AllFreeNovel
Share Us
All I can manage is a whisper. “Is this real?”
He cups my jaw with tender fingers. “Real?” He laughs. “Don’t get into your head, Julia. Not tonight.” I think he’s about to kiss me, but he pulls back and untucks his shirt, revealing the shaded magnificence of his six-pack. “Here. Punch this. I think you’ll find it’s very real.”
I giggle. The laughter loosens me a little. Reaching a tentative hand forward, I give Josh’s abs the tiniest baby slap.
“Pa-thetic.” He beckons with his free hand, bracing himself like he’s really preparing for something big. “C’mon. Harder.”
I can’t help the laughter that escapes my lips as I pretend to really swing, then bring my fist gently to his skin. Damn, he really is hard as a rock...and not just his abs. I tease my fingers to his belt clasp. The metal is chilly.
“You like what you see?” he says, his eyes still laughing even though his expression has turned serious. “Because I like what I see.”
“Do you?” Heart thudding, I reach for the hem of my shirt and tug it up slowly.
The laughter is gone, and Josh is all intensity, taking me in as I drop my shirt on the floor.
“God. Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for this?” he says in that husky voice I know so well.
He’s not touching me, but he might as well be, the way his eyes alone are raising trails of goose bumps across my chest. My breasts feel heavy in my semi-sheer balconette bra.
“How long have you been waiting, Josh LaSala?” I breathe, giddy with relief that nothing has crumbled. It’s the same familiar heat between us. If anything, it’s heightened without the eye of the cameras on us. Magnified.
“Since I first saw you step out of the limo with those long legs of yours.” He takes one step forward and his hand slides onto the small of my back. “You looked like a goddess. You have no idea how much I wanted you, even then.”
“I was so awkward,” I say, my breath catching as his hand pulls me gently against him and I feel his hard anticipation. I don’t have to wonder how he’s feeling about me.
“You were breathtaking. And you’re breathtaking tonight.” He kisses me slowly, his hands moving up my naked ribs, stopping at the edge of my bra. His breaths are coming slow and heavy. “You’re going to have to stop me from going further, Julia Walden.”
“Why would I stop you?” I lean forward and close my teeth gently around his lower lip. It’s soft and full. I flick my tongue against it and he gasps. I release, draw back, and stroke a finger down the ridge of his jaw. He’s nearly panting now. “I was made for you, Josh.”
Then I reach behind my back and unclasp my bra. I watch him take me in as I drop the garment to the floor. His expression goes pained with intensity. Moving slowly, he cups my breasts, sweeping his thumbs across them. Now it’s my turn to gasp at the sharp sensation his fingers draw forth.
“God, Julia,” he says. “I’m never letting you put a shirt on again.”
“Speaking of shirts...” I murmur, placing my hands on his stomach and pushing his shirt up. Another second, and it’s on the floor next to my bra.
We stay suspended in the moment, both naked from the waist up. Time feels slow as honey, and my blood pulses with a heavy droning. I’ve hungered for Josh from the start. I’ve spent countless nights tortured with want, starved for his attention, his affection, his body. And now...the waiting is over. I get him. Not necessarily forever—but tonight.
It’s both enough and not enough. A fulfillment and a cruel tease. I want to know how this ends, if this is the first taste of many, or my one and only, but all I can do is let time keep unfolding, heartbeat by heartbeat, and take what’s before me.
“I never dreamed I would ever find a woman like you,” Josh says thickly.
“That’s because I’m not a dream.” I tug at his belt. It’s intoxicating, seeing the evidence of his desire. How he’s straining with it, but still so self-controlled. In a minute, he won’t be, I’ll make sure of it, but for now, the tension is delicious.
“Are you sure?” he says.
“This is all real, Josh.” I mean it, and I feel the whole world around us become more solid, more sure. I step forward, my breasts brushing his chest, and nuzzle into the crook of his neck, drawing my tongue slowly up his throat. I want to taste him everywhere. I’ve never felt so alive. This is my choice, and my fulfillment. “Let me give you what you need.”
NOW
The gun isn’t loaded. But my coding prevents me from harming humans anyway, so the weapon I’ve tucked into the back of my jeans is all for show, just like the baseball bat I charge vandals with. The gun belonged to Rita, Josh’s mom, and even though Josh and I always talked about disposing of it after her death, we never got around to it.
It’s three in the afternoon when I pull into Tenderloin, a little town that seems to be no more than a crossroads with a gas station, a bar, a church, and a feed store.
The day is chilly, with a vicious edge to the breeze and intermittent breaks in the clouds that bring sunlight stabbing into the gloom. I hang a right off the county highway, onto the dirt road that is Deerhead Trail. The car shudders against the uneven road as I take in my surroundings: cornfields on the right and black plastic mailboxes on the left. From the mailboxes, long unpaved driveways wind toward distant houses.
At number 442, I hang a left. The ground rises slightly, and Deborah’s white farmhouse appears, standing worn and alone, momentarily lit by a slash of pale sunshine. I crawl my car forward. There are no trees that could provide me with cover, and I’m painfully aware that Deborah could shoot at me from any of the dozen windows. She seems exactly like the type of person who owns guns and knows how to use them.
Assuming I survive the walk from my car to her front door, my plan is simple: pull out my gun and use pure shock value to force her to talk. Hopefully, she’ll confess straightaway. I’ll turn her in to Mitchell. Then I can let myself cry for the husband I just lost.
