Summer Of My Secret Angel (27 page)

Julian, who had already stepped out of the
water, bent to pick up his shirt and returned to our makeshift
oasis under the palms. Parallel to the shore, I strolled through
the knee-deep water, collecting more of pretty shells in various
shapes on the way.

Some looked like the wings of a butterfly,
others resembled circular pyramids. Totally absorbed in the
amusement, I waded up and down this private little piece of heaven
while the sun dried my t-shirt and warmed my back.

In one sea shell that appeared amazingly
similar to a cone, I even found an inhabitant. But as the small
crab stuck its head out of the opening, I dropped the piece with a
low shriek and it plummeted back into the ocean. An oncoming wave
washed a layer of sand over it.

The bright white reflection of light on the
surface hurt my eyes after a while. I peeked upward with my hand
shading my face and found the sun had already moved a good deal
across the sky. It had to be the middle of the afternoon.

Julian still rested in the shade with his
back against the tree. The sight of him sent little snakes of
tickles down my arms and into my belly.

His left arm propped on his bent knee, he
watched me.

Out of the water, I loped to him, more sand
pasting onto my wet feet with every stride. Julian’s eyes followed
my moves as I drew nearer, but it was as if he didn’t see me all.
Like he gazed right through me.

Or rather,
into
me.

He appeared lost in thought. I’d have given
an entire day of my life to get a sneak peek at those thoughts. It
made me slow my pace and approach him with my head angled. In front
of him, I dropped to my knees and sat on my heels with my hands
braced on my thighs as I studied his face. “What’s on your
mind?”

His eyes twitched, and I knew now he’d
gotten the first real glimpse of me. He caressed my cheek. “You,”
he breathed.

That one word blasted my mind blank. His
fingers cupped my neck, his thumb brushing along my jaw. I
swallowed against a dry throat. Staring deep into my eyes, he gave
me a moment to recap the situation and make a decision. Pull back
from his hold or face what would follow.

I didn’t budge.

And then the world slowed down. Julian
pulled me gently closer, my breath speeding up with
anticipation.

Guided by his hold on my neck, my eyes
fluttered shut, and I savored the moment with all my senses. As his
mouth pressed against mine, it felt soft like cotton. A rush of
ecstatic explosions inside me kept my skin tingling.

Bracing my hands on the sand, I leaned in
without resistance. Julian angled his head, captured my lips time
and again with feather soft kisses. His tongue delved into my mouth
to start a playful game, while his fingers curled tenderly in my
hair. Long, even breaths through his nose brushed my skin.

The rush of the waves toward the shore
seemed to have eased into an unhurried stroll, the cry of the
seagulls appeared uncommonly long and far away. Even the wind took
it down a gear and tenderly caressed my skin. Time was not the same
anymore.

I drowned in Julian’s kiss. Fully and
irrevocably.

He gave my bottom lip a soft nip and eased
the passion. I took the chance to draw back an inch and study his
face. “What, does this mean we’re past
complicated
now?”

“
Complicated
…” He paused to skim his
fingers over my temple and cheekbone. “Begins now.”

I didn’t understand the sadness in his eyes
when he regarded me. But before I could ask what he’d meant, he
delivered another tender kiss.

Then he took both my hands into his and
looped my arms around myself so that I would twist and rest against
his chest with my back, both our arms folded over my stomach. He
held me so tight I got the impression he feared someone or
something was going to rip me out of his embrace any moment.

“I’m not running away. You can ease the
grip,” I mocked over my shoulder.

His dark sigh at my neck hurt my soul for no
obvious reason. Nuzzling my temple, he spoke softly into my ear.
“You promise?”

Yes, I do.

No place in the world could have lured me
away from Julian. For the first time since I’d come to France and
my aunt’s house, I knew with an overwhelming clarity that I wanted
to stay until the end.

The following four weeks I would enjoy
living one room away from him, spending as much time with him as
possible. I could, hands down, no longer fight the feeling, and
denying it only made me long for him more.

Even after my nod, it took another heartbeat
until he relaxed. Our fingers laced, I gazed over the swaying sea.
I should have gone rigid in his arms. Paralyzed with the excitement
of finally being so close, so intimate with him. But I didn’t.
Nothing of the kind at all.

Calmness seeped into me through Julian’s
tender hug. Thinking of nothing but the beauty of this moment, I
dipped my head to his shoulder and enjoyed his breaths brushing the
hair on my forehead.

Julian protested when I slid my fingers out
of his. But when I started exploring his hand, the tension in his
wrist eased. Running my fingertips in circles, I felt every bit of
his soft palm, stroked his slender fingers, bent and unrolled them
in a tender game.

My palm pressed against Julian’s, his
fingers overlapped mine by an inch. There was something in them I
couldn’t grasp. My fingers tickled in his cupped hand like they
were pleasantly electrified. Stimulated.

“I like your hands,” I whispered.

“I noticed that.” The tip of his nose
caressed the side of my face. His breath tingled on the soft spot
behind my ear where it ignited a spiral of shivers up and down my
neck.

Threatening to get lost in this stunning
sensation, I fought to stay focused. “They feel like they’re
charged, or loaded.”

“Loaded?” Julian pressed a mellow kiss to my
jawbone while he cupped my other cheek with his free hand. His
fingers skimmed along the side of my throat. “With what?”

Energy.

“I don’t know,” I lied, since it felt insane
to tell him. Instead, I surrendered to his touch. Butterflies took
a ride on a roller coaster in my stomach at his continued
stroking.

With his thumb under my jaw and his fingers
splayed over my cheek, he tilted my head toward him. The flames of
a sensual hunger licked at my skin through the depths of his
demanding eyes.

Julian brought his mouth over mine to still
this longing. The tip of his tongue traced my lips.

I half twisted in his arms and braced myself
against his naked chest. The warmth of his skin seeping through my
palms caused me to curl my fingers and skim my nails gently over
his twitching pecs. He hugged me tighter, deepening the kiss.

The racing sensations in my chest barely
gave me a chance to breathe. Carried away on a ship of affection,
it felt as if I had melted into Julian—body and mind.

A hot, wet trail remained on my lips when
Julian drew back. It took a couple of seconds until my eyes would
open again. His crooked smile, which I deemed my favorite, adorned
his face.

“You look like you’re enjoying this,” he
teased and brushed a wisp of hair behind my ear.

He had no idea just how much.

“Kiss me again,” I said dreamily, already
dipping forward to catch his lips once more.

This time he took my mouth like a scoundrel,
his hands stroking down my shoulders and arms. Then he grabbed my
middle and pulled me on top of him. I straddled his hips. My shirt
no longer a barrier between his fingers and my skin, he caressed my
back, my sides, the small crook right above my bottom. The roughish
game of his tongue coaxed a moan from me, but he stilled it with
his mouth.

His grip settled on my waist, tightening.
“Jona, you need to get—” He got no chance to finish, not when I
silenced him with a fierce kiss, dying for more of this sweet taste
of him.

My fingers buried into his soft silk hair
and I reveled in his touch and scent. Although he gently shoved
against my hips, trying to move me away from him, he met each of my
claiming kisses.

“Could you sto—? Ah, please!” His croak
sounded desperate, but I wouldn’t hear him out.

The kiss broke, his abs flexed against my
core. And suddenly I was trapped underneath him. He’d rolled us
both over so fast that I hardly had time to close my mouth before
my back hit the sand.

Breathing hard, he staked me with a stare of
relish from only a few inches above. “We really need to stop this
before I do something—stupid.”

Hands still resting on his chest, I rolled
my head slightly to the side, gazing at him from the corner of my
eye. “I won’t regret anything.”

The tip of Julian’s nose nudged mine, then
he planted a tender kiss to my neck. “I’m afraid you just
might.”

1. A CALL FROM THE POLICE
   

THE MIDSUMMER rustled the palm leaves over
my head. The warm air carried a note of sea and sand. I lay on my
back and wondered why Julian had left me alone. I would have taken
the chance to do whatever had followed his sensual kisses that I
just might regret. But he’d refused.

The sensational tingle inside me took a
while to cease, but finally my breaths calmed, and I got on my
feet, dusting sand off my butt.

His hands tucked into his pockets, Julian
gazed at the sea, seemingly lost in his thoughts. My feet sank into
the soft sand as I ambled toward him. But I stopped a few steps
behind, somehow not daring to interrupt him.

“Do you miss London?” he asked after a long
moment, without breaking his gaze on the horizon. The light wind
played with his hair.

Putting a reluctant foot in front, I closed
the distance between us. “Right now? Not one bit.” And with all of
today’s perfection, why would I? I was away from my mother’s
prying, with the loveliest man in the world, who’d kissed me amidst
scenery that caused my heart to soar.

Bliss enclosed me in a bubble.

“Do you think you’ll ever forgive your
mother?”

Strange, why would he bring this up right
now? But for once it seemed okay to speak about Charlene.
“Honestly, I don’t see it happening.”

I traced the flight path of a seagull with
my eyes, surprised how calm and disengaged I sounded. The usual
anger when I thought or spoke of my mother had left me. “There is
so much I don’t understand about Charlene. She hurt me a great deal
and she never cared what became of me. How could I ever get over
something like that?”

The cold waves hardly brushed his toes when
they crushed on the shore, yet a thin coating of gooseflesh covered
his back. Skimming my fingers over his arm, I circled him. He kept
staring out at the sea.

“Would you want me to forgive her?” Not that
it mattered, because I never would, but his thoughts on the subject
interested me.

His gaze moved to meet mine. “In moments
like this one, I hope you never do.” Deep affection laced his
tone—and a hint of something else. A sorrow that made my throat
burn and my body ache to hold him.

But his words were the last thing I’d
expected. “I don’t understand.”

He tucked my sun-dried locks behind my ear
and cupped my cheek. “And you don’t have to.”

“But why—”

His thumb brushed across my bottom lip,
cutting off my words. Julian shook his head slightly. He reached
for my hand, placed it into the crook of his bent elbow, and walked
me back to our picnic oasis. “Time to grab some food or we’ll be
taking the full basket back home with us.”

It irritated me how he left me burning with
intrigue, but my stomach also growled with hunger, so for once, I
wasn’t going to contradict him.

In the car on the way back, we hardly spoke,
but once or twice Julian reached over to lace his fingers with mine
for a while, until he needed to shift gears. I studied the fine
features of his solemn face as he drove.

The corner of his lips tugged up. “Are you
watching me?”

“Mm-hm. Do you mind?”

His sweet laughter made my heart jolt. “Not
if you like what you see.”

“I do.”

“Then you’re allowed to keep watching.”

But somehow watching wasn’t enough anymore.
A longing to kiss him again gripped me, to feel his protective arms
wrapped around me. That would be a better way to end our beautiful
day together than to attend my aunt and uncle’s party in the
evening.
Come to think of it…

“I think I’m getting a headache.”

Julian glanced at me sideways. Playing my
role perfectly, I rubbed my temples and pulled my brows deep into
my eyes.

“If this is your attempt to wiggle out of
attending the party, let me tell you, it’s not working.”

I dropped my hands from my forehead and
straightened in the seat. “How do you do that?”

His grin grew wider. “Do what?”

“How do you snoop around my thoughts?” This
was hardly the first time he’d read my mind, and it made me feel
more than just uncomfortable. I felt exposed.

“I’m not snooping. You’re just a lousy
actor.” Something in his calm voice told me he wasn’t speaking the
entire truth. “I think you’ll have fun at the party if you just
allow yourself to be happy.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“That you shouldn’t decide you won’t have a
good time before you give it a try. I’ve gotten to know you quite a
bit the last couple weeks, Jona. And I can tell when you flip the
switch inside your head that turns off the fun factor just because
of your mother.”

“That is not true!” I folded my arms over my
stomach. And how in the world could he have figured me out so
quickly?

“Is it not?” Mockery gleamed from his eyes
as he glanced my way. “Then why would you pretend to have a
headache and stay in your room, when you could spend the evening
dancing with me?” He smiled my favorite lopsided smile.