I liked thinking of it as the incident. It sounded a lot better than it really had been.
Glancing at the time, I realized I was up five minutes before my alarm was supposed to go off. I think my body was trying to tell me it was ready to return to some normal activities again.
I’d tried to convince Pick I was ready to get back to work too, but he told me he wouldn’t even consider it until the six-week mark. I was on paid leave until then, he insisted. Secretly, I had to admit, it was nice not to have to deal with bartending quite yet. It left me more time to spend with Colton.
Speaking of my aggravating boyfriend…
He’d tried to enact a break from sex too. He thought I needed a month at least for all my wounds to heal. But all my bruises had faded, my cuts and abrasions had scabbed closed, and my temperature was back to normal. I was one hundred percent healthy. Physically anyway. Mentally, I was still somewhat of a head case. I hated how clingy I’d become, not that Colton seemed to mind. I swear, the jerk actually ate up how close to him I had to be every time we left the apartment. He’d smile at me with that smug satisfaction of a man who knew he had his woman wrapped completely around his finger.
Really, it was too much.
Just not enough for me to stop relying on him so much just yet.
But today…today was a new day, and I was going to work on being a new, confident, self-sufficient woman. And I knew exactly how I was going to start.
This was how Julianna got her groove back.
Humming in my throat over how good my man smelled, I ran my nose up his throat and bent my knee, making sure my leg slid right over his cock as I did. And just as I planned, I felt him grow hard through his Jockey shorts. He groaned, stirring awake as I nipped his jaw with my teeth.
“Happy birthday, baby doll,” he murmured, still half out of it as his hand smoothed down my back to shape its way over my butt.
Oh, yeah. And today was my twenty-second birthday. Yet another reason I felt determined to make a new start.
“Thank you,” I told him, grinning as I sat up and shoved aside all the sheets tangled around us. “I’m ready for my first present.”
Straddling his hips, I pressed my core to him, grinding his blessedly warm hardness between our underwear.
He hissed appreciatively and arched up under me before realizing what he was doing. A second later, his eyes flared wide and he caught my hip as if to stop me. “Juli, wait. You—”
“No,” I said, touching a finger to his lips. My nails had grown back to a respectable length and I had to admit, I enjoyed seeing their purple-painted tips pressing against his pink mouth. “It’s my birthday, and I get what I want.” Then I leaned down to replace my finger with my lips, so I could say, “Right?” against his mouth.
Groaning again, with temptation this time, he tensed under me, his body straining not to react to me on top of him. Then his gaze met mine, and I could see the moment he folded. “Are you sure? If it’s too soon—”
“It’s not,” I assured him. “In fact…” As I sat back to peel his Jockey shorts down his legs and then remove my own underwear, I went on, “It’s actually a perfect time to try it bare. I’ve been on birth control long enough to forgo condoms if you want.” When his eyelids went droopy with desire, I grinned and traced my finger down the center of his chest until I was wrapping my fingers around the base of his erection. “So, what do you say, big guy?”
“I say…” He paused to blow out a long breath. “Damn, you make one compelling argument, that’s what I say.”
I laughed. “Good.” I sank down onto him slowly, letting him feel every centimeter of me as I enveloped him completely inside me. He made me feel so full and warm and delicious, I took a moment to close my eyes appreciatively and just enjoy the sensation.
When I opened them, he was watching me with awe.
“That’s what I’m talking about,” I told him.
When I began to move, swiveling my hips in a slow, lazy rhythm, Colton sat up, his eyes hungry, so he could kiss me and stroke his hands down my back. Caressing his way back up, he found my head scarf and knocked it off so my new hair weave could come free and spill down my back.
He’d been fascinated with my extensions since I’d gotten them to hide the bald patches, telling me it felt like he was with a whole new woman, and yet, he also eyed my new hair with a measure of worry, as if afraid I hated it, when honestly I kind of loved it. For me, it was a new start. I wasn’t the same person I’d been the morning I’d been stolen. Things in me had changed, and yet…some things would always be the same.
My affection for the man inside me was one thing that had morphed and grown, gaining a power and confidence that had helped me heal in ways I’d never guessed it could.