Fourteen

Austin

I actually believed that.

That I could change the world with Julia at my side. I’d been ignoring my feelings for her for a long time. Longer than she even knew. But, now that we were here together, that felt stupid. I wanted to keep my job, I wanted Julia, I wanted to live longer than my dad. If I had to give up alcohol for all of that…it was feasible. At least, I hoped so.

“Well, what about your art?” I asked, veering the conversation to safer territory, as she tore into the sticky funnel cake.

White powder coated her face, and she laughed as she tried to wipe the sugar from her mouth and fingers. She put one finger into her mouth and sucked it down to the end. She made a little pop sound as it left her lips. Her dark eyes met mine, and a seductive smile appeared. For a second, the carnival disappeared. All I could see was a fucking beautiful woman sucking off her own fingers like I knew she could suck off my cock. And I wanted it.

Goddamn control!

Why did I have to have some? Why did I want this to go right so bad? Fuck everything else; I would be happy to find the back of a booth or the open field or even my tiny little car. But I knew she deserved more.

“Austin?” she said in that throaty deep voice.

“Uh, yeah?” I had to shake myself out of my trance. I was glad that we were sitting down.

“I asked what you wanted to know about my art.”

“Right.” I picked myself out of the gutter. “What have you done lately?”

“Nothing,” she said with a nonchalant shrug that I knew was anything but.

“Why not? With your talent, you could have your own studio exhibit downtown.”

“I don’t feel inspired.”

I shot her an exasperated look. “Tell me what we have to do to inspire you. Because you cannot waste that talent.”

“Austin—”

“No, Jules, you need to be in classes. You need your own studio. Practice makes perfect and all that. If you’re helping me, then don’t think I’m going to sit back and let you ignore something that brings you joy.”

“Who the hell are you, and what have you done with Austin Wright?” she asked with a flirtatious smile.

I held my hands out to the sides. “Same person I’ve always been.”

She snorted. “We’ll see.”

We finished off the rest of our food and dumped it in a trash can before walking around the carnival. I reached for her hand, and she didn’t bite my head off when I took it.

“Oh, look, progress,” I muttered under my breath.

Her eyes shot to mine. “Don’t make me cut you.”

“Well, the last couple of times I’ve tried this, you almost did.”

“You were being a dick.”

I shrugged. “Can’t change the way we are together.”

“So, I should be jumping down your throat.”

“With your tongue preferably.”

“Pig.”

But her tone was light, and her eyes were sparkling. I was ready to get back to what we had started at the shooting range. As soon as I pushed, she’d pull back. She seemed determined for this to be a normal date. I thought it was interesting that she thought we could ever be normal. Hadn’t she dumped that boring douche from accounting because she didn’t want that shit?

“Take it or leave it, babe.”

“I’ll think on it.”

I’d take that.

We spent the next hour riding all of the rickety high-speed rides that made my heightened nausea grow. This no-drinking thing was already taking its toll. I was glad when we finally gave up on the fast rides.

“Ferris wheel?”

She shook her head. “Nah, let’s play games.”

“What? You’ve been on every other ride.”

“So?”

“You don’t want to make out on the top of the Ferris wheel? Are you really going to deny me this?”

Julia laughed. “I’m kind of afraid of heights.”

“What?” I gasped. “I thought you were fearless.”

“How could you possibly think that?” she asked seriously.

“You take on everything headfirst. You’re strong and smart. You kick ass.”

She glanced off in the distance, and once again, I was struck with the thought that there was something Julia wasn’t telling me. Something that just wasn’t right. I didn’t know what it was, but I wanted to find out.

“Everyone has to have a flaw,” she said after a minute, flicking her hair in a way I’d seen Heidi do. It was a good imitation of nonchalance.

“I haven’t found yours.”

“Oh, Austin,” she said with a shake of her head. “You must not be looking very hard.”

“I’d be happy to look later,” I said suggestively.

“Oh, I bet you would.”

She grabbed my hand and pulled me toward a row of games. Her eyes ran up and down all the games before settling on knocking over milk bottles with a cheap plastic ball. I knew the game was next to impossible. They really didn’t want people to win, but I paid and let her have at it anyway.

She lost miserably.

She held up a Tootsie Roll at the end. “How lucky am I? They give out consolation prizes.”

“Poor thing.”

“Your turn,” she said, popping the Tootsie Roll into her mouth. “I want a giant stuffed animal.”

I glanced up at the massive pink flamingo next to a pink-sequined unicorn and an oversize poop emoji. I had never wanted an oversize poop emoji so much in my life.

I wished that I had played baseball or football or something. Or at least that the game wasn’t rigged. Unfortunately, I had been more into theater, girls, and parties—in no particular order. Landon and Sutton had always been the athletes in the family.

The guy took my money from me with a sympathetic look. Yeah, I was probably screwed. I wasted twenty dollars, failing miserably at this stupid fucking game. Julia had tears streaming down her face by the time I was ready to give up.

“You’re horrible at this game,” she said through her laughter.

“Can I just buy the goddamn stuffed animal?”

“Sorry, sir. They’re not for sale,” the guy said.

“That wouldn’t be any fun anyway. Where is your consolation-prize Tootsie Roll?” Julia asked.

“I’m not done!” My competitive streak was winning out, and I was not ready to give up on that damn stuffed animal. No matter how much of a sucker that made me.

“Seriously, Austin, it’s not a big deal. I don’t think anyone can knock that thing down.” She asked the guy behind the stand, “Does it actually even move?”

He pushed the bottles over with one hand, and Julia started laughing hysterically again.

“Oh, this is too good,” she crooned.

I shot her a glare and then aimed for the bottles again after the guy set them back up again. I tried to channel the two seasons of little league my dad had forced me in as a kid. Then, I aimed and threw the ball.

And missed.

Julia was doubled over, and her laughter was music to my ears. Despite the fact that I was losing horribly, she was so happy. I’d forgotten how much her laughter affected me.

“Fuck, I suck.”

“You do,” she crowed. “You really do.”

I finished off the rest of the balls I had to throw in a miraculously awful fashion, only managing to knock over one milk bottle despite all my throws. The guy in charge of the game shook his head and then pulled down the pink-sequined unicorn.

“I’ve never seen anything so pathetic in my life. You’ve earned this, dude.”

I took the stupid fucking unicorn and held it out to Julia. “Look what I won you!”

“Oh, I’m so lucky.” She wiped tears from her eyes and then took the giant unicorn under one arm. “We’ll probably have to share custody of the kid.”

“Nope. It’s your fucking unicorn.”

“Don’t kill our love fern!”

I cracked up at her How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days reference. “You and Morgan would so get along with your bad taste in movies.”

“That movie is a classic,” she told me as we moved away from the game I’d sunk a small fortune into.

“So, what are you going to name it?”

“It’s not a goldfish. We don’t have to name it.”

“Why do you hate your new unicorn?”

Julia shook her head at me. “If I name it, it’ll probably be Glitter Sparkles Sprinkles V.”

My eyes bugged out. “Yeah. I am not sharing custody on a unicorn named Glitter Sparkles Sprinkles V.”

“Why do you hate my new unicorn?” she said with mock seriousness.

“How about we compromise with something that doesn’t sound mildly edible?”

“I’m thinking Waffle.”

“Waffles are edible, Jules,” I said in exasperation.

“For some reason, I can only think of food.”

I threw my hands up. “Waffle the Unicorn it is.”

“Don’t worry, Waffle. You’ll have two great parents who will love you.”

We packed up Waffle into the tiny trunk of my Alfa Romeo since it was only a two-seater. Julia petted Waffle on the head before slamming the trunk shut with vigor.

“You’re going to be crazy about this damn unicorn, aren’t you?” I asked when she got into the car.

“You’re the one who wanted joint custody,” she said with a laugh, swishing her red hair to one shoulder.

My eyes were glued to her. I couldn’t seem to process that we were supposed to be heading out of the carnival and back to reality. I didn’t want this date to end. My hands shook on the steering wheel, and I quickly covered the movement by dropping them. I needed Julia more than I needed a drink. I needed her like nothing else.

“Austin?”

“Yeah?”

She didn’t respond. She threw herself across the stick shift and crushed her lips to mine. My hands went up into her hair. She had her fingers wound around my shirt, clinging to me for life.

Her kisses held no hesitancy. She explored my mouth, relearning everything about me. She dragged my bottom lip between her teeth. I groaned into her mouth and lightly licked across her lip. She completely opened to me. My tongue slipped inside and massaged across her tongue in a game of hockey. My heart was thrumming in my chest. My body forgot all the early signs of withdrawal that had begun to set in, bursting with adrenaline at the taste of this gorgeous, unbelievably amazing woman.

“We should get out of here,” I told her breathlessly.

She nodded, barely able to pull herself away from me. I zoomed out of the carnival parking lot and back onto country roads just as the sun began to set on the horizon.

Julia seemed impatient, leaning over the center and trailing kisses down my neck and over to my shoulder.

“Fuck, Jules,” I muttered.

Her hand slid to my shorts, making lazy circles in the material. My dick responded in turn at the contact. She hesitated a second as she inched closer and closer to the exact spot where I wanted her to be. Then, with purpose, I picked up her hand and placed it on my hard cock.

A sigh of desire left her lips. All I could think about was her lips on me. Her lips fucking me.

Her fingers flicked the button of my shorts open. I slightly leaned back and slowed the car down. I was suddenly in no hurry at all.

“We shouldn’t,” she said softly.

“You don’t want to?”

“That’s not it. I just…wanted this to be different.”

“Does it feel the same?”

“Yes, and no.”

I put my hand on hers. “Then, we can wait.”

“But I really fucking want to taste your cock,” she nearly whispered into my ear.

My dick throbbed painfully at her words. She could feel it twitch under her hand, and she released a throaty gasp.

“Fuck,” was all I was able to say before she drew the zipper down and removed my erection that was so hard, it was almost painful.

She palmed it in her hand, stroking it up and down from base to head. As she wrapped her lips around my dick, I slowed further, absentmindedly remembering that I was driving a seventy-five-thousand-dollar car with a fucking stick shift.

She moaned as she eased the entire shaft into her mouth. I swerved as she bottomed out at the base of my dick, and then I hastily righted the car. Thank God no one else was out in the country right now. She dragged her lips back up to the head, and she released me with a soft pop. Just the way she had sucked off her fingers earlier.

Jesus Christ!

Her finger smeared the pre-cum on the tip around in a circle, and I gasped.

“Jules,” I groaned.

“I’m a tease. I know.”

She lapped up the come and then went back to long, deep strokes into her mouth. My vision was nearly blurry. My body struggled not to lose complete control and crash the car.

But I was an idiot if I thought I had any control.

Julia owned me.

My balls tightened, and I tapped her head, letting her know that I was about to come. She hummed against my dick, and I lost it. I came hot and explosive up into her mouth. Still, she didn’t move, clamping her lips around me and taking it all.

She pulled back when I finished jerking into her mouth. Then, she swallowed masterfully. Our eyes met. She looked mighty pleased with herself. And, fuck, she had every reason to be.

Julia wiped a little come off her lips. “I’ve always wanted to do that.”

“Fuck, woman, feel free anytime.”

“I think you’re going to have to reciprocate.”

“It would be my pleasure.”

She brushed a kiss against my cheek and leaned back in her seat as I revved the engine and took off for home.