The Heir's obsession-Chapter 65: Intimate

Chapter 65

JACE MARINO

The drive back to the lake house felt longer than the drive out. It always did when I was anxious. Marco was behind us. Mateo was in the passenger seat, and I kept refreshing the CCTV feed on my phone like it was oxygen.

Every room in that house. Every hallway. Every angle where Julian might walk past.

If anything had happened while I was gone, I would’ve known. But knowing didn’t help. I still kept checking.

By the time the gravel crunched under the tires and the safe house came into view, my chest was tight. Detective Pole’s threats, Agent Voss’ stone-cold stare. None of that bothered me as much as being away from Julian for hours.

The car stopped.

Before I could take a breath, the front door flew open.

Julian sprinted across the porch and down the steps. He didn’t slow down. He slammed into me and wrapped his arms around my neck with so much force I stumbled back a step.

The breath I didn’t know I was holding released at once.

"Hi, baby boy," I said quietly.

I didn’t mean to say it like that. Soft and gentle like he was something I had been terrified to lose.

He is. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

But he didn’t seem to mind. He held me like he had been waiting just as hard.

"Hi," he whispered into my neck.

Everything else faded out for a moment. Mateo’s footsteps. Marco stretching after the drive. The tension in my own bones. It all fell away with Julian pressed against me.

Then a voice cut through:

"You look like you wanna hug me."

Mateo. His voice was flat as usual, but there was a spark of something in his eyes.

Luka stared at him like he’d been personally struck by lightning.

"How did you know that?" Luka asked.

And then he launched himself at Mateo.

Not just a hug, he jumped. Arms around Mateo’s shoulders, legs around his waist like he was climbing a tree.

Mateo caught him with zero effort. Not even a grunt.

I didn’t even try to hide my laugh.

"I know you didn’t miss me," Luka said dramatically, "but that’s alright, because I missed you."

Mateo stood there holding him like a sack of overexcited laundry.

"If you’re done," Mateo said, "please get down. You’re strangling me."

"But you said I could hug you," Luka argued.

"No," Mateo corrected. "I said you looked like you wanted to hug me."

He was still holding Luka. Tightly.

Luka blinked, deflated, then wriggled out of his arms and stomped toward the door like a child sent to his room. Mateo sighed, rubbed his face, and followed him inside.

Marco walked past me and muttered, "A lot is going on in this house."

He disappeared inside with Liam and Rico behind him.

I took Julian’s hand and we started toward the porch.

"I think my brother likes your friend," I said.

Julian looked at me like he had known that the whole time. "I don’t know about your brother, but I think my friend likes him. Maybe since the night he picked them up."

"Can that even work?" I said. "My brother is smart and stupid at the same time."

"I think it goes both ways," Julian replied.

I laughed. A real laugh. One that felt like it had been buried under days of dread.

We went inside. The house was warm like the heater had been running all morning. The kind of warmth that made the walls feel closer.

Upstairs in our room, Julian didn’t say anything. He loosened my tie with one hand, dropped it on the bed, then he started taking off my suit jacket, shirt and pants.

His silence was comfortable and I trusted him without needing words.

"Go shower," he said.

I pulled him toward the bathroom with me instead.

He didn’t fight it. He just raised an eyebrow, like he knew exactly what I was doing.

The water was hot, fog was rising against the cold bathroom tiles. Julian stood under it, blinking up at me. Drops clung to his eyelashes.

I pressed my mouth to his shoulder, then his neck, then the space just below his collarbone. He shivered every time. I kissed the tension out of him piece by piece.

Then I slid to my knees.

His breath hitched. His hand went to my hair like instinct.

I took him into my mouth slowly, deliberately, savoring every reaction. Every sound he made. Every way his thighs trembled just a little when I moved deeper.

When he came, he gasped my name like he wasn’t thinking about anything else.

I stood and kissed him, slow and deep, letting him taste the last of himself on my tongue.

He looked dazed, sweet, flushed. I washed him with gentle strokes across his chest, his arms, his stomach. He let me touch him everywhere, soft and trusting.

For a moment, the world was quiet. No gangs. No threats. No fathers. No agents. Just water and breath and the feeling of Julian leaning into my hands.

When we stepped out, he wrapped a towel around his waist and leaned against the counter, watching me.

It was dangerous how much I wanted him.

"Come here," I said.

He came right away like he’d been waiting for the invitation. His hands slid up to my bare chest, warm and shaking a little.

"You’re always making me feel good," he said quietly, "but you never let me touch you."

I lifted his chin with my fingers, but he kept talking.

"Why don’t you let me? You think I can’t handle you?" His eyes dropped to my mouth.

I couldn’t help the smirk that pulled at me. "Baby... I could fall apart just from you looking at me. You have no idea what you do to me."

"Then let me," he whispered. "I like it when things get rough."

"But this is still your first time," I reminded him. I watched the way his throat moved when he swallowed. "I’m not trying to scare you."

He said my name like it meant something. "Jace."

That was almost enough to undo me.

"You’re sure?" I asked.

He stepped closer until there was no space at all. "Please."

That word broke whatever control I was pretending to have. I felt it snap in my chest like a wire pulled too tight.

I pulled him into me, into the heat of my hands and the steadiness I’d been trying to hold back. The rest of the world faded. It was just him. His breath. His trust. The way he looked at me like he already knew I’d catch him.

Everything after that stopped being thought and became instinct. Just us. Just the moment. And nothing else.