sick the first week she'd started work, and Mum didn't have anywhere else to take me. Judah's dad had given her permission to bring me to work. Judah returned home after school and he'd immediately asked who I was, and that was the moment our lives changed.

"We met each other and became best friends." My hand twitched as I resisted the urge to reach out and hold his because that was sappy.

As if he'd read my thoughts, he grasped my hand and interlinked our fingers. He shot Ellis a smirk. "Let's just say that Tav was my sexual awakening, and the first time I...." He made a jerk-off gesture. "It was to a fantasy about Tav."

I rolled my eyes, but I couldn't deny I'd done the same thing when I'd thought about him. "Anyway, Judah asked me if I wanted to be his boyfriend on my sixteenth birthday, and I agreed."

"Best two years of my life." Judah flashed me a wink.

Ellis frowned between us. "So, what happened?"

I cleared my throat. "We went our separate ways?—"

"Don't lie to the kid," Judah growled out. "Tav broke up with me but wouldn't tell me why. I thought I'd done something wrong."

"Jude." Once he was on a mission, nothing could stop him, so I didn't know why I was trying.

"We ran into each other on Monday after twenty fucking years. I only found out today the reason he broke up with me was because my mother blackmailed him. Gave him money he needed for his mom's cancer treatment for breaking up with me and never seeing me again."

"He didn't need to know that." I frowned.

Judah shrugged. "It's the truth. He wants to know what happened, and I told him. Mom is the reason we broke up, isn't she?"

Ellis glanced down at his food awkwardly, knocking his chicken with the back of his fork. "Parents can be really shitty sometimes. Mine are."

"Sometimes?" Judah snorted, and I kicked his leg under the table. "Ow! What was that for?"

I rolled my eyes. One thing was for sure and that was Judah didn't have much experience with kids, especially teenagers.

The door to the kitchen swung open and Lisa huffed. "Have some compassion." She dusted her palms on her apron and came striding toward Ellis. She grabbed him and hauled him into a hug even though he was still seated. He let out a yelp but went without a fight as she pressed his head to her stomach in a comforting hold. "There, there, hush child. Not all parents are horrible. I'm sorry you were saddled with terrible people."

Ellis leaned against her even more and closed his eyes, a peaceful bliss falling across his face, and I couldn't help but smile. He needed that hug more than anyone. Ellis and I never had a lot of personal contact, partly due to where we lived, but also because I hadn't hugged anyone since Mum died. As I watched him clutch at Lisa desperately, a couple of tears wended their way from the corners of his eyes. I wondered if I'd done wrong by keeping my distance in that regard.

"Do you cook?" she asked Ellis.

He shook his head. "No, ma'am. I don't know how. My mom didn't think that I should learn."

She tutted and stepped away before clasping his hand and dragging him to his feet. "Come help me. I'm making dessert. I can teach you some skills." She led him toward the kitchen, and I watched, my chest aching as I wondered if I'd failed to be what he needed me to be.

"You're thinking too hard," Judah murmured, startling me out of my thoughts.

I looked at him and swallowed as I grabbed the beer that Lisa had brought out with our food. I took a long sip and winced. I'd never been a huge fan of American piss water beers, and I'd always drunk the Scottish beer my dad had let me try before he'd died. Bonnybridge Ale wasn't easy to find, but there were a couple of shops around New Gothenburg that sold it.

"What's wrong?" He brushed a fingertip over my wrist and along the length of my bracelet, and I paused, closing my eyes to enjoy his touch.

I sighed. "I'm tryin' my best, but I feel like I've failed Ellis, too." I glanced at him again. "He's been livin' in a shitty trailer with one bed, and I haven't been providin' much for him, have I? He's basically just a scared bairn, and all I can give him are the bare basics."

Judah raised my hand to his lips and laid a kiss on it. "He's young, but he's an adult. You give him freedom to be himself."

"I don't, though." I rubbed a hand over my head. "Lakeview has a set of unwritten rules. We all know what they are, and one of them is no gay stuff. He can't be who he is there. He's gone from one prison to another, and I'm not helpin' him, not really, but I don't know what else to do."

"Stay here."

"Judah—"

He bit at my knuckles hard, and I gasped at the spike of pain that traveled up my arm. "Don't Judah me. You only Judah me when you want to protest, so don't fucking do it. Even if it's for a little while, Tav. You can keep your trailer for now but stay here. It's safer for you both."

"Until your mum gets back." I snorted at the thought of her coming in like a hurricane, destroying everything in her path, me and Judah's relationship being her main target.

"Forget about her for one second." The frustration leaked from his words and his hold on me tightened. "She has no power over me anymore. I'm an adult. What she wants doesn't matter."

If only it was that easy. Judah had always lived in a fantasyland when it came to us, even back when we'd started dating. Judah hadn't seen the way she'd stared at me with an obvious disgust over my existence in his life. And Judah, for all his confident speeches, had always loved her. She was a powerhouse in the business world, and he respected her. How long would it take before she made him believe her venomous words?

I pushed aside the thought. I didn't want to imagine how easily she could rip Judah away from me now that I had him back. It'd only been a few days, but my heart had reattached itself to him in a way that should absolutely bloody terrify me. It was as though we'd never been apart in the first place.

I had the sense to know that diving into the deep end of this relationship was going to get me hurt, yet I still jumped in headfirst despite the consequences.

"Okay," I murmured, tilting my body toward him so we could kiss gently. "For a little while."

He nipped my wrist again, and I laughed, using my free hand to scoop up more soup with the spoon. We settled in to eat more while Ellis was in the kitchen with Lisa, and when we were finished, we helped Lisa clean up.

Dessert was just as delicious, with a range of cakes and ice cream, and by the time I was done eating, my stomach extended outward and I felt like I weighed a ton. I hadn't eaten so well in years, and I was already calculating what exercises I'd need to do to burn it off again. At the trailer park, I'd made my own version of weights, but Judah had a gym at the back of the house, which would make the entire thing a lot easier.

"I need to go do my homework," Ellis said after we'd once again helped Lisa clean. He stretched and yawned. "This was fucking delicious."

Judah smirked, smug and obviously very proud of himself. "You do that. I can give you a set of headphones to wear, too, if you want."

Ellis stared at him for a moment before his nose scrunched. "Ew. You're too old to fuck."

"Oi, who you callin' old?" I grabbed him and tucked him under my arm, then gave him a gentle noogie that wouldn't hurt him too much.

"Stop!" His laughter echoed off the walls of the dining room, and I chuckled, letting him up and slapping his shoulder.

"Go on, then."

He glanced between us and shook his head, grinning, before he went off and up the stairs.

I sensed Judah's presence at my back. "Sexy time?" he whispered in my ear.

I laughed and turned to shove him. "You horndog."

Judah grasped my hand tightly, his fingers intertwining with mine in a firm grip as he guided me out of the dining room and up the stairs. I didn't resist. I wanted anything he'd give me—everything he was willing to part with—and I'd say thank you in the process. He didn't need to forgive me or still desire me, but he did, and I was grateful.

We made it through his bedroom door, and he closed it with a bang before our lips were attached once again. He ate my mouth like a hungry man. His tongue pressed against my lips, and I opened willingly, letting him take control in the way I enjoyed from him.

"Fuck, you're so sexy." He licked my lips and groaned into our kiss before shoving me backward toward the bed.

I stumbled, nearly falling on my arse, but managed to regain my balance as the back of my knees hit the mattress.

"Get naked." He didn't wait for me to move because he was already doing it for me, ripping away my shirt as if it had personally offended him. He dragged the shirt over my head and threw it somewhere behind himself before his hands were at my pants, shoving them and my underwear down my legs. The clothing got caught on my shoes, and we wrestled everything off.

"Eager, are we?" I teased, earning a sharp smack to my arse in response. My hips jerked forward and I hissed. "Bloody hell."

"For you? Always." He focused on my chest and swiped his tongue over his top lip. "Fuck, you're so gorgeous." Then, he dipped down, mouth and teeth going straight to my right pec. He was a glutton when it came to my nipples, and he sucked immediately, in a hurry to get his fill of it while his left hand squeezed and pinched the other.

I threw my head back and grasped his shoulders, a little disappointed he still had a shirt on but willing to ignore it while he had my pec in his mouth. "Jude. Fuck, Jude."

He nipped at the bud of my nipple, and I gasped.

"Get on the bed. Now. On your back and spread your legs. Head toward the bottom of the mattress," he said.

If the needy moan I let out was downright desperate, I wouldn't admit it. My body was a live wire, and Judah was in control of every one of my reactions. He knew exactly how to get what he wanted out of me.

I managed to get myself away from his warm mouth and fall onto the bed like he'd instructed. I shifted and wriggled until I was in the middle on my back, my head facing toward the bottom. I watched him carefully, mouth watering as he began to take off his clothes, and with each passing second, another inch of his skin and muscled lines was exposed.

Breathing became hard as the air got caught in my lungs, and it felt like forever before I could push it through my windpipe, but it was only after Judah stood completely naked in front of me that I was able to manage.

"Hi," I murmured, a feverish excitement filling my chest and expanding inside my rib cage. "Please, come here?"

"Oh, I will be." Judah's grin turned the corners of his mouth upward as he pressed a knee into the bed, then the other, until he was kneeling above my head with his cock close to my face. I tilted my head for a taste, but he rocked backward so I couldn't reach, eliciting a groan of disappointment from me. "Uh-uh. No. I'm going to fuck your titties."

I blinked as I stared at him. "You're going to...."

"Fuck your titties. You heard me."

An amused snort escaped me, and I slapped a hand over my mouth.

"Are you laughing at me?" Judah grinned and smacked his palm on my chest, earning a hiss from me.

"No."

"Liar." He swooped in to give me an upside-down kiss, and it was awkward but also fucking hot. He rolled his tongue against mine, and I whimpered. "Stick out your chest."

Despite my apprehension, I did what he'd ordered, a stroke of heat shooting through me and landing somewhere low in my ball sack. I rolled my shoulders farther back into the soft mattress and arched my chest, thrusting my pectoral muscles higher. The nubs of my nipples hardened under his intent focus and a hunger burned inside me.

"I want to come on your tits again." He crawled closer and over my face, his legs on either side of my shoulders and his arse near my mouth. I couldn't see well from this angle, but I felt the heavy weight of his cock being slapped against my left pec. "Fuck, you're so fucking hot, Tav. Shit. I'm not sure how long I'll last, you're that hot."

I whimpered and rocked my hips up, the blood already heading south to my cock and hardening it. My addiction to Judah was unhealthy, but if this was what killed me, I'd die a happy man.

"Turn around," I begged in a low voice. "I want to see you."

"Yeah?" He chuckled and moved, pivoting so he was facing me, his cock thumping against my chest as he did, which left streaks of precum that I craved to taste. He grabbed my tits and squeezed them hard enough to leave fingerprints behind.

I moaned, arching my chest higher.

"God, you know how to turn me on." As if to make a point, his cock jerked upward, spitting more precum across the skin between my pecs. He rocked his hips forward, his cock gliding through the mess he'd made. He pressed my tits inward and trapped his hard-on between them, giving himself friction that had him groaning and cursing my name.

"Want to fuck my moobies?" I grinned up at him.

He paused and stared. "Your what?"

"My moobies. Man boobies." I shook my shoulders, making my pecs wobble, and sent him a mischievous smile. "Or would you prefer my mitties? Man titties."

Judah groaned. "Please stop. That's very not sexy."

I threw my head back and laughed, and he swooped down to nip my exposed neck, eliciting a hiss of desire from me.

He rocked his hips forward again, the length of his cock sliding up my chest, before swinging it so the head smacked across my nipples. He cupped my face and leaned down for a deep kiss, and I tilted my chin to give him as much access to my mouth as he wanted. He devoured me, his tongue working against mine in a way that had my toes curling and cock aching. His touch ignited me and turned me to molten lava, something no one other than Judah had ever done.

He grasped my tits again and pressed them to either side of his cock, thrusting toward my face. More precum beaded at his slit and dripped over my skin with his rocking, and I hungered for a taste. I shifted, but he shook his head like he knew exactly what I was about to do.

I pouted. "No?"

"No," he drawled in a deep, low voice. "I'm going to get off like this. No touching."

I dropped back onto the bed and sighed dramatically. "You're no fun."

"I'll show you fun." Judah slapped my thigh, and I jerked at the sharp sting. He rocked his hips harder, his balls dragging across my sternum. "Fuck, I love these so much." He squeezed my pecs again, this time with enough roughness to have me arching with a whimper. His fingers pinched at my nubs and he twisted them, caught between shoving my pecs against his grinding cock and playing with my nipples. "You're so hot. Look at you."

I clasped the backs of his thighs, nails digging into his flesh as he continued to roll his hips forward. His powerful muscles moved under my palms, reminding me of how he used them to fuck me, but tonight wasn't about sex. There was something more to Judah's actions, a possessiveness that boiled my insides and had my cock throbbing between my legs.

"Do it then," I whispered, laying on my accent. "Come on me. I want you to. Please, bloody do it."

The guttural sound that left the bottom of his throat was downright sinful. He smashed his mouth against mine again and ate my lips, consuming every whimper. He bit my bottom lip and tugged hard enough that I swore he split it before his hip rocking grew rougher and more intense. His hands shoved my pecs tighter against his cock, and I arched my chest as much as possible, giving him more room to work.

The more he thrust, the deeper his grunts grew, and it was obvious that this was how he was going to get off—on me, on my pectoral muscles.

I massaged the backs of his thighs and up his arse, then back down again, encouraging him with gentle moans and quiet begging. "Please. Come on me."

His breathing deepened and he growled, and the closer he was to coming, the hornier I got. I reached up with one hand to grasp his pec and tweak, and that was all it took for him to crash over the edge. His cock jerked, his balls drawing close to his body as spurts of cum shot across my chest and up my neck, some landing as high as my chin and onto my face. Luckily, I closed my right eyelid.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck." He dropped his forehead against mine, shivers racking his body as the last tendrils of his orgasm hit.

I stared into his eyes, entranced by the pleasure that simmered in them. Cupping his cheeks, I kissed him gently. "Bloody gorgeous."

He laughed and kissed the corner of my mouth. His hand danced over my chest and he rubbed the cum into my skin, as though moisturizing it. He dragged his fingers through the cum and spread it across my nipples.

I raised my eyebrows. "What are you doing?"

"Claiming you." He smirked. "This means you're mine. Maybe all those other horny bastards will smell it on you."

I snorted out a chuckle and shook my head, letting him do his thing. I'd always found it was better to let Judah do what he wanted, and nothing had changed in that way.

After a few moments of me watching Judah apply his cum across my pecs, he finally moved, shuffling down the length of my body until he was lying on his chest between my legs. He cradled my cock in the firm grip of his palm and fingers.

Judah squeezed my hard-on and darted out his tongue to lick across the slit.

I cursed under my breath and threw my head back, slapping my arm across my eyes. "Fucking hell."

"You like that? Then you're going to love this." He gripped the base of my cock and took me nearly all the way inside the warm suction of his mouth.

I shouted, arching my back at the sudden heat and wetness that surrounded me. I shuddered and cursed, and he devoured me like a man on a mission, and my cock was that mission. He cupped and tugged on my balls. His tongue traced the veins on the underside, and he tilted his head side to side, giving me suction that elicited embarrassing sounds from me.

I grasped his shoulders, wishing more than anything that his hair was long enough to really grab, but it wasn't, and I had to find whatever I could get my hands on for stability. I lifted my legs and curled them around his back, digging my heels into his spine. "Right there. Christ."

He hummed and swallowed around me, and I bucked under him, driving my cock a little too deep and causing him to gag.

"I'm sorry," I murmured, but I couldn't stop squirming as lust knocked me sideways. I'd missed him, and this was everything I'd craved for twenty years.

Judah pulled off me and kissed the tip. He smiled and traced the head with his clever tongue. "Come on, feed me your load."

I shuddered so hard I thought I'd break apart. I was on the verge of coming, my entire world narrowing on him and my feelings for him. Did Judah know what he meant to me? Probably not. I'd left him, and even if he knew why, I didn't deserve him.

"So close," I whispered, desperate, and he grinned, swooping down to take my cock in his mouth again.

I rolled my hips forward, my shaft sliding in and out between his lips, and the familiar threads of my orgasm had me teetering on the edge. I was so close it hurt. All it took was a twist of his hand at the base and a particularly hard suck, and I was falling into a pool of bliss.

My breath hitched, and Judah hummed around me.

I arched off the bed, groaning and gasping as my orgasm blasted through me with the force of an explosion. I yelled, shooting my load into Judah's waiting mouth. My limbs quaked from the lust and joy. It took what felt like forever before I was finally able to relax on the bed again, boneless and happy. I unclenched my legs from around Judah.

"Good?" He kissed his way up my stomach and chest, nibbling on each nipple for a few moments each, then moaning some nonsense words I couldn't hear, before he was back at my lips.

I cradled his face and slid my mouth over his. "So good. Thank you."

He hummed and collapsed on top of me. "Let's stay here for a little while, then I'll fuck you when we've recovered."

I laughed in response.

* * *

A night staying at Judah's house became two, and before I knew it, the weekend had come around and we didn't need to get up to go to work or take Ellis to school. Instead, I stayed curled up in the bed with Judah.

It was nice, a sense of peace that I'd long forgotten encapsulating my entire being. At the trailer park, it was always noisy and there was never time for calm. You had to be ready for anything, whether it was fights outside your door or someone trying to break inside. Sleeping was usually done with one eye open, but I didn't have to do that here. Judah's security system was out of this world, the kind of high tech I'd only seen in movies.

"Mm. Why are you awake?" Judah tugged me back against his chest, and I sighed, closing my eyes to revel in the feel of his warm skin. His muscles strained, and his strength held me in place, where his rapidly growing cock could nestle between my arsecheeks. "Too early."

"You're an early riser," I teased, rocking my hips back against him, eliciting a groan.

"I always rise when you're around. It isn't anything new." He touched his lips to my shoulder and sighed, rubbing his scratchy jaw there, too. "I love this, you being in my bed and house."

"Me too." I inhaled his natural scent, the same one I remembered as though it'd been yesterday that we first fell into bed together.

He mouthed the back of my neck, and I laughed.

"What are you doing?" I asked, rocking my arse again.

"Claiming you. If anyone's the dog here, it's me." He huffed out a breath against me, and I shivered, the warmth spreading through me in a wildfire.

"Stop it. You already have me." I turned my head to look back at him. "I'm right here and I'm not leaving, Jude."

He hummed and laid a trail of kisses across my shoulders while his fingers danced along my abs. It was as if he was mapping my body again, burning it into his memories as though it wasn't already in there. He knew my body like it was his own and dragged the lewdest sounds out of me that no one else could, and I didn't want to lose that. Again.

A rapping echoed from the door.

Judah groaned in irritation. "It's Saturday, kid. Go do whatever teenagers do. You've got the whole damned house at your disposal. I'm trying to get laid."

I rolled my eyes and chuckled. Slapping him on the thigh, I settled deeper in the warm, comfortable bed. "Is something wrong, El?"

"Uh... yeah. There's someone at the front door. She's demanding to see Judah. I went for a run, and when I came back, she was there. She wanted me to give her the code for the door lock, but I wouldn't. She's mad as hell, guys." Ellis's uncertain tone immediately had my spine tensing.

I threw off the blankets and slid out of bed, already aware of the one person it had to be.

Judah wasn't far behind me, and we both quickly grabbed the nearest clothes, slipping into them. The first thing I found was jeans and a shirt, while Judah went for chinos without a top. I got to the door first and as soon as I opened it, Ellis blinked up at me with wide eyes.

"She's mean," he whispered, peeking toward the stairs. "She demanded I come and get you, like I work for her."

Sighing, I pulled Ellis into a hug, and he huddled against me.

Judah growled and stalked past us and out the door, and I chased after him, not quite sure what to expect. My stomach clenched and a tremor of fear curled there, not because of Elizabeth being here, but for whatever was about to happen next.