She liked to hike. She enjoyed being busy. She knew how to relax.
She’d traveled and wanted to do more. They’d talked about vacations they dreamed of taking and they’d planned one in a break from his travel that summer (it was glamping, and he was looking forward to it).
She had a stack of books she wanted to read, it got bigger, but she made her way through them.
She was ambitious and fully supported the fact he was the same, but it came of a different variety.
She dressed great and she loved kissing him, and if he didn’t pin her down at night, she chased him around the bed.
She was it.
She was his.
This was it.
This was theirs.
This was forever.
He wasn’t in love with her.
It was easy for a man to fall in love with a woman like Chloe Pierce.
No.
He loved her.
Bottom line, heart, guts and soul, loved her.
This was it.
She was it.
Forever.
“Honey?” she whispered.
“Yeah?” he answered.
“Okay?”
Fuck yeah, he was okay.
He kissed her jaw, shoved his face in that long, graceful neck and gave himself a minute with all he’d just realized.
Then he pulled her off his dick, but he kept her in his arms.
“Am I clean up duty, or you?” he asked.
She twisted slightly and he lifted his head to catch her gaze.
But he couldn’t catch it, it was roving his face.
It finally settled on his eyes.
“Judge, are you okay?”
He was fucking perfect.
“Absolutely.”
She got it. Immediately. She either heard it in that word or saw it in his eyes, or both.
Because her eyes melted, her body did too, and her mouth got soft.
And it shimmered between them.
What he felt.
And she felt too.
“Clean up together,” she whispered, like speaking louder would shatter the moment, but she didn’t want them to disconnect.
Not now.
He moved out of bed, dragging her with him and lifting her in his arms.
He saw her eyes get wide at the gesture, but she simply slipped her arms around his neck and held on as he carried her to her bathroom.
Message clear.
That being he agreed.
This was their moment, and nothing was going to shatter it.
She let him clean him from her pussy and he let her wipe her from his dick.
They bumped into each other as he pulled on pajamas and she put on panties and a nightie.
They slid in bed, one right after the other.
Judge turned out the lights.
Zeke jumped up, did a little roaming, then settled in at their feet.
In that time, Judge had gathered Chloe close.
“Judge?”
“Yeah.”
She didn’t say anything.
Well, she did.
She kissed his throat.
He pulled her closer and tilted some of his weight into her.
“Go to sleep, baby.”
“All right, mon beau.”
She kissed his neck again.
Judge Oakley thought little of his life. He’d learned a long time ago that what was done, was done. When he was young, it was out of his control, and he knew instinctively he simply had to keep his shit together and survive it until the day he could get out.
When he hit Phoenix and his time was his own, his life was his own, and the people who had been in it were far away, he felt a freedom that was so unreal, so precious, he latched on to it with everything he had.
And he’d vowed he’d never let it go.
He’d emotionally let them go, but he’d never let that freedom go.
His first day in his dorm at ASU, Judge considered the first day of his life.
The rest of the life he’d lived was just one thing.
Over.
But this night, this night Judge understood was something new.
It was the first night of the rest of his life.
And he was grateful for the whole of his life also for one thing.
It brought him right here.
And in that moment, Chloe in his arms, his dog at their feet, shit for her having evened out, and knowing they loved each other without that word passing their lips, Judge was seriously fucking looking forward to the rest of his life.
He did this calm and happy having no goddamn clue that the deeper you bury your past…
The more brutal it is when it comes back to haunt you.
Chapter 25
The Storm
Judge
The next morning…Sunday…
His phone rang.
They’d both had the same ringtone, but Chloe changed hers so they could tell them apart.
And that was his.
Waking them both up.
On a Sunday.
He twisted at the waist, reached out, found it on the nightstand, and hit the side button so the ringing would stop.
Then he curled back into Chloe.
She snuggled closer, shoving her face in his throat.
She kissed him there.
Judge had learned what that meant.
It meant she wanted to get fucked.
He hadn’t even opened his eyes.
But he was smiling.
His phone rang again.
That was when his eyes opened.
It was also when Chloe’s body stiffened.
He tipped his chin down as she looked up.
They shared a glance before, wordlessly, he twisted again, reaching for his phone.
She’d had a charge pad waiting for him the second time he’d stayed over. It was the same kind he used at his house, plugged in and resting on his bedstand.