There You Stand (10 page)

I sank down on my bike and considered riding the fuck out of there. But it was obvious that it didn’t matter where the hell I was or what I did; these guys already knew my business. I was made their business because of Jude—of that I was certain.

I rode out of the lot and drove around the block. I parked on the side street before heading to the back door of the skate shop on foot.

Jude was tangled up in the Disciples’ business? I should’ve turned around and left but I couldn’t even force myself to go. Vaughn’s words about Jude bolstered my resolve.

The screen was locked but I could see the length of the hallway to the storefront. The lights were turned low because the shop was closed and there was a soft glow coming from what looked like the back office.

I rapped my knuckles lightly and when Jude rounded the corner toward me, my heart crashed to my ribcage. This guy disarmed me every single time and I had only just seen him a few minutes ago. But something about knowing we were going to be alone again made my head spin.

“What’s up?” I asked when he opened the door for me to enter.

He looked over my shoulder to the lot and to the surrounding storefronts. “Where’s your bike?”

“Side street,” I said.

Suddenly I felt restless. On edge. “L . . . look. Maybe I should just go.”

“You should leave if that’s how you feel. I don’t even know if this is a good idea,” he said, his voice laced with uneasiness. “Ah . . . fucking hell. It’s just that I thought I’d show you something.”

“O . . . Okay,” I said, stepping inside. He released a breath as if relieved I’d stayed.

We stood staring at each other in the dim hallway with only a sliver of space between us.

“It’s really fucking hard to fight this attraction I have for you, Jude.”

He tensed his fist as if he wanted to touch me, and my dick throbbed in response.

“I just wish I knew something more,” I said. “I know you don’t want to tell me anything, but hell, I’m already here. I’m already into you.”

His bit his lip and dropped his head.

I sighed heavily. “So what is it you wanted to show me?”

“Something that might help your back.”

That wasn’t what I was expecting to hear. “I’m listening.”

“Skaters get lots of injuries from falls and I’ve got a couple of tricks up my sleeve.”

I smirked. “Tricks, huh?”

He motioned over his shoulder for me to follow.

It was strange to see the shop from this angle because I had really only appreciated it from the front view. And merely from passing by the window where all the boards hung in neat rows.

The Board Room not only carried skateboarding and snowboarding wares but also some other odds and ends for summer and winter sports.

I’d been inside the store once a couple of years ago when I needed some snow equipment for a weekend trip I’d taken with some guy named Andrew. A guy I’d now like to forget. But at least he didn’t leave me with his damn dog as a souvenir.

Jude grabbed something off a low shelf and then headed to the back room, where I noticed a table of deconstructed skateboards. “Is this where you work?”

Jude nodded as he rummaged around in the desk.

“Do you enjoy it?” I asked propping my bicep against the doorframe.

“Only second to actually skating.”

“Do you compete?”

He looked up and thinned his lips. “Nope.”

“You hear about the extreme sports event coming to town?”

Distress flitted through his eyes for a brief moment but I couldn’t figure out why. Skating was the one area I figured he’d feel most confident. “Sure. I plan to check out the show.”

“Maybe I’ll see you there,” I said. “Raw Ink is a sponsor and we have free tickets.”

The other side of the office was messy because there were random boxes strewn about in front of a large black couch and small refrigerator, which were next to a countertop with a microwave oven. Obviously this space doubled as an employee break room and I wondered if Jude ate his lunch sitting on those oversized cushions.

“So what’s the plan you have?” I said, now looking at some signed and framed professional skateboarding photos on the wall. He held up his finger and brought out the tube of tennis balls he’d just swiped from the front of the store.

He tore open the package and then reached for the duct tape he’d yanked from the drawer. He pulled out a strip, intent on his project as he began winding it around three green balls.

“You can lie down on that couch as soon as I relocate that box.”

I looked over at the black cushions where one side was free and the other had a box labeled
wheels
. “I can move it.”

His eyes narrowed. “Trying to pull your back even worse?”

“Dude,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Pretty sure I know by now how to properly distribute the weight to my legs to lift heavy objects.”

His gaze darted to my thighs and I saw him swallow thickly.

Holy Christ this guy was hot. And he wanted me to lie down? At this point I’d do anything he asked.

He used his teeth to rip the tape, securing the last piece in place. I couldn’t help but stare at those red lips that he wouldn’t allow me near the other day.

What was it that he’d said? That people only wanted things from him. The thought of that made a tremor travel along my neck. Maybe that’s why Vaughn had said that he was finally safe.

But what in the hell did that mean? And why did I have this overwhelming desire to be the one to make him feel secure and protected, locked up tight in my arms all night?

I was so lost in my fantasies about this guy that the movement of him walking to the couch, lifting the heavy box, and placing it on the floor startled me.

“On your stomach, Cory.”

My eyebrow shot up and a blush crept across his cheeks.

“If that’s the way you want me,” I mumbled, not wanting to meet his gaze because my erection was now lengthening against my zipper. The only saving grace was that in a prone position, I’d be hiding the evidence.

As he stood over me, I pictured him touching me in all of his naked splendor, and Jesus, I needed to think about other things like lying on a bed of nails or something.

My back was on fire but being in close quarters with Jude had kept my mind off of it for a good several minutes. In fact, it had been hurting for so many days in a row; it merely felt part of my daily routine.

But the pain had now transitioned to a dull ache, similar to the way it felt lately at night. Usually I’d just take a muscle relaxer, and it would make me drowsy enough to fall right asleep.

“Have you heard of tennis ball therapy?”

I shifted to stare at him. “Tennis ball what?”

His lip tilted upward and he looked like the devil. An extremely sexy and naughty devil. Jesus fuck.

“I know it sounds dodgy, but it’s not.” His eyebrow raised in a challenge. “Trust me?”

“You’re asking me that question when I’m lying here in pain,” I said, cringing as I tried adjusting myself on the cushion. “When you hardly even trust me.”

He shut his eyes momentarily. “Trust is hard for me.”

“And you think it’s easy for me?”

“Easier, yes,” he said and I let out an exasperated breath. “And what things don’t I trust you with, anyway?”

As soon as he said the words he cringed. He had caught himself and was already waiting for the fallout. He scrunched up his nose, expecting my comeback.

“You don’t trust me enough to tell me your story,” I said. “And then let
me
decide whether or not I want to stick around.”

He sighed. “There’s more to it than that.”

“Such as?”

“Such as safety.”

“Safety,” I said and I felt like we were talking in circles again.

I got it; I was worried about that, too, especially now that I figured out he was involved with the Disciples. But I knew where this conversation would go and I’d end up frustrated and maybe even walking out. And right now I just wanted this alone time with him. Because these moments were few and far between. And Jude had actually invited
me
here because he cared. He definitely cared.

“How about the safety of my body parts?” I tucked a smile in the side of my cheek.

“Your body parts?” he said, trying to keep the smirk off his face.

“Yeah, Doc. Maybe I should be concerned,” I said. “Maybe you’ve got some Cracker Jack operation going on back here. The other night with my foot and now you’re trying to fix my back.”

He bit back a grin. “I do worry about that.”

My eyebrows rose. “Worry how?”

“That if I’m not gentle you won’t let me care for your body parts again.”

I let out a bark of laughter. “Glad to know you think so much about my body parts.”

“All the time, you cheeky bastard,” he deadpanned.

I chuckled because I’d been called a bastard but never in my life had I’d been called a cheeky one.

“Any other parts of me?” I whispered.

His gaze scaled the length of my body, landing back on my eyes. “Do you even know how sexy you look waiting there for me?”

“About as sexy as you look lying on my table at Raw Ink?”

He pulled back and gulped openly. “Pure torture.”

I huffed out a laugh. “Tell me about it.”

“I shouldn’t be doing this,” he mumbled to himself as if he’d suddenly questioned his own sanity.

Screw this. I wasn’t going to lie here in this fucked-up position anticipating the moment he’d change his mind.

“You’re the one who invited
me
here, not the other way around.”

I propped my elbows on the cushion in an effort to stand up.

“No, wait.” He took a deep breath and looked into my eyes. “I . . . I haven’t really been around anybody in a while. I mean, nobody I’d been so hugely attracted to.”

“Seriously?”

“Definitely,” he muttered.

It was similar to what Vaughn had said, but what exactly did that mean?

“And speaking of body parts, I honestly questioned whether a few of mine would get a workout again,” he said. “But then you’d come around with your dogs, and my stomach would get tied up in knots and my . . .” He looked down at his lap. “Well . . . you know.”

My chest was throbbing as my gaze scaled down to his erection. His breathing was erratic and I was beginning to feel guilty for bringing all of this on.

At least I wasn’t in this alone. But I wasn’t the one fighting it so hard. I thought about Vaughn’s words again and about Jude needing some company.

“It’s cool, Jude,” I said. “Hey, man, no pressure. We don’t have to . . .”

“I’m not saying I don’t want to, just saying I don’t know if . . .”

“I get it, okay,” I said, letting him off the hook. “Let’s just move to the tennis ball magic.”

He swallowed roughly and then nodded, edging closer to the corner of the couch.

His trembling fingers stretched to my waist and I remembered how it felt to be skin to skin with him at the quarry.

“Here?” he asked, putting pressure on my lower back. I groaned.

“Is it okay if I lift your shirt?” His voice was low and smooth and such a stark difference to the assertiveness he showed in the water the other day.

His fingers pulled the bottom of my shirt up and his hands felt so warm on my back. He placed the tennis balls firmly on my skin and once he applied pressure, my breath stole away from my body.

“Give it a couple of minutes, mate,” he said low in my ear. “I think it’ll work.”

I could scarcely breathe because the pressure was so intense. I fisted my hands and dug my head into the cushion.

“I used to think I wanted to go into sports medicine,” he said and I could tell he was trying to get my mind off the aching. “I’ve taken some online courses here and there. Maybe I will again someday.”

“I sure as hell hope you know what you’re doing, Doc,” I said, groaning. “You’re killing me.”

I could hear the smile in his voice when he said, “Like I said, trust me.”

After another minute more the throbbing began to lessen somewhat. I lifted my head from the cushion and turned my gaze to him.

“So, did you grow up around here?” he asked.

“Yeah, my grandmother still lives over on Barlow Avenue,” I said. “What about you? I know you grew up on a farm and you said you haven’t lived there since you were a teen. Are your parents still in the States? Your dad? Your mom?”

Silence.

“Dude, seriously?” I said, while panting through the agony. “You asked me, so I should be able to—”

“I haven’t seen my dad since I was a tot and my mum’s dead,” he said in a rush.

“Fuck, man, I’m sorry,” I said, trying to meet his gaze, but he was staring at the floor. “My mom’s dead, too. My grandmother raised me.”

His gaze slowly lifted to mine, sorrow evident in his eyes. “I’m sorry, mate. Bet you miss her.”

“I was ten when she died from breast cancer. I remember some really vivid moments but then my grandmother became my whole world. And it kinda bums me out that she’s growing older now, too.”

What in the hell was I even saying? Again with the motor mouth. To a guy who was hard-pressed to share anything with me. I was surprised I didn’t reveal my biggest fear of all—that pretty much everybody in my life leaves me. So would Jude. He’d already warned me, for Christ’s sake. And here I was falling down the rabbit hole.

Jude’s gaze had softened and he looked pretty miserable.

“You miss your mom?” I asked.

“Fucking hell,” he said in a tortured voice. “Losing her completely gutted me. I miss her every day.”

I couldn’t reach for him from this position and Christ, did I have the intense need to soothe him right then. Instead, I showed him with my eyes how damn sorry I was. “How did she pass away?”

All at once his face turned dark. Scary dark. There was rage hidden beneath the depths of his eyes and I didn’t need to ask any further. I already knew.

It was the same person who’d put those scars on his back.

“Shit,” I mumbled. “Is he in prison?”

Again there was silence; the only sound was Jude attempting to rein in his harsh breaths through his nose.

“No, huh?” I whispered and he stared past me to the wall, neither confirming nor denying. “Damn.”

Some things began lining up in my brain. Was Jude indebted to the Disciples in some way? Did it have to do with his stepfather? I stayed quiet thinking it through, because no way in hell was he was going to tell me anything more.

And then I felt something give way in my back. It was like a knot of a rope that abruptly loosened. I arched my neck and breathed out in relief.

“You felt that?” Jude asked.

“God, yes,” I said, feeling overwhelming respite from the pain. “I can’t believe that worked.”

He rolled the tennis balls along my lower back a couple more times and then removed them from my skin.

“Turn over, Cory.” His voice sounded low and gravelly and when I looked into his face, I saw so many conflicting emotions there. I couldn’t pinpoint any one of them, except maybe affection and lust.

I propped my elbows on the cushion and then flipped myself over. “Is there a part two in this magic remedy?”

His hip was now touching mine and my shirt was partially lifted over my abs. His gaze swept over my skin and then to the front of my pants, which tented painfully. Now that my hands were no longer at an awkward angle, I couldn’t help touching him. I slid my fingers to his knee. “Thanks for taking care of me again.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Is that how you see me? As a caretaker?”

“Docs
are
caretakers,” I said smugly. “Figured that was your thing.”

“Only with you,” he leaned down and whispered.

“Nice to hear.” Heat climbed it way up my neck to my cheeks. “Bet your mom would’ve said you were. It’s in your nature.”

His eyes became glassy and his fingers reached out to grasp at mine so that now, he was holding my hand. It felt so fucking perfect.

“Guess so,” he said, looking away as if embarrassed. “The next thing that I’m going to have you do is to slip these tennis balls beneath your back. It creates a pressure point.”

“So I’m supposed to lay on them,” I said, my thumb absently gliding over his knuckle as if holding on to him was the most natural thing in the world.

“You could also do this up against a wall, I suppose,” he said, looking over my shoulder. “But I kind of like having you defenseless like this.”

“Yeah?” I said. “Why is that?”

He placed the tennis balls beneath my back and I adjusted my position over them. I could feel my muscles stretching but I was more interested in keeping Jude talking.

“Because you have a hard time not moving around. Same thing with zipping your lip,” he said, arching an eyebrow.

“Now who’s being a cheeky bastard?” I said and he laughed. “So you like holding me hostage?”

“I do.” His gaze ensnared mine and it was like we couldn’t look away from each other without some effort. “You’ve been a good little prisoner.”

“I think I’ve done really well putting up with all your silence.” I smirked and then grew serious. “I’ve been able to live in all that quiet a little better lately.”

His eyes turned to a dazzling liquid jade and I could’ve swum in them eternally.

“How do your muscles feel?” he asked, adjusting his fingers.

I hummed. “Relieved.”

He reached under and pulled the line of tennis balls from beneath my back. “Enough stretching for one night.”

I could’ve gotten up at that point, but I didn’t want to for anything. It felt so good lying there with my pain temporarily abated and as reprieve ballooned in my chest, I shut my eyes, nearly growing drowsy.

I felt Jude’s arm inch forward and something urged me to stay still no matter how much I wanted to reach for him. I kept my eyes closed as his warm breath fanned across my chin.

My cap was tugged from my head and then his fingers burrowed in my hair. It felt so amazing, I could’ve groaned out loud. But I remained motionless because I didn’t want to ruin the moment.

I blinked open my eyes and his face was so close that I could practically taste his minty breath on my lips. I didn’t dare inhale as he studied the line of my lips, the curve of my neck. The tips of his fingers hovered over my eyebrow, and his knuckles grazed my cheek.

His lips slipped dangerously close to mine. I couldn’t risk frightening him away, even as my heart was clawing its way out of my chest. I begged and pleaded and prayed that he’d slant his mouth across mine.

Instead he ghosted his lips directly above, mere centimeters away, as if we were mirror images. And as he stared into my eyes while hovering over me, I was gone. Dead. Dying of hunger. Thirst. To finally sip from his lips, taste from his tongue.

His lips changed course by glided to my cheek and then dragging to my ear. His breath was hot and I moaned, unable to contain my longing any further. I swallowed in large gulps as my hands fisted and trembled.

His fingers travelled to my pants, palming my erection, and I let out a harsh breath. In one swift move he unbuttoned my jeans and tugged down the zipper, allowing my engorged cock freedom from the tight confines of my pants.

“Jude,” I said in a labored voice.

“I never got to finish at the quarry.”

He tugged my jeans down and gripped my erection through my underwear. “Oh fuck.”

His knees sank to the floor and he positioned his shoulders between my legs. What the hell was he doing?

And then his hot mouth enveloped my dick straight through the material of my briefs and I nearly burst through my skin. His lips were soft and full and holy shit, I was already on the brink.

My fingers reached for his hair. His dreads were coarse and stiff, a direct contrast to his soothing and forgiving mouth.

He moved his lips away and his hands reached for my waistband, yanking the material down my legs.

“Jude you don’t have to—”

“You have an amazing cock.”

Before I could respond, his lips engulfed the tip and the air departed my lungs. For a guy who claimed he hadn’t been with anybody in a long while, he certainly remembered what to do.

I let out a long hum. His tongue found the slit, brushed across it, and my hips arched off the couch. If his tongue felt like that on my cock, then what would it feel like in my mouth?

His lips suctioned my head and I squirmed, prodding inside his mouth so that I hit the back of his throat.

“I think I found just the thing to shut you up,” he murmured as he licked me from root to crown, more than likely tasting the growing desperation in my thrusts.

I let out a muffled laugh. “If I learned how to close my mouth I’d never get anything out of you . . .” A low growl emitted from my throat as he licked and sucked and nuzzled, his tongue circling and dragging lengthwise across my most sensitive vein. The sensation was completely overwhelming, as pinpricks of heat twined along my skin.

I could feel him smile around my girth. “I didn’t take you for a quiet moaner.”

“Quiet or not,” I said gasping, my fingers clutching his head. “You keep doing what you’re doing and I won’t last.”

“Good. I want to make you come,” he said, his lips bathing the slit again. “I want to taste you on my tongue.”

And that sentence in his British accent did fucking amazing things to my groin. I could feel the pyrotechnics building in my balls as they tightened and lifted.

There was a tingle in my spine that had nothing to do with tennis ball therapy, and my legs felt mind-numbingly weightless.

I knew I was about to blow.

“Jude, if you don’t move . . .”

But he sucked me deeper and swallowed me whole. And I fucking came down his throat.

My release went on for minutes or hours and I collapsed against the couch, breathing heavily and completely spent.

He laid his head atop my abdomen, looking smug and gratified. My fingers slipped across his gorgeous lips. “Goddamn, Jude. That mouth is amazing.”

Right then we heard a noise outside the door. It was probably just somebody walking by the bar that had tripped over a trash can. But it was all it took to snap Jude back to reality.

“We need to go,” he said, springing up.

Jude walked to the front of the store and I hastily followed behind buttoning up my jeans. He searched in all directions out the window as I pulled my cap back over my head.

“You think he’s out there somewhere?” I asked. “Is that what this is about?”

“You should leave,” he said quietly, urging me with his eyes.

And then I got it. He was definitely trying to keep me safe, even if he wasn’t directly saying how or why. Obviously this guy was dangerous. Fuck.

“Jude.”

He didn’t answer, merely stepped to the back door.

When I caught up to him, I pulled him against me, my fingers gripping the front his shirt.

“Thank you,” I whispered in his ear and he sucked in a shallow breath.

When I emerged to the lot, Smoke was on his bike near the bar’s back entrance. Though I felt uneasy, I didn’t feel scared, and that in itself was alarming to me. The Disciples might be intimidating but I didn’t feel like they were out to hurt Jude or me. Not unless I hurt them first and I sure as hell wasn’t planning on it.

I have nothing to hide
, I reminded myself as I strode to the side street where my bike was parked. I lifted my helmet to my head, just as Smoke came roaring by. When I looked up, he tipped his chin toward me.