“Juliette, I know you’re feeling some kind of way about what happened last night. And by what happened, I mean, you caught me jerking off in the shower and I didn’t stop, and you didn’t leave. I think it’ll help to say the words.”
Face turning red all over again, Julie blows out a breath, sliding down until she’s sitting right on the floor of the hotel hallway, her door slamming shut behind her. I join her on the floor, sitting cross legged opposite her so our knees are touching. Electricity flows from that tiny point of contact. The way Ireact to her is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before. It’s as if the first time we touched, my body said “Yes, her,” and my fate was sealed. Setting my Dr. Pepper down, I reach out and grab her coffee, putting it next to my cup so I can take both of her hands.
“I’m sorry if last night made you uncomfortable. I like to think I know you well enough now to know if you are, but you know your own mind, and if it made you feel uncomfortable or unsafe, you can tell me. I want you to tell me.”
She looks back down at the floor. “It didn’t,” she whispers.
I give an internal fist pump and then squeeze her hands. She squeezes back, holding my hands like they’re a lifeline from the tornado of her own thoughts. I find I quite like the idea of being her lifeline.
“Okay, I’m glad it didn’t. You’re safe with me, Juliette. Always and no matter what. Look, did I want the first time you saw me naked to be when you were fully clothed while I stood ten feet away from you with my dick in my own hand? I did not. But I’m a go with the flow kind of guy. And yeah, I wanted to take things a little slower, but you can’t always plan for these things. But I want you to know that just because that happened, it doesn’t mean that anything else has to. I would never take anything from you that you didn’t want to give me. Ever. And if we’re headed where I hope we’re headed, we have all the time in the world. So, you take your time baby, because I’m not going anywhere.”
As I was talking, her eyes drifted down to the carpet, but once I finish, she raises her head, and her eyes are glassy with unshed tears. Reacting immediately, I swing around so I’m sitting against the wall next to her and pick her up, sitting her right in my lap. The quick movement has pain throbbing through my shoulder, but I ignore it. She curls right into me, laying her head on my chest. I band one arm tightly around herwaist and thread my other hand through her hair, holding her against me.
“Talk to me, Juliette.”
She lets out a watery laugh. “It’s nothing, really.”
“I very much doubt that. No thought that’s in your head could ever be nothing.”
She sighs. “It’s just what you said. That you would never take anything from me that I didn’t want to give you. I guess, maybe, I needed to hear that? No one has ever said anything like that to me before.”
I tighten my arms around her, pulling her as close to me as I can. “I never would,” I whisper against the side of her head. “I only want what you’re willing to give me. I know the parts of yourself you have already given me are more than you usually give to anyone else, and I need you to know that I see that.”
She takes a deep breath and sits up then, twisting around to face me. “How do you get me so well? How do you understand me better than anyone when we’ve barely known each other a month?”
I take her face in both of my hands and kiss her forehead. “First of all, I’ve known you ever since you asked me to take your picture at the gala last summer. I heard your voice, and I was a goner.”
She scoffs at that. If only she actually knew what went through my head when I first heard her voice. But this isn’t the time to get into all that.
“I am deadly serious. But also, when it feels right, when it works, who cares how long it’s been? This feels right to me. It feels like it works. I think it feels the same to you.”
With my hands still cradling her face, her eyes bounce between mine before she finally answers.
“I think so too.”
Then she takes a deep breath and leans forward, laying herlips on mine, and even though the kiss is short and sweet, my body explodes in heat. I meant it when I told her I started falling from the first time I heard her voice, but it’s right here in this hotel hallway, with Julie’s face in my hands and her lips on mine that I take the final fall. It’s sudden and easy and absolutely inevitable, and I will remember this moment for the rest of my life as the one where I tumbled into love with Julie Parker, and nothing has ever felt as right to me as that.
We break apart and I kiss her forehead again before pulling back and just looking at her, feeling the magnitude and sheer rightness of this moment.
And then the moment is broken by the buzzing of my phone in my pocket.
“You can grab that,” Julie says, pushing up to standing. “I need to go get my bags and stuff.”
It’s like she doesn’t even know I just fell face first in love with her. It’ll be fun keeping this one close to the vest for a while, so I don’t absolutely freak her the fuck out before she’s ready.
When Julie disappears into her room, I pull my phone out of my pocket to see who called. I missed the call, but it rings again in my hand. It’s a Pittsburgh area code, and the number isn’t saved in my phone, but I know who it is. It’s Danny—the guy from the gym I buy my painkillers from. He must have seen my missed call from the day before we left and is calling me back. I know late winter is slow for him with no baseball and no football, and I’m a good customer.
My shoulder gives a little throb, as if reminding me what’s at stake. Julie learning that I’ve been buying what essentially amounts to black market anti-inflammatory painkillers for years. Whether I’ll even be able to throw a football with this arm when pre-season starts in a few months. What I’ll do if I can’t. As soon as I miss the second call, the phone starts to ringa third time. I reject the call and shove the phone back into my pocket, pushing my dark thoughts to the very back of my brain just as Julie opens her door.
“Ready to go?” she asks, giving me a bright smile that hits me right in the chest. Fuck, I love her.
“You know it, Juliette. Kansas City awaits.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Julie
“Ireally think the peach gummies have to go in the number two slot,” Asher says, swallowing a mouthful of candy. “It’s a hard choice, but they’re just a better candy than the gummy cherries. It’s the sugar coating I think.”
