AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 17
Julian wanted to kiss her. He wanted to throw her on the ground and do a helluva lot more than kiss. Ever since he’d walked into his brother’s lab and seen them together, so comfortable, so at ease, he’d been itching to remind her to whom she belonged.
He shook his head. What was he thinking? She didn’t belong to him. He didn’t want her to.
As if she’d read his mind, Alex snapped, “You don’t own me, Barlow.”
“No?” he murmured, and lowered his mouth to the pale skin visible above the sweater and below her ear.
She stiffened, straining to get away, but he was stronger than she was; he always would be. She kicked him; he barely felt it, the scent of her calling him home.
He took a fold into his mouth and suckled, tongue pressing against the pulsing vein, and she stilled, going pliant in his arms. His hands slid around her back, then down her pants. He cupped her cheeks, warming himself before he slid his thumb along the crevice.
“Ahem.”
Julian registered the sound of throat clearing like the buzz of a fly—annoying but it could be ignored.
“Ahem!”
Or not.
He kept his hands right where they were and raised his head. The mark left by his mouth resembled a full moon. Even as he admired it, the hickey began to fade. He grit his teeth against the nearly overwhelming urge to put it there again.
Julian lifted his gaze a bit more and met his brother’s.
“I wanted to talk to Alex,” Cade said. “I’ll come back when you’re finished.”
Alex tensed as if to pull away, but with his palms still cupping her ass…wasn’t happening.
“Shh,” Julian murmured, tugging her closer, pressing a kiss to her brow.
She jerked away. “What are you doing?”
He blinked. What had he been doing? Comforting her, cuddling her, as if what he felt for her was more than lust, as if what he felt for her was—
Julian yanked his hands out of her pants and took one giant step backward, even as she tried to move away, snagged her clumpy rubber heel on the snow, and began to windmill her arms so she wouldn’t fall.
Cade smoothly stepped up, caught her around the waist, and set her on her feet. Alex peered over her shoulder and smiled at him in a way she’d never once smiled at Julian.
“Stop growling,” she said without even glancing in Julian’s direction. Then she covered Cade’s hands, which still rested on her hips, with her own. “Thanks.”
Julian had never seen her behave so gently, or speak the same. He hadn’t believed that she could. What he really couldn’t believe was that he yearned to have her speak like that to him.
And because he did, Julian turned and walked away.
Barlow disappeared into his house. The slam of the door echoed in the still morning air. Alex understood the sentiment. Anger, hatred, lust—that she could get behind. But when he’d gone gentle on her, kissing her forehead, murmuring into her hair…
What the hell had just happened?
“He was marking you,” Cade murmured.
Alex turned her attention from Barlow’s house to his brother, who seemed far more amused than he should be.
“There’s a mark?”
Cade lifted his hand, and his fingers brushed the place on her neck that still burned from Julian’s mouth. “Not anymore.”
Cade’s touch was all business—like a physician during an exam. Nevertheless, Alex stepped out of his reach, suddenly uncomfortable. “Why would he do that?”
