“Don’t…” She drew her chin down.
He ground his teeth. Alex wanted her to look at him. But he wasn’t going to force her. Some kind of wall had gone up between them as soon as she felt the magick. He’d seen it happen, back in the club. Walls didn’t come down by force—at least not walls that would stay down.
It took every ounce of concentration for him to let her play the shy violet.
“I say this because you need to understand, I don’t go around seducing women as a habit.” He made a hard rhythm with his fingers on the table. “It’s been a long time since I’ve…fallen like this.”
“Alex.” She closed her eyes. “Please, don’t.”
Alex flattened his hand and pressed down hard. He wanted so badly for her to look at him. He couldn’t be the only one feeling this magick. Fate never lied.
Why is she fighting this?
“You said earlier that you wanted to see more of me. I want to see more of you. All I’m doing is agreeing with the premise of your statement.” He turned up the corners of his mouth and her eyes popped open. She snuck a look at him, under heavy eyelashes.
“I do want to see more of you. I want…” She sighed and took her napkin out of her lap, draping it over the creamy dessert she’d barely touched. “I’d set a date for our next weekend right now, if I could.”
His shoulders dropped. “Our next weekend?”
“This has been amazing, and we still have one more day.” Julianna slipped her hand on to his cheek and met his eyes. “And one more night.”
Alex felt a buzz in his pocket and he almost put his fist through the table. Dammit. He didn’t want Maggie or Adrian or anyone else interrupting this moment. He just wanted it to be him and Julianna. He ignored the phone and held her hand to his face. “And then what?”
“I wish it could be more, but it can’t.” Julianna dropped her hand. With a tiny shake of her head, she sighed. “You don’t understand.”
“Try me.” He laced his fingers into hers and pulled the hand toward his lips. He pressed his kiss there and held it, searching her eyes for the truth.
Her gaze flipped toward the ceiling and she stood, walking around him. She leaned against the counter. “I had an arrangement with a man.”
“I gathered as much.”
“But I could never give him any more than what I could fit in around my job. That’s just the way it is.” The back of her blue dress was cut so low, he could see her ribs expanding and contracting with her breaths. Some emotion was making this hard for her.
Was that it? Was she still in love with this man?
“I’ll take whatever you can give me right now,” he said. Alex looked down at his pants when his phone buzzed again. Texts from Maggie. He didn’t want to look at them.
“Frank always said that, too. He said he was at my disposal. But the time came when I wasn’t enough for him, when this wasn’t enough for him.” She gestured around the room. “One day, when I called him, he was just gone. He wouldn’t return my calls, he wouldn’t email.”
“Frank was a jackass, then.” He got to his feet and crossed the kitchen, pressing his body against hers. “Because if you were mine, I would never let you go.”
Julianna turned into him, her mouth searching his. Her hands gripped the sides of his face and held him against her. “Oh, Alex,” she breathed.
He picked her up and carried her toward the bedroom, keeping his mouth on hers as he walked. His phone buzzed again, and he nearly ripped the stupid thing out of his pocket and threw it across the room.
Instead, Alex set her down and held her kiss for another long moment, then pulled away from her. “I want you to go take off all your clothes, including whatever ridiculous corset you have on, and wait for me on the bed, completely naked.” He kissed her one last time. “I want to see all of you. And I expect the lights to be on bright when I get in there.”
A secret smile played on her lips and she turned to click her way down the marble hallway. “Are you coming?” she asked in a sultry voice over her shoulder.
“I’m going to the fridge and get that whipped cream.”
Alex watched her delectable ass disappear around the corner and something lodged in his throat. He raked his fingers through his short hair and stared at the ceiling.
He wanted Maggie and Donovan and Andrea and Dani and Niko and Hannah to all go back to the States, and for Fate to take Adrian Rossi straight to hell, and his life would be so much better. So would Julianna’s.
Except, he had a feeling, as his team often discussed, they were the hands of Fate, sent to deal out justice to Adrian Rossi. He couldn’t turn his back on his team. Much as he wanted Julianna, justice had to come first.
He pulled the phone out of his pocket.
Maggie had sent three texts.
We’ve searched every drawer, surface, and cabinet. It’s not here.
It has to be there, or she’s got it in her office.
You have to tell her.
Alex punched the air and wished for something hard on the other end of his fist. Something he could break. Something he could punish for him being in this situation. He walked to the fridge and texted Maggie as he went.
Check again. And check her office.
He pulled the silver bowl of white whipped cream out of the refrigerator and the phone buzzed against the door.
Maggie again. Stop stalling.
Alex slammed the refrigerator door. He couldn’t tell her yet. Not when they could still have one more day and one more night together.
What about the DNA test?
Maggie texted right back. Takes more than 24 hours.
Alex set down the bowl. He was running out of options. He could find a way to talk to Julianna, but they had to give him some time.
Somehow, he had to buy that time. He thought back over their conversation from the night and a lightbulb went off in his head.
She gave me a name. Frank. He used to be her boyfriend. Find out what you can about him. I need some leverage.
He turned the phone over and left it on the table near the door, picked up the whipped cream and headed down the hallway toward the bedroom. The lights were on at full brightness and Alex smiled.
He was beginning to love this woman. He just needed a little more time with her.
Julianna reclined on her side diagonally across the satin coverlet on the massive bed. She glanced down her body and tried to arrange her legs and hips in the most attractive way possible. He’d already seen her naked, but she was still a little uncomfortable being so exposed.
She was used to wearing a corset to hold her larger-than-normal breasts in the right place. It gave her confidence.
Alex just wanted her…here…waiting. With nothing helping her look her best. She ground her teeth, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath.
He finds me attractive. I’m being stupid.
He rounded the corner with a metal bowl in hand. A pleased grin spread across his face as he raked his gaze along the length of her body. “Absolutely gorgeous.”
She exhaled the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. Julianna shouldn’t be so self-conscious, but years of self-doubt and a father telling her she was overweight would wear on anyone’s soul.
Alex set the bowl on the nightstand and sat on the edge of the bed. He cupped her chin and brought her gaze up to meet his dark steel one. “You’re an amazing, sexy woman, Julianna. I’ve been waiting for this all day.”
Heat crept over her entire body. Was there such a thing as a full body blush?
“I’m going to taste you from head to foot.” He released her chin and moved his had to her shoulder. “Lie back and just let me make love to you.” He pushed her gently until she was lying flat on her back.
Love? A tremor slid down her spine. Their chemistry was amazing, but he couldn’t possibly love her in less than forty-eight hours. Could he?
Why would he say something like that? They were here for sex. Not a relationship.
No man had ever said make love to her before.
Still. The idea of a more permanent relationship with Alex wasn’t unattractive. Her heart raced as she contemplated the possibility of something more than the scheduled weekend of sex.
What if she could figure out a way to keep her father happy and have Alex in her life too? It’d never work. His life was in Miami. He wouldn’t stay here. He’d want her to leave.
Her father would never allow that and after seeing what she had in his penthouse this week, she knew better than to risk getting on his bad side. Julianna was trapped in a job she loved, but trapped all the same.
“To much thinking.” Alex leaned down and sucked one of her nipples into his mouth.
She gasped as he scraped his teeth gently over her hard nipple. It worked. All thought fled her mind and she focused on the trail his tongue drew from one breast over to the other.
He straightened and took the bowl from the nightstand. “Close your eyes and feel what I’m going to do to you.”
Julianna let a shudder slip from her lungs and she closed her eyes, leaving him to decorate as he pleased. She tensed at the cool sensation of whip cream being spread over one nipple and then the other. Her fingers clenched the coverlet beneath her and the corners of her mouth turned up into a smile.
Alex didn’t stop there. Her stomach was next. A circle or a heart, she couldn’t tell. Then he trailed the spoon along each of her hips and down the front of her thighs and all the way to her ankles. He closed his lips around one of her nipples and she moaned. His tongue swirled and he sucked hard before finally letting it slip from his mouth with a loud pop.
“Delicious. That one needs more now.”
Cool whip cream hit the warmed skin of her nipple and she whimpered. She could feel everything. Every inch of her skin tingled with an unfamiliar energy that made her want to abandon all reason, knock the bowl from his hands, and have her way with him right that second.
The metal of the bowl connected with the nightstand. He’d set it aside. The mattress moved as he stood.
“Don’t open those pretty eyes.”
She considered opening them anyway, but there was a certain comfort knowing Alex was dictating what would happen next. Julianna didn’t want that to stop. Everything in her life and her job was organized and ran in the most efficient manner possible because she stayed on top of it. Sex had been that way too, but it was so nice to not need to be in charge of it. To release that responsibility to someone else. To trust someone else enough to hand it over.
Such a huge thing for her. So freeing.
The mattress shifted again and she could literally feel his warmth as he drew closer. Something tingled along her skin, warm and comforting and exciting all at the same time.
There was something about this man. Something she’d never found before. Something she didn’t ever want to let go of.
His tongue swirled and dragged excruciatingly slowly over her breast. “So good,” he murmured. Alex moved his mouth to her other breast, cleaning it of the sweet-smelling cream. Then he shifted, rocking the bed slightly, gliding his tongue to her stomach. Her abdominal muscles rippled under the attention. Her skin warmed from head to foot.
He tugged at her nipples with his forefinger and thumb while keeping his tongue busy on her torso.
She squeezed her eyes closed harder and fisted the coverlet again. An orgasm coiled in her belly, rising closer and closer to the surface. So much. He’s barely touched me and I’m about to come.
“You are stunning,” he said, nibbling his way closer to one of her hips.
Oh God. Oh God. She moaned and flexed her toes.
“Every curve. Every exquisite inch of you.” He moved to the other hip, licking down the stripe of cream. “Is mine.”
Mine.
His? Her mind swirled at the possible meanings, but Alex didn’t give her long to contemplate.
He crawled between her legs and pushed them apart. “This gorgeous wet pussy,” he said as he slipped a finger between her folds, “is mine.”
“Please, can I open my eyes?” She wanted to see him. Wanted to see his face.
“Yes.” Tanned perfection.
Two of his fingers slid inside her and she clenched hard, rocking her hips to drive him deeper. That smile that made her knees weak curved his lips. “Eager aren’t we?”
She whimpered and nodded her head. “I need…” You. Julianna couldn’t say it. She bit her bottom lip as he curled his fingers inside her, grazing the edge of her G-spot.
She did need him.
Her mind was awash with various plans to convince Alex to come back and see her again. If she was very careful, she could pull off having a boyfriend without her father finding out.
Julianna’s gasped for air.
Alex grazed her G-spot again as he pulled his fingers from her and pushed her thighs out a little further. He crawled forward, dropping lower, the closer he came to her face.
She swallowed. The heat in his gaze warmed her blood.
He captured a nipple between his lips again and tugged, letting it go slowly before moving to her mouth. He just couldn’t stay away from her breasts and she loved it.
Julianna wrapped her arms around his neck and slid her hands into his thick dark hair. He growled into her mouth and plunged his tongue deep, wrestling with hers. Sugary. Sweet. And, oh-so-divine. She wiggled her hips, trying to urge his erection into her aching sex.
His arms tightened around her shoulders and he drove into her with one thrust. No warning. No easing in.
“Alex!” Her world shattered. Heat seared through her. She’d been so close. Julianna panted for air as her orgasm exploded from her core. She tightened around him, milking his length.
He drove in and out. Pushing her higher and higher. Alex slowed his pace. “So beautiful. I could watch you come all night.”
She caught his mischievous gaze as her mind floated into that foggy place where her body could exist in pure bliss.
He slid in and out of her slick sex.
Another orgasm built, curling itself around her insides until a sheen of sweat covered her from head to foot. Alex pushed, bringing her just to the edge, then backed off before she could leap off.
Julianna moaned. Torture. Pleasure. He was mixing everything together. How could a man be so intuitive? Her heart raced in her chest. She strained for breath and finally he sped his pace, giving her what she needed.
Fireworks shot from every nerve ending in her body. She opened her mouth to scream, but nothing more than a gasp came out.
His arms contracted around her, stiffening. He came a few moments later, a sexy growl rumbled from his chest as he pumped into her, finishing off whatever energy she might have had left.
He let his body drape over hers for a moment, nuzzled her ear, and then slanted his mouth over hers, claiming it with a long, deep kiss.
Alex slowly rolled to her side, pulling her along with him. He matter-of-factly tucked her against his side and into the crook of his shoulder. “Perfect fit.”
Was he talking about the sex? Or how their bodies seemed to be melded together as one?
Julianna glanced up at his face, surprised to see him staring straight back at her. Most men she’d been with were well on their way to falling asleep moments after sex.
His steely gray eyes burned with a fire that made her insides quiver all over again.
“How long do you need before we start round two?” Alex winked and gave her that cocky little smirk she was growing to love.
Love.
That was a terrifying thought. Or was it? It should’ve been. But right now, she just wanted to bask in everything Alex.
Chapter Nine
Alex took in the long, lush glory of Julianna’s body. He couldn’t imagine a scenario in which he’d ever feel like he had enough of her.
The magick had been whipping and whirling around them all night, and more than once, the words of the ancient mate spell had been on his
lips. There had to be a way to tell her that they belonged together without just grabbing her and chanting the words.
Her trust was hard-won. He couldn’t push her yet.
“Are you sure you want to start round two so…fast?” She settled her ass into his groin and likely had no idea what it would do to have her wiggling against him like that. Or maybe she did know.
“Fast?” He rolled over to look at the clock. “It’s nearly ten at night. I feel like I’ve been extremely patient.”
Her giggle sent a jolt through his body and he traced a finger up the side of her ribcage.
She grabbed his hand. “You’re going to wear me out.” Julianna glanced at him over her shoulder. “I’ve never had this much sex in two days in my whole life.”
Alex pressed his lips to the back of her neck and nipped at the soft flesh there. “Clearly, your other boy toys were doing you an injustice. I would never be so neglectful as to let entire days pass without making love to you.”
A shiver shook her. “Never?”
He kissed her shoulder, up to her jaw, and turned her around to face him, kissing flesh until he found her mouth. Alex nudged her legs open and pressed the tip of his hardening cock into the folds of her pussy. “Never.”
She reached for his erection and he groaned.
Magick gripped his insides and squeezed. He bit back the words of the bond spell one more time.
He couldn’t.
He had to.
Alex rolled her onto her back and took hold of her wrists, pinning her naïve gaze with earnest hope. “I mean it. I never want to stop being with you.”
A sheen of tears built in her eyes and she bit her lip. “I wish you never had to leave.”
“There is a way…” He met her lips with an insistent kiss. Alex would say the spell, be deep inside her, and make her doubly his. Forever. It was just that easy, wasn’t it? “But it’s not something I take lightly.”
When she blinked, a solitary tear rolled down her cheek, and her body tensed beneath him. “Don’t say it, Alex. Please, don’t say it.”
The magick curled around him, drawing him forward and inward. He couldn’t stop. “You think I mean marriage, I know, but just give me a minute to explain.”
Seducing a Wolf: Moonbound Series, Book Five Page 6