Julien's Book (25 page)

Julien remained still as Nadine continued to slide up and down. He
kept his hands wrapped around her backside, holding on to her like he never wanted to let go. He pulled her down, forcing her onto him even harder, and she cried out with pleasure as the pressure increased. Julien let go and pulled her arms out from under her, and her upper body collapsed onto his. He put one, two, three open-mouthed kisses on her neck, before stopping to bite and suck on one spot for a few seconds. It was too much for Nadine to handle. A few more strokes, and she went over the top—over the edge. She felt like she'd been catapulted into space, helpless to control her own writhing body as she rode the amazing orgasm.

It took her several moments to regroup enough to realize she should probably be embarrassed about how quick that was. Not to mention the fact that he hadn't even penetrated her. She wasn't embarrassed, however. She felt good, and she didn't really care how she got there. Julien didn't seem to mind either. He was on his elbow again, smiling at her.

"I think there's a whole lot we didn't do yet," she said. She returned his smile and reached a hand out to cup the side of his jaw.

"There's plenty of time for that other stuff," he said. "I'm just glad you feel good."

She gave him an incredulous look. "Are you trying to quit on me Monsieur?"

He shrugged. "I didn't want you to feel like you had to, you know, since you already—"

"Don't you even try it. I want you to finish. I want to feel you inside of me."

Julien did something with her arm that resulted in her flipping over,
her back landing on the bed. This time it was his turn to crawl onto her. "You don't have to beg me," he said, grinning.

She let out a moan of pleasure, loving the feel of his pressure on her. She was slick and swollen and he used his hand to make sure she was primed and ready to go. He put one finger past her opening, and again she moaned.

"I'm gonna try to be really gentle with you, but you have to tell me if anything hurts."

She nodded. Julien guided
his tip to her opening and shook it slightly. The vibrations helped the very tip of it make it past her opening, and she cried out at the unrelenting pressure she felt at being stretched so far.

"You okay."

"Of course," she said.

Julien took great care not to hurt her. He inched his way inside of her at an agonizing pace, and by t
he time he was buried inside, he was already close to completion. It was feeling as good to Nadine as it was to Julien, and she warned him that she might come again. He began to move in and out of her. He felt the primal urge to go hard, like he could mark her somehow by forcing his length into her. He thrust into her with a little more pressure than before, and she gasped. He stopped, but she grabbed him and pulled him into her, letting him know it was okay.

"I want it
like that," she said.

He smiled and thrust into her with even more
force.

"Yes.
" she whimpered. "Please!"

Julien conti
nued to pound into her until she had another orgasm. He could feel her contracting around him. He put his head back, enjoying the sensation. A few more, and Julien felt his impending release. He pulled out and gripped himself in his hand, letting his seed spill all over the curves of her chest and stomach. Julien bent and put a kiss on her cheek and she smiled adoringly at him. He could get used to seeing her smile up at him like that while wearing his pearl necklace. He grabbed his shirt from the end of the bed and used it to wipe her off then he collapsed onto the bed next to her.

"I'm glad that was awesome," she said. Her voice sounded content to the point of having a
dazed quality.

"
Me too." He pulled her close to him so she could rest her head on his shoulder.

"I'm also glad it wasn't like the book."

Julien smiled, thinking about how he clearly had to avoid certain things. He'd read that scene enough to know exactly what
not
to do. "See? I told you. From here on out, it is what we make it," he said.

"I think we should do that a lot more times."

He smiled even though she couldn't see him. "Me too," he said. He hesitated for a few long seconds before speaking again. "Nadine?"

She picked her head up and looked at him quizzically. "Oui?"

He gave her a
sincere smile. "I love you."

Nadine let out a delighted squeal and buried her face in his chest. Then she looked at him with a smile and put a gentle kiss on his cheek. "I love you too, Julien Breaux."

They stayed wrapped up in each other's arms for the next two hours, talking about everything from Jiu Jitsu to sushi.

They
never once mentioned the book.

Chapter 26

Julien woke up before Nadine the following morning. He'd only slept for about seven hours, but that wasn't rare for him. He took a shower and answered a few emails before cracking the window to peek outside. He watched the traffic for a few minutes before deciding to go downstairs to grab a cup of coffee.

By the time he made it back to the room, Nadine was not only awake
but standing at the door poised to walk out of it. She pounded a fist on his chest one time, and Julien smiled as he recovered balance of the coffee he was holding.

"You scared me to death," she scolded.

"What?" he laughed. "I just went to get a cup of coffee."

Her shoulders slumped in relief. "Don't you know you shouldn't let me wake up alone after all
the things we did last night? I think doing it
three times
means I'm officially compromised."

Julien bit back a smile.
"I didn't know you were going to wake up," he said. He was amused, but he could tell she was genuinely shaken, and he put down the coffee cup so he could take her into his arms. She was wearing a pair of Hello Kitty pajamas that she found in the dresser at her parents' house. Her wild, dark hair was standing on end like she'd been electrocuted during the night, and Julien smiled as he hugged her, thinking about how she was getting ready to walk out the door like that when he came in.

"I guess I just got scared when you weren't in here. I looked around for a note or something, but when I didn't see it I—"

She stopped speaking and walked with Julien as he pulled her to the window. She assumed he wanted her to see the view of the Eiffel Tower.

"Do you want to go there today?" she asked. She used her fingers to comb through her hair and tuck some of it behind her ears
.

"I'd love it," he said.

"I got a message from my mom," she said. "I hope you don't mind but they all want to have dinner somewhere tonight since we're leaving tomorrow."

"
I was only gone for like five minutes, how'd I miss so much?"

Nadine laughed.
"I sent her an email last night to make sure she knew I was okay. I told her about our plans to stay one more night. She sent me a message back saying for us to plan on dinner with everyone. I hope you don't mind."

"I think it's a great idea.
Last trip was such a whirlwind." Julien smirked at her and shrugged, knowing that this one was too.

"They wanted us to stay at their house tonight too, but I won't agree to that. I'll
just tell them we'll meet them for dinner."

"I'm okay with staying at your parents' if you want to."

She gave him a curious but pleased expression.

"I'll get you all to myself soon enough," he continued. "I think you should spend as much time with them as you can while we're here."

Nadine thought he was possibly the sweetest thing she'd ever met—and all wrapped up in that dangerous looking fighter package. She grabbed his arm and wound it around herself. "This morning I'll take you to see the Tower," she said. "My sisters both stay home during the day. Maybe we can go to Pascal's for lunch."

"You need to decide what you want to do about spending the night at your parents tonight. If you want to stay there, we'll probably have to think about packing up here soon
since it's just about check out time," Julien said.

They ended up cancelling their hotel room for that night in favor of squeezing
in every last bit of family time before they left France. Julien wanted to get a croissant or some other type of French pastry, so they walked to a nearby café before having the valet bring the car around. He went with a croissant just because it was the most French sounding thing he could think of. It was a good choice. The flaky, buttery pastry was one of the best things he'd ever put into his mouth.

It was chilly outside
, and Nadine was forced to wear an outfit of old, mismatched clothes on account of her lost luggage. His little French girl was so cute in her accidental outfit that Julien caught himself feeling like he was dreaming.

T
hey had the perfect morning. Julien took great pleasure in watching Nadine interact with Parisian people, and he loved the way she always felt like she needed to tell him what she'd just said to someone after they walked away.

They made it to Pascal's at around 1PM.
Her stepchildren were in school, so Emile's new baby was the only little one in the house, and he slept in his car seat most of the time.

Like Nadine,
Pascal and Emile both spoke excellent English, and Julien really enjoyed getting to talk to them and know them a little bit. They were all three really funny, and he caught himself feeling lucky for being attached to their family.

The afternoon flew by. They had spent some quality time with her sisters before heading back to Nadine's parents' house to get cleaned up and changed before they needed to leave for the restaurant. They only had a half hour to pull themselves together, but it never took Julien long. He showered, changed
, and stood in the living room waiting for Nadine to finish up. Jolene and Patrick were milling around the house, and both of them checked in with Julien to make sure he didn't need anything, but he told them as best he could that he was content waiting for her.

Jolene yelled down the hall and less than a minute later Nadine walked out of her room. Julien knew she'd borrowed one of Pascal's dresses, but hadn't seen it on her u
ntil she emerged from her room. The sight of her made him want to forget all about the family dinner and go back to the hotel. He knew how beautiful she was, but he'd never seen her all dressed up and he was slightly shocked at the transformation that had taken place over such a short time. Nadine didn't even notice how Julien was staring at her. She was too busy looking flustered and saying something to her mom in French. She motioned to her hair and her mom reached up and helped her adjust a few of the pins.

Julien cleared his throat. "You look amazing," he said.

Her mother and father both looked at him smiling. Apparently, they understood enough English to understand he'd just given her a complement.

Nadine sighed. "I needed about ten more minutes. I couldn't get my hair to cooperate."

"It's perfect. You look beautiful." He wasn't just trying to make her feel good. Shea had been right all along. She was exactly the woman he wanted.

She smiled shyly and popped up to put her cheek to his in a fake kiss. "Pascal's shoes are too small for me and I'm going to have at least a few blisters, but it's worth it for beauty, right?"

"I'm gonna have to get you a dress like this at home," Julien said, imagining peeling her out of it.

"No you won't because Pascal gave it to me," she said.

Julien smiled thinking of the possibilities.

They rode with Nadine's parents to the restaurant.
It was French cuisine at it's finest, and Julien was glad his mom, in spite of them not having much, taught him manners. There were four couples and three kids, sitting around the table, and while they didn't mean it to be that way, it felt like an interview of sorts. Almost everyone at the table spoke English, and there was definitely more English than French being spoken throughout the evening. One of the first things brought up was the book, but Nadine somehow managed to pass it off as if it were no big deal. Julien knew she'd tell them at some point, but he honestly didn't mind skirting the topic.

Emile's husband
, Eric, sat next to Patrick and acted as his translator and spokesperson. Julien could tell both men cared a great deal about Nadine and all the questions they asked were geared towards making sure he was capable of making her happy. He didn't feel threatened by them or anything, but he could tell they were protective of her, which in a weird way, made him respect them even more than he did already. Everyone else just asked random questions about him—his job, his goals, his house, his dog, etc. It felt a bit like a job interview, but he was glad Nadine had people who cared about her enough to grill potential boyfriends.

Julien tried several French delicacies including something called
boudin noir.
Julien thought he knew what boudin was since that was something he ate all the time back in Louisiana, but
boudin noir
wasn't the same thing at all. The small, round slice of sausage he put in his mouth was one of the most pungent things he'd ever eaten—not at all like the sausage made of pork and rice he was used to. Julien was an adventurous eater, though, and had no problem chewing and swallowing it even though everyone at the table looked at him like they wouldn't be surprised to see him spit it in his napkin. He tried several more foods including escargot and headcheese, and each time the family was impressed at his food-swallowing skills.

By the end of the night, Nadine's family was in love with him. He was handsome
, and charming, and funny, but most of all they could tell he loved Nadine, and that's what was important to them.

The two of them
hadn't really made physical contact during dinner, and Julien was aching to get his hands on her. Nadine was aching for him too. She curled up next to him in the backseat of the car on their way back to the house, enjoying the butterflies she felt at the contact. She closed her eyes and hoped the excitement would last forever.

****

A lot happened in the month after Nadine and Julien got back to Louisiana. For starters, everyone wanted the scoop about what went down in France, and Julien and Nadine ended up telling the story, in it's entirety or in part, a million times. Nadine always got really embarrassed when they talked about the part where she left him at the airport and made him chase her down in France, but no one blamed her. Everyone could sympathize with how distressing it must have been to realize you were the exact personification of a character in a fiction novel—especially with the attempted murder and everything.

For the most part, their life had gone back to normal—except for the fact that they had each other, which was
obviously everything. Nadine was still living with Lindsay, but it wasn't uncommon for her to spend the night at Julien's. She was comfortable out there, and besides, she'd fallen in love with Max.

It was Nadine's birthday, which
(as you remember) was also Valentine's Day. It fell on a Friday that year, and Julien insisted they have some friends over to celebrate. Basically, he just wanted to prove to himself that she could have a birthday party without the threat of someone trying to hurt her.

Several people from the gym and some of Nadine's friends from school were there.
Shea Miller stopped by for a few minutes to say hi, but didn't stay very long. Nadine had seen her at the gym but hadn't had the chance to talk to her since everything went down.

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry," Shea said when they had a moment alone. She shrugged thoughtfully before continuing, "I just want you to know I had no idea—"

Nadine put a hand on her shoulder. "Thank you. I should have told you this before, but thank you. If you hadn't written the book, my life might be very different than it is now, and the thought of that makes me sad."

"I just don't want you to be scared of me or think I'm some sort of—"

Nadine stopped her again. "I feel
indebted
to you. It may have been unintentional, but you wrote something that altered my life in a positive way, and I could never think badly of you."

Shea sighed with relief just as Coach Brad came up from behind them.

"What's up ladies?" He looked at Shea. "Talking about how I'm the star of your next book?"

The girls both laughed.

"What's so funny? I could totally be the hunky star of a romance novel." He flexed his muscles as proof.

Julien came up behind them putting a protective arm around Nadine. "Why would the ladies be interested in reading about you once they've had a taste of me?"
he said, teasing Brad.

Brad laughed for a second then shot Shea a deadpan expression. "Seriously though, if you want to write a book about me, I'm up for it."

"Be careful what you ask for," Julien said.

"Hey, everything turned out alright for you, didn't it?" He gestured at the way Julien had his arms wrapped around his happily ever after. 

"What are y'all talking about over here?" John David said as he walked up on the conversation.

"About how Shea's going to write a romance novel about me," Brad sai
d, "One where nobody gets shot."

"I thought
I
was in the next one," John David said.

Shea
spaced out for a second, thinking about the possibility of something she wrote coming true a second time.

"I think it's one in a million," Nadine said, reading her thoughts.

"Me too," Shea said, smiling warmly at the beautiful girl she felt like she knew so well. She said she had to be leaving soon and leaned in to give Nadine a hug. "I just want you to know you're even better than I ever imagined."