makes my lungs seize up in a way I wasn’t expecting.
Yes, he’s dressed in all black, but what I failed to see when I was lounging in a world of addictive and gripping fiction is that his threads are also different. He’s dressed in black slacks, a black shirt with the sleeves now rolled up, exposing his thick muscular forearms. He looks so damn sexy but dangerous in a way that’s not even fictional.
It’s real.
The only color I see is from the hardened, cold crystals of his green eyes that are watching me, taking me in the same way I’m looking at him. He’s seems larger than life in a way I can’t explain.
“Love what you see?” he demands tersely, the impatience in his voice makes me shudder again. “Because I fucking crave what I’m looking at. I love your hair. I love everything about you.”
Jesus, He doesn’t have to disarm me like that.
“I don’t feel the same.”
“You don’t?” he asks, his voice dangerously soft.
“Yes,” I mutter. “The last time I really laid my eyes on you and saw you, you were wrapped in bandages, recovering from burns and a broken arm and sweet empty nothings that give me nightmares still.”
“Nightmares? You think you’re the only one who’s been suffering al this time, Mia?” he demands. “Because the last time I saw you, you had just been shot, fighting an asshole of a father, with your body in all sorts of bruises and aches!”
“Yes, and knowing all that I was going through, you still left!” I shout. “You disappeared on me, just because you were butt hurt that I didn’t kiss you when you wanted me to!”
In a few strides, he’s right back in front of me, but this time, he’s careful not to touch me. His fists are clenched at his sides. A bit of fear awakens in my stomach, but then he slowly unfurls his right hand and then he slowly reaches up… and starts tracing the outline of my bottom lip with the pad of his thumb.
“You have no idea the things I’d do for these lips,” he whispers roughly. “I told you there’d be consequences because of these lips and guess what, the consequences came.”
I gasp, my lips parting at the way he’s touching me. This, his thumb on my lips, it’s the only connection we have right now, and I feel like I’m drowning.
“Do those connections include stalking me, breaking into my apartment in the middle of the night then seducing me until I lose my mind and let you fuck me while I just laid there.”
“If it makes it better to deal with how much you fucking ache for me, then sure,” he says. “And just so we’re clear, you were not just lying there. You met me thrust for thrust, Little Minx.” He leans down, holding my gaze as his free arm snakes it’s way around my waist again, but this time, he gives me an opportunity to step back and when I don’t, he smirks. “These sweet lips begged me to make you come. You screamed my name when I did. You raised these hips and welcomed me home, that greedy tight pussy of your clenching with desperation for me.”
God. Julian was made for sex.
He was made to drive women wild but if people died from verbal stimulation taken from a retelling of a night I wish I could forget and yet I love to recall, then I would’ve stopped breathing seconds ago.
Instead, my heart is pounding so freaking hard, I’m sure he can feel it.
“Is that all you remember?” I breathe, “Screwing me when I had received some fucking shocking news on my birthday?”
“What news?” he demands, stepping back.
Oh. He doesn’t know about this tidbit, does he?
“You saw me read that text,” I mutter. “Don’t act like you didn’t see it.”
I see the tension in his shoulders fade as he visibly relaxes in front of my eyes.
“Oh that,” he mutters. Then he walks toward the well-stocked bar and proceeds to fix fucking drinks like he’s a damn bartender.
“What do you mean by that, you jerk?” I demand.
“It means I know the text because I sent it.”
And with that catastrophic bomb, everything and I do mean everything seems to go up in flames.
“You?” I stutter. “It was you?”
Julian looks at me, capturing and holding my gaze with his force of will alone.
“I think you have this ability to brush off what I tell you when I actually mean it, Mia. It’s a