Her jaw dropped. “I didn’t realize we were leaving Haverford.”
I smiled, proud to have impressed her. “A girl like you deserves more than Haverford. Besides, I need to take you somewhere where I can show you off.”
The smile never left her face the whole way there which was at least a solid hour. She even slipped her arm under mine leaning her face against my shoulder.
An hour later, our driver dropped us off at the Country Club Plaza. A mild, March night, she clutched onto my arm as we strolled the shops and took in the sights and sounds of the bustling city nightlife.
“I made us dinner reservations at Bluestem,” I said, pointing up ahead. “You hungry?”
She nodded as we stepped in tandem. For the rest of my days, I’d never forget the sound of her heels clicking on the pavement, the smell of her perfume against the cool, evening air, the way her blue eyes sparkled under the street lights, or the way her warm body felt pressed next to mine.
The way she glowed in the flickering candlelight in the center of our dinner table and how her delicate fingers clung to her wine glass as she took small, careful sips between bites of her filet mignon filled me with a kind of magnetic intensity I’d never felt before. Being there with Evie felt right like she was the only girl in the entire world that should’ve been sitting across from me.
“How’s your food?” I asked her as I cut my steak.
“Amazing,” she said, smiling. “Great pick.”
I watched her eat, hardly tasting anything myself. My gaze was transfixed on the halo the dim lighting cast against her soft features and the way the bones moved in her dainty shoulders when she’d reach for something. These were the little things I’d always heard about, the little things that mattered. These were the things I was going to miss someday.
* * *
“I’m so tired,” she yawned in the limo on the way home. I lifted my arm as if to tell her to curl up and curl up she did. “Thank you so much, Julian. That was, hands down, one of the best dates I’ve ever been on.”
She snuggled into the interior of my jacket in an attempt to get warm, and I let my arm rest over hers.
“Evie, wake up,” I told her an hour later, gently nudging her.
She sat up, smoothed her hair, and rubbed her eyes as the driver let us out of the limo. We were back where it all started at the manse. We headed inside and made our way up the grand staircase and down the dark hallway to our rooms. It only felt right that I dropped her off at her bedroom door like a proper gentleman.
“Goodnight, Evie,” I said, lingering a second too long. I wasn’t ready for our night to end.
She looked up at me through her long, dark eyelashes and smiled a dreamy, still half-asleep smile. And just when I least expected it, she leaned in, grabbed me by the shirt, and gently pulled me in for a kiss.
I kissed her back, softly and slowly, savoring every millisecond before she gently pushed me away.
“A proper date deserves a proper goodnight kiss,” she said before turning and heading back into her room shutting the door behind her.
Reeling, my body on fire, I headed back to my room to try to unwind. I wanted to kiss her again. I wanted to feel her warm body pressed up against me. I wanted it more than anything I’d ever wanted in my entire life. Knowing that she was only mere feet away from me, separated by a thin wall, drove me completely insane.
I stepped into my room and threw my jacket on the back of a chair, my heart racing. I wanted more of her. I had to have more of her. I was burning up, and if I didn’t get to have her soon, I was going to explode.
I sat on my bed, kicking off my shoes, and tried to catch my breath. This time, it wasn’t the sickness. This time, it was her. She did this to me. She made me crazy wild with desire, and I knew then what I had to do.
“Evie,” I said as I found myself standing outside her door once again a moment later.
She pulled her door open, having already changed into silky pajama pants and a cotton tank top. Her face was freshly washed, and her hair was spilling down around her bare shoulders.
“Julian,” she said, shocked to see me. “What are you—”
I cut her off with a kiss—a good, hard, passionate kiss. It was the kiss of a man who was on fire with a craving so desperate he had no other option but to act. I slipped my arms around her narrow waist, resting my hands on her hips and pulling her body against mine, and my heart fluttered a bit when I realized she was kissing me back.
“Julian,” she said again, breathless as she came up for air. “What is this?”
We stumbled into her room before falling backward onto the bed, her body pinned under mine. I ran my fingers through her soft hair and caressed the side of her face.
“You have no idea how badly I’ve wanted to do that,” I confessed.
Her lips parted into a reserved smile as if she felt the same way but couldn’t say it.
“I had fun tonight,” she said. “I saw a different side of you.”
I leaned in and kissed her again, my hand running the length of her side and resting on her hip. My lips worked from her mouth to her cheek and then down to her neck, peppering soft kisses into her flesh.
“What are we doing?” she sighed, tossing her head back as she enjoyed every second. “We shouldn’t…”
“Evie,” I breathed into her neck. “Don’t think. You think about things too much. Relax.”
My words sent her into another state as she melted down into the bed. She looked at me longingly as if she’d just given into the feelings she’d been trying to fight all along.
She leaned up and kissed my mouth. “I don’t know what this is, but I think I like it.”
“It doesn’t matter what it is,” I said, between kisses. “It doesn’t have to be anything. It is what it is.”
She rolled over on top of me straddling my hips between her thighs as she slowly pulled off her tank top. My heart pounded hard in my chest as my hands cupped her supple, creamy white breasts, and she sighed as if she were releasing the tension of a thousand years. She leaned down and unbuttoned my shirt slowly and sensually before climbing off me and unzipping my pants. This was happening.
“Do you want this?” she panted, looking up to make eye contact with me.
I nodded, unable to contain my arousal any longer as her hands worked to free me from the confines below. She stood up and slipped her pants down, kicking them across the room, and crawling back on the bed.
I leaned on my side, my hands traveling the length of her soft flesh taking in every inch of her. I couldn’t get enough. She laid flat on her back, and I climbed on top of her slipping my fingers down between her thighs and touching her for the first time. Her warmth was inviting, and her wetness told me she wanted this as much as I did.
“You sure you want this?” she breathed into my ear.
I used my legs to spread her thighs as we touched, unsheathed, below. Skin to skin and heartbeat to heartbeat—this was happening.
I positioned myself at her entrance and gently pushed myself in. Warm and wet, it was everything I imagined it to be, and then some. I thrust, slowly at first, and then building. I couldn’t get enough of her. I wanted to be inside of her forever. I’d never felt so connected to anyone in my life.
“Julian,” she sighed, tossing her head to the side as her hair splayed out behind her. “Oh my God. You’re good at this.”
I continued thrusting, gently cupping her face with my hand and turning her gaze toward mine. I wanted to look at her. I wanted her to be present. “Look at me, Evie.”
Her blue eyes locked onto mine.
“Relax,” I said to her as I continued plunging into her depths. “Be here with me.”
She nodded, and I felt her body uncoil a bit underneath me. I was quite certain a million worries were crossing through her mind and pulling her out of the moment, but I refused to let that happen. I leaned down and kissed her mouth—hard. I felt it coming. I couldn’t fight it much longer.
“Com
e with me, Evie,” I whispered. Her hips began to buck against mine as gentle sighs escaped from her lips. I watched as her face tensed and then released, and her lips parted into a silent ‘O’ until she couldn’t take it any longer.
I pulled myself out of her and released myself onto her stomach before collapsing on the bed next to her, our bodies hot and sticky.
She stood up and walked to the bathroom to get cleaned up.
“Will you sleep in here tonight?” she asked when she returned. “With me?”
15
EVIE
It all happened so fast. The way he charged at me, hungry like an animal—I couldn’t resist. I let him take me. Maybe it was a bad idea. Maybe it was wrong. But it happened.
And I liked it.
I crawled back into my bed where Julian laid waiting for me under the warm, thick blankets. We were both naked and skin to skin, and I curled up under his arm, resting my head on his shoulder.
“I can hear your heartbeat,” I said.
“Still trying to come down from that,” he laughed. “It was so… intense.”
I nodded, running my fingers down the side of his arm and quietly noticing the sudden girth of his arms.
I traced my fingers down his abs where lean muscle rippled through his flesh.
“Do you think what we did was okay?” I asked softly, hoping for a little reassurance.
“Absolutely,” he said in a firm tone that told me all I needed to know. “I wanted that, Evie. Believe me. I wanted you.”
I leaned up pressing my lips to his. “Thank you for tonight. I had a great time.”
“I know.” He smirked. “You said that earlier.”
“I mean it, though. The limo, the date, the kiss… the sex.” I laughed. “All of it was perfect.”
“Well, now you know what a date with me is like,” he said. “You no longer have to wonder.”
A million words swirled around my head and were left unsaid as sleep began to wash over me. “Goodnight, Julian.”
“Goodnight, Evie.”
* * *
I hadn’t slept that well in a long time. Waking up, still wrapped in each other’s arms, my eyes adjusted to the sunlight filling my room. Julian was still sound asleep like he hadn’t moved a muscle all night just to make sure I was comfortable.
I tried to carefully slip out of his arm and head downstairs to make his breakfast, but he woke anyway.
“Go back to sleep,” I whispered when I saw him stirring. I slipped on my pajamas, which were lying in a heap on the floor.
He sat up anyway and stretched his arms over his head, his eyes fixed on me. I ran my fingers through my messy bedhead in a vain attempt to look halfway decent, and Julian laughed.
“You look fine,” he assured me. “Stop.”
“I’m going to get your breakfast and your medicine,” I said, immediately going back into nurse mode.
“Evie, Evie,” he said, shaking his head. “Stop. I told you, you don’t have to do that stuff.”
“What am I here for, then?” I asked. “You are my job…”
He climbed out of bed easily as if he were never sick in the first place and walked over toward me. Grabbing my hands, he looked me in the eyes, “From here on out, things are going to be different, okay?”
“Different how?”
He leaned down to grab his clothes from the floor and got dressed. Gone was the self-conscious Julian who didn’t want me to so much as look at him, and standing before me was the new Julian, my lover, a man oozing confidence and strength. Maybe getting laid did that to a man?
“Evie, I’ll make sure you always have a job. Don’t worry about a thing, all right?”
He zipped up his pants and ushered me out of my room as he headed toward the stairs.
“You’re coming with me?” I asked, watching as he took each step with ease.
“Yeah,” he said. “We can eat breakfast downstairs today.”
He took a seat at the kitchen table as I prepared breakfast, and I could feel him watching my every move. He couldn’t take his eyes off me, and I liked it.
“You won’t be eating cold eggs today,” I teased as I cracked an egg over the side of a frying pan. “These will be fresh and hot as you like them.”
Smirking, he rolled his eyes as he stood up and walked my way leaning his elbows against the marble countertop of the island.
“I feel like I do more cooking around here than nursing,” I laughed. “I’d have figured you guys would have your own chef or something.”
He shrugged. “We used to, but my parents are gone so much it didn’t make sense to keep someone here full-time.”
I flipped his eggs and salt and peppered them. “You want orange juice?”
“Sure,” he said, still transfixed on me.
I plated his eggs and poured his juice setting them down in front of him on the island.
“You never eat,” he said. “You make all this good food, and you never eat anything.”
“I’ve never been a big eater,” I said. Dating Spencer Goodwin would do that to a girl. Even at a size six, he was constantly telling me to exercise and ‘tighten up,’ as if dating a size six wasn’t good enough for him. It left me hating food. I was lucky it never turned into an eating disorder. “I nibble here and there. Mostly when I cook.”
He forked a piece of egg and held it up to my mouth. “Eat.”
I laughed. “What, are you trying to plump me up now?”
“You need to eat,” he said, pressing the eggs so close to my mouth I could feel the heat radiating off them. I opened my mouth and accepted the bite. “Make yourself something.”
I poured myself a bowl of cereal and took a seat next to him. “Happy?”
“It’ll do,” he said. “For now.”
After breakfast, we headed back upstairs to his room where his nebulizer awaited us, a stark reminder of Julian’s harsh reality. I watched as he breathed in his treatment and washed down a handful of pills, and I sprawled out across the foot of his bed.
“I like how it’s just you and me here,” I said. “It’s kind of nice that your parents are gone all the time.”
“It is now,” he agreed. “It’s rather convenient.”
For a split second, I wondered if the magic of this week would vanish the minute his parents returned. I couldn’t imagine parading around like two lovers would go over well with Caroline.
“What are we going to do when your parents come back?” I asked him.
He shrugged. “I haven’t thought that far ahead.”
“Your mom would kill me if she knew,” I said, my mouth suddenly turning dry at the thought. “I’m going to lose my job. She’s going to fire me.”
“We’ll have to keep it under wraps until we figure out how to break it to her,” he said as if it were no big deal.
“She’ll report me to the Board of Nursing,” I said. “I know it. She will. Oh, God.”
“Calm down,” he said, taking my hands in his. “You’re overthinking this.”
“I wasn’t born with rich parents,” I said. “I can’t jeopardize my career like this. If I lose this job, I’ll have to move back home. I can’t do that to my parents. They can barely afford to take care of themselves. They don’t need another mouth to feed, and…”
He gently laid me back down on the bed stroking my cheek before saying, “What if I just took care of you? You’d never have to work another day in your life. I’d take care of your family, too.”
He laid himself down, his body next to mine, and placed his hand on the curve of my hip.
“I don’t expect you to do that,” I said. “It sounds nice, but it’s not realistic. Besides, I like to work.”
“Okay, I’ll take care of you, and you can still work. For fun.”
“Well, I didn’t say working was fun,” I laughed.
“What would you do if you didn’t have to work?”
“Travel,” I said without pause. “I want to go to Paris someday. And Rom
e. Cliché, I know.”
“Not at all.”
“I’ll probably never leave this stupid town. I’ll probably never set foot outside the country.”
“What if we went together?” he suggested.
“Have you ever traveled before?” I asked.
“Nope, not like that.” He stared at me with an intensity I’d never seen before. “That’s all the more reason for me to join you on your excursion, wouldn’t you say?”
I smiled, leaning in for a kiss. “I like the way you think.”
“Then it’s settled,” he said. “We’re going to travel the world together.”
“You are so handsome,” I said as I took in every curve and angle of his face. “You don’t belong here.”
“What?” he said with a curious laugh. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You know when you look at an old picture of a sailor or someone from the 1940s, and they look so damn handsome?” I said. “It’s like you’re from another era. That’s what you look like. You’re classically handsome.”
“Is that a good thing?” he asked, one eyebrow raised.
“Very,” I said, leaning in to kiss his full lips. “It’s a very, very good thing.”
16
JULIAN
“You’ve changed my life, Evie,” I said, lying on the bed next to her one night. It had been a few days since our date, and every day with her had been surreal. “You’ve given me a reason to live. I’ve never really had that before.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she said, waving me off. “You’re giving me too much credit here.”
I sat up, looking squarely in her gorgeous blue eyes. “Growing up, I had everything I could ever want. Any gadget. Any video game. Any toy. But now I know that none of that mattered. None of it meant a damn thing. My parents knew nothing about how to love and care for a child. That’s why they pay people to do it for them.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, running her fingers through my hair. “I’m sorry you never had what you needed.”
The Beginning of Everything_Garner Page 10
