Ashley
THIS MAN’S TONGUE should be bronzed and given a permanent place in the nearest art museum. The placard would read, Giver of atomic orgasms, circa 2018.
My mouth hangs open as he presses his lips against my inner thigh, making me anticipate the next stretch of sensation he’ll draw out of me. We’re on round two, Julian having decided that the first orgasm was merely the appetizer. I’m giddy with anticipation thinking of my own plans for dessert. In the meantime, waiting for him to set me on fire again threatens to make me howl, and I am not ashamed.
The blindfold intensifies the experience, my other senses sharpening to make up for my inability to see what’s happening: the rustle of the sheets when he shifts on the bed; the soft lick of his lips; the long, slow inhale when he breathes me in; the sandalwood cologne he favors.
This time, though, there’s more movement than before. And then he lightly squeezes my breasts before trailing a single finger down my belly. He stops at my navel. “Should I keep going?”
“Yes,” I whisper. “Please, yes.”
He inches his finger a smidge lower. “Here?”
I raise my hands overhead and stretch against his touch. “More. Put your fingers inside me.”
“Is that what you need?”
My encouragement rushes out as a desperate plea. “God, yes, please.”
“But what if you come on my hand? Will that be enough? You’ll want to fuck me, too, right?”
He stresses the word fuck, and my pussy throbs in response. “I promise I won’t come.”
The bed shifts under his weight, and then he’s no longer touching me. Damn him.
“You want to make promises, huh?” he asks.
I freeze at the casual way he dismisses the notion. Is he pulling back on me? Now? I can’t see his face, so I’m unable to glean any clues from his expression. I bring my legs together, unsure where this is headed and detesting how exposed I feel.
“No, baby, don’t close up on me. I’m trying to tell you something and going about it badly. You want to make promises? Go ahead. I’ll make them, too. I want this for as long as you want me. Us. Together. No one else. I don’t think we ever made that clear.”
This is huge for him, and we both know it. He’s making promises without the benefit of knowing how Carter will react to us as a couple. It’s huge for me as well. The cynical part of my soul warns that not making promises about our relationship is better than making and failing to keep them. But I want to try with Julian, because I’m confident he’ll try just as hard as I will to make this work. “I wish I could see your eyes.”
He takes my hand and places it on his chest. “Feel my heart instead.”
And I do, the beats steady and strong against my hand, a fitting description for Julian himself. “Okay, just us.”
He takes in a breath and lets it out. “Perfect. Now let’s see if you can keep your promise not to come.”
Oh God. Why did I make that stupid promise? He’s going to wield it against me like a weapon.
“Now, if you want my fingers, you’ll get my fingers. If you want my mouth, you’ll get my mouth. What’ll it be?”
“I want both.”
“Good choice,” he says. The mattress dips between my legs, and then he lays the flat of his hand on my pussy and lightly squeezes it before sliding two digits inside me.
I lift my ass off the bed to get closer to his mouth. “Julian, yes. Yes, yes, yes.”
As he slides his fingers in and out, his tongue comes down on my clit, a long, strong lick that curls my toes and sends a tingle down my spine. “Jesus, Julian. More. Do that again.”
He spreads me wide and licks at my clit, tiny, torturous flicks that provide just enough pressure to push me to the edge but not over it. My hands grasp the back of his head, and I grind into his mouth. Minutes of exquisite tension pass, and my brain goes fuzzy. If someone forced me to recite my ABCs on pain of death, I’d be done for.
The mattress shifts again.
Although his mouth is gone, his breath teases me, letting me know he’s still close.
“You’re so fucking hot here,” he says. “And I wish I could take this taste with me everywhere I go.” Then he closes his mouth over my nub and sucks—hard.
Shocked by the change in course, I arch my back and—oh my God, that’s me wailing. A million tiny explosions go off inside me, a ripple effect of pulsing sensations that make me cry out in pleasure. “Julian, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.” I repeat the word while tears slide down my face.
As I recover from the best orgasm of my life, Julian kisses the inside of my thighs. My body collapses into itself, and I can’t do anything but lie on the bed. Julian still has the capacity to move, though, and he slides up my body and removes the blindfold.
My eyes adjust to the dim lighting in the room, and then I focus on his face hovering above me. “Well, hello there.”
He gives me a slow smile and presses his lips against mine. “Feel free to sleep naked in my bed whenever the urge hits you.”
“Keep giving me mind-altering orgasms like that one and the urge will hit me every single day.”
Chuckling, he lifts himself off me and stretches. “It’s been a long day. I’m going to take a shower before we continue.”
I sit up on my elbow and watch him enter the bathroom.
He winks at me. “Round three begins in a few minutes.” Then he softly closes the door.
Actually, Julian, round three will begin in less time than that.
THE SOUND OF the shower is my cue to slip inside the bathroom. His eyes are closed, and his face is tilted under the spray of water.
Julian’s magnificent when he’s dry, but he’s phenomenal when he’s wet. An ass that could launch a thousand ships, and a powerful back whose muscles flex mightily even when he’s doing something as simple as lathering his hands.
I open the shower door and step in.
He doesn’t turn around. “Couldn’t wait, huh?”
I’m honest in my neediness. “I could not.” Pressing my chest against his back, I reach around him and grab the soap. Then I build up a nice amount of lather and wash his cock, making sure to stroke him slowly as I rinse him off.
He groans and places his hands on the wall. I hold him firmly, pumping him at a steady pace. One of his hands slides down the wall, and his legs shake. “Fuck, Ash. That feels incredible.”
I place my other hand on his shoulder. “Turn around. I want you in my mouth.”
He spins to face me and leans against the shower wall. I lower myself to my knees, caressing his chest and stomach on the way down.
I take his cock in my hand, look up, and give him a sultry smile.
“Ah, baby,” he says. “What a sight.”
With a last lick of my lips, I open my mouth wide and get my fill of him.
He balls one of his hands into a fist and slams it against the wall. “Jesus. Yes. Take my cock.”
So I do. And I leave no part of him untouched as I stroke him with my tongue. Then his hands are in my hair, pushing it to the side so his view is clear. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Keep going, baby.”
With that response, there’s no way I’m stopping. I go faster. And his groans grow louder as he rocks his hips forward again and again, until he groans my name in delicious anguish. He shouts a muffled curse before he taps me on the shoulder. But I don’t heed his warning. Instead, I palm his ass and push him farther into my mouth, enjoying the unintelligible sounds he’s making as he comes.
Boneless and dazed, he struggles to pull me up and kisses me, sharing the taste of him on my tongue. “Damn, woman, you wrecked me.”
I kiss his jaw and slap his ass. “One good turn deserves another, wouldn’t you say?”
He squeezes mine in return. “If that’s the case, we’ll be at this all night.”
“Good. Sleep’s overrated anyway.”
JULIAN’S RESTING HIS head on my stomach, lying diagonally across the bed.
“Is there something up there I should know about?” I ask him. “Bear in mind, if it’s a spider, I will catapult myself out of this bed so quickly you’ll definitely be injured in the process.”
He cranes his neck to look at me. “What?”
“The ceiling, Julian. You’ve been staring at it for the past five minutes. What’s wrong?”
He sighs. “Just thinking about Gabriel, who’s now my newest client.”
“You made him an offer. That’s great, congrats.” The absent expression on his face suggests he isn’t in a celebratory mood, however. “Or not.”
He drops his head back onto my stomach. “No, you’re right. I should be excited, but . . .”
The hesitation in his voice doesn’t surprise me. Julian’s always been tight-lipped about his work. But if we’re going to be together, he needs to share this aspect of his life with me, too. Otherwise, we might as well call ourselves friends with benefits. “Talk to me, Julian.”
I count the seconds of silence that follow, a form of mental fidgeting as I wait to see if he’ll let me in.
Eventually, he speaks. “I love his enthusiasm. I love the possibility of working with him and helping him get his due.”
“You make that sound like a problem.”
“It’s not. But I worry that I won’t be able to deliver for him, not in the way he deserves. Hollywood doesn’t put out a welcome mat for people who aren’t white, male, and straight.”
I slide out from under him, and his head hits the mattress. Now I’m looking down at him. “You mean people who aren’t like my brother.”
After scrubbing a hand down his face, he looks up at me and nods. “Exactly.” He bites down on his lips as he ponders the situation. “I’m racking my brain for ways to make myself useful to him without burning bridges in the business . . . or getting fired.” He shakes his head as if to clear it. “It’s just something I’ve been thinking about it. I’m not going to solve anything tonight, obviously.”
I admire him for handling his client’s careers with care. Everything I’ve seen about agents in popular media paints a less than flattering picture of them. Julian challenges that depiction. Even now, when he suspects roadblocks ahead, he’s focused on confronting them head-on. Makes me consider my own ambitions and what I’m willing to do to achieve them. “Well, at least Gabriel’s got a lot going for him.” I tick off his positive attributes with my fingers. “Good-looking, charming, and talented. To my untrained eye, you’ve got someone with star potential.”
“Glad you noticed.”
Is that sarcasm I hear? Oh dear. I’m tickled that he’s not immune to the green-eyed monster, but I’m not encouraging his behavior. “News flash. I can appreciate a man’s looks and talent without having any romantic interest in him.”
He mutters something, then speaks up. “Of course you can. Just ignore me.”
“Easy enough.”
In seconds, he springs to his knees, tackles me back down, and pins me under him, his wide smile and dancing eyes stealing my breath for a moment. Broody Julian makes me horny, but playful Julian makes me swoon.
He buries his head in my neck and nips at my skin. “Can you ignore me now?”
I force myself not to yelp or laugh, even though he’s tickling me and I’m screeching inside. I whip my head around instead, pretending to listen out for a sound. “I’m sorry. Did someone say something?”
He nuzzles his way up to my jaw and nips me there, too. “What about now?”
Oh, the brush of his mouth against my skin feels nice. Really nice. “That’s a little harder to ignore but still doable.”
He rises above me, the corded muscles in his forearms flexing as he gets into a push-up position, and then he lowers his body in tiny increments, until I reach up, grab the back of his neck, and pull him down. “You’ve made your point.”
He collapses behind me and turns me to the side, arranging us in a spooning position. After planting a soft kiss on my shoulder, he says, “I like being in bed with you.”
“Yes,” I say on a laugh. “It’s where we do our best work.”
He pinches me on the hip. “I’m not talking about sex. I’m talking about something else entirely.” His fingers trail up my side and disappear under my hair, massaging my scalp with the perfect amount of pressure. “I’m so fucking into you, Ash.”
For a moment, I simply absorb his statement, reveling in the knowledge that, as my mother would say, we’re smitten with each other. I flip over to face him and place my hand on the back of his neck, pulling him close. “Same.”
He draws back. “You’re so fucking into yourself? That’s a bit conceited, don’t you think?”
I lay across him and drop my chin onto his chest. Our faces are close but not close enough to kiss. “No, Julian. I’m so into you.”
He says nothing for a moment. Then he winds his hand under the curtain of my hair, grasps my neck, and pulls me down to within an inch of his lips. “Then it’s time to tell your brother, wouldn’t you say? I’m ready if you are.”
He’s got more to lose here than I do, that’s for sure, but he’s ready to commit anyway. It’s inspiring. Makes me realize that committing to someone—or something—is an expression of love. And oh God, I do love Julian. “Okay, when he gets back, we’ll tell him.”
“Ash, if you want me to do it alone, I will.”
I shake my head and grab his hands, pressing them to my chest. “No, we’re a team. We’ll do this together.”
But there’s something else I need to do on my own.