Page 130 of Alive At Night

I stared at it, feeling like breaths were hard to take.

That sounded dramatic; it was just a gift on Christmas, a day when gifts were the norm, and it was probably a small one at that. But while his sisters always went in on a gift for me and his parents always gave me something small, Julian had never, ever put anything under the tree with my name on it. This candy-cane-striped package meant more than I knew how to put into words.

“It’s not a prank, Gemma.” Julian’s drawl extended across the room. “It’s just something I thought she would like.”

Something I would like? I didn’t know what it could be, but suddenly, I couldn’t wait to find out. I ripped into the package with probably too much eagerness, letting the wrapping paper fall to the floor with the rest of the mess littering the hardwood.

After slicing through the tape on a slightly battered cardboard box, I opened it to find another box inside.

“I thought you needed better ones.” The humor in Julian’s voice made me crack, a slight laugh releasing from my own lips. There were headphones—the padded, nice kind that would actually keep my sound from leaking out when I was listening to things I probably shouldn’t be listening to at work. “There’s more,” Julian added.

More?

Sure enough, when I looked back at the tissue-paper-filled box, a book stared up at me, and this time, I gasped.

“How did you get this?” I asked in awe, picking up the fifth and final book in a series I’d been reading. I turned it over to admire the cover art, front and back. “It was only just released, like, yesterday.”

When Julian didn’t reply right away, I glanced over at him. He was fighting a smile and eventually managed a slight shrug. “I preordered it.”

“You preordered it,” Gemma deadpanned next to me.

“Yes, I preordered it. I knew Juni was reading that series, and I preordered the next book so it would be here for Christmas,” Julian replied, keeping his voice even.

When all his sisters stared at him silently for a few seconds, he threw his hands up in exasperation.

“It took three clicks on my phone. Stop looking at me like I flew across the country to hand-select it.”

“Yeah, but—”

“Thank you,” I said, cutting Gemma off. I crossed my legs, resisting the urge to fly to the other side of the room and kiss him in front of his entire family. “Thank you for this.”

“You’re welcome,” Julian said with a simple nod.

There wasn’t anything simple about the look on his face, though. He looked just as eager for that kiss as I was, making it much harder to stay put in my seat.

“Well.” Genevieve cleared her throat. “On to the next present.”

I sat, clasping my new book in my hands, as Gemma opened a present from her parents. I tried to wipe the smile off my face, but it was really, really hard. In fact, it wassohard to act normal that when Gianna started unwrapping an odd-shaped package from Janie, I gave up and excused myself to use the bathroom.

I closed myself inside it, leaning against the door and letting my lips spread wide.

He meant it, didn’t he? All of his words and promises and declarations. He’s meant them. He wanted me here.

When there was a knock at the door, followed by Julian’s low voice calling my name, my breath hitched. Before I could overthink it, I opened the door, grabbed him by the front of his black sweater, and hauled him into the bathroom. Julian gasped my name, but he didn’t get any other words out before I shut him up with a kiss.

It wasmyturn for that, and I intended to do it even better than he had.

Julian melted beneath my mouth, molding to me as he groaned into the kiss, eager and desperate to return it.God, I’d missed this, missed feeling like we were both going to lose it unless we got another taste of each other.

I knocked Julian back into the closed bathroom door, wrapping my arms around his neck and letting my fingers sift into his gingery hair. Julian fumbled with the lock before his hands landed on the small of my back, holding me tight to his body.

We fit together so perfectly. Having him like this, feeling him everywhere, spurred me on. I knew I should stop, but I also knew I wouldn’t be able to. Abandoning reason was the only option at this point.

I pressed my lips to his harder, coaxing them open so I could taste him. Julian’s fingers dug into my back as our tongues twisted, and then his hands fell lower and lower, sneaking beneath my dress until he was cupping my ass. I suddenly wished I wasn’t wearing tights, wanting to feel his hands on my skin. But even through the tights, Julian’s touch set me on fire, and when he gave my rear a little squeeze, I groaned.

Julian mumbled for me to be quiet. He said it so sweetly, though, that it barely registered. And when he bit down on my lip, I gasped even louder.

“Juniper.”

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