“You’re so damp,” he rasped, watching her expression melt as he eased one finger gently inside her. “And so damned tight you’re going to make me come before I even get started.”
Her honey pooled in his hand as her entry snugly enclosed his penetrating finger. Restless and mewing softly, she arched up on the bed and pressed her breast to his mouth. He suckled her with a growl of pleasure and plunged a second finger inside her.
Her soft moan tumbled into the air, and her hips rocked against his hand in silent plea. He drew back, panting, and met her blue gaze, an ocean of arousal, her lashes heavy, her mouth red, her nipples red…
Undone, he slid down her body and buried his head between her legs, giving her a hungry kiss that penetrated her to her sweet, warm depths. She cried out and pulled helplessly on his hair. “Stop, oh, please stop or you’ll make me…”
He lifted his head. Urgency thrummed through his body like a living, breathing thing. He was panting, drowning in ecstasy, in his need to make it special and memorable for her while at the same time trying to withhold his body’s natural reactions to tonight. To being with her after wanting her for so long.
“I’ll make you what?” he prodded softly, coming up and brushing his nose against hers. “Do you already want to come?”
She nodded, her breath fast and hot against his face.
He wanted to take those breaths and suck them into his body, to take this woman and mark her with his touch, every inch of her, for eternity. Catching her bottom lip between his and gently suckling, he caressed her between the legs again. “But that’s a good thing…”
She plunged her hands into his hair and set a kiss on his lips, the tip of his nose, his square jaw. “Not alone—Jules, please. When it happens, I want to feel you inside me. I’ve always wondered what it… I’ve been dying to feel this…”
Her fingers delved between their bodies, and he almost yelped at the incredible feel, the amazing feel, of her hand curling around his hard length as if she owned him. “I want you,” she breathed, her eyes wide in surprise at what she touched. “I…I want this…” She stroked his full length exploratively, and a barrage of pleasure raced through his system. He bit back an oath as his body instantly tensed for release.
He grabbed her wrists and playfully pinned her arms up over her head, then he dived to give her a hot, ravenous kiss on the lips. “If you do that again we won’t get to the part of me actually entering you.”
She writhed underneath him, her breasts beckoning another kiss. “Please, please.”
He was unraveled by her desire, enchanted by her openness to him, his undeniable connection to her. His hands shook with male-hormone overload as he reached out to the nightstand.
He briskly rolled on a condom as fast as he could. Realizing she’d been watching in fascination, he pushed her back down with his weight and reached for both her creamy ankles. He couldn’t wait to be inside her. Feel her heat.
Make her mine, mine, mine.
“Do you want me inside you…?” he urged as he hooked her legs around his hips, his pulse fluttering like crazy.
“Please, yes. Oh…” She gasped as he penetrated her, firm and slow, pushing in inch by inch, her tender body fighting him. The effort it took to hold back made his every muscle quiver in restraint.
“Ahh, I’m sorry, this is going to hurt you…”
She’d gone motionless beneath him, those trusting, wide eyes clawing at his heart as she clasped his shoulders in a death grip. “Don’t tense against me, don’t fight me,” he cooed, easing back to let her breathe, then carefully guiding himself back in, caressing her nipple tips to incite her relaxation as he gently rocked his hips. “Give yourself to me, Molly. Be mine.”
He thumbed the little pearl above the entry of her sex, and he felt her give him another inch, and another, until he was almost buried to the hilt. Suddenly, with fierce determination, Molly thrust her pelvis up against him and they both cried out in surprise—he barked in pleasure, and she moaned in sudden pain, and they both went utterly still, completely joined, his length pulsing inside her, her body snugly wrapped around him.
He took her breathless little mouth and kissed her fiercely as the compact heat of her body adjusted to his length. Struggling to hold back, his heart thundering in his chest, he threw his head back in ecstasy and finally started to withdraw, enjoying every sliding inch. “So good. You feel so. Good.” He bent down and kissed her, a hot, wild kiss. “Please stay still, baby, I don’t want to hurt you.”
He went back in, and she moaned in pleasure, her fingers clenching his buttocks, urging him on. “It’s okay now. It’s okay. Don’t hold back, Julian.”
“Oh, Molly…you have no idea what you’ve been doing to me….” He rocked his hips gently against hers, the motion slow but deep and incredibly erotic. Excruciating pleasure shot through his system as he continued his rhythmic thrusting, waiting to feel her shudder, waiting for her to come apart in his arms.
Suddenly, their eyes locked, and Molly released an out-of-control moan, her nails biting into his skin as she arched up in pleasure.
She watched him watch her.
She felt like crying, dying, flying.
She thought she’d break when he first entered her, and now the pleasure had overridden anything else.
Julian’s eyes were an inferno of passion, eating her up alive. His hands slid like satin on her skin, over her hips, her rib cage, caressing her breasts. Then he ducked his head once more and his velvet tongue branded every inch of her body until every cell and atom felt alive and fevered.
A sheen of perspiration clung to his forehead, and she ached to lick it up and get drunk on him. High on him. She thrashed under his eyes when their gazes met, glorying in the ravaged way he looked at her, the tender words that tumbled off his lips as he took her, words like adore and want you and killing me.
Inside her being, she overflowed with love for him. Him. She wanted all of him, all of Julian John Gage, as she watched his muscles flexing hard with each move of his powerful body against hers.
And when his rhythm turned erratic, her eyes drifted shut and the passion overtook her. She clutched his bulging shoulders with a soft cry of pure, unrefined bliss, hearing him let loose a growl of his own, and they snapped and twisted together, clutching each other, tense and shaking, and then…seconds later…slumping, relaxed and entwined, they felt as if they were one, at last.
* * *
They couldn’t get enough of each other.
After less than two hours of sleep, Molly awakened to find Julian’s tousled blond head trailing suspiciously down her tummy and heading south, his fingertips sensuously playing between her splayed thighs. Drawing out her wetness, he made her mew in her throat and toss her head back helplessly against the pillow.
When he buried his face in the damp, warm place where his fingers had been, she gripped the sheets at her sides as each hot flick of his knowing tongue set a rampage of sensations loose in her body. She arched and twisted. “Jules, please…” she gasped in the dark. He pushed her to a climax with his tongue, and then he wrapped her legs around his hips and rode her until she was crying out to him in ecstasy.
Less than an hour later, she stirred in bed and searched for his warmth, having somehow been separated from him during sleep. She hooked one leg around his narrow hips and draped her arm around his waist, and as she wiggled to get comfortable, she became aware of the large, prominent erection biting into her hip bone. She stilled, but Julian had already awakened. He groaned and dropped his head in search of her lips in the shadows, and she gave her mouth up to his. Lying on their sides on the bed, he entered her slowly, whispering sweet little nothings in her ears that drove her to a climax that left her gasping for breath and blushing over all the things he said.
They showered together and laughed over “bun-buns” an
d “JJ,” then returned to bed. Then, at 5:00 a.m., while a tiny stream of light filtered through the closed drapes, Molly once again woke up to find herself entangled in Julian’s muscled limbs and his Egyptian cotton bedsheets. She couldn’t seem go back to sleep. She throbbed all over in such a delicious way. Adrenaline and excitement continued coursing through her system, and she couldn’t stop touching him. Kissing him. Smelling his skin, which smelled clean and of his sandalwood soap.
“Jules,” she whispered, going breathless at the excitement of waking up with him. “Are you asleep?”
“Not anymore.” With an arm draped over his eyes as he lay sprawled on the bed, Julian’s chest rose and fell with each breath, his voice groggy and sexy.
Molly sat up and edged closer, waiting for him to stir to action. “I’m still naked,” she said, dropping her voice to a seductive purr.
Dropping his arm and cracking his eyes open, Julian stroked his thumb down the length of her arm, his expression deadly serious. “I know what you’re begging for, Molls.”
Before she could even blink, he’d rolled her over with a lionlike “rawr” that made her squeal and laugh her heart out as he gave her the tickle torture of her life. “Oh, I hate it when you do this, stop it, stop!” she squealed in between hysterical laughs, but he didn’t pause for a whole half a minute—because it wasn’t called torture for nothing. They ended up breathless and grinning from ear to ear when it was finally over.
He turned somber as he gazed down at her flushed features, then he reached out to cup her naked breast and manipulate it as though it were his property to play with. When her nipple responded eagerly, his smile turned wolfish, and a devilish glint appeared in his gaze.
“You sure you can take me?” he said, and bent his head to give her a leisurely good-morning kiss, his seductive lips stirring her senses. “I don’t want you hurting all day.”
She was still breathless from his torture. “Well, I do.”
He laughed. “What an insatiable little devil my little Molls is turning out to be.” He smiled that wolf’s smile again, his eyes spelling mischief, then he ducked his blond head and playfully nipped the beaded points of her nipples, and the stimulus was almost too much to bear.
“Thank you for the gift you’ve given me,” he whispered against her flesh, switching from one nipple to the other. “My entire life I worried someone else would take what I wanted.”
That husky, unexpected confession turned her on like flicking on a light switch, and together with the nibbles he was giving her? It was a winning combo. Her muscles stiffened as the blissful sensations rippled through her. She clung to his shoulders, squirming as red-hot desire took her over and his warm, wet tongue tortured her beyond measure.
“Oh, Jules,” she sighed. “Don’t do that unless you…you know.”
“Yeah, I know,” he said, coming up to her ear, murmuring, “I got you, baby, you know I do.”
Molly turned her head, opened her mouth and kissed him, lazily at first, then vigorously. “No. Now it’s my turn to torture you,” she said sheepishly.
She pushed him under her and he obediently lay on his back as she greedily took in his magnificent body with her eyes. From head to toe, Julian was a masterpiece she wanted to memorize.
Eyes narrowed, he crossed his hands behind his head and let her touch him, like a pasha being pampered and tended to. She bit her bottom lip while her breasts throbbed for his touch and the place between her legs pricked with wanting. Her hands stroked his abs and pectorals and round, hard biceps, and then trailed downward to cup his mesmerizing hardness….
He sucked in a harsh breath through his teeth. Molly’s eyes blurred as she seized his hard length—so big she could not grip him with only one hand. He was so aroused and powerful that she could feel him pulsing underneath her palms and fingers. She wanted to lick him there, lick him everywhere, like a lollipop. “I want to kiss you here, Jules.” She patted him gently, her insides clenching with pure, unadulterated lust.
His nostrils flared, his eyes almost black. “Then stop teasing and kiss me.”
Molly watched his face as she bent her head, and she would never forget the flaming, pulse-pounding lust in his eyes, as if he could eat her up and not want anything else for the rest of his life. “Like this?” she asked tentatively as she dipped her puckered lips and placed a kiss right on the tip.
His hips bucked wildly, his biceps bulging as he fought to keep his arms back.
“Do you like it, Jules, or—?”
“Baby, I’ve dreamed of this,” he murmured in a coarse, thick voice, his torso rising and falling with each soughing breath. “Morning, noon and night, I’ve dreamed of this….”
Molly bent her head and watched him, melting in heat at the harsh look of ecstasy on his face. His eyes burned into the top of her head as she snaked out her tongue to lick him in a slow circle around the tip, savoring his taste and the incredible feel of his hardness sliding into her mouth. She opened wider and took the first couple of inches inside of her. His hands rounded over the back of her head and his fingertips delved gently into her hair as he eased her head back so their gazes locked. Her eyes felt heavy with arousal, and his gaze was thick-lashed and stormy.
“Did you think of me, too, baby?” he said in a guttural whisper, and Molly released him, then climbed on top of him and straddled his hips, bending to press her lips hungrily to his.
“So much I’ve never even looked at another man, Jules,” she whispered into his mouth.
She felt the powerful tremor that rushed through his body at her words. Then he took charge and twirled his tongue around hers while his hands slid down her back to grip her buttocks. He squeezed the plump flesh, moving her so their hips aligned and his rigid erection pressed right into the part where she was soaked.
“I’ve thought of this every day for so damned long. I won’t even begin to tell you how many times during the night.”
“I want you in me, Jules.” She rocked her hips enticingly against his length. She was wonderfully sore and yet needed to feel him again, only to be sure this was real. This was happening. She was his, and he was hers.
Hard and strong, he easily rolled her over and loomed above her now, and the sight of him poised at her entry drove her to the edge. His golden skin glowed with a thin sheen of perspiration, and his shoulders and arms bulged with straining muscles, corded with pumping veins. She couldn’t believe that this wonderful creature would want her like he did. Would look at her in the way he was looking down at her now. That her hero and friend and favorite person in the world could also be her lover.
Clutching him closer, she whispered, “I want you, but slowly so it won’t hurt.”
“I’ll be careful with you. Come here, Moo.” He gathered her closer, holding her firmly against him as he slowly eased inside her.
“Yes!” she cried out, squeezing her eyes shut against the onslaught of sensation—a deluge of love and passion and everything she’d always wanted. Right here in her arms, after years of being so close to it.
A sound tore from his straining body as he began a hard, thorough pace, his lips dragging wildly over her face, her lips, her cheeks, her temple as his hips rammed against hers and she held on to him for dear life. He drove her to the precipice and made her gasp out his name, and then he followed her with one last thrust, her body clutching his in a long, tight orgasm.
For an hour afterward they lay entangled in bed and remembered their little adventures as teenagers. As Molly drifted off to sleep, she felt so content, so genuinely happy, she thought at last her life was as it should be.
Nothing would come between her and her soul mate any longer.
Eight
Full sunlight streamed through the windows of Julian’s bedroom as Molly cracked open one eye, and then the other. Noticing it was past 10:00 a.m., she moane
d languorously and rolled and stretched on the bed, anxious to feel the warm contours of the body she’d snuggled against all night long. But Julian wasn’t in bed with her.
Disappointment swept through her as she sat up. Then she spotted the note over his pillow, and she instantly relaxed.
Good morning, Picasso. Meet me upstairs? Business is ready to open Monday and I’m giving it a thorough check. Hope you don’t mind I left another message for you somewhere.
Yours,
Julian
The other message, it turned out, was right on her left buttock. Molly gasped when she caught sight of it as she passed by the mirror. It consisted of three red letters, perfectly curved, perfectly marking her fanny like a cattle brand, except he’d used her paint: JJG.
She laughed so hard that tears popped into her eyes. She’d never imagined she could wake up feeling so content, so full, so complete, so happy. How could she have spent all these years next to this man she would give her life for, and miss out on all of this?
It was as though last night Jules had opened the little box where she’d hidden away entire decades of special, secret feelings for him, and now that those feelings were out, Molly feared she’d burst from the love in her chest.
Scrambling to catch up with him, she showered and found herself drifting off to last night as she shampooed. They’d lain awake remembering stuff about their childhood, then they’d laughed, then their laughter had faded into heat once more, and they’d kissed and made out and made love until they’d exploded.
Hot and bothered by the memory alone, she jumped out of the shower, wrapped herself in a towel and rushed to the walk-in closet to survey her clothes. She settled on a short white jean skirt and a lacy white blouse. Then she fixed coffee and folded two warm croissants she’d heated in the oven into a pair of napkins. She carried the croissants and the two coffee mugs up in the elevator, watching them steam with a smile.