Jumping Jude: A Made Marian Novel

by Lucy Lennox

  “I’m sure it’s Ollie,” I reminded him. “We’ve been having dinner together most nights.”

  Sure enough, it was Ollie. She was dressed in our nightly uniform of comfy pajamas and she was carrying a couple pints of ice cream.

  When she saw Derek’s large form in the doorway, she stepped back to take him all in. He was drool-worthy, dressed in low-hanging track pants and an old black T-shirt with faded gray writing. I knew from memory it said, What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Except a Marine. A Marine will kill you.

  “Well, hello, handsome. Look who the cat dragged in.” She smirked.

  “Ollie, good to see you,” he said, pulling the door open wider in invitation. After she moved past him to put the ice cream in the freezer she turned and hugged him. An “oof” sound punched out of him, and his eyes snapped up to meet mine. I shrugged.

  “I’m so sorry about your brother,” she said against his shirt.

  “Thanks, but he’s okay. It didn’t take him long to recover his snarky personality. Actually, the pain made him mean as a snake there for a while,” Derek said with a chuckle, pulling back from the embrace. “And how are you?”

  “Good. I’ve been looking after your boy here in your absence.” She smirked again. I rolled my eyes and got a nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach. If Ollie dared let on what she knew about the way things were between Wolfe and me, I’d have to murder her right there in my kitchen.

  “Thanks, Ollie. I appreciate it. And here I thought Mike was doing that.” Derek laughed. “Should have known better.”

  “What’s for dinner, baby cakes?” Ollie asked me. Before I could worry what Derek would think about having her join us, he spoke up.

  “Jude here is making chicken-kale smoothies, and I’ve decided ladies first on tasting it.” Derek grinned.

  Ollie laughed. “You joke now, buddy, but you know he’d do it. One time he made me drink a smoothie he’d hidden edamame and bok choy in. I didn’t speak to him for days.”

  “I’m on a strictly no-kale diet, so you can have my portion. What flavor ice cream did you bring? Maybe I’ll just have an ice cream smoothie while you two get your health food on,” Derek teased.

  “I’m making a stir-fry, jackass. You’re going to love it. Teriyaki sauce with plenty of processed sugars in it just the way you like. I’ll even make white rice since I know serving brown rice will make you fake being hungry again in thirty minutes,” I told him.

  “I wasn’t faking it. I never fake it,” Derek began. Ollie laughed again, causing Derek to blush. “I mean, I never fake being hungry. Jesus, you two.”

  Ollie looked at me and we laughed even harder. “Derek Wolfe blushing? Now this I’m not sure I’ve ever seen. Call the press, it’s a banner day,” Ollie teased.

  “You’ve seen him blush before,” I reminded her. “Remember when that waitress said she wanted to have his babies? We were in Kansas City, I think. Somewhere in the Midwest anyway.”

  Ollie squealed. “Oh my god, yes! She just blurted it out the minute she saw him like she couldn’t help it. And his face turned lobster red.”

  Derek put his hands over his face but we could still see his crimson ears. “Don’t remind me,” he mumbled through his hands.

  “And the time at a mall when that little boy asked him to open his shirt and show him his superhero costume?” My laugh almost turned to a giggle at the memory.

  Ollie’s eyes began tearing up through her laughter. “And Wolfe just looked at him like the kid had requested a lap dance.”

  “Shut up,” Derek begged. “He asked me to take off my clothes. I didn’t know he thought there was a superhero costume under my shirt. What was I supposed to think?”

  I giggled again. “Olls, I forgot to tell you, but after the rehearsal dinner in Napa, Aunt Tilly kept begging Wolfe to dance even though it was a hotel bar with no dance music or dance floor. He was trying so hard to be polite, but the rest of us were dying laughing. Finally, she began spouting off wolf jokes. ‘Hey Wolfe, I bet I can make you howl all night long,’ ‘He’s so fine, I could just Wolfe him right down,’ and something about wanting to be a sheep inside Wolfe’s clothing. Then Granny yelled across the bar, ‘Tilly, stop crying Wolfe. That hunk can huff and puff and blow me any time he wants!’ Oh my god, I thought Derek was going to have a seizure right there.”

  Derek finally succumbed to laughter. “That woman, I swear. But I thought you were too drunk to remember all that.”

  “No way,” I laughed, catching my breath. I looked over at him. “She asked about you at Sunday dinner last week.”

  “Did she?” he said, meeting my eyes across the kitchen.

  “Yes. Said it was strange to see me there without my shadow,” I admitted.

  “I thought about that when I had to take that weekend off before Aaron’s accident. That I’d miss Sunday dinner at your parents’ house. If I take weekends off now, how the hell am I ever going to taste your mom’s cooking again?”

  No one said anything for a few minutes while I finished preparing the ingredients for the stir-fry. The rice was already cooking and I’d pulled out extra chicken when Ollie came in.

  I thought about the times during the tour we were able to come to town just long enough to join my family for our usual Sunday dinner before flying out again to the next city. Derek had gotten to see how my family worked and learn who everyone was. I was one of nine children, and when we got together every weekend, it was always eventful. Even though he usually stayed in the background, Derek was able to see the dynamics among the siblings.

  When I’d been there the Sunday before, I kept looking over to see his reaction when someone said something interesting or funny, but my eyes landed on Mike instead of Derek. Every time that happened it was like taking too many steps off a staircase, foot landing awkwardly and stomach lurching a bit.

  Derek began to tell Ollie about the new breakin information, and I got the feeling he was trying to fill the silence. Ollie sat across the kitchen island on a stool with a glass of wine while Derek and I cooked and gathered plates and silverware. He and I had cooked together several times in the weeks before his brother’s accident, and we moved in sync through the kitchen. At one point, I caught Ollie watching the two of us, and I wondered what she was thinking.

  Once the food was ready and we were sitting at the kitchen table, Ollie began her interrogation.

  “So, Wolfe. Tell me more about your family. All I know is that you have brothers and are from the south.”

  “North Carolina, yes. My twin brothers, Aaron and Kyle, are a few years younger than I am, and they’re both in the Army. Aaron is the one who was in the accident. My dad is high up in the Marines, so my parents live near Quantico now in Virginia.”

  “Why did you leave the military?” she asked.

  “Olls,” I interrupted, not wanting Derek to feel on the spot.

  “It’s okay, Jude. I left because I was injured in Afghanistan. It was a roadside bomb and some shrapnel was left over in my leg and hip. They considered it too risky for me to stay on.”

  “I’m sorry. Do you miss it?” she asked.

  “I did for a while, but not anymore,” he said before glancing over at me. My stomach flip-flopped and I looked down at my plate.

  “Mm,” Ollie said knowingly. “That’s good. I’m sure it’s much more fulfilling to keep adoring fans from loving Jude to death.”

  Derek laughed. “Maybe not as fulfilling but just as adventurous, I assure you. I’m not the only one women blurt stupid shit to, remember?”

  Ollie broke into laughter. “The funniest one happened before you were with us, actually. The band was playing a concert in Florida a couple of years ago and between songs, a woman in the second row screamed out, ‘You’re my baby daddy!’ I thought Jude’s jaw was going to hit the ground, and I could just envision the media headlines the following day. Immediately, the woman’s girlfriends chimed in with, ‘But you ain’t got no baby.’ The woman looked pissed
when she answered, ‘Not yet bitches. Not yet.’ Then she gave Jude a sultry look and put a finger telephone up to her ear mouthing, Call me.”

  Derek snorted. “What about that time Jude was signing autographs and that forty-year-old weirdo asked him to make it out to the best piece of ass he’d ever tasted?”

  We all gagged at the memory. “Ugh, that guy wasn’t even cute,” Ollie complained. “Gross.”

  I shuddered at the memory. “I ended up signing it to the biggest ass I’d ever met, but I don’t think he noticed.”

  Derek looked over at me. “How many times would you say someone has slipped you their phone number?”

  I felt my face heat up again. “Dunno.”

  “Liar.” He grinned. “Guess.”

  “A few,” I admitted.

  “Hundreds,” Derek said. It was not a question.

  “Maybe.” I chuckled.

  “Have you ever been tempted to call one?” he asked.

  “Never.” And it was the truth.

  “Why not?” He looked surprised.

  “Fans are crazy. And I always assume they’d turn around in a skinny minute and sell the story of their Jude encounter.”

  “Sad,” Ollie said. “But true.”

  I decided to lighten the mood again. “If I was ever tempted, it would have been that middle-aged woman with the tattoo of me on her boob. Now that shit was hot.”

  Both of them laughed again. “That was heinous,” Ollie corrected. “First of all, she practically had to untuck the boob from her waistband to show it to you, and secondly, it was an image of you making out with Walker, Texas Ranger.”

  Beer dribbled down Derek’s chin as he struggled to swallow through his laughter. Without thinking, I reached out and swiped it off with a finger. He kept laughing, hardly noticing the gesture, but I saw the minute Ollie noticed. Her eyes widened and her hand froze halfway to her wineglass.

  “Well, kids. Sorry to eat and run, but I have a date with a good sci-fi novel. My grandma is having her hip replaced tomorrow, and I’m the one taking her at the crack of dawn,” she said, standing up and taking her plate to the sink. “And I’ll be honest, I’m not even going to feel guilty about leaving the dirty dishes for you to clean up.”

  “What about the ice cream?” Derek asked.

  “No, thanks. Consider it payment for dinner and the dishwashing,” she said with a wink. “Welcome home, Wolfie. I’m really glad you’re back.”

  25

  Derek

  After she left I asked Jude to dance with me.

  “What?”

  “Dance, Bluebell. That thing you do on stage when you shake that gorgeous ass of yours.”

  “But right now? Here, in the kitchen? Why?” he asked.

  “That conversation about Tilly reminded me that I’ve been itching to dance with you. I love to dance, and I love watching you dance. Since I can’t very well take you out to a club, dance with me. Please.” I found some music on my phone and pressed play.

  We danced for at least an hour. Fast silly dances, slow romantic dances, and finally hot-as-hell grinding, taking turns pressing cock against ass. The alternating dry humping quickly morphed into alternating blow jobs that left us half-dressed and sprawled on top of each other on the couch. Jude looked at me with stars in his eyes, and I thought he’d never looked more alive and beautiful. The feelings I had for him scared the shit out of me.

  “We need to shower before we ruin your furniture,” I suggested.

  Jude laughed and got up, pulling me up and then stripping his pants the rest of the way off. I watched him undress as I made my way to check the door lock.

  “Thanks for asking me to dance, Wolfe. I can’t remember the last time I danced with someone I liked besides Ollie.”

  After I set the alarm, I turned to Jude with a smile. “She’s the best. Why doesn’t she have a boyfriend?”

  “Did you know she’s divorced?” Jude asked.

  “What? No. Jesus, I thought she was your age. How did she have time to get married and divorced?”

  “She was different when we were in high school. She succumbed to peer pressure and turned into a clone. The Ollie I’d known in grade school and middle school became Olivia, wannabe cheerleader and girlfriend to the star basketball player.”

  “No shit? I can’t even picture that,” I said.

  “It was pretty bad. We grew apart as a result, and she ended up following the guy to UCLA. Only, she spent more time helping him with his classes than working on her own. He popped the question and they were married before he graduated. As soon as she was engaged, he officially moved her into his apartment and encouraged her to give up her classes. Said she wouldn’t need her degree since he had money from his family.”

  “What a jackass. Then what happened?”

  “She quit school, they got married, and ten months later, he beat the shit out of her.”

  My heart stuttered, and I looked over at Jude, who was standing nearby while I loaded the dishwasher.

  “Who is he, Jude? Where does he live?”

  “Easy, killer. Let me finish,” he said with a smile. “She immediately called 911 and told the ER staff what happened. They involved the police and arrested him. Did you know that Ollie’s father and two of her three brothers are SFPD?”

  “Oh my god.” I couldn’t help but bark out a laugh. “Did they murder the guy?”

  “Close, they stayed on the case and made sure he got jail time. He did two years in county jail,” Jude said.

  “God, Jude. How did I not know about this? I’ve spent hours and hours with Ollie over the last six months.”

  “She doesn’t talk about it. Says it happened in another lifetime when she was in her stupid phase. I can’t disagree. She really wasn’t herself. Once Scott was in jail, she seemed to find herself again. Mom gave her a job at the veterinary clinic and she moved back in with her parents for a while. As soon as I was able to, I hired her.”

  I started the dishwasher and walked over to him, putting my hands on the counter on either side of his hips, caging him in.

  “You’re a good man, Bluebell. I didn’t realize how good at first.”

  His hands came up to land on my chest. “What do you mean? You thought I was an asshole?”

  “No. I just thought you were all about your public image,” I confessed. “A showboat. But I wasn’t able to see what you were like in private. Selfless, generous.”

  He seemed uncomfortable under my compliments so I tried to temper it with humor. “Really good at sucking—”

  He smacked me on the chest. “Shut the hell up, Hulk.” He laughed. “If you think I’m good at that, you must be desperate. I’m six years out of practice.”

  “Not anymore,” I teased. “But if you think so, I’m willing to go back to your room and let you practice some more.”

  Before Jude had a chance to answer, I scooped him up in a fireman’s carry and walked toward his bedroom, fondling his ass with my free hand as I went.

  When we were finally naked on the big bed, Jude took over. He pushed me onto my back and climbed my body like a field of boulders, teasing every inch of my skin with fingers and tongue. By the time I convinced him to put me out of my misery, my cock was so hard it was painful and dripping. He seemed smug when he noticed my desperate state. I didn’t care.

  “Please,” I begged. “Please.”

  He put the condom on me and lubed himself in front of me. I squeezed my eyes closed and concentrated on breathing. Finally, I felt the sweet familiar heat and squeeze of his channel enveloping me, and I groaned out his name. Now it was his turn for eyes squeezed shut as his sounds became choked.

  The sight of Jude Marian riding my body for his pleasure was overwhelming. His abdominal muscles splayed out under my appreciative fingers, his hair long and messy, and his head tilted back to expose the long, sensuous expanse of his throat. The man was stunning.

  His eyes opened and caught me staring. “Derek,” he breathed.

&
nbsp; Yes, I wanted to say. Yes, baby. Anything.

  Instead, I reached my hand up to pull his face down to me for a kiss. I tried to show him with my mouth what I could never say. More. I want more. All of you.

  I felt the same words come back to me through his touch and his taste, and for a brief moment, it felt like maybe this was it. Maybe we’d cut through our bullshit excuses and found each other for real. I watched a bead of sweat slide down Jude’s chest and land in the nest of curls at the base of his cock, trailing my finger after it.

  And just like that, the moment passed.

  Our eyes skittered away from each other and he came off me, surprising me when he climbed off my body and got on the bed beside me on his hands and knees. I got the message and knelt up behind him, sensing face to face was suddenly too much. Instead of feeling stung, I felt relieved. It wasn’t something either of us wanted. In the light of day and with rational heads, the reality of a relationship between us was a nightmare.

  But here? In bed, when our bodies were joined? It was a dream.

  I entered him with a groan of relief and began to thrust. My arm came around his front and I laid my back over his, dropping kisses onto his shoulders and running my tongue along the salty surface of his skin.

  His arms bent and his face landed on the sheet, ass still propped up against my hips. My hands moved to his round ass cheeks as I leaned back up on my knees and searched for the angle that would wreck him.

  When he cried out, I knew I’d found it. I continued to pound the right spot until he came in a rush, screaming curses and gasping.

  His body’s tight clasp around mine pushed me over the edge as usual. I stroked as deeply as I could one more time, and felt the tingle in my balls burst into electric shocks moving outward to the tips of my fingers and toes.

  The buzzing in my ears dampened my own cries and I collapsed against Jude’s side in a satisfied heap.

  “Fuck, Wolfe,” Jude said through gasping breaths. “Don’t ever leave again.”

  “No shit.”

  26

  Jude

  Almost two weeks after Derek’s return from his brother’s accident, we found out two teenagers were arrested for the breakins in the area. The surveillance footage had finally turned into a useful lead. When they found the teens, one of them was wearing one of Jude’s concert tees and another was wearing a pair of shoes stolen from the politician’s house.