"You better not be lying," he growled.
"I'm not. I promise!"
Julian knew he was acting completely out of character, but the mere thought of Fleur finding another man to be her lover for twelve goddamn nights...
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
"Why didn't you?"
"Why d-didn't I what?" Fleur stammered.
"Offer him the same contract?"
Fleur waited for herself to feel self-conscious or embarrassed, but instead of her inner prude showing up—-
"Why do you think?"
Holy shit, her inner slut was back, and she could not be more confused. Was this just a coincidence or did this mean she could only be a slut whenever her devilishly hot Julian was around?
"Don't play games with me," Julian snarled.
"It's just payback," Fleur heard herself coo, and oh my God, inner slut, what are you doing to me? She had never cooed her entire life, but even she knew those words had made her sound like an...like an expert coo...er?
"What payback?"
"For not coming after me."
Julian's jaw clenched. "You didn't look like you were missing me all that much."
Fleur glanced up at him from beneath her lashes. "Is that jealousy I hear—-" She couldn't say anything else, with Julian already shutting her up with a deep, hard kiss, and oh my gosh, how she had missed this!
Julian could only groan as Fleur's nails raked his chest, and as he drove his tongue deeper into her mouth, his hands went down to grip the cheeks of her ass, and the moment he heard her gasp against his lips-—
He knew what that sound meant, and his hold on her ass tightened.
She was still a virgin, thank fuck.
He didn't give a damn if that made him a chauvinist. That she was one hadn't really sunk in on him the first time they met, or even the second time, but now that Julian knew she still was, he also knew that he would never ever fucking let any man take what was his.
And that was her virginity, in every fucking hole that he could claim.
Fleur was once again lost in a breathless daze when Julian finally lifted his head, and she didn't even think of resisting when he sat down and kept her in his lap.
He tipped her chin up, asking very, very softly, "Do I have something to be jealous about?"
Fleur might not have much experience with men, but even she could sense that the time for playing games was over. And so she said simply, "No."
"And has DeRose ever kissed you?"
She shook her head.
"Touched you?"
A visibly-aghast Fleur shook her head again at his question, but this time she did so with such force that if it had been any other woman, Julian would have dismissed it as bad acting. But because this was Fleur...
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
The whole thing was just too fucking cute, and it was then Julian finally accepted it.
His life was like that stupid meme—-
It was at that moment he knew...he was fucked.
Where Fleur was concerned, he was fucked, and that was why he heard himself grit out, "Just tell me why then."
Because pride no longer mattered to someone who was fucked.
"Tell me the truth about that contract."
Fleur bit her lip. "It's such a cliché..."
"Tell me all the same."
"You know how women are and their biological clocks..."
"You woke up one day wanting marriage?"
"More or less," she admitted. "But I also knew it wouldn't be easy since virgins my age are a freak of nature—-"
"Not to me."
Julian said the words so simply that Fleur knew he was telling the truth, and it made her toes curl so hard it was a wonder they hadn't snapped off in the process.
"Anyway..." Fleur cleared her throat. "The contract was to make sure I'm...I'm normal—-" She heard him snort at her term, but Fleur simply ignored this, knowing he would never understand. Virginity nowadays was a laughing matter, and not something to be proud of.
"So that by the time I attend Foxtown's Yuletide Ball—-"
Julian's gaze narrowed at her. "Is that where you're hoping to find your future groom?"
"It's been statistically proven that people from the same background and with the same core values are less likely to divorce..." And because she couldn't help it, she added sweetly, "Like you and me."
Julian only smirked, refusing to be baited. And besides, there was one last thing that bothered him, which was—-
"Why the first twelve days of December?"
"Oh, that." She saw Julian arch a brow at her tone, and she could only smile sheepishly in return. "I had my moment of epiphany early this month, and since this is peak season for my department, December 1 to 12 were the only days I could clear in my calendar."
"I see."
She looked at him hopefully. "Then..."
"How about another contract?"
While she wasn't really sure what she had been hoping to hear, she knew that hadn't been it, but...
"What kind of contract?"
There was no harm in hearing him out, was there?