She shivered against him, and Julian tightened his hold.
“This feels…nice,” she said, increasing her nestling.
“It sure does,” he agreed, daring to stoke her arm.
Julian wished he could kiss Petula right now. Taste her lips. He was pretty sure, at least for him, it would make all the bad go away. But he was hesitant. He didn’t know, after all the things she’d suffered at the hands of the bad men in her life, how she’d feel aboutanymoves he might make.
He was going to take it all very slowly, navigating through what could be an absolute mine field. But he wasn’t giving up. Julian already felt…connected to Petula, and he wasn’t letting any potential ordinance ahead, blow up their…relationship.
Yeah.Petula had liked that word, and so did Julian. Which meant he’d already been given a semi-green light by her to use it.
It was almost time to declare his intentions with honesty and total transparency, letting her know how hard and fast he was falling.
But first…
“You wanted to tell me something else?”
“I did.”
He felt her whole body stiffen.
“Hey.” Julian squeezed her tighter. “You don’t have to say anything more if it makes you uncomfortable,” he assured her.
“No. This needs to be out of my head,” she told him with a bite to her voice. “And if what you mentioned about a…”
“Relationship?” Julian filled in, unable to keep a small smile from crossing his lips.
“Yeah. That,” she confirmed. “If what you said is going to become possible, I need to get this off my chest.”
“Okay. Go,” he told her. “Nothing you can say will discourage me.”
She didn’t hesitate this time.
“I don’t like sex,” she spit out rapidly, almost as if it were one word.
Wow.That’s not what Julian had expected her to say. He figured she’d have more shit to spill about the Bothwins. This? This was something that had been completely off his radar. Especially since she’d told him there’d been no…intercourse from her abusive, adoptive family. He’d assumed she was still a virgin
“I mean, I’ve only…done it twice.”
Julian wasn’t judging. He was actually amazed. After everything that had happened, she’d dared to have sex.
Julian looked down at her, and saw that Petula’s scalp, at the part in her hair, had turned crimson. Clearly, she was embarrassed.
He was about to reassure her that there was no need for mortification; that if she hadn’t liked sex, it could very well have been her partner or partners who were at fault, but she continued before he could speak.
“I knowyou’veprobably had dozens of girlfriends, had sex a million times, and are an expert at this, so whatever happens, I’m glad you’ll know, if we…do it, that my lack of libido has nothing to do with your…prowess.”
Julian wanted to snort at her assumptions. He needed to correct her misconceptions and set the record straight.
“I’m not an expert, Petula. By any means,” he told her.
Shesnorted, which meant at least she was keeping her sense of humor over this latest.
“No. Really,” he informed her. “You might not believe this, but ask any one of my brothers and you’ll find out what I’m saying is true.”
Her hand fiddled nervously with the material of his shirt.
“I was a total weenie, right up until my senior year of high school. Where all my brothers were tall, handsome, and built from a young age, I had braces, pimples, and didn’t top five foot two until I was seventeen. I was constantly bullied, and my brothers were always coming to my rescue. I not only had no girlfriends in high school, I never even had a singledate.”
