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Jude contended, “I hear everything you say. All of it. So don’t worry about how to reconcile what’s happened between us. Don’t obsess over how we’re supposedly going to work it all out. I grasp what’s transpired, Kate. But you have terms to come to that aren’t black and white. Something else I comprehend.”
The doorbell chimed. Kate pulled in a breath. Jude strode toward the door and permitted the butler to pass the threshold.
The tuxedo-clad attendant handed a garment bag to Jude and said, “Your clothing, sir.” Without batting an eye at Jude’s state of undress.
“Thank you.” Jude shot Kate a look and told her, “Don’t leave just yet.”
He disappeared into the bedroom. She collected her bag and tipped the butler. Then she changed into her new clothes and wrapped up the tidbits related to her departure just as Jude emerged, freshly showered and looking too lethal for words, his hair casually tousled, his expression a caustic one.
“What?” she said of this particular expression. “I didn’t slip out while you were in the bathroom.”
“No,” he told her with a half-assed grin that nearly had her tackling him and taking another tumble in bed with him. “But you’re much closer to the door than you are to me.”
She propped a hand on her hip. “How am I to blame for the geography?”
He leaned against the doorframe with a shoulder and folded his arms over his wide chest. The polo with the hotel’s logo in gold might be a refined garment, but Jude still appeared darkly sensual and so damn hot, Kate wondered if her heartbeats would ever return to a normal cadence. Or if she was forever destined to be hyper-charged just being in the same room with the man.
He said, “I thought we were having breakfast together.”
“I told you it was about to arrive; not that I intended to dine with you. I have to be on my way to Long Island in an
hour, and I need to stop at my apartment first.”
“Long Island? Sunday brunch with girlfriends?”
Kate cringed. A natural response over having to justify her impending workload on a weekend. “It’s not a social gathering. I’m meeting with the woman heading up the conglomerate I told you about. Logistical planning is on the agenda, as well as a mile-high stack of paperwork to fine-tune. Contracts to negotiate.”
He shoved away from the frame and closed the gap between them, his gaze steadily on her.
“You’re serious about these global therapy sessions—this opportunity.”
“Of course. I wouldn’t have bothered mentioning it last night if it wasn’t something I was willing to commit to at this point.”
“Damn, Kate.” He combed a hand through his hair, ironically making it a tad messier—which caused a moan to swell in her throat. “When are you leaving town?”
“Soon. I told you I have to be on the road in an hour—”
“I meant, when are you heading out of the country?”
“Oh, well. That’s still up in the air. Remember, I have patients who are evaluating my referral recommendations and there are plenty of other details to sort out.”
“And once you get everything squared away…” His penetrating gaze didn’t waver. “How long will you be gone?”
“That’s debatable,” she admitted as she shifted from one sandaled foot to the other. “This is a small operation at present. Completely in its infancy. In fact, we have numerous legal issues to iron out and additional training to go through. But when we are ready to travel overseas, we’ll have a lengthy itinerary to make the most of the time and expense associated with the journey.”
“I think it’s great what you’re doing, Kate.”
Despite his words, she heard the hesitancy in his voice. The reticence to accept her new plight—and all it entailed. Tension exuded from him and it unnerved Kate.
She could easily interpret his emotions, his reluctance to acknowledge last night honestly was designed to be a one-time occurrence. An amazingly scorching experience, to be sure. One Kate would never forget. One she’d relive in her mind over and over, without doubt.
Yet she and Jude had never been on the same trajectory. And while their mutual attraction was certainly blistering and wholly consuming when they were tangled in the sheets, in the light of morning, they were back to reigning opposite sides of the spectrum.
She knew Jude would eventually concede to wanting a family. Hell, she was perfectly aware he’d purchased a mammoth-sized apartment in Tribeca. A solid investment, yes. But on a subconscious level, Jude was starting his journey…of nesting. A dog was in his near future, she suspected. Then a girlfriend, when he was ready. When he could allow that sort of permanent intimacy into his life without succumbing to flashbacks of catching his fiancée in bed with another man. The ensuing argument. And later…the deadly aftermath.
Kate drew in a slow breath. She’d seen the photos of the travesty. The bloodbath.
She comprehended in every capacity and to the nth degree how damn-near impossible it was for Jude to consider getting involved again, so emotionally invested, when he’d been thoroughly wrecked.
