Jason watched Julie carefully lick an errant swipe of mustard off her lips and tried to control his desire to flip the table out of the way and take her right here in the dining room.
He’d never felt like this about anyone before, and it was kind of crazy that she’d stumbled into his life like this.
That thought tweaked something in his memory and he cleared his throat. “Can I ask a question?”
She gave him a bright, of course look that made his chest tight. He was falling fast and hard for a total stranger. And it felt bizarrely right. “Your friend, Nikki—she tried to stop us, that night at Nathan’s house. But you haven’t brought it up since…are we moving too fast here? Are you still wrapped up in another guy?”
She blinked at him, then slowly shook her head. “No. Why?”
Because I feel jealous, and I don’t like it. “I’m mostly making conversation to keep myself from kissing you again. But I also want to get to know you better.”
She gave him a thoughtful look as she grabbed a paper napkin and dabbed the corners of her mouth and wiped her fingers. He took a sip of his beer and tried to look cool—not usually a problem for him, but Julie undid him.
Finally she stood up and walked around the table. He shifted in his seat, so when she reached him, her knees bumped his and urged his legs apart. She leaned over and pressed her mouth against his, lips to lips, soft to firm and sweet to cynical.
“Never hold yourself back from kissing me,” she whispered. “But I want to get to know you better, too.” She cupped his cheek and gave him a heated look. “I feel like a shower. Wanna wash my back?”
Silently they put away the leftovers, then she grabbed their beer bottles and led him upstairs. She had the top floor to herself. It was small and cramped in the corners, where the roof dropped down, but she had a private bathroom with a shower most definitely big enough for two.
He took a long, slow pull of beer as he watched her take off her jewelry, get the shower going, then peel out of her clothes.
Slowly, the dress first. Underneath, she was wearing a slip, which surprised him and turned him on even more than he already was. That barely there scrap of silk clung to her breasts and her hips, floating over the tight, nipped-in waist he’d thought so much about over the last two weeks.
She reached underneath, and he groaned as she wriggled out of a pair of lace panties that dropped like a feather to the tile floor.
“Your turn,” she said, reaching for his beer. She took a sip before setting it next to hers on the counter, and he put his hands to his belt.
He didn’t miss how her gaze followed his movements greedily. It gave him such a charge that she was as into him as he was her.
He toed out of his shoes, then pulled off his socks before shucking his jeans. He paced across the small room and crowded her against the wall. “Let me help you with the last bit,” he murmured.
He slid the skinny strap over her left shoulder, dropping a kiss there before doing the same with the other side. It fell to her waist and clung there, holding on to her hips.
All that lay between him and her breasts was a gorgeous ivory bra. It had to go, soon, but the sight of her flesh plumped up on offer like that was too much to resist. He ducked his head and pulled her nipple into his mouth, right through the lace.
A moan and her fingers in his hair told him that was good. He sucked and her grip on him tightened. Even better.
He loved that tasty peak until she was rocking between him and the wall, then he shifted and repeated his attention to the other side. Her hands tightened again in his hair, then relaxed and she stroked down his neck and over his shoulders.
She whispered his name over and over again as he sucked on her. His fingers sought the clasp behind her and finally freed her breasts, the bra falling to the ground as he lifted her up and pressed her against the wall so he could lick and suck the soft, swollen mounds better. Her legs tightened around his waist and he wanted to drive up and into her, but the shower was steamy now and they had all the time in the world.
With one last, reluctant pull, he let her nipple pop out of his mouth and set her feet back on the ground. She reached for his boxer briefs at the same time as he slid the slip over her hips.
They were finally naked. He tried not to ogle her as she wound her fingers into his and tugged him into the warm water, but it was a challenge, because she was drop-dead gorgeous.
Her legs went on for miles, even barefoot. Her breasts were full, a handful and a half, which he loved. And in between she had curves that slayed him and neat, dark red curls that hid her inner heat.
Wash her back first, you dog.
But telling her to turn around didn’t help that restless burn inside him, because her ass swayed into view and got his dick all interested in getting closer.
She shifted in front of him, water bouncing off her shoulder as she moved some of the bottles around on the shelf, then handed one of them to him over her shoulder. She smiled as she caught his gaze. “This one’s the least girly smelling.”
“I honestly wouldn’t care if we stumbled out of here smelling like rose petals, Jules.” He squeezed a dollop into his hand and warmed it between his palms before slicking the gel over her shoulders and down her back.
He did his job, washing all the planes of her body before tugging her close, his hands sliding up her belly to cup her breasts as her bottom settled right where he wanted it.
“This is why I love how tall you are,” he whispered, rocking them together. “We fit together perfectly.”
She turned her head slowly and even as he closed his eyes against the steamy spray of the shower, he found her mouth no problem.
Kissing Julie was already second nature to him.
And he was more than ready to take it to the next level.
Maybe it was the steam, or the man, or the real life realization of her fantasies from the last two weeks, but Julie felt like she was having an out of body experience as they toweled each other off and moved as one to her bed.
They'd done this once before and been interrupted. This time there would be no phone call.
This time, every inch of taut, tanned skin was hers to play with for hours.
He crawled onto the bed, following her as she scrambled backwards. Like a panther, sleek and dark and powerful, but she was pretty eager prey.
He ducked his head halfway up her body and groaned as he ghosted his lips around her belly button. Her legs trembled against his forearms, bracketed on either side of her thighs.
She’d imagined this view—him on top of her, all solid muscle and lightly dusted hair in the right places. She couldn’t stop staring at his corded forearms. Was this how he felt about her boobs or hips or legs? Like they were body part candy?
Reaching out, she stroked her fingertips along the barely damp skin, enjoying the way his muscles bunched beneath her touch. He always reacted, like he was surprised at the contact.
“Come here,” she breathed, and it was a damn hard ask, too, because he’d been about to nudge her legs open, and she wanted that so, so much.
But she wanted even more to tell him something important.
His lips quirked, like he couldn’t quite believe she’d just stopped him from going down on her.
“Just for a minute,” she said, shifting restlessly. “Then I want you to continue with whatever awesome plan you have.”
“To make you scream?”
“Yeah. That plan. A-plus.”
That earned her a grin and he pushed up again. Just the sight of him like that, big and bare and all hers, looming above her and still she felt totally safe…it stole her breath away.
She reached up and twined her arms around his neck. Between them, his erection bobbed against her belly and she tried her best not to be distracted by the heavy weight of him. The anticipation would make it all the sweeter.
“Right up until I met you, like, the very second I met you, I thought I wanted to swear off men for a while. And then you grinned at me, and somehow I knew I’d just been looking at the wrong men for far too long. I didn’t want to let this opportunity to get to know a different man, a better man, pass me by.” She swallowed hard, the full weight of that honest confession suddenly heavy in her throat. Without meaning to, she’d just given him a lot of power over her heart. Because if this was just something casual for him, it would probably kill her a little.
“When I asked you before,” he said softly, fitting his body tight to hers. He kissed her, hard and fast, then rested his forehead against hers. “I was hoping that might be the case. I wasn’t sure. But I gotta say, I’m pretty relieved right now. It’s going to make telling you that this is something special for me a lot less emotionally risky.”
He grinned as she protested, then kissed her again. This time, she was the one taking everything he gave her and more. “You’re a jerk to let me swing like that for a second,” she whispered breathlessly between kisses. “I wasn’t sure if it was saying too much.”
“Awwww, Jules. When I fall head over heels in love with you, I’m sure I’ll be terrified.”
“You think?”
“I know.” It was just teasing. Something two people who liked each other a lot could be comfortable in saying right before they had sex.
But when he reached for a condom and sheathed himself, and she welcomed him inside her for the first time, it didn’t feel like sex. It didn’t feel light or teasing or fun.
As she silently cried out from the unbearable wonder of being filled to the brim, and he dropped his head to her shoulder and took a ragged, broken inhale, it felt absolutely real. Intense and perfect and hot and wet and all those good things, but also very real.
It should have been terrifying, the way her entire soul shifted when he surged into her. As she wrapped her legs around his waist and hugged him right into the very core of her being.
Her heat was his home. His strength gave her faith. And as they moved together, figuring out each other’s body and the way they liked to be loved, she felt something new and astonishing grow from inside.
Hope. It was bright and sharp, and probably a total hallucinogenic side effect of being fucked sideways by a Navy SEAL, but she’d take it.
Because in this moment, she wasn’t the Julie who always got it wrong.
She was Jules, who deserved all of this and more.