“You didn’t?” His hands followed the curve of her arms, resting where she tightly held the edges of her robe.
“Other than stabbing you?” She started to pull away, but he held her in place. “No.”
The deep rumble of Julian’s laugh vibrated down the length of her, and a small sigh escaped her lips. “That wasn’t what I had in mind.” His fingers closed over hers. “Ah, Lily, you drive me to do insane things.”
She drove him to do insane things? What was she doing? Allowing him to be this close and to forget all the ways this could go bad. Like everything had gone bad for Anna. Ice drenched her veins, and she tensed. This was wrong.
Julian squeezed her hands gently. “It’s okay,” he whispered just below her ear. “I’m not going to hurt you. If you tell me to stop, I will.”
Her mouth opened to tell him to stop, but his thumbs brushed against the swell of her breasts and the words left her. Heat pulsed through her body, melting the ice.
“I will stop, Lily. I won’t do anything you don’t want me to do,” he continued, pressing his lips against her pulse. “Just don’t shut me out in fear. Don’t let fear control you. That’s all I’ll ask from you today.”
Her heart tripled its beat, and her fingers loosened their hold on the soft material. “I can’t do this.”
“How do you know?” He gently pulled her hands away from the material, bringing them to her sides. The loose robe immediately gaped.
Air hitched in her throat. Every cell in her body waited as he brought his hands back to her shoulders. She needed to pull away, but she remained there, filled with a wanton curiosity that excited her in a way she’d never been before.
“Do you want me to stop?” he asked.
The words formed on her lips, but they went no further. Her body and mind were fighting. Hormones were definitely winning at this point.
Julian brushed the silk over her slight shoulders and down her arms. The cool air whispered against her bare skin, and when she should’ve been fighting him, she was instead thrilled. He ran a finger over the outline of her tattoo. “I knew you would be beautiful with wings.”
The same could be said about him if he still had his. Then the thought flew out of her mind when she felt his tongue tracing the same line his finger had. Sweet Jesus, every muscle in her body locked up. “Julian, I…this…”
“Do you want me to stop?” When she didn’t answer, he hauled her back so that she was flush with him. “You and I share this ache. Fight it all you want, but it is the truth.”
There was no denying that. The ache was driving her crazy.
“Let me take the edge off all that loneliness.” He lifted her chin, his thumb tracing idle circles over the delicate expanse of her neck. “So beautiful,” he murmured as his other hand roamed across her quivering stomach. “No one will know. No Nephilim. No Fallen. It is just you and me.”
Her eyes fluttered shut, and when his hand drifted up her stomach and stopped just under one round globe, she almost cried out.
“Tell me to stop.” His voice was thick. “And damn it all to Hell, I will.”
Her lips parted, but she didn’t speak.
Julian growled low in his throat and then brought his mouth down on hers.
Chapter Eleven
It had been years since she had kissed anyone. She’d been a teenager, before Baal and before she accepted the Contract. She’d forgotten how much pleasure a kiss could bring, but she never remembered being kissed like this before.
Julian claimed her lips as if he were laying stake to her soul. The possibility that he had already done so should have served as a dire warning, but she was far too immersed in the feelings Julian was working out of her. His lips were demanding, and when he tugged on her lower lip with his teeth, she yielded to him. The kiss deepened, and his tongue slid over hers. She let out a little breathless moan against his hot mouth. The taste of him, his smell…all of him invaded her, burning her. She was so hot, so wet.
His lips began to leisurely explore hers as his hand finally, finally smoothed over her breast. He touched her like he’d been starving to do so. His deft fingers plucked at her nipple, causing her to do something she’d never done before.
She moaned into his mouth.
His chest rumbled against her back as he left her mouth. “I will not force you. Even though every cell in my body demands that I take you now. You have a choice, Lily.”
What choice was he giving her when his fingers moved to her other breast, drifting over her pebbled nipple? The liquid fire in her was too potent to be ignored. But she was gasping for air, knowing she’d already gone too far.
But there was still a choice. Even as worked up as she was, she could regain control of herself, but it was more than the physical. She was so incredibly lonely and he…he had saved her twice now. And his touch, there was nothing like it. Her response ran deeper than trying to ease some of the loneliness, but she wasn’t ready to delve too deeply into that.
“I want to give you pleasure,” he said, smoothing his thumb over her bottom lip as his other one did the same to her nipple. The combination was maddening. “That is all, Lily. This will be nothing more.”
“It won’t?” Doubt colored her words.
“Oh, I want to do more. Much, much more. I want to sink deep inside you. I want to fill you while you scream my name.”
Her body shuddered.
“All you have to do is tell me no.” His hand left the tip of her breast, dropping to where the robe was still knotted. “No?”
She bit down on her lip. Her breast ached from the loss of contact.
He quickly unraveled the haphazard tie she had made, and the robe completely parted. “So beautiful,” he whispered again.
Her eyes opened into thin slits as his fingers made their way to the soft mound between her legs. She held her breath. A finger skimmed over her damp lips, barely touching her, but she jerked against his hand. No one—no one had touched her without some sort of barrier between her flesh and theirs. And without thinking about it, she parted her thighs, giving him more access.
He gently explored her heated flesh. She was quickly losing herself to him, breathing like she’d run five flights of stairs. When his thumb pressed against the little bundle of nerves, she whimpered.
“Stop?” he asked.
When she said nothing, he increased the pressure until her hips began moving, rocking against his hand. A fierce heat surfaced, overshadowing anything she had felt before. Building and building till she feared it would consume her.
Julian lazily ran a slender finger over her wet slit. The tension coiled inside her as she pressed into his hand, wildly seeking whatever it was he would offer.
“Look at me, Lily,” he ordered roughly. “Tell me what you want.”
A ragged breath escaped her parted lips, and her eyes met his.
He pressed against her, his cock thick and hard against the small of her back. “Tell me to stop.”
Everything seemed to come down to this moment. Her hips were still thrusting against his hand, twisting until sharp spikes of pleasure shot through her.
“What will it be?” He pressed his lips to the bruise on her temple. “Do you want me to stop?”
“No,” she gasped.
He made a triumphant sound and scooped her up in his arms. His movements blurred, and then he was placing her on the bed. Julian removed the robe from where it had been trapped around her arms and laid siege to her lips. He kissed her until her fingers sunk into his hair, pulling.