Chapter Sixteen Luca #2
Luca’s are long and spindly, much like the rest of her. Calluses from years of holding a racket shape her palms and fingers, but as she applies pressure and slides slowly down from Juliette’s shoulder blades, they couldn’t be more perfect.
“Can I go underneath your bra?” Luca asks.
Juliette nods, her skin tingling.
Luca dips her hands underneath and kneads into the tense muscles in the center of her back before she caresses her hands down the dip of her spine, stopping before her lower back.
“Is this okay?” Luca asks, kneading her thumbs into twin tight knots on either side of her spine.
It is glorious . Juliette moans something entirely incoherent.
Luca chuckles, sweeping her hands up and digging her thumbs into the meat of Juliette’s aching shoulders.
Juliette buries her face into the pillow and closes her eyes. Luca’s warm hands don’t move from her shoulders until the knots come loose and Juliette’s shoulders sag.
“There we go,” Luca whispers, so quiet that Juliette almost misses it.
“Relax, Jules,” she murmurs. The curve of her nickname on Luca’s lips sends a shiver down her spine.
It’s familiar, but far more intimate being said by Luca than anyone else.
Juliette’s thoughts go fuzzy, every defense slackening.
More oil, slightly cold, drizzles onto her back, and Juliette sucks in a sharp breath.
Luca’s warm hands are quick to return, splayed wide.
Luca follows the contours of Juliette’s body, hands gliding across her skin tenderly, reverently.
She uses her thumbs to drive a hard line on either side of her spine, but her fingertips stroke against her ribs.
Juliette twitches and bites the pillow to keep from squeaking. She sucks in a breath, trying to keep her ribs from Luca’s imploring fingers.
“Ticklish?” Luca asks teasingly, and Juliette stubbornly shakes her head.
Luca does the motion again, fingertips digging into Juliette’s skin, and she gasps out a laugh, more fluttering against her chest as she desperately bites it back. Luca chuckles too and finally takes mercy on her, returning her splayed hands to the arc of her shoulders.
Luca is careful. Slow. Deliberate. She works along the subtle grooves of Juliette’s muscles, the dip of her waist, and the knobs of her bones.
Her fingers sweep beneath the thin fabric of the bandeau, and her touch causes sparks to scamper across Juliette’s skin.
It’s intimate, soft, but Juliette longs for a return to her lower back, where tightness is becoming more apparent.
Luca turns her right hand over, and her knuckles drag down the ridge of Juliette’s spine, entirely too light. Juliette’s breath hitches as Luca’s hand goes lower and lower until she stops at the band of Juliette’s shorts.
“Is this okay?” Luca asks again, her knuckles lifting to barely touch.
Juliette hums her approval.
“I can’t hear you,” Luca says, voice gravelly and teasing. Her thumb traces random shapes against her skin.
A shiver ripples up Juliette’s spine, desire snaking through her, and she turns her head to look at Luca. She’s staring at Juliette, intensely focused, like she’s on court.
“Luca, please,” Juliette rasps.
Luca inhales sharply and swallows. She lays her hands flat on Juliette’s lower back, her thumbs dangerously close to sliding beneath her shorts.
Juliette wishes she would.
Luca digs in and presses her weight into the tense muscles spasming there. Juliette bites the pillow as the heat builds beneath her skin, pushing the tension and agony out.
She can’t stop moaning. It’s torturously good. She knows what this must sound like, but she doesn’t care. And just when she thought Luca’s fingertips couldn’t dig deeper, they do. It’s like she’s carving out the hurt herself, encouraging warmth to grow instead.
Luca’s fingers skim right, toward her hip, and pain blooms where there was once exquisite pleasure. Juliette jolts, head jerking up so fast her vision bursts with black spots.
“Hey,” Luca says, her hands soothing down her back, grounding Juliette. It’s comforting as the pain fades away. “Tender spot?” she asks, her knees shifting as she finds a better position to look.
“Yeah, that hurt,” Juliette says.
Luca clicks her tongue, and the pad of her thumb brushes over the spot. It’s a light touch, not enough to hurt, but Juliette flinches anyway. “There’s a bruise,” Luca says, “I’m sorry I missed it.” Her other hand is still tracing looping circles up and down her back.
Juliette drops her head back down into the pillow. “It’s fine.”
“Tell me if this hurts, okay?”
Luca waits until Juliette gives a verbal confirmation and then she begins to trace the outline of the bruise. She spirals out, gently applying more pressure as she goes.
“It’s all right. I think the pain startled me,” Juliette says, swallowing hard. Her body is nearly boneless, but her mind is struggling with the intimacy of this. The tenderness and softness.
Luca hums softly and doesn’t stop her soothing touches up and down her back.
Her other hand spirals away from Juliette’s bruised hip, and she starts another line up her spine.
She doesn’t stop at her shoulders, though; her hands cup the back of Juliette’s neck.
“I can feel you thinking,” Luca whispers, her breath warm against Juliette’s shoulder.
Juliette starts to grit her teeth, but Luca’s thumb scoops into the base of her neck and wriggles upward.
It’s such a shocking sensation that her jaw drops, pleasure clouding her mind, and she can’t stop the way she mewls under Luca’s touch.
It’s hot like an oven and Juliette is butter, melting into liquid.
Luca maneuvers her thumbs to curve in the dips behind Juliette’s ears, and her eyes roll.
This is orgasmic.
Juliette tries to turn her face away, heat burning on her cheeks, but Luca’s oil-slick fingers catch her chin. She could easily turn away, but she doesn’t want to—not with Luca staring at her with naked, unbridled longing.
Luca’s chest rises and falls shallowly. Then her thumb reaches up and brushes against Juliette’s lower lip, and without thinking, Juliette’s tongue darts out. She just misses, but she gets the not entirely unpleasant taste of coconut.
“Oh,” Luca whispers, “you’re beyond gorgeous, Jules.”
When Juliette turns her head this time, Luca lets her.
The compliment is like whiskey down her throat—it’s pleasant but still stings.
She isn’t shy about her looks, and she knows she’s conventionally attractive; enough men and women have fallen all over her to ensure she has no self-confidence issues.
But the way Luca says it… it’s as if she’s seeing the sun for the first time.
Awed, beguiled, completely taken aback by the depth of beauty.
The power they hold over each other is an intimidating anchor, and Juliette never realized it until this moment.
Luca wants her.
Juliette realizes she wants Luca too, with every fiber of her being. She wants Luca’s hands on her skin, caressing her, warming her, relaxing the tension out of her.
Juliette’s eyes water, and she bites the pillow again. This has to be purely physical. Her body is reacting to whatever magical connection soulmates have. She knows it’s natural to feel this way, enhanced by their proximity.
Luca doesn’t stop massaging her neck, but she doesn’t say anything else, and Juliette is grateful. Despite whatever tension hangs between them, Luca must sense how overwhelmed Juliette is. It’s building in her chest, and she nearly chokes on it.
Maybe being physical with Luca wouldn’t be the end of the world or her career. Juliette is no stranger to no-strings sex and friends with benefits.
Luca adds more oil and does another luxurious pass over her back. All coherent thought flakes away. When Luca gets to her hip, she swirls in gently, the pressure lessening as she reaches the edges of the pained area.
Heat grows, white-hot and all-consuming, and by the time Luca moves her hands to Juliette’s other hip, it’s as if she never had any pain. She smooths her hands over Juliette’s left hip, taking as much time and care in warming and loosening as she did with the injured one.
Her hands lift and Juliette melts into the bed, certain she’ll never be able to move again. Frankly, she doesn’t want to.
“Thank you,” Juliette murmurs, and Luca shifts off her, plopping down beside her. “I think you turned my limbs to jelly,” she says into the cotton, and Luca laughs. Warmth blooms in her stomach at the sound.
She turns her face toward Luca. “I feel like I should return the favor,” she murmurs, watching Luca fiddle with her fingers, picking at the skin around her thumbs. Juliette groans as she gets to her knees and then sits beside her.
“You technically started this by helping with my sunburn.” Luca refuses to look at Juliette. “Want me to massage your wrist?” she asks, disarming Juliette again.
Juliette doesn’t know what to say. Her instinct is to plead, yes, God, please yes . But she’s terrified of this raw feeling in her chest. And terrified that something could happen to her wrist again.
“It’s okay if you don’t want me to touch you anymore, I can go,” Luca says quickly, misunderstanding Juliette’s silence.
“No,” Juliette says, fumbling with the word, so she lays her hand over Luca’s knee.
Luca’s eyes widen as she freezes. There are flecks of green in the gilded hazel of her irises that Juliette never noticed before. They’ve never been this close.
“I would like that,” Juliette says, slowly lifting her hand from Luca’s knee and holding out her aching wrist.