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“I’ve followed her, and she hasn’t gone back to the farm. Nothing she’s done has been remotely suspicious. Believe me, I wish it had been. It would be easier.”

Two more days had passed since Charlie cleared me to open Deja Brew, and there’d been no more news. Jude had been watching Allison DeVries, but apparently, he’d found nothing. Which was frustrating.

We hadn’t gone back to the farm either, because barging on to that farmer’s property without Charlie, or a warrant, would backfire. Before he cleared me, we would have done it anyway, but we didn’t want to give him any reason to look at me again, or Resting Warrior.

Between what had happened at the Pearsons with Cori, the gang Noah had tried to take down, and me, Charlie, though good-natured most of the time, was sick of seeing our faces. I didn’t blame him in the slightest.

“I’ve handed it off to Daniel and Lucas. They’re going to watch her while I’m gone. They’ll have eyes on her the whole time, and if she does something, we’ll know.”

“Okay.”

He squeezed me tighter. “I don’t want to leave you right now.”

The memorial for his teammate was tonight, and Jude was driving to Idaho for it. He’d be gone overnight. Since we’d finally gotten together, it would be the longest we’d been apart. I didn’t want him to leave either, but I also knew this was important for Jude. He needed the closure it could give him to see Isaac’s widow and hear she was doing well. Maybe seeing some of Isaac’s other friends would help him too.

“You need to go,” I whispered. “You want to, and there’s nothing here I can’t handle for a night.”

He wove a hand through my hair, guided my face back so I was looking at him, and smirked. “Sure about that? The way you begged last night, I’m not sure you can last that long.”

I blushed even though he was teasing. It would be hard not to come home tonight and find him ready to take me upstairs and have his way with me. But I had other things I could do. They wouldn’t be nearly as satisfying, but I could take care of it. “I’ll be fine.”

“I saw that.”

Curling my fingers into his shirt, I pulled him closer, aiming for distraction. “Saw what?”

“The thought. You’re an open book, and you don’t have permission to do that.”

I slipped out of his arms. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, I think you do.” He pulled me to him, guiding me until my back was against the wall and I had nowhere to go. Jude was fully hard pressed up against me, and if he didn’t have a long drive ahead of him, I might have begged him again.

Jude lowered his mouth to my ear. “No orgasms while I’m gone.”

“That’s not fair.”

He shrugged. “I never claimed this was fair. You can if you want.”

“What’s the ‘but’ there?”

“Whatever you use, whether it’s a hand or a toy, I’ll use it on you too.” A sly smile crept onto his lips. “And I’ll give you so many orgasms, you’ll beg me to stop. So, you choose.”

I shuddered, imagining that. A punishment, but part of me wanted to see what it was like. I wouldn’t decide now—tonight when I got home, I would see how I felt. After a day of cleaning and washing things, I wasn’t sure I’d have the energy to be rebellious.

“I’ll think about it.”

“I’m sure you will.” He kissed me, pressing me into the wall with his body until all I could feel was him. I never got tired of kissing him or touching him. Jude was almost always touching me if we were in the same space, and I didn’t mind. After three years of wanting to touch him and not being able to, I savored every second.

When we broke apart for breath, he pressed his forehead against mine. “I’ll check in later, okay?”

“Okay.”

Tension hung in the air between us, the shape of three little words. I saw it in his eyes, and I felt it on my tongue. But I held myself back.

I loved Jude. I’d loved him for a long time, and I didn’t want the first time I told him to be before him leaving. Instead, I’d keep it for when we had all the time in the world. Because I knew as soon as I said it, he wasn’t letting me leave his sight. My stomach flip-flopped at the thought.

“Call me if you need me.” I felt the effort it took for him to step back and grab his overnight bag before heading to his truck, and I stood on the porch waving goodbye like some kind of war bride in an old movie.

When he was gone, I sighed. I hadn’t quite decided when to reopen Deja Brew, but I needed to clean it up a bit. The lab techs had moved the kitchen all around and put it back, but I noticed where things were slightly off.