Only when Will had a heaping plate in front of him did she take a breath.
“Jules—“ Will sighed when she had just added another scoop of potatoes to his plate with a look of concentration.
“Hmm?” Julie poured a river of gravy over the potatoes, steadfastly avoiding Will’s searching gray eyes.
“I’m — I shouldn’t have stayed out last night.”
Julie froze. “What?”
“Darlin’, look at me.”
She looked up at him and felt her mouth go dry at the intense look in his eyes. “Yes?”
“Didn’t touch anyone,” he said, his voice low.
“I didn’t think you did,” Julie whispered.
The corner of Will’s mouth lifted up in a wry smile. “Liar.”
She shook her head and opened her mouth to protest, but he stopped her with a sigh. “Saw it in your eyes the second I hit the porch. I smelled like a cheap night.”
Julie lowered her eyes. “Yes.”
“There’s only you.” Will touched her hand again, and this time it was anything but chaste. “I’m never going to break the promise I made in front of God, Julie Ann. You’re my wife.”
“Will, I’m sorry.” Julie clasped his hand to her with a frown. “I’m so sorry I made you feel like I was ashamed to be your wife. I’m so proud of you and Forrest. My family, I just want them to understand how much I love you and—”
“Say that again,” Will said. He gazed at her mouth, and when Julie ran her tongue along her bottom lip, his fingers tightened on hers.
“I love you,” Julie whispered.
“Jules.” Will shook his head, but then he stood up and moved toward her with a groan. He pulled her out of her chair and claimed her mouth in a hot kiss that she felt down to her toes.
“Will,” she gasped, throwing her arms around him with an eager mewl of pleasure.
“So beautiful,” Will murmured against her skin, his hands already grabbing her skirts. He jerked them up to her thighs as he pressed himself against her. The rough feel of his pants against her stockinged legs made her moan in pleasure.
“Need you.” Will’s hands pushed beneath Julie’s skirts, and she gasped when he cupped her sex in his large hand. “I— God, Julie, I need to be inside you.”
“Yes.” Julie rolled her hips, earning her an approving sigh from Will. “Yes,” she said again, following Will’s direction and sliding to the floor with him in a tangle of limbs and skirts. She kissed as passionately as she could. This was where she wanted to be, and she welcomed the hardwood of the floor at her back.
“Ride me, Jules.” Will’s command had Julie blinking in confusion.
“How?” she asked, feeling out of sorts but eager to learn what it was he was asking her to do.
“Take your drawers off,” he husked out, yanking his pants down past his muscular thighs and revealing his proud and erect manhood. Julie nodded, hurrying to comply with his instructions. Anything to have him inside of her.
Once she had slipped her undergarment past her feet Will surprised her by yanking her close.
“M’gonna kiss you.”
“Okay.” Julie closed her eyes, leaning forward, but Will shook his head.
“Not there.” He pushed her skirts up past her now bare thighs and nudged her to slide up his body. “Here,” he said, sliding a finger through the folds of her wet sex.
“Oh!” Julie’s hips jerked at the contact. She was nervous about what he asked her to do. It wasn’t something young ladies were told was permissible, but then again, she wasn’t a young lady any longer. She was a married woman, wasn’t she? Julie slipped higher until she felt the ghost of Will’s breath against her core and then under the guidance of his hands she sank down until she felt her husband’s lips and tongue working against her.
Lord.
How misled she had been about the pleasures of marriage. No wonder so many married, and so young. Julie let out a startled cry, her hands coming out to brace her before she fell forward in ecstasy.
“Will!”
His fingers tightened on her thighs, and she heard a moan in answer to her cry. Julie moved her hips against her husband’s skilled tongue and let out a shuddering gasp at the sensation. It was a feeling unlike anything she had experienced before, and though her husbands had lavished her body with attention she had never before been in control of that pleasure. Now she was able to do as she pleased and she gasped, falling into a rhythm that felt best to her. And she was going to chase that feeling for all she was worth.
Her hips undulated as she sobbed out her relief. She wasn’t sure if it was minutes or seconds, but before long she felt the familiar ache of her orgasm gathering in her.
It was wantonly sexy to be with her husband like this. Fully clothed and on the floor of their dining room while their dinner sat forgotten only feet away. The thought of Will wanting her so badly he would take her so suddenly had Julie climaxing with a shout before long, her body sagging forward slightly as she hit the peak of her pleasure.
Will shifted her to the side before he settled her on her back and slipped between her thighs.
“Look so pretty like this.” He kissed her cheeks and hiked her legs up around his waist. “You going to take all of me, darlin’?
“Yes,” Julie moaned.
Will’s hips snapped forward, and he entered her with a grunt. “So sweet.” He sighed, beginning to pump in and out of her.
She pulled at his shirt, suddenly feeling wild and needy. She needed more of everything, so she canted her hips up to take her husband deeper and gasped, “More, Will.”
“Always so good to me.” Wil’s eyes shut as he leaned forward over her, a hand braced on the floor on either side of her head. He thrust into her harder now. It straddled the border between pain and pleasure for Julie, but it was exactly what she needed.
Will caught one of her hands and pressed a kiss against her palm as he continued to move in and out of her with ever-increasing desperation. His rhythm was erratic, a far cry from the slow and measured way he usually made love to her.
Julie bit her lip, a keening sound escaping her mouth. This didn’t feel like making love, not with the grunts from Will, her wild desperation, the way his hands now gripped her around her thighs as he settled back on his knees to thrust up into her. Will’s hands slipped down to cup her behind and he let out a muffled curse as he began a brutal pace that Julie knew he would be unable to sustain for long.
He was close, and so was she.
“Touch yourself, Jules,” he groaned, looking down to meet her gaze.
“I don’t know how.”
“Just pretend it’s me,” Will told her with another thrust of his hips. “It’s all right to enjoy this. And I’m too close. I need you to climax one more time. Can you do that?”
She loved seeing the look in his eyes. It was wild and passionate, and in turn, it made her feel that way, so she reached down and slipped a hand past the skirts bunched at her waist and touched that bundle of nerves Will and Forrest seemed to understand in ways that she couldn’t dream of. After a moment of tentative stroking, she gasped at finding a rhythm that she liked.
“Feels good, doesn’t it?”
“Y-yes,” she gasped, her head falling back when she successfully mimicked the way her husbands touched her. She knew that she might blush later when she remembered how she had touched herself while Will made love to her on the dining room floor, but now was not the time for that. Now she was doing exactly what her body demanded she do as Will took her.
She groaned at the thought. This wasn’t lovemaking, this was being taken, and her husband was taking her in spectacular fashion.
“You’re mine,” Will told her as he thrust into her with enough force to make Julie’s body shake in his hands. She looked up at him as he sped up his pace. “You’re mine.”
“Yes!” Julie cried out, her fingers between her legs moving faster now. “I’m yours. Take me! Take me, Will!”
W
ill threw his head back with a shout as he came. His calloused hands on her delicate skin clenched painfully. There was no way that she wouldn’t have bruises the following day where her husband had grabbed her, but Julie didn’t mind it. It would be a reminder, and that was something she found she quite liked.
She moaned and shook through her own release and slumped back against the floor with a little laugh.
“Oh, my.”
“Jules.” Will set her on the floor and looked down at her with a dazed expression. “God, you make me forget myself.”
“That’s okay,” Julie told him, reaching out a hand for him as he began to tuck himself into his pants.
Will looked at her with an almost apologetic expression when he reached for her skirts. “No, it’s not. You deserve feather beds and sweet words, not…” His eyes shifted to the side. “Not to be taken on the floor.”
“Don’t say that.” Julie sat up abruptly. “Don’t you dare feel bad about this, William.”
He bit his lip at the use of his first name. “Julie, I—”
“What? Feel like your delicate wife can’t handle it when you give it to her rough? Well, I can, and I like it. How about that?” she asked with him a defiant lift of her chin. “I want everything you have to give me, William Barnes, and that’s final.”
Will cracked a wry smile. “Is that so?”
“Yes, And now that we’ve sorted that out, help me up. I’m afraid the dinner has gotten cold.” Julie reached a hand out to him with a frown at the dinner table, still sitting laden with their untouched dinner. Will let loose a deep laugh, one so big that it bounced off the walls and put one on Julie’s face.
“You really are something else, Julie Wickes-Barnes,” he said, sweeping her up into his arms, and when she gave him a surprised look, he kissed her and sat her down at the table. Julie blinked at her sudden change of position, but she said nothing and fell into companionable silence as they began eating.
There was no tension in the room anymore, and all the nervousness that she had felt before was gone. It was just an enjoyable dinner—Julie hoped it was the first of many to come.
Chapter 11
The night following their impromptu lovemaking on the dining room floor proved to be absolutely magical for the couple. Julie found that it was the most relaxing handful of hours she had experienced since moving to Gold Sky, and she cherished the sweetness of it.
Will had bathed with her, his hands moving over her as if he wanted to reassure himself that she was real while he kissed every last place that wasn’t submerged underwater. The physical intimacy of it all had been a welcome reprieve from the previous tension, but what Julie treasured the most about that night was how freely Will spoke his mind to her.
The couple had spent hours in bed talking about his life before the war, about what it had been like after, and how he and Forrest had managed since.
Julie treasured the vulnerability Will offered her and drank it up like a dying woman in the desert. What Forrest had told her about their partner was true. He would, in his own time, open up to her, and Julie was delighted that the time was now. It filled her heart with promise for the future, and she fell asleep content and at peace with her place in Gold Sky.
The next morning she awoke to Will wrapped around her, his nose buried in her hair, legs twined together, and arms around her with his hands splayed possessively over her stomach. It had been a lovely way to wake up, and she smiled, remembering how gently Will had kissed her good morning, how he had made love to her, rocking his body into hers over and over until she had sobbed out her orgasm against the pillow.
“Our family is going to be beautiful,” Will whispered to her while she trembled in the afterglow of her climax.
It had been a truly memorable morning, and now Julie was busy ordering school supplies for the students. They had been overjoyed at learning that they would all be given the opportunity to personally write the President of the United States. It was an opportunity afforded by her familial connections and Julie was, for once, happy to use her father’s social and military station to get what she wanted. Each child who wrote would receive a personal response. Whether the President replied himself or not she wasn’t sure, but it was worth the excited smiles on her students' faces to assure them that someone would.
“Now, how many sheets of paper are you going to need?” Mrs. Harris, the mercantile owner, asked Julie with a pencil tap.
“Well, I’m not sure, so let’s go with an even 500, shall we?” Julie smiled at the shocked but pleased expression on Mrs. Harris’ face.
“You know, the other school teacher never ordered supplies like this,” the woman said as she placed the order and gave Julie a gentle smile. “Are you sure about the amount? It won't be cheap.”
Julie nodded. When she had arrived, the schoolhouse had been all but bare in the things a child needed to learn, and Julie had resolved to remedy it as soon as she was able. And due to her family fortune, she was able to afford any and all amount of supplies her students might require.
“My students deserve the best I can give them," Julie said. She paid for her order before she paused and added, “Throw in at least two more boxes of pencils as well, please.”
“You really do care for them.” Mrs. Harris handed her back her change with a nod. “You’ll let me and Mr. Harris know if we can help with the dance this week, won’t you?”
Julie grinned and nodded, taking her money. “Of course! I’m so touched with how much the town is helping put together the celebration. It means so much, and it will mean the world to the children.”
“Well, we all know it got dumped on you by our lovely Rosemary.” Mrs. Harris rolled her eyes. “We would all like to make it as easy as we can on you. You’re doing a wonderful job. I can already tell the difference in my Miles’s reading, and I have you to thank for that.”
Julie ducked her head. “Thank you. I’m delighted to be Miles’s teacher.”
“And we’re pleased to have you as his teacher.” Mrs. Harris waved her out of the store, and Julie stepped onto the street with a smile on her face. The sun was bright and shining, not a sign of the sudden spring storms that had been sweeping through the areas as of late. It was even warm enough that Julie felt like she could shed her jacket without worry, though she didn’t for fear of disrupting the new peacefulness of her relationship with Will.
The man wouldn’t, she knew, take kindly to her being underdressed for the weather. He’d hadn’t wasted an opportunity to throw in his two cents on her walk in the rain, and Forrest had been right: she was lucky that that Will hadn’t been home that day. Though he would be home tonight, and Julie flushed at the prospect of spending another night in Will’s arms.
If things continued as they were, then the dance wouldn’t be the only thing put to rights by Thursday. Forrest would be pleased by the progress made in his absence, and the thought put a happy smile on her face. Lost in her thoughts and still smiling, Julie rounded the corner and collided with someone else.
“Oh, I’m sorry!” she exclaimed, reaching out to steady the other person.
“Oh, that’s all right. You’re just the person I wanted to see!” Rosemary laughed, straightening her hat with a little shake of her head. “You really do need to watch where you’re going. This isn’t New York, but no nevermind that!”
Julie grit her teeth, her cheer evaporating like mist in the sun. “Rosemary.” She forced a smile on her lips. “What was it you wanted to see me about?” she asked, doing her best impression of civil.
Though it was taxing.
Thank the Lord for all her time in finishing school, or she might not have managed it.
“Oh, yes, yes, that.” Rosemary waved a distracted hand and then nodded up ahead to the newspaper offices. “If you’d walk with me? I was just on my way in.”
“Of course.” Julie forced her feet forward. “Lovely day, isn’t it?”
Rosemary hummed in agreement. “It is, but I won’t wast
e your time with pleasantries." She opened the door to the newspaper offices, which were quiet and empty save for the two women.
“Pardon me?” Julie blinked in surprise.
“Oh, I know you were raised well, which is the only reason why you’re trying to engage me in mundane prattle. There’s no need for that here.” Rosemary closed the door behind them and smiled brightly at Julie. “I’m going to save us time, since we are both busy women, and get right to the matter at hand.”
“Which is?” Julie asked, recovering from the blonde’s directness.
“Your marriage,” Rosemary said, putting down her reticule on her desk. “Or rather, Will.”
“What about Will?” Julie asked, her voice going quiet.
“The poor dear isn’t happy,” Rosemary said without ceremony.
Julie felt like she had been punched in the stomach. She swallowed hard, already feeling sick at the prospect of whatever Rosemary had in store for her that afternoon.
“Excuse me?”
Rosemary gave Julie a smile that she supposed was meant to pass for sympathetic. “William isn’t happy with the marriage.”
“I’m sorry, but I fear you are mistaken in your observation. We are all very happy. Will included.” Julie drew herself up to her full height, glad that she was taller than the other woman by a few inches.
“Oh, Julie,” Rosemary tutted, pulling a glove off with a look of dismay, “I wish that were true. I truly do.”
“Are you sure about that?” Julie raised an eyebrow.
“Yes, I want nothing more than for Will to be happy. He deserves it after everything he’s been through. You do know about that, don’t you?” Rosemary inclined her head, giving Julie an assessing look.
Though she was able to keep her face composed, Julie’s cheeks burned, and she cursed her inability to stop the reaction.
Julie looked down at her hands, feigning indifference. “I know well that my husbands deserve happiness.”
Heart and Hand: Gold Sky Series Page 17
