Page 51 of Alive At Night

A gasp and then silence. Those brown eyes grew wide as Juniper shook her head aggressively. It caused her body to wiggle a little beneath me, a reminder thatmybody did not need.

I didn’t think Juniper’s eyes could grow even rounder, but they did a moment later, and I knew she felt my erection. Pressing right into her soft stomach.

Fucking hell.

That was not an erection meant for her. It was an erection meant for the mysterious woman draped over me, whose breath had grazed my skin as I woke up, thinking we’d fucked.

Now that my brain was clearer, I knew there’d been no fucking.

I’d remember sex with Juniper St. James.

Frankly, I was afraid to move. Any tiny movement would make my situation worse. Even though this erection hadn’t started as something meant for Juniper, it sure was appreciating the fuck out of her now.

I lowered my hand slowly. At the very least, it would help if her full goddamn lips weren’t pressed into my palm. But that had been wishful thinking; now, those lips were parted in some kind of wondrous expression, and my cock pulsed with the need to see if I could get her to open them more. To see her breath hitch, her jaw drop.

But I restrained myself. I didn’t move.

Juniper did, though. She scooted up in the bed beneath me. Which was all fine and whatever, except she still wore her Halloween costume, and her shirt was bunched beneath my bare chest. And then my skin brushed her skin. Heat on heat. But it wasn’t nearly as mind-boggling as when my erection fell between her legs as she settled in her new position.

She gasped.

And there it was—that expression my cock had wanted to see.

Juniper wiggled again, but I grabbed her hip with one hand.

“Stop,” I rasped. “You can’t—just stop.”

She did. She froze, all except her eyes. They darted around my face. That gaze was hot as it traced the outline of my mouth and then up my nose to my eyes. Oh,hell, Juni.

I’d promised myself that just because I told Kennedy I was fucking Juniper didn’t mean I got tothinkabout fucking Juniper. I’d spent many, many years distinctlynotthinking about fucking Juniper. And that wasn’t going to change.

At least, I hadn’t been planning for it to change.

But I also hadn’t been planning on waking up to find her on top of me. I hadn’t planned to pin her to my bed. I hadn’t planned on her moving beneath me until she had my cock positionedjustright. It was almost like she wanted it there.

And the way she was looking at me—God, the way she was looking at me made it really hard to keep my shit together. Juniper St. James wasn’t supposed to look at me like that.

“Julian,” she whimpered.

That got through to my brain. That little plea—or whatever it was. In a single swift movement, I flung myself off her, sprawling on my back instead. Only once I regained control of my breathing did I turn onto my side to face her, feeling angry and wildly aroused.

“How?”

Bewilderment passed over her face. “How?”

“How did you pass the Massachusetts Bar when you can’t even count the doors in this goddamn hall?”

Because I knew that was precisely what had happened.

“It’s your fault,” she groaned, rolling over to leave me staring at her backside.

Very unhelpful.

“My fault?”

“You made the apple pie, didn’t you?” Her voice was muffled against my pillow.

I couldn’t help but notice she hadn’t jumped out of my bed yet. She hadn’t scrambled away and out of the room. But I shoved that thought down. Deep, deep down.

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