Page 74 of Fame and Obsession

What the hell is going on? Where am I?

“Hey...” Turning toward the voice, I collide with soft jade eyes as he waits for me to offer an explanation for my crazy—as if I actually have one.

I’m still trying to process it myself, when it dawns on me.

I’m in bed with Julian Bale.

Wiping a shaking hand across my face, I try to bring his into focus. After a few moments, wild morning-after hair comes into view, attached to a strong, eagle-tattooed chest propped up on equally decorated muscular arms.

Even with my body still shaking with aftershocks, I take one look at him, and my heart skips a beat.

“I... It’s... I don’t...”

He stares at me, his choppy hair flopping forward. “Bad dream, huh?”

I suck in a breath and nod. “Something like that.”

“Want to talk about it?”

“Not in the least,” I say, tightly clutching the sheet around me. I start to sit up when a soreness between my legs halt my movement. Then it all comes rushing back in a giant tidal wave of disaster.

The fighting, the kissing...the sex. It was all wrong on so many levels, but so good at the same time.

Everything is contradicting itself. Up is down, right is wrong, black is white, good is bad, and naked is...well, naked.

And Julian Bale is very naked.

With a heavy sigh, he runs his fingers through his unruly hair, causing it to stand almost straight up in an oddly sexy way. “Phoebe, shit.” He stares at the plain white wall in front of him. “I hope you don’t think—”

“I’m fine,” I assure him.

Still, he seems nervous—a word I would never associate with Julian Bale.

“Things happened really fast last night, and I usually don’t... You said that we were okay, and… Well, I had a lot to drink, but I told you I’m clean. I mean, I always make sure that I... Shit...”

As I watch him, it finally hits me what all the nervous stammering is about. “It’s all right, Julian,” I tell him. “I’m on the pill.”

He lets out a harsh breath. “Oh, thank God. I—”

The words lodge in his throat as I fling myself at him, landing with a forceful thud on his chest. I give him just enough warning to catch me as we both tumble backward on the bed. Wasting no time, he claims my mouth as his arms tighten around my waist.

I have no clue what I’m doing. Since I left my apartment yesterday, I’ve been making all this up as I go along.

My body seems to have a mind of its own, and his touch seems to chase my demons away.

The demon.

My heart pounds as his mouth dips into the hollow of my neck. My eyes drift closed as my fingers run through the scruff on his chin and cheeks, the sting on my palms making my desire come alive.

Rolling us across the bed, he pins me underneath him, while his lips trail a hot line of kisses down the center of my chest.

Throwing my head back, I sigh his name.

“Christ,” Julian mumbles against my skin. “Nothing should be this good.”

I’m so caught up in my own lustful greed—my selfish frenzy to keep the monster in the darkness—I allow him to continue his descent. I lose myself, going to a place where flesh rules common sense, and all I have to do is feel.

The moment his bottom lip hits the edge of the first jagged, rough patch, we both still. I hear the double gasp, and for a sickening moment, I think one came from Julian, but as two tears roll silently off my cheeks, I know they both came from me.

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