CHAPTER 8
“Oh, God,” Kristin gasped, reaching for the bedpost to hold herself up as Julian placed one of her feet on the mattress to give him the best access to what he wanted.
His tongue and mouth were everywhere, leaving her skin scorched wherever they touched. He left her stockings and garters in place, but tongued the vulnerable, exposed areas at the tops of her thighs, making her frenzied for him. “Please,” she whimpered, the plea escaping her lips uncensored. “I need . . .” Her voice trailed off, those two words enough to explain the unhinged desire that shot through every nerve ending in her body.
Suddenly, he was exactly where she wanted him, and she felt his velvet tongue lave over her pussy from bottom to top, stopping at her clit before sensually lingering there.
“No. Don’t. Stop.” Perspiration began to moisten her skin as she waited, anticipating her satisfaction.
“You taste exactly like I knew you would,” Julian growled as he pulled his head back and blew a long, hot puff of air over the pink flesh that was already quivering with need.
He was teasing, taunting, and making Kristin crazy. “Now,” she demanded, spearing her free hand through his coarse hair and urging it forward. “Right now, Julian.”
He groaned as she urged his mouth against her, this time with commanding precision and laser focus. He groaned again against her clit, the vibration causing her to let out a throaty moan in response. “Yes,” she hissed, needing more.
As he tongued the tiny bundle of nerves, his motions almost frantic, Kristin panted, not sure if her leg would hold her up, even with her hard grip on the solid wood bedpost.
Just when she was certain she was going to collapse into a puddle of fierce longing on the carpet, Julian stood, ripped back the covers on the bed, and lifted her onto the mattress.
“We come together this time,” he rasped, standing straight to remove his tuxedo pants and belt deftly, his eyes never leaving her.
Really, Kristin wasn’t about to argue. She licked her lips as she watched him roll the pants and briefs from his body in one quick action, then kick them off his feet.
Jesus! As he liberated his cock, her mouth went dry with anticipation.
Just like every other part of his body, Julian was huge, and how desperately he needed her was revealed in one big, engorged, ready-to-go male member that left her speechless.
“Fuck me,” she requested, holding her arms out to him.
He stepped forward and rested one of his knees on the bed, simply staring at her. “I feel like a teenager who is finally realizing his fantasies,” he said hoarsely as he fingered a few of her curls. “I’ve imagined this so many times, you in my bed, your gorgeous red hair fanned out on my pillow.”
“Is it living up to your dreams?” she asked, suddenly feeling shy.
He moved like lightning, his body covering hers before Kristin could even blink. Julian grasped her wrists and held them over her head, his chest heaving. “So much fucking better,” he replied, his uneven, harsh breaths wafting over her face. “This is reality, and you look like you’re mine.”
At that moment, she was his. Their damp, naked bodies were pressed together like they fit perfectly, and were never going to part. Kristin absorbed the erotic sensation of feeling his big body shudder with ravenous hunger, and the carnal, feral expression of impending possession on his face.
Nothing in her former sexual experiences had prepared her for this kind of violently elemental, raw yearning. Her senses were attuned with his, and the same fierce craving she knew he was experiencing was present inside her, and just as strong as it was for him.
Wrapping her legs around his waist, she urged him, “Fuck me, Julian. Don’t wait. It doesn’t have to be perfect or practiced. It just has to be us.”
“This isn’t the way I planned it,” Julian retorted. “There’s nothing I want more than to satisfy you in every way possible. But I can’t control this. I can’t control what’s happening.”
“No control,” she insisted. “Go wild.” She yanked her wrists free of their imprisonment, desperate to touch him.
She released a panting sigh as her hands stroked over the hard texture of his back, marveling at the smooth, damp skin over the top of hard, taut muscles.
“Christ. Yes. Fucking touch me. But I’m not going to last,” Julian muttered as he moved, positioned himself, and entered her in one frenzied thrust.
Kristin gasped at the size of the invasion into her sheath, but the momentary discomfort gave way to an intense feeling of satisfaction that Julian was finally embedded deep inside her.
“Yes. Yes. Yes.” She couldn’t say anything more, her body consumed by the need to strain closer to him.
He started to move with an agonized groan. “So. Fucking. Good.”
Her hips rose up to meet his relentless strokes, and he swallowed her next moan with his lips.
He wasn’t gentle as he claimed her mouth, owning it like it belonged to him, leaving no part of it untouched.
A roaring fire started in her belly and torched its way straight to her core with a violent spasm. Her back arched as Julian tore his mouth from hers and straightened on his knees, gripping her thighs to thrust deeper, harder inside her.
“Come for me, baby. You look so beautiful right now.” His voice was tight with tension and heavy with need.
His hand moved up her thighs and then his thumb stretched to tease her aching clit, stroking over it with the same covetous, frenzied movements of his cock.
“Julian, it’s too much.” Kristin felt incinerated, and her head thrashed on the pillow as her fingers gripped the fitted cotton sheet in panic.
The incendiary flames had engulfed her core, and she was suddenly gripped by a release so volatile that it was almost painful. Fortunately, the waves became a pleasure so deep that Kristin could feel it in her very soul as she rode her climax. The muscles of her channel clamped down on Julian’s cock, causing him to roar as he hammered into her unceasingly. “Never enough!” he finally answered in a tormented voice. “Never enough.”
Kristin was starting to spiral back to Earth as she milked Julian of his hot release, her satisfaction greater as she watched him throw his head back with abandoned pleasure and call out her name. “Fuck. Kristin!”
His grip tightened on her thighs, and his muscles flexed erratically as he continued to let go with masculine pleasure she’d never seen before.
He looked deliciously dangerous, wildly aroused, and most definitely pleasured to the point of madness. She knew it was something she’d think about forever, the way he looked when he was out of control, something so uncharacteristic of the Julian she knew.
He levered himself down and kissed her, an embrace that spoke of so much more than just getting off. It was deep but tender and sweet, a leisurely embrace that left her even more breathless than she already was.
After lifting his head, he buried his face in the side of her neck. “This is us,” he muttered against her sweaty skin. “It’s raw. It’s real.”
She didn’t have to ask what he meant as she stroked his hair, reveling in the afterglow of the most amazing thing that had ever happened to her. Kristin understood exactly what he was trying to say. Right now, she was laid bare and vulnerable to him, able to be that way because he’d done the same.
“It’s terrifying,” she whispered. “In a good way.”
Julian rolled, taking her with him, leaving her blanketing his body, him taking on her limp weight. “Never. Don’t ever be scared of me or of us,” he answered fiercely.
He stroked a hand over her hair as she sighed and laid her head on his chest. Something about Julian felt so solid and safe, which was actually so contrary to who he really was. It baffled her, but her inebriated mind couldn’t deal with reason right now, so she enjoyed the moment.
“Tired?” he asked tentatively.
“Not really. But I don’t want to move.” She wanted to stay right here, her naked body sprawled over Julian’s.
He chuckled as he sat up, keeping her cradled in his lap. “Are you hungry?”
She smiled because he seemed so intent on taking care of whatever needs she might have. Didn’t he know that he already had? “I think that problem has just been handled,” she answered with good humor.
Julian stroked a finger over her breast and teased one of her nipples. “I didn’t touch you enough. There’s so much more—”
She quickly touched two fingers to his lips. “Don’t. It was perfect. Don’t you dare say that it wasn’t.”
His eyes captured her gaze, and they stared at each other in understanding. “I can’t say that,” he admitted. “But it was only one of many fantasies I’ve had about you,” he teased, letting the hand on her breast drop to her thigh.
Her heart jumped at the adoring look she saw in his eyes before he leaned his forehead against hers.
In the middle of the silence, her stomach suddenly rumbled.
“I think I need to feed you,” Julian remarked with mirth in his voice.
Kristin wasn’t sure she was hungry, but as Julian carefully untangled their bodies and stood, she took his extended hand to let him get her on her feet.
“Whoa,” she murmured as she felt the effects of the alcohol she’d been consuming all night. Her balance was still off, but she felt a burst of euphoria as she leaned against the hard, male chest in front of her. “Sorry.”
“Shower time,” Julian pronounced as he swung her naked body up into his powerful arms. “Then food.”
“Okay,” she happily agreed, snuggling into his warmth as he headed for the bathroom.
On the way across the bedroom, Kristin noticed that the sun had fully risen, daylight flowing into the bedroom. It had to still be early morning, but she had no idea what time it was. But while she was being held by Julian, she couldn’t bring herself to care.
Somewhere between sleeping and waking up, Kristin figured out she was going to die.
Her gut rolled, and her head felt like it was in a vise. Everything hurt, and her mouth was as dry as the Sahara.
Okay . . . maybe she wasn’t going to die, but she certainly felt her body circling the drain.
“Oh, shit,” she groaned, trying to open her eyes, only to have the blinding sun make her slam them shut again.
Her scrambled mind tried to figure out where she was and why she was so sick.
The wedding.
Julian.
Alcohol. Lots and lots of alcohol.
Hangover?
She suddenly understood why she never drank to excess. Last night, she’d thrown every rule she’d ever made for herself right out a proverbial window along with her clothing.
She was stark naked, which, by itself, was alarming. She tried not to think about why she was minus her clothing, but she was pretty sure that answer would be terrifying. Some muscles in her body hurt that hadn’t been used in a very long time.
Forcing her eyes open, Kristin looked around the bedroom.
Julian’s room.
Memories came flooding back to her as she noticed a large bottled water on the bedside table and a couple of pills. She propped herself up on her elbow painfully and scooped up the handwritten note.
Kristin,
Lots of water to hydrate, and take the pills for your headache and body aches if you wake up feeling hungover. I left your pills for travel in the living room. Take two before you fly. I didn’t want to wake you, so I hitched a ride with Jared since I have to be on location very early in the morning on the East Coast.
We’ll talk as soon as I’m done filming and wrap this movie.
Don’t be stubborn. Take the pills and drink the entire bottle of water before you get up.
The only other thing in the missive was the number for her to call his pilot when she was ready to leave.
“What the hell time is it?” she wondered, glancing around for a clock.
Her eyes landed on the alarm clock on the dresser, and she squinted through her blurred vision to see the numbers.
“Four o’clock. Four p.m.,” she whispered in a startled voice, suddenly panicked because she knew she had to be back to work in the morning. “Everybody is gone.”
She opened the water and slammed back the pills, knowing she needed to get her wits about her as soon as possible.
“Coffee,” she said urgently, getting up painfully to go fix herself a cup in the small convenience kitchen.
Alternating water and coffee, she sat on the bed, trying to ignore the twisted bedcovers and the scent of sex that seemed to permeate Julian’s bedroom.
Calculating the time difference and how long it would take her to get ready and then fly home, she came to the conclusion she’d make it in plenty of time to get to work. But it didn’t stop the painful ache in her chest caused by not seeing Julian again before he left.
Honestly, she knew he had to leave or be late for his film shooting. The location was several states south of Maine, but the trip would be just as long. And saying it was early morning was putting things kindly. He had to be there for makeup by three a.m.
“The fairy tale is over, Cinderella. Time to turn back into a pumpkin again.”
She rose and drained her bottled water, tossing the container in the trash before picking up her coffee and heading toward her own bedroom.
There, she wouldn’t be reminded of what had happened in this bedroom.
There, she could escape the lingering smell of one hot encounter that had rocked her world.
There, she could transform herself into the woman she was really supposed to be.
She exited the room without looking back, firmly closing the door behind her.