Wow.Julian was already taking her concerns seriously about giving her fair warning about his actions, although spontaneous-scooping wasn’t even a blip on her “bad stuff” radar.
“Julian, you can pick me up whenever you want,” she assured him, then squealed when his arms dropped to her knees and he lifted her straight up in the air so her breasts were directly at mouth-height.
“Is this okay?” he asked humorously into her cleavage. He breathed deeply, and groaned. “You smell so good.”
Petula laughed, threading her fingers through his thick, dark hair. “This isnotwhat I thought you were going to do, but it works for me.”
“That’s good,” he mumbled delightedly into the front of her shirt. “Because it sure as shit works for me.”
CHAPTER 25
Julian noted,as the sun went down, that Petula ate very little, even though his family had left them a delicious casserole which Julian had attacked with gusto.
“You going to finish that?” He pointed at her plate.
She laughed. “I wasn’t planning on it. But there’s no way you can fit?—”
Before she could end her sentence, Julian was already scooping the remnants from her plate onto his.
“Julian,” she tsked, amusedly. “Won’t you be too full to, um, do…stuff a little while from now?”
He laughed. “Are you kidding? I’ve been known to eat twice this much, do an hour’s worth of PT, then go for a ten-mile run. And that’swork. Sex is fun.”
“Fun…” Petula repeated speculatively. “I’ve never actually put sex in that category before.”
“Because you haven’t been with the right guy.” He winked, scraping up the last bit of the tuna and noodles, shoveling them into his mouth.
“And it’ll be different with you?” she questioned with a crooked smile.
“Yup. We’re going to make this first time as playful and carefree as possible.” Julian told her after he’d finished chewing.
He’d been thinking about this, and figured that a good way to keep Petula from getting too much up in her own head, would be if they left any heavy stuff out of their initial encounter, and kept things lighthearted. There’d be no demands, no expectations, and no pressure at all to perform.
“I…like the sound of that,” Petula responded shyly.
Julian gave her a collaborating smile. He stood, and took their dishes to the sink where he rinsed them off and put them in the dishwasher, then turned to Petula and held out a hand.
“You ready?” he asked.
She sucked in a deep breath and got to her feet, her expression resembling someone who was headed for the executioner.
That wouldn’t do.
“Hey,” he assured her, putting a finger beneath her chin and lifting her pretty blue eyes toward his. “No pressure, okay? Everything is fluid. If you feel like laying still and not moving, that’s what you’ll do. If you need to orchestrate what will happen, I’ll roll with it. And if you hate anything I’m doing, and I mean anything, you tell me immediately and I’ll stop. This is for ourmutualpleasure, Petula. Not just mine.”
Petula looked at him as if he were too good to be true.
It eased some of the angst Julian was keeping well hidden; thinking that he’d do something wrong and blow this party all to hell before it even got started.
Right now, however, Petula seemed to have found some courage, and rolled her eyes at him. “Remember. I’vehadsex, Julian,” she told him. “I’m not a virgin, so I know how things work.”
Julian gave her a hint of what was in his head. “I know that. But… You’ve only gone through the motions, Petula. At leastthat’s what I’ve garnered from what you’ve told me. There’s a lot involved that may be new to you.”
“Such as?” she asked with a practiced, arched brow, but he could see her curiosity bleeding through.
“What about foreplay?” he encouraged. “Have you ever had a man taste you? Down there?” His eyes dropped to the seam of her jeans.
He needed some clue as to what direction he could take this in, and how comfortable she’d be.
