Jude (A Cocky Cage Fighter Novel Book 2) (24 page)

“Sadie,” he says my name in almost a groan. “When you said slow...how slow…”

“Not this slow,” I answer quickly. The words barely leave my mouth before he’s on top of me.

When our lips meet it ignites a frenzy. I’m quickly forced to my back, taking him down with me, my arms and legs locked around him. The kiss is so frantic that I think I bit his tongue, but Jude doesn’t slow down or seem to mind. His palms moving up my tank top are desperate to get handfuls of my breasts while I work on his bulge through his shorts before yanking them down and out of the way to get to his flesh.

“We should…we should go upstairs,” he says, his mouth moving down to suck on my exposed breasts.

“Okay,” I agree. At first I don’t think we’re gonna make it any further than the sofa, but Jude picks me up and we’re finally moving.

My legs around his waist put his hard cock right where I need him against the seam of my cotton shorts, making me moan.

“Oh God,” he groans. “Need a condom. Upstairs.”

“Still on birth control,” I say against his lips, and that’s all the confirmation he needs before he lowers me down onto the steps, jerks my shorts and panties off, and then shoves his cock into my throbbing and drenched pussy.

“Please, Jude. Harder.
Oh
!” I scream when my slick walls clench desperately around his thick length that’s buried deep inside of me. It’s been so long and I needed him so much that it only takes seconds for me to shatter into a million wonderful pieces in his arms.

“Sadie. God Sadie, I missed you so damn much,” he whispers against my ear while we start to catch our breath.

Despite how amazing and intense it was, I haven’t had enough.

“Take me to bed, Jude,” I tell him, running my hands through his longer, thicker hair. “And then I want you to make love to me until I have to leave next week.”

“Lookin’ forward to it, sweetheart,” he says with a big grin. Then after a quick kiss he carries me the rest of the way to the bedroom.

Jude

I make a right turn and then the GPS on my phone tells me I’ve arrived at my destination, eight-oh-one South Anderson Avenue, Sanibel, Florida. The directions bring me to the front of a store with a palm tree and a big yellow and blue sign that has the words “Ace Paddleboard” on it. I park my truck in the lot and after one last deep, calming breath I climb out and head inside.

A door chime dings in greeting and then I’m looking at rows of kayaks, life vests and swimming apparel.

“Hi, can I help you?” A young guy a few years older than me with shaggy, brown surfer hair, tee and shorts asks.

Here goes nothing.

“Yeah, I’m, ah, looking for Melanie. Is she working today?”

He blinks at me a few times and I worry I’ve blown my shot at this, but then he says, “She doesn’t really come in during the summers, so she can stay home with the kids.”

Kids. Damn, I didn’t even think about that shit.

“Oh, well um, I guess I’ll maybe try to stop back by this fall,” I say, not sure what else to do. It’s not like this kid’s going to come right out and give a complete stranger her home address.

“If you want to see her, our house is right next door. You’re Jude, right?” he asks with a smile. He follows up with an explanation before I can even ask how the hell he knows who I am. “You look just like her and we’ve always followed you and your brother’s careers.”

“Oh. So you’re…” The boy who ended a marriage. The guy that took our mother from us and had replacement kids with her. The jackass she left her old life for. I’m not sure how to finish my statement.

“Her husband, Reece,” he says, offering me his hand. “She talks about you all the time. There’s not a day that’s gone by that she hasn’t missed you.”

“What about Jax? Does she miss him, too?” I ask snidely before I can stop myself.

“Of course she does,” he says right away. “We’ve watched every televised fight the two of you’ve ever had and seen some live. We were in the arena in Fairfax July Fourth when you won the title. Mel’s so damn proud of you both.”

Mel
. I remember my dad calling her that, too. Suddenly I’m not so sure that I can do this.

“Please don’t leave without seeing her,” he says when he notices me eyeing the door. 

“She’s probably not going to like what I have to say to her,” I warn.

He nods. “I’m sure she deserves it, and it’ll be worth it for her to see you after all this time.”

I swipe my hand over my face, trying to figure out what to do.

“Just wait here and I’ll go get her. It won’t take but two minutes,” he says, heading for the back exit. “Please just wait.”

My heart starts racing before the door shuts. This is it. After nineteen years I’m gonna finally face the woman who should receive the shittiest mother of the century award. Surprising myself, I don’t leave, and a couple of minutes later, she walks through the door.

Seeing me, she gasps, stopping dead in her tracks. Her hand comes up to cover her mouth when her dark eyes water and she starts to sob. I guess her young husband wanted to surprise her.

“Jude? Oh my God!” she exclaims before coming closer. “It’s you…you’re really here?”

“It’s me,” I say, finding it hard to yell at her because she’s upset and looks so…young and pretty, more like mine and Jax’s older sister than our birth mother. Her wavy, jet-black hair falls past her shoulders, and she’s tall for a woman but lean, wearing a long, floral summer dress like something Sadie would like. Sadie, fuck I wish she was here with me. 

“I’m so glad you’re here. Thank you. I know it probably wasn’t easy for you. That’s why I’ve never just shown up on your doorstep. I didn’t know…

“Whether or not I’d cuss you out and tell you to leave?” I offer.

“Yeah,” she says with a heavy sigh. “I’m sorry. I know that’s not adequate but nothing else is either.”

“I’m not the one you need to apologize to,” I tell her, finding more of my spine again since she’s not crying as heavy now.

“I know Jackson hates me. I mean, how could he not?” she says with her narrow shoulders sagging

“We both do,” I admit.

She lowers her eyes and sniffles. “I’d hoped one day you’d be able to forgive me, even if he couldn’t.”

“I actually forgave you for cheating on Dad and leaving him for someone else. You should’ve told him the truth instead of getting caught, but I know that when you love someone, sometimes you do stupid things,” I say with an exhale of breath to the ceiling. “What I hate you for is over the past nineteen years Jax has thought you didn’t give a shit about him. You devastated a ten-year-old boy with just a few words that still hurt him till this damn day.”

Her eyes close and more tears run down her cheeks, but I don’t feel guilty about my honest words and refuse to take them back.

“I’ve always regretted that day, and probably will until the day I die,” she finally says between more sniffles. “I was…torn. I felt guilty, of course, and didn’t know what to do. I hated myself for wanting someone I shouldn’t. I thought it’d be easier for Jax to hate me than miss me. I deserved to be hated for what I did to your father and to you boys. And for him to see it firsthand…I wish he hadn’t. Not because of your dad finding out, but because I can’t imagine how what I did scarred him.”

“Why haven’t you ever apologized or tried to talk to him?” I ask her, thinking of the yearly cards I get while he’s never gotten a single fucking thing from her.

“There’s nothing I can say to him to repair the damage I’ve done,” she says with a shake of her head.

“You could start by saying you’re sorry. The worst that could happen is he’ll call you a bitch and tell you to go to hell,” I say, offering her my cell phone. 

She looks at me a second in question but then steps forward, taking the offered phone and scrolling through my contacts. I hope Jax won’t kill me for this. I didn't tell him where I was headed or what I was doing before returning home to Maryland to pack.

“Hey, bro, when you gonna be back to haul your shit to Carolina?” I hear him ask through the phone.

Our mother’s chin trembles before she finally says, “Jackson?”

“Sadie? Who the fuck is this?” he asks.

“Um, please don’t hang up. It’s your mom.” I hear the click right before she cringes and hands the phone back.

I redial his number and he answers without saying anything. “Jax, just hear her out, okay?” I ask, but get no response. Figuring he’s at least still on the line, I hand the phone back to her.

“Jackson, I’m so sorry for what I did…what I said. I know you’ll never forgive me…but I’ve loved you and missed you every single minute of every day,” she says between sobs. “I’m so proud of you and watch all of your fights. I was there…eight years ago…at your first championship fight in Las Vegas, and then your third in California. I watched all the coverage on your trial and was so happy when I heard you married the beautiful attorney and they dismissed those ridiculous charges. I saw in the tabloids that you had a little boy, and he’s adorable. He looks just like you and Jude when you were babies.”

My own stupid eyes water, hearing her quick confessions before he hangs up on her again. I hope this will give Jax some sense of peace after all this time.

“I’d love to see you and meet your family, but I know that’s probably too much to ask. Just please think about it. You have a half-brother and sister. Wyatt is eleven and Anna just turned sixteen. They’re both huge MMA fans. Wyatt wants to learn how to fight like his big brothers. He and Anna would freak out if they got to meet you and Jude.”

Holy shit. I have a brother and sister who I didn’t know about but apparently idolize me and Jax. If that’s not a slap in the face then I don’t know what is. Despite how much I hate our mother, which I have to admit is lessening every second, the kids are innocent in all this and deserve to know their half-brothers.

“I hope you’re still there, and I hope you’ll think about everything I said. I love you, Jackson. And your dad, too. He’s such a good man. I’m sorry I hurt him and you and Jude.”  She hands me the phone back.

The time is ticking on the display window like he’s still on there, so I put it up to my ear. “Jax?”

I hear a sigh and what sounds like a sniffle. “I’m gonna kick your ass,” he says without venom, followed by, “I’ll talk to you later.” Then the line goes dead.

Our mother, Melanie, wipes her eyes with the heels of her hands. “Thank you, Jude.”

I just shrug, not knowing what to say after the emotional Oprah moment.

“Could I talk you into meeting Anna and Wyatt, or would that be asking too much too soon?”

“Yeah it would be, but I’d still like to meet them.”

“Thank you,” she says with a smile. “So I’ve been dying to know. Did you work things out with the pretty blonde girl from the fight?”

That causes me to bark out a laugh because it’s such a mom-ish thing to ask. “Yeah I did. In fact, I’m getting ready to move to North Carolina to be with Sadie while she goes to college.”

“I can tell she makes you happy. You have the smile of a man in love.” 

“I am happy and in love,” I admit.

"Now I am, too," she replies before taking me to meet my brother and sister.

Sadie

One week into my internship and I’m in love with Bald Head Island. You can only get to it by a thirty minute ferry boat ride, which is awesome and makes me feel like I’m stranded Ginger or Maryann style. There are no cars allowed on the island so everyone rides around on golf carts. Even though it’s a small piece of land, the number of sea turtle nests on it is incredible. There’s been more than a hundred laid this summer, so every night we patrol the beaches with red foil covered flashlights searching for hatchlings. After just a week I’ve seen eight nests boil, an absolutely amazing thing to watch.

Tonight we’re excavating a nest that hatched a few days ago to look for stragglers. There’s usually at least a handful of hatchlings, and sometimes as many as a few dozen. These are public events that everyone on the island is invited to watch, but only the interns get to touch the cute little guys. It’s a rather large crowd tonight since it’s Friday, the start of the busy tourist weekend. I look around the packed, roped off observer area and somehow spot him in the sea of people.

Jude.

I know it’s only been a week, but I’ve missed him like crazy. A small, insecure part of me couldn’t help but worry that the week before had been a dream or that he’d change his mind about wanting us to get back together, which meant he’d decide not to relocate. I jog through the sand and launch myself at him even though the waist high rope still separates us.

“What are you doing here?” I ask, tightening my grip around his neck as his arms wrap around my waist.

“I just wanted to see you before I go home to pack.”

I’d been freaking out after not hearing from him since yesterday when he was headed to Florida to finally see his mom.

“How was Florida?” I ask when I finally pull back to see the expression on his face.

“Better than I expected,” he says with a small smile. “But go, get back to work and maybe we can talk later?”

“Yeah, of course. I’ll be free until ten. Then you can patrol the beach with me if you want.”

“Hell yes,” he agrees with a big grin.

I go back to the nest site and help the other three interns with removing the mesh cage from the sand, and then we start digging. Finding that first hatchling is just as exciting as it is every single time. With latex gloves on we pick up and put each of the fifteen little guys or girls who we find into a plastic container to walk around and show the observers. The baby turtles are all covered in sand and scrambling on top of each other, desperately trying to find the ocean.

Once everyone’s had a quick look, we take the babies to the wet sand where the tide is coming in and line them up to watch them race home for the very first time. The waves wash a few back up on the shore, but they’re persistent and eventually all of them make it out of sight and into the great big ocean.

It’s sad to know that not many will survive, but the females that do will remember how to get back to this place and will return to this same beach to lay their own eggs in eighteen or so long years from now.

Jude sneaks up behind me and wraps his arms around my waist before kissing my neck. “That was pretty damn cool to watch,” he says.

“Yeah, and it never gets old,” I reply before turning around in his arms. “So tell me about how it went with your mother that left you buried in the sand.”

“She was…different than I expected. Pretty and actually sort of nice. She was apologetic, more so than I imagined she’d be. I have a younger brother and sister.”

“Really?” I ask.

“Yeah, the girl’s named Anna and she’s sixteen and the boy, Wyatt is eleven. They act like Jax and I hung the moon.” He laughs. “It’s sweet.”

“Have you told Jax about her?” I ask.

“Yeah and she called him while I was there. Hopefully it helps...but who knows.”

“How are you doing?” I know it had to be an emotionally draining trip for him to deal with this all alone. I wish I could’ve been there for him.

“I’m...really good. Even better now that I’m here with you,” he says with a dimpled smile. Reaching down, he grabs my hand and kisses my finger above the blue square topaz ring surrounded by diamonds. The promise ring he put on me before I left.

“Thanks for coming, and while I love it here, I can’t wait to get back to Durham with you.”

“Just one more week,” he says, brushing his lips over my cheek. “But I can already tell it’s going to be a great night. I’ve got lots of
Reese’s
, and there’s this little rainbow sea turtle I’ve missed and need to spend some serious quality time with.” 

…

The summer’s coming to an end and while there’ve been some tough times, there’s been a lot of good ones too. It’s the Saturday before school starts and I’m at the
Evolution
gym, hopefully soon to be
Havoc
, getting ready to watch Jude fight a string of guys with a pretty big crowd of locals watching.

“A kiss for good luck?” Jude asks me after his hands are taped up and ready to go.

I press my lips to his before asking, “Do you really think you’ll need it?”

“Hell no. None of these fuckers will make it to the second round,” he says with a wink and cocky smile before he heads into the cage. Josh, the idiot, is up first. Why the boy wants to inflict this unnecessary pain on his scrawny ass is beyond me.

The bell rings and while the shrimp tries to dance around avoiding Jude, he finally gets cornered against the fence. Jude barely taps Josh's chin with a single jab before he goes down and doesn’t get back up.

“Like that was even a warm up,” Referee Linc scoffs after Josh is hauled out of the octagon by two guys.

Next up is Chris, a lightweight who is maybe twenty pounds heavier than Josh. He’s not as fast at running away as the featherweight was and ends up getting knocked out ten seconds sooner.

Nate is the first real challenge. He was Linc’s sparring partner before Linc's injury, another welterweight. Jude has definitely bulked up over the last few weeks and is the size of Jax, maybe a few pounds heavier.

The ginger doesn’t get knocked out by Jude’s fist. No, Jude gets Nate’s head in the guillotine hold while both are standing up. Seconds later the other fighter’s entire body goes limp when he passes out.

Last but not least is Senn, the light heavyweight fighter. Jude hasn’t even worked up a sweat, and has only fought for a total of three minutes after three fights.

Senn’s somewhat arrogant because of his size, but he’s not that much larger than Jude now. He’s definitely not as fast, and before the first round ends he’s taken one too many hits to his bleeding face so Linc steps in and stops the fight. 

“Is that it?” Jude asks after he climbs up on the top of the cage and straddles it. There’s not a scratch on him. “That’s the best you’ve got? Then we’ve got some serious work to do. Welcome to team
Havoc
boys.”

Linc shakes his head and chuckles while Jude climbs down. I head inside the cage to congratulate him, not that I had any doubt.

“Congrats on your new gym,” I tell Jude with a hug. The owner and Jude had been in talks for the past few weeks, and Jude convinced him to sell it for nothing more than the tax value of the building. Jude was ecstatic, and now that the so-called fight for the facility is over, my dad will be coming down to help Jude get things turned over.

“So the coaches are wondering what’ll happen to their jobs,” Linc says to Jude, whose arms are still around me.

“We’ll try to keep them all, unless it’s obvious they don’t have much to offer.”

“Good,” Linc says. “I’ll let them know.”

“What about you? You’re gonna help me run this place, right? You know these guys and can help me keep them in line,” Jude tells him.

“Yeah, I can do that. At least until the doctor clears me to fight again,” Linc agrees with a grin and fist bump with Jude before giving me a one-armed hug. “Take care of our girl,” he says, heading off to check on his injured teammates.

“You ready to take me home, champ?” I ask.

“Home,” he repeats with his signature dimpled grin, picking me up by my ass so that my legs are around his waist, neither of us caring who sees. “I
really
like the sound of that.”