“Well, that escalated quickly.” Julia’s muffled voice comes from my shoulder, making me laugh. She sounds so blissfully wrung out that it’s hard not to feel a little proud. Just remembering the way she screamed into my neck, clinging to my shoulders as she came, is enough to make my dick think about rising to the occasion again. It twitches inside of Julia and she groans.
“Don’t even think about it, sailor,” she mumbles, trying to roll off me. “I’m worn the fuck out.”
I hold her on top of me but shift, freeing myself from her warmth. “Not thinking anything, I promise.”
“Mm-hm,” she hums skeptically.
“Well, not right now. All bets are off for tomorrow morning though.”
Julia props her head up to look at me, her eyes searching mine. I run my fingers through her hair, waiting for her to say whatever it is she’s thinking.
“I’m kind of pissed,” she says.
“What?” I laugh. That wasn’t at all what I was expecting.
“We could have been doing this for years.” Her fingers stroke over my tattoo, tracing the trident in the middle.
“We were… busy,” I hedge.
You were hung up on my brother.I don’t say that out loud. I don’t want to get into it or drag his name into this room. Julia looks down at my chest, wincing, and I know she’s thinking the same thing.
“What now? Do we just… see where this goes?” she asks.
I chuckle. “Sure.”
“Why are you laughing?” she asks, eyes wide. Jules so rarely looks vulnerable, but right now, her armor seems to have slipped and there’s a sliver of insecurity showing in her expression.
“You want me to pretend like this is casual?”
“I- I don’t know…” she stammers.
Tunneling my hands in her hair, I kiss her long and slow. There’s no way she could know what this means to me. How long I’ve wanted to hold her like this. I’m all fucking in for her but if she’s hesitating… I don’t just want to be a convenience fuck. It’s not that I think Jules is that kind of person. She’s the last one to ever use somebody for selfish reasons. But this went zero to sixty in the blink of an eye. It’s not like I gave her time to think it through.
I need to say something. Need to reassure her. But I’m not sure where the line is. There has to be something between my possessive inner caveman who wants to throw her over my shoulder and say “this is mine now” and the more rational side of me has an upper brain and some semblance of self-preservation.
When I let her go, she sighs happily.
“We can see where this goes,” I shrug. “But I can promise you right now, I’m not going anywhere.”
“Okay, deal,” Julia says softly, biting her lip as a smile spreads across her face. She pats my chest and changes the subject. “I need a shower.”
“Why?” I don’t want to let her go, not even to get cleaned up.
“Why? Because I reek of sex, that’s why.” Julia pushes off my chest, but I bury my face in her neck.
“I like it.” I tell her, sniffing her skin loudly.
“Oh my God, stop,” she laughs, squirming in my arms. “That tickles!” She tries to get away, but I lock my arms around her. She may be spunky, but she’s no match for nearly a decade of military training. I lick her neck and she shrieks, laughing and smacking my sides.
Then I feel her teeth on my shoulder. “Don’t you dare bite me, Jules,” I try to make my voice threatening but I can’t stop laughing long enough to be at all convincing.
“Den wet me go,” she mumbles, her teeth still digging into my muscle.
“Fine,” I sigh dramatically, loosening my hold on her. She rolls off me swiftly, kneeling on the edge of the bed, looking entirely too smug. The scraps of her lacy bra still hang around her shoulders, but otherwise she’s completely bare. She doesn’t shrink or hide or try to cover up with a sheet, just sits there looking like a post-apocalyptic underwear model.
I tug on one of the shredded ends of the lace. “Where’d you get this? I like it.”
“Sally hooks me up,” she says, eyes bright as she reaches back, peeling the scraps off her body. Her tits jiggle right at the edge of my reach, and I kind of think someone should grant me sainthood for not copping a feel.