Truth or Dare Page 9

  She grinned back at him, his kiss making her lips tingle. “I thought so.”

  He looked out the window, a slight frown marring his features. “It’s my chief and Joey. They’re probably pissed I haven’t been at work. Will you make some coffee real quick, please?”

  Annette gasped, but before she could respond, he was out the door. Guilt rattled around inside her. She hadn’t even thought about the fact Jude had to work. How selfish of her to not even consider it.

  Jude trudged through the snow over to the fire department’s snow mobile, hand outstretched and smile firmly planted on his face.

  “He lives!” Joey exclaimed with a laugh while Chief Marquez scowled.

  “You all want to come in for some coffee?” Jude asked, features schooled. Chief didn’t look pleased. As soon as the man saw Annette, he’d know exactly what he’d been up to.

  “Sure,” the expected grumble came back as they followed him to the cabin.

  “Thought for sure we’d find you frozen up here. Was the only possible conclusion I could come to for you not showing up … or calling in.” Yup. Chief was pissed.

  While they brushed snow off and took off their parkas, Annette poured them a cup of coffee. Jude tried to explain.

  “Sir, I’m sorry I didn’t let you know. That last call put me late getting out here for the auction winner, and by the time I made it, I got snowed in.”

  “So you’ve been playing house?” Chief took a sip of coffee and grimaced. Annette’s face fell when she saw the face he pulled. Jude put an encouraging arm around her. She didn’t know how to make coffee on the percolator over the wood stove, Jude had been making it all week.

  “No, sir. Not playing house.” He tried not to make Drake sound like the douchebag he was. “See, when I got out here, Miss Young was scavenging for wood because Drake had left her out here without checking provisions. He was planning on leaving her all week, so she could work, but she’s from Texas and isn’t accustomed to blizzard conditions. After the snow started and power went out, I offered to stay, and she accepted. I’m sorry I didn’t radio in, I have no excuse for that.” His radio had been in his Land Rover, and Jude hadn’t gone to check it. A couple of times, he’d thought he needed to, but he never really wanted to. That was probably going to get him fired.

  He ended with a shrug, knowing the entire department knew how Drake worked. Sure enough, the Chief’s next question bordered on accusatory.

  “Why would he leave you out here?” Turning to Annette, he pursed his lips in wait for her answer.

  “I think he got the idea I was actually planning to work, sir, and not put out for him.” Her fingers tangled together as she shrugged. He was clearly making her nervous with his mean guy attitude, and Jude was getting a little frustrated.

  “Sir, I’ll go back when she goes back, but we all know how Drake works with this cabin. She stood up for herself. But she’s not used to how deadly this weather can be.” Joey was smirking into his coffee mug. Jude wanted to hit the bastard, but at least he was staying quiet.

  “I’ve got an extra radio I can leave you.” Joey winked.

  “Thanks, man.” He didn’t need one, but it would make Annette feel more secure, probably, to have a method of communication with the outside world.

  As they stood, dressing in now warm parkas, Annette visibly relaxed.

  “I’m sorry. I never even asked if you had other responsibilities. You got into trouble for me.” Her bottom lip was sticking out more than usual, and Jude gave in to temptation, pulling it between his lips into a kiss that had her moaning in seconds.

  “Worth it. Totally.”

  “Tell me something. What did you mean when you said, ‘how Drake works’? Does he really use sex with his art studio stuff? Do you think he was full of it when he said he would show my work?”

  Jude placed his hands on her waist and pulled back to look her in her eyes. “I honestly don’t know. I can’t remember a time when a woman has told him no. I’m proud of you, though, for standing up for what you wanted. I imagine he’s very persuasive.”

  She looked at the ground shyly. “Well, I can be stubborn sometimes.”

  “Why did you let me stay?”

  She shrugged. “Several reasons, actually. I was scared to death, honestly, of freezing out here, but I was also really attracted to the idea of spending some time out here in the rugged wilderness with you.”

  He tugged on her hips, drawing her closer. “Oh yeah?”

  She looked up at him through her eyelashes and he lost his air. “Yeah,” she breathed. “I totally want to see where this goes, Jude.”

  Music to his ears.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Annette woke up to strong hands firmly gripping her thighs and a hot tongue swiping her folds. She automatically gripped Jude’s hair, holding him firmly in place.

  “What a way to wake up,” she moaned at him, spreading her legs and urging him to continue.

  Her body ached when she was around Jude, and he seemed eager to alleviate the ache at every opportunity, and she apparently didn’t even need to be conscious. He chuckled against her flesh, sending vibrations and hot air coursing through her.

  The fire he set within her every time raged out of control. Feeling restless, she tugged his head up.

  “I want you in my mouth too.”

  Jude only grinned at her and shifted around until his beautiful cock was positioned at her mouth. And then he rolled them over so she was on top. Lovely.

  Annette opened up and proceeded to completely lose control as Jude filled her mouth while he grunted into her folds, his tongue never stopping its assault on her clit. His tongue was relentless, and she climbed, even as she tried to take him into her mouth and make him lose it like she was.

  He seemed hesitant to let loose, though, and Annette grabbed his thighs and pushed her face onto him until he was firmly lodged in the back of her throat.

  “Fuck …” A thrill of pleasure filled her at his loss of control, and when he started thrusting with abandon into her mouth, hitting the back of her throat, she came, unable to stop the pleasure. Part of it was the wickedness of the position, part of it was Jude’s utter lack of control around her.

  “Well, isn’t this a fantastic unexpected turn of events.” A sarcastic voice from the doorway had Jude rolling her off him, even as she tried to piece together what was happening. The aftershocks of her orgasm had her confused with this foreign voice in the room where there weren’t supposed to be other voices.

  Awkwardly, Jude tried to cover Annette with the quilt, and she finally saw it was Drake at the doorway. Dressed casually, he was still meticulously put together, as if he’d spent hours to affect the messy, outdoorsy look, but the sneer on his face undid most of it.

  “I’m not paying for this cabin for you to fuck my protégé, Walker.” He leaned on the fake wall separating the living area from the bedroom. “Although, I never thought you had that in you, Annette. You’re a filthy girl.” His voice slunk through the room and coated her with a layer of slime. She shuddered, even as she let the guilt she suddenly felt wipe it off.

  She wanted to apologize, but something stopped her. He was lashing out because he was hurt. They didn’t have anything between them, but they did have an agreement. She was up here to paint, not to sleep with Jude.

  Annette knew her face reflected her mortification. All thoughts of anger at Drake for leaving her up here alone with no food or a way to heat the cabin fled. Abject shame took their place as she tightened the sheets around her. Jude had pulled on a pair of jeans, and apparently hadn’t forgotten the slight.

  “Look, fucker, you left her up here alone with nothing. If you had checked the stores, you would have seen I hadn’t made it up here yet with wood and food.” Veins in his neck pulsed out.

  “That’s
not my problem. The deal was I paid for the cabin. You’re supposed to take care of everything else.”

  “I got stuck at a job and was late with the provisions. A gentleman would have seen she was taken care of before he left her.”

  Annette ignored the thought in her head that a gentleman had taken care of her. Never mind they’d just been caught in a very ungentlemanly position.

  “Have you even painted anything? Or have you just been fucking the hero here?” Drake’s sneer turned to a snarl. “You know this is his pad, don’t you? He brings women up here for fucking. You’re nothing special, Annette. You’re just one in a long, long line. Ask Everly.”

  “Now, wait just a goddamned minute, Drake.” Jude’s face was red, the veins on his temples popping, a wild beast ready to strike, but he was right. Annette realized with a shock she had been having all this amazing sex with Jude and hadn’t painted much of anything worth showing for Drake. Not that he would do the show anymore anyway if her suspicions about him were right, but seeing Drake had reinforced why romantic entanglements were hurting her chances here. No matter how good the sex was, or how badly she wanted to spend time with Jude, or how she felt like she could feel so much more for him, he was still distracting her from her initial reasons for being here.

  In a big way. She was supposed to be painting, and instead of doing what she was supposed to be doing, she was throwing away her chance at a show because of sex.

  “It’s okay. He’s right.” Shame flooded Annette. “You both should probably go. I need to finish painting, if I can.” She wanted to talk to both of them, make sure she still had a show, make sure she wasn’t hurting Jude’s feelings, but the words that came out of her mouth were different from what she wanted to say. She dug deep for some courage inside her—the courage that brought her here in the first place, not this simpering, shameful girl she was in the face of adversity.

  Drake stormed out of the cabin with a flourish while Jude fumbled around for his things.

  “Well, he’s gone now.” He let out a relieved exhale. “I’m sorry about that.” Jude’s eyes filled with concern.

  “Me too, but he’s sort of right. Even if he’s not going to pay you, and I hope he does, but I was supposed to be up here to paint, and I haven’t really done as much as I should have.” The realization she’d spent so much time in bed was like a slap in the face. Regret filled her limbs, along with a renewed desire to right things in her artistic world.

  The look of disbelief Jude shot her gutted her. “I’m sorry, but that’s the whole reason I’m here, in Pamona Gulch, to get my art career off the ground and show the people at home I can make it. I’m not supposed to get involved—”

  “No romantic entanglements. I get it.” The bitterness in his voice was palpable and thick in the room.

  She would apologize again, but with the reminder of why she’d come to Pamona Gulch, she refused to do it. She was finished apologizing for herself. She didn’t owe him anything.

  He stomped around, and her stomach sank. “I meant everything, Jude. Don’t leave like this.”

  Jude stopped and straightened from shoving things in a duffel bag he’d brought in from his truck the second day here. “Meant what, exactly? All the kisses? All the sex? All the talks?” He slammed a radio down on the coffee table so hard the wood cracked. “Right. I get it. I fucked it up for you. This is my fault.”

  “You’re not letting me explain.”

  “You’ve explained plenty.” He sighed, his voice gentling. “I get it, really. The storm’s over. I should have left already. I’ll see you around.” Slinging the bag over his shoulder, he stomped out of the cabin, only slightly less man than before.

  Annette felt terrible. She felt like she owed Drake … but not Jude? There was something misplaced there, but she couldn’t articulate it.

  She could only watch Jude as he drove away, using the tracks Drake had left in the snow.

  Turning, she looked inside at the cabin and realized she was alone. Really and truly alone. The panic she’d first felt when she got here and realized there was no food or firewood gnawed at her, but she spanked it back.

  Jude had provided food and wood; she would be fine. The storm was finished, the power was back on. This was exactly what she’d wanted. Right?

  Striding to her easel, Annette looked at what she’d painted, knowing she was hurting but probably not as badly as she should be. She should feel guilt for stringing Jude along, for misleading him into thinking there could be something more between them when she was just here for her art.

  Annette knew she could tell herself that until she was blue in the face, but that wouldn’t make it so.

  There had been more between them. And she’d kicked it out as soon as Drake showed up.

  Without a sketch to guide her, Annette unscrewed the cap of the cadmium red and squirted a glob onto her palette. Without Jude here, she had no excuses for failure.

  That thought froze her movements briefly, but only for a moment. He wasn’t here anymore, so she had no excuse.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Annette threw herself into her work, unabashedly using Jude as her muse. Her paintings featured fire, amber eyes that bled into a deep-chocolate color around the edges, and hands. Because Jude had amazing hands. She had sketched those more than anything else in her sketchbook: his hands doing various things, including resting on his lap. She loved drawing hands. They spoke to a person’s soul, in her opinion. You could tell a lot by a person’s hands.

  Like, Jude was a hard worker, his hands covered in lines and calluses, the fingernails cut short. The nails themselves had deep grooves in them, indicating he didn’t eat well, probably a meat and potatoes kind of guy. Drake’s, on the other hand, were smooth and manicured perfectly. The nails were buffed to a shine, and he wouldn’t deign to do anything to blister the palms and fingers. He probably used expensive moisturizer on them too.

  The lines of Jude’s torso were everywhere—the horizons, the tree lines, the mountain ridges, edges of water, snowbanks, all of it. The paintings were an extension of Jude, her magical time with him.

  Annette’s paintings were finished and lined up along the wall of the living room to dry. It would take a week or so for them to be moved into the gallery space. She had already made arrangements with Jude to take them in for her after they were ready, back when he had been speaking to her and not just “seeing her around.” She only hoped he didn’t examine them too much or else he would see just how much their days together affected her.

  Annette was exhausted, not having slept much after Drake and Jude left. She’d wanted to impress Drake with her artistry when he returned and was trying not to remember the hurt in Jude’s eyes when he’d left her alone up here. Although, she had hurt him deeply with her words, just as he had.

  She deserved to remember it so she could remember why she wasn’t looking for entanglements right now. Annette couldn’t devote the energy to that sort of thing, not while she was trying to get a career off the ground. Yeah, the words and repetition were tired in her head too. And she wasn’t even sure if she meant them anymore, or if she was just saying the words to herself in hopes they would be true.

  When Drake came to pick her up, he wordlessly got out of his Hummer and opened the back end, honking once for her.

  She’d hoped he wouldn’t be mad, but that was apparently a wasted emotion. She picked up her bags and shut the door behind her, trudging through the snow she hadn’t taken the time to play in.

  “You want to come and look at what I painted?”

  He grunted and shook his head. Okay, fine. She threw her stuff into the back and shut it before walking around to the passenger door. It stuck a little, but she managed to get it eventually. She huffed into the car, trying not to say anything to make Drake madder. She was afraid already he’d gotten mad enough to yank the show o
ut from under her. It wouldn’t be fair, but it was his gallery, he could do what he wanted.

  That thought made her hot, and not in a sexy way. She held her tongue, biting the inside of her cheek to keep from inciting more of his wrath as he maneuvered down the mountain.

  He was so angry, he wasn’t driving carefully, and she held on to the bar next to her head to keep from bouncing all over the front seat. The cheek biting turned more from a self-preservation thing to a thing to keep her from screaming and looking like a chicken the more they bounced down the mountain. She was glad she hadn’t tried to bring her paintings with her, or else she’d be worried they’d be smashed to smithereens on the drive.

  She watched Drake’s smooth-as-silk hands as they gripped the steering wheel, whitening as his grip tightened. She held her breath and said some prayers, anything to stay in one piece as they barreled down the mountain.

  When they made it to her rooming house and Drake pulled up in front of it, Annette hopped out and retrieved her bag.

  “Thanks for the week, Drake. It was magical. I really appreciate it.” Realizing what her words sounded like, she bit her lip.

  He pinned her with an icy stare. “I’m glad you had a magical time.” His lips were a sneer as he threw the transmission into drive and peeled out. It was only then that she realized Drake probably thought she’d spent the entire week with Jude and not just the first part.

  Oh well, if he was going to get pissy about it, there wasn’t anything she could do.

  With a sigh, Annette turned to go inside and try to warm up her room.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Jude pushed the whispers of his subconscious into the background—the whispers telling him the dalliance at his cabin was more than just that—as the firehouse came into view. Chief had called everyone in early for their shift. He had an announcement. Jude already knew what it was. Everyone in town knew what it was. The bond election had failed.