Judging Judas (Tarnished Saints Series Book 3) (13 page)

He followed suit, and
when they were both sated, he sank down on the bed next to her, pulling her closer into his arms.

“Laney,
I can see now what a fool I was by walking away from you so long ago, and I’m sorry, once again.”

“Just because of good sex?” she asked playfully.

“No,” he answered and his face was serious this time. “Because I realize that my fears held me back and because of it, I’ve missed out on being married to the most beautiful woman in the world. And I’ve also missed out on raising a child with you.”

“Well, you’ll still have that opportunity,” she told him with a chuckle. “And I’m not sure it’ll be pleasant, as J.D. has a lot of bad habits she’s collected through the years.”

“Well, of course it won’t be easy, but we’ll survive if we do it together.” He took her hand in his, kissing the ring on her finger that proved she was his wife. “What I mean is that . . . I want to start a family with you.”

“We already have a family.”

“I know. But I missed the experience of a baby and its first steps and all.”

“Judas?” she said, not believing what she was hearing. “I thought one of the reasons you walked out on me was because you didn’t want kids
and I did. I thought you didn’t even like kids. And now you’re saying you want more?”

“That was one of the reasons, I’ll admit it,” he told her. “And I know now that is why you didn’t tell me you were pregnant before we got married. Actually I can’t blame you. And no, I never did like kids, but I think seeing my brother Levi with his newfound twins, I kind of got . . . ”

“Jealous?” she asked.

“No, not jealous.
Sentimental. I just see how much he’s enjoying it, and thought maybe we could try for a baby too.”

“You’ll have a baby – a g
randbaby in another month.” She took his hand in hers and stared into his eyes. She knew everything was a competition between him and his brothers and she also knew he needed to experience being around a baby before she could agree to this. “Why don’t we just take it slow and see how you handle having a grandbaby first, sweetheart?”

“You don’t think I can handle being a father, do you?”

“I didn’t say that. All I mean is – we need to get on the same page first.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means I can just see you feeding the baby spicy chips and donuts and blowing smoke in the air around it. That’s not the environment I want for a baby. Besides, I have a shop now and need to focus on that for awhile.”

“I see.” He let her hand slip from his and he turned on
to his side to sleep.

“Do
n’t be angry with me, please,” she said, turning onto her side and hugging him from behind. She knew she wasn’t being fair with him, and should try to come to some sort of agreement. “It’s not like we’ll never have more kids together, but let’s just concentrate on raising the one we already have first, ok?”

“So are you on the pill?” he asked.

“No,” she admitted. “And since we didn’t use protection, it might just happen after all. So I’ll tell you what. What if we don’t try to prevent it but don’t be obsessed with trying to make it happen either? We’ll just leave it to fate. That way, if it does happen, we’ll know it was meant to be, all right?”

“You’re right,” he said, grabbing her arm and pulling her closer behind him. “We’ll just enjoy the child
we have for awhile before we concentrate on trying to make another one.”

Laney felt satisfied with their compromise, but knew with the grandbaby coming, it would be better if they weren’t having a baby of their own as well. Still, she was married now and knew Judas wanted to experience having a baby with her, so she’d just leave the results to God. But she knew that before
they started having more children, they needed to fix the one they already had.

Chapter 12

Judas awoke the next morning with Laney in his arms. The sun was streaming in the window
, as the curtains were not even drawn, nor had they cared last night.

“Good morning, husband,” she said, looking up to him with her s
exy wide smile and her sultry green mischievous eyes.

“Good morning, wife.” He kissed her on the head, but she got up on one elbow and kissed him on the mouth.

“Mmmm, that’s better,” he said, liking where this was leading. And before he knew it, they’d made love again.

“Keep this up
and I’ll never get to work today,” he told her, reaching for a cigarette on the nightstand. A cigarette after a good bedding was one hell of a way to start off the day. He’d left them there yesterday after getting up in the middle of the night to smoke and think, as Laney had almost sounded as if she were opposed to having more children with him and this bothered him. But then again they’d made an agreement, and the way they were copulating like rabbits, they just might make a little bunny after all.

“You have to work today? We just got married, you need some time off,” she told him.

“I have to cover for Watt
this afternoon, because his wife is busy and he needs to take his kid to the dentist. But don’t worry, I’m planning on taking every free moment I have to help you get your shop together. And then when the dust settles and after J.D. has her baby we can take a real honeymoon, I promise.”

“
Thank you, and I agree. And thanks for offering to help me with the shop. You are wonderful,” she said, reaching over and kissing him again.

“I need to get in the shower, Laney, so you’d better stop that – unless you want to join me?” He raised a brow and smiled
as he scooted off the bed with the cigarette dangling from his lips.

“You just said you don’t need to be there til this afternoon, so why the hurry?” she asked, glancing at the clock
to see it was only nine in the morning.

“I want to drop off our signed married license at the county clerk’s office
before I go into work,” he told her. “Besides – I’m surprised you’re not worried J.D. may come walking in at any moment.”

“Oh, what am I thinking? You’re right.
Even though I’ve never known her to get out of bed before noon if she didn’t have to.” She jumped out of bed quickly and pulled the sheet around her, and walked past him.

“Laney, stop right there.”

She stopped but didn’t turn around.

“What’s going on?”
he asked.

“What do you mean?” She still didn’t turn.

“You know damned well what I mean. We’re married now, so why are you clutching the sheet around your body as if you’re modest? Or perhaps afraid of something.”

“I’m not afraid,” she said, turning slowly toward him. “Just that J.D. might arrive and I wouldn’t want her to see us naked.”

He released a puff of smoke, wondering what she was up to. Then he glanced out the window. “I can see all the way down the road and there is no car in sight. Now drop the sheet, sweetheart.” When she still didn’t do it, he walked over to her and slowly removed it for her, dropping it to the ground. “What is it you don’t want me to see?”

“I just have some stretch marks and I’m embarrassed about them.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and put her head down.

“These?” he said, running
his finger along some light marks on her breast. “Or this?” He traced his finger over a more prominent one on her stomach. “I don’t care about them, you are still beautiful either way. These are the marks of a brave woman, and I admire that.”

“Thank you. All right, let’s get cleaned up a
nd I’ll make us some breakfast. And stop smoking in the bedroom.” She pulled the cigarette from his mouth, holding her hand under it, looking for somewhere to put it out. “Or have you forgotten what happened last time you smoked inside?”

“
Calm down, sweetheart. I enjoy it,” he said, retrieving his cigarette and taking a drag. “And
I’m
making breakfast today,” he told her, heading for the shower.

“You? Ha!” she laughed. “What are we having? Fried spicy chips with a smattering of melted chocolate? Possibly topped off with donut crumbles?”

“If that’s a challenge you’re throwing down, I’ll take it,” he said. “And I’ll make you change your mind about the way I eat, just wait and see. Now come on, let’s get in the shower.”

“Go ahead,” she said. “I’
ll just make up the bed first. You get cleaned up and I’ll wait til you’re done.”

Judas
deposited the butt of his cigarette into the bathroom sink and took a quick shower, wondering what the hell Laney was hiding from him. It wasn’t the stretch marks, as he’d told her they didn’t matter to him. But being a cop, he was always reading the signs of the way people conducted themselves. He realized now that she’d never turned around in front of him while she was naked. And since he’d seen her entire body naked years ago, he could only assume it was something that had happened since they’d been apart.

God, he hoped it wasn’t lash marks from a whip. Of course, he didn’t think Laney was into that kind of kinky stuff. Or maybe her late husband beat her. If so, he’d have no tolerance for that and it was a good thing the guy was dead, or he might just have seen to it himself. Well, he’d find out in good time, but he knew he needed to get a move on, as he had a lot to do today.

He came out of the bathroom running a towel over his hair, seeing Laney in a bathrobe and talking on her cell phone to someone. He quickly threw on his underwear, pants, socks and shoes, and headed to the kitchen.

“Who was on the phone?” he asked, pulling open the fridge to see what food was in there.

“Just J.D. She wanted to make sure the coast was clear before she came home.”

“Nice of her to ask.” He bent over and dug through some things in the fridge.

“I’m going to take a quick shower,” she called out, heading toward the bathroom with her clean clothes in her hand. “There is some leftover ham that Candace sent from the restaurant if you want to use that.” The door slammed shut behind her as she disappeared, and a moment later he heard the running water of the shower.

“Ok, this’ll work,” he said, grabbing the ham, some eggs and some pepper
-jack cheese. He laid them on the counter, finding a head of garlic there as well as a pack of English muffins. “Laney will think it’s not healthy enough,” he said aloud, going back to the fridge and pulling out a red sweet pepper, part of a zucchini, a handful of spinach and a pinch of fresh parsley. “And I just need a crunch factor,” he said, spying a bag of half-eaten spicy chips on the counter that was most likely J.D.’s. He picked it up, nodding his head. He would show his wife that his way of eating wasn’t so bad after all.

By the time Laney got out of the shower, dried her hair and dressed, Judas had not only made something for breakfast that smelled delicious, but also set the table and was just putting the food onto the plates.

“One go
urmet meal ready to eat,” he said, putting down the pan and pulling out her chair for her.

“Impressive,” she said, eying up the food and also the wine glass of orange juice. “Where did you get
fresh orange juice?”

“I found some old oranges in the drawer of the fridge
that were probably left here by the last renters. I squeezed them by hand just for you.” He picked up the wineglass and waited for her to do the same. “A toast to a wonderful marriage where we can be open and honest with each other and not hide things, no matter what they are.”

“I agree,” she said, clinking his glass, knowing by his words he was talking about her. He was no fool, he knew she’d been trying to hide something from him, and she also knew she’d have to tell him about the damned tattoo sooner or later, but she didn’t want t
o ruin a perfect marriage right now. “What is this?” she asked, looking down to the English muffin with some sort of yummy-looking scrambled egg concoction atop it. The top was spattered with some kind of colorful orange crunchy things as well.

“It’s a Jazzy Judas
Breakfast Sandwich.”

“Not sure about this,” she said and crinkled her nose.

“Taste it before you go judging Judas,” he said, picking up a fork and putting a bite into her mouth before she could object.

It was good. She
was genuinely surprised. “Mmmmm,” she said. “It’s so flavorful. Especially that crunchy stuff on top.”

“You like it?” he asked
anxiously.

“I do,” she answered. “What is this crunchy stuff – it really makes the sandwich special.
”

“Surprise,” he said, whipping
out an opened bag of half-eaten spicy vending machine chips in front of her face.

“Please tell me this is a joke,” she said, “and that I didn’t really eat that!”

“You did, sweetheart, and now you’ve just crossed over to the dark side, so welcome to my world.”

Sh
e was wondering just how to respond to that when there was a frantic knocking at the door. She thought at first J.D. had forgotten her key, until she went and pulled open the door and Levi stood there looking madder than hell.