Chapter 24
Connecting
Noah
Jules and I studied my fully stocked fridge, which had been a barren desert of food just days ago when I’d headed north. I’d planned on grocery shopping this week, but it looked like I could skip that now.
After some debate, we settled on making something low-key for dinner. I sent off a text to Ivy and Jake in thanks for the gift of grocery shopping while Jules discovered a loaf of homemade sourdough from a local baker that they’d left. With that we decided egg sandwiches would hit the spot.
There was no other way to describe it. Being with Jules was easy—here, at my parents’ place, driving in the car, cooking, hanging out, entertaining my daughter.
She was no bullshit, as some of the guys would say—what you saw was what you got.
And, most importantly, she didn’t play games.
It might be hard for her to voice some of her thoughts, but that wasn’t because she was purposefully holding back, and frankly that was refreshing from the stories I’d heard.
It was why Ivy and I had worked for as long as we did when really our chemistry was more friends than something romantic.
Both of us were authentically ourselves, for better or for worse, and that was all I had time for in my life.
Jules synced her phone with my speakers, and we took turns playing albums we loved to see what each other’s reactions were to our favorite artists.
I loved watching her let loose, dancing around my kitchen.
I learned she hadn’t met a Taylor Swift era that she didn’t love.
I thought the artist was a good songwriter, but my favorites tended to be more like the Killers, or Kings of Leon.
We both also loved some older stuff, but it was fun just to be surprised as to what came on next.
After a few hours of our own private game of guess the song or artist, the kitchen was cleaned up, our bellies were full, and Jules was laughing as she held up her phone.
“One more, one more.” She shot me a mischievous look and then hit Play, placing her phone down and leaning back against the counter while she watched me, waiting for the song to begin.
“I feel like this is some sort of test.”
“Might be,” she said with a shrug. “Have to know you recognize good music.”
“That should already be established,” I said.
However, I was willing to give the song a fair evaluation.
I stood still, eyes trained to the floor, and waited to see what she had for me.
The humming caught my attention first. Then clapping joined with a few instruments.
As the voice started, my eyes shot to hers. “Hozier?”
She nodded. “Song title?”
A few more beats in and I had it. “‘Work Song.’” I stepped to her and slid my arms around her waist, pulling her to me. “Great song, great artist. Did I pass?”
“Debatable. This is on the playlist for my current book. Actually, I think it’s been on the playlists for all of them so far.” She looked up at me with a bright smile. “It’s weird to talk about my hobby with anyone.”
“Weird good?”
“Absolutely.”
I pulled her in to do somewhat of a slow dance as we stood together in the kitchen.
As I listened to the song, I also soaked in the feeling of Jules in my arms. If I wanted to be like one of her heroes once they’d fallen, I could expound on the rightness of this moment.
In truth, I was falling far faster than I was ready for, but that was a problem for later.
“Pretty romantic song if you can get past the whole death part.”
“Do you think he’s really dead, or is it just a metaphor for hard work?” she asked while we swayed together.
“I mean, he’s talking about his love for her allows him to crawl home to her from his grave,” I mused. “Maybe I’m being too literal?”
“It’s romantic.” She sighed. “I want that.”
I stilled. “How so?”
I felt Jules stiffen, maybe not realizing she’d said that last part aloud. “Well…” She let that just hang there, likely debating what to say.
“Speak up, Jules.” My heart was beating so strong there was no way she couldn’t feel it through my chest.
Jules cleared her throat, then looked up with a new determination in her eyes. “It’s what I write about, Noah. And now that I know you’ve been reading my books, I’m guessing you know that. I write heroes who fall first, who will do anything for their heroine.”
I hadn’t looked at her books like that, but now that she mentioned it, I could see it. And this song fell right into that theme. However… Fuck.
“I’m a dad, Jules. Not that I’ve always been a good one.” I braced, not entirely sure what I was saying but feeling like it didn’t fit what she wanted.
She gave me a sad smile. That wasn’t a good sign, was it? “Noah, you are a good dad. You are now, and you were back then. You need to be kinder to yourself.”
Okay. Not terrible. “I’ll work on it, but still—”
She held up a hand. “I know what you meant. And I don’t think putting Addie first means I’m last. I mean, we’re just starting out here after all.
That being said, I don’t think it would be great parenting to say the woman you’ve known for less than a month should become more important than your child. ”
Valid point.
“And while I’m stating what I think is important…” Jules looked uncertain, but she kept going. “And jumping to a lighter topic, though not one easy for me to talk about necessarily, I think a healthy sex life is vitally important.”
“You have my attention,” I said, my voice coming out deeper than usual as I watched this beautiful woman speak up when I knew it made her uncomfortable to do so.
“And our first time together was only two days ago, but it feels like it has been far longer than that.” She looked up at me imploringly.
Oh yeah. I knew what she was insinuating here.
Did I want to push her to say everything that was on her mind, or did I want to throw her over my shoulder and hightail it to my bedroom?
Both options had merit, though I was leaning toward the latter, and Lord knew my cock was on board with that option as well.
Decision made, I was helping her get to the point so we could get horizontal. The woman had already brought up the subject—she didn’t need to do all the work here.
“I think I’ve got it, Jules. You’re saying we should make sure the first time wasn’t a fluke?” I asked, giving her a wide smile to let her know I had zero concern that it had been a fluke.
She looked at me in relief as she nodded.
Damn, I was ready for a repeat. Just kissing the woman got me hard.
Our chemistry had been great, in my opinion, because even though we hadn’t known each other long, we were absolutely getting there.
Knowing her, caring about her, made everything hotter.
Add to that the experiences we’d been through together, which had accelerated our bond.
Damn. I was on board to head upstairs now.
Songs from Hozier had been playing randomly since we started talking, and now “Too Sweet” was coming out over the speaker. Jules slid her hand under my T-shirt, running her fingers up my chest as she looked at me from under her lashes.
“So Noah,” she said as she rose up on her toes to press a kiss to my neck. “How should we go about finding out if our first time was a fluke?” She sank back down and gave me an innocent smile, though the thoughts it inspired were far from pure.
Option two it was. Let’s go.
“Put this in your books, Jules,” I murmured to her as I bent to get her stomach on my shoulder, and up she went.
“Noah!” She smacked my ass from her upside-down position as I headed toward the stairs, pausing by the front door to lock it as I went.
“Now, kitten,” I said as I adjusted her to have a better hold while telling myself this was a little over the top. “I don’t think you write BDSM books, correct?” I laughed as I headed up to my bedroom and swatted her butt in response. “Do you really want to explore spanking?”
“What?” She sounded aghast, which was also fun. I could just imagine her expression.
We reached my room, and I lowered her to her feet. Her hair was framing her face, which was a bit rosy from the brief time upside down. In other words, she was gorgeous as usual.
“I’m not into BDSM,” she said, and I had a feeling her red face wasn’t only to do with her ride on my shoulder.
“I was kidding.”
“I mean, an occasional swat on the ass like that…” Now she looked even more embarrassed, which would be fun to explore later.
“I’ve got you, kitten.” I kept my eyes locked on hers and grabbed the hem of my shirt before pulling it over and off, dropping it on the floor. Jules watched it fall, then mirrored my actions with the removal of both her baggy top and the tank that was below.
What followed was a speedy round of follow the leader. I removed my pants; her leggings went. Socks were next, until we stood in front of each other in our underwear, my boxer briefs making it all too apparent what I thought of this situation as my cock strained to get out.
“Well, Mr. Lawson, I think you’re happy to see me,” Jules said, stepping forward and tentatively reaching out to cup my cock.
“Oh no, Ms. Jules,” I said, grabbing her hand and moving it to my chest. “If you get ahold of me, it will be all she wrote, and as we know, your heroines always come first.”
“Does it count if I’ve almost gotten there three times since we started the conversation downstairs?”
“Nope.” I moved toward her, then reached around and quickly unclasped her bra before tossing it over my shoulder. “Shed those,” I said with a nod at her lacy pink underwear, and I kicked mine down and to the floor somewhere behind me while she did the same.