“Absolutely.”
I pulled her in to do somewhat of a slow dance as we stood together in the kitchen. As I listened to the song, I also soaked in the feeling of Jules in my arms. If I wanted to be like one of her heroes once they’d fallen, I could expound on the rightness of this moment. In truth, I was falling far faster than I was ready for, but that was a problem for later. “Pretty romantic song if you can get past the whole death part.”
“Do you think he’s really dead, or is it just a metaphor for hard work?” she asked while we swayed together.
“I mean, he’s talking about his love for her allows him to crawl home to her from his grave,” I mused. “Maybe I’m being too literal?”
“It’s romantic.” She sighed. “I want that.”
I stilled. “How so?”
I felt Jules stiffen, maybe not realizing she’d said that last part aloud. “Well…” She let that just hang there, likely debating what to say.
“Speak up, Jules.” My heart was beating so strong there was no way she couldn’t feel it through my chest.
Jules cleared her throat, then looked up with a new determination in her eyes. “It’s what I write about, Noah. And now that I know you’ve been reading my books, I’m guessing you know that. I write heroes who fall first, who will do anything for their heroine.”
I hadn’t looked at her books like that, but now that she mentioned it, I could see it. And this song fell right into that theme. However… Fuck.
“I’m a dad, Jules. Not that I’ve always been a good one.” I braced, not entirely sure what I was saying but feeling like it didn’t fit what she wanted.
She gave me a sad smile. That wasn’t a good sign, was it? “Noah, youarea good dad. You are now, and you were back then. You need to be kinder to yourself.”
Okay. Not terrible. “I’ll work on it, but still?—”
She held up a hand. “I know what you meant. And I don’t think putting Addie first means I’m last. I mean, we’re just starting out here after all. That being said, I don’t think it would be great parenting to say the woman you’ve known for less than a month should become more important than your child.”
Valid point.
“And while I’m stating what I think is important…” Jules looked uncertain, but she kept going. “And jumping to a lighter topic, though not one easy for me to talk about necessarily, I think a healthy sex life is vitally important.”
“You have my attention,” I said, my voice coming out deeper than usual as I watched this beautiful woman speak up when I knew it made her uncomfortable to do so.
“And our first time together was only two days ago, but it feels like it has been far longer than that.” She looked up at me imploringly.
Oh yeah. I knew what she was insinuating here. Did I want to push her to say everything that was on her mind, or did I want to throw her over my shoulder and hightail it to my bedroom? Both options had merit, though I was leaning toward the latter, and Lord knew my cock was on board with that option as well.
Decision made, I was helping her get to the point so we could get horizontal. The woman had already brought up the subject—she didn’t need to do all the work here.
“I think I’ve got it, Jules. You’re saying we should make sure the first time wasn’t a fluke?” I asked, giving her a wide smile to let her know I had zero concern that it had been a fluke.
She looked at me in relief as she nodded.
Damn, I was ready for a repeat. Just kissing the woman got me hard. Our chemistry had been great, in my opinion, because even though we hadn’t known each other long, we were absolutely getting there. Knowing her, caring about her, made everything hotter. Add to that the experiences we’d been through together, which had accelerated our bond. Damn. I was on board to head upstairs now.
Songs from Hozier had been playing randomly since we started talking, and now “Too Sweet” was coming out over the speaker. Jules slid her hand under my T-shirt, running her fingers up my chest as she looked at me from under her lashes.
“So Noah,” she said as she rose up on her toes to press a kiss to my neck. “How should we go about finding out if our first time was a fluke?” She sank back down and gave me an innocent smile, though the thoughts it inspired were far from pure.
Option two it was. Let’s go.
“Put this in your books, Jules,” I murmured to her as I bent to get her stomach on my shoulder, and up she went.
“Noah!” She smacked my ass from her upside-down position as I headed toward the stairs, pausing by the front door to lock it as I went.
“Now, kitten,” I said as I adjusted her to have a better hold while telling myself this was a little over the top. “I don’t think you write BDSM books, correct?” I laughed as I headed up to my bedroom and swatted her butt in response. “Do you really want to explore spanking?”
“What?” She sounded aghast, which was also fun. I could just imagine her expression.
