Page 16 of Monochrome (ORCA #4)

CHAPTER

SIXTEEN

ETHAN

Julius’s bed was comfortable and smelled like him, and I could have happily stayed tucked under his covers all night, except something had woken me up.

Reaching out a hand, I found the other side of the bed was still cold, and I listened hard to see what had pulled me out of sleep.

Faint snippets of conversation drifted up from downstairs, but it wasn’t enough to have woken me up.

I was about to write it off as part of some concussion-induced dream when I heard the sound again.

Soft singing.

A melody that was hauntingly beautiful in a language I didn’t know.

Climbing out of bed, I found my jeans that Julius had tossed on the floor after I’d taken them off, and I slipped them back on, leaving them unbuttoned.

In the hall, the faint singing was louder, and I realized it was coming from the room the twins were staying in.

The door was open a crack, and I used my foot to nudge it open a little farther so I could see inside.

And my heart skipped a beat.

Julius was kneeling by Lily’s bed, the planes and angles of his face cast in shadows from the small nightlight on the table under the window as he sang the most beautiful lullaby and stroked a hand over her hair.

Her eyes were closed, and I could tell she was on the edge of sleep.

Jude was already out, the stuffed panda he couldn’t sleep without tucked under his arm.

Lily had had a stuffed elephant that she’d loved, but it had been in the car the night of the accident and couldn’t be saved.

For the first six months that the twins lived with me, I’d bought her every stuffed elephant I could find, hoping one would bring her the same comfort as the one she’d lost, but she’d rejected every single one.

It had been a challenge to get her to sleep every night, and if one of the twins woke up during the night, nine times out of ten, it was Lily.

I wished there were more I could do to help her, but everything I tried seemed to fail.

But Julius’s singing seemed to be doing the trick, and the care he was taking with the most precious things in my life made me realize I was no longer falling in love with Julius Hunter.

I had already fallen.

Hard.

He finished the song, kissed the tips of his fingers, and gently pressed them to Lily’s forehead, then he turned and did the same to Jude.

When he pivoted toward the door and saw me standing there, he startled but didn’t make a sound until he’d slipped out into the hall and quietly closed the door behind him.

“Did we wake you?”

There was still a lump lodged in my throat, and I had to swallow hard before I could speak.

“I heard you singing.”

His cheeks went a little pink.

“Sorry. I was trying to be quiet, but Lily was struggling to get to sleep, and when I couldn’t sleep, my grandmother would sing to me.”

I didn’t have the right words to express the enormity of what I was feeling, so I relied on instinct instead, wrapping my hands around the back of Julius’s neck and pulling his face down to meet mine, our lips colliding in a soft kiss full of all the tender feelings that had taken up residence in my heart.

Like every kiss we’d shared since we’d started kissing, it didn’t stay soft and sweet for long.

Julius’s tongue slid along the seam of my lips, and I parted them for him, letting him inside without hesitation.

The feel of his tongue against mine, his fingers threaded through the belt loops of my unbuttoned jeans as he held me tight to him, the soft fabric of his T-shirt against my bare chest, was better than any painkiller, and I lost myself in the press of our bodies, my injuries and bruises forgotten under the pleasure of Julius’s touch and the warmth of his body.

Slowly, Julius walked me backward into his room and kicked the door shut behind us, my back landing against it as Julius pushed my feet apart and positioned a thigh between my legs, bracing himself with an arm over my head.

A moan spilled from my lips as I rocked my thickening cock against the hard muscle, and Julius swallowed it down.

His other hand slid into the front of my pants, his strong fingers encircling my shaft.

“I never want to stop touching you.” Julius trailed hot kisses from my lips over my jaw and whispered the words against my ear before sucking my earlobe between his teeth, and my cock jumped in his hand.

“Then don’t.”

A possessive growl rumbled in Julius’s chest, and I felt it vibrate through me.

This close, Julius’s fresh salt water and evergreen scent flooded my senses, and I wanted to rub my body all over him so he smelled like me.

So he smelled like mine.

I nuzzled into his neck, and he shivered as my stubble rasped across the dark skin of his saddle patch.

I’d noticed that patch of skin seemed sensitive, and I kissed over the pattern, making Julius moan and his hand flex around my dick.

At some point, Julius had changed out of the jeans he’d been wearing earlier, switching them out for a pair of soft gray sweatpants.

My fingers ached to touch him, and I let my hands wander lower, over his hips, my fingers sliding under the waistband of his sweats.

He rocked his body against me, and I felt the length of his erection as it rubbed over mine.

All teasing left behind, I shoved his pants farther down his hips and wrapped his length in my hand, the hot, heavy weight of his dick on my palm driving my need for him higher.

My thumb traced the slick head of his cock, and Julius’s hips pressed forward as he searched for more friction.

His kisses faltered as he breathed against my mouth, and touching him was suddenly no longer enough.

I needed to taste him.

His body held me pressed against the door, and I placed a hand on his chest, moving him back just far enough that I could slide to my knees.

“What are you doing?” His words came out around heavy breaths, and instead of answering, I licked my lips and closed them around the head of his cock.

“Fuck, Ethan.”

I wanted to smile, but my lips were already stretched around him, and I felt his legs start to shake as my tongue worked over the spot under the head of his dick and licked over his slit.

Precum dripped onto my tongue, and I licked away every salty-sweet drop, his flavor reminding me of the way he smelled.

Like mine.

All mine.

Incoherent words fell from Julius’s lips as I worked his shaft with my tongue and rolled his balls in my hand.

His fingers tangled in my hair, tugging enough to have a bolt of pleasure-pain zipping down my spine, and I moaned around him.

“Ethan, god, your mouth. So fucking good.”

His praise made me redouble my efforts, sliding my mouth down his shaft until my lips were wrapped tight around the base and the head hit the back of my throat.

I gagged a little and pulled back, disappointed that I was so out of practice, but Julius either didn’t notice or didn’t care, his fingers still tight in my hair, his thumb stroking over my injured temple.

Taking him deep again, I remembered to breathe through my nose, and when he hit the back of my throat and I swallowed around him, the primitive and possessive groan that ripped through his chest made my cock pulse.

“Ethan, I need to be inside you. Please. Let me fuck you.” Julius’s hips thrust forward, and he slid deeper into my throat.

When he started to pull back, I grabbed his thick thighs, holding him in place.

I held him still until his breathing became ragged, his hips making tiny thrusts that drove him as deep into my throat as I could take him.

When I finally let him go, he slid out of my mouth and lifted me to my feet, capturing my mouth in a kiss that made my toes curl as he sucked his taste from my tongue.

He walked us back to the bed and set me down on the edge.

This time, when he helped me out of my jeans and boxers, he tossed them over his shoulder.

He pushed his sweats off the rest of the way, kicking the fabric somewhere behind him, and stripped his shirt off as he advanced on me.

I moved farther up the bed, and he prowled toward me on his hands and knees.

His eyes were hot and hungry, and I shuddered in anticipation as his naked body blanketed mine.

The feel of Julius’s bare body against me made me writhe under him, wanting, begging to be closer.

His lips found mine again, and his arms wrapped around me as I lifted my knees and he fell between them.

Our dicks rubbed together, precum making us both slick and sticky until I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Jules, please. I need you.”

Another feral and possessive moan rumbled through his chest, and he held me close as he reached into the nightstand, coming back with a bottle of lube.

He sat back on his knees and looked down at me.

His eyes caught on my shoulder and the bruises across my chest.

“Are you sure, Ethan? I want to be inside you so fucking bad, but it would kill me if I hurt you.”

I wrapped my legs around him, pulling him off balance until he fell against me, barely catching himself on his hands.

Pulling his face down to mine, I ravaged his mouth in a kiss that couldn’t be misinterpreted, then whispered over his mouth.

“Yes. I need this, Jules. Please.”

He pushed up off me, his eyes roaming over me again, this time full of heat and hunger as he found the lube and slicked up his fingers.

Anticipation made my dick jump and the combined scent of our arousal was heady.

I already felt like I was floating, and Julius wasn’t even inside me yet.

He kissed my knee and repositioned my legs, his slick fingers sliding over my cock and making me thrust into his touch.

But he didn’t linger on my cock for long.

His fingers traced over my balls, massaged against my taint, then finally slid lower until he was circling my hole.

He teased the tight furl of skin with his thumb until I was whimpering and trying to get him to press in deeper.

He put a hand on my pelvis to keep me still as he added more lube to his fingers and finally slid one inside me.

It had been too long since I’d felt someone else’s touch like this, and my hips arched off the bed in pleasure.

“Yes. God, yes.”

Julius’s smile was lost in shadow, but it was almost like I could feel it as he continued to work me open, sliding first one, then two thick fingers inside me, pegging my prostate and stretching me wide until I was writhing and even the comforting touch of his hand on my stomach couldn’t keep me from rutting against him.

He slid his fingers from my body, and I gasped at the loss of contact until I heard the lube click open again and the lewd sounds of Julius slicking up his cock echoed around the room in an erotic symphony.

Julius positioned himself between my thighs, the thick head of his dick nudging against my opening, and I closed my eyes, waiting and wanting to feel full of him.

I loved the bite of pain that came with being filled, and I knew it would somehow be even better with Julius.

But instead of feeling him slide into me, I felt his hand cup my face, his thumb stroking over my cheek in a gesture so tender, I felt my heart swell in my chest.

“Look at me, Ethan. I want to see your face when I make you mine.”

The second my eyes opened, Julius thrust into me, burying himself so deep it felt like he had hit my soul.

His arms wrapped around me as he stayed deep inside my body, and for the first time in what felt like forever, I felt whole.

We kissed as Julius moved his hips in tiny thrusts that lit up my nerve endings and made me want more, but that also healed parts of me that had felt broken for a long, long time.

Eventually, the gentle pace wasn’t enough, and Julius adjusted his position so he could drive into me hard and fast, taking us both higher and higher with every slide of our bodies, until I was at the edge of orgasm.

“Touch yourself. I need to see you come.”

I immediately obeyed, wrapping my hand around my dick and matching Julius’s thrusts with my strokes.

“Fuck, Jules!” I came hard with his name on my lips, and a moment later, I felt a hot rush of heat as Julius buried himself deep inside me and came, his teeth biting into the flesh of my uninjured shoulder.

The bite made stars explode behind my eyes, and my cock twitched, more cum spilling from the tip.

Julius’s bite made me crave more.

I wanted him to claim me, to bite me and mark me in a permanent way to show everyone he was mine and I was his.

He tongued over the bite that hadn’t been hard enough to break the skin, and like he was pulling the thought from my mind, he whispered, “Mine.”