She giggled, and Julian accepted that he’d be going to hell someday, because Hallie giggling while he sucked her nipples, the polka dot bra pushing them up for his attention, his hands molding those pretty mounds thoroughly, was the hottest moment of his life. Nothing would ever top it. Although he was proven wrong a few seconds later when she started to whimper, her fingernails digging into his scalp, hips restless on the ground.
“Julian.”
“That getting you wet?”
She nodded jaggedly, bottom lip clamped between her teeth.
“You going to let me check?” His fingertips were already trailing down her inner thigh, massaging the inside of her knee, then tracing up, up, toward the heat. “I want you more than ready, Hallie. I’ll play with them until the zipper of my pants is your worst enemy.”
“Oh my God.”
The way she kind of melted into the ground and writhed her hips every time he said something dirty made it clear she loved it. And Julian loved it, too, the freedom to say whatever came to his mind, wanting her to know what he was thinking, down to the letter. He’d never cared before. Never spoken much at all during the act. Now he couldn’t seem to keep his mouth shut, craving connection with her on every level available. Verbal, physical, emotional.
His fingers found her then, massaging through the thin nylon of her panties, dampness soaking through to meet him. Yes. Jesus Christ, yes. So much of it that he dropped his face between her tits and moaned, parting the folds of her flesh with a gently sawing knuckle and teasing her clit. When her hips reared up off the ground and she sobbed, he moved on instinct, capturing her mouth in a rough kiss, knuckling that sensitive little bud over and over again. The wild way she gave herself over to the kiss made him wonder if . . . was she already close?
Julian paused with his mouth on top of hers. They inhaled and exhaled together. Fast. Faster. Anticipation so real he could feel it pressing down on his spine. “You come easy, don’t you, Hallie?” Looking her in the eye, he pulled down her panties, just below her pussy, trapped around the tops of her thighs. “I remember in the kitchen how sweet you got off. How quick.” He parted her folds with his thumb, stroked the full length of her sex, and watched her eyes roll into the back of her head. “You’re not just beautiful and sexy and—Jesus—the fucking curves.” With a nip and tug of her earlobe, Julian pushed his middle finger inside of her. “You are a horny little thing, aren’t you?”
“Julian.”
She was saying his name, but he could only sort of hear it through the ringing in his ears. Tight. God, she was really tight. And the way her thighs jerked in around his hand, like the sensation of his finger was foreign? No . . . But when he looked down into her face and saw she was holding her breath, visibly waiting for him to catch up, he knew. “Hallie, you’re a virgin.”
A brief silence passed. “Yes.”
Why wasn’t he shocked? He should have been, right? This vital, spontaneous woman had somehow made it to age twenty-nine without exploring a sensual side of herself that was very much alive and well. The woman was practically vibrating beneath him, every single part of her engaged in what they were doing. Maybe he was just too overcome with hunger for Hallie to dwell on something so useless as surprise. His focus remained locked on the fact that she had needs right now. She’d decided to let him handle them and that was good enough.
If anything, he just needed to be extra sure. Before he took her virginity.
I’m her first.
Did the crowding of pride in his throat make him a caveman?
No. No, who wouldn’t be fucking proud that a woman like Hallie had decided he was worthy of her first time? A man who didn’t treasure this position didn’t deserve it—and that was the last time he thought of men in general and Hallie in the same context, because his teeth were snapping at her neck as a result. Mine.
Calm the hell down.
Julian tried to inhale a steadying breath, but it brought her scent along with it and only succeeded in making him salivate. Press his finger a little deeper inside of her, just to watch the pulse jump at the base of her neck. “Hallie.” Lord, he sounded like the big bad wolf. “Be one hundred percent honest with me now. Are you sure about this?”
Fingers flexing on his shoulders, she nodded vigorously. “Yes. Positive.”
Thank God. “Why do you sound relieved?”
“I thought you were going to be responsible and call a stop to everything.”
“That would be the responsible thing to do,” he agreed, even while biting a path down the center of her body, nipping at her tits, her belly, her thighs, before bringing the flat of his tongue up firmly between the folds of her sex. “Your first time should be in a soft bed. Somewhere familiar. Comfortable.” He pressed the V of his fingers over her flesh and strip of blond hair, opening her up to him, and he could only wish for sunlight to see her better. To memorize every ripple and shadow. “And here I am, getting ready to fuck you on the hard ground. Flat on your back with your dress up around your waist. Aren’t I, sweetheart?”