Petula, disguised as Blue, would borrow the woman’s car and drive away; Pipes and Hazard on her tail to make sure no one followed. She’d be met by Julian at the local diner—where there were no cameras outside—and she’d be transferred surreptitiously into Julian’s rental car.
They’d then take a circuitous route to his house.
As a last-minute precaution, Sherbert had them all checking their vehicles for possible trackers, but thankfully that search came up empty.
It was go-time.
The plan was executed to perfection, much to everyone’s satisfaction, and by the time Julian pulled into his…theirdriveway, late that afternoon, he was certain they were in the clear.
“Okay, Petula. We’re here,” he told her.
She rose from her prone position across the back seats, leaned forward, and looked out the windshield.
“Oh. It’s so pretty, Julian,” she sighed happily. “I can’t wait to see inside and get the tour.”
“That’s next on the agenda,” Julian assured her.
Petula got a look in her eyes he couldn’t interpret, then glanced at him sassily. “Uh, no it’s not.”
“It’s not?” he puzzled. “Why isn’t?—?
She shook her head and blew him a kiss, cutting him off.
“Sex is,” Petula replied sassily.
She exited the car.
CHAPTER 24
Petula had not only dared tauntJulian regarding sex, she’d loved doing it.
It just went to show how comfortable she’d become with him, especially now that they’d proclaimed their love for each other.
That mutual declaration had been huge.
Previous to outing their feelings, Petula had worried she was reading too much into Julian’s regard, not having anything before this in her life to base it on, but to know that her instincts had been correct? That made her feel like she wasn’t such a misfit, after all.
It helped, too, knowing Julian appreciated strong females who had minds of their own, as evidence by the esteem in which he held his mother and sisters-in-law.
Petula felt at ease letting her true self shine through which would, unfortunately, be necessary for what had to happen next.
It pissed her off that she came with baggage, but…
There were a couple take-aways from her early abuse that simply couldn’t be ignored.
The first was that she needed a modicum of control over what would occur in the bedroom. She didn’t necessarily want, or have to be in charge, but the amount of authority she ceded toa partner had its limits, and she didn’t like being blindsided byanything.
Petula wasn’t worried too much about that with Julian. He’d already been briefed about her past, and she intrinsically knew he’d give her as much space and time as she needed to make their bedroom trysts untroubled.
What shewasn’tconfident about, however, were his thoughts about necessitating that all their sex be done in complete darkness.
Yeah.Total darkness.
That was a hard line for Petula, as it had been with her previous and only two lovers. She knew it stemmed from the horrid, full bodied, naked “examinations” to which Bradly Sr. and Jr. had subjected her. And even though she trusted and loved Julian, it gave her the creeps to think ofanyone’seyes focused on her body.
Hopefully, she was worrying about this too much, and he wouldn’t think twice about her vampire-like tendencies when it came to sex.
Julian followed her to his front door, where he moved up behind her, swept her hair out of the way, and kissed the back of her neck.
