Chapter Thirty-One
Juliette surprised herself by showing restraint up all three floors of her building to her apartment door, practically shoving the key in the dead bolt.
She’d expected Charlie to fall behind like most people did, unused to the surprise intensity of the climb, but he was right behind her as she stepped into the darkness of her living room.
And hottest of all? He wasn’t even winded.
“How did you—” she started, turning toward him as he closed the door.
But Charlie had made up his mind, and he cut her off mid-sentence by pulling her roughly against him, those incredible fingers of his digging into her scalp and tilting her mouth toward his in a deep kiss.
Gone was the tentative man who’d broken off their first kiss halfway through, and in his place was a feral beast, his teeth nipping at her lower lip, his tongue sliding against hers.
She pressed up on her tiptoes to match his enthusiasm, her arms sliding around his neck and shoving at the lapels of his shapeless lab coat, eager to discover the details of the man hidden underneath.
He tossed it onto the floor, his hands sweeping down to her thighs and hiking up the pencil skirt she’d worn to work that day.
If she’d known what her evening would lead to, she would have ditched the thong underneath.
But as Charlie’s hands swept up the bare skin of her thighs, cupping her ass (at least she’d gone for a run that morning and knew her butt was perfection), he let out a groan against her mouth.
“These are so fucking hot,” he moaned, running his finger up under the frilly string. Juliette unzipped her skirt and shoved it to the floor to afford him better access. “I never understand them practically, but it’s like you’re naked.”
“They’re not practical, that’s all you have to understand,” Juliette panted, tugging at the edges of his polo shirt. “Oh my god, is your shirt tucked in? All you need is a phone holster and some white sneakers to complete the look.”
“I have those white sneakers,” Charlie murmured, one thumb tracing the arc of her hip up and around, his fingernail barely scraping the delicate skin inside her thigh.
Juliette had the insane urge to lick him, so she did.
“They were part of our Christmas bonus last year. They’re really quite comfortable when you’re doing rounds. ”
“You’re lucky you’re so hot, because that is very unfuckable logic,” Juliette said, using the edge of his untucked shirt to drag him toward her bedroom.
She’d left her curtains open and the streetlight outside cast a deep orange glow across the floor where she tossed his shirt after ripping it off him.
She glanced down, her hands freezing at his belt as she did a double take, fully stepping back with her mouth dropping open.
Charlie was absolutely gorgeous. Broad in the shoulders, trim through the waist, with a set of abs most fuckbois worked their entire day to achieve.
But on Charlie, it didn’t look like the product of excessive hours at the gym.
It looked natural. Tall and lean like a swimmer, a natural athletic build absolutely wasted under those hideous sport coats and lame golf polos.
“What’s wrong?” Charlie asked, looking down. “Did you want to stop? We can stop.”
“Shut up,” Juliette said absently. “Holy shit, is this what you look like under that horrible lab coat you’re always wearing?”
“All the doctors in the practice wear them,” Charlie said with a frown.
“If I looked like that, I would go naked everywhere. To the grocery store, in surgery, at my own funeral. You wouldn’t catch me with a stitch on. I couldn’t keep my hands off of me.”
Charlie had the nerve to look sheepish, as if no one had ever complimented his physique before. She didn’t know what Sporty Ex had done with her life to make this man feel bashful or ashamed, but she would work every second of every day to make him appreciate that he looked like a Greek god.
“Charlie, you stupid adorable son of a bastard, you are phenomenal. Gorgeous. If I were a cannibal, I would starve rather than desecrate such a holy temple. I’m not even sure I can properly fuck you now. I feel like I should have trained for this.”
“I never really thought about it,” Charlie muttered. “I’m not the athlete in the family.”
“Not the athlete?” Juliette scoffed, reaching for his belt once again. She pulled it loose, holding it up with one hand for emphasis. “Charlie, if you ever even considered sullying such a beautiful physique by letting other idiots pummel it for sport, I would report you to the authorities.”
She unbuttoned his pants and dropped to her knees, dragging the fabric down with her.
Charlie might have terrible taste in his wardrobe, but he looked exquisite naked.
He rested his hands on her shoulders as she took him in her mouth, a groan coming from somewhere around his pelvis and vibrating through her as she took him deep, scraping her teeth lightly against him as she pulled back.
“Oh my god, Juliette,” Charlie said, his voice barely controlled. “That’s … I can’t…”
Juliette would have smiled if she hadn’t been otherwise occupied, feeling him grow and stretch with each move of her head. She could have easily finished him off there and then, but Charlie’s grip on her shoulders tightened, pulling her back.
“Get on the bed,” he said, his voice hoarse but no less commanding.
“Yes, sir,” Juliette said, holding his gaze as she stood and climbed onto the mattress on her knees.
“You’re so beautiful,” he said, his hands sliding up her hips as he lifted the edge of the silk shirt she still wore, knuckles dragging across her rib cage as he removed it. Juliette shivered, goose bumps forming in their wake. “I don’t want to disappoint you.”
Well, that was certainly new. Most men Juliette had slept with were only too happy to disappoint, all while claiming to be the best she’d ever had.
“Then don’t disappoint me,” she whispered, unhooking her bra and letting it drop. She took his hands and cupped them under her breasts, a sigh slipping out of her as he ran his thumbs across her nipples. “That’s a good start. Do that again.”
He did, bending his head to run his tongue around them before drawing them into his mouth.
Juliette moaned, raking her fingers across his shoulders, pulling him closer until the weight of him dragged her back onto the bed.
She opened her legs to accommodate him, his cock brushing against the whisper-thin mesh of her thong and setting off sparks.
She ran her hands down that perfect abdomen as he kissed her again, their hips rocking against each other and creating more friction that would start a fire if it got any hotter.
She had a host of toys, tools, and stimulators in her bedside table, but Charlie was going to make her come without a single battery.
“I’ve thought about this every day since you kissed me,” Charlie said, running his tongue down her throat. He nipped at her collarbone. “I think Kate tricked us to her apartment just to put me out of my misery.”
“You didn’t call, you didn’t text, I figured you weren’t interested,” Juliette said, gasping as he sucked one nipple into his mouth. “I’ve been getting myself off to the memory of that kiss for like a week straight. I was absolutely furious with you for not feeling the same.”
“I had to shower twice a day just to take care of myself,” Charlie said, pulling down the edges of her thong and running his fingers through the wetness between her legs. “God, I want to fuck you so badly right now. I don’t have any protection, though.”
“I’m insulted that you think I’m not fully stocked,” Juliette said, rolling him over and straddling him between her legs as she reached for her bedside table. “I also have my latest STI test from last month if you want to see it. I believe in full transparency with my sexual partners.”
“I trust you,” Charlie said, so simply that it pulled at something buried and vulnerable within Juliette.
Something that had been so repressed for so long it physically hurt to feel it.
Trust was not only a foreign concept to her, it was a hostile enemy.
Juliette and trust had been in a cold war with each other since her parents published their last book in the Parenting a Prodigy series fifteen years ago and upended her entire life.
There wasn’t a single person on earth Juliette trusted, and she made damn sure nobody made the mistake of trusting her.
And yet here was this gentle giant of a man looking at her so earnestly, so simply, that it threatened to break her heart.
He trusted her, the idiot. Didn’t he know she was only going to break him?
She covered her reaction by tearing the condom open and rolling it on.
She spread her hands over his stomach, up his chest, so wide and solid and sure.
She positioned herself above him, avoiding looking him in the eye as she slowly and luxuriously lowered herself down on him.
She’d always judged people for calling sex an intimate act, making something that animals did for reproduction too soft and squishy and taking all the fun out of it.
But as she took Charlie fully inside her, his hips nestled between her thighs, those beautiful surgeon’s hands of his tugging her hips closer as he whispered her name, she felt overwhelmed by him.
Even when she pulled back and lowered herself again, not needing the tube of lubrication in her bedside table because he’d already turned her on so much, he felt impossibly close.
“This could be the last several months without sex talking,” Charlie said, lifting his hips to meet her as she sank down again, “but you feel fucking amazing.”
“I haven’t gone the last several months without sex, and you’re right,” Juliette said. “I’ve never been so turned on in my life.”
“You’re so warm and wet, I don’t know how long I can last,” Charlie said, even as both of them started moving their hips in sync, their pace increasing. “Fuck, Juliette, that’s so good. Fuck.”
Juliette moved one hand toward her clit, her muscles tightening instinctively as she applied more pressure to the spot. Charlie wasn’t the only one having trouble keeping his orgasm at bay. “Charlie, I’m going to come.”
Charlie’s fingers dug into her hips, keeping the rhythm smooth and controlled even as he tilted her slightly and thrust into her, the pressure change sending warning tingles down her thighs. “Come as loud as you want. I want to hear you.”
And come she did, loud and hard, her muscles clenching around him convulsively as her orgasm slammed into her like the ocean waves on a high wind day.
They rose and crashed over her, stealing her breath as Charlie’s own guttural climax joined hers.
She bent over, pressing her forehead to his shoulder as he thrust hard and deep one more time, wrenching every last glorious sensation out of her.
“That was…” Charlie panted, huffing out a sigh. “Holy shit was what that was.”
“I should … clean up,” Juliette said, not entirely trusting her legs to work just then.
But she had the most bizarre sensation, that rather than bolt for the bathroom and plan round two or politely kick him out like she normally would, she wanted to sink down into his arms and—horror of all horrors—cuddle him.
Juliette Winters did not cuddle, because she was not a stuffed animal or a baby sloth.
And just because they’d had mind-blowing sex—better sex than she could remember in a long while, possibly ever—did not mean anything more than that.
Her heart and her mind didn’t need to go and start getting any ideas about Charlie Hawkins other than what this clearly was—a casual hookup with a hot guy.
She couldn’t afford for it to be anything else.
Juliette was like a praying mantis. Eventually she’d bite his head off and feast on his exquisite remains.
“I’m going to shower,” she said, pulling herself away from the temptation of his long arms and easy smile. “And then I’m going to introduce you to some light, fun BDSM play. What’s your opinion on silk restraints?”
“I don’t think I have one?” Charlie said, blinking in surprise.
“You will by the time I’m done with you.”