CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Juliana
“Okay, so this is what I’m thinking,” I said as we laid on the carpet of my office, tangled in each other’s arms.
My office. I liked the sound of that. No, I wouldn’t let it go to my head, but the thought of working on school lunches part-time, while also maintaining my practice at Healthy Steps… it was everything I’d ever dreamed of.
Wait. No. If you added Zach into the mix, that was everything I’d ever dreamed of. Now, I knew this was more than just him trying to get into my pants.
This was love.
I felt it in every muscle of his body, every look he gave me, every touch. And I could barely go a minute without thinking of him.
He tried to sit up, but I rolled on top of him, straddling him, pressing our sexes together. “I think this room should be peach.”
He wrapped his hands around the small of my back. I could feel his cock starting to harden again underneath me. “Peach? You mean like, orange?”
I nodded. “Or more like terra cotta. Like an Arizona sunset.”
“I have no clue what you’re talking about. Every shade of orange looks exactly the same.”
I rolled my eyes. He was such a man.
“Peach is nice. All the offices at Healthy Steps are that color. It’s calming. Healthy.”
“If you think so. Whatever you say, Jule.”
I wiggled my ass until I could feel him growing even harder. “The furniture should be light. Not anything too severe. We should have ergonomic, sit-stand desks, as well as a healthy meditation pod for decompression.”
It was his turn to roll his eyes.
“It’s killer,” I told him. “All the modern offices are getting them. It’s like this soundproof ball that you can go into when you’re feeling stressed, to get back your Zen.”
He gave me a skeptical look. “Do we have to hold hands and sing Kumbaya? Play new age music and greet each other with ‘Namaste?’”
“I’d settle for some good old Marvin Gaye.” I ran my hands up his shirt, coming to rest on his nipples, which were hardening like his cock. “All this stuff is research-proven to provide a healthier workspace. And you obviously want our Health and Prosperity Division to lead the charge on that front, right?”
He nodded. “You’re right.”
He deserved a reward for that. I lifted up on my knees, stood his cock straight, and sank down onto it. He lurched forward, steadying me.
“Oh, god, Jule,” he murmured as he rose to sitting. “You feel so good. But I don’t know if I can… so soon…”
“Well, we can have fun trying,” I said, wiggling on top of him, using him to find the right spot. “Right?”
Yep, he was right. It felt beyond good. Using him, rubbing his body against my clit, I felt another orgasm coming on. Not only did he make me feel good; he made me feel right, comfortable. Never in my life would I have ever been the sex goddess he’d made me. Being on top? Taking the initiative to start sex? Who was this girl I’d become?
All I knew was that I liked her.
I wished I could write a letter to my fifteen-year-old self and tell her that it would be all right. That I was worthy of love. Maybe then, I wouldn’t have spent so many years thinking there was something wrong with me. Maybe I wouldn’t have had to spend so much of my life being on guard, thinking that the Coltons of the world mattered.
When I looked into Zachary’s eyes, I didn’t care what any of those people who’d been against me had said. None of that meant anything now. All that I needed was him.
And that was love, wasn’t it?
I loved him. I needed him, and I loved him. Deliriously. In a way I’d never loved anything in my life.
I came hard a second later, the explosion taking me by surprise. Even more surprisingly, he came too, gasping under me. He pulled me tight against him, crushing his face between my breasts.
We stayed there, fused together, for what seemed like forever, feeling content and satisfied. After a few minutes, I had to laugh. We hadn’t even moved a desk into this office, and we’d already made love in it twice. Hopefully, with a floor separating us, we’d be able to keep our hands off each other and get some actual work done.
Because I’d already started making plans, and not just about the color of the walls. I was determined to rock this job. To kick butt, and take names, and make this city a little bit healthier.
I found some more tissues in my purse and slowly pulled him out of me, getting myself cleaned up. He shimmied his pants over his hips and tucked in his dress shirt, zipped his pants, and fastened his belt. Grabbing his phone, he said, “Dinner?”
I checked the time on my phone. Geez, it was after nine. Any time I spent with Zach just seemed to fly. I’d have to get back to Hobbes soon, but I had no desire to leave Zach, even for a moment.
I realized as we were going out that he’d never been to my place. It was kind of out of the way, off Manhattan proper. Now was the time to get him back there so he could poke fun at the fact that I’d sentimentally strewn knickknacks all over my apartment.
I was ready for it.
“Want to come back to my place? We can get pizza on the way.” I smiled at him. “It will require you to leave the island of Manhattan.”
“The horror.” He grinned. “Deal.”
We went out to the busy city street and hailed a cab to Queens. As we did, I got more and more excited by the thought of finally sharing my apartment with him. I loved sharing things with him, little by little, of opening new parts of myself to him. We had books in common, music, but every day seemed to unveil something else that we shared. Maybe, after he saw my messy little home, he’d get to meet my scary mother, if I ever decided to talk to her again. We could have a Scary Mother Smackdown, over whose mom was the worst.
“I hope you like cats,” I told him as we got into the cab he’d hailed.
“I love them in theory,” he said, scratching at the side of his face. “But I’m allergic to them, actually.”
My jaw dropped. He was kidding, wasn’t he? “Really?”
I had to laugh. Just one more obstacle that we’d have to overcome. But now, I was ready. If we could be together, after all this, a little cat dander wasn’t going to stop anything now.
As if he could sense what I was thinking, his hand tightened on mine. “What’s the name of the pizza place?”
I told him that it was Il Giordino, and he placed a call. As the phone rang, I tried to get his attention to explain to him just what I liked on my pizzas, but he held up a finger and turned away from me. “Yes, one large pie. Wheat crust. Vegan cheese. Tomatoes. Green peppers. Spinach.” He looked over at me. “Mushrooms?”
I nodded, astonished. So those times we’d gone out to eat, he’d been taking notes.
“Mushrooms,” he finished, pausing to listen on the line. “Twenty minutes? Great. See you then.”
He hung up and smiled at me, clearly proud of himself.
“There’s hope for you yet,” I said. “But what’s for dessert? You probably won’t be very happy with my dessert drawer. It involves carob.”
He pulled me close to him and shook his head.
“You should know by now, Juliana,” he whispered. “You are all the dessert I’ll ever need… because I love you.”
And there it was. The three little words that were as big as all the moons and stars.
I touched his face, running my thumb over his lips. “I love you too.”