The way his thumbs gently pressed into her stomach caused another warming sensation to find a place in her chest.
“I’m okay. Sorry. Keep going with your story,” she urged.
“Nah.” Julian’s hands left her body and he stood up. “My stories aren’t that entertaining. I’d rather spend time doing something else.”
With the tilt of her head, she breathed, “Oh?”
He held out his hand to her. “Yep.”
“Hang on a second.” She stood up from the patio chair and then bit her lip. “Do you still have that coin?”
Julian’s brows met before he reached into his pocket and took out the Thai coin. He gazed at it for a moment then placed it in her hand.
With a deep breath, Stevie placed it on her thumb, ready to flip it but not as ready to tell him the truth. Her heart beat faster. Her heart beat louder. The breaths she made didn’t provide her with oxygen, and she knew she couldn’t do it. “Not like this,” she declared in a small voice.
“Like what?”
“Julian, I have to tell you something.”
He gave her a smile. “Can it wait until after? I’m kind of desperate for you right now.”
“But—”
Julian took the coin and then cupped her face. The metal cooled the surface of her cheek. “I love you, Stephanie. Whatever you have to say won’t ever change that. You never have to be scared. We’ve made it this far, and I’m still going to be in love with you, okay? Every single goddamn day for the rest of my life I’m going to be in love with you.”
“You say the stupidest things,” she whispered as she wrapped her hands around his arms and lowered his lips to hers. The moment his tongue passed her lips and met hers, she could have sworn her knees lost their strength. She held on for dear life as he led her back into the apartment. Their mouths only broke contact for small gasps of air. Hands explored and moans were shared.
When she felt the wood of her bedroom door against her back, Stevie tore her right hand away from Julian’s waist and searched for the door handle. The moment she found it, she opened the door and pulled him inside. Frantic was below par. Desperate was almost the correct word to describe their actions as they undressed. Once they were both naked, Stevie placed her hands on Julian’s hips. She turned him and pushed him on the bed before she crawled on top of him.
It would be so easy to sink down onto him and get high off the feeling of being complete as he stretched her. But that wasn’t what she wanted just yet. First, she wanted to say a few things. She wanted to do a few things. Resting her left hand on the mattress, she propped herself up and used the index finger of her right hand to rest on the very tip of his ‘S’ tattoo. Julian flinched and had sucked in air sharply before he finally, and slowly, let it out.
With her own deep breath, she let her finger gently follow the curves of his tattoo. Back and forth, her finger traced. She felt Julian’s eyes on her as she kept hers on his tattoo.
“I never once thought about removing it,” he confessed in a whisper.
She stopped her finger’s movements and peeked up at him through her lashes. His beautiful blue eyes shone bright with love, and she smiled. “The idea crossed my mind once. But I could never do it. I just wanted to stop hurting, but that ‘J’ gave me more hope than pain.” Stevie bent down and pressed her lips on his tattoo. The approving groan from him had her heart expanding and filling with warmth. Then she pressed her lips against his collarbone, up the length of his neck, his jaw, and then she placed one last kiss just below his ear as she whispered, “I couldn’t remove it because I wanted to remember you. To keep you on my skin. I kept it because I love you.”
Julian grasped her hips and held her in place. “Stephanie, please get on the pill. I need to feel you and make love to you like I did in Thailand,” he said in a heavy and hoarse voice.
When she reached over to the bedside table, his hold on her loosened. Stevie picked up a condom wrapper and ripped it open with her teeth. “Monday. I’ll see my doctor then,” she promised.