Free Spirit
Page 11
Her hand came up to curl around his face, holding him close to her as he moved a hand back down, pausing at the top of her thighs, loving how she wriggled against him, trying to get his hand to reach higher. He let a finger slide over her folds, parting her and let out a guttural purr when he felt how aroused she was. Pressing his thumb to her swollen nub he massaged her, turning in circles and watching as she began to fall apart beneath his hand. One held her up, and she leaned back against him for support when her legs began to tremble. A small whimper escaped her parted lips, and she scratched her nails down his neck as she found her release, crying out his name as she did.
It was only then that he turned her around, his mouth sliding over hers, hot and demanding, his tongue fiercely intruding into her mouth. She was still recovering from her orgasm, but she met his kiss with a passion of her own, wanting more, needing more and giving more. Their tongues tangled in a fervent dance, hands roaming and touching everywhere.
Pulling his head down to hers, Juliette sucked his bottom lip between her teeth, tugging gently. “I need you,” she whispered, “now.”
Noah nodded, understanding completely. “Turn around,” he ordered. “Place your hands on the wall.”
She complied, pressing her palms flat against the tiled wall as she leaned forward, pushing her ass back and angling it towards him. Noah reached out and fondled her swollen nub waiting until she was breathless, panting, and begging for more, waiting until she pressed back against him, arching her back and crying out.
Only then did he position himself at her entrance, making a guttural groan as he surged inside her, impaling himself as deep as possible.
Juliette cried out as she entered her, and he immediately felt her muscles clench tightly around him. Closing his eyes, he savored the delicious sensations as he began to move, thrusting harder and deeper within her. Each time Juliette met his thrust and each time she cried out. Wrapping an arm around her waist he held her when he felt her legs begin to buckle as he moved in her over and over again.
“Noah,” she whimpered. “Noah…”
“I’m right here, babe,” he murmured, not halting his assault on her body. “Right here with you. Come for me.”
He waited until he felt her body began to quake, her muscles clenching around him before he let himself find his own release, crying out her name and coming deep inside her.
Afterwards, the water starting to run cold, they climbed out of the shower, and Noah wrapped her in a huge fluffy towel, taking care to dry her gently and tenderly. Pulling a towel around his waist he followed her down the hall to her room. Juliette bent to pick up her discarded clothes as she passed them. Noah smirked to himself as he wondered what his brother—or his mother—would have thought if they’d come home and found him showering with Juliette. The last thing he needed was his mother asking him a million questions
Closing Juliette’s bedroom door behind them he pulled her against him, the towel he’d wound around and secured beneath her breasts suddenly feeling as if it were made of lead. He wanted to be closer. He wanted to feel her on skin on his as if it had been years and not mere minutes that he’d last had her. God, he thought, as he traced his fingers over her collarbones, he was really a goner.
“Tell me,” he murmured against her hair. “You said before, last night, that you can’t have children.”
Juliette, who’d relaxed in his arms, stilled before she pushed off him and walked across the room to the small suitcase opened on the table. Noah frowned at this, the image of her unpacked case bothering him more than it should.
“Um no,” she murmured, rifling inside her bag and retrieving some panties which she slid on beneath her towel. “I can’t.”
“How do you know?” he pressed. “I mean have you…” He wasn’t really sure exactly what he was asking. Had she been pregnant? Had she tried to get pregnant? How would someone so young know she couldn’t have children unless there’d been a reason for her to find out?
When she dropped the towel Noah was momentarily distracted from his line of thought at the sight of her breasts, the rosy nipples taut, until she pulled on a bra, hiding them from sight. Although it hardly, he mused, taking in the soft white lace cups, conceals anything.
“Um, the doctors told me,” she replied simply. “I’ve known for a long time that children aren’t an option for me.”
Noah watched, mesmerized, as she pulled on a dark green sundress and then began to run a brush through her long, wet hair. Sunlight spilled through the window, framing her and making her look like an angel sent from the heavens. He swallowed, reminding himself that he needed to get a grip. Even still, he could feel himself reacting beneath the towel, hard for her again already.
“How did they know?” he pushed.
She shrugged. “They just do.”
Noah watched her now, a small frown puckering between his brows. She wasn’t telling him the whole story and now that her naked body was no longer distracting him he could think a little clearer. The doctors had told her she couldn’t have children? What doctors? When? Was she injured? Hurt? Sick? Had something happened in one of her foster homes? He was reminded how little he knew about this girl that had swept into his life just a few short days ago. But he wanted to know, he wanted to know all about her, everything that she’d experienced, everything she’d been thought and everything she’d done. And he had questions. Questions he wanted to ask but wasn’t sure how. Plus, he was completely aware of the hypocrisy of the situation. He’d been the one to insist that things weren’t serious between them, that he couldn’t share with her and yet he was, asking her to share with him.
“It’s nothing really,” she said eventually. “I had some medicine when I was younger, and it turns out the medicine kills all your eggs.”
Noah was just about to ask more questions, his curiosity piqued by exactly what type of medicine Juliette had taken that had killed her eggs. It seemed extreme, and he wondered what had happened. Had she been sick? Injured? Did it have something to do with the purple scar on her chest? It must have something to do with the purple scar on her chest too. As he opened his mouth to speak they were suddenly interrupted.
“You fucking asshole!” came Ryan’s voice, reverberating through the house. “I’m gonna get you for this!”
With a grin, Juliette bolted from the room, running the short distance to Ryan’s room with Noah right on her heels. There they found Ryan pacing back and forth angrily. Juliette laughed. “Don’t you like it?” she asked innocently. “We thought you deserved a present.”
Ryan came to a halt, and he turned to glare at her before his eyes flicked past her to take in Noah hovering behind her, who still had the towel wrapped around his waist. His eyebrows went up shortly, in that family trait of theirs, before he seemed to remember why they were there and why he was so angry.
His entire bedroom, every single thing, had been wrapped in gift wrap. Juliette and Noah had raided his mom’s very extensive wrap collection, which included birthday paper, Christmas wrap, engagement and wedding present wrap and just plain colored wrap. Ryan’s pillows had been individually wrapped, his laptop—the lamp bedside his bed, his bedside table, the rug on the floor, each book on the small bookshelf was wrapped—the clock radio, his aftershaves and toiletries on the dressing table were wrapped—everything was wrapped with colorful gift wrap. It had taken them hours, but, watching Ryan’s severely pissed off face, Noah decided it was definitely worth it.
He glared at them both. “You’ll keep. You’ll both keep.”
And then he stormed out, leaving Juliette and Noah laughing hysterically in the doorway of his room.
Chapter Thirteen
Noah
“Juliette, you’re going to have to let go of me.”
“I can’t. You’re too sexy, and I’m way too scared.”
Noah laughed and tried to extricate her fingers from around his neck, but she had him a fierce hold. Not that he was complaining too much. Dressed in her tiny
bikini, the cold water making her nipples stand on end he had no problems with Juliette wrapping her arms and legs around him and pressing her body against his. In fact, he realized much to his chagrin, he could feel his desire stirring.
“Juliette,” he murmured in her ear. “You’re going to have to let go of me. This is a family beach, and I don’t want to get arrested for indecent exposure.”
Flushing, Juliette unhooked her legs from around his waist and eased back a little. They were deep in the water, so deep that it swirled around Noah’s shoulders and meant she couldn’t touch the bottom. The pier was a little way off, too far for her to swim to, and so was the shore, not that she could swim of course.
“I thought you said you could float,” he said.
“Doug taught me, but I guess I’m not very good at it,” she said, her fingernails digging into his skin in her attempts to keep her head above water.
“Trust me, Juliette,” he said, his voice calm and reassuring. “I got you.”
She nodded and relaxed a little in his arms, letting him lean her back into the water and rest her head. “That’s it,” he said, stretching her arms out. “You’re doing great. Doesn’t it feel awesome, looking up at the sky, feeling like you’re part of something massive, huge like the ocean?”
“Yes.”
“Merve thinks you’re doing great.”
“Merve!” she cried and then lost her balance, sinking under the water and coming up spluttering. Noah’s hands gripped her shoulders so she wouldn’t go under again. As Juliette spat out water, Noah pointed to Merve, who frolicked in the distance.
“Ah, Juliette, you can’t let yourself get distracted,” Noah said with a laugh. “You don’t need to worry about Merve. Sharks, yes. Merve, no.”
Her eyes grew wide. “There are sharks here?”
“No. No sharks. At least not that I know of…”
He was teasing her so Juliette splashed him with water, which caused him to let go of her, and she immediately went under again only to come up spluttering and coughing once more.
“You can’t do that,” Noah warned, his eyes sparkling. “You don’t want me to let you go.”
“No, I don’t.” She wound her arms around his neck and pulled herself up against him, her wet body slamming into his. They slid together, the water sliding over their skin, as Juliette tilted her head back welcoming the kiss she knew was coming. Noah didn’t waste a moment, pressing his mouth fully and firmly to hers, eliciting a low growl of pleasure from the back of her throat that made his pulse quicken. His tongue traced the seam of her lips before she opened for him, allowing him in to explore her mouth. Despite the chill of the ocean water Juliette was anything but cold.
“Juliette,” he murmured, “do I need to remind you of where we are?”
She shook her head. “No one can see us.”
He pulled back a little to gaze at her questioningly. They were out in the water, and whilst there wasn’t anyone nearby in the distance there were plenty of people on the beach. Families playing on the water’s edge, people enjoying the breaking waves, a game of beach volleyball.
“As much as I’d love nothing more than to take you right her and right now,” he said, his voice thick with desire, “I don’t think that would be appropriate.”
She shrugged, twisting in his arms. “Okay then.”
He caught her before she could get away. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to kiss you senseless.”
She tilted her chin up to him. “Kiss away, Noah.”
He pulled her back in for another kiss, and this time, when he did finally let her go, he realized it was getting harder and harder to stay away from her.
****
Later that night after they’d enjoyed a dinner with Renee and Ryan, Noah and Juliette went for a walk along the beach. It was dark, the only light coming from the full moon above and the multitude of stars that filled the night sky.
“I never knew,” Juliette began. “I never knew there were so many stars.”
“You can’t see them in the big cities. Out here, without all the light pollution you get a better picture of just how many other worlds, how many solar systems and galaxies there really are in the universe and how small we really are.”
“You know,” Juliette said, wrapping the light cardigan she’d worn tighter around her shoulders, “I heard once that a grain of sand on a beach represents just how big our planet is in comparison to the universe. And to think that we’re each just a tiny speck of dust on that grain of sand… It really shows you how small a part we play in everything.”
Noah looped an arm around her shoulder, drawing her close. “And how amazing that on all the grains of sand, in all the universes we somehow find ourselves here. That we met.”
“A season, reason, or a lifetime.”
“Mmm? What’s that?”
“You know the old saying. That people come into your life for a season, a reason, or a lifetime?”
“No. Never heard that,” he murmured thoughtfully.
“Well, for example my foster brothers. They were great, and they taught me everything I know about cars. I hung out with them on weekends, I asked a million questions until I’m sure I drove them completely crazy, and they were a huge part of my life,” Juliette explained, “but I haven’t seen them since I was seventeen. They were part of my life for a reason—the reason being to encourage and share a love of engines with me. Then there was Claudia.”
“Claudia?”
“She was a friend of mine,” Juliette explained, “and she taught me a lot of things. She taught me that we’re all stronger than we think we are. She taught me that you can never predict what’s going to happen, and she taught me to always look around and appreciate the right here and the right now.”
“She sounds like a pretty amazing girl.”
“She was,” Juliette replied quietly. “She really was. She was definitely my reason, and even though I won’t see her again I would also count her as my lifetime, too.”
Noah was quiet, pondering Juliette’s statement and wondering how great this girl Claudia must have been to have such an impact on her. Was she someone she met through foster care? Was she a school friend? He was just about to ask more when Juliette turned to him, her eyes shining.
“Now your turn,” she said. “You think of someone who came for a reason.”
“Um,” he paused. “Maybe my baseball coach in high school. I thought I was a shit hot baseball player and was heading towards the big league, but he soon dissuaded me of that idea. Turned out I was a crap player and if he hadn’t pointed that out to me I might still be playing ball instead of having turned my attention to shop—and creating things out of wood which I love doing.”
“You are good,” Juliette agreed. “I never knew carpentry could be considered art, but what you do is definitely a form of art. I’m glad Mr.—”
“Mr. McCloud.”
“I’m glad Mr. McCloud was able to direct you in another direction. Although I can’t imagine you were that bad at baseball. I’m sure everything you do is fabulous.”
Noah laughed at that. Mr. Mc Cloud had been a grumpy, middle aged man who simply told it how it was. He didn’t dance around the truth, and he didn’t pander to kids or their parents. If a kid was good he told them, and if a kid wasn’t good he told them that, too. And he pushed them. Even though Noah soon realized he wasn’t headed to the big league Mr. McCloud refused to let him quit. “The team needs you. You made a commitment, and you have to keep it. A good man always keeps his word.” Those were the words he’d said to Noah when he tried to quit the season. So instead of quitting Noah stayed and Coach pushed him, pushed everyone in the team, so that even though he was never going to be the baseball star he’d dreamed of, the team went on to win premiership that year.
“And the season—some people just come for a time,” Juliette was explaining. “I would put Harry in that category.”
“Harry?” Noah frowned. “Your old boyfri
end in Lexington?” He tried not to get jealous, knew there was no reason and no right for him to be jealous, but still he couldn’t shake the prickly feeling that came over him. The inexplicable feeling that he didn’t like Harry, didn’t like him at all, even though he’d never met him. The idea of some other guy living with Juliette, touching her, kissing her… Noah shook his head, shaking away the dark mood that threatened to swamp him.
“Uh huh. He came into my life and was there for a short time and then he just wasn’t. And then of course there are the people that last a lifetime.”
Lifetime. Noah had thought he’d found his lifetime person only to learn he was wrong. So very wrong.
“I know who they are in my life,” Noah said. “But what about you? Not your mother…”
“No,” Juliette stated firmly, “and I never knew my father, so no family in that category. But I have a friend in Lexington—Bethany—and I have a feeling we’ll be friends forever. We had that kind of connection you know?”
“Yeah,” he murmured, “I know.”
They walked along the beach a little further, and Noah wondered, just how long Juliette was in his life for and just what she meant for him. Was she a season or a reason?
Chapter Fourteen
Juliette
“Juliette! Your phone is ringing!”
“Okay,” she called back to Toby from beneath the bonnet of a Toyota where she was busy changing spark plugs. Standing up and wiping her hands on her overalls, she made her way over to the counter where she’d dumped her phone that morning. The only people who ever called her at work were Noah and Renee.
She frowned when she saw the name on the screen. Harry. He’d called a few times since she’d left two weeks ago, but had seemingly given up when she’d sent him a message asking him to stop. Juliette had thought, since she hadn’t heard from him again, that he’d gotten the message.
“Harry.”
“Juliette.” His voice came in a rush. “You answered.”