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“It shows that you knew you’d have to sacrifice something and agreed without anticipating what it could or would be. Which seems like a more significant sacrifice, to be honest. Because I fully believe that if he had asked you on the spot to surrender what you ended up surrendering, you’d have done it. So you agreeing in the total dark of actual consequences means everything to me.”
Juliette squeezed the hand caressing her palm.
“You give me a lot of credit. And you think me so much better than I am.”
Katarina’s smile was distant, as if her thoughts were no longer in this room.
“Youareso much better than anyone I know. Better, kinder. And tender. You are so tender, despite the crowns, the fame, the trappings of it all. I’m afraid life will bruise you. It already has, and I am the one it used to dull your edges, love.”
There was that word again. Juliette tried not to dwell on it.
“As long as it doesn’t use you to shred me.” She smiled as she spoke, however Katarina did not return her tentative mirth, just held her hand tightly and looked on, as if cataloging her features. As if committing this very minute and these very words tomemory. Juliette leaned down and gave the full lips a lingering kiss.
“I’m just joking. I’m not shredded, sweetheart. I’m whole. And the company will come around. I am meeting with Francesca tomorrow. That gossip will make rounds quickly. And despite everyone bashing me and calling me a traitor, Francesca herself has said nothing.”
Katarina rolled her eyes.
“That did not escape me. Weeks and she kept her counsel, enjoying your exile, while she is being feted around town as a martyr. I don’t care for people who revel in victimhood.”
Juliette’s laughter this time was sincere. The aggrieved look on Katarina’s face was extremely endearing.
“You just don’t like her.”
That got Juliette another eye roll.
“I don’t. I never did. And before you jump to conclusions that it was because she was very cavalier with you and your career, yes, you would be correct. She wasted some of your best years, and I don’t think she used you properly or to your advantage. However, you’d also be only partially correct. Mostly it’s because she slept with you. There, how’s that for honesty?”
This time they both laughed, and Juliette picked up the book she had been trying to finish for what felt like weeks now. Granted, she had been somewhat preoccupied lately. Still, she had been waiting for this particular one to be published, so why had it not held her attention?
Juliette balanced the novel in her hand, desperately trying not to watch Katarina. She neededto focus, to advance at least a paragraph, when the sudden feeling of an ice cube on her bare skin jolted her out of her already rattled composure. Juliette took a deep breath and, deciding to ignore the sensation for now, turned the page, staring at it blindly, valiantly not lifting her eyes in an effort to win this sensual game.
Katarina clearly had other thoughts. Gentle fingers drew the quickly thawing ice cube around Juliette’s ankle, very carefully paying attention to every inch of skin before slowly moving up, the cold making her shiver and sigh.
“Is there something wrong with those pages, Juliette?”
Oh God… Oh dear God…
What book could ever hold a candle to this low, bourbon-over-gravel voice? Juliette felt herself getting wet instantly—and not just on her inner thigh toward which the almost completely melted ice cube was moving.
“Ah… Yes… No?” She blinked at Katarina over the top of the page and saw devils dance in those devious eyes.
The voice was amazing. Panty-ruining, even, if she borrowed the purple prose from the taboo romance novels she occasionally got her hands on. But the eyes? Juliette drowned in them every time. Their focus was completely mind-blowing. Be it a tendu, an arabesque, or fucking Juliette into the mattress, Katarina gave every task at hand her total attention.
Just like in that very moment, when Katarina was giving Juliette not just all of that aforementioned attention but so much more. She lifted Juliette’s left leg, and even as her fingers caressed the thigh with the almost-gone ice cube, the hot mouth began to draw a trail of its own. Slowly, oh so very slowly, Katarina’s tongue licked, her lips kissed, and occasionally her teeth bit Juliette’s skin, traveling unerringly upward.
When mouth caught up to fingers, the ice cube was completely melted, and Juliette felt that she would spontaneously combust. Katarina kept placing little kisses along Juliette’s inner thigh, and she found it hard to breathe.
“Oh, love, you sound in pain. Is there anything I can do?” The smug, fakely solicitous intonation made Juliette growl, and Katarina laughed. “Definitely in pain, then. I think we shall needmore ice. A wound of this magnitude needs all the cold it can get.”
And then, before Juliette knew what was happening, Katarina was dipping her fingers into the open ice bag and plucking another cube, this time placing it between her lips. Juliette’s jaw dropped. It would have been comical to see, and she was certain in any other situation Katarina would’ve teased her. Instead, she just lifted that insouciant eyebrow and lowered her head.
When fire and ice connected with Juliette’s skin simultaneously, she thought she’d die. Perish on the spot. This should not be pleasurable. Cold and wet and everything she needed. Everything she wanted. One more second and she’d beg. Katarina dragged the ice cube upward still, tracing the line of hip meeting thigh, and Juliette trembled so hard she was afraid she’d come apart at the seams.
She had known sex. She had given and gotten pleasure. And yet, nothing in her life had ever come close to this. To how she responded to Katarina. To how Katarina read her like an open book and how she went on to satisfy every single desire among those pages. Every single fantasy. Talk about romance novels.
Her bathrobe was tugged apart and the mouth still holding a much smaller piece of ice traced her breasts. Juliette whimpered and bit her lip before realizing she had no reason to hold back. Katarina deserved to hear what she was doing to her.
Juliette moaned loudly, and when Katarina drew a nipple in, cold adding another dimension to the sensation, she grabbed the sun-kissed hair and held on, riding the wave almost to the very crest. What had she thought earlier? That she'd come apart at the seams? She’d be lucky if there were even any seams left when Katarina was done.
