Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

Jude had waited all goddamn day for Sloan to finish her shift at the diner—and even then he’d only gone home after checking to make sure she was there and okay. It had driven him out of his fucking mind not to walk in there and toss her over his shoulder, marking her as his for all to see.

His.

She wasn’t. Not really. She couldn’t be.

He’d worked too hard to extract any and all weaknesses that potential enemies could use against him. After his mother passed, he had nothing to lose—nothing that could be taken to hurt him. He’d liked his life that way. There was no room for anything beyond his mission, which he’d possibly just sidelined by allowing Dmitri Romanov to leave his place alive.

The fact that there was a MacNamara alive—that he was hunting Sheridans—was knowledge without price in the game they all played. Romanov might be currently an ally, but that didn’t mean he’d stay that way.

And Jude just didn’t give a fuck right now.

Sloan was here, she was safe, and she was pissed enough at him for leaving in the first place that she was practically spitting fire. He skimmed his hands up her sides. “I like that you missed me.”

“Missed you? You must be out of your mind.” But she grabbed his hair, tilting his head back and rolling her hips as if just realizing he was as hard as a rock. “Stop talking. You’re just going to say something unforgivable and then I’ll have to leave on principle.”

“That’s the dumbest fucking thing I’ve ever heard.” He grinned when she jerked on his hair. “I like you when you’ve missed me.”

“Stop. Saying. That.” She kissed him, her fury evident in every stroke of her tongue, in the way she drew back to bite his bottom lip hard enough to hurt. He enjoyed the hell out of it.

Jude growled when she did it again, then flipped them, using his body to hold her in place. “If you’re going to be mean, you’re going to get tied down.”

Her dark eyes flashed a challenge. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“You should know better. I think you’ll find that there isn’t a damn thing I wouldn’t dare to do when it comes to you.” He pinned her wrists with one hand and undid his belt with the other, his gaze never leaving her face. He watched her closely for something like fear or even that anxious little lip-biting thing she did when they first met. There was nothing but challenge written across her face. Good.

He whipped his belt through the loops and wound it around her wrists. Then he jerked the cushion off the couch and hooked the buckle to the bar of the fold-out bed inside it. The position left her head a little lower than the rest of her body, but that was just fine with him.

Sloan tugged on the belt, her eyes narrowing when she realized she couldn’t get free. “I hate you.”

“No, you don’t.” He sat back, appreciating the view. She’d worn a floral sundress today with a cardigan that would look at home on a kindergarten teacher. Innocent. Sweet.

Sexy as fuck.

“It’s been too long since I tasted you.” He pushed her dress up around her hips, revealing white panties. He didn’t think she had any other color, and on anyone else that would be like they were trying too hard. It was just the way Sloan was. He spread her thighs, growling. “I like you in white, sunshine. I can see how soaked your panties are, how much you want me.”

“Involuntary reaction.”

She was wicked pissed. It might not stop her from wanting him, but…Shit. He couldn’t take her like this, not with knowing what he knew and not with the current threat hanging over their heads—a threat he was solely responsible for. If he fucked her without talking to her about it, that would be as good as lying to her.

He couldn’t do it.

Jude cursed long and hard, silently calling himself ten kinds of fool, but he reached over and undid the belt. “Another time.”

“What?” Sloan sat up, confusion replacing the anger on her face, bleeding into something like embarrassment. She pulled her dress down to cover herself, and he could see her gathering her composure one shred at a time.

It fucking killed him.

He crouched down in front of her, knowing that there was no right way to go about this. There was no skirting the subject or breaking it to her gently. But I can focus on the one thing she’s expecting. For now. “I’ve got a doctor coming into town to do a blood test for you.”

*  *  *

Sloan stared at Jude, half-sure she’d heard him wrong. She must have. Her mind was still reeling—not to mention her pride—by his going from no-holds-barred sex to…this. “I’m sorry, what did you just say?”

“I’m bringing in a doctor. If you haven’t had your period, we need to know if you’re pregnant, and we need to know now.”

The words didn’t make any more sense the second time around. She pushed to her feet, straightening her dress. Jude didn’t move from his position in front of her, and her dress swung forward just enough to brush his bare chest. God, he was so beautiful, even now when she wanted to smack some sense into him.

No. You’re letting your emotions get the best of you. Think rationally,react rationally. She smoothed back her hair, holding herself tall. “That’s out of the question.”

“Your right to make decisions without me disappeared the second you may have become pregnant with my child.”

He was such a…a brute. Her earlier fury rose, stronger than before. Sloan’s voice was hoarse from trying to keep control of herself, but she didn’t let that stop her as she very carefully enunciated. “Wrong, Jude. Even if I were pregnant—and that’s a rather large if at this point—you don’t get a single say in matters unless I say you do. I spent my entire life bowing to others’ wishes, and I threw away my entire family for my freedom. Do not think for a second that I won’t do the same to you.” She made it almost to the door when his next words stopped her cold.

“Did you know that both the O’Malleys and the Romanovs are looking for you?”

The world did a slow turn, leaving her woozy. Sloan rotated to face him, part of her sure that she was in a hallucination as a result of orgasm deprivation, and he hadn’t just said two names that he most certainly shouldn’t know. “What did you say?”

“Sloan O’Malley.” He said the name like he was tasting her. “I think we need to have a talk.”

“How did you…” She moved back toward him, fear finally starting to take root. What if Sorcha was right all along? What if Romanov sent Jude here to hurt me…to kill me? “How long have you known?”

“That’s irrelevant.”

His dismissive tone rankled. She glared. “I don’t think it is.”

“The important thing is that I know where you come from, and I know what you’re up against. You need me. I can keep you safe—keep you free.”

She searched his face. “You must be joking. I don’t know a single thing about you, which was perfectly fine when I was under the assumption that we were strangers. You’ve been lying to me this entire time, and now you’re…What? Offering me an ultimatum? If I say no, are you going to hand me over to either my family or our enemies?”

“What? No.” Jude cursed and shoved to his feet, towering over her. “You’re missing the point.”

“I don’t think I am.” She knew letting him into her bed was like playing with fire, but the pleasure had been worth the risk when he was just a man who happened to live next door to her. Discovering that he seemed to be something else altogether made her sick to her stomach. He’d set a neat little trap, and she’d blithely walked into it, fool that she was. She pressed her hand to her chest. “Did you orchestrate that condom being torn, too?”

His eyes went wide. “Why the fuck would I do that?”

“I don’t know! Who are you, Jude? You know who I am, where I come from, but you haven’t given me a single piece of information about yourself, other than this offer to keep me ‘safe’ which, forgive me, sounds like a crock of shit. Tell me the truth, or I walk out of here right now, and I’ll be gone by morning.” She didn’t want to leave, but if Jude was somehow connected to her past, she had no choice.

“Sloan…”

She saw him searching for a lie, and took a careful step backward. “Good-bye, Jude.”

“Wait.” He cursed, long and hard. “Fuck, you don’t make this easy, do you?”

The fact he was accusing her of being the problem was downright laughable. She started for the door. “Tell whoever sent you that I’m not going back. They should save us both a load of trouble and stop searching for me.”

He stepped in front of her, keeping a careful distance between them. “I didn’t want to do it like this.”

Do what? Kidnap me? When I compared him to James Halloran, I thought I was reaching. I didn’t realize how close I truly was.She fought to keep her voice from wavering. “Then don’t.”

He ignored her. “We’ve never been properly introduced. Sloan O’Malley, I can’t say you were part of my plan, but it’s been a fucking pleasure to meet you.” He held out a hand, the move screaming arrogance. “Jude MacNamara.”