Chapter 20 #2
I see the way he is—letting his hardness show through, unafraid of letting the darkness take control. And I want that. With Julian, I can let go of all the tension and anger and resentment I’m carrying and be free.
“Can we…be alone somewhere?” I ask, glancing around.
His brow furrows as he stares back at me, uncertainty hidden behind his scowl. “Uh, sure.”
“Or would you prefer me tied to that wall?” I snap with sarcasm.
Julian looks offended, as if I’ve slapped him, which is exactly the reaction I was going for.
“What the hell was that for?” he argues.
“Fuck it,” I grunt. “You don’t want to see me, then I’ll leave.”
I stomp away, but his hand clamps around my arm, yanking me back toward him. “Jesus, what has gotten into you?” Then, before he gives me a chance to answer, he adds, “Just follow me.”
As he marches away from me, I follow with a sense of irritation under my skin. It’s all directed at me, of course. Not him. I’m the reason I get this attitude. I’m the reason I give people whiplash with my mood swings.
Julian shows me to a locked room around the perimeter of the club.
Using a key card from his pocket, he unlocks it easily.
Once inside, he turns on the light. It’s dim with a blue light illuminating from the ceiling.
Around the room, the walls are lined with mirrors, so everywhere I look, I see myself.
How tragically ironic.
“What’s going on?” he asks as he turns toward me. His sullen expression is replaced with one of pity, and I feel like an ass for being so rude to him.
“I was bored, so I came here to find you. You didn’t seem very happy to see me.”
“Bullshit,” he snaps. His full, pink lips are pressed in a flat line. “What’s really going on?”
A laugh builds in my chest, and when it comes out, it feels like a lie. Nothing is funny right now. In fact, the only joke around here is me.
“I don’t want to talk,” I say. My arms hang by my sides. “I know I said I did, but I’m already in my fucking head, and I hate it, and I really don’t want to face it anymore, so could you just…distract me for a minute?”
Julian stares at me for a moment, his eyes so harsh and cruel. I’m reminded suddenly that Julian does not want to be a nice or comforting guy. He’s the same guy who wanted to call the cops on me the minute we met—even though he didn’t. He nearly cost Freya her job—but he didn’t.
I don’t believe true villains exist, but if they did, Julian would fit the bill.
Why the hell I came to him for comfort, I don’t know.
Maybe because I know it’s all for show. I’ve seen the gentle man beneath the menacing facade. He’s not as heartless as he wants everyone to think he is.
In fact, it would appear that Julian and I are complete opposites. I have the playful exterior with the dark moods, while he tries to appear cruel to the world…with a heart of fucking gold.
Slowly, he eats up the space between us, stepping up to me and placing his hands on my chest. Without a word, he slides my coat from off my shoulders.
I expect him to touch me some more, and honestly, with the way I’m feeling, he could do anything. Instead, he gazes into my eyes.
“Why wouldn’t you go to Freya? What makes you think I’m the right person to do that?” The tone of his voice isn’t snarky or bitter.
“Why not?”
“What exactly about me says comforting?” he asks, and it makes me laugh. Then we’re both laughing.
“Nothing, Julian. Nothing about you says comforting, but I wasn’t exactly looking for comfort, if you know what I mean.”
“I know what you want,” he answers, his expression tight with confusion. “But…is this okay? I mean…wouldn’t she be hurt?”
I take a step toward him, bringing my mouth to his neck. “I’ll make it up to her later.”
Julian is a bit shorter than me, so I have to lean over to kiss his neck. His back arches as he leans into me, letting me suck on the skin below his ear.
“But you and I are dating too, aren’t we?” I ask as my lips travel to the front of his throat and over to the other side. “We’re not just two guys dating the same girl.”
He makes a sound, not really a yes or a no. Just a sound.
“Right?” I ask, leaning back and staring into his eyes.
I watch his throat move as he swallows. His eyes soften with desire in them, and it makes my cock twitch in my pants. “Yes,” he mumbles.
Taking his face in my hands, I crash my lips against his, licking into his mouth and making him gasp loudly. His arms wrap around my neck as he bends to my will, letting me dive into him, letting me take pleasure from his body.
This is nothing like the kisses on the couch that night. If my intensity is frightening him, he’s not showing it. Instead, he shoves me toward the bed. As the backs of my legs hit it, I crash onto my ass, taking him with me.
Julian straddles my hips and stops kissing me long enough to stare at me. His eyes drink me in as if he’s looking for something, and maybe that something is recognition. He’s searching for the Archer he knows, not the broody, broken mess of a man who showed up at his club tonight.
His ring-fingered hand grips my chin. “You and I would be terrible together,” he says, and the despondent sound of his voice breaks my heart. “We’re both too moody. It would never work.”
I hate that he said that. I don’t want to know that my shadows would ruin something potentially beautiful, but I think he’s right. He and I, only he and I, would be terrible together.
Grabbing his wrist, I gaze into his eyes as I take his middle finger in my mouth. It reaches the back of my throat, and I fight the urge to gag as my teeth close around the thick silver ring near his knuckle.
His lips part, and he’s watching me with lust in his eyes as I pull his finger out of my mouth, sliding the ring off until it’s all that’s left between my teeth. My tongue toys with it for a moment, tasting the metal and feeling the floral design etched into it.
As I take the ring from my mouth, I inspect it. Then, as I slip it onto my pinkie finger, I say, “I guess it’s a good thing we have Freya to balance us. Because I’m not letting you go.”
With a gentle expression on his face, Julian clings to my neck and kisses me fiercely again. My arms wrap around him, wrestling him to the bed and moving on top.
I know what Julian is saying is true, but I also know that I’m falling for him.
Incompatible or not, I want him. I like the stoic armor he’s always wearing.
I adore his cool standoffishness. I want to be the lucky person who gets to slip behind the curtain and feel his soft warmth that proves he has a soul.
With my mouth devouring his lips and jaw, I unbutton his shirt. He’s tearing at mine from the back.
“What are we doing? We can’t have sex without Freya,” he gasps as I get the last button undone.
“I know that,” I reply breathlessly. “I just need to feel your skin.”
Tearing open his shirt reveals his pale, warm chest. I press my face to it, breathing in the softness of his skin. His long fingers weave into my hair, holding me to him in a comforting embrace.
Rubbing my rigid length against his with our pants between us has us both groaning. Suddenly desperate to feel him, I sit upright and start tearing at his belt and zipper.
His chest is heaving, and my heart is pounding as I rip off his pants. It gets awkward when I reach his shoes, but he kicks those off haphazardly in a desperate attempt to get naked. While he does that, I undo my own pants and shuck off my last shred of clothes.
The moment I drape my naked body over Julian’s, our lips find each other, and we both let out a hum of pleasure. His legs hook around my hips, our cocks aligned and pressed between our bodies.
As we continue rutting against each other, the drops of precum from both of our cocks provide for a slickness as we move in unison. His hands grip my sides in a harsh, biting grip. It hurts and I want it.
“You can be rough with me,” he mutters, and just the sound of those words from his lips creates an explosion of heat and arousal inside me. Letting out a growl, I grind into him harder.
We won’t fuck—not tonight. I know that’s a line it would be unfair to cross.
But I also know Julian is giving me an open invitation. For every time I’m gentle with Freya, he’s telling me I can be rough with him. The thought nearly makes me come on the spot.
Staring down at our shafts pressed tightly between our bodies, I watch the way mine glides against his, the angry purple color in the heads of our dicks still clear to see, even in the blue light of the room.
“Tell me what you want,” I whisper to him before kissing a line along his jaw.
“Bite me,” he gasps, his voice strained with his pleasure. “Mark me, Archer.”
I growl again before my teeth close around the spot where his shoulder meets his neck. He hisses with pain as I bite, grinding harder and faster.
“Yes,” he cries. “Like that. Harder.”
If I bite any harder, I’ll break the skin, but I love that he wants it. My teeth clench down as I groan against him, rutting to the sounds of his whimpers. His fingers pinch my skin harshly, pulling me against him and guiding my hips to the rhythm he craves.
“I’m almost there,” he cries breathlessly. “Fuck, Archer.”
I end up beating Julian to the punch. Holding his body in a vise grip and clamping my teeth down even harder on his tender flesh, I come with a resounding shudder through my entire body.
My voice escapes me in a whining, screeching moan as cum fills the space between our bodies, making it even slicker and easier to grind against him.
Julian’s legs wind around me, squeezing me impossibly tight as he seizes in my arms. His head falls back as my teeth release his shoulder, saliva coating the area. His neck is outstretched, his Adam’s apple protruding, and I make out the movement of his pulse as the orgasm racks his body.
We lie there for what feels like hours, waiting for our hearts to stop pounding so hard and our lungs to finally catch up so we’re not panting so much. A strange feeling lurches in my chest as I lift my body from his and stare down at the man on the bed.
His cheeks are flushed and his lips are red from the nearly violent kissing. On his right shoulder, my teeth marks create a prominent circle in his skin. It looks painful.
“Fuck, did I hurt you?”
He chuckles as he runs his fingers through his hair. “I told you to. I wanted you to mark me.”
My gaze moves to his, and when our eyes meet, there’s something intense and unexpected in the connection. The words that come out of my mouth are so vulnerable, it hurts.
“You are so fucking beautiful.”
His dark brows relax as a look I’ve never seen crosses his face.
“What?” I ask.
Julian looks bashful for the first time. I didn’t know he had a humble bone in his body. “I normally hate when people compliment me,” he says. “But I really love hearing that from you.”
“It’s true,” I say before leaning down and pressing my lips to his again.
“Thank you,” he whispers against my mouth.