Hold On (10 page)

“Sí, mi amor. I’ve fantasized about being in you like that. I enjoy every single thing
about your body, baby. You know that. Your body was made for mine and I want to experience
everything with you.”

I slide my tongue into his mouth and kiss him passionately. Before Julian, I never
would’ve believed a physical connection like this could exist. It’s true. I do feel
like my body was made for his. I want to experience everything with him too. I want
to give him every bit of pleasure he gives me.

“Someday. We can try that someday.”

Julian kisses me back with the same intensity I brought. He’s pleased with my answer.
He rolls me over so I’m on top of him, straddling him.

“I want you to come again. Do what you need to do. I’m yours.”

He does this so I can come. He knows it’s easier for me to orgasm when I’m on top.
I move my hips in slow undulating motions and revel in the intense sensations rolling
through my body as his dick rubs against my clit. Julian’s hands are on my breasts
and he’s gently pinching my nipples. It feels so fucking good.

“I’m close, Julian. Are you? I want you to come with me.”

“I’m ready, Lexie. C’mon. Come for me.”

His words, his thrusts, and his fingers on my breasts work their magic, and as soon
as I start to orgasm I feel Julian pumping into me. We hang on to each other and let
both the physical and emotional feelings overtake our bodies. We come together in
every sense of the word.

Later that night when we’re spooning and about to fall asleep for real, Julian whispers
in my ear, “Thank you for being so open with me tonight. I know it’s not always easy
for you. I just want to know you, inside and out. I want to make you happy.”

I snuggle back to him as close as possible. “You do, Julian. You do.”

Chapter Seven

When I wake up in the morning, I’m alone in the bed. Damn. I hate that Julian is always
out before me. It’s already nine o’clock so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. He’s
probably taken over the world by now. Ugh. After I use the bathroom, I get dressed
in the clothes I wore last night and head out to find him. He isn’t anywhere in the
condo. I make myself some coffee and see a note next to the coffee pot. I smile when
I think about how he knew I’d be headed there first thing.

L - Had to go into the hotel to get some stuff done. Call me when you wake up.

PS You looked beautiful this morning, naked in my bed - J.

Beautiful? I look and feel like crap.

I grab my phone from my purse and see a bunch of texts from my friends. The first
one is from Lauren.

Lauren:
You left? Shit. Are you okay with this?

I’m assuming she means that she was hooking up with Danny.

Lauren:
Text me back and tell me why I shouldn’t do this.

There are no more texts from her. I’m curious how that played out.

The next few texts are from Marissa. As I’m about to answer them, Marissa calls.

“Hey, Lexie. I’m glad you finally answered.” She sounds like crap. I’m sure she’s
hung-over.

“Sorry. I just woke up. What’s up? Are you okay?”

“I’m good, hung-over, but good. I’m here with Shannon. I have no idea where Lauren
is except that she texted she was with Danny. And Jenna is MIA too. She went home
with Marco I guess. She hasn’t answered her phone. We have no way to get home unless
we take a cab.”

“Okay. Let’s think about this.” My mind isn’t totally working yet. I walk back to
the kitchen and pour myself some coffee. “Julian is at the hotel and he can give you
a ride home. He needs to give me a ride home anyway. I don’t have anything with me.
I have no idea where the other two are but I’m sure they’re fine. Let me get ahold
of Julian and I’ll call you back.”

We hang up and I call Julian. He answers right away.

“Hey you, good morning.”

“Good morning.”

“How are you feeling this morning?”

“Cranky. When I went to sleep there was an incredibly hot, naked man lying next to
me and when I woke up, he was gone.”

I hear him chuckle and I picture him smiling.

“I would’ve loved to lie in bed with you all day, baby, but I had to come in for a
little while. I’ve been gone a few days.”

“I know. But one day we really are going to lie in bed, naked, all day.”

“Mmm, sounds good to me. Have you spoken to your friends yet? They haven’t checked
out.”

“They haven’t left because they have no way to get home. Jenna is MIA somewhere with
Marco. She drove last night. Lauren’s missing too. I assume she’s with Danny.”

“She is. I talked to Danny this morning. Tell them I can take them home. I should
be done here in thirty minutes.”

“You need to take me home too.”

“I don’t think so. You’re mine this weekend.”

I giggle. “I have nothing to wear. So unless we’re going to be naked all weekend,
I need to get clothes.”

“As tempting as that sounds, I have other plans for us. Tell your friends to come
down in thirty minutes and we’ll come get you. I need to get the Jeep.”

“Okay, see you soon.”

I text the girls, and then try to get ahold of Lauren and Jenna. They both respond
to me.

Alexa:
Hello girls…
Lauren:
Hey
Alexa:
Where are you?
Lauren:
Danny’s. He’s going to take me home. Talk to you later.
Alexa:
You ok?
Lauren: :-)

Well I guess that answers that. Jenna chimes in a few minutes later.

Jenna:
I’m at Marco’s. He’s bringing me to get my car. Sorry. You guys need a ride?
Alexa:
No. Julian is taking us home. It’s all good. You ok?
Jenna:
I’m great. TTYL

Well I guess I wasn’t the only one who had a good night. I don’t think any of us thought
the night would play out this way when we left last night. I’m thrilled Julian came
home early and it sounds like Lauren and Jenna had fun.

I walk downstairs when Julian texts me, and try not to attract anybody’s attention.
I look like I was partying last night and I’m in the same clothes. I sneak out the
back to the garage and find them all getting in the Jeep. We have to take the Jeep
because the Jag only seats two. Marissa must have sat on Shannon’s lap on the way
here. I take a look at Marissa and Shannon and laugh. They look like I feel.

“Nice, three girls doing the walk of shame with one guy.” Julian just shakes his head
and mumbles under this breath. The ride home is quiet. Nobody seems in the mood to
talk. When we get to my house, Julian follows me into my room and lies down on the
bed.

“What do you want to do? I’m all yours today.”

I lie down next to him. “Just today? I thought you were all mine forever.” I’m not
sure why I said those words, they just came out. Julian gets a serious look on his
face.

“Forever sounds perfect to me, Lexie. Let me know when you’re ready for that, okay?”

I have to take a deep breath. He just got so intense. I was kidding. “Let’s go to
the beach. Just us. I want to lie on the beach and read or take a nap. We can pack
a cooler and spend the day there. Just us.” I emphasize the just us part again because
I want to spend time alone with him, time where we aren’t working, fixing our plans
around anyone else, or dealing with the drama of our pasts.

Julian enthusiastically agrees and lets me know he has a bathing suit in the gym bag
in his car, so we don’t need to go back to the condo. After I take a quick shower,
I change into a navy blue and white striped bikini with yellow ties on the hips and
around the neck. I throw on a white cover-up, navy wedged, Sanuk flip-flops and a
straw fedora with a thick blue band. I come out and see that Julian has changed into
a pair of white, Hurley board shorts with thick gray horizontal stripes. He has on
a plain white t-shirt, Reef flip-flops, and a white baseball hat with a UM logo on
it.

“You look pretty hot there Mr. Bauer. Lose the Cane’s hat and you’d be a keeper.”

I love to tease him about the fact I’m a huge Seminole fan and he’s a UM alumni. I
figure he has more right than most to wear that hat seeing as he played baseball there,
but they’re my favorite sports’ team to hate.

“Don’t be a hater because you didn’t go to the real Florida school, Ms. Reed.”

I do a little tomahawk chop in his face and he responds by slapping my ass. All of
the flirty feelings of last night are still in the air and I’m enjoying every minute
of it. I throw sunscreen, towels, a blanket, water bottles, a few magazines, and a
book I’m in the middle of, into a beach tote. As I’m getting all the beach stuff together,
I think about where I’m going to be sleeping for the next two nights. I assume Julian
will want me to spend the nights with him, he always does, but I check anyway. “Should
I bring something to wear to work tomorrow and Monday?”

Julian looks at me, smiles, and nods his head. I make a quick run into my closet,
grab two dresses and two pairs of shoes and pick some jewelry. I get whatever else
I think I’ll need and throw it all in another bag. I look down at the two large bags
at my feet and laugh out loud. “It looks like I’m running away from home.”

As soon as the words are out my mouth, Julian twists my comment to fit his mission.
“If you’d leave stuff at the condo, you wouldn’t look like a runaway.”

I glare at him playfully and change the subject. “The rest of the stuff, the chairs
and umbrella, are in the garage.” Julian grabs both of my bags and follows me out
of the door as I tell my roommates what my plans are.

I get two chairs and an umbrella out while Julian takes the top off the Jeep. I put
the beach gear in the back and admire him for a few minutes. This Julian, the one
in a bathing suit, backward baseball cap and Oakley sunglasses, is such a different
looking man from the intense, serious man I usually see. He has a big smile on his
face and looks like he doesn’t have a care in the world. I know we’re going to have
a great day and I can’t help but smile too. I run back into the garage and grab a
cooler. We stop off at a Publix, throw all kinds of different snacks and drinks into
the cooler, and head to Crandon Beach in Key Biscayne. We have the top off the Jeep,
the radio blaring, and a beautiful day on tap.

The day turns out even better than I thought it would. Julian and I find a spot on
the crowded beach and totally blend into the crowds of people enjoying the summer
day. We play in the water, listen to music, eat, enjoy each other’s company, and we
laugh a lot. It almost feels like a first date in a way because we spend a lot of
the day getting to know each other better by talking about good memories of our pasts
and stories from when we were young. We even manage to talk about college without
getting hung up on anything related to Luke or Alejandra. Julian does finally ask
me what happened with her last night and I tell him the very unexciting details of
our meeting. I can tell he’s glad nothing bad came out of the interaction, like me
freaking out, and I clarify I’m not jealous of her. Even I can see what they had is
in the past and if I know anything it’s that Julian does what he wants, and not to
be crude, but who he wants as well, and if he wanted her he would be with her.

I’m able to show Julian the new, relatively non-jealous, Alexa again when he pulls
out a copy of VIVA South Beach with a picture of him and Hotel Del Marco on the cover.
The photography is beautiful and I’m shocked they were able to get this turned around
so quickly. I grab it out of his hand and flip to the inside where a four-page article,
along with more pictures, is placed. There are pictures of different parts of the
hotel: the pool, Ursa’s, Orion, Stellar, the guest rooms, and there are a few more
pictures of Julian.

There’s a way too large picture of Julian and Victoria standing next to one of the
bars near the pool. The intention of the picture appears to make it look like he’s
greeting a hotel guest, but the picture is all sexed up with her in a tiny bikini
being surrounded by other girls in tiny bikinis. I know the whole thing is staged
but when I think about those girls and that day, my newly confident side takes a back
seat to my insecure side for a moment and I get a little cranky. Julian sees my expression
and tries to get the magazine back from me.

“Uh uh. I’m keeping this. I might do a little editing with scissors when I get home.
I don’t have any pictures of you. You look gorgeous here.” I flip back to the cover.
Seriously, he looks like a model.

“You can keep it.” He’s laughing at my description about how I want to cut Victoria
out of the pictures. “But, you’re right, we don’t have any pictures of us.”

I watch as he reaches into his backpack and takes out his phone. He sits up and pulls
me up so I’m sitting in front of him, in between his bent legs. He wraps one hand
around my waist, pulls me back toward him, and takes a picture of us. I take his phone
from him when he’s done and look at the picture. My heart swells. It’s so cute; we
look tanned and happy. I text the picture to myself so I can have it. As I hand Julian
his phone, I see a picture of myself in his camera roll.

“Can I look at your pictures?” I ask first because I have no idea what’s on there
and I don’t need any surprises.

Julian looks a little like the cat that swallowed the canary before he gives me his
permission. “Go ahead.”

I start scrolling through several pictures and find three of me. Three pictures I
had no idea he had taken. There’s a picture from last night at Stellar, when I was
dancing and laughing with my friends. There’s also one of me sitting on the terrace
of his house from a few weeks ago. I’m sitting on one of the chairs, with my knees
up and my arms wrapped around them. I’m looking out at the water and seem focused
on something in the distance. I remember the day by what I was wearing and know I
was thinking about how I wished I could feel that relaxed and at ease forever. The
last picture is also from a few weeks ago and it’s of me sleeping. I’m lying half
on my stomach, half on my side with one of my knees bent and one arm underneath the
pillow. My hair is fanned across the pillow and my chest. One of my legs is peeking
out from underneath a gray sheet and you can see the swell of my breast under my hair.
It almost looks staged. I have such a look of peace on my face that it brings tears
to my eyes. Peaceful nights aren’t common for me and this is a special picture for
that reason. I look up at Julian and don’t even try to hide that I’m really touched.
“I didn’t know you took these.”

“I know. It was never planned. I took the ones at the condo because I just found you
so beautiful and so peaceful. The one from last night was because you looked gorgeous
and you were having such a great time. You were smiling and dancing. It made me happy
to see you like that and I wanted to remember it. I hope you’re not mad I’m taking
pictures of you when you aren’t aware.”

I think about his words for a moment before I respond. “I’m not mad at all. I’m glad
you took them. I needed to see them. I need to remember I do know how to be happy
and peaceful and relaxed. You help me be all of those things and these pictures are
proof. So is the one we just took. I know it may not seem like it, and I know some
days aren’t great, but I am happy being with you.”

There’s no missing the love shining in his eyes when he hears my words. He leans over
and kisses me softly on the lips. The kiss only lingers for a moment before he pulls
away. I’m not surprised as it’s been happening all day. We’ve been acting like a new
couple who are getting to know each other physically. We kiss and touch and flirt
but nothing is intense like usual. Well, that’s not entirely true. We did have a few
moments when Julian was rubbing sunscreen on my back and shoulders when I thought
he might rip my bikini off. I felt the same when I was returning the favor but we
toned it down and kept our interactions PG. I’m not sure what’s driving these relaxed
interactions, especially coming off such a hot night of passion, but we seem to be
on the same wavelength. Whatever the reasons are, they’re allowing us to have a very
relaxing, low-key day.