It’s not strong enough to justify what blurts past my lips, but I can’t stop myself. “So you don’t need to give what kind of tiny and delicate I’ve got going on under this dress another thought.”
His body stiffens, and his eyes cut to my chest. He’s built like a superhero, but despite his apparent laser focus, I’m pretty sure he doesn’t actually have X-ray vision.
All I wanted was the satisfaction of seeing him squirm. Maybe to gloat a little.
But neither one of us is the type to relinquish a win so easily.
“Jules, you’re going to have to be careful. Tiny and delicate sounds like it might not survive these rough hands of mine.”
My breath catches as need spears through me, and my center goes hot and liquid.
I open my mouth, wanting to say something sharp that puts him in his place. But I can’t make a sound. I can’t think about anything but the snap of elastic and my panties falling apart in his big… rough… hands.
Greg seems to be waiting for the comeback that isn’t coming too.
The seconds stretch and pull.
Our eyes meet and, suddenly, that smug satisfaction washes clean off his face as his nostrils flare and his eyes turn to midnight. I’m pretty sure this is the look he warned me about.
“Aww, fuck. Now you’ve done it, Jules.”
I take a shaky breath. “I know.”
11
Julia
MY SHOULDERS HIT the Goethe Room’s back wall, followed less than a blink later by Greg’s chest meeting mine in a hard, full-body press. He’s kissing me like a man possessed. His mouth hot and demanding, his tongue pushing past my lips, filling me with an erotic thrust that has my hips chasing his.
I’m shaking, I want this so bad. Need it.
This is reckless. Crazy. But I can’t stop. I don’t want to stop.
Greg has an uncanny knack for locating unused and out-of-the-way spaces. No one’s seen us together. No one knows what we’re doing.
So what’s one more time?
My fingers trace his heavy jaw. Though he was clean-shaven when he arrived, I can already feel the hint of stubble. But it’s not the rough touch I’m after.
“More,” I say, between kisses so wet and hot and dirty I wonder if I could come from them alone.
His teeth close around my bottom lip, biting gently into the soft flesh as he gives it a tug, setting off a series of flutters deep inside me.
I need more. More than Greg kissing me.
My arms close around his neck, pulling us into closer contact, but still not close enough.
“My dress,” I gasp, desperate to get my legs around him.
“You want me to touch you?” he growls against my ear, sliding his big hand up my thigh to bring the sheer layers and slip with it. “You want my fingers inside you, Jules?”
He’s between my legs, skimming the edge of my panties. Reminding me of his promise from earlier.
Heat pools at my center, and my belly churns with frantic need.
“Greg.”
He hooks a finger in the side and twists enough so there’s no mistaking his intent. “This?”
I’m so focused on the tension at my waist I can barely think.
“Yes,” I whisper, trembling beneath his touch.
A low groan rumbles from deep in his chest, and then I have what I’m asking for, the bite of my lingerie giving way at one hip and then the other. The damp scrap of my panties being drawn from my sensitive folds, followed by the kiss of cool air.
This is reckless, crazy. But I can’t stop.
The blunt end of his finger runs the length of my sex in a tease that leaves me breathless. Clinging to his shoulders as I wait for what he’ll give me next.
His lips are at my ear, brushing up and down against the lobe. “I’m not going to fuck you, Jules,” he growls, his breath tickling my skin in a way that has me purring, arching into his—
“Wait—what?”
His laughter is a low rumble I feel everywhere.
“I can’t stop thinking about you. About the little sounds you make when I touch you… like this.” His finger presses in, sinking deep, deeper, all the way inside.
Just like that.
I rock into him, restless for more.
“So fucking wet,” he says. “You’re killing me.”
“Please,” I gasp, then again, louder when he slides out before sinking back in. It’s so hot, so good.
“You feel so nice. I’m going to kiss you, and I’m going to touch you, because I’ve been going out of my mind for weeks. But that’s it. Five minutes, Jules…” He adds another finger, working them both deep inside me. It almost feels like too much, like more than I can take, and yet I want even more. “Five minutes, and then we’re going back out there.” His fingers flex and spread as he twists them inside me. “You’re going to say goodbye at one end of the room. I’m going to say goodbye at the other. Then I’m going to put you in my car and take you home, and when we get there, I’m going to fuck you so hard you’ll feel me for days. But not here. Not like this.” He pulls back, and that slick, probing touch comes to a stop. “Not until you admit we’re together.”
I gasp, my heart pounding as his gorgeous blue eyes hold mine. “Greg.”
“Together, Jules. No just about it. Not just this once. Not just one more time. Not just friends. Together. You and me.”
My fingers drift from his hair, splaying wide over his chest. This is where I tell him I can’t, that I don’t want what he’s offering. My career is too important. I have rules.
Only I can’t lie to myself anymore. I can’t lie to either of us.
I’ve never wanted anyone the way I want him.
My career shouldn’t have anything to do with what happens between Greg and me.
And those rules? I’ve been breaking them since day one with him. I was just too scared to admit it.
I trust him.
I brush my thumb across his lower lip. “There’s one just I can’t let go of.”
Eyes narrowed, he asks, “What’s that?”
“This is just between us.”
A slow grin spreads across his gorgeous face, and he pulls me tight for another claiming kiss. When he breaks away it’s to mutter, “Five minutes.”
I start playing with the studs on his shirt. “Before we have to go back out?”
It’s not a lot of time, but I’m thinking it’s enough to get up to some serious no good.
He shakes his head. “Five minutes to say goodbye and get your sweet ass into my car. We’ve waited long enough.”
Greg
Even with her trembling in my arms and those soft brown eyes peering up at me with undisguised need, I’m not sure she’ll agree. But when she does? Damn, it takes everything I have to let her go.
Especially with the remains of those hot-as-fuck panties burning a hole in my pocket.
Julia’s a pro and manages to pull herself together in less than thirty seconds. Me… well, the man downstairs has some other ideas, and talking him into waiting to act on them takes a few minutes. By the time I return to the party, looking more or less the way I did when I left it, Julia is through with her goodbyes.
One last glance over the smooth line of her shoulder, and she steps into the elevator to leave.
I’ve already talked to my driver, who picks her up in front of the hotel and then circles around to the loading dock and waits for me.
There’s no press. No one from the benefit. And of the couple guys who noticed me cutting out the back way, the only thing they have to say is, “Good game last night, Baxter.”
I don’t wait for the driver to get the door, folding myself into the dimly lit backseat as fast as it takes to line up a shot. The privacy shield is already up. Julia is perched at the edge of her seat. She looks as nervous as I’ve ever seen her. Things are changing between us, and hell, I get it. It’s a big deal. But like I told her, we’re together now. I cross to her side of the car and pull her across
my lap.
It’s exactly the right thing to do, because she goes from tense to lax within the span of a shocked squeak, melting into my chest, peering up at me with those soft eyes.
“Are we really doing this?”
I run my hand along the outside of her hip and thigh, enjoying the way she seems to snuggle into the contact. “You better believe we are.”
She bites her bottom lip. “Greg, we’ve been friends for so long. If what we’re doing doesn’t work out—I don’t want to lose you.”
Bowing my head, I press a kiss to the lip she just abused and suck it gently into my mouth to lick at the swell. I feel the catch of her breath quake through her body. “You won’t. I promise, Julia. We’ll always be friends first.” It’s why I feel so good about what we’re doing. We have something I’ve never had with someone else… trust. Thirteen years of it. Julia has no idea how big of a deal that is for me, but it is.
Her fingers slip into my hair, bringing me back for another hungry kiss. “I need you,” she whispers, and I’m not sure if either one of us could say whether she means in this moment or in her life. I like to think both. It’s how I feel. We’ve always been in sync. “Greg, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you. I tried.”
“I know, Jules.” Our kisses are escalating, like now that we’ve given in, there’s nothing holding them back. She purrs, and that sound has me nearly out of my mind. I pull her tighter against my chest, the shift enough for her to crawl across my lap. Her skirt bunches in my hands around her hips, her knees straddling my thighs as she moans around the thrust of my tongue.
I knead her ass with one hand while I slide the other between her legs. She’s wet and warm and open to me, her panties little more than a keepsake in my pocket. Petting through her lush folds is going to be the end of me. Her eyes haze, her lips parted as she hovers over me, the spread of her sex mine for the taking.
I want in.
I want to tear my fucking fly open and slam up inside her ready, wet heat. I want to feel her come around me, her snug little pussy clenching and sucking at my cock the way it did around my fingers.
I told her I wasn’t going to fuck her back at the benefit, and no matter how much I want to, I’m not going to fuck her in this limo either. I made sure of that when I emptied the condoms from my wallet before I left the house.
It’s torture knowing I have to wait, but it’s the kind of torture I’m not above making the most of.
“Did you like your present?” I murmur against her ear between wet kisses and almost-gentle bites. I’m talking about the vibrator I sent her after the last time she just friended me.
I have to know. “Did you use it?”
She moans, her knees gripping my hips.
“Is that a yes, Julia?” I ask, even though I know, fuck yeah, it is. And now I’m seeing that pink orb in my mind, imagining the way it would vibrate between her fingers.
Another full-body tremor, and her fists tighten in my shirt. “Yes.”
So hot, and because she gave me what I wanted, I give her a little more in return. Her clit is swollen, throbbing beneath my finger as I circle it a few slow times. “Did it make you come?”
Did I make you come?
She shudders, and I kiss her hard, giving her my tongue in deep, claiming thrusts. She moans around me and something wild races in my chest.
I tug at her earlobe with my teeth. “Did you put it inside you?”
“Greg.” She rocks into my hand in a needy plea that might actually kill me.
“We’re friends,” I murmur, brushing my lips against her delicate ear a few times, because feeling her unraveling in my arms is a rush right up there with winning the Stanley Cup. “You can tell me.”
“Yes,” she gasps, rocking harder. “Yes.”
A low groan rumbles free from my throat. “So jealous, Jules.” It’s nuts, but true. I am.
Following her slick seam, I tease her opening before dipping a finger inside. “Was it as good as this?”
The catch of her breath is more satisfying than the last six times I got off… combined.
I give her a second finger, savoring the clasp and hug that comes with every inch I penetrate. She’s soaked, her need coating my fingers, driving me fucking insane.
“So wet, Jules. Did you get this wet using my toy?”
“God, Greg. You feel—I can’t—”
I’m pretty sure she can. Especially when her hips lift to my touch. All the better to access the sweetest spot I’ve ever been. My dick’s ready to bust through my fly, but until we get back to my building, this is all I can give her.
“Yeah, you can. I’m going to make you come all over my hand, Julia.”
Every time I open my mouth, that hug gets stronger. My girl likes a little dirty talk. The heel of my hand meets the spread of her sex and I ask, “Was it a tight fit, Jules?”
She gasps, clenching around me again.
“Did you have to work to get it inside you?”
“Y-yes.”
I know she did. I saw the dimensions when I ordered it and I’m betting it was a little smaller than the fingers I’m giving her now.
My hands are huge.
“It gets me so fucking hard to imagine you using it. Sliding it around your clit and then taking it deep.”
She lets out a kitten-soft cry, rocking into each slow, probing thrust.
“What were you thinking about when you pushed it inside?” It’s a risk to ask. I mean, if she tells me Ryan Gosling, it’s really going to blow the mood. Although I know myself well enough to admit a challenge like that wouldn’t end too badly for her. I wouldn’t be able to let her walk away until I was sure I’d obliterated any fantasy about anyone else she’d ever had.
“Mmm, I was thinking about you.”
Fuck. I don’t expect her breathless admission to hit me like it does, but it shakes me up, moves things around deep in my chest so that she’s there, a part of me.
The car comes to a stop, and we both look out the tinted windows to the private garage beyond. With the exception of a few high-end vehicles, it’s empty.
“This is your building?” she whispers, fumbling off my lap.
“Yeah.” I check that she’s got her dress in place and then open the door and help her out. “No one is going to see you. When Hank Wagner lived here, he helped Jack upgrade the security. It’s completely private, so you don’t need to worry about anyone grabbing a picture of you.” I’m walking toward the residents’ elevator, towing her behind as quickly as she can keep up in her heels. We need to get inside and finish what we started all those weeks ago beneath the bleachers. I’m mentally counting the steps it should take to get from the elevator to my bed. Calculating in zippers and buttons and links.
We ride up with her hand in mine, silence surrounding us, the air thick with tension. I want my mouth back on her and the needy clutch of her fingers in my hair. But until we’re in my apartment, there’s security, and no way am I letting Erwin or Gabe get a look at what’s only for me.
The elevator opens on my floor, and I let us into my apartment. The door closes behind us, and it’s on.
Our mouths are fused as we yank and pull at our clothes. I’m pretty sure I hear a seam pop in my haste to get free of this monkey suit. Jules, though, I have naked in a flash. The sheer and silky layers of her dress dangle from the entry table, and thanks to our antics at the party, her panties have already been handled. Which leaves her in a pair of shimmery heels and a pair of delicate gold drop earrings and not one damn thing more.
I’m on my knees in my tuxedo pants, no shirt, my mouth open against the soft curve of her ass, my hands sliding up to palm her full breasts and tease her nipples. I’ve been so careful not to leave a mark on her neck, but here…
“Greg,” she gasps, reaching out to steady herself against the wall as I swirl my tongue over her toned cheek and suck hard enough to draw a splotch of purple to her flawless skin.
Mine.
“T
urn around.”
“So bossy.” Her laugh is breathless, beautiful, and has more power over me than anyone or anything should. She does as I ask. “Like this?”
Almost. After a lengthy caress, I guide one flawless leg over my shoulder and look up to meet her eyes. “Like this.”
Yeah, she knows exactly what comes next.
Her fingers sift into my hair. Fucking heaven.
Without breaking eye contact, I kiss her. Soft and light. A kiss here. A kiss there. Her thigh. Her slick folds.
Deeper.
Longer.
With tongue. Christ, I’ve dreamt of this, only having my mouth on her is even better than those pent-up fantasies.
The tug of her fingers intensifies. “So good, Greg.”
I lick through her sweetness, dipping inside and circling her clit with the tip of my tongue. Rubbing with the flat of it.
She’s got my hair in a death grip that has me never wanting to cut it again. Soft cries and broken pleas rain down on me. I want to drown in them. I want my name on her lips when I make her come like this, and I want it to be the best she’s ever had.
Because that’s what it is for me. I haven’t even gotten inside her yet, but just being with her, knowing this is the start of something real with Julia—fuck.
There’s nothing hotter than when she starts to rock into my mouth, her body begging for more. I can feel her pulse and throb against my tongue, can taste how close she is.
I suck hard and she screams, coming apart while I hold her to my mouth. She’s barely done when I scoop her up in my arms and carry her back to my room.
Jesus. Julia Wesley is in my bed, her chest is flushed, eyes hazed, and yeah, there might be a hickey on her inner thigh. Not gonna lie, it’s getting me hard as fuck.
My pants are off, the condom on, and Julia’s beneath me, her legs moving in a restless shift.
Then I’m there. The head of my cock pressing into the tight channel of her body. Our eyes meet. This is different than any of the lines we’ve crossed before. “We’re together, Julia.”