Page 60 of The Best Wild Idea (Off-Limits #3)

Silas

I don’t know which is better: hearing Jules say she loves me, or the way her lips find mine in the near-dark while the Eiffel Tower springs to life, sparkling like a thousand camera flashes outside the enormous window at our feet.

The tower glitters like this every hour, perfectly timed to echo the fluttering now inside my chest.

This isn’t how today was supposed to go. We’re supposed to be dining in that tower right now, but this is somehow, even with my arm in a cast, so much better.

“Wait!” Jules pulls back from my lips long before I’m ready. “I have something for you to see.”

She slips out from under my arm. I watch her leave the room, wishing whatever it was could wait.

Then I hear some paper rustling around, and the clinking of glasses.

A moment later, she reappears wearing a short gold dress.

It’s covered in tiny sequins, and she sparkles like the Eiffel Tower with every micromovement she makes.

She’s holding two glasses and a longneck bottle of champagne.

The sight of her standing in the dark, lit only by the glittering tower and firelight takes my breath away.

I wish I wasn’t laid up in bed with half of one arm rendered useless.

“What’s this?” I ask, grinning.

“We were supposed to be having dinner over there,” she says, nodding toward the window. “This champagne was to pop open beforehand. I think it’s meant to be a little celebration for making it all the way through our trip without killing each other.”

She smiles.

“And that dress?” I ask, eyeing her up and down. She’s barefoot, which I think I prefer to any heels she would have chosen to go with it. Her long blonde hair is down, cascading across her shoulders, while she’s barely got any makeup left from the tears she shed beside me.

Jules is stunning. Always.

“A little something I was supposed to wear to dinner tonight, I guess,” she says, smiling. “The note that came with it only had three words attached.”

I widen my eyes, wondering what could possibly be written to make sense of a dress like that.

“For starting over,” she tells me, smiling.

“Wow,” I say, feeling speechless.

“I finally feel like I’m . . . I don’t know how to describe it.”

“At peace?” I ask her, knowing the feeling deep down in myself. This might have been a journey to help Jules to move on from the love of her life, but I feel like I’ve also taken myself on the same journey. To say goodbye to someone I, too, never hoped to live without.

“I guess,” she admits. “But also like I’m ready, in a really good way.”

She takes a step toward me, holding up the two glasses.

“Stop right there,” I tell her, letting my eyes slowly wander down the length of her, all the way down to her bare toes and back up again to meet her eyes.

“What? What’s wrong?” Her eyes search mine.

“I want to remember you exactly like this,” I tell her. “You in that dress, the Eiffel Tower outside our window. That look on your face.”

“This look?” she asks, taking another step toward me, beaming.

“That and the one you’re about to have next . . .” I say gruffly. “Now, get over here.”

She laughs and walks across the room back to me.

“Can you even have this?” she asks, holding a glass out to me. “With all the pain meds in your system?”

“Absolutely,” I tell her, clinking the bubbling glass against hers.

“To new beginnings,” she says.

“To you,” I add.

“And to him,” she whispers, leaning in to kiss me. “For the foresight he had to create a trip like this, knowing how it might end.”

We smile at each other, but before I can get a tiny sip down, Jules takes the glass from my hand and sets it on the nightstand beside me.

“I think I know what will help you feel even better than that,” she says, raising a brow.

Then she leans in to kiss me. My body springs to life at her touch as she runs her hands down my chest. I wince when she accidentally grazes my elbow.

“Oh my gosh. Did that hurt?” she asks, looking panicked.

“No,” I tell her. “At least not the part where you were touching my chest. My elbow is a little tender though.”

She pats my leg apologetically. “Let me see if I can help you forget the pain.” She smirks up from under her lashes, then leans in again, this time careful to stay back from the side with the cast. “How about here?” she asks, brushing her lips against mine.

“Mmm, that definitely helps,” I murmur into her kiss.

“And here?” she asks, tracing her lips down toward my jaw. She finds that sensitive spot just under my ear and nips it, before biting down on my earlobe, tasting it between her teeth, sending a shiver down my body.

“That’s even better,” I tell her, tilting my jaw up to give her more space to do whatever she wants.

“I think I remember the doctor saying something about this helping, too,” she says, caressing the growing bulge of my pants.

She looks up to watch my face while slowly unzipping them, then slips one hand under the fabric of my boxers.

“This doesn’t hurt, does it?” she asks, dragging a gentle fist up and down, barely skimming the surface like a tease. I’m already hard in her hand.

“Not even a little,” I groan, pressing my head back into the mound of pillows behind me. I may be laid up in bed for a few days, but I don’t mind if this is how we end up spending the time.

“Let me see if I can help you out even more then,” she says, pulling my shaft out of my boxers. She hikes her dress up, positioning herself right above it, teasing me with anticipation.

I push my hips up, as she sinks down.

“God, you are incredible,” I murmur. The sparkling tower lights up the window behind her, but I only have eyes for Jules.

“Is this okay?” she asks, kneeling on either side of my hips.

“You’re not going to hurt me.” I breathe the words out like a prayer, hoping she’s not afraid to keep going, and she lowers herself onto me again, filling her body with the entire length of me until I disappear inside her again.

“You’re going to have to do the work for me this time, baby,” I tell her, wishing I could take a more active role in everything that’s unfolding if it weren’t for this stupid cast on my arm.

But I love getting to watch her take charge right now.

“You’re welcome to pretend that sling is just a pair of handcuffs if it makes it more sexy for you.

” She laughs, giving me a playful look. Then she leans forward and presses my lips into hers, gently leading me up and down as she begins to move.

“And until that thing comes off, I’m just going to have to own every inch of your body exactly the way I want it. ”

She circles her hips, slowly at first, before a desperate need takes over and she starts moving faster, pulling her dress up over her head and dropping it to the floor, freeing her breasts and the rest of her body from the material.

Her skin, now on full display, the fullness of her chest bouncing against her ribcage as she arches her back in front of me, giving me an unforgettable view.

A moan escapes her lips as she tips her chin back, letting her long hair cascade down her back while grazing her shoulders.

Then she rakes it back, grasping onto her crown of hair with one hand while her other hand holds onto my shoulder, steadying herself against me while she gets lost in the ride.

The restraint of not being able to fully embrace each other feels maddening, and I’m tempted to ignore the pain and wrap her up in my arms anyway.

She leans toward me, suddenly grasping my face between her hands so gently.

Her kisses draw out long and tender as her lovemaking turns from desperate to soft and sweet.

Showing me what she’s already told me — that she loves me.

She pauses the movement of her hips, then brings her face into mine, clasping the edges of my jaw, kissing me slowly until the feeling of her lips tasting mine sends shooting stars out from the darkness.

Her hips come to life again, slowly and deliberately moving against me, bringing me close to the edge all over again.

I feel as everything in her starts to clench around me.

Her body feels magnetic, pulling me right to the edge with her.

Jules opens her eyes and her lips hover an inch from mine.

She watches my face as she takes us both into the oblivion.

The release like a cannon going off within me, her lips parting just so as a gasp escapes them, and for one incredible moment, the world stops on its axis.

She begins rocking against me again as the waves of pleasure course through her, sending me over the edge one more time along with her.

When we’re finally breathless, with tiny beads of sweat forming along her hairline, she leans her forehead against mine, like she can’t muster up the strength to tumble off me just yet.

“I can’t imagine doing this with anyone else ever again, Si,” she whispers.

“Then don’t,” I tell her. “It can be that easy.”

She laughs and her breath tastes sweet against my tongue.

“I can’t believe I’ve fallen in love with you,” she says, almost too softly for me to hear. As if she truly only meant for herself to hear it.

“And I can’t believe I ever thought that I could live without you,” I answer.

The tower begins flashing outside again and a thousand different light bulbs blink at our feet.

She rolls to my side and I wrap my good arm around her, knowing that as close as we can get to one another will never be close enough.

Unable to believe that every moment between us — between all of us — has finally led us right here.

To a view I’ll always remember, and a night I’ll never want to forget.