been there—and back again, from the look on his face. But he didn’t want to ask him about it. It had been a damn long while since their night at the cabin, but Jude could still feel the echo of his touch—of his warm body and the pliant way he lay there and let Jude possess him. And the heat still existed, a quiet thing in the pit of his stomach, wanting more—almost desperate for it.
“Can I ask you honestly what brought you by?” he asked again. “And don’t say it was for my well-being.”
Emilio blinked, then let out a very quiet sigh and shrugged. “You’ll probably think I’m a jackass if I say it was because I missed you.”
“No, I’d think you were a liar,” Jude said, hoping he was right, because he didn’t want this man to miss him. This man was complicated and difficult and terrifying. This man was the opposite of anything and everything Jude had ever known.
Emilio offered him a crooked smile and leaned back in his chair again. He took a delicate sip of tea that could have put any English gran to shame, then he drummed the fingers of his left hand on the arm of the chair. “Then you’re gonna have to accept it was for your well-being. It’s part of my job—making sure civvies under our protection are safe.”
Jude let out a small sigh and shrugged, staring pointedly down at his knee. “Considering I don’t go anywhere or do anything, I’d say things are perfectly normal.”
There was a long, tense pause, then Emilio leaned forward and set his cup down. He let out the smallest little groan as he pushed to his feet, then dragged a hand through his hair as he offered Jude something like a smile. “Okay, I can read the room. But just…do me a favor okay? Any weird shit happens, call me.”
Jude blinked at him. “I don’t have your number.”
Emilio smiled a little wider at that, then snatched Jude’s phone from the table and dropped it on his lap. “Easy problem to solve.”
Jude was too startled to do anything but unlock the phone and hand it over, and he pretended like he didn’t hear a small buzzing vibration in Emilio’s pocket after a second.
“Day or night, got it?” he demanded.
Jude clenched his jaw, but he took the phone back with a single, sharp nod. “Fine. Forgive me if I don’t show you out.”
He didn’t answer, instead flicking two fingers from his forehead in a sort of mock-salute, and the door shut quiet enough that Jude wanted to get up and slam it just to disturb the gentle quiet that had settled over his lounge. He was frustrated and irritated. Things weren’t settled, but they were getting somewhere, and he didn’t want to think of that man missing him or caring about his well-being. He didn’t want Emilio to think about him, because it meant that night in the cabin might have meant something to more than just him, and he wasn’t sure he could handle the weight of it.
11
Another week passed before Jude was given the okay to manage the stairs on his own, and the doctor suggested a walk on the beach because the sand would give him some decent resistance training. He considered calling Eliah to see if he was free to join him, but Jude didn’t want to put that burden on his brother, so instead, he managed the short stroll from the building to the beach on his own.
He leaned heavily on his cane when his feet touched the sand, his eyes drifting out toward the endless stretch of ocean. It was peaceful in the middle of the day, a handful of people strolling by, but he still felt entirely alone. And he realized that being by himself wasn’t always as suffocatingly lonely as it had been back in his old life. Or even during the first part of his recovery. He was grateful, in that moment, to be able to take in the sudden rush of peace the sea brought.
Shuffling along the sand, Jude reached the water’s edge, and it was out of the corner of his eye that he noticed something. A lone person, just sitting on the low stone wall near his condo building. He was almost nondescript, but there was something about him that was unsettling. Maybe it was the way his eyes were fixed on Jude or the way his lips seemed to curve in something like a