at her. “I’m worried about you. You’re gonna make yourself sick. It’s been a month since Aaron died and I know his murder was a shock, but Julie, you need to take better care of yourself.”
She felt like he’d hit her. Hardly anyone mentioned her boyfriend’s sudden death to her anymore. They simply pretended it didn’t exist and that plan suited her just fine. She didn’t want to talk about the gaping hole in her heart. It was better to just work around it and pretend like it didn’t exist.
She tried to change the subject. “I did some research online last night and I think we could improve our classes.” She started searching through her purse. “I made a list…”
Pete grabbed hold of her arm. “Julie, stop.” He pulled a card out of his wallet. “I think you need to talk to someone. This is a therapist that the department uses. He’s really good.”
“You think I’m crazy?” Why was this so shocking? She knew she wasn’t functioning well, but she thought she’d been hiding the fact from those around her.
“No, but you aren’t working through your grief over Aaron’s murder. I think you need some grief counseling.”
The lump built in her throat. She had to escape from the concerned look in Pete’s eyes before she lost it completely. She grabbed the card out of his hand and crammed it into her purse with a quickly mumbled, “Thanks.” Running down the corridor of the hospital, she prayed she wouldn’t run into anyone she knew.
By the time she made it to her car, the tears were flowing, she was gasping for breath, and she was on the eighth thing to add to her grocery list: olive oil, skittles, baked beans, tuna, toilet paper, corn starch, bacon, oregano.
Slowly the calm settled back over her and her breath steadied.
She was fine and in control.
She was fine and in control.
She was fine and in control.
If she said it to herself enough times, maybe she and everyone else around her would believe it. She fingered the card she’d shoved in her purse. Did she need to talk to someone? No, she’d learned a long time ago that she could deal with these things all on her own. She was strong. She had coping mechanisms. She was in control of her life. She could do this.
Chapter 2
Chris Robertson looked down into Julie’s upturned face and a shudder of desire travelled down his spine. He was the luckiest bastard alive to have her here with him. She smiled at him with a look that could be described as nothing short of pure mischief. God, he loved to see her with that look. To finally see her without the ever-present grief shadowing her eyes was enough to make his cock twitch and swell with interest. She was so damn beautiful. How did he get so lucky to have her kneeling before him now?
The white lace corset with black ribbons crisscrossing up the sides showed off the perfect amount of her mounding breasts. She knelt in front of his standing position and he could see the full length of her, from those fuck-me high heels to her matching lace thong with a bow at the top of her incredible ass. He reached for her, but she shook her head at him and warned, her voice laced with arousal and desire, “No hands or else I won’t take care of that for you.”
They both looked to where his naked cock stood at full attention against his abdomen. The moist heat of her breath raced across his most sensitive skin. She was so close. He wanted to arch his hips, but knew that would just give her an excuse to prolong her torture of him.
Instead he begged, “Please, Butterfly.”
She looked up at him with a single eyebrow raised as if to question his desperation.
“I need you to….” His lowered voice stuttered to a halt as her soft, warm lips engulfed him. He moaned at the ecstasy of the wet heat of her mouth. It had been so long since a woman touched him and to know this time that it was Julie. This was pure heaven.
A voice straight out of his nightmares spoke, filled with hatred and menace, “I can make sure you never fuck again.”
Chris’s eyes flew open and straight into the black evil eyes of the man who’d tortured him for months. He scrambled back to get away from the molten hot poker, but couldn’t move. Suddenly he was chained