Chapter 18

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Right now, Rea, I'm talking to you." I kept my voice low as I dug through my duffel where I'd left it in the living room. Where was my night shorts set? I knew I'd packed it. I'd just taken several days worth of clothes, so it wasn't as if I had so much stuff to dig through.

"You know what I mean. My dad said you're basically living with him now? I mean, you don't even know this man. You've spent, what, a few days with him?"

"Yeah. I worked at Brooks' Greenery tonight because he had too many employees out sick, and I didn't want to leave him in the lurch."

"When were you going to call me back, huh? I figured it wasn't even worth trying you now, but I couldn't trust that you'd return my call in a timely fashion. You better start talking."

At her impatience, I laughed and dragged my duffel up on the couch so I could search through it without bending over. "It's all really new, Rea. I'm not keeping stuff from you, I just didn't know what to say. I don't want you to worry, but I know you will."

"You bet your behind, I will. This is not like you in any way. What is he holding over you? Money? Sexual favors?"

I bit my lip and looked around, making sure the man in question had not come downstairs while I dug fruitlessly through my clothes. He was as quiet as a cat sometimes. Or more quiet than my cat. "He gives me many Os. I'll say that." Her shocked gasp had me moving the phone away from my face.

"Already?"

"Look, we aren't getting married." A vivid flashback of that morning in the shower filled my head, but I ruthlessly battled it back. "I'm just helping him with his cute son and we're making meals and going shopping for sneakers and stuff." Days we didn't speak at all aside. "Very normal things. He's just insanely hot and gives me Os like it's his job. I'm not refusing them. Do I look stupid?"

"No, you look like not my Maddie anymore though."

"I'm still your Maddie. I'm still your best friend. I just…well, I like sex. And it's been a damn long time since I had any, notable or otherwise." I looked around again and lowered my voice even more. "And this dude has stamina. He's not like the boys we knew, Rea."

"He's too old for you."

I sighed. "He's not even 33."

"What does he even want with you?"

I tried to keep the smirk out of my voice. "What all males want. We haven't done anything freaky yet, I swear." Well, minus the whole no protection thing, and then tonight, his wandering toward my forbidden zone, but he hadn't done anything too intense. Other than a little pressure back there, it had been all strictly pleasure.

Not that Rea would see it that way. She'd assume he was indoctrinating me into a torrid new lifestyle or something. True, he'd seemed very controlling at first, but he seemed to kind of be backing off on that part.

Or I was choosing to believe he was softening, which basically amounted to the same thing.

"Look, I'm more open-minded than you are."

"You're more open-minded than you should be! Doesn't any of this scare you? You don't know this man, yet you're already basically living with him."

"I can leave at any time. I'm not chained here. Everything is of my own free will. Just chill out, Rea, okay? Are you going to the fireworks tomorrow?"

"Yes," she said reluctantly. "My dad and Honey and Jacob and I are all going. Let me guess. You're going to be there with your brand new family?"

Those words gave me a pleasant buzz in my belly, which I had had a feeling was not her intention. "Yeah, we're going. Owen's never seen fireworks before." Probably neither had Jude, if my recent experiences with him held.

"Okay, I'll connect with you tomorrow. I want to meet this orgasm-dispensing man."

"It's not like it's a public service he offers."

She surprised me by laughing. "As if I'd let some strange dude get me off, even if he wasn't already yours."

I bit my lip. He did already feel like mine in some odd way. I couldn't explain any of this. But I had this weird feeling that Jude was dealing with something similar toward me, as well.

Sometimes it was just fate you met someone in a certain time and place. You couldn't explain it, and it was just a waste of time to even try.

"Rea, I'll see you tomorrow, okay? Everything will be fine, I promise."

"I'm holding you to that, Maddie." She clicked off and I leaned back against the sofa cushions with a loud sigh. I still couldn't find my damn sleep shorts set. So I'd just have to wear the backup sleep shirt I'd tossed in there just in case.

Now I had to go upstairs and see if we could get some sleep so we could do our shopping tomorrow and go see the fireworks if Owen felt any better. Or finish what we started earlier and then get some sleep.

Assuming Owen was still sleeping, which was anyone's guess.

After shedding the clothes I was wearing, I slipped on the sleep shirt over my panties and slung the duffel over my shoulder before I padded back upstairs. I stopped by Owen's room first, glad to see him curled up on his side with his arms around his giraffe. So very sweet.

Feeling daring, I slipped in and kissed his cool forehead.

He mumbled, "Baddie," and went right back to sleep.

Then I went to Jude's bedroom and found him in pretty much the same state, curled on his side, sound asleep. As quietly as possible, I set down my duffel on a padded chair in the seating area I hadn't even taken notice of earlier.

I'd seen hardly any of the house yet. Maybe one of these days, Jude would give me a tour.

Keep dreaming, Masterson.

I turned off the lights, glad there was a small nightlight on in the en suite bathroom so when I woke up in the middle of the night and had to pee, I wouldn't break my toe on some piece of furniture. I crawled in bed with him, not sure what to do next.

Did I just stay on the opposite side? Did I curl into him? What was the protocol here?

In the end, he turned over and stretched his arm out toward me, answering my unspoken question by pulling me into him as if we'd cuddled in bed a million times. He murmured my name and fell back asleep, almost exactly as his son had, though Jude could actually say my name.

I drifted off with a smile on my lips and his arm securely banded around me.

When I finally opened my eyes again, sunshine was slanting across the bed. I started to stretch, then I realized I wasn't alone and smiled and turned over. "Hey, sleepyhead," Jude said quietly.

"Aw, dammit, I forgot my toothbrush."

He chuckled. "Good morning to you too. No worries, I've got an extra one still in the packaging in the cabinet. Had extras since I just moved in."

"Yeah, new in town and all. Did Owen wake up yet? Is he feeling good enough to go sneaker shopping? And maybe book shopping too, since one book is just not enough?"

"I'd say so. He's already downstairs dressed in plaid shorts and a Christmas shirt watching Bubble Guppies. I made sure he was set and came back to bed for another hour. Wonder who got him started on that show?"

"Gee, no idea." I giggled. "What time is it? He probably wants breakfast." I started to roll out of bed and then stopped when Jude slipped his hand between my legs.

"I want breakfast too, of a different variety." He kissed his way up my back, making a shiver dance up my spine. "We have some unfinished business from last night."

"We sure do." I took a deep breath. "We don't want to take chances we aren't ready for."

"And if something has already happened, then what?"

That was a very good question, one I didn't have an answer for.

"What happened with Owen was completely an accident. I figure the condom broke. And he turned out pretty damn good, I think. Sometimes happy accidents are the best."

He had me turn toward him and cupped my cheek as he spoke against my lips. "You don't have to worry. I'm all in."

All in to what? Us?

Was there even an us? How could there be when we barely knew each other?

I mean, sure, we'd kind of been playing house, but that wasn't a foundation for anything.

Rather than questioning him, I let him sweep me away with soft kisses that roused me so effortlessly that I shifted on top of him as if it was as natural as could be. He lifted my sleep shirt and filled his hands with my breasts, drawing first one then the other to his mouth, sucking gently and then harder until I was writhing against him. I didn't even balk as he drew me up his body until somehow I was kneeling on the pillows and gripping the ornate oak headboard while he destroyed me with his mouth.

My thighs shook on either side of his head and then I was turning the other way to do some wrecking myself. I drew his swollen length from his sleep pants and licked him from his already damp tip to the base and then repeated the move while I feathered my fingertips along his sac. I squeezed him methodically while I increased my suction around the head of his cock, drawing hard while he fisted my loose hair and thrust past my lips.

He never hurt me, at least not in a way that didn't make my clit pulse. I didn't fully understand my reactions to him, but I kept going past my own reservations, trying to give him all the access he wanted as my eyes teared up and overflowed. He shut his eyes as he reached his limit and unleashed into my throat, making me swallow reflexively in an attempt to contain him.

And he kept right on licking me, nursing me through the orgasm that washed over me on the heels of his own. Then he moved up my body to kiss me, letting me taste myself on his lips. I couldn't get enough of his kisses and his weight against me, leaning right between my thighs as if he was meant to be there.

Condoms? What condoms?

But he didn't push me. His fingers soothed my still overstimulated pussy, sweeping up and down until I parted my soaked thighs as if it made all the sense in the world to do this again. He sank into me with a groan of pure relief as if it had been years instead of barely a day since he'd been inside me.

He hiked up my leg over his shoulder, bending my leg to my chest so he could hammer into me so wildly that the pleasure bordered on the keen edge of pain.

And I craved every bit.

I dragged my nails down his back to his ass, gripping him hard as he powered into me. Knowing full well he had no intention of pulling out. Even not wanting him to. Whatever was happening between us, I'd abandoned all sense and was running full tilt toward it, whatever it meant.

Whatever we meant.

I coiled my legs around him, so fucking tightly, finding my release with a moan. He buried his shout in my hair as he let go inside me, pumping until he basically collapsed on top of me. I kissed his temple, the salty taste of his sweat on my lips as he finally rolled aside not to crush me while I recovered.

If recovery was even possible at this point. I wasn't even sure.

When he mumbled he needed a shower, I made similar noises but I did not move. I felt as if every bit of energy had left me, and I just wanted to bask in the emotions storming through me. Not just from my orgasm, either.

More was happening to me than just enjoying damn good sex. I just couldn't name it yet.

Finally, I forced myself to a sitting position. I yanked up my panties, pulled down my sleep shirt, and quickly swept my disordered hair into a knot.

I stumbled off to take a shower in the en suite bathroom off the guest room I'd been using, needing a few moments to get myself together on my own before I dressed for the day.

I chose jean shorts, a tank top with fireworks exploding on it, and my Converse sneakers before I headed downstairs to see what Owen was up to. We were finally going to get him his second pair of light-up sneakers today if he was feeling up to it. The new books would be a surprise.

Considering he was happily putting together a child's puzzle on the coffee table in the sitting room, fitting together pieces that looked like a colorful Lego Wonderland, I was pretty sure shopping would be a go.

"Oh, how cool. Can I help you with this?"

"Sure, Baddie." His wide grin could've made any day better, and this one was already pretty good so far.

"Did your Daddy get you this puzzle?" I asked as I found a piece for the border and slipped it into place.

"Caro said it came in the mail."

Something about the way he said it made me search around on the shelf beneath the table. I unearthed a padded envelope with a label made out in block print to Owen Keller c/o of Jude Keller. And inside the mailer was a card with a dancing monkey on the front.

I read the inscription with a sinking belly.

Mommy loves you! I'll see you very soon.

A card Owen clearly had not seen.

I frowned, not knowing what to make of any of this. But I had a feeling Jude would freak out. He didn't sound as if he'd ever had much of a relationship with Owen's mom, and I couldn't imagine he'd be fine with sharing custody with her. Not that he'd spelled anything out, but he just seemed reluctant to go in that direction, especially since somehow he seemed routed toward me.

And Owen's mom had just dumped him on a father he didn't even know to, I guess, go live her life? I didn't know enough about that story, but obviously, I needed to. This whole play-by-ear way of being with Jude and his son was not going to be feasible going forward.

Forget having a job working for Jude. I felt as if we'd already begun to build a life together. True, this was Crescent Cove, but this was an extremely accelerated timeline, even for here.

If Owen's mom planned to soon make an unexpected reappearance in his life, Jude would need even more support from me. Whatever he would need, I would try to provide that.

For both him and his son.