Fortunately, Cat was here with me.

And as I was touching her, maybe it was the fact that there was no male aggression present, but I didn’t feel unsettled by making contact.

More than that, my cock was reacting very favorably to the teasing touches I was dealing out to her and the way I could feel her responding and wanting to sink into it.

“I need you,” I breathed in her ear.

She moaned and slid her fingers into my hair as I licked her throat, then teased her lips too.

“Julian,” she uttered in the sexiest rasp I’d ever heard, a moment before she opened for me and I slid my tongue into her mouth.

Her nails dug into my scalp as she rose to it, the kiss becoming a burst of passionate fury within moments, a lot of the intensity being driven by my desperation to have her, to have this, to wipe out all the rest.

She suddenly pulled her mouth from mine. “No,” she breathed.

I took that word more seriously than anyone and stepped back immediately.

“I meant, not like this,” she said. “Not that I don’t want to. Of course I do. I’m just concerned.”

“And that’s what I can’t stand,” I ground out with enough edge that it had her tensing, digging my fingers into the handle of my cane. She wasn’t used to aggression coming off me. It wasn’t really my thing. Unless I was provoked.

“You think doing this will numb what happened?”

“Notnumbit, per se, But I do think doing this will mean thathewasn’t the last one to touch me, Cat,” I bit back.

She stared at me for several moments, a struggle taking place.

“I want to know I can be with you, be with those I love. I need to be. I need to beme.”

“This… your sexuality… it’s only a part of you. There’s so much more.”

“I know that, but—”

“All right,” she said, suddenly coming to me, then dropping to her knees right in front of me.

“Jesus Christ,” I breathed.

Our gazes clashed as she slowly pulled down my blue satin pajama pants until my cock sprung free.

I was hard as fucking granite under her gaze, and her eyes hooded at the sight. She even licked her pouty lips a little.

I sucked in a breath from the sweet warmth of her hands starting to stroke my thighs.

I kept one hand tightened on my cane and the other I slid into her soft hair. “Yes. Show me that tongue, darlin’.”

She rose to it, her eyes sparking, as she opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue, holding it steady, keeping her mouth wide open.

I pulled my hand from her hair and grasped the base of my cock, then slid it along that wet warmth, stroking her tongue, giving her a taste.

She was submitting to me.

She was actually giving this to me, knowing I needed it this way, reading me so well. It was nice for that to be reversed for once.

And it made me feel… safe.

After she’d gotten me nice and slick, I pulled out, then drove back in deep, making her swallow me whole.

Pleasure shot through me like a beast and my cane shook in my grip as I tried to absorb the intensity of it.