Past & Present (Love at First Sight Book 6) Read online

  Juliet blinked a few times before slowly stating, “He does have a penis.”

  “Are you... familiar with his penis?”

  Then she was stifling a laugh, her shoulders shaking gently with the effort.

  “No, I’m not.”

  “It’s not funny.”

  “It really is.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you’re more likely to become familiar with Jamie’s penis than I am. I’m not exactly his type.”

  What she was hinting at slammed into me like a truck. Jamie was a gay man.

  Ohhh.

  Juliet hadn’t told me anything about Jamie beside the fact that they came to Florida together from Colorado when they were both eighteen, so I guess it made sense that his gender hadn’t come up yet. I was sure that she would have told me as soon as we spoke more about him.

  “Well... I guess I’m the shithead.”

  “But you’re not little,” Juliet teased as she finally let her laughter escape.

  The sight of her smile made my mood immediately brighten. She had to be the most beautiful woman on the planet. When I told her that, her laugh faded away as she gazed up at me with that same adoring look she gave me on our first date.

  My heart thumped hard and I was barely able to refrain from speaking the words that popped into my mind.

  I think I’m in love with you.

  6

  Our third date was like an echo of our first date, only better. The events were the same—we started with dinner before finding a spot to park and strolling down the beach together—but the feeling was different. More comfortable. Less terrifying.

  I couldn’t even remember how the food tasted. Hell, I wasn’t entirely sure of what I ordered. All I could think about during dinner was how happy Juliet looked and how badly I wanted to keep her that way.

  But despite the fact that she was the one who asked to go to the beach, she seemed solemn as we walked. I caught her frowning at the ocean three times before I worked up the nerve to ask what was wrong.

  Juliet hesitated. “I…. It means a lot to me that you wanted to get to know each other before things got physical.”

  “But?”

  “But… Jamie thinks you might have… done it like this on purpose. That it’s a game.”

  “Jamie doesn’t know what the fuck he’s talking about,” I grumbled, rolling my eyes as my dislike of the man returned. “He doesn’t even know me.”

  “I know. He’s just concerned. It’s not like you’d be the first man to feed a woman lines to get up her skirt,” she said with a sigh as she stopped walking. “I hate to admit it, but I’ve fallen for an act like that before.”

  An irrational amount of anger grew inside me at the thought of any man taking advantage of a sweet woman like Juliet. What kind of prick would take her for granted?

  “It’s not an act. Not with me.”

  “How can I really know that?”

  Her eyes pleaded with me to give her something—anything—to put her mind at ease. I couldn’t share how deeply I felt for her without the possibility of her second-guessing my intention. For all she knew, it might have been just another line.

  No, the only option I really had was something I desperately was hoping to avoid for a little while longer.

  “I was married once,” I admitted, watching her eyes widen with surprise. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I just…. It’s not my favorite topic of conversation.”

  She nodded in acceptance of my apology before she gently asked, “What happened?”

  “The entire story would take me hours to tell,” I bitterly mumbled. “So I’ll give you the cliff notes for now. She... she was young. Nineteen when I met her.”

  “How old were you?”

  “Thirty-three. Old enough to know better, but young enough to still be thinking with my dick.”

  She winced a little before gesturing to the sand and I nodded as I lowered myself to the ground beside her. I might have been ruining a pair of expensive dress pants, but I didn’t really give a fuck. This was a sitting conversation.

  “That’s not that bad,” Juliet tried to argue, clearly for my sake. “I mean, the age difference—”

  “Is less than ours? Yeah, I know. The difference is you weren’t a spoiled teenager when I met you. I’m not saying it can never work out for people that young, but a few years can make a hell of a difference—believe me.”

  Juliet nodded in agreement. She said nothing while I combed my fingers through my hair and stared at the waves, trying to figure out a way to keep the story short while also making my point.

  “So she was young—too young—and I was a romantic who acted like a player to keep up appearances. Had I been anyone else, I wouldn’t have bought a word she said. But between the lies and the great sex... I lost myself to her. I honestly believed we were meant for one another so I ignored all the little signs that it was bullshit.”

  “Little signs?”

  “Like the vague warnings from friends, the weird feelings I got when we’d... when I held her. It always felt like she was in another world. She’d be in my arms, but...”

  “But she was never really there,” Juliet finished for me with an understanding nod. “I’m so sorry, Ethan.”

  I couldn’t bring myself to look at her because I knew I’d forget where I was. So I waved off her apology and continued.

  “Got to hand it to her—the timing was perfect. I had just incorporated the gym when we met and by the time of the wedding, I was a millionaire. She plastered on a fake-ass smile and said her generic vows while I wore my heart on my sleeve like a jackass.” I stopped to laugh, shaking my head a little at the memory. “She invited a bunch of people she knew back in high school to the wedding. This one guy kept smirking at me during the reception. They’d been fucking around behind my back for a good six months. And he wasn’t the only one.”

  She sucked in a sharp breath and I rushed to shorten my story. Depressing us both on a night that was supposed to be amazing was never my intention.

  “We were married for two years before I found out about the others. She was the one to tell me. Just laid it all out there like it was nothing. She listed off her rap sheet and admitted to only marrying me for security, but she found a man closer to her age who offered her the same thing. Some software developer or some shit like that.

  “At the end of tearing my fucking heart out, she cried. It was so fucking fake. She said she didn’t think about it when we got married, but she couldn’t waste the best years of her life only to end up stuck taking care of an old man.”

  After wrapping up my shortened sob story, I turned to glance at Juliet. She had been stunned into silence, her eyes glassy with real tears and her mouth hanging open in shock. It almost made me smile.

  “I just... I don’t understand how anyone could do that to you,” she whispered. “You’re such a wonderful man, I…. I’m so sorry.”

  I could have cried. I didn’t, but she was just so real and good and mine that it broke my heart a little to see her so sad. I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and tugged her closer to me, leaning to rest my head on top of hers.

  “So that’s my story. I guess the point I was trying to make is that men aren’t the only ones who lie to get what they want. I know how it feels to be lied to like that and I’d never wish it upon anyone—let alone do it myself. That’s not me.”

  Juliet pulled away and turned her head to look into my eyes as she trailed her fingertips across my jaw.

  “You’re a really sweet guy, you know that?”

  “Not always. I’m just soft for the fairer sex,” I said with a shrug. Not even a second passed before my shoulders tensed and my eyes went wide. “Wait. That didn’t come out right.” Juliet was already roaring with laughter as I hastily tried to correct myself. “A soft spot! I have a soft spot for women. I—Please stop laughing.”

  “Too late!” she declared between bursts of laughter. “You can’t take it back
now!”

  With a growl, I pressed her shoulder until she was lying back on the sand. Her laughter died and her breath hitched in her throat when I spread her legs and took the spot between them.

  “Fine,” I growled against her ear. “If I can’t take it back, I’m just going to have to take you to my place and demonstrate just how not soft I am for women.”

  I caught a flash of desire in her eyes before she jolted up to bring her lips to mine. I groaned and lowered her down, the hand I wasn’t using to prop myself up with roaming over her hip and ribcage to rest just below her breast.

  She ground her hips against mine, the evidence of my arousal pressing against her.

  “Point made,” she panted after breaking the kiss. “Take me.”

  “Here? There are some places where one shouldn’t get sand, doll.”

  Juliet laughed and shook her head which was when I noticed her hair was fanned out beneath her like some sort of silky dark halo. So fucking gorgeous.

  “I meant take me to your place.”

  I couldn’t resist the urge to steal one more kiss before I pushed myself up to my knees and offered her a hand. I kissed her knuckles as well, my gaze never wavering from her face.

  “You sure?”

  “Absolutely.”

  I abruptly lifted her into my arms, carrying her weight easily as I started jogging down the beach.

  Well, as much of a jog as one could get while wearing dress shoes on a beach.

  Juliet squeaked with surprise before covering her face with one hand to hide her embarrassment of the comical looks we received from random beach pedestrians.

  Maybe it was a bit caveman of me, but I’d never felt less embarrassed or more fucking masculine than I did while carrying her to my car. I almost wanted to stop and roar at everyone who even looked her way.

  I was ready to take her.

  I was ready to really make her mine.

  7

  “This is your house? Like... you own this house?” Juliet asked in awe as I pulled up as close to the front door as I could get and parked.

  “Yep. It’s all mine. Custom built.”

  “Let me guess—you put in super high ceilings.”

  “And doorways. Nothing more annoying than smacking my forehead into a doorframe first thing in the morning.”

  Juliet laughed as she got out of the car. “Sounds like you speak from experience.”

  “I do, unfortunately,” I confirmed as I lifted her into my arms again. She giggled when I got to the front door and stared blankly at the offending piece of wood. “I didn’t really think this through.”

  “Put me down. Didn’t you exert yourself enough on the beach?” She ran her fingers teasingly up the back of my neck. “You should save some of that energy.”

  Though I conceded defeat and put her on her feet so I could unlock the door, I wasn’t going to let that comment slide without a rebuttal.

  “I was a bodybuilder, doll. I own a gym—several gyms, actually. It takes a hell of a lot more than that to wear me out.” I pushed the door open and turned my hungry eyes back to her. “I’ve got plenty of energy left for you.”

  She smiled and lifted her hands, already knowing where I was going with my little spiel. I carried her into the house and kicked the door shut, spinning us around so she could reach down and twist the lock before I made my way up the stairs.

  “Going pretty slow for someone with so much energy left,” Juliet teased.

  “Don’t want to drop you, angel,” I said, tightening my hold on her instinctively.

  She rested her cheek on my shoulder and let out a dreamy sigh. Any doubt I had about her not being mine already faded away, a familiar dull ache taking its place. Unfortunately, that ache brought another kind of doubt with it.

  I stopped walking at the top of the stairs, swallowing hard when she looked up at me with a question in her eyes.

  “What I told you on the beach. That bit about Sarah not considering what our age difference meant in the long run.” She cocked her head to the side and I swallowed around the lump in my throat. “Have you? Considered it, I mean.”

  Juliet nodded. “I have. I did after our first date.”

  “And?”

  She looked down for a moment and I swore my heart seized. But when she looked back up, I saw nothing but a firm and honest resolution in her eyes.

  “And I’d consider myself lucky to be the one to take care of you if you ever needed it.”

  I couldn’t summon the words to tell her how much that meant to me. Instead, I walked us to my bedroom, letting her twist the knob and shut the door behind us before I set her down on her feet beside my massive bed.

  Juliet was glancing around my bedroom curiously, so I took the opportunity to take off my shoes and drop my phone and wallet off on my dresser. She slipped off her sandals while my back was turned and directed a coy smile at me as she lowered herself to the mattress.

  “Wait,” I said, tugging her back into a standing position.

  I kissed her until we both were breathless and when we finally parted for air, I tugged down the zipper on the back of her dress. She shrugged off the straps with no hesitation and immediately reached out to unbutton my shirt.

  While she did that, I ghosted my palms up her sides, marveling at the feel of her soft skin. I was struck with the need to taste her, but she was pushing my hands away to slide my shirt down my arms before I could toss her to the bed.

  She worked my belt off next and I felt it was only fair for me to pop open her bra in return. I let her undo my slacks until they were in a puddle on the floor, but stopped her hand when they reached for my boxers.

  “Patience. Lie down.”

  I quickly removed my socks before joining her on the bed, grinning like a fucking maniac when she instinctively spread her legs for me.

  “Careful. A man might take that as an invitation.”

  “I hope so.”

  “Naughty girl.”

  Whatever quip she was planning to respond with was killed when I gripped beneath her knees and raised her lower body off the bed. I buried my face between her legs—nuzzling her sex through the cotton panties.

  “Oh fuck,” she moaned when I started nipping at her through the fabric. “E-Ethan, please.”

  The thought to tease her ran through my mind, but I decided we both had more than enough during our time together. There would be no teasing tonight if I had any say in the matter.

  So I hummed against her before I laid her gently back down so I could free up my hands to pull the cotton to the side. Once she was exposed, I slid my tongue up her folds and circled the tip against her clitoris until she shuddered hard and attempted to grind her hips against my face.

  I smiled as I slipped a finger inside her, groaning at the thought of putting my cock there next. She was deliciously tight as I moved it slowly in and out, only pulling away briefly to add a second finger. I lapped and sucked at her clit like the greedy bastard I was as she continued to writhe around helplessly.

  When I added a third finger, her moans got louder. I continued the foreplay until she was soaking wet and relaxed around my fingers. Before bringing myself up to her lips, I dipped my tongue into her for one more taste.

  “Mmm,” I hummed as I crawled up her body. “You taste divine.”

  “God, Ethan. Please don’t tease me.”

  The begging was turning me on more than she seemed to realize. I covered her lips with my own and demanded entrance to her mouth, giving her a taste of the sweetness I had already grown so fond of.

  When we broke apart, she looked up at me with hooded, trusting eyes and a sly smile. I could feel her legs slowly rising to wrap around my hips and I watched her expression with great care as she pulled me down against her.

  This was the moment that made most women widen their eyes and wince just a little bit. But Juliet sucked in a sharp breath when she felt me, her eyes fluttering shut while our hips slowly ground together.

  Even wit
h the fabric between us, it felt good. Too good. Juliet made it worse when she arched her back and pressed her perfect tits against my chest. Stimulation overload.

  Lucky for me, she ended it before I lost control of myself. She licked her lips and breathily asked, “Can I see it?”

  I pushed myself up to my knees, watching as she sat up and reached for the elastic band of my boxers. Her eyes flashed up to mine one more time and I nodded my permission.

  Then she peeled them down and unleashed the beast. Well, at least that was what I liked to think of it as. But I doubted anyone could blame me for being a little arrogant.

  Juliet surprised me by immediately wrapping her hand around it and squeezing a little too tightly to be entirely comfortable. She pumped me twice and I hissed, breathing heavily as I watched her trying to make her fingertips meet.

  She was so focused on looking down that I couldn’t gauge her reaction. I put my fingers below her chin and tipped her head up, feeling slightly relieved when I saw she was smiling.

  Still, I had to ask, “Are you... worried?”

  “Not at all. But I am starting to border on desperation. Are you planning to make me beg for it?”

  I laughed as I shifted around to pull the boxers off completely, tossing them to the side as I shook my head.

  “Not tonight.”

  “Thank fuck.”

  She lifted her hips and I took the invitation to pull her underwear off, immediately leaning over her once we were both naked and propping myself up on one arm.

  “This might hurt a little,” I felt compelled to warn her.

  “I’m not a virgin, Ethan.”

  “I know. But I’ll take it slow anyway.”

  With my free hand, I slid the head of my cock up and down her slit a few times to spread her juices around before positioning at her entrance. I pushed in just the head, failing to stifle a groan when I felt the warm heat.

  Despite Juliet’s assurance, I felt her nails dig into my biceps when I pushed another few inches in. It took all my willpower to freeze in the spot and I clenched my teeth while sliding my fingers up to her clit.