Killian returned to her side of the bed and took a seat next to her hip. His free hand parted her sore thighs and filled the space in between with the damp square of fabric. The icy coldness of it made her squeak and jolt, but he remained firmly pressed against her tender sex.
“You should’ve told me,” he muttered. “I would’ve taken better care.”
Juliette studied the man gingerly cleaning her with a gentleness she would never have expected.
“Would you have?”
He shot her a glance. “No. I would’ve taken you home. I don’t bed children.”
Juliette blinked. “I’m not a child! I’m twenty three.”
His eyes narrowed. “And you’re still a virgin?” He shook his head. “What the hell were you waiting for?”
“I wasn’t waiting for anything. I just never had anyone I wanted to give myself to before.”
Not entirely the truth, but not entirely a lie either. She had wanted to give it to Stan. After that, she never had time for sex and it had never been an issue.
“Christ,” was all he said.
“It wasn’t really that bad, was it?”
His gaze stayed on her face for much longer this time. “No, but that isn’t the point,” he said at last. “I could have hurt you.”
“You were wonderful,” she assured him softly.
He looked away. “Again, not the point.”
“Thank you,” she murmured for lack of anything better.
“For hurting you? You’re welcome.”
She grabbed his wrist when he rose to his feet. “You didn’t hurt me. It really was amazing.”
He searched her face and settled on her lips before letting his gaze roam down the length of her splayed across his bed. The appendage hanging between his legs hardened and Juliette didn’t miss it. Her skin prickled with heat and awareness. Her breasts swelled as her nipples tightened.
Christ, she wanted him again.
“Get dressed.”
It was stupid, but she hadn’t expected that. Judging from the dark heat in his eyes to the fully hardened cock at his midsection, she had honestly believed he would join her again. Instead, he was turning away from her.
Disappointment and an irrational twang of hurt built up inside her chest as she bit her lip and sat up. The chill that swept through the room made her painfully aware of her nakedness and she reached for the rumpled sheets. The fabric rustled too loudly in the silence as she drew it around herself in some weird attempt at protecting the rest of her tattered dignity.
“Can I use your washroom first?” she asked.
Without looking at her, he nodded before moving towards the open terrace.
Gripping the sheets tight, Juliette made her way to the bathroom and slipped inside.
It was as lavish as she would have expected of such a grand place. Ivory and gold gleamed under sharp lights, drenching the inlaid Jacuzzi built into one wall, a glass shower in the other and a counter with two sinks taking up the third. It was five times the size of hers. It even had a bench wedged between the Jacuzzi and the sinks. There was a trash bin next to the toilet, a row of folded towels on a rack next to the shower and an assortment of man products cluttered neatly on the counter. But it was the plush bathroom mat that really sold her. She could practically burrow into the thing and sleep.
Still wondering why anyone needed a bathroom that big, she moved to the sink. She washed up the best she could before leaving the room to find Killian at the veranda once more. He stood stark naked with both hands curled around the wrought iron railing. Tension pulled at the bulging muscles along his back, making them ripple with his frustration. She wondered what he was thinking about. She wondered if she should say something. Not sure what the protocol was for moments like that, she went to her clothes instead. She scooped them up off the floor and straightened. She jumped to find Killian standing right behind her, beautiful, naked, and hard. The latter had her heart leaping. Her core muscles clenched and she had to bite down hard on her lip to keep from making a sound. She clutched her clothes to her chest in some pathetic attempt to muffle the erratic cracks of her heart.
“Hi,” she whispered for lack of anything better.
Killian didn’t move. He stayed directly in her path, forcing her to tilt her chin and meet the exasperation and lust crackling across his face. Her body gave a shiver of longing that it had no right to considering she could feel the tenderness pulsing between her legs. But the twang wasn’t all pain, she realized with a start. There was a familiar pulse of want there that surprised her.
He was suddenly on her. His mouth cut viciously against hers as she was lifted and dumped unceremoniously on the bed once more. The sheets were torn away, leaving her naked and vulnerable before the wolf. She barely managed a gasp when he forced apart her thighs and filled them with his hips.
“Tell me to stop!” he snarled at her.
Hurting with the force of her need for him, Juliette wound her legs around his ribs and locked her ankles in place at his back.
“No.” She licked her lips. “Please don’t.”
Chapter 5
The silence seemed somehow impossibly too loud as seconds passed. In the space next to him, Juliette lay with her face mashed into the pillow. Her back rose and fell but not with the same intensity as it had only moments before. The smooth curve of her spine glistened with sweat and held the remnants of their love making.
Sex, Killian reminded himself. He didn’t make love. He didn’t do gentle. Making love implied emotions and he did not possess that ability. He didn’t have the luxury. Love and family were a liability he couldn’t afford. It was why he never chose virgins. Why the women he took to his bed always had experience and knew what to expect.
Honestly, he wasn’t sure he would have stopped even if he had known about Juliette. Being inside her, buried in all that wet heat had been irresistible and addictive … and dangerous, like leaping off a bridge with only a piece of thread keeping him from hitting the jagged rocks below. It had been an unimaginable thrill, one he knew he needed to step away from before he forgot why he had rules. He had already broken too many of them for her. But no more. She needed to get away from him.
Yet he made no move to make it happen. He lay there, propped on his elbow, transfixed by the shape of Juliette’s silhouette half concealed beneath the sheets. Her hair was a tangled riot tumbling across the pillow, the color of pale yellow under the light of the lamp. He knew from memory that the rich strands smelled of wildflowers and felt like silk. But it was nothing compared to her skin. The miles of pale, supple flesh had felt like satin gliding beneath his fingers. He had especially loved the feel of her wrapped around him as he drove into her with the urgency of a wild animal. And she had let him. God, she had begged for more. Again and again, until she had passed out from exhaustion.
Against his will, his fingertips ghosted the smooth slant, following the ridges of her spine from nape to tailbone. The woman made a sound between a moan and a sigh and shifted. One long, toned leg slipped out from beneath the sheets. Killian studied the limb and the triangle of fabric barely concealing her ass and second leg. He already knew what lay beneath; he had been thorough in his consumption of her. Nevertheless, he tore away the hindrance and took his fill of her naked flesh before he never saw it again.
Beautiful. Absolute perfection. Every inch of her stirred his blood and reawakened his cock for another round. Having her so near, so completely vulnerable to the animal already hard for her was a new sort of torture he’d never felt before. Sure there had been women who he had lusted for, but a roll or two between the sheets and that hunger was always sated. There had yet to be a woman he had wanted a third or fourth time.