13. Smiling Isn’t on the Radar
WHAT THE FUCK is happening to me?
Not only am I grabbing Julieanne”s thigh like I can somehow magically keep her at my side forever, but I also just threatened to stuff my cock in her mouth to shut her up.
And the worst part of the whole fucking thing is, she doesn”t look upset about any of it.
Dragging my hand away from the soft cushion of her body, I grit my teeth at how much the loss of contact bothers me. The need to reach for her again is overwhelming and I clench my fingers into a tight fist, fighting myself. I don’t deserve to touch her. Not now.
I almost let her get hurt. No. I almost fucking let her get killed. If she hadn”t—
My stomach rolls and I have to stop before I lose my shit. Again. Unfortunately, stopping is always easier said than done when Julieanne is around.
As evidenced by the next word that comes out of my mouth. ”Radar.”
Julieanne”s brows pinch together. ”What?”
”My cat’s name. It”s Radar.” I try to stop there and fail. ”I watched a lot of MASH when I was a kid.”
It”s a part of the story no one knows because I don’t share it. Do my best to never dwell on myself. I manage to grind my teeth together, stopping myself from offering more.
Her brows lift. ”MASH?”
I risk a peek her way and immediately regret it. She”s so fucking beautiful. Everything about her looks so sweet and soft and warm, and I fucking crave it like air. Almost as much as I crave the other side of her. The one that isn”t afraid of me. The one that challenges me at every turn. ”Don”t act like you”re not old enough to know what MASH is.”
”Don”t pretend you don”t know exactly how old I am.” Julieanne relaxes back in her seat, blinking slow enough that I know she could fall asleep in an instant under the right circumstances. ”And yes, I know what MASH is. It just seems a little too on point for you.”
”I”m about as far from a doctor as it gets, Jules.” My fist clenches tighter when I almost reach for her again. ”I don”t save people. I kill them.” She hasn”t technically seen me do it, but she knows damn well it happens. Has happened in the past thirty minutes. Three times.
A fact which still seems like it”s not fazing her.
”Are you seriously trying to be this literal?” She rolls her eyes, like I”m the most ridiculous person she”s ever met. ”You know exactly what I meant.”
I do know what she meant. I also know that she’s even more right than she knows. And, because my mouth and brain act independently when they’re in her presence, I start to tell her how much she doesn’t know. ”When I joined the military, my plan was to become a surgeon.”
I expect her to be shocked. Surprised at how far I”ve fallen. But she just looks me over, full lips pressed in an appraising line. ”I could see that.”
She might not have been surprised, but I am. I glance her way, half expecting her to have been teasing me, but she looks serious. ”Really?”
She nods. ”Sure. You”re arrogant enough to be a surgeon.” Her eyes dip to the fist clenched between us. ”And good enough with your hands.”
My face feels strange. Tight in an unfamiliar way. It”s not until Julieanne is beaming at me that I realize I smiled at her.
Fucking smiled.
I swear to God, I don’t even know who I am anymore.
I flatten it out and shoot her a glare, but she continues grinning, gracing me with the expression that first drew me in six months ago. ”Don”t look at me like that. I didn”t force you to smile. You did it all on your own.”
I turn back to the road, shifting my glare, but I don’t have to see Julieanne to know she’s still staring at me and still fucking smiling. I can feel it. It’s like the sun breaking free of the clouds. Warm. Blinding.
Consuming.
”Better be careful, Vincent. I”ll think flattery will get me everywhere with you.
”Don”t make me throw you out of the car.” There”s absolutely no bite to my threat. If anything, it almost sounds like I”m teasing her back. Which I”m not. I don”t tease.
I also don”t smile. That was a momentary lapse. Probably fucking gas or something.
”Whatever.” Julieanne doesn”t even pretend to be afraid of me. Not a single flicker of concern flashes across her gaze. Right up until her eyes drop to the floorboard. It’s only then her dark brows pinch together. ”I think I need to take the socks off.” She shifts around in the seat, scooting forward before bringing both feet up onto the dashboard. The position is a little too close to one I may or may not have imagined her in, and as much as I hate myself for it, I can”t stop my eyes from once again going her way.
She peels the layers of cotton off one foot, cringing a little when she finally gets it bare. She wiggles her perfect fucking toes, waving around the red painted tips like a fucking bullfighter. Daring me to come after them.
I”m ashamed to say that if I wasn”t driving, I probably would. I”d have them in my mouth, sucking hard as I pushed her knees higher so I could fuck her deeper.
”My feet are all pruny.” She continues with the toe wiggling. ”And I think I got frostbite.”
I reach across and grab the foot, wrapping my hand around those fucking infuriating toes. They’re cold, but nowhere near frostbitten.
Julieanne moans, angling her body my way. ”You”re so warm.” She goes to work peeling away the socks on the other foot and shamelessly props her leg across the console and drops that one into my lap. ”How are you so warm?”
I bite back a moan of my own as she burrows her second foot between my thighs, dangerously close to my fully hard cock. ”I”m warm because I didn”t run outside wearing nothing but a T-shirt and pajama pants.” I”m trying to chastise her, but all it does is remind me of the way her nipples looked against the wet fabric of her T-shirt. And now my cock is pushing painfully against the zipper of my pants. I shift in my seat, trying to ease the pressure, but only succeed in shifting Julieanne”s foot around until it’s pressing right against my length.
At first I think I”m the one responsible for the new placement, but then those fucking red toes drag against me. ”Julieanne.” Her name comes out strangled, but stern. A warning. What I”m warning her against, I don”t even know anymore.
”Vincent.” She says my name in the same tone and it brings that foreign stretch back to my face.
Another fucking smile.
No one’s teased me in decades. Even Heidi, the ornery lead hacker at Alaskan Security, doesn”t tease me. She might give me shit, but she doesn”t tease.
Julieanne teases me. Like I didn”t just kill three men for daring to step inside her home. For making her afraid. For touching what’s hers. If I could, I’d kill them again for forcing her to know what it”s like to take a life.
I”m tempted to call Amos to make sure the cleanup crew shoots all of them again. Just because.
”Well that was short-lived.” Julieanne’s fully angled my way now, legs across the console, feet in my lap. Her temple rests against the seat, eyes directly on me. ”You”ve got your angry eyes back on.”
”I don”t like that those fuckers were in your condo.” It”s an admission I wouldn”t give anyone else. Feelings are irrelevant, whether they”re good or bad. They haven”t had a place in my life in over forty years, and they shouldn”t have a place in it now.
But here we are, and I don”t really know how to handle it.
”Is that why you went back?”
Her question is soft—just like she is—and there is no way for me to keep from answering.
”Yes.”
She’s still looking at me and I”m still refusing to look at her, right up until she says, ”That”s really sweet of you.”
My attention whips her way. ”I”m not sweet, Angel Face.”
Again, she rolls her eyes at me. ”I know, I know.” The foot against my cock slides, splitting my attention between the wrongness of her statement, and the rightness of her touching me. ”You”re an asshole.”
I jerk my chin in a nod. ”That”s right.” My voice is rough. Ragged.
Her foot slides again, and I grab it tight, pinning it against me. Because if she keeps doing what she”s doing, I”m gonna pull my cock out and stroke it until I paint her pretty feet in my cum.
I might have done it anyway if we weren”t already pulling into the little airport just outside of Nashville where my plane will be landing.
Julieanne”s focus, thankfully, turns from torturing me to taking in the airfield. She sits up a little taller. ”This is the airport?”
”This is it.” I drive around to the hangar I arrived at less than forty-eight hours ago, pulling into the parking spot next to the open end and shutting off the engine.
Julieanne swings her feet out of my lap and turns to the door, like she”s about to get out so I shoot her a warning glare. ”Wait for me.” I stride around the back of the Suburban and go to her door, opening it before she does. She either has to put her soaked socks back on or walk across the lot barefoot, and neither of those are anything I”m going to allow. I turn my back to her and crouch down. ”Climb on.”
Julieanne laughs. ”Right. Really funny.” She pushes at my ass with her feet. ”Move so I can get out.”
”I”m not kidding, Angel Face. Get on.” She”s not walking across the blacktop barefoot. There”s no telling what she might step on, and her evening has been enough of a shit show as it is. She doesn”t need stitches to top it off. Especially since I might rip the arms off anyone who tries to touch her feet.
”Vincent, you can”t be–”
I”m tired of waiting. Tired of having her sit out here by an open door with the cold air soaking into her damp pants. ”Fine.” I turn back to face her, reaching in the opening to hook one arm behind her knees and the other at her back. ”If you want to be difficult, we can do this the hard way.”
She yelps, flailing a little as I haul her out of the seat, swinging her across my body. Once she”s out, I bounce a little, adjusting her position so my grip is better. As I do, she yelps, arms going around my neck like she thinks I”ll drop her. I snort. If I wasn”t going to let her feet touch this shit, I”m sure as hell not gonna let the rest of her touch it.
I kick the door closed and start toward the hangar. This specific one is only used by a very select group, so it’s designed to suit a more specific set of needs. The man sitting in the glassed-in office at the front of the building tips his head at me as I pass before going back to watching the bank of monitors in front of him. I carry Julieanne into the enclosed waiting room positioned right behind the office and set her down in one of the chairs lining the back wall. “I’m going to go get the rest of our shit from the car. Don’t move.”
She looks around the small space, her eyes going to the kitchenette in the corner. “Can I go over there to make coffee?”
I consider it for just a second, but then decide Julieanne probably needs pretty strict rules. She”s proven she’s not a great listener, so I don”t want her to feel like there”s any flexibility. ”No.” I straighten when she scoffs. ”I”ll make you coffee when I get back.”
I don”t wait for her to argue, because I know she will, and I can”t give her time. If I let her, she’ll pull me right back and we’ll stand here bickering like an old married couple for the next fifteen minutes.
Going straight out the door, I pause at the office, waiting for the guard inside to look at me. I point back at the room where Julieanne is sitting. ”She doesn”t go anywhere. If she gets out of that room, I’ll rip your arms off and beat you to death with them.” I start to walk away but stop, deciding I need to add another stipulation. ”If anyone goes in there, I’ll also rip your arms off and beat you to death with them.”
The guard looks surprisingly unfazed by my threat. Just nods and goes back to watching his monitors, none of which display the inside of the room where Julieanne sits. Knowing he’s not watching her calms the strange sensation crawling over my skin.
When he notices I’m still standing there, the guard lifts his brows, shooting me a look like I’m fucking annoying him. Like he doesn’t understand I’m capable of bringing his shift to a quick and brutal end.
Does everyone fucking doubt me?
”The fuck,” I grumble to myself as I go back to the SUV and collect my bags, slinging them over my shoulder before stalking back into the hangar. The guard gives me another bored look as I pass and I grit my teeth. He’s fucking lucky I’ve got more important things to deal with.
When I walk back into the waiting room, I”m shocked to see Julieanne is still where I left her. She sits in the chair, plucking at her pants, which are as damp as I suspected. After spending a couple nights outside her condo, I know exactly how wet the ground is, how quickly it can soak into your clothing if you aren”t careful. And I was not careful when I shoved her down into the brush. I was only thinking about hiding her. Keeping her safe.
Right before I walked away and let some other asshole get close to her.
Guilt eats at me, the bite just as foreign as the stretch of a smile. I drop the bags at her feet and crouch down, pulling out a pair of sweatpants I packed to sleep in back when I was feeling confident this trip would be what I expected. ”Stand up.”
She goes to her feet surprisingly fast. My focus has been on getting her warm and dry, not the specifics of the process involved, so I have her ruined pajama pants dragged to her knees before realizing our positions put me face to face with the temptation of her cunt.
My hands stall out, stopping as I stare at the perfect little triangle of dark hair trying to reel me in. Enticing me to find out if she tastes just as sweet as she looks.
I stare long enough I know she notices, and I”m only half surprised when Julieanne’s soft voice warns me, ”Let me help.”
Before I can brace myself, she”s wiggling. Shimmying in a way that sends her pants dropping to the floor. Then she lifts one leg, detangling her foot from the pile while also giving me an even better view of her flushed flesh.
Before she can drop her foot back to the floor, I grab her thigh, holding it in midair. Her hands grip my shoulders, steadying herself as I continue staring. Her breathing gets faster. More ragged. The fingers on my shoulders flex, holding tight. My mouth waters in anticipation and my cock’s back to pressing painfully against the fly of my pants.
”Is something wrong, Vincent?” That hint of a tease is back in her husky voice, but this time it”s more of a taunt. Just like when I had her pinned against the wall of her bedroom.
”Yeah, something’s wrong.” It”s a huge fucking understatement. There”s so much wrong right now. And every bit of it centers on her.
”Maybe this will be easier if I sit down.” Julieanne slides to the chair, rocking back a little. My hand’s still gripping her thigh, holding it open as she lifts her other foot from her ruined pants in a move that spreads her wide to my hungry gaze. ”There. Better?”
Every bit of her is pink and perfect and more temptation than I’ve ever faced in my life. I drag my eyes to her face. ”It”s not better, and you fucking know it.” She knows what she”s doing to me. Knows the power she has over me. This woman might be sweet, but she”s so far from innocent it”s not even funny.
”Oh. Well in that case.” Julieanne holds my gaze as she tries to bring her legs together. To hide herself from me. To steal the object of my desire.
Grabbing her other thigh and shoving it to the side, I open her wider than she was before, and growl, ”Don”t you fucking dare.”
Then I lower my open mouth to her body.