his teeth, I moaned softly against his cheek. When I came apart beneath him, my whole body shook. My eyes squeezed shut and my nails dug into his skin so hard I was sure I’d draw blood.
In that moment…
I knew I was his.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Josephine
Monday morning was monumental for two reasons.
First, we had to decide which architecture firm to hire for Lorena’s new offices. This was a big deal and would ultimately shape the entire design of her store.
Second, there was the little fact that Julian and I had made love on Saturday night and now we were going to have to work together. No biggie.
I woke up early on Monday, stood in front of my mirror, and applied a thin layer of makeup—mascara to hide my nervous eyes, red lipstick to give me false confidence. The entire time I got ready, I replayed the previous day and contemplated how easy it’d been to wake up in Julian’s bed.
“Dude, you’re basically crushing me right now,” I said, pushing him off of me at the crack of dawn.
Julian was a cuddler, a suffocating cuddler. I woke up with half of his body on top of my mine. I was practically suffocating and when I rolled over, my lungs thanked me for the extra air.
“Mmm…again,” he murmured, still half-asleep. His hand found my left boob and I rolled my eyes.
“You don’t get sex before I get breakfast. Now get up and let’s go find a bagel.”
“You’re so high maintenance.” He laughed, rolling over and stretching his arms above his head.
HELLO, NAKED JULIAN.
The man was all toned, tan skin and six-pack abs. I wanted to lick him from his toes to his forehead, but more than that, I wanted a bagel and some damn cream cheese.
“C’mon, c’mon, c’mon. I’m hungry.”
He groaned and threw the blankets off, and my eyes bulged out of my head a little bit. The man needed to warn people before he just stripped down like that. I was momentarily dumbstruck as I took in the contour of his abs and the curve of everything that lay below.
“Jo, my eyes are up here,” he joked.
My face turned the color of a Cherry Icee and I promptly turned away from him to examine his hotel closet.
“I’m stealing a t-shirt and then I’m going to leave this apartment to hunt down food. My stomach is eating itself as we speak.”
Julian’s hand wrapped around my waist and then he pulled me back against his chest. His palm splayed out on my stomach and then he inched lower. My stomach dipped and my knees buckled. Traitorous body.
“Nope. No,” I said, resisting the temptation to give in to his pursuit. “If that hand moves any lower, I’m going to karate chop you.”
It moved lower and my body betrayed me. My stomach was like, “Meh, I can wait to eat,” and my girly parts were like, “HELL YEAH, this is a great idea.” And that’s the story of how Julian banged me on the floor of his closet with his suits and ties judging us from above.
Our breakfast turned into a stroll through Central Park and then a lunch. I eventually made an excuse about having to do laundry (yeah, right) and cleaning (ha ha) and we parted ways after a breath-stealing kiss.
As soon as I stepped away from him and walked to the subway, the last twenty-four hours started to set in. The same parts of my brain that had pushed me to sleep with Julian were now firing off insecurities and worries at a pace of 1000 thoughts per second. Were you sexy enough? Did you make enough sexy sounds? Did you make too many sexy sounds, thus coming across as a crazy porn star? Did giving him a blowjob seem cool and hot or just plain desperate? Did you come across too needy or were you cool and casual?
Cool New York girls can have sex without emotions. They are confident and strong. They don’t second-guess their decisions and they don’t question what a man wants. YES. That’s me! I’m cool and confident!
I walked a little quicker to the subway after that with my head held high and my shoulders pushed back. I could have broken out into a choreographed dance routine if only I’d had backup dancers with me.
Unfortunately, that confidence had dwindled sometime during my various REM cycles because by Monday morning, my take-no-shit attitude was gone.
After I finished getting ready, and stuffed a breakfast bar and an apple into my purse, I