Sky decided her report could wait until morning when she saw the lineup of beautiful women waiting for an opportunity to flash their wares at the dark-haired superstar who happened to be her boss. And, she admitted, the only man who’d ever made her question her declared vow of celibacy. Seeing Jerri Ross, wearing what looked like a white leather jumpsuit that could have been sprayed on her lush body, lean up to whisper in Jude’s ear after sneakily pushing another young woman aside, Skylar decided she’d had enough.
She walked through what she thought was a door to the front of the Justice Mansion planning to retrieve her Spider and head for home. She hoped that the gaga young valet who had taken her keys and parked it for her hadn’t peed in the red and black leather interior. He’d looked that excited at the opportunity to touch, much less park, her three hundred thousand-dollar plus automobile.
Unfortunately, she missed the turn to the front of the mansion and ended up in a quiet garden alcove. Thankful for the opportunity to clear her head, she spotted a pond in the center of the recess. It was lit by an array of softly colored lights. Walking over the charming footbridge that crossed the pond, to her delight Skylar discovered a truly masterful Japanese garden. Intrigued by the artful mixing of esoteric plants, unusual rocks, and gently streaming water, Sky soon became absorbed in the surprisingly tranquil retreat. She didn’t know how long she leaned over the railing of the bridge, charmed by one unexpected element after another, when she thought she heard someone behind her.
Turning toward the sound, she was stunned to see Jude standing at the edge of the alcove staring at her. Clearly as surprised as she was, she heard him mutter, “Well, I’ll be a goddamned, fucking son of a bitch!”
Skylar thought she heard Jared say something from behind him but the expression on Jude’s face blocked out his brother’s words. She’d seen Jude angry, but this was something more. He was glaring at her, a mix of anger and amazement contorting his disbelieving expression. He stood stock-still, staring at her for a long moment, before striding toward her. In seconds he was on the bridge mere feet away, palpable heat emanating from his fierce body.
Glaring at her, his eyes were hard narrow slits of emerald heat. As if not believing what he saw, he reached for her and snorted in a rough mix of righteous anger and laugher. “Jesus Fucking Christ, it
is
you!” Grabbing her arm, he jerked her up next to him and said in a dangerously low voice, “Damn you, Skylar, for the brat that you are. I ought to spank your ass for this. In fact, goddammit, that’s exactly what I’m gonna do.”
Chapter 16
It took Skylar a full ten seconds to overcome her shock. Her rational mind tried to imagine what she could have done to warrant Jude’s angry attack. At the same time, his scandalous threat to spank her flooded her distinctly irrational body with a mass of fiery sensations. No one had ever looked at her the way he was, and no one had
ever
threatened to spank her. She tried to back away, fighting against the relentless cascade of fiery sparks lighting her core, but his looming presence was impossible to evade. His eyes were gleaming with anger and fiery passion. More than anything, he looked like a powerful animal poised to strike.
Struggling to free his grip on her arm, she stammered, “What…what are you doing, Jude? Why—” When she tried to pull away his jaw tightened and he yanked her closer to him. Fighting against him, she struggled to understand. “What could I possibly have done that you’re physically threatening me for?”
He barked a mirthless laugh, his breath hot on her cheek. His sneering threat was more alarming than his harsh snort. “Oh, sweetheart, you cannot imagine the
physical threats
I have in mind for you.” He fisted one hand in her hair, forcing her head back, and glared into her eyes. “But first, Skylar, tell me. When did you decide you were going to release your doppelganger? Bring out your Ms. Jekyll? Drop your ugly duckling façade and emerge as the white swan?”
Sky reeled back in shock at his litany of scornful taunts. “Tell me,
Squirt
, which Face of Eve am I gonna see next? The designer-clad diva or the bag lady?” Clearly growing angrier with each barb, Jude’s voice rose. “Who’s it gonna be, baby? Clark Kent or Superman? Princess Diana of Themyscira or fucking Wonder Woman? Or, hell, you gonna yank out Susan Storm and make yourself disappear completely?” He sneered. “But before you make yourself invisible, tell me this, dammit. Did you enjoy making a fool out of me? Is that how you get your jollies? Taunt any man who is brazen enough to show interest in you?”
Seeing his scorn morph into genuine anger and hearing him ridicule their private conversations, Sky felt her own anger rise. Finally understanding that he was reacting to the change in her appearance, her fury flared. Jerking her head free, she shoved at his chest and glared up at him. “Let me get this straight. You thought I was ugly, but now I’m not? And that’s a problem? I don’t get it, Jude. Are you saying that you
liked
me ugly? And now because I’m not, you’re angry?”
“Goddammit, Sky, you know that’s not what I mean. But, I do want to know. What’s the façade for? Were you trying to keep me from invading your weird space? Making sure I didn’t get too close? Just in case, God help me, I might have found you interesting?”
Sky’s anger flared red-hot. The injustice of his tirade—the sheer ugliness of it—catapulted her fury into heatstroke range. “
Why
would I do that, Jude? Why would I choose to be as ugly as you thought I was? So I wouldn’t be another notch on your belt? A ‘G2G’, like the rest of the women who spread their legs for the privilege of making your one-night roster? To make sure you didn’t want to fuck me? Is that why you’re angry, Jude? You thought the reason I made myself ugly was to keep you from fucking me?”
She knocked his hand off her arm and stepped back, her eyes lit with fiery blue flames. Scorn had rippled through her angry voice, but Jude didn’t miss the pain underlying her disdain.
“But, remember, I didn’t
need
to do that. You told me yourself. I’m the most
unappealing
woman you’ve ever seen. Right, Detective Justice? According to you, I’m so unappealing that fucking me was not an issue. Heck, and since sex with me was a no-go, you declared that you might even be able to respect
me, treat me as a colleague
.
”
Seeing her anger and hurt, and knowing that he was being irrational, Jude still couldn’t get by his fury at how she’d misled him. How she’d used her fucking glasses and ugly clothes to keep him away. Not wanting to deal with what a shallow asshole that made him, he struck back. “Yeah, damn you, that’s exactly what I think. I think you wear those stupid glasses and ridiculous clothes to be as un-fucking appealing as you can be. Tell me, baby, what are you scared of? What are you trying to avoid?”
Throwing caution to the gods of indecision, he gave into the roiling, anger-fueled lust swamping him. He jerked her up next to him and shoved her against the bridge railing. Dragging her head back, he forced her to look at him. “I asked you a question, Skylar. Goddamn you, answer me. What are you trying to avoid?”
When she closed her eyes and thrashed against him, refusing to answer, he pulled her slender body up against his. Reaching behind her, he grabbed her ass cheeks in his big hands and growled in her ear, “Is this what you’re afraid of, baby? What you didn’t want?”
Ignoring her outraged cry, he grunted, “Or how about
this
?” He reached inside the top of her dress and grasped one full breast, then gratuitously pinched the taut nipple. Gratified by her shocked yelp that evolved into a sexy moan, he barked a harsh laugh. “Now I get it. You didn’t want me to hear you moan. Is that it, baby? Because you don’t want to get turned on? You don’t want to acknowledge those shivers that are wracking your body, making you wanna beg me for more? Is
that
the problem, Skylar? You don’t want me to know how goddamn fucking much you want this?”
At her sobbing groan, Jude breathed out a hard male sound. At one level, he knew he was traversing a hairpin curve that would be impossible to navigate, but his lust overrode the warning signals. Reaching for the hem of her dress, he jerked it up over her hips, baring her thighs. Seeing the lacy triangle covering her mons, his excitement flared. He snorted triumphantly. “Jesus, baby. A thong? You just gave yourself away, sweetheart.”
He whipped her around and bent her over the railing, intending to snap the narrow elastic string separating her ass cheeks. He stopped cold at the unbelievable sight meeting his shocked scrutiny. It took him a full ten seconds to conjure up enough spit to whistle his stunned reaction. “Jeaasus fucking Christ.”
Since their superhero conversation, Jude had done enough research to know that the apparition flaring from the top of her butt crack was a stylized version of the inimitable Invisible Woman. Jerking her ass higher in the air and ignoring her outraged shriek, he muttered disbelievingly, “Goddamn, Sky. You
tattooed
Susan Storm? The Invisible Woman? On your
ass
?” Wonder filled his voice. “I gotta tell you, sweetheart, this thong and this tattoo fucking say it all. Yeah, baby. You just revealed yourself big time! I think the reason you wear nothing under your dress but a strip of black lace covering your pussy, and have a tattoo on your ass, is because you
do
want it! And honey, you want it
bad
.”
She shoved at him, horrified. Her face was stark white, her voice shook. “No, Jude, honest. I…I did it for me. That’s all!”
At her panicked appeal, he taunted her. “You did it for you? So you could turn yourself on when you look at your hot ass in the mirror?”
At her soft moan, he snorted in disgust. “You wanna know what I think, Miss Bag Lady Pretender? I think you’ve been waiting all your sheltered life for a guy who’s fucking man enough to look at that hot tattoo on your ass and take you up on your dare.”
When she shook her head and tried to free herself from his grip, he drawled, “Well, sweetheart, I gotta tell you. You poked the stick at the wrong tiger. Unlike those other assholes you scared off with your ‘I’m hopelessly ugly and cold’ facade, I’m here to take you at your word—the words you’re afraid to say, but your body isn’t.”
Sky’s eyes were saucer-wide, shining with a mix of fear and another emotion he could only hope was excitement. But her words were fierce, frantic. “No, Jude. You don’t understand. I…I didn’t mean that, I don’t know how to do…what you’re saying…”
He scoffed, and turning her toward him, he cupped her mons with his big hand and slid his fingers under the satin triangle. Ignoring her surprised shriek, he stroked her swollen folds and gloried in the musky wetness coating his probing digits. Holding his moist fingers to his mouth, he made a production of noisily licking each of them.
“Is this what you don’t know? What you don’t understand? What you didn’t mean? How’s this for evidence, Analyst Woman? Evidence that you’re as hot for me as I am for you, and
you want this as much as I do!”
Ignoring her heated cry and attempt to push him away, he stroked her puffy bottom lip with his thumb and stared into her stormy eyes. Now more purple than blue, he saw an emotion in the smoky depths that he recognized. It was lust, desire, as potent as his. A cautionary angel, or one of his slightly more thoughtful devils, warned him to be careful. At her agonized moan he lowered his voice and said softly, “Kiss me, Skylar. Taste your pussy on my lips.”
When she shook her head from side to side, he grabbed her chin and held it firmly. “No? Your choice, darlin’. Then I’ll kiss you. But first, baby, we’re gonna get you in a place where we can start connecting some critical body parts in addition to our lips.”
Yanking her dress up to her waist, he lifted her onto the top of the bridge railing. Spreading her knees apart he moved between them and pressed his engorged cock against her crotch. His reward was her deep passionate moan.
“Oh yeah, you can feel that, can’t you? Jesus, Sky, you’re so goddamned sexy, it’s a wonder my cock hasn’t broken through my fucking trousers.” Jude held her chin and began to kiss her, softly at first, gently nipping at the corners of her mouth, licking across the seam of her lips with the tip of his tongue. At her muted cry, he gave into the surge of passion storming him. He nearly lost his breath when she threw her arms around his neck and began to kiss him back. He forced her mouth open then began tangling with her tongue, her teeth, his groans as deep and ragged as hers.
Surprised, then elated at her eager cries, Jude lifted her up and clasped her naked bottom in his hands. Tugging her against him, he wrapped her slim thighs around his waist.
His gruff order rumbled from deep in his chest. “That’s the way, baby, spread your legs wide. Wrap them around me. God, yes, like that. Ride me, Sky. Christ, yes. Like that! Harder, honey!”
She was panting, gasping for air, crying his name. Knowing that he was by far the more experienced lover and that she was extraordinarily vulnerable, a warning voice from deep within his conscience sounded the alarm. At this point in any other coupling he would have had her flat on the ground, his throbbing cock inches from the entrance to her cunt. He admitted that the problem with this whole fucking scene was that this
wasn’t
any other woman. It was Skylar. Fighting against a need as potent as he’d ever felt, Jude managed to pull back. Holding her tight against him, he groaned, “Jesus, darlin’, I can’t take you like this, not the first time. I want you too much, too hard, too deep, to do it like this.”
Pressing her trembling body against his, he warned her, “So help me God, I
am
going to have you, Skylar. Maybe not tonight, but soon—so goddamn soon.” Jude stood her on the ground in front of him and eased her dress over her hips, then lifted her chin with his thumb to look deep into her stormy blue eyes. Her flushed cheeks, swollen lips, and trembling body mirrored the passion swamping him. Holding her gaze, he laid down his marker.
“Just so you know, Skylar, when I do take you, I’m going to spank your ass so hard you won’t be able to get anything over your bright red cheeks
except
those fucking three-sizes-too-big cargo pants of yours!”