When her hips rolled, he brought his forearm across them, pinning her to the mattress. She felt the weight of it, a warm, unyielding pressure that made a statement. He had her exactly where he wanted her. She could have changed that with a single word, but heaven help her, she didn’t want to. It made her clench around nothing.
He read her reaction perfectly. While his tongue worked her clit with steady pressure, two fingers curled into her, finding what he sought on the first attempt. She stopped being quiet after that.
She bucked against his restraining arm while the pressure built past bearing, and she came with her head thrown back, his name too loud for the small room.
He didn’t ease off until the last shudder subsided. Only then did his grip relax.
She was still breathing hard when he moved over her. She felt him against her thigh, thick and ready, and thoughtyes,even after just coming, with an eagerness that surprised her.
“Still good?” he asked.
Julia nodded and breathed, “You’ll be the first to know if I’m not.”
A short exhale, almost a laugh, before he dipped his head and kissed her. She tasted herself on his lips.
“Be right back,” he murmured before disappearing into the bathroom.
He returned naked and more than ready, settling his weight between her thighs. When he finally pushed into her, she made a sound she hadn’t planned. He stilled, buried fully inside her, and dropped his forehead to hers.
“Julia…”
Just her name. Rougher than she’d ever heard it.
He held there, motionless, as her body stretched around him. When her hands stopped gripping and began touching, stroking up his back, one threading into his hair, he finally moved.
The storm gusted against the window. The light from the doorway flickered. They barely noticed.
He kept the pace slow, a drag and roll she felt deep in her spine. Somewhere beneath the pleasure, she understood why. Leland approached everything with purpose. And right now, his purpose was her.
Slick and swollen and still sensitive from before, he used that, adjusting his angle until her nails found his back.
Something shifted. The measured pace broke into a harder drive, and another. He groaned against her throat,roughand unguarded, and his hand slid between them, his thumb finding her clit.
When she came apart this time, her body seized around him, clenching in waves that rolled through her before she could brace for them. Her fingers dug into the muscles of his shoulders, holding on.
Leland followed seconds later, burying himself fully with one last thrust. He pulsed inside her as a deep, husky groan tore loose.
For a long moment, neither of them moved. The storm kept up beyond the windows, but inside the room, everything felt suspended.
His weight settled over her slowly, his breathing easing against her shoulder. The hand in her hair loosened, and his heartbeat steadied against her chest.
Julia inhaled and closed her eyes. Not peacefully but with the terrifying awareness that no matter what this was, whatever it turned out to be in the morning, she still wanted him, and that wanting was going to be impossible to outrun.
Chapter 24
Julia must have dozed. When she woke, the rain had softened to a low static. Cool air drifted through the room now that the power had kicked back on, brushing over her bare skin. When she shivered, he reacted instantly. His hand slid down, pulling the sheet higher over both of them. The simple gesture made her smile.
As soon as he lay back, he pulled her closer, an arm around her shoulders, her head tucked to his chest. She lay there, eyes open, considering how different this was from before.
Leland didn’t linger unnecessarily. Didn’t let his guard down. Didn’t stay where he wasn’t absolutely required. Yet somehow, he was there beside her, holding her close.
She looked up at him in the gray light of morning. His gaze drifted inward, as if part of him had slipped somewhere she couldn’t follow.
Julia suspected where he’d gone and wanted him back. But she also wanted answers, and he’d avoided them long enough. No time like the present.
“Your fiancée… what happened to her?”
He tipped his chin down, eyes on hers. For a second, she saw the instinct to retreat, to withdraw behind his walls and give her nothing. Instead, he exhaled slowly.
