Because of Ellison (14 page)

“Yeah. Everything’s more than okay. I’m just enjoying the
day.”

She grew quiet, but smiled shyly and returned her attention
to the fish, her back was pressed to my chest, my arms were wrapped around her
stomach, and our legs brushed against each other as we kicked in the water. The
scent of her hair sat just below my nose and I breathed deeper just to have her
close by.

“Some of the test results came back.”

My arms tightened around her.

“And? Were they normal?”

“No.”

I sighed and rested the side of my head against hers.
“What’s the diagnosis?” I didn’t want to hear the answer to the question
because I somehow knew that whatever it was, it wasn’t good. The thought of
Ellison losing her father scared me. But the thought of her losing him when I
couldn’t stick around to take care of her terrified me more than anything else.
She was a strong girl, I knew that, but she needed a shoulder to lean on every
once in a while. She shouldn’t have to do it all on her own.

“They don’t know yet; but something’s not right. They just
said that he’d have to undergo more tests. You know how doctors are; even if
they suspect what it is, they won’t say something until they know for sure.”

I didn’t want to be the one to bring it up, but I had to
know. “What if it’s really bad, El? What are you going to do?”

She fidgeted in my arms, but she didn’t pull away. “I don’t
know. I guess I’ll keep going. He’d kick my ass if I didn’t. I’ll be angry.
That’s for sure. I don’t think it’s fair that my mother was taken from me, and
my father after that. Most people get to keep at least one parent until they’re
older. Fate would have to be a cruel thing to take both of them from me.

However, fate could be cruel. I’d realized that over the
time I’d known her. What I’d once thought was an awesome childhood full of
freedom and carefree days, I now understood was a missing piece in my life. My
parents’ inattention bothered me. I could admit it when I was around her. I
didn’t have fond memories of just sitting around and laughing with them. There
were never times that I could remember just being myself and enjoying my time
in their company. Even holidays were spent trying to impress their friends and
business associates during the endless parties and social gatherings. We’d
never traveled to spend time with family, and never bothered to invite that
family to spend time with us. I suspected that his brother embarrassed my
father. However, after spending time with Bill, I realized that he had more to
him than my father ever would. He’d raised a child on his own and he’d loved
her despite the difficulty of his life. He was a good man and I was angry with
my dad for never having allowed me to get to know him growing up.

She turned in my arms. “I’m afraid, Hunter.”

It was a confession voiced so quietly it was barely voiced
at all. But it was enough to awaken every protective bone I had in my body. I
didn’t think I’d ever be able to let her go.

“Are you afraid of being alone?

Her eyes watered and I didn’t brush away the tears that fell
from them because it meant that I would have to let her go to do so.

She nodded. “It’s not that I’m afraid of being alone because
I’ll have no one. I can manage on my own. I have no doubt of that. But to be
alone would mean that I lost every person that I cared for. That’s what scares
me, Hunter. Knowing that they’d be gone — and that I could never have
them back.”

My heart ripped apart and I pulled her in to me even
tighter. Our faces were so close that I could feel her breath roll over my skin
and the scent of her strawberry lip-gloss mixed with the tropical scent of her
body and hair: sugar and spice — it was a heady and intoxicating
combination.

“I promise you El, somehow, I’ll find a way to be there for
you. Even with a thousand miles between us, you’ll always have me if you need
me.”

The brim of her hat shaded her face, but her eyes still
danced from the light reflected up from the water. Birds sang in the distance
and every so often a chorus of cicadas would belt out over the land as a gentle
breeze brushed across our skin. Paradise could never be more perfect than the
place where we were at that moment.

My heart beat soundly against my chest and her chest heaved
as her breathing quickened. We stared into each other’s eyes for God knows how
long. The tension of the moment was almost too much to bear, but I wanted to
give her strength, to really be there for her when she needed me, and I wasn’t
going to look away.

And it was a damn good thing I didn’t.

The next thing I knew, Ellison James raised her arms out of
the water and wrapped them around my shoulders. The perfect pout of her mouth
came up to brush across my lips and I closed my eyes when a shudder rolled through
me. She placed delicate kisses on my lips — they were soft, they were
light and there was no need to rush them. I enjoyed the moment and I worried
that she’d realize what she was doing and stop.

But she didn’t.

Her fingers curled into the hair at the back of my head and
she pulled away long enough to say, “I know that I asked for us to just be
friends, and I know that anything more with you would be like shooting myself
in the foot. But I can’t help what I feel about you, Hunter. So maybe … maybe if
I choose to make the mistake myself, maybe if you’re not the one who started
things between us in the first place — maybe I could just own that
mistake and not hate you for it in the end.” She laughed quietly. “Whatever
happens between us will be a mistake. But which would be bigger? The mistake of
having been with you … or the mistake of never having allowed myself to love
you when I had the chance?”

My resolve snapped and my mouth crashed against hers just as
she opened her lips so I could deepen the kiss. The skin of our bodies slid
against each other while my tongue slid along hers. Her touch, her taste, her
smell, every part of her that I could experience, I was taking at that moment.
The gentleman in me told me to stop, but then her words repeated in my head,
and I decided that, mistake or not, she was correct and it was something that
had to happen. We’d denied each other for too long and this moment could be the
only chance we had to correct it.

My body was tight against her and, even though she was tall,
she still felt tiny in my arms. My fingers found their way to her head and I
slipped the little tie from her hair and shook out her braid. I’d imagined
wrapping my fingers in the silken strands for a long time and I was using them to
pull her closer to me and hold her in place. I wanted to devour her
;
to taste and touch every inch of her skin. I’d wanted it
since the first time I seen her pissed off and covered in mud — and I was
going to have it.

Our legs kicked lazily below us even though the top half was
moving with a lustful frenzy. With one hand still wrapped in her hair, I pulled
her head to the side so I could explore the skin of her neck with my mouth. She
gasped when I nipped at her earlobe and I felt her muscles relax against the
arm that I still had wrapped around her.

Goose bumps raced across her skin and I prayed that it was
my touch causing that reaction in her rather than the cold as fuck water that
surrounded us. Her arms tightened around my shoulders and I took advantage of
the added support to remove my arm from her waist. She moaned when I ran my
hand along the side of her body and the small sound aroused something feral
within me. My thumb brushed across her breast just as my chest rumbled with a
growl. An actual fucking growl. This girl was doing things to me that I never
knew were possible. Her fingernails trailed down my back and my hand gripped
around her hip, securing her body against mine. I wanted to take her right
there, but I didn’t want the distraction of remaining above water to distract
from the experience.

Letting go of her hair, I used that hand to explore her
body. I found her thigh first, running my hand up the side of it, making a
point to rub my thumb along the inside and up along the sensitive skin between.
Her stomach was a work of art — not too hard and not too soft. It was
perfectly round where it should have been and a primitive instinct flickered
within me to touch her there. When my hand found her breast, I paused waiting
for a rejection — one that never occurred. I cupped the weight of it in
my palm and I used my thumb to rub along the tip that was now hard beneath the
thin covering of the triangle top of her suit. The movement of the cold water
between us only added to the sensuality of the moment — and the silence,
holy fuck, the silence — it let me hear every little sound she made and
it kept me there, right fucking there, with her. I was connected to nothing but
her. It was something I’d never experienced before and knew I could never
experience again with another girl. Nobody would ever compare to Ellison James.

I pulled the tiny scrap of her top aside and shivered when
the heat of her breast warmed my palm. Her head fell back and my lips trailed
over her neck. I wanted to take the peak into my mouth, but the fucking water
would have drowned me in the process. There’s nothing sexy about not being able
to breathe — not when it’s not intended, anyway. I was hard as a fucking
rock and I knew she could feel the length of me on her thigh. If she noticed
— and
trust
me, she had to have noticed —
she didn’t care. Releasing her breast, I ran my hand back down her body and my
fingers dared to reach between her thighs. I wanted her to stop me … I silently
begged for it, because I knew that by taking anything beyond this point I’d be
giving this girl not only my body - I’d be giving her my fucking heart.

She didn’t stop me.

My fingers smoothed over her bathing suit and her body
trembled against me. Her mouth slid over mine and we molded to each other like
two pieces of a puzzle that had finally found their match. Emotions tore
through me that I’d never felt before and I was absolutely lost to her. Nothing
would distract me from her. A nuclear bomb could have gone off beside us and I
wouldn’t have paid attention.

When my fingers slid below the fabric of her suit and rested
over the entrance to her body, she pulled from my kiss, while at the same time,
her fingernails dug into my back.

“Oh god, Hunter.”

My name rolled off her kiss swollen lips like it had belonged
there our entire lives. I loved the way she said it, and I pushed my finger
into the heat of her body only to bring my mouth back to her shoulder and bite
down. Her thighs tightened against each other when she moaned and I suddenly
needed her out of the fucking water.

It took everything I had to pull away from her, but when I
did, I looked deep into her eyes and the chemistry between us was certain.
Neither of us could handle it if we stopped and there was no way in hell I was
going to let the water get in between us. I swam towards shore and she followed
behind me. When we got to a point where we could stand up, I picked her up
quickly and threw her over my shoulder. She laughed loudly and squeezed the
cheeks of my ass in her hands. When her nails dug into the skin, I growled
again.

“You’re really pushing for it, aren’t you, woman?”

She slapped me hard against a cheek and it shoved me over
the edge from modern man to caveman. I powered my feet through the water as I
walked to shore and laid her down in a bed of grass off to the side of the
clearing. I wanted a secluded spot for her, even though nobody had ever been
around when we’d been out here. It was our own little piece of the world and I
was intent on christening it at that moment.

Laying my body on top of hers, I was greedy to immediately
take her mouth with mine. Her hands explored my chest and shoulders, but then
slipped down along my abdomen. I could feel every muscle clench as she brushed
across it and when she reached between my legs and wrapped her palm around the
length of me, my body bucked against her. My teeth instantly found her bottom
lip and I bit down into the swollen flesh softly, but desperate for more at the
same time. My bathing suit had become a fucking nuisance and I wanted to rip it
off, but I didn’t want her to think I was going to rush this.

Because I wasn’t …

I was going to take my time memorizing every inch of her
body. If there was something to be seen, I was going to see it — and if
my mouth could go there, she was going to feel my kiss. I didn’t know if this
was the only shot I had to be with her and I wasn’t going to move it along any
faster than I had to.

I pulled her up off the ground just enough so I could reach
behind her and release the strings of her bikini. Tossing her top aside, I
looked back to see that the thin beads of her necklace were laid out
beautifully between her breasts — and they were absolutely fantastic
breasts.

Finally — fucking f-
i
-n-a-l-l-y
— I was able to take the tip of her breast into my mouth and when the
salt of her skin met my tongue, I almost lost it right there. She arched her
chest up when my tongue smoothed over the tight peak and my hand went beneath
her so I could hold her to tight to my mouth. I worked on one breast for what
felt like forever before I moved over to start on the other. The sound of her
little mewls, gasps and moans was driving the blood through my veins even
faster and it felt like I would explode at any second. I bit down into the
sensitive skin of her breast and her fingers found my hair, wrapping into it so
tightly, it pulled at my skull adding a delightful element of pain to the
intense pleasure that was consuming me.

“Fuck. Oh god. Hunter, I need … I need … ”

It was all she had to say. I knew what she ‘needed’ and I was
going to deliver.

My mouth released her breast and I worked my way down,
kissing along the curve of her stomach, making sure to tickle her over the
belly button before pushing myself up over her. The bottom to her suit was tied
at the sides and all I had to do was pull on those strings and I would finally
be admitted into the only kind of heaven I ever wanted to know. Who needed a
happy white fluffy fucking cloud to float on when they could have Ellison James
naked and writhing beneath them? Certainly, not me. If Heaven actually existed,
it was in the arms of this woman and she was waiting to give me everything I
could ever need.