Dating Games(97)

“I like this better,” I murmur against his lips, a tingle trickling down my back from the subtle contact.

“Like what?”

“Kissing you. Not the other person you were.”

“And I like kissing you like this, too.” He circles his hips, then yanks my body, hard and fast, against his. His erection pushes into my stomach, making me gasp. “And I’d like to do more than just kiss you. You have no idea how hard these past few weeks have been, especially now that I’ve gotten a taste.”

I pass him a coy look. “Oh, I have a pretty good idea just how hard it’s been.” I palm his erection, which only causes the fire in his gaze to burn brighter.

Before I can protest, he lifts me up, forcing my legs around his waist. His mouth slams against mine, his kiss voracious, hungry, desperate as he carries me toward my makeshift bedroom.

When he reaches the doorway, he pauses, looking around. “Where the hell’s the door?”

“I told you. This is just a den.”

He glances at me, then out to the open living room before back at me again. “Oh, fuck it,” he growls, practically tossing me onto my clothes-covered bed.

“Julian!” I squeal, laughing at the playful deviousness in his expression.

He hurriedly shrugs off his suit jacket while I rip my t-shirt over my head, both of us frantic to scramble out of our clothes. Finally, once his boxer briefs land on the top of our discarded things, he retrieves a condom from his wallet and climbs onto the bed, crawling up my body.

Impassioned lips find mine and I melt into him. He tastes as I remember…citrus, spice, and Julian.

“Guinevere…,” he pants.

“Yes,” I exhale.

“I’m buying you a fucking apartment with a door. And a better bed than this pullout sofa.”

I laugh, the sound echoing through the room. “And why would you want to waste your money on that when I can just crash at your place?” I bat my lashes, passing him a demure look.

“So I can show up at your place anytime I want.” Leaning back, he rips the packet open with his teeth, then rolls on the condom.

When he teases me with his length, I grab the back of his neck, every inch of me alive with anticipation. “And why would you want to do that?”

“So I can have you anytime I want.” He exhales as he pushes into me, slow and restrained, filling me in a way only he can.

Our eyes meet as our bodies connect, but unlike before, it’s not just the joining of our bodies. It’s the joining of our hearts, our minds, our souls. I thought Trevor made love to me all those years we were together. He never did. But Julian… This moment, this feeling. This is exactly the love I’ve been searching for my entire life.

Maybe four isn’t such a bad number, after all.





Chapter Thirty-Six





My fingers draw light circles around the grooves of Julian’s scars as we lay in his bed, the motion now as innate as breathing. It’s a far cry from the morning I woke up in this same bed and had a panic attack about where I was, who he was. Now, this is the only place I want to be. It has been for the past two months.

As summer made way for fall, our relationship truly blossomed. We’ve opened up to each other in a way I never did with Trevor. I want Julian to know everything about me. And I want to know everything about Julian. Thankfully, he wants me to know everything, regardless of how sad and horrible. He shares these things because he knows I won’t judge him. I’ll love him in spite of it.

I’ll love him because of it.

It doesn’t matter that he still hasn’t uttered those three magic words to me. He will when he’s ready. In the meantime, I shower him with my own love.

“How did you meet Mr. Price?” I ask in a lazy voice, spent and sated after our latest round of lovemaking. As much as I enjoy going out with him and being seen on his arm, my favorite place is still in his bed. He’s an exciting and enthusiastic lover, one I can admit I’m incredibly addicted to.

“Mr. Price?” He peers down at me from where I rest in his embrace, relaxed from the steady rhythm of his beating heart.

“Yeah.” I continue tracing circles around his scars. At first, it made him self-conscious. Now, I like to think it offers him the comfort he needs, that he deserves. “I know what Camille and you have shared, but I get the feeling there’s more to it.”

“What? You don’t think I’m some criminal mastermind who took advantage of an old guy, like his children do?”

His words bring a smile to my face. Now that I know the real Julian Gage, thinking of him as a criminal mastermind is absurd.

“Absolutely not.” I shake my head. “Plus, I did the math. When you met him, he was in his sixties, not this elderly, feeble man his kids made him out to be.”

“That’s for sure. He had more energy than I did some days. Thankfully, the judge realized his kids were greedy and pissed off their father didn’t give them the bulk of his wealth.”

“But I also think there’s more to the story than you befriending a lonely man over a game of chess.”

“I can’t get anything past you, can I?” he comments on a long sigh.

“No, you can’t.”

His lips curve into a small smile, eyes sparkling as he stares into space. He pulls me closer into him as he sighs, relaxing. If I asked this same question a few months ago, he would have closed up. Now he talks about his past with no hesitation. It hasn’t been easy. There have been moments he’s struggled to share certain things, especially when I asked about the aftermath of his mother’s death and he told me about the six months he spent in a juvenile detention facility before the judge ruled he acted in self-defense. Regardless, he’s slowly learning how to open himself to me.