Page 46

When Julia's eyes opened, something had changed in their depths—resolution crumbling, need rising in its place. Her hand came up, fingers wrapping around Ivy's wrist—not pushing away, but holding, feeling her pulse.

"If anything happened to you because I was distracted..."

"Nothing will happen to me," Ivy assured her. "I have Phoenix Ridge's best detective protecting me."

"You don't know that."

"I don't," Ivy agreed. "Just like I didn't know walking into that hotel bar would lead me here. Sometimes we have to step into uncertainty."

The tension between them had shifted,transformed into something deeper and more inevitable. Julia's fingers moved from Ivy's wrist up her arm, a tentative exploration that sent electricity spiraling through Ivy's body.

"And if we step into this, what then?" Julia asked, vulnerability naked in her voice.

"Then we deal with whatever comes next," Ivy answered, closing the remaining distance between them. "Together."

For one suspended moment, they stood at the edge of a precipice, both knowing that the next move would irrevocably change everything. Then Julia's control—that careful, constant restraint—finally shattered.

Julia's hands moved from Ivy's wrist to her face, fingers trembling with restraint that was rapidly dissolving. For a breathless moment, they stood suspended between professional boundaries and raw desire.

"I can't lose focus," Julia whispered, the admission torn from somewhere deep inside her. "Not with your life at stake."

"Then don't," Ivy countered, covering Julia's hands with her own. "See me clearly. All of me."

The last thread of Julia's resistancesnapped. She closed the distance between them, her mouth finding Ivy's with desperate intensity. The kiss was nothing like their first night. This was recognition, claiming, surrender.

Ivy's body responded instantly, muscle memory awakening to Julia's touch. She pressed closer, hands sliding beneath Julia's shirt to find warm skin, feeling the sharp intake of breath as her fingers traced the ridge of a scar along her side.

Julia backed her toward the bedroom, never breaking contact, as if afraid separation might restore the walls between them. Her movements were both urgent and careful, desire tempered by protection that seemed instinctive rather than professional.

"This will change everything," Julia murmured against Ivy's neck, voice raw with want and warning.

"It already has," Ivy replied, reaching for the buttons of Julia's shirt with steady hands. She worked methodically down the line, revealing tanned olive skin and the black sports bra beneath. Julia stood still, allowing herself to be exposed, vulnerability replacing the rigid control she normally maintained.

When Ivy pushed the shirt from her shoulders, Julia finally moved, drawing Ivy's borrowed PRPD shirt over her head in one fluid motion. Their bodies pressed together, the contact sending electricity arcing between them. Whatever was happening transcended physical desire.

"Are you sure?" Julia asked, hands stilling at Ivy's waist, offering one last chance to retreat.

Ivy answered by guiding them backward until her legs hit the edge of Julia's bed. She pulled Julia down with her, bodies aligning with an inevitability that felt both new and familiar.

"I've never been more certain of anything," she said, and drew Julia's face down to hers.

Ivy met Julia’s lips with a softness that intensified with each passing second. Julia’s hands reached up and tangled in her hair, lightly tugging at the nape of her neck. Ivy moaned, leaning her head back, then pressed her lips against Julia’s neck, trailing gentle kisses down her neck, across her shoulders, over her collarbones, and down her chest.

She captured one of Julia’s nipples in her mouth, playing with it and flicking it with her tongue. Julia’s body responded as her nipple hardened in Ivy’s mouth, and Julia’s hands trailed down the sides of Ivy’s body, tugging them even closer together, before she let her hands fall down to Ivy’s lace panties as she slipped them off.

Ivy shimmied her hips and wriggled out of them, letting them fall to the floor discarded. She let Julia guide her to lay down on the bed, positioning herself in the middle of the pillow as Julia positioned her body on top of her.

Ivy strained to sit up, but Julia pinned down her arms and said, “Let me.” Julia kissed her softly and nipped Ivy’s skin as she made her way down while teasing Ivy’s nipples. As she hovered with her mouth over Ivy’s yearning pussy, Ivy could swear she felt time stop in that moment as she held her breath in anticipation.

Julia lowered herself and took Ivy in her mouth, long licks through Ivy’s wetness, pressing her tongue flat against Ivy’s clitoris, pushing her tongue inside Ivy. Ivy exhaled and let her body relax into the sensations.

“Oh my god. You feel so good,” Ivy moaned. “Please, fuck me…” she gasped.

Julia responded by slipping her fingers inside, and Ivy felt herself squeezing around them in response. She moaned while Julia’s tongue hungrily explored her clitoris. Ivy felt Julia’s fingers curl inside her, the precise angle to reach her G-spot, and Ivy unconsciously widened her legs, giving Julia even more access.

“Yes, right there. Right there,” Ivy moaned.

She felt Julia shift, giving herself a better angle to arc her fingers deeper inside Ivy and begin to fuck her properly, as her warm welcome mouth worked on Ivy’s clit.