Chapter 4
Julian
The Julian from twenty minutes ago thought the walk would let us both cool off and make it far easier to be the gentleman I promised Delilah I’d be.
The moment I follow her into the entry, her orange blossom and vanilla scent engulfs me.
Tension crackles between us as she glances up, her green eyes sparkling even in the low light.
“I could give you the tour.”
Has my voice ever been that deep?
Her eyes flick from my eyes to my lips, where they catch and linger.
After what she shared out on my driveway, I expected her to be distracted by the even more charming interior once we entered my house.
There are a wealth of period details in view, lots of little features to be enamored by, but her eyes are locked on me.
If she keeps looking at my mouth like that, my resolve will crumble into dust.
“Tour,” she mutters as she steps closer, voice barely a breath.
I feel the heat of her body through the scant inch of air between us, my chest matching the rise and fall of hers. Her eyes flick back up to mine, her lips parted on an inhale that draws my gaze down to the vee of her neckline.
Fuck, why does it feel like I’ve run a marathon?
The tension between us is electric, the small hairs on my arms rising as I place a steadying palm on her hip, my other hand reaching up to hover near her cheek.
Before I can ask her if it’s okay for me to touch her, to take what I want, her eyes flutter closed and she nuzzles into my palm.
Groaning, I slide my fingers into the thick hair at her nape, pressing my forehead to hers as we breathe each other’s air.
One of her hands finds its way to my chest, the other sliding up to cup the side of my neck.
“I know you promised to be a gentleman, Julian, but I really want to kiss you,” she says, voice deliciously husky.
I somehow muster a response despite all the blood in my body attempting to concentrate below my belt. “I want that, too.”
“But I need you to know this isn’t…”
My fingers tighten on her hip, pulling our bodies flush at the waist. I really couldn’t care less what this is or isn’t to her, as long as I get to taste this woman. Her breath hitches at the press of my cock into her soft belly, the contact driving me wild even through our clothes.
“It can be whatever you want it to be,” I soothe, stroking my thumb along the hinge of her jaw. The words come easily, though I feel them in my bones. “I’ll take whatever you want to give me.”
There’s something about her that calls to me on a molecular level.
Every part of my body is attuned to hers, my nervous system recentering on every flick of her eyes and shift of her weight.
I feel like I could hang for hours in the curve of her lips, lose myself for days between her perfect breasts and lush thighs.
I want to trace each perfect curve of her body with my tongue.
In what could arguably be a first for me, I’m just as eager to sit and listen to whatever story she deigns to tell me, for however long I can keep her talking.
I want to drown in Delilah James.
Her breath shudders as she shivers, eyes still closed. “You’ll even take one night?”
Ignoring the twist in my gut—I just met this girl, I should be grateful she doesn’t want something I can’t give—I nod.
As though the small motion gave her all the permission she needed, Delilah surges up onto her tiptoes and presses her lips to mine.
At the first brush of her soft skin, I’m lost. Nothing else in the world exists except the sweet sound of her moan or the warmth of our shared breath.
The riot of sensation has fireworks bursting behind my eyelids and lights my skin on fire everywhere it makes contact with hers.
I sweep my tongue against her lips, gently imploring, and she opens with a soft moan, her arms twining around my neck as she pulls us ever closer.
Swallowing a growl—what the hell is she doing to me?
—I slide my hands to the backs of her luscious thighs and hoist her up into my arms. She gasps into our kiss and wraps her legs around my waist, her hands cradling my head as I press her back gently against the wall.
“Holy shit,” she breathes around kisses.
My lips quirk into a smile as I lean my head back and peer down at her. “There you go with the shit talk again.”
She giggles, and the sound unlocks something I didn’t know was buried deep in my gut. Warmth floods through my chest, an overwhelming affection for the siren in my arms suffusing every part of my being.
“My shower’s upstairs,” I murmur, bending down to kiss her again.
I take it slowly, this time, easing my lips against hers in a soft dance, pressing in and retreating.
She catches my lower lip in her teeth and gently tugs as I pull back, a soft whimper rising from her throat in response to my gentle groan.
By the time we come up for air, we’re both breathing heavily.
Unable to resist her red, swollen lips, I take them briefly once more, then trail kisses along her jaw and to the hollow of her neck.
I’ve caught sight of her pulse there throughout the evening, watched it flutter and speed up the closer we got to this moment.
Licking the tender skin, I relish her sigh as she shudders in my arms, turning her head to give me better access.
Such a good girl.
“I’m going to take you upstairs,” I whisper into her skin between kisses. “To my shower, then my bed.”
I lean back, enjoying her flushed, blissed-out expression far more than words could say. She rolls her head slowly back to meet my gaze, her eyes blinking open lazily.
Leaning forward, I brush my nose against hers. “Yes?”
She smiles, loosely hooking her wrists together behind my neck. “Are you asking my permission to ravish me, Julian?”
My cock twitches at the way my name sounds on her lips when she’s like this, captive in my arms and bearing the mark of my attention on her skin.
“I am,” I answer solemnly, staring deep into her emerald eyes.
She flexes her stomach muscles and brings her lips to mine for a slow, soft kiss.
“Permission granted,” she breathes against my mouth, her legs and arms tightening around me.
Thank fuck.
I spin immediately, prompting a squeal from her as she clings to me, laughing as I charge up the stairs with her in my arms.
“Julian!” she gasps. “Put me down!”
“Not yet,” I chastise, digging my fingertips into her thighs to underscore my refusal.
“I can walk, you know!” she manages through her breathy laughter, her face tucked into the crook of my neck.
“This is faster.”
She giggles, as though I’m not desperate to raze this house to the ground just to eliminate the flight of steps and hallway standing between me and the heaven I know awaits when I get her naked.
I push through the open door to my bedroom and head straight to the ensuite, setting Delilah on the marble counter.
She raises her head and smiles at me, then gasps as she catches sight of the newly remodeled space.
“Oh my god, Julian, this is gorgeous!”
It’s got nothing on you.
I shrug and nuzzle into her neck, nipping and kissing at her flesh as I work my fingers under the hem of her shirt. She refocuses on me immediately, raising her hands invitingly into the air.
“Fuck, you’re incredible,” I mutter, drawing the burgundy henley up and over her head.
She smiles up at me through her lashes, reaching behind her back. “You haven’t seen anything yet.”
With a quick motion with one hand, she releases her simple cotton bra, letting the black material slip from her shoulders.
The sight of her dusky pink nipples, pebbled with her arousal, makes me groan.
I reach forward and trace the bottom curve of each breast with my thumb, watching the goosebumps rise across her skin with rapt awe.
Leaning forward, I capture one nipple in my mouth, rolling it with my tongue and sucking gently.
She gasps and arches into me, her fingers slipping into my hair in encouragement.
I move to the other nipple, leaving wet kisses in the valley of her magnificent breasts as I do.
As I pull it into my mouth, I gently tug and twist the first with my fingers, making her squirm on the counter as more perfect sounds escape her.
“Your turn,” Delilah gasps, fingers tugging on my shirt.
Standing with a smirk, I reach behind my neck and grab the collar, pulling it over my head in one quick motion. Before I can dive back into her body, she holds up one hand and leans her weight back on the other, eyes raking over me.
“Is that an eight pack?” She laughs, her eyes sparkling as she slowly shakes her head and grins up at me. “You can’t possibly be real.”
“Oh, I’m real.”
I prowl back into her space, grabbing her hips and yanking her lower body flush with mine. I swallow her gasp with a kiss, slipping my hands between us to grip the closure of her jeans. Slipping the button through the hole, I capture her gaze in mine and pause.
“Okay?” I murmur, fingering the tab of her zipper.
“Do we need the stoplight system, Julian?” she teases, lifting her hips and wiggling them invitingly. “If so, I’m very green.”
Chuckling, I pull her jeans down over her hips, letting them fall to the floor before smoothing my palms over her thighs. She’s wearing hot pink cotton underwear with lace at the waistband. I’m itching to trace it with my tongue.
“Hey Julian?” Her voice is soft.
My eyes raise from her hip to meet her gaze, one brow cocked. “Hm?”
“Whatever you’re thinking about doing to me right now? The thought that has you biting your lip and looking like a hungry shark?”
I chuckle.
This woman.
She scoots forward, pushing against me as she slides to her feet and slips her fingers into the waistband of my jeans.
“I’m real green for that, too. Whatever it is.”
In one easy motion, she drops my zipper and pushes my jeans and boxer briefs over my hips.
She doesn’t let them go, following their trajectory with a light brush of her fingers along my thighs and calves.
Before I can process what she’s done, she’s on her knees and looking up at me through her thick, dark lashes.
My cock twitches at the sight of those plush pink lips so close to my flesh.
Fuck, she’s going to be the death of me.
“But first,” she says absently, reaching for my hard length with a coy smile and obliterating every thought in my brain other than mindless anticipation. “I want a turn.”