by Lizzy Ripp
Trying to gather some semblance of control over himself and managing only halfway, Yaro straightened. "Now?"
"Yes, now," Julia said, her voice still quavering. "I just..." She bit her lip, trailing off. The effect was intoxicating. He wanted to follow suit, to lay her down on the bed and take her lips in his, to lead their bodies through the same exploration their hands had been enjoying. But instead he took a deep breath and looked her in the eye.
She cleared her throat. "After everything that's happened tonight... I just don't think I could stand it if I went into this with the wrong idea. If I felt more for you... than you felt for me. If I thought this was more real than you did. I just want to know for sure where we stand because..." she gave a tiny, bitter laugh. "Because I've been wrong in the past. As you know."
He felt nervous again then - because he wanted so much to tell her. To tell her that ever since the first night they'd spent time together, he hadn't been able to keep his mind off her for more than a minute. To tell her that, for the first time in a very long time, he was starting to think about what he wanted from his life. Hell, he was starting to think about what he wanted when he left the League - and that was something he'd never allowed himself to consider. Merely getting away had been the only idea in his head, but now he wanted more. He wanted to craft the kind of life Julia would want to share with him. And he hadn't really realized it until just this moment, faced with her opening herself to him heart, soul and body, and asking for his in return.
He reached out his hand and touched the petal softness of her skin once again. She met his eyes after a moment, her lashes fluttering. He looked into her eyes and kissed her - deep but sweet, and pulled back after a moment.
"This is everything I've ever wanted without knowing it," he said, his voice husky. "This is more real than anything I've ever felt in my life. This is me," he said softly, taking her hand and kissing her knuckles gently, "Wanting all of you for as long as you'll have me."
She looked up at him, as if she were searching for something hidden in his eyes. Evidently, she found it.
A moment later she stood, walking slowly to the center of the room and turning her back on him, her hair tumbling to the small of her back.
"Will you help me?" She asked softly. "With my dress," she added, her voice shaky once more. Drawn to her like a moth to a flame, Yaro moved to the center of the room and ran his fingers gently along her neck, collarbone and shoulders, enjoying the warmth of her beneath his fingertips. He could feel her breathing, fast and shallow beneath his hands. Carefully he slid the slender straps of her dress from her shoulders, letting it tumble gently, covering the newly revealed skin with a feather-light touch and a soft, slow trail of kisses before his hands found her zipper, almost hilariously tiny for his large hands to maneuver. Finally, however, he managed it with a triumphant smile, and let the dress fall to the floor in a cloud-like pool of blue.
Then she was standing there before him, nearly naked in the moonlight streaming in through the window, wearing only a matching set of teal green lingerie. He swallowed thickly taking in the sight of her. Julia felt as if all the air had been sucked out of the room. As for Yaro - he thought he'd never seen anything so beautiful. Her breasts were small and lovely, her body slim but soft. The shy look in her eyes, as far as he was concerned, was completely unwarranted.
With a hand he worked his damndest to keep steady, he reached out to her, laying his hand first flat over her heart with gentle fingers. It was beating fast as a hummingbird and he could feel her muscles rippling softly beneath his touch as if she were a wild animal who might dart away, startled, at any moment.
His fingers growing more purposeful, he gently slid his hand downwards, past the confines of her bra and brushed the gossamer soft skin beneath, feeling her chest rise and fall as her breath came harder. Seeking her lips again, he moved towards her - but she put a steadying hand on his chest - still frustratingly hidden behind the starched fabric of his dress shirt and breathed out once, heavily, taking his hand and pushing it gently back to him.
"Not so fast," she said, her voice low. "It's my turn now."
With a small laugh he took his hands away, letting them fall to his side as her hands made surprisingly quick work of his belt. However, before she could proceed any further, her proximity became simply too much for him to bear and he placed a hand on the back of her head and with a deep sigh drew her to him. She kissed him back hungrily in spite of herself, standing on the tips of her toes to reach him.
She was so much smaller than he was that Yaro found himself having to bend quite a bit to kiss her - but it was of no concern for either of them, so lost were they in the taste and sensation of the other. He pulled her to him, tasting the depths of her as if she were ice cold water on a sweltering day and she responded to him in turn, making a tiny sound in the back of her throat that made his heart pound. They parted momentarily, each gazing at the other, taking stock of the enormity of their desire. Suddenly, Julia pulled away from him, smiling with satisfaction and taking a seat on the bed.
"Wait," she said as he moved to join her there. "Stand there."
Amused and puzzled, he did as she asked.
"Take off your clothes. You got a good look at me. Now I want to look at you."
With a cheeky grin, he obliged her, undoing his buttons, which was slow going, and finally standing before her bare-chested and still. Her expression inscrutable, Julia got up and walked slowly to him.
He really was incredible close up, she reflected. Huge as any man she'd ever seen and incredibly muscled and lean. His chest was broad and only slightly hairy, his shoulders strong and firm. She placed her hand on his chest, feeling his skin smooth beneath her palm and trailed it gently, ending with the tip of her fingernail, giving him the slightest nick as she moved around him, slow and feline.
He felt himself grow even harder then, if it were at all possible, as she trailed her nails across his torso, down his back and to his ass. Any nerves she seemed to have felt were gone now, lost in the Cheshire cat grin she gave him as she touched his body almost reverently.
Doing his best to work up some of the same confidence she had discovered, he smiled back at her.
"Your turn," he said, plucking her hands away from him, loathe though he was to do it.
Biting her lip she did as he asked, sliding her underwear down her hips until they fell to the floor and deftly unhooking her bra, letting her pert breasts bounce free.
He looked at her, she was amused to note, with all the seriousness of a connoisseur evaluating a work of art in a gallery. Then he smiled that charming, crooked smile and took her hand, pulling her back to him and palming her bared breast with his hand. Suddenly they were together, skin to skin and everything else in the world seemed to fall away. The feel of her in his arms and her soft skin pressed against him was intoxicating, the taste of her overwhelming, and the need for her overpowering.
In one easy motion, as if she weighed nothing at all, he scooped her up in his arms, lifting her above his hips so that she could wrap her legs around him, then moved with her to sit on the edge of the bed, perching her in his lap. There they remained for only a moment - he could feel her wetness against him and found himself no longer able to take things slowly. Instead, he placed a hand underneath her, gently moving her around so that she was lying on the bed beneath him, gazing up at him, panting, her hair strewn across the pillows, her lips swollen.
He'd never seen anything so indescribably beautiful in his life.
He moved against her, feeling her slick against him and fought the urge to plunge himself into her and take her fast and hard. But he took a deep breath.
"Are you sure?" He asked quietly as she gazed up at him, her doe-like brown eyes looking almost drugged with desire.
She nodded then and grasped his forearm lightly.
"Please," she whispered. And that was it for him.
As he pushed inside her, she gave a heady cry of pleasure, her head thrown bac
k against the pillow, her body clutching at him as if trying to pull him deeper. He was only too happy to oblige.
The two of them moved against each other frantically. Yaro was beyond thinking, lost to sensation as he moved, deeper and deeper, groaning in pleasure, the feel of her around him pure, unbridled ecstasy. Julia, who had always been shy and reserved in bed, found Yaro bringing out something completely unexpected in her. She was reveling in his body, in the sensations it was bringing her. He was bigger than she'd ever had and she loved the way he filled her completely, driving her ever closer to the edge as she ground herself against him.
Yaro too was fast approaching the point of no return and he thought of anything he could - the locker room at the rink, Max the dog, having to read War and Peace for school - anything he could think of to keep himself from going over before she did. But, he noted with some satisfaction, it seemed she wasn't far off. Finally, she arched her back and cried out, her entire body tensing, her toes curling and her hands clutching his back as she came and from there, it was inevitable. He lost all control and gave a strangled cry as he poured himself into her.
Still joined together, the two of them gazed at each other as if seeing one another for the first time. As the sensations began to ebb away, Yaro gave a deep sigh of satisfaction and kissed her deeply, resting his forehead against hers when they finally parted.
"I think..." Julia began, and then paused, feeling herself become flush.
"What?" He asked, his voice rumbling against her body where it lay across his chest.
For a moment she said nothing, tracing a finger down his chest, sending him shivering under her touch.
"I think I'm starting to fall for you," she said at last, her voice small but firm in the largeness of the room.
Yaro didn't reply right away, enjoying the rush of elation that accompanied this confession. He hadn't expected to want this so soon. Before he'd grown close to Julia, he hadn't expected to want it at all. But now that he had it - he realized everything was different now.
"I think..." he began thoughtfully, feeling the slight stiffening of her body against him as she readied herself for whatever came next, preparing to wall herself away or to open up like a flower depending on what it was.
"I think I fell for you the moment I kissed you for the first time," he finished. "I didn't realize how far until today. When I woke up and you were gone... I knew I had to follow you. I knew it in the same way I know where the puck is going to be before I see it. I knew where I needed to be," he said simply.
Julia took his hand and stroked it gently. "I love you," she whispered. "I know it's -"
"Shh," he said, giving her another deep, intense kiss. "It's not. Too soon, I mean. When you know, you know.. I love you, too."
Julia looked up at him, wanting to say so much, but settling instead for a kiss that she hoped expressed everything she found herself unable to say. Then she laid her head on his chest and promptly fell into a deep, contented sleep.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
SHE AWOKE A few hours later, feeling disoriented and dazed as if she had awakened in a dream. She felt for him in the still-warm bed and found it empty.
"Go back to sleep," he said, standing over her. She gazed up at him, blinking blearily. "Where are you going?"
"I've got to go talk to Jonathan for a second. He needs some help with his silent auction prize," he said with a small smile. "May have bitten off more than he could chew there."
Julia smiled sleepily at him. It was tempting - very tempting - to crawl back into bed with her and take her, warm and muzzy from sleep, again. But he had something more important - at this very moment - to take care of.
"I won't be long," he said quietly, dropping a kiss on her forehead. "I'll take the key, okay?"
"Mmm," she murmured, her head dropping back down to the pillow, her golden hair splashing over the crisp white sheets.
He ran a hand over it and she made a small sound like the purring of a kitten. He didn't want to go. But at this precise moment, he had other somewhere else to be.
Before he could think better of it, he strode from the room, shutting the door as quietly as he could behind him and then made his way to the elevator. The party below having long since wrapped up, he'd be meeting Jonathan - and Cassie - at an after-hours bar down the block and he wanted to be as quick and unobtrusive as possible.
"Hey," he heard behind him from the otherwise nearly completely empty lobby, staffed only by a skeleton crew of overnight staff. A man seated at one of the large armchairs in a nook by the door stood and Yaro realized it was Daniel DeSoto. Daniel walked over to him and Yaro cocked his head.
"You've got some nerve hanging around here," he said as the much smaller man stopped in front of him.
"I had nothing to do with what happened," Daniel said. "I swear. And those photos wouldn’t exactly make me look great either.
"Maybe you should have thought of that before you assaulted her.” He kept his voice even and conversational, but kept his shoulders square, enjoying the advantage his height gave him. Daniel's face reddened slightly.
"I was drunk," he muttered. "It was stupid. I shouldn't have done it and I would have apologized if she hadn't..."
"I don't think you'll get a chance," Yaro said. "She doesn't want anything to do with you."
"Yeah, I figured that," Daniel said, his voice full of what sounded like genuine regret. "I get it," he added. "I just... Can you tell her something from me?"
Yaro didn't see why he should and didn't react one way or the other.
"Just tell her that I didn't know anything about it. Sasha screwed me over as much as I screwed over Julia. I just want her to know that."
"I'll tell her," Yaro said shortly. "I'm sure she'd want to know."
"Thank you," Daniel said, relief palpable in his voice. Yaro would have felt almost sorry for him if he didn’t want to punch his stupid, smug face so damn much.
Without another word, he continued for the door.
"Yaro," he heard again behind him and turned, beginning to grow irritated now.
"What?" He asked sharply.
Daniel eyed him appraisingly, as if giving him a grudging approval.
"Take care of her."
Yaro stared at him for a moment, almost impressed by the audacity of this douchebag.
"I'll take care of her," he said. "The way you should have done. And the way you'll never get to."
With that, he turned and strode quickly out of the lobby, leaving Daniel DeSoto alone in his misery and regret.
The night air was chill and crisp, and Yaro hugged his coat against him as he lowered his head into the brisk wind and made his way to the bar - a dive Jonathan favored whenever they played in Philly. He wondered what Cassie would think of the place, and then reconsidered his assumption that she'd find it distasteful. She'd surprised him so far and he had no doubt the streak would continue.
He pushed open the door and was immediately flooded with blaring music, the sound of a sports game, a welcome wall of warmth and the inherent smell of a well-loved neighborhood bar.
"Yaro!" Jonathan called from a cozy booth in the corner, waving him over. "Come on man, we've got a beer waiting for you."
Yaro’s head was beginning to throb, so he took the pint that was offered him, sliding in next to Jonathan and inclining his head to Cassie, slumming it in a woolen grey beanie and an immaculate leather jacket. Not a lot of prime-time TV watchers here, Yaro thought, looking around at the greying and grizzled locals, as Cassie seemed to be enjoying her anonymity thoroughly.
"Evening," he said to her. Cassie smiled at him. "Yaro."
"So. What've we got so far?"
"She hadn't posted anything yet," Cassie said, handing over her phone, open to Instagram. "She's sitting on it. She probably wants to wait until it'll really create some waves. She's a marketing master, I'll give her that." Cassie said in a grudgingly-admiring tone.
"That's good. So we've got some time," Yaro said, taki
ng a deep, contemplative sip of his beer. "I ran into Daniel in the lobby on the way here," he added as an afterthought.
Cassie's eyes snapped to attention. "I hope you punched his lights out."
"I did not," Yaro said evenly. "He just wanted to clear some things up."
"Such as?" Jonathan asked. "Did he want to talk about his rocky childhood? Explain that daddy didn't love him enough and that's why he's a complete piece of shit?"
"Not quite," Yaro said. "He wanted to let me - well, Julia really, but I had to do in a pinch... He wanted to let us know he had nothing to do with it."
Cassie and Jonathan both snorted derisively, Jonathan nearly upending his pint in irritation.
"And you believe him?" Cassie asked, looking as if she had a bridge she wanted to sell him if that was the case.
Yaro thought about it, running his hand contemplatively over his freshly-shaven chin - already beginning to grow stubble. "Yeah," he said at last, as if just realizing it himself. "I do. He seemed... Actually sorry."
"I don't trust him further than I could throw him," Jonathan said, then frowned. "Actually, I could probably throw his scrawny ass pretty far. Scratch that metaphor."
Cassie smiled at him, shaking her head.
"I've got someone on watch," Yaro said. "And I think she's someone Sasha will talk to. But she'll need time to get back to me with concrete intel. So until then... We keep things close to our chest. Agreed?”
Jonathan and Cassie nodded seriously.
"Good," Yaro said. "And remember - not a word to Julia about any of this, okay?"
They nodded again, silent and solemn.
"Once Rhochelle makes contact - and if she can arrange a transfer, I'll let you guys know. Until then, just keep on keeping on. Agreed?"