"Gaël?"
The unconcealed yearning in her breathless tone was the final nail on his conscience's coffin, and it was then Gaël heard himself say, "I'll ask you this once and never again."
Juliette's breath caught.
Oh God, this is really happening.
"Are you sure you want this?"
Her whole body burned and trembled, and she slowly lifted her gaze to his. "Yes."
Don't be perfect.
Juliette couldn't help tensing as her guardian slowly bent his head, but instead of something wild or deep, the way his lips moved when they finally touched hers could only be described as...patient.
He was oh-so-gloriously patient as he sweetly nibbled on her lips before coaxing them to part open. And when his tongue finally slid back into her mouth, the tender coaxing continued, and the sheer tenderness of it was what gave Juliette the courage to finally shed the last of her inhibitions and surrender to the wanton desires of her own body.
From the moment he had kissed her, she had been aching, just so painfully aching to do all sorts of things in return, and while she had been afraid and insecure before, it was different now.
She could no longer help herself, and so she arched her body up against his and wrapped her arms around his neck as she slowly started kissing him back.
"Yes, my darling." Her guardian whispered the words against her lips, and it was all Juliette could do not to moan. Gaël had called her his darling again, and the sound had her toes curling hard even as the rest of her body burned with passion.
The endearment fed her heart with more courage, and Juliette finally tried sucking on his tongue again. If she was hesitant and shy earlier, this time she sucked as hard as she wanted to, and she was immediately rewarded with the sound of Gaël's groan.
Oh yes!
Her body tingled with excitement at the realization that she had made her guardian respond in such a way, and as she lost herself in the sensual thrill of kissing the man she loved and doing what she wanted with his tongue and her tongue, Juliette barely realized that Gaël's hands were busy moving between their bodies.
It was only when he already had the straps of her nightgown halfway down her arms that she realized what he was doing, but when she pulled away with a gasp, her guardian only gazed down at her with a wicked gleam in his cold, blue eyes.
My guardian is just too, too hot!
Her breath caught, and she could only blush when Gaël chuckled. He obviously knew he had rendered her breathless, and oh, oh, oh—-
Juliette couldn't help but whimper as he slowly traced her lips with his thumb.
"Are you scared, Juliette?"
"Yes."
"Good."
Her eyes widened.
"Fear makes one's sangferia more potent—-"
Juliette told herself she wasn't disappointed that her guardian had a practical reason for wanting her to be scared. What would she rather have him say? That he was sadistic? It would be crazy for her to want to hear such a thing—-
"But more than that, my darling—-" Gaël suddenly bent his head to take a quick hard nip of her lower lip, and Juliette gasped in a mixture of shock and a painful sort of pleasure.
"Seeing you fear what I'd do to your body turns me on."
Juliette gasped yet again.
"A lot."
Color me crazy then, she thought dizzily. Because as it turned out, her guardian did have a sadistic streak, and she really, really liked—-
"Ah!"
Juliette knew she was starting to sound like a silly goose with all the gasping she was doing, but coherence was simply impossible with how Gaël had just ripped her nightgown off her body.
Oh my.
Juliette watched the torn pieces of fabric land silently on the floor with dazed eyes, and when her gaze flew back to his—-
"My bad."
It was her guardian's mocking tone that did it for her, and a bubble of laughter slipped past her lips. His bad indeed.
She wanted to tease him about faking his regret, but upon seeing his gaze lazily dip down, all words were forgotten as her insecurities surged to the fore. What if he was comparing her to all the other women he bedded, and she turned out to be the scrawniest and ugliest among them?
Juliette tried to cover her breasts, but when her guardian's gaze glinted in warning, she could only take a deep breath before letting her arms fall back against her sides.
"There's nothing for you to hide," her guardian purred, and the words had Juliette trembling under his gaze. "Don't you know how unbelievably hot you are?"
Oh God.
The one thing Gaël could never be was a liar. He couldn't even make himself say 'good morning' when he was pissed. And so if he said she was hot—-
Carnal heat flamed Gaël's body as he watched her entire body turn pink under his scrutiny. A part of him couldn't fucking believe that he was finally seeing his Juliette naked, and she was hotter, so, so much hotter than he could ever imagine.