Keep Something At Bay
JAKE
TIPTOEING INTO MY OWN ROOM wasn’t something I was used to.
I’d worked much later than I’d planned on, and it was almost six in the morning by the time I’d showered and was finally headed toward my bedroom.
Although I was in desperate need of sleep, it wasn’t what was on my mind. There was an itch under my skin I couldn’t alleviate.
And it was Juliette Easton.
Who just so happened to be in my bed. Waiting for me. Naked, I hoped.
Opening my door, I smiled when I saw her curled in the middle of the mattress. With the covers to her chin and her head resting on my pillow, she was sound asleep. Slivers of the early morning sunlight bled through the blinds and cast a golden glow on the wall behind her. She looked like a princess the way the waves of her dirty blonde hair fell onto the pillow, all mussed and sexy.
Fuck, how my fingers twitched, because damn it, I really wanted to touch her. So much so that my cock was already rigid and straining. And yes, making things all the better, it was now standing at full attention. “Down boy,” I murmured to myself as I circled the bed and set the test results down on the nightstand.
Too bad my dick didn’t pay attention to my command. Hey, it knew what it wanted. But who could blame him when what he wanted was so close.
Ignoring the urge to wake her, I carefully pulled the covers back and slid in beside her. And yes, she was naked.
I might have fist pumped.
Closing my eyes, I felt the corners of my mouth tip up as I settled against her. This wasn’t what I had in mind, but it wasn’t a burden either. Besides, these twelve-hour shifts had worn on me.
I’d just nodded off, or maybe not, when she whispered, “You aren’t really going to sleep, are you?”
Hell no.
My body leaped to life at just the sound of her voice. I couldn’t tell if she was being a smartass or serious, but either way, I’d show her just how awake I was. Sliding one arm under her and wrapping the other around her, I pulled her tight against my body and allowed my erection to prove my intentions. “Good morning, Juliette,” I murmured into her ear.
At that, she couldn’t form a coherent response.
“I didn’t understand you,” I goaded. “But I’m fairly certain it sounded like, “Good morning, Jake,” I said, and then I plunged a finger deep inside her. “Am I right?”
“Yes,” she cried out.
“Oh, fuck,” I groaned. “You’re so wet. Did you touch yourself last night and think of me?”
There was a slight nod from her as I nuzzled her neck and then nipped her earlobe.
“Did you come?”
She shook her head no.
Anticipation licked up my spine at how ready she was for me. All I had been thinking about was sinking my bare cock into her sweet pussy. I circled her clit. “But you wanted to, didn’t you?”
“I did,” she moaned.
“Do you want to come now?”
She ground herself against my cock. “Oh, God yes.”
“Good thing, because it’s all I’ve been thinking about.” I captured her mouth and consumed her. It was inexplicable, the urge that came over me whenever I was near her. I’d gone without sex for months, but now having her was all I could think about.
Suddenly, she pulled away from me. “Let me jump in the shower really quick.”
I shook my head, which was still wet from my own shower. “I’m hungry for you right now, and I don’t want to wait.”
Juliette turned to fully face me. Her naked body was soft and warm against mine, and when she gazed up at me, her eyes were glowing with that heat that made me weak. There were times when she looked at me I could have sworn I saw something else in those eyes, and this was one of them.
I felt a distant chill wash over me.
That look, what it conveyed, it was dangerous.
Love?
I wasn’t sure.
But if it was, I wasn’t looking for it.
Didn’t want it.
From everything I knew, what came out of it was nothing good.
Heartache.
Despair.
Even death.
Who the hell would willingly sign up for that?
So yeah, love definitely wasn’t part of my plan. Besides, the notion was crazy. People didn’t go from hating each other to falling in love in a matter of two weeks.
“Are you sure?” she asked in a soft voice. “I haven’t even brushed my teeth, and you’re so clean and fresh.”
Whereas the daytime version of Juliette was sassy, the morning version of her was sweet and adorable. I liked this side of her. Really liked this side. Then again I really liked the other side, too.
With a grin, I smoothed a hand down the side of her hair and stared at her beautiful face. Suddenly, my gut ached in the strangest way. “I’m sure, baby. You’re perfect just the way you are,” I whispered, my breath catching on the words in a way that I wasn’t familiar with.
Her own breath stuttered across her lips, and her pupils dilated rapidly as desire seemed to devour her.
Unable to stop myself, I kissed her again. The angle was wrong, and she shifted a little on the pillow to meet my mouth. Gone was her soft that molded against my hard so nicely. I didn’t like the space she put between us.
When I slid my tongue into her mouth to taste her, she gasped. And I realized what I did like was the way she swallowed her breath. The way I breathed the same air she expelled. There was something almost erotic about taking the air she gave, sucking it into my own lungs, and savoring it before returning it back to her.
It made me feel more alive than I could ever remember feeling.
My thoughts were bordering on crazy now, and I shook them off. “You’re too far away. Come a little closer,” I ordered in a gruff voice.
Scooting up on me, she huffed, “You’re very bossy when you get home from work.”
Light.
The light was back.
Relieved, I went with it. “I’m worked up,” I grinned, pushing the hair from her eyes.
“I can see that.”
Holding her chin in my hand, I leaned in closer to her. “Ask me why.”
She raised a brow. “Why are you so worked up, Dr. Kiss?”
Dr. Kiss.
I really disliked that, but from her lips, I could tolerate it. It was even growing on me.
After nipping at her bottom lip, I reached over toward the nightstand. “Because I want to fuck you bare, and I brought you this to ease your mind about it.”
She looked at the folded piece of paper. “And that would be what? A recommendation from that nurse you work with on how skilled you are with more than just your stethoscope?”
There was a slight hint of jealously in her tone that I chose to ignore. Instead of easing her mind though, I swatted her bare ass with the document and then handed it to her. “Don’t be a smartass. It’s my test results. I’m clean, and you’re on the pill, so we’re good to go.”
“But I don’t have my results with me. They’re at home.”
“Were you all clear?”
She frowned. “Yes, but you should still see them first.”
I shook my head. “I don’t need to.”
“Are you su—?”
The information on these kinds of tests was cut and dry. You were either clean, or you were not. Cutting her off, I leaned down and fused my mouth to hers. It seemed that kissing her was something I also couldn’t get enough of.
All of the anticipation of the night snapped like a band that had been stretched too wide, and it collided with the need that had so tightly spun up in me. And this kiss, this hot, damp, electric kiss was just a glimpse of what was to come.
Frenzied.
Filled with need.
Bordering on desperate.
As our tongues met and slid sensuously over one another, the need to join was suddenly all that mattered.
The covers were piled in a heap all around us. Unwilling to break our kiss, I shoved them out of the way with one arm while the other supported her back as I laid her down.
When Jules looked up at me with the most innocent eyes I had ever seen, I felt something crack inside me.
A shield.
My armor.
My reserve.
Who the hell knew?
I grasped her perfect face between firm hands, my hold just as commanding as my mouth.
She moaned, and I knew she liked it.
Bewitched by her, I pressed the length of my body against hers, blanketing her as my forearms fell to the mattress to support my weight.
I wanted to possess her.
Take her.
Fuck.
I wanted all of her.
With our mouths no longer moving roughly, but soft and slow, the mood had seemed to change.
Jules threaded her hands in my hair and murmured something in between our desperate bid to bring the other closer. The beating of my heart was so loud in my ears that her words got lost in translation. “What did you say?” I panted.
“Nothing,” she moaned, tugging hard on the wet strands of my hair.
Growling, I pulled back slightly, but I still kept her close. Spreading my fingers out over the back of her head as my thumb rushed along her delicate jaw, I looked at her.
Just took the moment to catch my breath.
We were face-to-face, nose-to-nose, and it was impossible to differentiate between the harsh gasps of air I drew into my lungs from those she drew into her own.
Unbidden, words scraped from my throat. “You don’t have to worry about anyone else. I only want you.”
Those big, doe-like eyes darkened, and as they did, she hinted of her fears. “And I only want you, but that doesn’t change anything. You’re still leaving Atlanta.”
My heart skidded, and the frenzy that had wracked my body stilled as I nodded my head in agreement. That was true. I was leaving. I had to. And I was a selfish bastard for even saying what I had. Saying anything more about us, about how I was feeling, would be ruthless.
Trying to ease the sting of our reality, I ran my thumb along her collarbone and smiled softly at the girl who had captured my attention. “We have some time, and we should use it wisely.”
Her eyes searched, possibly begged for more. And even though my chest squeezed in response, I couldn’t give her anything else.
I just couldn’t.
“Juliette,” I whispered before I brushed my lips across hers and repeated, “Let’s use our time wisely.”
Her fingers gently fluttered across my face. “You’re right,” she whispered. I smoothed the back of my hand down her cheek and her mouth dropped open as she leaned into my touch.
Gone was all the banter. The playfulness. And somehow what had emerged in the morning sunlight was deafening and blinding and way too much to handle.
An odd feeling teased down my spine, quivered, but then it disappeared. Unsure as to what it was, I was ready to move past all this emotion.
I shifted to my hands and knees. Bending my elbows, I dropped my shoulders down to capture her mouth and kiss her softly, slowly, sweetly.
With my lips on hers, I closed my eyes and tried to block out the white noise in my head that was screaming danger. Proceed with caution. Roadblock ahead.
But then Juliette cupped my face, lightly scratching her nails through the stubble coating my jaw, and her warm touch erased any bit of reluctance I should have had about moving forward.
Lust spread through my veins as gentle hands roamed over my shoulders, down my back, to my sides. Her movements mimicked our kiss—unfrenzied, unhurried, and so unlike us. Or the us we had been only minutes before.
I sucked in a ragged breath when she ran both of her hands down to my hips. Flames scorched my already heated skin. God, she set me on fire. Sweet, kind, sassy, funny, and the sexiest thing I’d ever seen.
“Jules, what are you doing to me?” It wasn’t meant to be a question. Then again it wasn’t meant to be spoken aloud.
She nipped at my lip before she ran her fingers a little lower. “The same thing you’re doing to me.”
I lowered my weight to my elbows and stared down at her. “You really are always a smartass, aren’t you?”
She giggled lightly and shrugged, but everything about her was still soft. There was something so beautiful about her smile. It had me reeling. It sent me over the edge. And I kissed her again. It seemed I couldn’t stop kissing her. Soon, I took it a little further and pressed my bare chest against her breasts.
My palms were busy wandering down her sides, and hers had been traveling lower down to my groin, but the whole time our faces were no more than a breath apart.
This time she broke our kiss, searching for air, and taking mine.
There was a bond between us that I didn’t want to acknowledge. She felt it, too. So, in the dim light I gazed down at her, not allowing myself to say anything else, and she stared up at me with her throat moving as she swallowed down whatever she wanted to say.
Her shaky fingers reached out to caress my bottom lip before allowing her arms to fall in a relaxed motion behind her. “Jake, take me.”
Without breaking eye contact, I went to my knees.
Deep inside I knew all of this was fucking wrong. That ending things now would spare a lot of heartache. But with all the bad in my life, I just wanted a little good. And she was it.
Tempting.
Tasty.
Delicious.
She was licking her lips, her chest rising and falling in rapid measure, and her gaze intense. “Jake, it’s okay.”
“I know,” I whispered. And I believed it was, or wanted to believe that, anyway.
With her arms draped over her head in a way that her dirty blonde hair was fanned out, she bent her knees and planted her feet firmly on the mattress,
It was a picture I knew I would remember forever.
There was no doubt she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen, but today something felt different.
I didn’t like the feeling.
Nudging her knees apart wider, I settled between her thighs and kissed her slowly. With hungry fingers and lips, I traced the slope of her neck, the swell of her breasts, the curve of her hips.
She arched her back as if giving herself to me, and all the while my body screamed to hurry up and take her already. “Please,” she begged as she lifted her hips.
With my arms caging her, I pushed inside her. “Ah, baby, you undo me.” My voice was little more than a ragged grunt.
Her fingertips dug into the bunched muscles of my shoulders, and she quivered beneath me as she exhaled a shaky breath across my face. “I can feel you.”
And fuck, how I could feel her, too. I pulled back before I thrust even deeper. In response, her legs trembled as she tightened them around my hips.
My knees were shaking like it was my first time, and in a way it was. I’d never gone bare inside a woman before. Everything felt the same with her, just a thousand times more intense.
She was so tight I could barely breathe as I pulled out and then thrust again. My elbows dug into the bed as my hands fisted in her hair. “Juliette.”
A smile trembled at her mouth. “Jake.”
My thighs shook as I moved above her slow and steady. The need to fuck completely gone and replaced by this, whatever this was. “Fuck, Jules, you feel so good.”
In response, she rocked into me again and again as her fingers cut into my skin with the need to hold on.
Our bodies burned as we moved in an erotic, tantalizing, rhythm.
Up.
Down.
In.
Out.
Gasping my name, her gaze was solidly fixed on me. “I’m going to come, Jake. Are you close?”
“Yes, I’m right there with you, baby,” I groaned and pushed inside her one last time, holding myself at the deepest possible point.
As pleasure knotted at the base of my spine and spread down the back of my thighs, I could feel the start of her orgasm. It rippled along the length of my cock and then squeezed me so tight that if I hadn’t already been on the brink, I would have been then.
It was like being turned inside out. The rush nothing I’d ever experienced before as I throbbed and ecstasy hit. Spasms jerked through my body, and every single one of my nerves felt electrified.
With my face buried in the crook of her neck, I cried out her name. As she cried out mine, I shuddered from head to toe.
Her arms circled my shoulders, and her hands rubbed up and down my back, her nails biting into my flesh there as well.
They would be scars that would always remind me of her.
Still inside her, I lowered my body on top of hers and gasped for air. She took my breath away, in so many ways.
This had been birthed from a silly conversation about sex. A game of would you or won’t you. I’d simply asked, “Would you ever consider having sex without a condom?”
Her response had been as sassy as ever. “Since I don’t wear condoms, I guess I would.”
And I took the lead from there. Discussing the pros and cons of having sex without protection and the precautions that needed to be taken first.
Who knew the result would be anything but a game.
That it would be so fucking real, it hurt.