This has what I hope is tasteful sexual content following the second break. This chaper is probably more sensual than sexual as it is not graphic. I marked the last two paragraphs as over pg-13. The rest should be fine. As I did with Shadows I have marked this for the readers who have found it helpful to bypass sexual situations. Now Erik...

I tried to convince Julia to stay the night with me after dinner.

Ch 45

Julia's hand pressed against my hip and I turned onto my left side to face her. Her fingers moved up my arm, up my shoulder and neck until she stroked the damaged skin along my cheek. All of my doubts raced back as I searched her eyes. Had I been able to conjure a voice I would have asked her why she did it, why she lay down beside me when I was nothing like what she had first known.

She touched my lips with her fingers and I closed my eyes, savoring the unearthly sensations that roared through every nerve in my body. My breaths hitched in my throat, her presence overwhelming me like nothing else I had ever known.

Again Julia inched closer until there was no space between us. She had to have felt how much I wanted to do more than just lie beside her. She had to. But she said nothing. Her hand moved along my temple and into my hair. It was too much to bear, too much to take in at once. I shuddered for her sake as she raked through the thin mess of hair. My eyes opened again, and I drank in her oval face, her hazel eyes and tempting crimson lips.

"Julia…"

"Shhh."

My hand pressed against the small of her back, urging her closer when there was no room. We both leaned in. Not just me, not just Julia but both of us. Her lips parted and I did the same.

Without a word I looked into Julia's eyes and I kissed her. She sighed as our lips touched. Her hand moved from the right side of my face until she cradled the back of my head and gently ran her fingers down the back of my neck.

We pulled away and looked at one another for only a heartbeat. I moved my hand from behind my head and Julia smiled shyly as she leaned back and felt my arm slide under her. She kissed my cheek once before I slowly kissed her mouth again. There was nothing else that compared to her soft caress, to the feel of her breasts smashed to my chest, to her rushed breaths against my face and the fire of her tongue searching for mine.

Everything about her; the way she smelled, the way she felt, the way she looked in the shadows made me want every inch of her. But I had made a promise to her that all I wanted was to lie beside her. Even when I looked into her eyes I could see a glimmer of fear, a little egg of despair that cracked open from her marriage to Louis Seuratti. She knew that even while injured I was stronger than her, that within seconds I could have pinned her down and had her against her will.

My thumb ran along her cheek as I pulled back from her at last. The temptation to kiss her once more couldn't be denied and I pecked her quickly on the lips. Julia gave me a questioning look as I pushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

"Rest well," I whispered to her.

Julia smiled and nodded as her eyes closed. Her body softened in my grasp as she relaxed. My own exhaustion was taking a toll but I forced my eyes to stay open and watched her for a while. I marveled at her face, at how her lips appeared slightly swollen and her eyelashes looked longer. I traced along the outside of her eye and covered the triangular scar with my finger. The mark made me want to weep. It branded her as still belonging to Louis Seuratti. He would always own part of her, always hold her, always suspend her in memory of his treachery.

Eventually I closed my eyes as well. It was then, just before the line between wakefulness and dreams was crossed, that Julia pressed her lips to mine one last time.

Her touch woke me just before dawn. Julia's hand rested on my chest. Her fingers drew circles through the hair followed closely by her lips on my throat. She sighed and propped herself up on her elbow once she knew I was also awake.

There was no need for words. Other senses worked better than communicating through speech. Our eyes met as I slid my hand beneath her and moved her closer. She let out a slight giggle as she rolled and found herself resting against my left side with her leg draped over mine and her arm sprawled over my chest.

Julia closed her eyes as I nuzzled her neck. She let out the softest sigh, a sound of bliss that I had never heard from anyone before. Her mouth opened to mine and I kissed her again, deeper than before. I felt her legs move against mine, the heat of our bodies against one another.

Everything about Julia seemed different. Her perfume had faded over the hours. She smelled like the warmth from lying in bed. Her hair was mussed from sleeping on her side but she looked well-rested, her skin glowing even in the lightless room.

My fingers ran along her satin cheek and down to her chin. Her skin was still heated from lying partly against the pillow and partly on my arm. She kissed my fingertips, nibbling gently on the tips.

The sensation was like every nerve being stirred into existence. This was what it must have been like to wake from a cocoon and stretch for the very first time. No other encounter, no other night mattered. Being with her now was like rebirth.

We kissed; long and deep and warm and wet, breathing against one another, tongues touching, searching. We did nothing more than kiss. Our arms were wrapped around one another, torsos joined, her legs straddling my hips. Within seconds we could have tossed our clothes aside but neither one of us moved, dared to spoil the moment. There was something more, something far beyond what we had ever done before.

Her hands moved along my arms, nails gently pressing into my shoulders. Although she touched the bruises I only exhaled against the pain knowing full well that there was something better to come.

Her tongue pressed to mine. My breath hitched as she placed her knee between my legs and ran her fingers through my hair. Briefly I opened my eyes and saw that Julia had closed her own as she lost herself to the moment. I gripped her tighter, my hands running down her back, along the soft cotton of her night dress. Julia released a soft moan that voiced her needs. I broke away from her lips and studied her face. Her eyes sparkled. There was a gentle ring of gold that surrounding the onyx center of her eyes. I had never noticed how brilliant the contrast was between the gold and the hazel, how it spread like fire.

And how she had spread like fire into me.

(second break)

Julia pulled away from my lips and rested her head against my chest. She was breathing harder, electrified in the same way I was by her touch. Julia glanced up, smiled again, and kissed my chest. A ragged sigh left my throat. She continued to tempt me, to tease me in a way that was pleasurable torture. I released the string that kept her hair back and ran my fingers through the silken strands. Her waves of hair fell around her face and down her shoulders. The ends dropped down and ran along my chest and stomach, and I shivered.

"You're still bruised," she whispered between kisses. "We should stop."

I wanted her. I wanted to be inside of her. From the placement of her leg she had to know that the last thing I wanted was to stop.

"Do you want to stop?"

Julia sighed. "It isn't about what I want. It's about what's best. And for you right now I think it's best if we stop."

"Why?"

"Why? What did I just say?" She rolled to her side and adjusted the hem of her nightdress back down to her ankles. "Are you even listening?"

"You're distracting at the moment."

"And you're hurt."

"That was three days ago. I'm fine."

"And in a week," she said as she propped herself up on her elbow and kissed me on the cheek, "you will be even better."

I laid my head back and closed my eyes. "In a week I'll be dead from lack of blood flow."

Julia playfully tapped me on the chest. "Oh, hush."

"And now you're adding to the bruises."

She smirked. "From where my leg is at the moment another bruise should be the least of your worries."

I rolled her onto her back and hovered over her, kissing the side of her neck. "Tell me that you honestly want to stop."

"Erik, I'll kick you."

That got my attention. "Julia, I'm serious. I'm fine, but if you don't want to, then tell me right now and I'll stop."

She ran her fingers along the back of my neck and smiled. "I know you will. And I don't want you stop, but—"

My mouth closed over hers. She tried to speak but gave in and pulled me closer. Her hands moved slowly, barely even touching my back. Her fingers made their way along to my sides. I shifted to my knees and put more pressure on the painful bruises. The moan I had tried to keep inside escaped as I kissed the corner of her mouth.

"What did I tell you?" Julia mumbled against my left cheek. She helped me out of my pajama pants while I wrestled with her night dress.

"Ma petit there are no need for words," I said against her skin.

She moved her knees apart and I knew she wouldn't protest, not when our bare flesh touched, when our hands found minds of their own with which to explore. Speech was abandoned for other much more satisfying endeavors. I kissed her deeply, passionately, leaving her mouth for lazy, wet trails along her throat and below her ear as I unbuttoned the top of her night dress and cupped her breast in my hand. She moaned as I rolled her nipple between my finger and thumb.

"Did you lock the door?" she whispered as I made my way to her bellybutton.

I paused, resting my chin on her navel. I looked her in the eye despite the temptation of two perfect milky white breasts. "Yes."

Julia, of course, didn't believe me. She started to sit up but I pushed my hands against her ribs and crawled over her. She looked alarmed once I held her wrists in each of my hands but I kissed her gently.

"It's just us. No one else."

Julia searched my face for a moment. She nodded and relaxed beneath me, her fingers playing at the back of my neck. Our lips met again, open and wanting. Supporting my weight on my knees and one hand, I ran my hand through her long hair. Her hips rose from the bed as I massaged her scalp.

over pg-13

Julia took my face in her hands as I entered her. Her knees squeezed around my hips and she moaned hot in my ear. As we moved together, slow and sensual, I looked into her eyes and watched her kiss-swollen lips quiver. Her fingernails pressed into my back. Julia nibbled along my neck and sighed my name. A hundred times before I had penetrated her, impaled her for what was mutual pleasure. This time was different. This was not sex with a woman. I kissed her harder and moved within her. She touched the right side of my face, caressed the damaged skin. Her hips pressed up into mine and she moaned louder. I realized, as my tongue teased hers, that in the most deeply sexual way I had remained a virgin.

For the first time I no longer slept with a woman. I made love to Julia.