Uncommon Romance

by Belle, Jove

  Chapter Seven

  “Oh, you’re in here.” Reeva stopped in the doorway, her arms full of books. Several people stood behind her waiting to enter.

  Jude raised her text. “Studying.”

  “We’ll just go to the common room.” Reeva started to back out of the room.

  “That’s not necessary.” Given a choice, Jude would rather study in silence, but in fairness, it was Reeva’s room, too. She could hardly deny her access just because she liked the quiet.

  “Are you sure?” Reeva looked as skeptical as Jude felt.

  They hadn’t talked much since Reeva’s third degree about her relationship with Hollis. Ironically, Hollis had avoided her for the last week as well.

  “Sure.” Jude went against her instincts. “Why not?”

  Reeva looked at her like she didn’t quite believe what she was hearing, but she came in anyway. Four of their classmates followed her.

  “We’re hitting the books before the final tomorrow.”

  Jude doubted Reeva needed the book time at all. Girl wasn’t kidding when she said she remembered everything.

  Reeva and Tim sat on her bed, and the other three looked at Jude’s bed, then sat on the floor. Apparently she was disrupting their usual seating arrangement. That explained why her bed was crumpled when she got back to her room on most nights.

  “What’s going on with you and Hollis? Did you break up or something?” Tim asked with an open smirk. Jude couldn’t for the life of her understand what Reeva saw in him.

  “Is this how you spend your study time? Gossiping about things that are none of your business?”

  Tim was unperturbed. “All I know is, she was in a lot better mood the past two weeks. Then suddenly on Tuesday, she’s turns into a total bitch.”

  “Nah, she’s always been a bitch. It’s just worse now.” Their classmate didn’t even look up from his book when he spoke.

  “Right,” continued Tim, “can’t you do the rest of us a favor and make up with her before the test tomorrow?”

  “Fuck off.” It wasn’t the most eloquent response, but Jude enjoyed saying it nonetheless.

  “I’ll take that as a no.”

  “I’m sorry, Jude. We shouldn’t pry, but I’m worried about you.” The look on Reeva’s face convinced Jude that might actually be true.

  “You might be, but the only thing he cares about is his grade.”

  “Damn right. This test will influence placement. I want behavioral sciences.” Tim was ambitious.

  A gentle knock sounded and then door opened. Hollis poked her head in. “Excuse me, I don’t mean to interrupt.” She nodded to the full room, then met Jude’s watchful gaze. “Can I have a word?”

  “Sure.” Jude left her book in the middle of her bed and open to the page she was studying. It was a test to see who was brave enough to close it and move to her vacated seat.

  “Thank fuck.” Tim’s voice carried through the closed door.

  “Can we go for a ride?” Hollis looked more uncertain than Jude had seen her during the entire past three weeks. Her eyes were red rimmed and vulnerable.

  “I have a test tomorrow, I really should study.” Jude wanted to be sympathetic, but she was too pissed for that. Hollis had touched her in a way she’d never been touched before, and then completely ignored her afterward. Jude hadn’t asked for the change in their relationship, but it’d happened nonetheless. She wasn’t the one running from it, or punishing the other person because of it.

  “Please? We need to talk.”

  As much as she should be studying, Jude had to admit that Hollis was right. They had to talk and this might be their last chance to do so.

  “Okay.” She debated taking Hollis’s hand as they walked toward her car. Jude wasn’t a fan of handholding, so the impulse caught her off guard. How would Hollis respond? Would she allow it? Would Jude be able to stand the simple niceness of it? She doubted it.

  Hollis opened the door for Jude and held it until she was safely inside with her seatbelt on. Then she circled the car, her steps slow and deliberate. Her lips moved as though she was rehearsing a speech.

  She didn’t speak until they’d been driving for over ten minutes. “I don’t know exactly what to say.”

  “Figure it out,” Jude said. This is why she liked the rules of BDSM. She didn’t have to wait for her partner to sort out her emotional shit. She had enough baggage of her own, but it didn’t keep her from voicing her thoughts. All the wishy-washy bullshit made her crazy.

  “I like you.” Hollis’s simple admission was more than Jude expected. It surprised her, but it didn’t exactly get them anywhere.

  “I like you, too.”

  Hollis took her hand in hers as she had on the drive to her house Tuesday night. “A lot. I like you a lot. More than I was prepared for and I’m not sure what to do about it.”

  “There’s not a lot to do about it. I’m headed back to Portland on Saturday morning.”

  “I know, but I’m not ready to let you go.”

  “I don’t have a choice.” Jude’s whole life was in Portland. Her family, her friends, her job. Everything.

  “I could come with you.” Hollis spoke quietly, but very clearly. There was no mistaking the words, or the emotion behind them.

  Jude tightened her grip on Hollis’s hand.

  “Is that an option?”

  “There are openings in the Portland Field Office. I checked.”

  “So you put in for a transfer? Then what?” Jude didn’t care about the semantics of FBI protocol, she just didn’t understand what this all meant for their relationship.

  “Then we could try. It might not work, but it just might. I want to find out.”

  “How would it work? Do you want to move in together and play house?”

  Hollis scrunched up her face in a thoughtful frown. “I don’t think I could live with anyone, not even you.”

  “Okay, then what?”

  “I figured I’d get an apartment.”

  “An apartment?” This was all just a little too cookie dough and pearls normal for Jude. She liked Hollis with reflector glasses over her emotions and a riding crop in her hand.

  “Yes, one with sound proofing and eyebolts in the ceiling.” And there was the Hollis that Jude loved.

  “You know, my house has a basement. With a playroom.”

  Hollis flipped around in the middle of the street and the car behind them honked. Jude gripped the door to keep from toppling into Hollis.

  “Where are we going?”

  “My place. You don’t really need to study do you?”

  “No, I’m good.” In truth, Jude hadn’t needed the review at all. Unlike her classmates who were actual FBI, she wasn’t being graded. She just needed to do something with her time to keep from going crazy over the distance Hollis had placed between them.

  “Good, then you’ll spend the night with me.”

  Jude didn’t answer because it wasn’t actually a question. She reclaimed Hollis’s hand. It seemed the more she held it, the more she liked holding it.

  As they drove toward Hollis’s house, Jude reflected on the past few weeks. She’d arrived feeling spent, worn out from the demands the homicide department placed on her, but couldn’t wait to get back home. She had a stack of open cases that needed to be closed. She had victims who needed a voice and families who deserved closure.

  She’d come only because her captain insisted. She didn’t expect to learn anything new, and she certainly hadn’t expected to find her future on that first day.

  Hollis squeezed her hand, then released her hold to press the garage-door open button as she pulled into her driveway. Coming home together was such a simple act. So normal. She’d never expected to want something like that in her life, but it’d found her anyway. She wasn’t sure how all of this would work out, but Hollis made her want to try.

  About the Author

  Jove Belle was born and raised against a backdrop of orchards and potato fields. Th
e youngest of four children, she was raised in a conservative, Christian home and began asking why at a very young age, much to the consternation of her mother and grandmother. At the customary age of eighteen, she fled southern Idaho in pursuit of broader minds and fewer traffic jams involving the local livestock. The road didn’t end in Portland, Oregon, but there were many confusing freeway interchanges that a girl from the sticks was ill prepared to deal with. As a result, she has lived in the Portland metro area for over fifteen years and still can’t figure out how she manages to spend so much time in traffic when there’s not a stray sheep or cow in sight.

  She lives with her partner of twelve years. Between them, they share three children, two dogs, two cats, two mortgage payments, one sedan, and one requisite dyke pickup truck. One day she hopes to live in a house that doesn’t generate a never ending honey-do list.

  Incidentally, she never stopped asking why, but did expand her arsenal of questions to include who, what, when, where, and, most important of all, how. In those questions, a story is born.

  What Reviewers Say About Jove Belle’s Work

  Edge of Darkness “wins points for its well-rounded and developed main character and its breezy, light writing style, making it a fun read…The plotline has its share of twists, turns and revelations…I look forward to reading more from Jove Belle.”—Our Chart

  “Edge of Darkness is a very well written book. It has sympathetic characters, an exciting story, hot sex, and a wonderful cliff-hanger ending. This is a book that makes the reader forget everything but turning the next page.”—Just About Write

  Indelible has “some pleasing plot twists and delicious sex scenes.”—Seattle Gay News

  “Chaps grips the reader in its first few pages and never lets go. …There are heart-pounding scary scenes contrasted with plenty of quiet country roads, and enough action to keep the pages flying.”—Just About Write

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