37. Julian
Julian
The freezing water of the pool did nothing to extinguish the fever spreading across my skin.
Every single time my hands found her, it felt like closing my fists around a branding iron.
But this? With her clothes discarded on the rocks and her wet, bare skin pressed seamlessly against mine?
The ironclad control I’d spent years trying to perfect was fracturing into dust. My hands gripped her waist—hard enough to bruise, desperate enough to keep her tethered, as she wrapped her legs around my hips, her soft weight the only thing anchoring me in the current.
I had memorised every inch of her body, but having her here so exposed, was a lethal new kind of torture.
The way the sunlight caught the water tracking down her bare shoulders, the way she looked at me with that raw hunger…
it made a mockery of my restraint. Was any of our blood-soaked, ancient history worth the suffocating agony of not claiming her right now?
The ache between my hips was a punishing, heavy weight, straining against the soaked fabric of my shorts and throbbing in symmetry with the adrenaline spiked pulse hammering in my throat.
She leaned in, the damp chill of her skin erased by the blistering heat of her open mouth finding the sensitive cord of my neck. Her tongue tracking seductively over my pulse pulled a dark, broken groan from me.
Her hand slipped beneath the surface of the water.
Fuck.
All the oxygen vanished from my lungs the second her fingers curled around me. Her grip was firm and utterly intoxicating. She pulled back just a fraction, looking up at me through her wet seductive lashes with a dark, defiant glint in her eyes that made my knees weak.
Blindly, I walked us backwards through the water until my spine slammed hard against the rough, moss-slicked rock of the cliff face, pinning her against my chest. She didn’t let go.
The second she began to move her hand, I had to bury my face in the wet crook of her neck and bite down hard on my own lip just to keep from shouting her name.
She shifted, grinding her heat against me, her pussy slick and inviting, sitting at the very tip of my now throbbing cock.
She started to press down, trying to take me in—to finally end this growing distance between us.
The need was a physical roar in my brain, screaming at me to just let it happen. Take her. Forget the rules. Forget the Ritual altogether.
“June, wait,” I choked out, my hands flying to her shoulders. With a surge of willpower that felt like tearing my own heart out, I pushed her back. “Not here.”
The rejection hit her. Her expression shattered into a mask of sudden fury. She scrambled out of my arms, splashing back to create some distance, her chest heaving as she stared at me with dagger eyes.
“I’ve had enough, Julian!” she bit out, her voice echoing off the stone walls. “I’m done. I don’t understand why you do this! Why do you always pull away? Do you even want me? Because it feels like you’re repulsed by me!”
“June, that’s not—”
“We aren’t children anymore!” she yelled. “What are you waiting for? Some sign from the heavens? Another girl? What?!”
My irritation flared, fuelled by the physical ache she’d left behind. I swam towards her, my shadow towering over her as I narrowed my eyes.
“Do you ever stop to wonder how I feel?” I barked back.
My tone making her flinch. “Look at me. If you can’t tell by the fact that I’m practically bursting out of my skin with how much I want you, then you’re blind.
I don’t know what else I can say to make you understand that it’s taking everything I have not to pin you against that rock and fuck you until you physically can’t take anymore. ”
She went quiet, her bottom lip trembling. “Then why?”
I ran a hand through my wet hair, exhaling a defeated breath. I couldn’t tell her about the Ritual. So I gave her the only truth I could offer.
“Does it ever occur to you that maybe it’s my first time, too?” I said, my voice dropping to a low, vulnerable tone. “And maybe I want it to mean more to both of us than just an afternoon in a lake because we couldn’t keep our hands off each other?”
The anger drained out of her instantly. Her eyes widened, her mouth parting in a small o. “Wait… so you’ve never…?”
“Never,” I cut her off, the admission stinging my pride even as it felt like a relief to say it.
“But why?”
I reached out, cupping her face with both hands, forcing her to look directly into my soul. “Because for as long as I can remember, there’s only ever been one girl for me. I knew she’d be my first for everything. And I’d be hers… if she let me.”
Her expression finally softened. “I didn’t know,” she whispered. “I’m sorry. I just assumed… you know, that you were like your brother.”
I let out a dry laugh. I pulled her back into my arms—carefully this time, mindful of how small she felt against me. “And what? That I slept with anything that moved?” I shook my head, my fingers tangling in her wet hair. “Nah. Not my style.”
I pulled back just enough to look her in the eye. “Cain and I… we share a face, June. We share DNA. But we couldn’t be more opposite when it comes to this.” I gestured vaguely between our bodies. “For him, sex is just another way to exert power. It’s a transaction.”
I didn’t say it was her. I didn’t have to. She leaned into my touch, her heart finally slowing down to a hypnotic thrum against my chest. “You’re nothing like him,” she breathed.
The sound of a dog barking broke me out of my haze. Voices followed—distant but approaching fast. June’s eyes went wide, a frantic “shit” dying on her lips as she looked towards the rock where her clothes were piled. We were dead centre of the pool.
I hooked my arms under her thighs, locking her legs firmly around my waist. “Hold on,” I breathed.
With powerful, silent kicks, I moved us to the heavy curtain of the waterfall.
We breached the wall of crashing water, the cold spray stinging for a second before we emerged into the hollowed-out space behind the cascade.
It was a hidden sanctuary, a breathtaking shelf of rock slick with moss, shielded by a translucent, thundering veil.
June let out a tiny, breathless giggle. I pressed a finger to my lips, pulling her back against the shadows of the rock. Through the shimmering sheet of water, we watched a couple and their golden retriever wander into the clearing.
I couldn’t look at them for long. Not when June was right here.
The cool air in the cave had sent a shiver through her, and I watched, mesmerised, as her nipples peaked into hard points. Beneath the crystal-clear surface, the sight of her, the curve of her hips, the perfect weight of her ass. It was a direct assault on my remaining sanity.
I wrapped an arm around her middle, pulling her flush against my chest, and pressed my palm over her mouth. “Shh,” I whispered into the shell of her ear. “Be quiet, or they’ll hear us.”
She pressed back into me, the frantic beat of her heart striking my chest like cornered prey.
I used my feet to nudge hers apart, widening her stance until she was open for me.
My cock was a weapon now, stabbing into the small of her back.
I slid my length down until I was tucked between her thighs from behind.
I wasn’t going inside, but the friction was electric and felt too good.
I pressed the head of my cock directly against her clit, the slickness of the lake water acting as a lubricant.
I started to move. A slow, punishing grind. Up and down.
June’s head fell back onto my shoulder, her eyes fluttering shut.
She was fighting back, her ass thrusting against me, seeking the pressure.
I picked up the pace, my hand still over her mouth to catch the gasps.
The sensation was overwhelming—the cold roar of the waterfall outside and the brutal, blinding heat of us colliding in the shadows.
She buckled against me, a muffled cry vibrating against my palm as she peaked, her body shuddering in the throes of an orgasm that she rubbed out right against me.
The sight of her coming was my undoing. I let out a low, choked groan, my fingers digging into the soft flesh of her hip as I delivered one final, heavy thrust against her.
I felt the release explode out of me—hot, pulsing, and desperate—vanishing into the churning water of the pool.
We stayed like that for a long time, tangled together in the shadows, our breath coming in inconsistent gasps. The hikers were just meters away, but in here, we were in a different world entirely.
I loosened my grip on June, my hand sliding from her mouth to the back of her neck. I rested my forehead against hers, both of us panting. We slipped back through the wall of the waterfall, the sudden rush of the sun-warmed pool a shock after the chill of the hidden cavern.
The clearing was empty now. I let go of her waist, floating onto my back and letting the buoyancy of the rock pool take my weight. June followed suit, her dark hair fanning out around her like spilled ink.
We drifted there in the centre of the pool, two shadows suspended in light. For a moment, the Ritual and the ticking clock of the lunar cycle couldn’t feel further away. There was just the sky, the water, and the girl who made me want to be a man instead of a monster.