Chapter 13

Judd’s booted foot had no sooner hit the last step when his cell phone went off. He carefully plopped Noelle onto the bed, then quickly grabbed the device from his waist.

Payne.

He glanced at Noelle, who was watching nervously, before answering. “Anderson,” he said by way of greeting.

“Judd, I have news,” he said.

He winced. Braced himself. “Is it good?”

“It is for your client. D.A. Stark got the trial date moved up. She testifies day after tomorrow. Friday.”

Judd stilled. “Friday?”

“That’s right.”

“You’ll do the official hand-off at 8:00 a.m. on Friday morning. I’d suggest moving into a location closer to Mossy Ridge ahead of time to lessen your drive, but since you’ve avoided detection I think it would be better to wait. Perhaps Ms. Montgomery wouldn’t mind taking a nap in the car on the way in while you drive.”

Judd knew he was new to the security business, but something about that plan rang false. Unnecessary, even. His spidey senses tingled. “Is there more?” he asked.

A simple, but effective way to get to the truth. “As it happens, yes, “ Payne said, his voice guarded. “Are you alone?”

“Not at the moment, no.”

“Then be careful how you respond and I’ll leave the dissemination of information to you. I’ve had an odd call here. Someone claiming to be an assistant of Ed Johnson’s wanted a status briefing on this case. This person wanted the contact information of the agent in charge.”

Judd swore. He knew for a fact that Ed trusted no one, that he’d made it quite clear that he and he alone was the only person who was supposed to be regularly informed on this case and that his contact would be limited to avoid an unnecessary mistake which might result in a “poor outcome”—as in dead—for Noelle.

His gaze inexplicably slid to where she sat perched on the bed. She’d pulled her shoes off, scooted back against the headboard and had drawn her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. Lilo and Stitch gamboled around her, batting at a long curly strand of her fiery hair.

An odd pain winged through his chest as he looked at her, swelled to the point he could barely speak. He cleared his throat. “Have you been able to ID the caller?”

“Not yet,” Payne admitted. “Naturally, he gave a false name, but the phone software pinged it as a Mossy Ridge number.”

“And what does Ed say?”

“Ed’s livid. He says he told no one who he hired, not even his wife. He’s rattled that the information has been compromised.”

Understandably so, Judd thought.

“This caller was smooth, Judd. Had 1 not known exactly what we were dealing with here, 1 might have believed him. He was that good. And the further into the conversation we got, when it became increasingly clear that he wasn’t going to get the information he wanted, he became frantic and irrational.”

Judd’s eyes narrowed fractionally, then he jerked his head toward the door, indicating that he’d take the rest of the call in private, before leaving the room and lowering his voice. “You think it’s the same guy who has been after her all along?”

They’d suspected that a single man had been responsible for the attacks on her life, simply because had two people been working on it, they might have succeeded already. They’d also suspected it was an amateur at work, for the very same reason. This fit.

“1 do,” he said. “And this guy isn’t a natural born killer. He sounds like a desperate soccer dad who owes the wrong people, is above suspicion and over a barrel.”

Judd swore, looked out the floor-to-ceiling windows and watched the last of the sun slip below the horizon. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Desperate men are unpredictable.”

Payne concurred. “And dangerous. This could be anybody, Judd. Anybody. My guess is that this is someone Noelle knows, might even trust. If she saw this person, she’d never assume that he meant her harm.”

“Are we certain we trust Stark?” Judd asked. “Because I don’t want to do the transfer at the last minute for the D.A. to screw this up and get her killed.” He didn’t want to let her out of his sight. He wanted to wrap her in Kevlar and personally escort her into the courthouse, then vet every person who came into the courtroom himself.

And what was supposed to happen post trial? After her testimony? This entire time they’d all been laboring under the assumption that she’d be safe once she’d given her testimony, that there would be no benefit to her death afterward because the damage would have been done.

But this was Tubby Winchester. He was a damned nut with a vindictive streak a mile wide—hell, he’d killed Rupert Nichols because the man had refused to stock his favorite ketchup. A sickening feeling of dread invaded his belly.

She’d never be safe, Judd thought. Even with Tubby behind bars, without some other form of protection, without some other form of resolution, she’d always be ducking and hiding, always looking over her shoulder.

It was a damned shitty way to live.

“Every bit of information I have on Stark suggests that he hasn’t misrepresented himself at all. He’s been waiting for years for a slam dunk case to take Tubby out of the picture. He’s certain that if he takes the head—Tubby, I mean—then the rest of his crime body will twitch for a little while, but ultimately die.”

That made sense, he supposed. Still...”1 don’t want to hand her off,” Judd told him. “I want to do the escort personally.”

Silence stretched across the line while Payne presumably mulled that telling statement over. He’d just tipped his hand, but so what? He couldn’t let her go, not when he needed to be there to protect her. “I think that’s for the best. I’ll alert Stark.”

“One day of testimony, right?”

“Provided the defense finishes with her,” Payne told him.

“They’d better,” he said grimly. Because he was taking her the hell out of there the minute she finished. He didn’t know where, he didn’t know how, really, at this point. He just knew that she wasn’t going to be safe—permanently safe, anyway—until he could mine a solution from his suddenly seizing brain to make her that way.

“I’m assuming you’ve inspected your weapon,” Payne remarked levelly. He was aware, of course, of the true reason he’d left the military.

“I have,” he said. “And, should the need to use it become essential, then I’m confident I can carry out my duty to our client.” And he was. He’d been hired to protect her, dammit.

“I never doubted it,” Payne told him.

Then that made one of them, Judd thought, swallowing at the vote of confidence. He’d been relatively certain that he could pick up a gun, aim and fire it if he had to on her behalf, but a sliver of doubt had remained in the back of his mind, a taunting reminder of his previous inability to do so.

Not anymore.

He’d pick off anyone who threatened her, Judd thought. Without a second thought or a moment’s hesitation. He knew it. Felt the resolve firmly in his fingers.

“Keep me posted,” he said. “I’ve got this.”

Payne agreed, then disconnected. He turned then to go back into the bedroom and saw Noelle standing in the bedroom doorway. He heaved a sigh. He should have known that she wouldn’t sit still, that she’d want to listen in.

It was her life on the line, after all. He could hardly fault her for that.

“What’s happening?” she asked, her ordinarily animated face a mask of worry.

He brought her fully up to speed, leaving nothing out. She’d been so brave, he thought. His Christmas angel. His Snow White. His intergalactic princess. God, had he ever met anyone so remarkable? Anyone so good but so capable of being wicked? Had he ever met anyone who cared so much about the world and the people in it? So determined to make a difference, with no thought to personal gain.

No, he hadn’t. And he instinctively knew he never would again. She was singular, unique. One of a kind. His to protect.

She worried her bottom lip, seemed to absorb everything and filter it through that remarkable brain. “I always imagined that it was someone I knew,” she said. “But it never occurred to me that they were being coerced into action, forced to kill me.”

“Does that make a difference?”

“Yes, it does,” she said. “It changes the motive. This man is obviously trying to protect someone— more than likely his family—and has been backed into a corner. He bears me no ill will, no grudge. He’s not crazy or cruel. He’s desperate. And desperation is something I understand.” She lifted a slim shoulder. “I see it all the time when I’m working relief. People will do the unthinkable when they feel like they don’t have any choice.”

That was true, he knew. Still... “He’s been trying to kill you, Noelle. He doesn’t get a pass because he has his reasons, no matter how good they might be.”

“I’m not giving him a pass,” she said. “Just a little grace.”

He shook his head, marveling at her. “Then you’re a better person than I am.”

“No, I’m not,” she told him. “More highly evolved, maybe,” she teased, the familiar light returning to her lovely green eyes.

A bark of laughter erupted from his throat. “More highly evolved, eh?”

She sidled forward, wrapped her arms around his middle and settled her head on his chest. “Thank you,” she murmured, startling him.

“For what?”

“For caring,” she said simply. “I heard you ask to take me to the courthouse. I figured you’d be thrilled to get rid of me. I never expected you to ask for additional duty.”

He swallowed, his throat clogged with emotion. “You’ve grown on me,” he said gruffly. Truer words had never been spoken. Never more terrifying either, but there it was.

“I’ve got an idea,” she told him, leaning up to kiss the side of his neck. A shudder wracked through him. “Why don’t you grow inside of me?”

 

###

Hours later, nestled in the sex tub, as Judd liked to call it, Noelle settled against his chest, between the V of his legs, and ate the chocolate candies from the honeymoon basket. The scent of honeysuckle massage oil and sex perfumed the air and the feather lay forgotten on the bed, but the ways he’d used it never would be.

Mercy.

Who knew something so soft and delicate could illicit such evocative feelings, could make her shiver and quake with a single sweep of it across her abdomen. There’d been a frantic edge to their lovemaking after he’d talked to his boss, Noelle had noted. Almost as though he’d needed to control her—control them—to keep the rest of the world in line.

She understood perfectly.

And she’d been happy to let him do it, to let him boss her around, to take her hard and fast. He’d needed the release and she’d needed...him. It was an alarming development she should have anticipated, but didn’t. Though she’d like to chalk these extraordinary feelings up to dire circumstances or even Stockholm syndrome, she thought with an inward chuckle, she knew that wasn’t the case.

It was him. Judd. Even his name stirred something deep inside of her. It made her organs clench in recognition, made her stomach drop and her breasts tingle. She didn’t know what it was about him, what specifically it was that made him so damned remarkable— aside from his criminal handsomeness and massive sex appeal, she thought—that made him the one who just ultimately...did it for her.

Was she in love with him? Could she be in love with him after so short a time? It was possible, she supposed. She knew it had happened for other people. But if this wasn’t love, then it was some variety thereof. She cared for him—deeply, given the ache in her chest the minute she’d realized their expiration date had arrived early—felt an overwhelming affection for him, one that she’d never experienced for anyone else before.

And when it came to sex...

Her womb clenched in remembered pleasure and she squirmed against him, felt him stir at her back. Heat moved through her, wound through her limbs and concentrated in her lady bits. Sizzled in anticipation of his touch, of his lips on her skin, his hands on her body, stroking, kneading, enflaming.

She reached up behind her, turned her head and brought his down for her kiss. His lips were soft, but firm, skilled. Though she could feel the tension climbing in his touch, he was unhurried, determined to enjoy the way their mouths moved together. She suckled his tongue, drawing it deeper into her mouth and felt him nudge harder up against her.

His big hands slipped around her, one at her breasts, toying with an achy nipple, the other sliding between her legs, where he put the palm of his hand flat against her sex and applied the perfect amount of pressure.

She groaned into his mouth, wiggled against him, need impossibly welling again. Every time she thought she was incapable of having another orgasm, he proved her wrong, like it was some sort of test he had to pass, a point he had to prove.

Lucky her, Noelle thought. He could score and score and score as far as she was concerned. Hell, this was a game she’d gladly forfeit if it meant she could keep having him, keep feeling him deep inside of her.

She turned then and straddled him, settled her nether lips over the long ridge of his arousal, making sensation whip through her. She winced with pleasure, sucking air through her teeth.

“I love that little sound you make,” he told her, his voice low and gruff with need. “It makes me so friggin’ hot," he said, coupling the world with a deliberate stroke against her clit.

“You know what makes me hot?” she asked, emboldened by his compliment.

“Tell me,” he growled, his big hands sliding over her back and settling on her hips as she undulated over him, not quite taking him in, biding her time, building his anticipation. “Shock me.” He chuckled. “You routinely do.”

She drew back and looked at him. “Really? I shock you? Little ole me?” She shook her head. “You must keep boring company.”

“Not true,” he insisted, shifting at her entrance, trying to come inside of her.

She evaded him, slid back and pressed a kiss onto his chest, flicked her tongue against his male nipple. His gorgeous skin gleamed in the light, wet and slippery, his dark hair pushed away from his face. And his eyes—God, help her, those eyes—burned with desire and something else, something she didn’t quite recognize but knew was significant all the same.

“You’re remarkable, Noelle,” he told her. “The most interesting person I’ve ever met.”

She laughed softly. “Interesting like a science experiment or interesting as exotic and mysterious?”

“Definitely the latter,” he told her, a smile in his voice. He snorted. “A science experiment,” he repeated. “Your mind must be a really interesting place to live.”

“It is,” she told him, settling onto the head of his penis, taking a little bit of him in, but not seating herself firmly onto him. It took every bit of strength she possessed to hold herself steady, to resist.

She wanted him to snap. She loved pushing him past his breaking point, making him mindless with need, with want for her. Only her.

With a low growl, gratifyingly, he did.

At last, hallelujah, amen.

“Enough,” he said, then reached over and turned on the jets, making the tub bubble and roil. In less than a heartbeat, he’d rolled her onto her side and slid right into her. She inhaled sharply from the invasion, felt him nudge her core, her muscles clench. She clung to the side of the tub, held on while he stroked her intimately, long and deep.

“I wish you could know how good this feels,” she said, her voice broken, raw. “I wish you could feel what I’m feeling, how much I love the way you move inside of me. Every vein and ridge, every perfect inch.”

He laughed darkly. “Oh, 1 think I’ve got a vague idea,” he told her, flexing deep, growing impossibly harder.

“You might,” she said, laughing softly as pleasure built in her sex, the heat building, feeding on itself.

Judd slipped farther under her, then lifted her leg and anchored it on the side of the tub. “I’m going to try something,” he said. “Do you trust me?”

“Unequivocally.” And she did, she realized. Completely. She didn’t know if this meant she’d achieved some level of unprecedented insightfulness or if she’d just lost her mind. She smothered a hysterical laugh.

Probably both.

“All right,” he said, sliding her body down the side of the big tub until—

“Oh!”

“There it is.” He chuckled. “Brace yourself, sweetheart. This is going to be good.”

The hot stream of water firing from the jets pounded her clit while he pistoned in and out of her, a double whammy of sensation that made her entire body hum with so much sensation she was surprised she didn’t just light up from the glow.

Her breath came in little hard puffs, her hands bit into the side of tub as she held on for dear life. It was almost too much. Too good. He stretched her, filled her, the hot water pounding relentlessly at her from the front, his dick buried deep inside of her, pounding from behind...

She felt the orgasm well up inside of her, reach an unmatched crescendo, then she exploded. Fractured. Flew into a million pieces.

Which was odd considering her body bowed so hard from the shock of it that she went teeth-clenchingly rigid, every muscle atrophied with joy, with unparalleled bliss.

She felt Judd jerk from behind, heard a guttural growl rip from his throat, felt him spasm inside of her. Her dark angel, her protector, her...

Hers.

Breathing raggedly, he pressed a kiss to her temple while his dick remained buried deep and twitching with the aftermath of his orgasm. Or maybe it was hers, she thought. Either way, the feeling was indescribably perfect. Beautiful.

“I’m not going to let anyone hurt you, Noelle,” he said. “Ever.”

The promise burrowed into her heart, made tears prick the backs of her eyes. “I’m not going to let anyone hurt you either,” she said. Even yourself, she silently added. Because she suspected whatever haunted Judd Anderson was a demon he’d created, even fed.

He laughed softly. “You’re going to protect me?” She nodded once. “Damn straight.”

Because she suspected he needed a hero as much as she did.