I hadn’t even really gotten a chance to explain my reasoning that night because as soon as he’d realized the truth of the situation, he’d climbed off my lap and said, "Well, that was fun." Then he’d merely straightened his clothes and added, "Thanks,” as if I’d done nothing more than perform a service for him.
My entire body had still been shaking from the powerful orgasm and his cum had still been stuck to both my hand and my dick, but he’d done nothing more than thank me for the lay. I’d wanted to grab him and force him to admit that it had been more than that but I’d taken the coward's way out.
I’d taken the out that he'd given me.
The following morning he’d come out of his apartment on schedule for his workout and had greeted me like nothing had happened. No drama, no questions, no anything. Just the familiar stranger in Jude's body.
I’d actually tried to bring up the topic of the night before, but Jude had merely said, "Don't worry about it, Nikolai. We both needed to let off some steam. It was fun."
And that had been that.
From that moment on, he’d been so polite it made my teeth hurt. I’d wanted to force him to do or say something that would prove the real Jude was still in there somewhere, but I'd known it would just make things worse. I could still hear the plea in his voice as he’d asked me to promise him something we’d both wanted.
That had been real.
That had been Jude.
And I’d pissed all over it like it was nothing.
In addition to dealing with the Stepford wife version of Jude, we’d spent the entire week on the move rather than at his office. I still didn't really know what was happening with the deal that he’d been working so hard on, but whatever it was, he'd spent the better part of the week putting out fires. He’d gone to meeting after meeting at various locations throughout the city and neighboring New Jersey, so I’d been on point to watch his back.
Although Jude wouldn't talk to me about whatever was going on with his deal, I could tell it was causing him an endless amount of stress. Thankfully, he hadn’t insisted on going back to Club Four to work out any of that stress. If he’d wanted that, all hell would've broken loose. Now that I’d had that small piece of Jude, there was no way I was going to watch random men put their hands on him.
It was bad enough that I had to share him with Hayes.
Though I supposed I couldn’t really call it sharing since I wasn't allowed to put my hands on him again either.
Fortunately, Jude hadn’t gone back to Clifton Hayes’s home in the week since our encounter either. I had no clue how I’d handle that request whenever he did get around to making it.
The only exception to Jude's distance was when he asked me about how my nephew was doing. While Maks was out of the hospital, he wasn't one hundred percent yet, but I hadn't told Jude any of that. The last thing I wanted was to use my nephew’s tenuous condition to get Jude to talk to me.
But now as I sat across from Jude and took in his haggard features and clearly worn-out body, I found myself desperate to hear his voice. I needed to know that the real Jude was still in there somewhere.
"You okay?" I asked.
We were heading from yet another meeting back to Jude's office. It was closing in on just after ten in the evening. Everything in me wanted to gather Jude up in my arms and hold him as I told the driver to take us back to my place. Not the fancy but sterile apartment Hayes had procured for me, but my own little room above my parents’ bakery. I had this insane need to see Jude in my space; to feel him there.
Jude gave a tired nod.
"Does that mean the deal’s back on track?" I asked.
Another nod. I fully expected him to continue ignoring me, but he surprised me when he added, "The whole thing was bogus."
"What was bogus?"
Jude had his head back on the seat, proof of how exhausted he was. He let it roll forward so he could look me in the eye. "The counteroffer they got. It was bullshit. It looked legit on paper but when they started doing their due diligence, it all fell apart."
"What does that mean?" I asked.
Jude shook his head. "I don't really know. I can't make sense of it. Neither can the seller. All they’re saying is that they got this offer via email from what appeared to be a legitimate source. When they started looking deeper into it, they realized the email addresses that were used were all spoofed. And whoever they’d talked to didn't exist when they called the company to verify things."