Page 9 of Reckless Forever (Jennings Mafia Family #3)

Judah

Ivy’s head rested on my chest, with nothing between us but the pattern of her breathing.

I traced the curve of her spine and stared into the darkness of the ceiling, as if it held answers.

She had spent the last hour telling me about fog- how it was just clouds that sat low- until her words trailed off into sleep.

That shit shouldn’t have meant anything, but it did.

Ivy had found a way to unlock a level I didn’t even think existed for me.

I don’t know what I was doing, but I was already in it, and now I had to see it through.

Truth was, I didn’t want to turn back. This was more than just chilling and passing the time.

It was intimacy, and that was something that I had never done.

She shifted in her sleep and threw her leg across mine.

I felt my dick twitch in anticipation, and I knew that lil nigga was disappointed in me.

We were supposed to have Ivy in this bitch hanging off the chandelier, but I couldn’t.

Not after she had been crying in my arms earlier about her moms. For whatever reason, I just didn’t feel like it was the right moment.

The clock on the nightstand glowed almost three a.m., and I hadn’t been able to fall asleep after her.

Normally, we doze off together, but my mind wouldn’t let me rest. It had only taken me three weeks to be here and realize that I fucked with Ivy more than I wanted to admit.

I haven’t felt anything outside of sex for a woman since I was eighteen.

People say that shit all the time, but it was really something different about her from any other woman I had ever met.

That nerd shit, soft ass energy but smart mouth.

Tonight was our last night here. I wasn’t tripping on having to go back to the States.

I was always on the go, so I was tired of being caged in this damn house.

On top of these damn maids trying to throw pussy at me, I was tired of eating sandwiches, beans, and fruit.

Like I was at summer camp. A nigga probably lost ten or fifteen pounds being stuck here.

Not only was I ready to return to my own spot, but I also had business to attend to and things that I couldn’t address until I touched down.

The only thing that made me think twice was Ivy.

I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t want to spend more time with her.

“Judah,” she said softly, breaking the silence of the room.

“Huh?” I answered.

“Why aren’t you sleeping?”

“I can’t.”

She didn’t say anything for a while, then she slipped out of my arms and grabbed her phone to use for light. Lazily, she walked over to the bathroom. When she came back out, she left the door cracked to add a little light to the room as she sat on the edge of the bed.

She yawned, and I knew she was tired as hell. “What’s on your mind?” she asked.

“Nothing really, I just got a lot of business to handle when I make it back,” I lied as I sat up against the headboard. She nodded and said she understood, but that wasn’t what kept me up. She just didn’t need to know that right now.

“It’s your last night here, I don’t know how you let me fall asleep, we’re supposed to be hanging out.

It’s that damn backrub, it gets me every time.

” She laughed as she swiped her hair from her face.

It was all over her head, but even with those sleep marks across her face, she still looked pretty as fuck.

“You cool, Shorty, you can go back to sleep.”

“No, I’ll have enough time to rest when you’re gone,” she laughed as she crawled over to me and straddled me again. She threw her arms around my neck and just hugged me.

Out of reflex, I planted kisses on her chest as she rubbed the back of my neck. If she kept playing, she was going to end up getting every inch of this dick in Santos’ house. I would have to worry about the consequences later.

“Judah,” She whispered with her mouth against my ear.

“What’s up?” I asked as I gripped her ass.

“When you get back to the states, I want to keep in contact with you,” I could feel her breathe after she said it, as if she had been fighting with herself over whether or not she wanted to.

I was quiet for a minute, because I didn’t know how to respond to her.

“I’m not good with that, Ivy. I’m not good with always being tied to my phone. Sometimes I get caught up in business and I get sidetracked,” I admitted. Then I felt her body get stiff again.

I pushed her back a bit so that I could see her and look her in the eyes. “But I can try. And if you call me and you need me, I’ll answer for you.”

Through the little light that we had in the room, I could see her smile. She placed two soft kisses on my lips before she said, “That’s what I wanted to hear.” And we both started laughing.

My hands gripped her waist as she continued to rain kisses on my lips.

“We’ve got a little over an hour left together, you know you’ve been giving me the most bomb massages since you’ve been coming in my room. Let me give you one before you go.” She left my lap before I could disagree, and then she went into her closet and came back with three things in her hands.

“Shorty, it's cool.”

“Take off your shirt and lie on your stomach,” she smirked, disregarding everything that I had said.

I didn’t put up a fight, and I did as she said. She climbed across my back and started dripping oil over it. Her hands were soft as fuck, and they felt like professionals as she rubbed the oil into my skin.

“Ivy?”

“Yes?” she asked.

“This parlor do happy endings?” I questioned, making her fall off my back with laughter.

“You are silly,” she said once she took her place.

Then we started talking while she kneaded my back.

It felt so good, I thought about calling someone and adding massages to my routine.

I chuckled when I thought about how Mateo and Trouble would be pissed if some shit went down that I didn’t catch because I was somewhere getting a weekly massage.

I could hear Trouble’s old, grouchy ass in my head now.

“The whole fucking family got murdered cause Judah’s clown ass was getting his feet rubbed.” I laughed out loud at the thought.

While she rubbed me down, we talked about everything: sports, my job in security, life in New York, and her family here.

The next thing I knew, I felt her kissing my cheek.

“Get up, sleepy,” I could feel her leaning over me.

I chuckled, realizing that I had drifted off just that quickly. She was right, these damn massages do that.

“I gave you forty minutes to sleep, turn over.”

Forty minutes? I guess I dozed off for more than a little while. I turned on my back and she took her place again. My dick bricked up as soon as she sat. She giggled and shook her head. Then she took some different oil and rubbed it in the palms of her hands.

She leaned down to oil my beard, and the room filled with the scent of cucumbers. The same smell that had invaded my senses every night that she lay on my chest. As she leaned over to me, I leaned up and kissed her as she did it.

“It’s time for you to go,” she said softly as she looked back at the clock and sat next to me on the bed.

I lay there and stared at her. Our eyes locked on each other for a while, saying everything that neither one of us wanted to say at the moment. I rolled over and threw my arm around her back and brought her closer to me. I lay my head on her chest, and she cupped the back of my head.

“This is my last time saying, Goodnight Judah,” She chuckled.

“Nah, Shorty. The fuck are you about to do? Cut me off?” I asked as I pulled back and kissed her again. This time, the kiss was deep, our tongues met again, and I applied pressure to her neck before I pulled back.

She sighed then got off the bed, grabbed my shirt and tossed it to me.

“Keep it,” I said as I smirked and walked toward the door. I slapped her butt and stopped short.

“Goodnight, Ma.” I pulled the door open and walked down the hallway and down the stairs to go back to the other side of the estate.

I passed the room that Jax was sleeping in, and his nosey ass was standing at the door with his legs and arms crossed.

“Same time every night, you're really predictable. And you smell like fucking cucumbers and strawberries.” He said, making me stop in my tracks, I sized him from head to toe.

“If your wife knew the way you cried about being stuck here, nigga she would’ve sent Jonah on a boat to pick your sorry ass up.” I snapped, making him laugh.

“Fuck you! Get ready for the flight in the morning. Fruit cup.” He turned before he slammed the door.

I went into the room and dove across the bed.

Jax could make all the jokes he wanted, fruit cup or not, Ivy had found a way to do in three weeks what no woman had ever done.

That was get Judah, that wasn’t about sex and bullshit.

It was almost too close for comfort; it could just be because I had been stuck in this house.

Maybe when I made it back to the States my mind could refocus.

But lying there in the dark, I wasn’t so sure.

I walked through the door of the condo and undid the buttons of my shirt.

I had packed on everything that we had missed, being stuck in Bolivia for the last couple of weeks, just to catch up on business.

I had been in one meeting after another, in three different cities, and had gotten no more than a couple of hours of sleep.

After the last meeting, I was frustrated and had some built-up pressure that I needed to release.

My phone rang and I glanced at the caller ID.

I groaned when I saw who was calling. If I couldn’t have had a worse week, I saw Alexis earlier today at my favorite restaurant.

Now she knew for sure I had been back from Bolivia, and I was just ignoring her.

I knew she was going to call me, and she didn’t prove me wrong.

“Yeah, Lex?” I answered, not in the mood for the bullshit that she was about to bring.