CHAPTER ONE
“You can’t just quit school!”
“Why not?”
“Because you can’t!”
“That’s some very interesting logical reasoning you have there, Julian.” Shannon crossed her arms.
“Because if you quit, you’ll never get your degree.”
“I’ll just take a year off! Not even a year! A semester! Only one semester.”
“Look, I know how this happens,” Julian said. “You say that now, and then you’ll say it again next year—”
“Just because your mom didn’t go back to school doesn’t mean I won’t,” Shannon snapped.
Julian’s silent fuming filled the small room. Shannon’s suitcase lay on the bed, half-packed.
“You asked me to come with you,” Shannon said, her voice lowering dangerously. Her fury was beginning to match her disappointment.
“I want you to come,” Julian said. “But I wasn’t thinking. This is more important.”
“You don’t get to decide what’s more important!” Shannon threw a shirt across the room, where it hit the wall and fell softly to the floor.
“Well, that was anticlimactic,” Julian said matter-of-factly. “You should try a glass vase next time.”
“Straight at your head.” Shannon plopped down next to her suitcase, tears filling her eyes.
Julian came over and wrapped his arms around her.
“Shannon, I’m sorry,” Julian said. “I wasn’t thinking when I opened my big mouth. But I don’t want you to quit school just to follow my stupid band around.”
“I’m going to tell Alex you called Wilder Side stupid,” Shannon said, wiping her eyes.
“Then he’ll kick me out of the band and nobody will get to go to Europe,” Julian teased. “Hey, hey. Shannon. Look at me.”
Shannon blinked hard. Julian reached up and brushed a lock of red hair behind her ear. His fingers tickled slightly, and she winced.
“Shannon, there is nobody I’d rather be with than you. But you said yourself that this was an important semester.”
It was true. Shannon had a big photography project due to her advisor by the end of the semester, the beginning of her senior thesis to outline, and a ton of other stuff to get done. But now Julian was going to be in Europe on tour with Wilder Side, and her roommate Brynn was leaving to go to an internship in Budapest. Shannon had never felt so alone in her life. So abandoned.
“I don’t want you to go without me,” she said, tears spilling over her dark red lashes. “I don’t want to be apart.”
“We’ll still be touring when you go on break,” Julian said. “I’ll buy you tickets to fly out then. It’s not that long to wait.”
“It’s long enough.” Shannon knew Julian was right, but she didn’t have to like it.
“Then we’ll just have to make the most of our time before I leave.” Julian kissed the side of her neck and slid one hand along the bottom edge of her skirt, sending a thrill of excitement down Shannon’s body. God, he was incredibly sexy. She pretended to resist, leaning away as he moved to kiss her again.
“Oh, so it’s like that, huh?” Julian teased.
“Maybe,” Shannon said.
“Maybe I’ll just have to tie you up and take you anyway I want,” Julian said. A wide grin spread over his face. How could she be mad at him when he looked at her with such desire in his eyes?
“Maybe,” she said, wiggling happily as he clasped one arm tightly around her waist.
“Fine, then,” Julian said. He swept the suitcase to the floor with his free arm, sending her clothes flying everywhere.
“Julian!”
“Shannon!”
Shannon could only gasp as his strong arms picked her up and threw her bodily across the bed. She rolled to one side but he pinned her shoulders down with his hands.
“Julian!”
“Sorry, you asked for it.” He kissed her throat, tickling the base of her neck with his breath. Tremors ran through her body and she felt herself become instantly wet as he darted his tongue out to her skin. Oh god.
Julian touched her like no other man had ever touched her before. His hands possessed her, claimed her, moved her in a way she hadn’t even imagined could be possible. Even a light stroke of his fingers along her thigh sent her into a dizziness that took her a half hour to overcome. And now he was moving his mouth along her collarbone, his teeth gently biting down on her skin, then retreating. It was too much for her body to handle.
“Julian, please,” she said.
“That’s a good girl,” he whispered in her ear. “Such good manners.”
“Julian, come on!”
He had one leg between her thighs, pressing down on top of her. She arched back, leaning her weight so that she felt him there. He still had her shoulders pinned, but she gripped him and shifted herself underneath his hold, wriggling with pleasure.
“Nuh-huh. I’ve got to stop you from moving around so much,” Julian taunted. He reached around and hefted her up on the bed, pulling her wrists up over her head with his free hand. Before she could say anything, he had one of her scarves around her wrists and through the bed slats.
“I hope you weren’t planning on packing this,” Julian said. “I think it looks much better up here, tied around your beautiful arms.” As he knotted the scarf loosely, he kissed her wrist. She moaned as his tongue slid across the sensitive skin just underneath her palm.
“Julian!”
She tried to escape, but the knot held tight. Her arms tied helplessly over her head, she struggled to roll with Julian on top of her, trying to knock him over.
“What a feisty one!” Julian sat back, straddling her waist with a mocking expression on his face. “And here I thought you were a good girl.”
“Well, I’m not,” Shannon said. Her nerves fired on all cylinders. He had never done anything like this to her before--nobody had ever done anything like this to her before--and she was scared and thrilled about what was to come.
“Ooh, a bad girl,” Julian said, “Then you’re going to love this.”
Julian moved down on the bed and slid both of his hands under her skirt, pulling it up to her waist.
“Oh!” Shannon cried out. She tugged her arms against the scarf, but there was no give. Like it or not, she was completely helpless.
And she liked it.
Julian leaned forward, his breath warming her through her panties. She had put them on this morning for him, but had totally forgotten in the midst of their fight. Now, though, she was glad that she had the forethought. Her panties were a delicious fire-engine red, and felt silken against her newly-shaved skin. She could see in Julian’s wide eyes that he enjoyed the sight.
“Oh my,” he said. “You are a bad girl! Were you planning on giving me a striptease?”
“Maybe if you untied me.”
“Never.”
Shannon gasped as Julian bent down and pressed his mouth over her most sensitive area. She was already slick with desire, and as Julian’s tongue slid over her cl*t through the fabric, her panties moved with it.
“Oh god, Julian.” His mouth moved so lightly over her that she felt like screaming with impatience or begging him to get on with it. Shannon closed her eyes and tilted her head back onto the bed. Her fingers gripped the scarf that tied her up to the bed slats.
Julian only paused long enough to slide one strong finger under her panties, pulling them aside. He blew lightly onto her engorged clit. The coolness of the air flow sent her into writhing palpitations.
“Julian!”
“Yes?”
“Please…please…” Her breath tore at the air. He couldn’t stop. She was dying to have his mouth on her, to feel the pressure of his tongue, his lips. She tilted her h*ps up toward him.
His hands reached up and stroked the side of her hips, and his hair fell over his eyes as he pressed hot kiss there, just there. She groaned. His lips formed the seal around her most intimate part, and as he sucked she felt herself growing more and more engorged, the blood pumping through her veins. Then he flicked out the tip of his tongue once, then again.
"Oh!" She cried. He circled her with his tongue pressing harder and harder. Static charges of desire flickered through her nerves as he massaged the aching nub with his warm tongue.
Her legs kicked out, but she was helpless--Julian wrapped his strong arms over her thighs and she could do nothing but squirm and moan as he licked her once slowly, then again.
"What on earth do you do to me?" he asked, not expecting an answer. She looked down to see his erection bulging through his pants. It was incredible to her that he should be so aroused. His lips glistened with her juices, and she blushed to see it. Then he bent his head down again, and any hesitation in her body evaporated as the pulsing need of desire overcame her senses.
“Don’t come yet,” he said, and she tilted her h*ps up. He licked again, hard, and sucked her tight cloaked nub until she twisted sideways, about to come.
“Don’t come until I say.” He let her go and she thrashed under him, her breath ragged.
“Julian—”
“Nope.” He breathed lightly over her slick pulsing core and she shivered. “You need my permission.”
He reached his fingers out, stroking her on both sides. Just enough to tantalize and tease.
“Please.” Shannon could hardly breathe the word.
“Not yet.” Julian returned to her aching parts and she moaned as he drew his tongue along one side of her, then the other, until she thought she would go mad with anticipation. He kissed her lightly, in that place where just a bit more pressure would have given her satisfaction, and she felt herself circle her h*ps against his mouth. Harder and harder he pressed down, until she was sure she would burst.
“PLEASE.”
“Yes,” he said, and plunged his fingers inside of her as he pressed his mouth directly on her clit, flicking her with the tip of his tongue as he stretched her inside. A rush of tension swept through her and released immediately into a bucking orgasm, her h*ps twitching against his firm grip.
Shannon’s head pressed back into the pillow as her cli**x subsided, the slow waves of afterpleasure coursing through her body. Julian untied her scarf, swept her into his embrace, and lay next to her, his heavy arm across her chest.
“Oh. My. God.” Her wrists tingled from being tied, but that wasn’t the only part of her that was tingling. Her fingers twined themselves into his hair.
“Glad to be of service,” Julian said. “Assuming you’re talking about me, and not God.”
“Your tongue is divine…” Shannon smiled, pressing a kiss onto his forehead.
Julian turned on his side, propping his head up with his hand.
“You’re not mad about waiting to fly over?” His fingers traced the line of her bra through the fabric.
“Of course not.”
Shannon didn’t feel mad at all. In fact, she was doing just fine. A plan was beginning to form in her brain, a plan for which she didn’t need Julian’s permission at all.