Chapter 29

 

Julia lasted a whole hour before she gave in and crawled into bed with Joe. His scent and warmth engulfed her as she snuggled up to his side. She was weak. Plus, she was giving him mixed messages—telling him she didn’t want him one minute, getting into bed with him the next. Julia knew that made her a terrible person, but she honestly wasn’t playing with him. She was confused. She knew she should run from Joe, but she wanted him so very badly. It was an impossible situation. One with which he wasn’t helping at all.

“Hey, gorgeous.” The sleepy huskiness in his tone was perfection.

He rolled them to the side and pulled her back into him, spooning her—his front to her back. A heavy leg was thrown over her thighs and his arm fed around her waist. He nuzzled at the crook of her neck. She was surrounded by him. Trapped in his embrace. And she’d never felt safer.

“Now this is the way I want to wake up every morning.”

“It’s afternoon.” She didn’t even want to get into the thought of forever. It was too big, too scary, too risky.

“Still feels like you belong here. There’s only one thing wrong. Why are you dressed?”

“Because you need to get out of bed and I don’t need to get into it.”

“Ah, but you’re already here.” He nudged her hair out of the way and nibbled at her shoulder. “Too many clothes, but I can work around it.”

Julia got the impression he was talking more to himself than her. His hand slid under her t-shirt, up her stomach, to cup her breast. That was all it took for her to forget her objections to their relationship.

He rubbed his thumb back and forth over her nipple as he made his way up her neck to her ear. The feeling of his breath against it sent her desire for him soaring. He teased her earlobe with his teeth.

“You getting hot, baby? Something you need?” Oh, that seductive voice in her ear.

Julia moaned her answer and pressed her hips back into him, feeling his hard length against the seam of her behind.

“You know this can’t work between us.” Her voice was hoarse.

There was amusement in his. “Seems to me it’s working just fine.”

“You know what I mean. We have no future.”

“Then this is what? Goodbye sex?”

She couldn’t think straight. Her mind was overloaded with the messages coming from her body.

“Yes,” she gasped, and he chuckled against her skin.

“Tell me what you want.”

The arm her head rested on moved, curving around her to play with the breast his other hand vacated. That hand moved slowly down her body to her jeans. He undid the button and pulled down the zip.

“Please,” Julia said.

Her eyes were shut tight. Her world had reduced to just this man and how he made her feel.

“I’ll please you, baby. Tell me how to do it.”

She felt his tongue trace the shell of her ear and almost lost her mind. She’d never known, would never have guessed, that she was so sensitive there.

His hand dipped lower into her jeans. He found the elastic of her underwear and stopped.

“Joe,” she said.

He was tormenting her with his slow caresses. A devil. He was a devil. His leg moved so that his knee was wedged between her thighs. Julia held on to the arm that crossed her body as though it were an anchor.

“Say the words. I want to hear Julia Collins say dirty words in that proper English accent of hers. Tell me what you want. Tell me in detail and I’ll give it to you.”

She groaned her frustration. He was asking her to step right outside her comfort zone. Her cheeks were burning at the thought.

“You can do it,” he whispered against her ear. “It’s only the two of us here. There’s no shame. I want you to do it. It will make me hot. You want me hot for you, don’t you?”

“Yes!”

His fingers slipped under the elastic of her panties, but stopped there.

“Joe!”

“Say it.”

He pinched her nipple. Julia arched her neck, pressing her head back into him. He bit her shoulder muscle.

“Please, please pet me. Please touch me with your fingers.”

“Where?”

“M-my clit, please, Joe.”

With a growl, he slid his fingers lower. “You are so wet.”

All she could think about was the feeling of his large fingers stroking her, coaxing her closer to the oblivion of ecstasy with every touch.

She heard gasping and desperate moans. The sounds were so unfamiliar that it took a second for her to realise she was the one making them.

“Need you.” His hand was suddenly out of her underwear, and Julia wailed in complaint.

The next thing she knew, her jeans were being pushed down her legs, along with her panties.

“Kick them off.”

She did as she was told, managing to free one leg. It was enough. A strong hand on her thigh, bringing her leg up and back over his. She instinctively arched her bottom back into him. She felt his hand guiding his hard length into her, and then he was filling her slowly. Inch by achingly solid inch. The hand on her breast slid into the cup of her bra to hold skin. His other hand spread low on her abdomen as his fingers found her clit.

And she was lost for him.

There were no coherent thoughts in her mind. There was only Joe and what he made her feel. His slow movements in and out of her seemed to fuse more than just their bodies together. He was breaking through all of her anxiety, all of her fears, everything she held back. He was tearing it all down, demanding all of her. Giving all of him in return.

She heard his pants. Felt his muscles tense behind her. She was gasping now. Clawing for release. Moaning and begging. But he held her in place, his strength just another agonising tease for her senses.

Close. So close.

“Please!”

“You want to come, baby?” he growled against her skin.

She nodded. Desperate.

“Then tell me you’ll give me a chance.”

“Joe!” Was he insane?

He nuzzled the side of her throat. “Tell me you’ll stop breaking up with me and give us a chance. Tell me and I’ll let you come.” He moved his hips, too slow to push Julia over the edge.

She couldn’t think. She wanted it so badly, and he was using it against her.

“Tell me,” he ordered with a nip of his teeth to her neck.

“Fine! I’ll give us a chance. Now, please make me come!”

He pinched her clit and she exploded, milking him for everything he had, feeding off the groans he made as he found his own release. In that moment, there was no Joe and Julia. There was only them. The kernel of hope that Joe had planted deep inside of her months earlier began to bloom, and she felt her fears fade.

She wanted a future with this man. She wanted it so badly that the need overwhelmed the fear.

And in that moment, a burst of absolute clarity flowed through her. She’d never had a choice when it came to a future with Joe. She just hadn’t realised it until then. It was never about what her mind decided. It was always about her heart. And her heart had made its decision months earlier.

Her heart belonged to Joe. Without him, she would break in two. He was it for her. There had never been another option. There was only ever Joe.

Her Joe.