Jason couldn’t move.
If he did, the sleeping beauty sprawled on top of him might wake up, and given that he’d robbed her of most of her sleep the night before, that seemed cruel.
He grinned to himself.
After their first, emotional round of sex, things had gotten playful. They’d played ten rounds of This or That, which was a thinly veiled attempt to figure out what the other liked in bed.
With Julie, the answer for him was everything. Her going down on him—awesome. Him going down on her—even more so. Fingers and mouths and endless stretches of sensitive skin…it had all been seriously fantastic.
And the weekend had just begun.
She shifted to the side, her soft skin rubbing against his hand as she went, and his dick perked up. Selfish jerk. He grinned and tried to think of something to make it go down, but she’d already stiffened in awareness.
“You’re awake,” she mumbled.
“Habit.”
A yawn rolled through her as she lifted her head and gave him an adorably bleary look of surprise. “Even on your days off?”
“It’s just easier that way, maybe. Or maybe I’m a natural morning person. I’ve been up at the crack of dawn every day for twelve years now.”
She yawned again and snuggled closer, but her hand circled his erection and promised not every part of her was still sleepy.
“You don’t need to—”
She cut him off. “You live six hours away and we both have demanding jobs. Who knows when I’m going to get non-stop access to you again? I want to. Every second of the day, I promise.”
He rolled toward her and lifted her leg on top of his, so they were facing each other and she was open for him to return the gentle, arousing strokes. She was already wet and it didn’t take much to have her rocking against his questing hand.
With each firm stroke, she tugged him closer to release. His balls drew tight and that primal need to rut took over, banishing embarrassment about noises and breathing. She stared at him, unblinking, her lips parted and dusky pink as he slid one, then two fingers inside her.
“Just like this?” he asked and she nodded, eyes wide. “Come for me, then.”
“You, too.”
“I’m right there.” And he was, he could feel it inside him, tight and desperate. “Your hand, Jules. Oh, shit, your hand. Yes…”
She came a second before him, her ending body writhing against his, and when that first jolt of bliss shot through him, he had a split second thought of oh shit, the mess before his mind went blank and twitching, perfect pleasure took over.
Sometimes, a simple hand job was exactly what a guy needed to start the day right.
Julie kissed his shoulder as she rolled him onto his back. His belly was sticky, but she disappeared for second and the next thing he felt was a warm washcloth cleaning him up.
“You’re very, very good to me,” he muttered, his throat thick.
“I’m going to feed you chocolate chip cookies for breakfast, too.” She laughed as she climbed off the bed and moved away from him. “Come on!”
So she might not be a natural morning person, but when she was up, she was up.
He blinked his eyes open and stared up at the slanted ceiling for a minute. Okay. Time to keep his hands to himself for a few hours.
Like, at least one. Maybe two, tops.
He pulled on his jeans and headed downstairs, where he found her in the kitchen, in his t-shirt and a pair of navy blue panties covered in snowflakes.
She was making coffee and whistling tunelessly.
Fucking adorable.
“What can I do?”
She pointed over her shoulder. “Milk and cream in the fridge, grab whichever you prefer. And the cookies are in the tub on the counter there.”
He grabbed both cartons from the fridge, in case she wanted milk—he’d make do with either as needed, or drink his coffee black, but cream was nice. Setting them on the counter next to her, he paused long enough to kiss the back of her neck before he went back for the cookies.
They ate standing up, side by side against the counter. Quiet companionship, and it was damn nice.
When was the last time he’d gotten ready for the day like this, with a woman who intrigued him so much? Who he wanted to spend time with, doing anything and everything?
Like she was reading his mind, Julie turned and looked at him. “What do you want to do today?”
“Your city, babe. You tell me.”
“We could go to the farmer’s market.”
He nodded. “We could.”
“Do you want to?”
“Do you want to?”
She laughed. “Are we going to play this game all morning?”
“Only until you tire of it and tell me what you really want to do.”
She narrowed her eyes and ripped off another small chunk of cookie. She had the most delicate way of eating. He’d noticed it the night before with the burger, and thought that was about the extra-messy food and being careful. But with a cookie?
This was something special about her. A quirk.
He liked that he’d noticed. He wanted to discover more, and not just this weekend.
“I actually need to go dress shopping.” She wrinkled her nose. “Is that an awful way to spend time?”
“You want me to sit outside a change room and watch your bare legs hop in and out of various tiny dresses? That’s like my number three fantasy. Although, you know, in my fantasy you eventually need help with a zipper, and then it devolves from there into a X-rated sexfest. But yeah, I’m good with dress shopping.”
She laughed. “I’ll keep the zipper danger in mind.”
“I can be good. I’m practically a Boy Scout.”
“Were you?”
“A Boy Scout?” He grinned. “Nah. My family wasn’t…we didn’t do organized activities like that.”
A frown tried to tug her eyebrows together and she fought it back. She was good at that, the polite, public face. But they were alone and if she wanted to know more about him, that was her right. He’d been inside her body, she could get inside his head. It was only fair.
“We didn’t have extra money for stuff like that. We didn’t feel poor, really, but in hindsight my parents struggled to make ends meet. But they always figured it out, and I had no clue until I was grown up. Good childhood, really, just…basic.”
She set her coffee down and turned to give him her full attention. “Are you close with your family?”
“My younger brother…yeah. My parents not so much. I mean, I love them, and like to visit them once or twice a year if I can. But they moved to a retirement community in Florida when my brother joined the army, and now we don’t have a lot holding us together anymore. No family home, that kind of thing.”
“That’s too bad,” she said softly.
He shrugged. “They did right by us, got us through high school and into the military. And those years were hard on them. My mom cleaned houses and my dad worked in a tool and die shop. Now that they’re retired, they’re finally living their own lives.”
“Hmmm.” It was a simple noise, nonjudgmental, but he could tell she wanted to say more. He wanted her to, as well.
“You don’t think they should?”
She lifted one shoulder. “Not my place to say. And no, of course they should live as much as they can, of course.”
“But?”
“It’s kind of sad that in hindsight, all that young family stuff was hard, I guess.”
“That’s reality.”
Julie had never had a strong opinion about raising children before. In theory, she wanted kids, of course. With the mythical rich husband she’d been hunting for the last few years, too. And when she’d finally convinced herself that was a stupid, futile fantasy life that was holding her back from being happy in the here and now…in walked Jason.
So she couldn’t really explain why she was reacting so strongly to his story, but she wanted to wrap his entire family in her arms and love them.
She wanted to love him, for the tough little guy he’d once had to be, and the seriously tough man he’d grown into.
“I get it,” she said softly. “I didn’t have a warm and fuzzy childhood, either.”
Now it was Jason’s turn to scowl, and it dawned on her that they both wanted more for the other than they thought they had a right to want for themselves.
That was pretty screwed up thinking, and she said as much. “I know, it’s weird that we’re both just kind of okay with that, isn’t it?”
His frown deepened. “It’s not like you can change the past, but I look at you and think, who wouldn’t want to…” He trailed off, and the silence between them grew heavy.
“Little Jason deserved a lot more, too,” she whispered. “Not stuff, I mean. Not Boy Scout lessons or whatever. Just…more…”
“Love.” The word was gruff and foreign-sounding.
“Yeah.”
“Do you…” He huffed a laugh and shook his head, looking away. “Wow, this is deep and way too much for early Saturday morning.”
She laughed with him and slid her arm around his waist. It was too soon, but she hoped that if they progressed in their relationship, he’d find the courage to ask her whatever he was going to ask her. Something told her that her answer might surprise them both.