Chapter 11
Finn
She was wound so tight. Something had happened since the restaurant; I didn’t know what it was, but I would get it out of her eventually. At dinner, she’d been quietly unhappy, but when she came into the hotel room, she was scowling, her shoulders hunched in a painful line. I hadn’t unearthed all of the reasons why yet, but Juliet’s mind almost never had a moment’s peace.
As badly as I wanted her—and I wanted her very fucking much—I wanted to give her peace even more. At least, I wanted to try.
Her lips parted as I touched her face, tracing the lines of her features into my memory, as if they weren’t already there. I watched her scowl disappear under my touch as her features smoothed out. Her blond hair fell back on the pillow. She was seducing me, fighting me, and driving me wild in a Juliet vortex of energy that could do everything at once. I wondered when the last time she’d been touched was. I wondered if it had been even half this good. I wondered if she had any idea how much she liked being touched.
If I had my way, the only man to touch her would be me.
I took in her dark lashes against her cheeks, the shape of her upper lip, the shell of her ear with a silver stud in the lobe. Juliet didn’t need someone to fuck her. She needed someone to see her.
I leaned down to that perfect ear and spoke softly into it. “Relax,” I told her. “Let me handle it. Let me take over.”
She gasped. “Finn.” Her hips moved in a circle, making my spine go tight. I was alarmingly close to coming in my jeans because she was driving me crazy. I could practically scent how much she wanted me, but I had to man up and keep control.
I kissed her because I couldn’t resist tasting that soft mouth of hers. “We’re not going to fuck tonight,” I said against her lips, because Juliet needed words. “We’re going to do something else instead.”
“What—” She broke off, and though she didn’t open her eyes, her brows drew down, her face tightening. Thinking, thinking, preparing to fight.
I ran my hand over her throat again, along her jaw, and she sighed a breath through her parted lips. I waited until she relaxed again.
“Don’t stop,” she breathed.
I hesitated, thinking. My dick shouted Don’t stop, you fool! She said so herself! Don’t stop! I ignored it.
“Do you want me to ease things for you a little, Juliet?” I asked her.
Her reply was a harsh exhale.
I hadn’t planned on this, but I could improvise. I hadn’t planned much at all when I lied my way into this hotel room—I had only thought that after an evening of staying away from her, I needed to be close to Juliet. And if I knocked on her door like a gentleman, she’d tell me to fuck off and close the door in my face.
I’d planned as far as getting into the room and seeing her again. Beyond that, I’d had no idea.
What had happened was that Juliet needed something from me, so I’d give it.
I lowered my free hand and opened the button of her jeans. I lowered the zipper and eased my fingers inside, feeling my way along the hot, half-soaked fabric of her panties.
Juliet bucked beneath me, not to get away but to get closer, her back arching and a moan escaping her throat. She was mindless, uninhibited. I traced the map of her the best I could with my fingertips, finding what I could through the cotton, riding the line between too much pressure and too little, moving the pads of my fingertips in a circle. I might not get it quite right on the outside of her underwear. If I could push them aside, get my fingers on her skin, I could?—
Juliet came. She shouted, her body riding a wave as her nails dug into my back, her head tilted back, her eyes closed. I had never seen anything so hot or so perfect in my life as this woman suffused with pleasure, feeling it unravel in every line of her body against mine.
Slowly, she exhaled and lowered onto the bed again. I watched her features relax. Gritting my teeth at my own pain, I extracted my hand from her jeans.
She opened her eyes and looked at me, heavy-lidded. “Holy shit,” she said.
I felt my lips twist into a grin. If I was going to get credit for virtuoso skills, I would take it. I hadn’t done a whole heck of a lot, in truth. But she was looking at me like I was a genius, so I soaked it in.
“Okay,” she said slowly. She seemed to need to focus on forming words. “I’ll admit that was a good plan, Finn.”
I tried not to look too smug. “That wasn’t the plan,” I said.
She blinked slowly. “What?”
“That wasn’t the plan. That was just a bonus.” Unable to help myself, I added modestly, “You’re welcome.”
She was trying to follow, I could tell. I liked this Juliet, the one who wasn’t fighting, who couldn’t outsmart me because I’d orgasmed her into a stupor. “So what are we doing?”
The answer came to me, clearly and perfectly formed. The right answer. “Something you need almost as much as you needed that.” I pushed myself up—reluctantly—and sat on the edge of the bed. My balls were in agony, but that was the price I’d pay tonight. “Get up and get dressed.”
“Get dressed?” She was more awake now. She propped herself on her elbows and looked down at herself, as if she’d forgotten she was wearing clothes. “I’m already dressed.”
“Change that shirt.” I didn’t like the buttoned-up blouse on her. She looked good in everything, but that shirt wasn’t Juliet. “Put on something comfortable that you can move in.”
She sat fully upright as I stood. “Where are we going?”
“Get changed,” I said, smiling. “You’ll see.”