by Danielle Fox
“Julian, are you awake?” Emily whispered in a strangled voice.
I gasped aloud as I fully awoke and saw Emily’s beautiful face blanketed by a heavy sheet of concern, her brows deepened by her frown.
Emily’s bedroom, I concluded. I rubbed at my eyes with my trembling fingertips and slapped at my cheeks - just to be sure that I was actually awake.
“Julian?”
“Yeah, I’m awake.” My voice sounded husky, thick with sleep.
“Are you okay?” She stroked a gentle hand across my forehead, removing my moistened locks and pushing them back to join the rest of my hair in their correct position.
“I am now, come here.” I wrapped my arm tightly around her waist and hauled her body up and onto my lap. Then I held her there, feeling her warm breath breeze across my naked chest as her shoulders rose and fell. I had never been more grateful for that simple pleasure. She was here, and she was safe in my arms. At least for now.
“Julian. Have you got to work?”
I opened my eyes slowly only to quickly squeeze them closed again as the bright mornings light seeped in through the thin material of the curtains. “What time is it?” I mumbled.
“Eight thirty. I wasn’t sure whether to wake you.”
I suppose my answer to her question should have been yes, I had to work, but I didn’t want to leave her. I didn’t want to separate myself from her ever again, in fact. I was growing far too dependent on Emily. The mere thought of her not being at my side made my chest tighten, and it scared the life out of me. But at the same time, I relished in it. I thought about it for a few seconds and then decided no, I didn’t have to work. Ryan knew well enough by now that if I wasn’t in the head office by 9a.m, then I wasn’t going to be at any other point during that day. He would automatically re-schedule any meetings where my presence was a must, and anything else, he would stand in on my behalf. I was sure he would soon tire of the extra pressure my obsession with Emily was putting on his work day, but until then, I would take full advantage of his loyalty.
“No, I don’t need to work.”
I squinted almost painfully as I glanced across to where Emily sat, in front of the small wooden framed mirror. Her lips pouted dramatically as she struggled to tie a band around her hair that she was holding high at the back of her head. She always pouted whenever she concentrated on anything, it really was very cute. She finally managed to snap the band into place and then twisted around in her chair to look at me. I loved her hair like that, all scraped back off her face and piled into a messy heap, it exaggerated her beauty and she had nothing to hide behind when I penetrated her with my heated glare.
“You look ravishing, as ever, Miss Braxton.” I watched her mouth morph into a slow, shy smile as her cheeks blushed, and I hardened in response.
“Come here,” I ordered, my tone as masterful and demanding as I could manage when speaking to Emily.
She perched herself on the bed beside me and rested her hand lightly on my naked chest. I inhaled deeply, I wanted her. I grasped her waist with two firm hands and flipped her onto her back beside me before quickly rolling myself on top of her, squeezing my hips between her thighs. She giggled loudly and pushed hard against my shoulders. But my shoulders were too strong for her feeble arms and I didn’t budge. Instead, I nipped gently at her neck with my teeth as she thrashed and squirmed beneath me. I loved that sound. Her totally carefree laughter that I didn’t hear even nearly often enough. I would be sure to do something about that.
“Julian, not now!” she squealed through her childish giggles. “I’ve got to take Maia to nursery!”
Oh? Fuck, there goes that one then. I’d have to endure the displeasure of aching balls until she got home.
“Shall I wait here for you then?” I whispered before tugging gently on her ear lobe with my teeth. She frowned slightly through her wide grin and I pressed my erection firmly between her thighs as an explanation to my latest question.
“You can wait here if you want. I might be a while though.” She flashed that sexy smile of hers, purposely teasing me as she knew I couldn’t do anything about it.
I groaned loudly. “Don’t look at me like that!” I warned.
“Why? What are you going to do about it?” She flashed me that smile once more as her eyes took on a wicked gleam. Ah God, what was she trying to do to me?
“I’ll fuck you right now if you carry on,” I mused as I returned her wicked grin.
“I don’t have time.”
“I can be surprisingly fast.”
“Wait here, I’ll be as quick as I can.”
“Okay, I can wait,” I lied. The truth was that it was actually taking an enormous amount of concentration on my self control to stop myself from tearing her clothes off her right now. I reluctantly released my grasp on her wrists and rolled to the side, freeing her to move off the bed before I did indeed act on my impulse. That probably wouldn’t go down too well.
“You can’t lay here for that long! I bet you’re not still there when I get back.” She was challenging me now. She was right, I would find it a tough ordeal to lay here for that long, but now I’d have to do it, wouldn’t I?
“I’ll bet you I am!”
I heard the front door snap closed and felt instantly restless. I wondered how long it would take for her to return. Twenty minutes? Maybe thirty, I guessed. She was right; I couldn’t lay here for that long. But she had made it a challenge, and I didn’t easily give up on a challenge.
I reached for my phone and illuminated the black screen. 8.54 a.m. Maia started nursery at 9a.m so she would soon be there, I’d guess. I would call Natalie. That should pass a considerable amount of time as I had had six missed calls off her during the night. No doubt she would be more than pissed at me for attacking Ryan. Could my head really cope with that right now? Probably not, but it was either that, or get up. And given the fact I would only be straight back in bed as soon as Emily returned; there didn’t seem much point in losing our bet. With a deep, deflating sigh, I pressed call.
“Julian!” Natalie’s shrilling tone pierced through my ear as she picked up her phone. I moved the phone away from my ear, hovering it at a safe distance. Just close enough for me to hear my sister, but not so close that it physically hurt my ear each time she spoke.
“Hi, you called?”
“Yes! About five times, do you not answer your phone anymore?” she ranted.
“I was otherwise engaged.” I grinned at the mental image of Emily tied to her headboard and glanced up to see the tie still attached in its place. My grin widened as a filthy thought crossed my mind - when it clearly shouldn’t whilst talking to my sister. “What’s up?”
“What’s up? Well, firstly you’ve got some explaining to do! What the fuck were you playing at yesterday?”
“Don’t use that language towards me, Natalie. What was I playing at?”
“Don’t act stupid, you know what I’m talking about. You’re going to screw up your entire happiness if you carry on like you are, Julian. You’re pushing everyone away.” God, had her voice always been that high-pitched?
“Yeah, yeah. Thanks, I heard all this from your boyfriend yesterday.”
“Well, maybe it’s about time you fucking listened!”
“Stop swearing at me or I’ll hang up.”
She let out a long audible breath and paused briefly. “Mum’s had another turn. She wants to see you.”
Was she fucking serious? My mother’s funny turns were precisely the reason I didn’t see her. I couldn’t deal with it. One minute she loves you and your the most special person in the world, and the next, she’s screaming obscenities at you and trying to rip your fucking head off. It wasn’t her fault, I knew that, but it wasn’t mine either.
“So? Tell her I’m not around.”
“She’s not fucking stupid, Julian.”
“Isn’t she?” A quiet snigger escaped before I had the chance to stop it. Fuck!
“It isn’t funny, Jul
ian. Just think for one second how she must be feeling when her one and only son refuses to even acknowledge her existence.”
“Oh, I acknowledge her existence; I just have no desire to be a part of it.”
“You selfish bastard!” she screamed, forcing my handset even further away from my ear.
“Yep! Goodbye, Natalie.”
I dropped my phone onto the bedside cabinet and vowed not to answer a single call from her again for the foreseeable future. She could fuck off with her constant guilt trips. If I wanted to visit my mother, I would visit on my own accord. But I didn’t want to visit her. I hated her. I hated her for what she put us through as children, for what she allowed us to see. And I hated her for being weak enough to put herself through it. Besides, institutions were one of few places that actually frightened me. I would never admit that fact to another soul, but the place where my mother resided absolutely terrified me.
My phone screen illuminated as Natalie called again and my eyes travelled to the top of the screen. 9.13a.m. Shit, Emily would be back any minute and I hadn’t yet set up my plan. Well, I had laid here the whole time she had been gone anyway, that was an accomplishment in itself.
I reached for the loose end of the tie and tugged sharply, checking that it was still secure after last night’s strain, knowing that, if I was indeed to follow through with my earlier idea, then it was certain to face a hell of a lot more force. My head snapped around at the sound of the bedroom door opening and I dropped the thin band of fabric. Emily was grinning at me, her brows lifted as she studied me, seemingly in wonder.
“What are you doing?” she asked, stifling a laugh, I assumed.
“Waiting for you, I told you I would.”
“You’ve been there the whole time?”
“Yes. I’ve been mastering up a plan.”
“Have you now? And what would that plan be?” She placed a hand on her hip and eyed me through her thick lashes.
“I want you to tie me up. It’s your turn to take control.”
Her brows twitched slightly as she appeared to be masking a frown. “I can’t,” she whispered as her cheeks turned crimson.
“Why?”
“I wouldn’t know what to do. I’ve never...” She trailed off as her obvious embarrassment got the better of her. I felt myself smile.
“You mean you’ve never been on top before. So what? We all have to learn someday.” I smirked. Yet again, a very inappropriate moment for a very inappropriate joke. “Sorry, that was a bad joke. You don’t need to worry, Emily. Just go with it, do what your body tells you.”
Her eyes narrowed as she studied me and I wished I knew what she was thinking at that very moment. Her eyes scanned over my chest and my arms before they rose to the tie that sat securely above my head. She sat down gently on the edge of the bed beside me and fingered the soft hair on my chest. “So, now you’ve had a lay-in you must be full of energy, shall we go for a walk?”
Her ridiculously huge grin completely gave away her bluff, so I grasped her arms and pulled her towards me until her body lay flush against mine. Looking deeply into her eyes, I realised how much I loved this woman. I would do anything for her, give anything for her. Including my entire self.
I pressed my parted lips gently against her mouth and then I kissed her with everything I had. I thought about each and every movement before I made it, and controlled each and every movement as I made it. Believe it or not, I was happy just to kiss her like this for an extensive amount of time, but she obviously had other ideas as her fingers grasped cautiously at my wrist and pinned it to the bed. I opened my eyes slightly and nodded my approval to her before pushing my mouth greedily against her chest.
“Hang on,” I panted, twisting my wrist out of her grasp. “You don’t need to be wearing this.” I pulled her jumper over her head and then flipped her over onto her back and hastily removed her jeans and ridiculously large woolly socks. We were in London for Christ’s sake, not the Antarctic. “There,” I rolled back over onto my back, pulling her astride me as I moved, “I’m all yours.”
Within minutes she had my wrists bound tightly together and secured above my head. There was something incredibly sexy about this. It was exciting, naughty almost. This wasn’t something I was familiar with. I had never let a woman restrict me before. Sure, I had bound many a women in my time - in fact, that was generally how I preferred it, that way I didn’t have to endure their shameless groping and sharp fingernails - but I drew the line when it came to giving up my control. That was something I had never been comfortable with. But I trusted Emily. I trusted her with my entire life, and I trusted her with my body.
And my trust proved to be rightly placed as she slowly eased herself onto me. It was incredible. To feel so exposed, so vulnerable as I gave myself completely to her mercy was somehow extremely liberating.
I tugged hard against my restraint as I desperately longed to touch her. To twist my fingers into her hair as she kissed me. To grip my fingers tightly around her hips as they ground against me, as they moved up and down, up and down in a steady rhythm. To grasp her backside as she moved in small, agonisingly slow circles on my erection.
A loud groan rumbled from deep inside my throat as her every thrust grew more urgent. I wanted to reach out and tease her breasts, but I couldn’t. The overwhelming realisation that I couldn’t touch this perfect, beautiful woman who was transporting me into a complete oblivion was almost too much to bear. As sexy as it was at the beginning, now I was struggling. I simply had to touch her. I tugged hard against the tie until I felt the stinging burn against my skin.
“Emily, untie me.”
She paused briefly as she looked down at me, her eyes so easily revealing her uncertainty.
“Please, Emily,” I begged. “I can’t hack this, untie me. Now.”
Her large eyes widened as she read my no doubt panicked expression and she instantly leaned forwards and began fumbling with the knot at the side of my wrists.
“Hurry,” I pressed.
“I’m trying!”
What must have only been a mere minute or so felt like forever as I waited patiently for her to release my hands. The hands that I could then use to worship every part of her body.
The second I felt the fabric begin to loosen, I ripped my hands from its grasp and lunged myself forwards, pinning Emily to the mattress beneath me as my mouth pressed against her neck. Ah, how I had missed having the ability to do that. One arm supported my weight whilst the other free hand grasped and clutched at every inch of her silky skin urgently as I pounded into her, again and again.
“You okay?” she whispered, her voice jolting as her body jerked with each thrust.
“I am now,” I assured her. “I can’t not touch you.”
Her crinkled forehead smoothed instantly and her narrowed eyes returned to their usual state before she reached her chin up towards me, inviting my mouth to hers. This was more like it. The control thing, I suppose I would have to work at, but right now, it didn’t matter to me. And as she groaned and I felt her fingertips gripping firmly at my back as her insides clenched deliciously around me, I suppose it didn’t matter much to her either.
Chapter Seven
I draped a small lilac coloured towel around my neck, purposely leaving my hair dripping wet this time, as I made my way downstairs and into the kitchen, wearing only a fluffy white towel wrapped tightly around my lower half. Emily was at the sink, washing up the dirtied dishes from breakfast. I sneaked up behind her and wrapped my arms around her waist, kissing her ear softly as my naked chest pressed against the warmth of her jumper. That was my favourite jumper of hers. It hung loosely on her slender frame and draped across her chest and down her left arm, revealing a single bare shoulder. My mouth watered as I imagined running the tip of my tongue across her naked skin, tracing the line of her delicate collar bone.
She twisted her head around, interrupting my thoughts, to greet me and I heard her sharp intake of breath. “Do you have to
be quite so distracting?”
“I didn’t realise I was,” I lied. I had fully intended to seduce her with my dripping hair and naked chest.
She grinned, raising her perfectly shaped brows mockingly. “You’re prancing around half naked, Julian.”
“That’s because some hot blooded, desperate female ripped my shirt,” I joked, purposefully raising a single brow. She blushed and took her bottom lip between her teeth. Ah God, was there anything this woman could do that wasn’t such a turn on? “The picture on your wall, of a woman, is that your mother?” This probably wasn’t the most appropiate way to change the subject before I had her on the kitchen table, but it had been bothering me since I noticed it this morning.
“Yes. Why?”
“You look like her. She was a very beautiful woman.” I pressed a kiss against her cheek as she continued to make work of something in the sink.
“Thank you.” She inhaled deeply and appeared to hold the breath in its place for a few seconds before carrying on. “That reminds me, Natalie called me, said something about your mother being ill and asking for you.”
Fucking bitch! How dare she call Emily? Emily knew nothing about my past, about my family. Now I was sure to have awkward questions to answer to. Fuck! As much as I knew that I would tell Emily every secret I had, at one point or another, I was certain that now wasn’t the right time. I took a deep breath to calm my suddenly tensed body and looked around for something to do to hide my discomfort.
