“Goodnight, Mrs. Castleton,” Julia said, squeezing her hands.
His mother took his arm. “Take me to the stairs?”
He gave Julia quick glance and then did as he’d been asked. When they reached the base of the staircase, his mother looked back toward the parlor. “She’s wonderful, Alexander.”
“She is.”
“You do what’s best, my love, you know what it is. But that young woman will always find welcome in these walls.”
He leaned down to buss her cheek. “Thank you, Mama. Goodnight.”
He returned to the parlor and found Julia standing before the fire, waiting for him. As he entered the room, he said, “Well, she?—”
Before he could finish, Julia came across the chamber in a few long steps and wrapped her arms around his neck. She kissed him with a muffled groan and every thought or feeling he’d had about the night faded, replaced by the taste of her, the feel of her in his arms.
They stood like that for a while, kisses growing deeper and slower and more intimate. Then she drew back a fraction.
“Take me home, Alexander. Please.”
He knew what she was asking, not just for a chaperone, but for him to come back and be with her. And he wanted that, just as much as he wanted to talk to her or enjoy the way she interacted with his family. Becauseshewas the future he longed for.
So he took her hand, lifted it to his lips and said, “I’d like nothing more.”
CHAPTER 23
Julia had been only fifteen when her sisters dragged her away from their father’s home to save her from a scandalous marriage he was about to force on her. She’d always been grateful to them, but she knew it had changed her to come to London and move into the house of two courtesans. No matter how her sisters tried to protect her from their lives, she’d seen and heard things that had an impact on every view she had of the world and of herself. She’d become what she was and despite romantic daydreams, her expectations had become firmly set.
But a night with Alexander and his mother had set that all on their head. She had felt…accepted. Like she was more than the life she’d led and the path she’d taken.
That was lovely, but it was also disconcerting. Like the world was shifting beneath her feet and she had to find a way to resettle herself.
Which was why the moment they settled into her carriage and began making their way back across the city to her home, Julia launched herself across into Alexander’s arms.Thisshe understood, this she could control.
He didn’t resist as she kissed him once more, this time with desperation and drive and need. She ran her hands over hisshoulders, centering herself with the strong, sturdy feel of his body.
“Julia,” he gasped against her lips.
She ignored him and continued to let her hands roam, down the apex of his chest and between them to where his cock was half-hard between his legs. She continued to kiss him as she stroked, ground down on his lap, whimpered with anticipation.
He let out his own moan, but then he said, “Julia,” again.
“Shhh,” she whispered, unbuttoning the fall front with ease. He bounced free, hot and heavy in her hand and she stroked him again as she pushed at her skirt, straddling him so she could have him.
“Julia,” he said again.
“Please just let me,” she said, and then shifted. They both gasped as he slid inside, as she ground her hips and took him the rest of the way. She rested her forehead against his and they panted together at the pleasure of the joining.
He cupped her hips through the silk of her gown and she gripped his lapels for leverage as she began to grind over him. The pleasure was immediate and intense and it did exactly as she wanted: it washed away the confusion the night had created, the hopes looking into his eyes so foolishly created, the questions about whether or not she should run away from her life in order to save herself and others.
All that disappeared and what was left was the grind of her clitoris against his pelvis as she rode him. One of his hands glided up her side, he cupped her cheek.
“Julia,” he gasped out, this time more broken with pleasure.
She stared into his face, her thrusts slowing as she found a peace she had never expected, one she shouldn’t be such a fool as to rely upon it. But there it was, in those remarkable dark eyes that held hers without hesitation or judgment.
She dropped her head forward to rest on his shoulder, breaking the connection that felt too sharp in the closeness of the carriage. There was only this, only pleasure. She found the ragged edge of it and rode faster, driving herself to the place where oblivion would be found. He didn’t stop her, didn’t try to force her to do anything different. She used him and he let her, lifting to meet her thrusts, holding her steady in his lap as she spiraled higher and higher.
When the dam broke, she arched, flexing every part of herself as pleasure tore through her. His mouth dropped to her throat and he kissed there, rolling her through the crisis, moaning in time with her cries. When it was over, she collapsed over him for a moment and then moved to continue, driving toward his release to match her own.
