Layers Off (15 page)

And with one swift pull I felt my robe loosen. Julian leaned forward and turned on the shower, and then from behind me, he removed the robe from my shoulders. The fabric slid to the floor. Julian’s naked front attached to my behind. He didn’t even bother to cover up. His all-ready erection dug into my lower back as his knee gently pushed behind mine, urging me to step over the threshold into the shower. I followed his guiding leg. Steam filled the glass-enclosed space as I moved into the falling stream, still only aware of Julian behind me.

Inside, I submerged under the rain shower. Lifting my face up I savored Julian’s arms from behind as they slid off my shoulders and down my arms and to my front, cupping my breasts, playing with them and rolling my nipples between his fingers. He slowly turned me around to face him, pulling me out of the stream and taking my lips.

“I’ve missed you so much,” he said.

I smiled against him, feeling his words soothe me.

Julian reached to the side and lathered a sponge. The smell of vanilla tickled my nose. He kissed my lips every few seconds, so tenderly I thought I’d melt. It was as if he too couldn’t get enough. Moving from underneath the shower, he then turned me again and drew the sponge from the top of my back, down my spine, and back up, circling around my shoulder blades. The gentle scrape of the material stirred the nerves along my skin.

“I’ve missed washing you, like this. I wanted to do it all the time,” he said.

At a time when I couldn’t yet speak, Julian had taken care of my every need, including bathing me a few times.

“Why did you stop?”

“Because I got hard every time I touched you. I didn’t want you to get the wrong idea.”

I turned around to face him. “What about that time in the bath?” I remembered when he had brought me inside in a near hypothermic state.

“That water was freezing, K. And you nearly died. I guess I had more urgent issues on my mind – like your life.”

“Right. But I like you hard.” I reached down and grasped his ready shaft.

“And I like you wet.” That lopsided grin of his lifted as his hand slid between my legs, and he drew his fingers between my folds.

“It’s the water,” I lied.

“Well, then I guess I should make sure you’re wet for me, not because of the shower.”

And before I could ask him how he was planning to do that, Julian was down on his knees, kissing my inner thigh and sliding his fingers between my tender flesh. I braced my back against the shower glass as he pulled his tongue up my slit.

“Oh, God!”

“Good?” He looked up.

“Really good.”

And he dove in again, his fingers spreading me in prep for his full tongue assault. I opened my legs wider. Julian’s fingers prodded my opening, while his slick tongue drew through between my lips. He settled a bit higher, right at my clit, flicking and suckling my blazing cunt with ardent greed. The skillful suck of his mouth brought my hips forward. The succulent nurture erected my nipples and my hands found my breasts on their own, molding the flesh, feeling my soft skin in my palms.

“That’s right, baby,” he said in between the slurps.

Julian’s fingers invaded me from the inside, pushing in until his hand squished against me, pounding right between my legs. The world spun again. My back slid up and down the shower glass; my skin squeaking against it. This was so out of control, but so right at the same time. The tightness began releasing too quickly. He kept his mouth on me, his head bopping down below, reviving my desire to a delicious new height.

“Ahh!” I screamed, feeling the burst spread from his mouth though me, the urgent quivers shaking my limbs and curling my toes.

Too fast! I need more!
I thought, and Julian wouldn’t stop, as if reading my mind. Another orgasm tore through me, pulsing from my clit, reducing my entire body to jelly.

I slid my hands to my sides and tapped his head to stop. Julian grazed up my body, his hot skin on mine. Pressed between the shower glass and him, I felt my head spin and closed my eyes.

“You’re delicious,” he said into my mouth.

I just nodded, because I couldn’t get a word out.

“And I’ve been in love with you too.”

My eyes flew open. “What?” I said into his mouth.

“I love you, K,” he breathed into me, filling my lungs and my soul at the same time completing me. “And, I’m sorry I was such a dick before.”

“Shh,” I touched his lips with my finger. “I’ve got you too.”

* * *

The next morning I woke up before Julian. For the first time in a long time I’d had a peaceful dream. My mother was there, planting in her flower garden. She looked happy – very happy. I remembered that time. She didn’t know I was listening to her humming under her nose. It was one of my fondest memories of her.

Now, looking up at the ceiling, I couldn’t help but smile. Julian slept on his front with his left arm over my chest, cupping my right boob. Every once in a while he’d gently rub it and squeeze it, as if he were having a pleasurable dream. The sound of a buzzing phone disturbed the peace.

“Can you get that, K?” he mumbled, probably through his sleep.

I gently removed his arm to answer the call. An unknown number showed on the screen, and I pressed the green icon. “Hello?” I whispered.

No one answered, but I could tell they were there, on the other line, listening.

“Hello?” I asked again.

“Julian Cross?” The female voice asked and I dropped the phone. And it wasn’t that the voice was a woman’s – it was because I thought I recognized it.

I backed up against the headboard pulling my knees up to my chest. No, it was all in my head! It had to be. I made a mistake. It had been so long, how could I recognize my mother’s voice? My dead mother’s voice?

“Are you all right?” Julian asked, propping himself up on his elbows. “Who was it?”

He reached for the phone saying, “Hello?” and then looked warily at me. “Cindy... yes, it will be three more days... forward it to the usual email... thank you... bye.”

“Kendra, are you all right?”

“That was your secretary?” I asked, feeling my body tremble.

“Yes, what’s the matter? You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.”

Or heard one,
I thought.

“I’m sorry. I thought I recognized her voice.” Avoiding Julian’s gaze, I jumped out of bed and scrambled to pull on a pair of panties and my sweats.

“Well, you’ve heard Cindy before. C’mere.” He patted the bed beside him. “Who did you think it was?”

“I just thought it was someone else.” I regarded him from under my lashes, wondering whether he’d think I was crazy. But I couldn’t take the chance he’d think I wasn’t well, so I didn’t say anything.

A bird flew right outside our window, startling me.

“Is everything all right, K? You’re so jumpy. You don’t regret last night, do you?” Julian scooted closer to my side, adjusting my body to curl into his.

“Last night was wonderful.”

Julian’s mouth covered mine with a lingering kiss before he said, “I want you in my arms every night, K.” He trailed his lips to my cheek and down my neck. “And every morning,” Then grazed along my jaw line to my earlobe. “And afternoon.”

I laughed freely. “When will you get any work done?”

“Fuck work. It’s overrated.”

A laugh escaped from my chest. “I love your dirty mouth.”

“Then come here. My dick is already throbbing for you.” He pulled me under the sheets. I had a feeling we’d spend the next three days in bed – not that I was complaining.

While I knew he was kidding about work, I couldn’t help but feel that I too needed to figure out what I would do about my nightclub. I missed Kissed, but the lure there was still too much. Once we returned home, Julian had promised me answers about my father’s business dealings. Perhaps by then I’d be ready to somehow reclaim the club that I’d lost.

C
HAPTER
13

The days were finally getting longer. Winter’s beauty decorated the front lawn and the back yard. Julian spent late hours at his office while I started going over the club’s finances and planning for a grand opening. It would still take a few months before I could return to Kissed, but I couldn’t just sit there and do nothing. This seemed like the next logical step.

Each evening, Julian arrived home late. The gray shadows under his eyes worried me. During the second week after we’d returned from Austria, Julian and Tristan were both elbows deep in trying to capture David Wright, the man who had ruined Allie’s childhood. Tonight, he was staying at Tristan’s house, overseeing an operation to catch the bastard.

I stretched my legs on the swing in the sunroom, reading a book. The sound of a motor rolled through the house. I set my Kindle down and followed the noise into the garage. The door was half-open, letting the cool winter air inside. Julian’s back was turned to me as he played with the gas under his right hand. The exhaust purred with each twist of his wrist. I watched his arms flex and back muscles shift as he manipulated the handles, realigning his backside for that perfect ride. He reminded me of a little innocent boy seeing a motorcycle for the very first time, except I knew that Julian had ridden a bike since his late teens.

I strolled to his side. His boots were soaked and cheeks flushed red. Julian’s scarf and winter jacket hung over a column of four spare tires. He must have walked home from Tristan’s house. Allie and Tristan lived next door, but with the size of properties the Cross brothers owned, Julian might as well have walked three blocks. When he looked at me, he smiled with his tired eyes. I leaned in for a drawn-out kiss. Julian pulled me into his arms, until I was seated sideways in front of him. He turned off the ignition.

“I haven’t seen you on a bike in a while.” My moving lips brushed his.

“It’s been a busy few months.”

That said so much to me. Julian had sacrificed every minute of his life helping me heal. He could have done anything he wanted to, yet he chose me.

“It’s done. Wright is dead.” Each time Julian blinked, his eyes appeared heavier.

“How’s Allie?” I asked, brushing his hair off his forehead and out of his eyes.

“She’s shaken up.”

“Well, for what it’s worth, I’m glad he’s dead.”

While I couldn’t even imagine what Allie had gone through as a child, I’d always felt a connection with her. I knew what it was like to have a sick man after you, and luckily for me, I got away from Donato before it was too late.

“In the long run, this is much better than putting the son of a bitch behind bars and wasting taxpayers’ money on a trial.”

“You should sleep,” I said, furrowing my brows.

But he shook his head sideways. “No, I need to let loose. Will you take a ride with me?” The way he asked in his deep throaty tone insinuated I’d be riding him instead of the motorcycle; or perhaps it was just me, needing Julian each time I saw him.

“Really?”

With the exception of Vienna, I hadn’t been out of this house since I returned. The sound of leaving with Julian on his bike revived buried excitement I thought I’d lost.

“Yeah, really. I don’t want this home to feel like a prison to you. Besides, I need to get away too.”

“Where will we go?”

“I don’t know. Wherever the road takes us,” he winked. But something told me Julian knew exactly where we were going.

I hurried to the house to change and quickly twisted a side braid in my hair. This way it wouldn’t flop around on the bike. When I came back, Julian was already in his jacket, tightly zipped up to his neck. His helmet hung on one of the handles. As I approached he reached down behind the bike, lifting a huge box.

“I thought you might need this,” he said, handing it to me.

My chest drummed and I hurried closer, pulling on the black bow as he held the package. I opened the lid and inside was a matching leather jacket with pinned insulation.

“Thank you!” I wrapped my arms around his neck, nuzzling into him. “I love it.”

“I can’t let you freeze out there.”

I slid into the jacket, put on my helmet, and straddled the bike behind Julian. My arms naturally wrapped around him from the back.

“It seems you remember how to do this.” He looked back with a smirk.

I squeezed tighter. Of course I remembered; except this time I was riding with the right man. Both Cross brothers loved their bikes and reserved riding them for pleasure. Julian turned on the ignition and the engine rumbled between my legs.

Leaving the house felt liberating. I didn’t even know where we were going and didn’t really care. The sound of passing wind, the smell of the lukewarm winter, and the feel of Julian’s back against my chest was perfect. He rode along the shoreline, speeding up between neighborhoods. Following the movement of his body, I leaned to the side on each turn. Out in the distance on my left, there was nothing but the black ocean decorated with a handful of bopping boats. Behind us, the seductive city lit up the sky. After a few miles I lowered my head against Julian’s back, letting it rise and fall with each breath he took.

When he finally stopped in a park, the place appeared empty. At first I didn’t find that odd, but when the lights flicked on, illuminating each tree in twinkling white rows, my jaw dropped. The faint sound of music played in the distance. I knew Tristan had pulled off gestures like these in the past, but I haven’t been privy to Julian’s imagination just yet, and I was looking forward to what he had planned.

“You did this?” I asked in a half-whisper, gawking around me. When I turned to see his pleased smile, it made my heart go pitter-patter.

“Do you like it?”

“Yes, but why?”

“You’ve been locked up in our house for too long... I just wanted to do something for you.”

“Our house?” I asked. The comment didn’t scare me as much as I thought it would.

“Of course it’s our house. Even if you wanted to move out, there’s no way I’d let you.” His commanding tone made me feel wanted and desired. He offered his arm, and I hooked mine into the loop. “Come, I want to show you something.”