“That’s a good girl,” I whispered against her mouth before I took it in a bruising kiss. I jerked against Julie’s hand as she wrapped it around the aching bulge in my jeans. I was hard to the point of pain and ready to burst through the zipper. “So fucking beautiful when you come,” I murmured, tearing my lips away from hers to drag kisses over her throat and down her chest, tracing a line along the swells of her breasts with the tip of my tongue.
We broke apart at the blaring of a horn behind us. It was the second time tonight a car horn had brought me back to reality, where I shouldn’t have been the guy pawing his girl in public. Julie covered her face as I stepped on the gas and finally turned onto her block.
My eyes flicked to hers after I put my truck in park behind her car in the driveway. She laughed until I sucked my finger inside my mouth and inched it out. My eyes fluttered as her taste melted on my tongue like sugar.
“So damn sweet,” I said, running my tongue along my bottom lip as I stepped out of the seat.
I rushed around my truck to open her door, chuckling when she climbed out on shaky legs.
“Need help, baby?” I took her hand and pulled her flush to me when she stood, loving this new novelty of touching her whenever the hell I wanted, which was all the time. “You’re wobbling a little.”
She tilted her head and shot me a glare. “You just made me come behind a sanitation truck. My legs are jelly, and my brain is scrambled.” She scrubbed a hand down her face.
“Shit, that’s hot when you say it like that.” I slanted my mouth over hers. She whimpered into my mouth but tore away when her back hit the side of my truck.
“We need to get inside before one of us gets arrested.” She grabbed my hand and dragged me toward her front stoop as she fished inside her purse with her other hand for her keys.
“Landon, please stop,” she said, slumped against me after I swept her hair off her shoulder and painted kisses down her neck. Every time she tried to insert the key in the lock, I dove in harder, sucking on her earlobe as an aroused but frustrated groan escaped her.
“Here,” she said on a breathy moan as she dangled her keys. “Open the fucking door if you’re going to make it impossible.”
I cupped her chin and turned her face toward me. “Impatient to get your hands on me, darlin’?” I brushed her lips, nibbling on her bottom one as I pulled away. “You have me all night long.”
And the rest of my fucking life. Julie was all I’d ever want. She was it for me, and I knew it with a bone-deep certainty.
“I want to start all night as soon as possible.” She jingled the keys in front of my face. “I need to get inside.”
“Took the words right out of my mouth.” I snatched her keys out of her hand, smirking as I opened the door and locked it quickly behind us once we stepped through.
I threw the keys on the table by the door and brought her back into my arms.
“You get cranky when you’re hot and bothered, huh?”
She grabbed the back of my head and crushed her lips against mine, moaning into my mouth as I backed her against the wall.
“Here we are again,” I said, coasting my hand down her hips and squeezing her ass with both hands as I pulled her against me.
“So this is it? We’re doing this?” She drifted her hands down my chest, breathing heavily as she searched my gaze.
“Yeah, Jules. We are.” I brushed my thumb over her lips. “I love you. I’ve always loved you, but I’m soinlove with you I can barely see straight. Maybe I always have been but was too stupid or chicken to see it, but”—I draped my hand over the nape of her neck as her eyes glossed over—“I was waiting for you to catch up to tell you. But I think we’ve waited long enough, right?”
Her face crumpled as if she were about to sob as she dug her fingers into my biceps and darted her eyes around the room.
“Jules, you’re scaring me. Talk to—”
“I love you. And not just how I’ve always loved you. Or maybe, like you said, we ignored it because we were afraid. But I love you so much. I’ve spent my life kissing strangers whenthe onewas right there all along.” She let out a watery chuckle. “So stupid, isn’t it?”
“Very fucking stupid,” I breathed out, my relieved exhale so deep and palpable my shoulders drooped. “Now that that’s out of the way, give me back those lips, darlin’.”
This kiss wasn’t as frantic as the ones by the restaurant or in my truck. This was unhurried and deliberate, our lips moving slowly to savor and appreciate rather than devour. I pulled her away from the wall to slide her jacket off her shoulders and threw it behind me.
“So beautiful,” I whispered. “And you really have no idea. You never did.” I skated my hands down her arms and lifted them over her head. “Beautiful and mine.” I slanted my mouth over hers as I pressed into her, hard enough against her to feel every inch of how much I wanted her.
We were sloppy and starved as we pawed at each other to get as close as possible. This kiss was a lot dirtier and full of all the primal need that had built up over the past couple of months—or maybe even decades, I still wasn’t sure. All I knew was I had to have her right here and right now.
“Let me go so I can touch you.”
I released her hands and dropped to my knees.
