27. April
The night was perfect. I’d never had anyone do something so romantic for me before. Of course, I had never put myself in the situation to be romanced. Julian said he was wooing me, and I wasn”t sure if he was serious. He was such a jokester sometimes so it was hard to tell. There was something in his eyes, though, that hinted at him being serious. As he peered down at me, I caught a glimpse of that same look. A gleam of possessiveness. There was something else in his eyes too. He looked like he wanted to say something.
“What are you thinking about?” I asked, hoping to prompt him to tell me what was on his mind.
“Thinking about how perfect this moment is. How perfect you are.”
I couldn’t help grinning broadly. He always brought out my teasing side. “It’s either you”re working overtime to get between my legs or you really are trying to woo me.”
“Maybe I’m trying to do both.” His eyes also gleamed with amusement.
“So that’s why you chose this song.” We slow danced to “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran. He selected it for our last dance. It was sweet. Julian was just so...not what I expected him to be. He was amazing but...there was always a but when uncertainty and insecurities reared their ugly heads in a relationship, a friendship. That was what I told him we had. We should just be friends, I’d told him. Yet, here he was carrying out this big romantic gesture, telling me I was perfect and pretty much implying that we should be together.
“Now it’s my turn to ask you what you’re thinking about.” His eyes moved over my upturned face.
I decided to be honest. “I’m confused.”
“About?”
“What exactly are we doing?”
The corners of his lips tilted upwards, drawing my attention to his mouth. I ached to kiss him. “This is called dancing, Flower Child.”
I snorted. “I got that, and I think you know what I mean.”
Pressed so close to him, I felt his exhale but he didn’t speak.
“I said we should be friends,” I reminded him.
“That you did.”
“You didn’t disagree.”
“I didn’t agree either.”
“You didn’t say much at all, Julian. You just stood there and brooded at me.” I recalled the day I left his house. We stood in his foyer with my bags surrounding us. He’d wanted to take me to the airport himself, but I refused. It was painful enough parting ways after I’d gotten so close to him. I didn’t want to prolong my suffering so I’d insisted on an Uber. When he kissed me, deeply, and said we’d work out a way to see each other as often as possible, I shut him down. I blurted out that seeing each other often wasn’t necessary because we were just friends and we should remain just that.
He hadn’t appeared happy about it but he didn’t say a word. All he did was tower over me, his expression twisted into a scowl and stared at me. He’d held me in his intense gaze for so long, without a word, that I got uneasy and awkwardly backed towards the door. Then, I left.
Laughter rumbled in his chest. “I did, didn’t I? It was hard to say much when I was so disappointed that you were leaving.”
I stared up at him, waiting for him to say more. He didn’t.
“I couldn’t stay in Montreal with you forever.”
“How about we put aside all the serious talk and get through prom?” He smiled. “We”re ending on a good note this time or your sister will kill me. She said she would, and she was very graphic with the details of how she’d go about it. I didn’t know Lucy had a mean streak.”
Chuckling, I rested my head on his chest. “I’m sorry she threatened you. She can get mean when it comes to her younger sisters.” Lucy practically raised us when Mom went off the deep end, so her maternal instincts were full and present. “Okay, no more talking for now.” We swayed to the music. It felt good being in his arms, and I relished the moment. My heart was heavy, however. I told him we should just be friends but, I only had tonight with him, and that bothered me.
Head resting on his chest, I inhaled, taking in his woodsy, heady masculine scent. I’d just have to take him all in so I’d have memories of him to bask in when I was alone. The song, along with our last dance, was nearing the end. “Come home with me, Julian,” I murmured. “I wouldn’t have been able to invite you home ten years ago because that would have guaranteed your death, but I can invite you home now.”
The vibrations of laughter in his chest felt good. “If you were offering me back then what I think you’re offering me now, I probably would have risked my life.”
Looking up at him, I giggled. “You’re such a man, always thinking with your―”
“My dick only thinks about you nowadays, sweetness. It’s thinking deeply about getting inside of you right now. ”
Pursing my lips, I willed myself not to blush. Yet, the heat consumed my face. Sometimes the things he said just heated me to the core.
“What’s this? No sassy comeback? You’re losing your touch, Flower Child...or maybe, you like what my dick is thinking.” He smirked, and his smugness made me glare at him. Still, a smile played on my lips.
I loved what his dick was thinking.
* * *
“I thought you were taking me home with you.” Julian’s words were muffled because my lips were pressed against his. I straddled him in the back of the limo while we kissed voraciously as if we’d been apart for two years rather than two months.
Shoving his jacket off his shoulders, I managed to get out, “I am. Doesn’t mean we can’t start here.”
“You wild woman. I love this side of you.”
I almost blurted out that I loved all his sides. The jokester, the intense broody side, the incredibly sweet side, the side that annoyed me into wanting to throttle him sometimes…I loved all of Julian. I might as well be honest with myself even if I couldn’t be honest with him. At least, not yet. The last thing I wanted was for him to feel like he had to give up his life in Canada to stay here.
His fingers bunched in my hair. His hold was gentle but firm enough to stop me from greedily devouring his lips. “What’s wrong?” I asked, pouting because I was being denied his kiss.
“No one else gets to see this side of you, Wild Child,” he purred.
“What are you talking about?”
His other hand released the hold it had on my waist and moved down to caress my bare thigh. My dress was bunched around my hips so his fingers easily slid between us to graze me through my underwear. I sucked in a breath as my hips moved to push myself harder against his fingers.
“This side of you is for my eyes only. This,” his fingers slid into the leg of my underwear and dipped into my drenched heat, “belongs to me.”
My lips parted on a gasp that rang with pleasure and irritation at the same time if that was possible. Was he really playing the jealous, possessive lover right now? It was wicked hot but still...how dare he stake his claim when he was leaving?
“That means, when I’m gone, no coffee dates with EMTs, April.”
My brain was muddled because his fingers were moving in and out of me in teasing, excruciatingly slow and delicious strokes and his thumb moved over my clit. I moan, trying to find my tongue to tell him to shut up while trying to figure what he was going on about. Coffee dates? EMTs?
“No anything with anyone else.”
“Julian, what the hell are you talking…” Then it clicked. He’d heard Sam Lawson, an EMT, ask me out when he was brought into the hospital. “Oh, my God. That was months ago. I’ve never gone out with Sam.”
“And you never will, right?” His eyes narrowed and his hand went still between my legs.
“Do you hear yourself? You’re leaving town.”
“Not forever.”
I huffed. We were quickly spiraling into the April and Julian that bickered about silly things. The tension was rising, I could feel it. “You want me to save myself until you get the chance to pass through...next year?” My outrage was feigned because let’s face it, I couldn’t stomach being with anyone else.
His expression darkened and his jaw clenched.
“See the picture?” I challenged.
“Damn it, April, I―”
“Julian, we are not arguing while your fingers are in my vagina!” I growled. “It’s weird.” And strangely sexy but mostly weird. My face heated because the driver probably heard me through the partition. I stifled my groan.
Julian blinked, his expression going from stormy to amused. His deep chuckle made my lips twitch until I was smiling, then snickering, and eventually giggling.
“Damn it, April,” he sighed. “The things you do to me.”
I didn’t get to ask him what I did to him because he pulled me forward and commanded my mouth. His hand between my legs moved again, and I moaned into his mouth. He touched that sweet spot inside of me that made me gasp and shudder. A few more strokes and I fell apart in his arms.
Panting and sagging against him, I whispered, “How do you always do that? Make me shatter in record time.”
He hummed his satisfaction, planting a kiss on my forehead. “Maybe because your body knows it’s mine.”
The smugness in his tone made me roll my eyes but damn it, he wasn’t wrong. “Shut up,” Julian was all I could say, weakly.