Chapter 138: [138] "Juliette?"
"Happy birthday, Luc," she whispered.
"Thanks, love," he replied.
She pulled him down by the coat, closing the distance between them. The kiss was hungry, and demanding. There was no hesitation. It wasn’t the tentative exploration of two people figuring each other out...it was the inevitable collision of two highly physical, intense individuals who had spent weeks suppressing their stress.
Luc’s hands found her waist, sliding down the smooth silk of the emerald dress, feeling the solid, athleticness beneath it. He walked her backward, their lips never parting, until her back hit the hallway wall with a dull thud.
Juliette gasped softly against his mouth, her fingers tangling into his hair, pulling him closer, anchoring him to her.
As her hands slid under his coat and mapped the broad muscles of his shoulders, the pain evaporated, replaced entirely by raw, blinding heat.
"Room," she murmured against his jaw, her breath hot on his skin as she placed a soft, open-mouthed kiss on his neck.
Luc didn’t need to be told twice. He scooped her up, his arms wrapping effortlessly beneath her thighs. Juliette wrapped her legs around his waist, her arms locking securely around his neck as he carried her down the hall. For a guy who spent his weekends carrying the weight of a franchise’s expectations on his back, her weight was nothing.
He kicked the bedroom door shut behind them. The room was bathed in the faint, amber ambient light bleeding through the blinds from the streets outside.
Luc let her slide down slowly, her body sliding flush against his until her knees touched the hardwood. The sudden shift in momentum forced him to catch his breath, his chest heaving as he looked down at her.
Juliette’s eyes, usually so clinical and assessing, were dark and dilated in the shadows.
"I want to try something," Juliette said.
Zip
She undid the zip on his trousers.
"Juliette?" Luc asked, confused because they have never done this with each other in their half a year relationship.
"It’s alright. I’m trying to spice things up," she said, grabbing his tube in her hands, her lips breathing hot breathes against it.
She took it in. Her head moving back and forth against it.
It was a first time feeling for Luc, but he enjoyed it. They both did.
---
She wasn’t done, she reached for the knot of his tie, her fingers deftly loosening it and pulling it free. She tossed it onto a nearby chair without breaking eye contact.
"You’re tense," she whispered, her hands sliding up to unbutton his collar.
"Just surprised," Luc murmured.
"I’m off the clock, Luc," she replied softly, her voice dropping. "I’m not here to fix you tonight. You’re here to fix me."
She pushed his heavy wool overcoat off his shoulders, letting it drop to the floor. His suit jacket followed. As she unbuttoned his dress shirt and pushed the fabric aside, her hands grazed his torso. Even in the dim light, the brutal reality of his position in Ligue Alpha was mapped across his skin.
There was a fading yellowish bruise on his lower ribs from a vicious elbow the week before, and the tight, rigid knots of muscle across his chest and shoulders that came from battling towering center-backs.
Juliette’s fingertips traced the edge of the bruise on his ribs. Her touch wasn’t the firm, diagnostic pressure he was used to on the physio table. It was agonizingly gentle, almost reverent.
"Are you sure I won’t break you," she said, the words barely a breath against the quiet of the room.
Luc covered her hand with his own, pressing her palm flat against his heartbeat. "Not if I break you first." Juliette could feel his heart racing into overdrive.
He stepped into her space, his hands finding the hidden zipper at the back of her emerald dress. He pulled it down slowly, the metallic rasp echoing loudly in the quiet room.
Juliette shivered slightly as the cool air hit her bare back, but she didn’t pull away. Instead, she stepped closer, letting the heavy silk pool at her feet.
Stripped of the expensive fabric, she was breathtaking. Her body, forged from a lifetime of discipline, running, and demonstrating rehabilitation exercises, was entirely different from the delicate, fragile beauty she possessed...with clothes on. She was solid, powerful, and undeniably real.
Luc framed her face with his hands, his thumbs tracing the sharp line of her jaw.
When he kissed her this time, the desperate, frantic hunger from the hallway had shifted into something deeper, something profoundly intimate. It was a slow, deliberate claiming.
Juliette let out a soft sigh, her arms wrapping tight around his bare torso. The skin-on-skin contact sent a jolt of raw heat straight to his core. Every ache in his lumbar spine, every stinging tackle he had absorbed that month, seemed to dissolve under the warmth of her hands mapping his back.
He walked her the final two steps backward until the backs of her knees hit the mattress. They tumbled onto the bed together, a tangle of limbs and suppressed sighs.
As Juliette pulled him down over her, her fingers threading into his hair, the world outside ceased to exist. There was no Valérie demanding a return on her investment. There was no Olivier Fontaine, no Fresko.
[System Notification: Host stress levels—]
Luc closed his eyes and buried his face in the crook of Juliette’s breast, inhaling the intoxicating scent of her perfume mixed with the sheer heat of the moment. The Everything System went dead quiet, entirely shut out by the overwhelming reality of the present.
For the first time in months, Luc Beaumont, surrounded by the quiet dark of the room and the synchronized rhythm of their breathing, was exactly where he needed to be.
"Get in, Luc," Juliette said, spreading her legs beneath him.
Luc found the space. Tight and anything but dry, indicating he was severely missed.
Juliette moaned as Luc got in.
"Luc! Deeper!"
But Luc didn’t need to be told. He was only being wary of her. He increased his tempo.
They found their violent rhythm. Juliette’s moans matching his thrust.
Luc was meant to be resting...maybe another night.