Because of Ellison (15 page)

I pulled at those strings and removed the last bit of fabric
from her body. She was laid out beneath me, gloriously naked and the sun shone
off her skin as if it wanted to kiss her as much as I did. She was perfection,
she was the definition of beauty, and she was the epitome of every good thing a
woman had to offer. I didn’t just love her body, I didn’t just love her
perfectly kiss swollen mouth, I loved the words that came out of that mouth and
the crazy thoughts hidden behind the blue eyes that sparkled up at me from
where she lay.

I lowered my head down and flicked my tongue between the
slick
skin
at the apex of her thighs. Her taste was
like ambrosia. Holy shit! My organs were twisting over themselves as I licked
and kissed and nipped along every single part of her. Her body wiggled beneath
me and her hands massaged her breasts as I watched her from where I was
positioned. I was lost in what I was doing to her — in what she was doing
to herself — but at the same time I couldn’t take my eyes off of her.
There were no words to describe the view of her body. It was beauty in motion —
art brought to life. I was an absolute cheeseball for even thinking those
thoughts but there was no better way to describe what I was watching.

She reached down with her hands and tangled them in my hair
forcing me against her and I gladly flicked out my tongue and used it to push
inside her. My hand came up to join the actions of my mouth and the moans that
rolled through her vibrated along my body. Giving her what she wanted was
enough to get me off, but I wouldn’t allow the release until I was buried as
deep inside her as I could get. Moving so that I could suck on the bundle of
nerves I knew needed attention, I crooked my finger so that I hit that magic
spot inside her and she lost it. Her fingers gripped so tightly in my hair that
it caused me to hiss in reaction. The pain was exquisite because I knew that it
meant she was taking me along for whatever ride she was experiencing. And I’d
done that to her — for her. When I heard my name shouted from her mouth,
I had to physically stop myself from ripping off my shorts and mounting her.
Her inner muscles clenched at my fingers and all I could imagine was the
feeling of being inside her.

When her body calmed and all that was left were the small
aftershocks and tremors from her fall back to Earth, I slowly moved up her
body, paying special attention to her stomach and breasts on my way. My mouth
crashed into hers once more and I could feel her chest brush across me from the
excited pants that were quickly escaping her. She reached down to grasp me
through my shorts, but then she moved to pull the material off my body. Helping
her, I forced the shorts down and kicked them off my legs, my bare ass now on
display for any person who happened to walk by.

I didn’t care.

I didn’t fucking care if there was an audience of 50 people
standing around, taking fucking pictures, or cheering us on while peanuts and
beer were being sold off on the sidelines, I was going to have Ellison James
and there was nothing that would stop me.

“Shit. Hunter? Do you have a condom?”

Except that.

That would stop me.

FUCK!

I dropped down on top of her and buried my face into the
perfection of her breasts. “No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! NO! This is not
fucking happening.”

She laughed at my pain. What else was new?

Of course, I didn’t have a fucking condom. Who the fuck
thinks
oh hey, I’m going hiking with my
buddy, I’d better be sure to bring along a rain jacket, just in case
? Not
me. That’s who.

“Hunter … ”

I held up a hand without lifting my face from her chest. “I
know.” The words were muffled. “You don’t have to say it. Trust me, I know.”

Sonofabitch!

 
A myriad of
reasons of why I HAD to stop plowed through my head. Actual tears threatened my
eyes when I realized that not using protection could lead to some real
complications that would potentially ruin both of our lives. We had a future to
work towards and a baby was not in the cards for at least another seven to 10
years — for her. Not me. I decided to reach in and pull out that baby
card from my deck just before tearing it in shreds and setting it on fire. But
I knew Ellison would become a mother someday. It would be an absolute crime
against nature if she didn’t.

“I could … ”

“No.” I reached up to place my hand over her mouth. “Don’t
say it. My entire world just shattered around me and there’s nothing that can
be done that would make it any better. It’s best we let junior calm down and
then maybe I can just work through the blue balls during the 13 miles we have
left to go on the hike.” The sarcasm in my voice was intended on that comment.

She giggled. “Junior?” Running her fingernails along my
back, she whispered, “You don’t have to be so dramatic, you big baby. There’s
always next time.”

I didn’t know why I said ‘no’. If any other woman had
offered that, I would have shoved her down so fast she wouldn’t have known what
hit her.
But not Ellison.
Nope. I wanted the grand
finale and after having it cruelly and mercilessly ripped from my grasp, the
opening credits could never make up for it. Once again, I’d made a decision
that was so unlike me.

And I realized it was official …

Ellison James was a wizard.

~
    
~
    
~

The rest of the hike was a nightmare. After discovering that
a big stop sign had been placed in between us, we’d gotten dressed and made our
merry way up the trail. My balls were being assholes and painful shocks erupted
as the blood in my groin worked its way back into my body. It was a nice
13-mile reminder of the roadblock with which I’d just had a head on collision.
It wasn’t her fault and I didn’t hold it against her. I was pissed at myself for
not having thought of that problem before taking things as far as we had.

Ellison looked at me with sympathy every time she noticed I
was hobbling and the expression did nothing for my ego. I brushed it off and
replaced it with thoughts of ‘next time.’ Ellison had said those words and I
was holding her to them — and I was doing so armed with a brand spanking
new box of condoms. There was nothing that was going to stop me again. There
was going to be a ‘next time.’ It was the mantra that pushed me through the
rest of the trip — the ONLY thing that pushed me through the rest of the
trip.

“So, there’s another bonfire tonight, if you want to go.”

We were climbing through the small path that El had cut
between the trail and our houses. It was single file only and she had to turn
around and look over her shoulder when she mentioned the bonfire.

“Sounds good. Do we get to hang with Sensitive-Guitar-Guy
again? Because it’s so much fun.” I smiled my megawatt grin to let her know I
was joking and she laughed in response. I knew it was the dimples that made her
grin like that. They were magic.

“Finn will probably be there, but we’ll do our best to avoid
him. He really is a good guy, Hunter, he just has to get used to seeing me with
other men.” She turned back to continue down the path.

I inwardly gloated about that fact until I realized that
after I returned home, I would have to get used to seeing her with other men as
well. It was the wonder of the social networking phenomena: endless reminders
of people who were in your life, who you wanted out of your life, and who you
would most likely never have in your life again. It sucked.

Staring at the back of her head, I admitted, “I don’t think
he likes me very much. I mean, he’s nice and all, but he knows why I came down
here.

“Because of your car and your parents’ pool? Yeah, he told
me all about that.”

My body tensed. I wanted to destroy him.

“But none of it really matters to me and I told him how I
felt. It doesn’t matter why you came down here in the first place. All that
matters is what you’re doing now.” She turned to face me after saying those
beautiful forgiving words. My eyes burned into hers and I took two broad steps
before grasping her head in my hands and crashing my mouth to hers. We were
still far enough out that nobody would see us from the houses and I wasn’t
going to give up the last opportunity I had to show her exactly how I felt
about her. I was still banking on ‘next time’, but I wasn’t about to give up
what I could have ‘this time.’

I pulled away only when I had to breathe. Her cheeks were
flushed and she was slightly unsteady on her feet. The previous hit to my ego
was soothed.

Her lips pulled up into an adorable smile. “Was it something
I said?”

“It’s everything you’ve said, since the first day I fucking
met you.”

Her eyebrow arched.

“Okay, maybe the second day. But still … ”

She stared up at me with an odd expression on her face.
Finally she laughed. “Okay, freak, whatever you say.”

I growled at her and she laughed again before turning to
walk the rest of the path. We broke out of the woods between the two houses and
I saw a car I didn’t recognize in the driveway. Lily stood by it when she
turned to look at El and me. She waved quickly, however, her expression was anything
but friendly.

“Who’s that?” Ellison looked at me. “Think Ryan bought a new
car?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know.”

We crossed the yard quickly and I couldn’t see who was
sitting in the driver’s seat of the car because of the tint to the windows.
Whoever it was had money because the car had to have been worth more than
$50,000. Lily shot me a murderous glare when I approached and the driver’s side
door of the vehicle opened so they could climb out.

My eyes flicked over and the smile fell from my face.

No.

This was not happening.

This was not fucking possible.

Ellison looked between the woman who’d stepped out of the
car and me. She gave me a strange smile but then walked over to offer her hand.
“Hey, I’m Ellison James. Are you a friend of Lily’s?”

“Hi. Uh, no.” She smirked at me when she talked to Ellison.
“I’m Tiffany. I’m Hunter’s girlfriend.” She stressed that last word, by the
way.
On purpose.

Ellison’s jaw dropped and my eyes were glued to every
expression that sped across her beautiful face
;
each
one taking a piece of my heart with it. She looked back up at me and that’s
when I saw something in her eyes that caused my shoulders to drop and what was
left of my heart to sink into my stomach.

It was shock.

It was anger.

It was pain.

And it was the absolute and complete annihilation of ‘next
time.’

Ellison

I didn’t know what to say or what to do. This woman stood in
front of me saying words that didn’t make sense. Or maybe they did.

Come to think of it, I’d never directly asked Hunter if he
had a girlfriend back home.

Wanting to make a quick exit to avoid shedding angry tears
in front of Hunter’s girlfriend, I plastered on a fake bright smile and said,
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Tiffany. I’m sure you want some time alone with
Hunter considering it’s been a while since you’ve seen him. I’m just going to
head to the house and get a shower. Maybe I’ll see you around later.”

I didn’t know what else to say. It wasn’t like I could be
mean to
her,
she’d done nothing wrong. It was Hunter
who I wanted to strangle. I was a little shocked to see the type of girl he
dated back home, but then I remembered he was a different person when he’d
first arrived. And judging by the fact that he’d neglected to mention his
girlfriend, he was probably still that same type of person. I’d been stupid
enough to fall for his charm and I was damned sure I wouldn’t be making that
mistake again.

I tried not to look at him when I strode quickly away
towards the house. Lily was fast on my heels and I was both aggravated and
comforted to know she’d be joining me inside. I wasn’t in the mood for 20
questions and I knew she’d be unloading them as soon as the front door slammed
shut behind us. My heart was pounding painfully against my ribs and my knees
shook as I made my way back to the house.

By the time we were safely outside of sight of Hunter and
his girlfriend, I lost it. My eyes shed angry and hurt tears and my fists
balled up in desperate need to impact with Hunter’s face. Since he wasn’t
available at that moment, I hit the wall instead — and immediately
regretted it.

“Ow!”

Cradling my hand to my chest, I bit down on my lip to try
and keep from screaming. Lily ran to my side and pulled me towards the kitchen
before plopping me down in a chair at the table. Moving to the freezer, she
quickly gathered up a few cubes of ice. After wrapping them in a towel, she sat
down beside me and placed the makeshift ice pack to my hand.

“Well, that was surprising.”

“Surprising?” I laughed like an idiot. “No, Lily. Winning
the lottery is surprising … that was absolutely heartbreaking. I opened my
burning eyes to look over at her. “How long has she been here?”

“She drove up about 15 minutes before y’all got back. I’d
just come home from Ryan’s house and was heading inside to get ready for
tonight when I saw her. Judging by the car she was driving, I thought it was
Hunter’s parents
comin
’ down to check on him. I
didn’t expect to be met with brunette Barbie when I approached.”

“She is beautiful, isn’t she?”

Lily sighed. “Well, yeah, if you like the fake and plastic
look, I guess a person could say she is.”

I could rely on many things with Lily and the most important
was her honesty. Lying to me and telling me that Tiffany wasn’t beautiful would
have only made me feel worse to know she was saying those things to make me
feel better — and that would have been pathetic.