Hunting Julian

by Jacquelyn Frank

  “You’ve always been honest with me,” she acknowledged. “I know that. But it’s also a lot of pressure to put on a person.”

  “And that is why I have tried to give you your space these last days.”

  “But the expectation still hangs over me. Not just yours, but everyone’s.” She sighed. “But given their situation, I can’t fault them for that.” She reached out to dust away a piece of lint from his shirt, her fingers slowly smoothing over fabric and warm flesh beneath. “I suppose I should try to be just as fair to you.”

  “It’s all right,” he said softly. “I understand why you feel the way you do toward me.”

  “I don’t hate you,” she insisted, stepping closer to him so he would look into her eyes. “I don’t.”

  Julian couldn’t bear looking into her gaze another moment without touching her. Maybe she didn’t realize that the whole of her palm now rested on his chest, but it was the closest thing he’d gotten to an invitation from her in days and he simply didn’t have it in him to pass it by. But, very aware of the tenuousness of their honesty with one another, he was extremely cautious as he raised gentle fingertips to the crest of her cheek.

  “I am guilty of many things, Asia,” he confessed to her, “including forgetting to tell you how beautiful you are to me. I make the mistake of seeing how strong you are, how tough you are, and forget that even the most hardened woman needs soft words. I saw you walking up to me that first night and all the rest of the world fell away from me. It was like standing over a chasm much more dangerous than this one could ever be.” He glanced down over the edge of the walkway. “I’ve walked a hair’s breadth away from falling since the day I took my first steps in this world, but I never feared it until I thought I was falling away from you. I’ve been falling for days and…all I want is the smallest thing to catch on to. But I won’t take your hand unless you want to give it freely. No matter the cost to me and mine. This means nothing to me if it means nothing to you.”

  Asia drew a difficult breath, her throat suddenly closing tight with unexpected emotion. It blindsided her, the way he made her feel by speaking the exact words she most needed to hear. He was willing to give her the freedom she chafed for, no matter what it might mean for the colony. No matter what it meant for his entire world.

  “I feel so selfish whenever I speak to you,” she said hot and fast, her breath rushing tightly with her feelings. “You give and give until your back might break from it. I swear, I think the first time you ever took anything for yourself was the day you took me…and even then, even then you thought of others before yourself. I don’t do things like that. I never have. Everything I do or did centered around myself. My needs, my school, my money, my sister…my revenge. I don’t know how I ever raised such a selfless girl like Kenya.”

  “Shh,” he hushed her with the sweep of a thumb over her lips. “You are too harsh. You did what was necessary to survive. It’s what you do. Don’t criticize yourself for wanting to survive. You accuse my world of being a harsh environment, but I have spent years on the Earth plane. I know all too well how judgmental and coarse it can be. And I am not as selfless as you would make me out to be. For example, my desire to kiss you right now is pure self-indulgence.”

  Asia smiled slowly under the press of his thumb.

  “You’re being charming,” she accused him.

  “Perhaps,” he said with a sly little grin, “I am being so in order to get what I want. I can be selfish in that way.”

  “Really?” She laughed at him, her eyes everything disbelieving. “How terrible of you. Maybe I shouldn’t indulge you.”

  “I wouldn’t. It would send the wrong message.”

  “True,” she agreed even as she stepped in close enough to rest her body up against his. All teasing came to a sharp halt as his eyes flickered closed in pleasure just to have her near again.

  Asia reached up to cup his face in her hands and then rocked forward onto her toes so she could touch her mouth to his. She had never once fooled herself into thinking it would be a matter of a simple kiss. Their history was blatantly clear. There was never going to be anything but the rawest of heat between them. No sooner had her mouth opened against his than his fingers were diving deeply into her hair and his hands were holding her still for his total assault. His tongue swept into her mouth and brought liquid fire with it. Nerve endings she didn’t even know she had flared wildly to life in her scalp, sending wicked chills chasing down the back of her neck and her spine. He took over and commanded the kiss, sweeping against her tongue in a devouring tangle of need. It was as though he couldn’t help himself, almost as though he wanted to but found it a hopeless matter. And just when she needed to draw for breath, he broke away from her, stepping back and releasing her so he could turn away from her.

  “Julian?” she gasped breathlessly, reaching to touch him and to steady herself in the process.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, reaching to wipe slightly shaking fingers across his wet mouth. “I shouldn’t be like that with you. I should be patient and give you space. But…” He reached to grip hold of the hand she’d laid against his arm. “All you have to do is touch me and I forget. I forget everything but the way you make me burn.”

  She stepped closer to him once more, reaching to run her hand up over the powerful flex of his biceps, and then she leaned in to kiss his shoulder through the ashen gray fabric of his shirt.

  Julian took it for the invitation that it was. He turned back to her, circling a hand around the side of her graceful neck, pulling her up to the descent of his mouth and kissing her until he thought his entire body would melt from the fire of it. She made his very blood boil, stoking his unquenchable craving for her until he could hardly see straight, never mind keep his balance on a dangerous walkway. He broke from her mouth so they could both draw hard for breath, his gaze searching around them in a desperate sweep for somewhere close to take her.

  Suddenly he reached for her, swinging her up into his arms. She wrapped surprised arms around his neck only an instant before he leapt from the walkway they were on and landed on the one directly below. They landed hard, but his powerful legs easily absorbed the impact. She was gasping for breath from a combination of fear and excitement as he turned to take her into a near building.

  She didn’t even question whose house he had brought her into. The moment he put her on her feet so he could shut the door, she reached to strip off the first of two shirts she was wearing. When he turned back to her she threw herself against him and seized him for a long and passionate kiss. She tangled her tongue sensuously against his until he couldn’t even see straight. Dragging his fingers through her thick hair, he pulled her mouth free of his so he could turn his desperation to other places on her body. He started with her sweet-smelling neck and immediately worked his way down her breastbone. The remaining shirt she wore was no better than a tank top, only far briefer over her midriff.

  Her hands were fast and hungry over the muscles of his chest and arms. She didn’t stop touching him, and he didn’t want her to stop. He separated from her only long enough to strip the offending material of his shirt away, it being the only thing standing in the way between her warm hands and his own bare skin. Shucking the thing off and throwing it away, he grabbed for both of her hands and returned them to their forays across his chest. She wasted no time in taking over for herself, and then moved to creep her fingers up the entire length of his back. Julian groaned softly into her mouth as he caught her up for another kiss. He wanted to do nothing more than spend hours eating his way across her mouth. Then he recalled there was plenty more he wanted to do to her.

  Julian grabbed her suddenly by the backs of her thighs, close up against the cheeks of her buttocks so he could haul her up against him and wrap her long, luscious legs around him. She was very obliging as she clung tightly to him, making it easy for him to walk them through a beaded curtain and into a back bedroom. When she realized where they were, she gave him a wicked li
ttle smile.

  “Just where the hell are we?” she wanted to know.

  “Lucien’s home. Don’t worry, he won’t be walking in on us or anything.”

  “Isn’t it a little rude to be doing this without asking?” she asked even as she ran eager hands over the ridges of his belly.

  “Yes. It’s very rude. But Lucien will understand.”

  Julian then knelt on the bed and laid her back across the mattress. There was a soft creak of stressed ropes as he moved his weight over her, but it was the only protest. Not that she would have noticed. Julian had reached for the hem of her shirt and was slowly pushing it up, his mouth falling on her skin as he bared it one inch at a time.

  “You always smell so good,” he murmured softly against her belly. He paused just long enough to breathe her in, his eyes drifting closed in pleasure as he did so. “Especially now,” he said, “when you are aroused and smelling of imminent sex.”

  “Hmm. Imminent sex. That sounds so dirty,” she breathed, wriggling provocatively beneath him at the very thought.

  “I have a great many dirty thoughts where you’re concerned,” he assured her.

  “Oh, really? Do tell,” she invited him in soft temptation.

  He smiled at that, moving up to nuzzle against each of her breasts briefly before licking her flat across one of her nipples straight through the fabric of the tight little shirt.

  “For instance,” he said hotly just before he took a nip at the thrust-out nipple his teasing had provoked, “I can’t wait to have the taste of you on my tongue. And I think you know I’m not talking about this taste.” He dragged up her shirt to expose her to him, his mouth closing over her voraciously, making her cry out and arch her back.

  She took several beats to catch her breath and then said, “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I think you need to explain it to me much more clearly.”

  Now there was an idea, Julian thought as it made his entire body flash hot with arousal just to think of all the explanations he had for her. He quickly slid a hand beneath her back, lifting her up only an inch or two so he could fully strip off the annoying little shirt that was in his way. Then he reached to grab hold of her skirt around its waist and wriggled down so low on her hips that he could see the top of the soft new growth of hair that appeared without care of waxing to maintain her groomed state. He found the fuzzy black growth tantalizing in the extreme and he quickly reached to place a line of kisses down from her navel to the very edge of her waistband. He took his tongue across the new line of pubic hair, licking the taste of salt and arousal off her until she was squirming and moaning softly.

  “Is this becoming any clearer?” he asked as he jerked the skirt just another inch farther down. He rubbed his chin against her through the material of her skirt, breathing deeply of the pungent musk he knew he’d caused her body to create. At this point she was breathing so hard it was all he could hear. “I want to stick my tongue deep inside you,” he murmured against her skin. “I’m going to do that very, very soon, zini.”

  He earned a moan for his blatant taunting and he decided to tease her just a little longer. He reached for the hem of her skirt, sweeping it up over her legs, bringing his fingers up the insides of her thighs as he spread her knees to the outsides of his shoulders. She had long since given up wearing any underwear, figuring out that the women Beneath didn’t much care for underclothing. To be honest, Julian didn’t much care for them either. He liked her just the way she was, as natural as possible at any given moment.

  Julian took his tongue up along the inside of her right thigh. He felt her shifting restlessly between his hands, her hips lifting as if she would chase his tongue if she could. She needn’t have worried. Being this close to the sultry smell of her excitement made him forget all about teasing her and instead made him crave the taste of her. He quickly jerked her skirt down her thighs, impatiently leaving her in order to shed it and just as quickly returning to lick her right at the very cleft of her pussy. She hitched out a gasp, restless fingers suddenly finding a home in his hair, holding him where he was, as if he were going to try and escape her. In fact, there was nothing further from his mind. Her long, glorious legs wrapped around his shoulders and back and he suddenly needed to somehow be inside her. The fastest and best way he could come up with was to run a finger through her wet lips and thrust it deep into her. The act sent her hips shooting up off the bed, and his mouth was there to catch her. He devoured her flavor like a starving man, all the while feeling her body clamp down around his finger until he couldn’t do anything other than take it as an invitation for another finger. He slowly worked both fingers inside her, all the while dancing his tongue across her clit.

  “Oh yes,” he hummed against her, making her cry out when the vibrations of it nearly sent her over the edge. “You’re utterly delicious, zini,” he told her.

  And now he was wishing he had taken the time to finish undressing himself before undertaking this zealous pursuit of her taste. He was so incredibly hard it was bordering on painful, and wearing the closely confining denim from her world was driving him up the wall. Not that he was in any kind of a rush, but it was damn uncomfortable.

  Julian shifted his position just enough so he could use his free hand to unbutton and unzip his fly. He hastily pushed away the material until he felt like his aching cock could breathe a little. Then he returned his focus to his woman and her vibrating body. His lips caressed her intimate folds again and again, rubbing over her until she was moaning in long chains of breath, her hands against his scalp guiding him perfectly into doing what she liked best, where she best liked it. It was so erotic, so perfect, that she exploded into a sudden orgasm against his mouth, her wild shout echoing up into the conical ceiling of the room. Julian felt her body milking his fingers in rippling waves of contractions, and suddenly it was all he could think of, feeling her wrapped around him, squeezing the very life out of him.

  But Asia had other ideas. She waited until he had pulled free of her body before she rolled over underneath him, the act allowing him to move his teeth across her buttocks in slow, gnawing bites. He growled in frustration, though, when she slipped away from him, turning around so she could lean over his back and slowly kiss him down the length of his spine. Julian didn’t know how much of this he could possibly take. The feeling only intensified when her wet mouth slid over the cheek of his backside, her teeth returning the naughty nips he’d stolen first from her. When she slid her hands into his pants and down his legs, he quickly accommodated her as she stripped him. He turned over as she pulled the denim free of his feet, then she set her teeth against his left shin and slowly began to nibble back up his leg. He was so hypersensitive by the time her hair fell across his erection he had to resist the compulsion to come right up off the bed. And if he thought that was unbearable, he was in for a hell of a shock when she worked her hand between his legs, her fingers molding the malleable flesh of his balls even as her hair danced tormentingly across his cock.

  “Asia,” he ground out. “You’re driving me out of my mind.”

  “Mmm, what’s the matter?” she teased him. “Not game for a little tit for tat?”

  And as she said that she resituated herself over him so her very fine breasts came to rest on either side of his cock. The sight of her reaching for him, making sure he was set surely between her tits, was absolutely incredible. He held his breath as she worked her hand into the mix, a brief flashing lick of her tongue coating her palm with saliva as she grabbed hold of him and slowly began to stroke him through the valley of her breasts, pressing him with merciless pleasure against her breastbone as she surrounded him perfectly. Julian couldn’t restrain the instinctive need to thrust against her, his groan of pleasure mutating into a fierce growl. But it was all too slow. There was no hope of any kind of satisfaction for him, and he had a sinking feeling that was exactly her plan. She had provided him with a taste of the best of decadent pleasures, yet denied him anything resembling relie
f. Not immediately anyway. And just when he thought he might scream from the torture, she sank down an extra few inches and caught the head of his cock in her hot, eager mouth.

  “Asia!” he coughed out, his hands diving forward to grip her by her hair, his blind need to thrust seating him deeply against the back of her tongue. She twisted in his hold, sucking him in as fully as she could. Like every other thing she did, she fought for control of the situation. He was inclined to give it to her, but he just couldn’t make himself relinquish the need to move. Neither could he take his eyes off the picture of his dick disappearing between her lips again and again, that irrepressible smile of power and satisfaction so damn evident in her shining eyes the entire time. He ought to have just relaxed, lay back and let her do her worst, but he couldn’t find it in himself to do so. He didn’t think it was possible for any sane man to keep still with such a dynamic mouth working his most intimate flesh. And he was completely neglecting to mention the work of her determined hands.

  “Asia, do something!” he demanded blindly of her. The command made her laugh against him, but she did shift into a steadier, drawing rhythm. It wasn’t quite what he had meant, but it would more than do. He didn’t really want her to take him all the way over the edge like this. He craved the feel of a connection between them. He wanted too badly to be inside her, making fierce love to her until neither of them could see straight. But she clearly had other plans.

  Julian closed his eyes, no longer able to focus as his entire body curled in anticipation. She fondled him straight down his shaft and over his sac, working her mouth over him with deep drawing speed. Julian began to gasp hard for breath, feeling the world spin out of his control. He looked at her and thought he had never seen anything so beautiful in all of his lifetime. In the end, it was that understanding that brought him over her finely worked edge. He felt his entire body draw up tight right before he exploded in release.