Because of Ellison (20 page)

My hands wrapped around the sides of her abdomen and I
pushed up, taking her shirt with me. She broke free of me just long enough to
raise her arms above her to free her. When I brought my hands back down, my
palms met with the skin of her naked breasts and her breath blew out breezing
along my cheek and ear. I almost lost it right fucking there.

Our legs were entangled, our hips ground against each other
as we pressed closer, were desperate to become one with another. I allowed my
mouth to trail along her jaw-line, along her neck until my mouth met with that
sweet spot where her neck joined to her shoulder. I let my teeth nip softly at
the skin and her body bucked against me. The heat between us was suffocating
and intoxicating. Sweat beaded on our bodies and skin slid erotically against
skin. My jeans had become agonizingly tight but I didn’t want to remove my
pants. Not yet. Not until she made the move. I’d let her have whatever she
wanted of me, but I wouldn’t be the one to force it on her. This was her moment
— with me — and I was allowing her to drive it at any speed she
wanted.

My tongue met the edge of her ear and she groaned, her head
falling hard against the pillow beneath her. Her chest pressed up against me
and I moved to wrap my mouth around the hard peak of her breast. I slid my
tongue around the rim of that peak and she moved under me, moaned under me,
drove
herself
even farther inside of me. We were a
tangled mixture of heat, of sweat, of salt and I couldn’t get enough of it. I
tasted every inch of her chest and stomach. I nipped at the skin I knew would
twist her up inside. Her body trembled and shivered and my breathing became
eratic
and painful as I slowed myself down — as I
allowed her to build the pace.

Finally, she reached down to grab me over the material of my
jeans. I moaned out her name, let the three syllables slide over my lips to her
skin where my mouth was still kissing her, still tasting her — still
worshipping her. She fumbled with my belt and I pushed myself up off of her so
that I could reach down and help her. The cool air of her bedroom snuck in
between our sweat soaked bodies and a shudder ran over my skin. I pushed my
pants down off my legs and could feel her under me trying to push her pajama
pants off of hers. Grabbing the material of her pants, I ripped them down while
she kicked at the material, desperate to remove the barrier between us. The
only bit left was my boxers and her panties and my hand moved up to softly rub
along the tiny scrap of silken material that she wore. Her breath came out in
gasps and I reached up with my other hand to find tears trailing down her face.
I leaned down and kissed each tear away while I rubbed along the sensitive skin
between her thighs.

My heart broke above her, but I wouldn’t let her know it. I
wanted to be her island, her rock, and her strength. I wanted to take on the
world for her and battle against anything that threatened her. Ellison was soft
hearted — she didn’t need pain to make her hard. It wouldn’t be right.
There was too much beauty in her heart and soul for that to happen.

My fingers slipped beneath the material and met with the
slickened and soft skin beneath. My cock was hard against her thigh and every
movement of her leg almost set me off. I grit my teeth against the inferno she
was building within my body. Ellison wasn’t just a girl I was with — she
was an experience I would never forget. When I pushed my fingers up inside her,
she bit down on my shoulder and a low growl built and vibrated from my chest
over her body.

“Now … I need you inside me now.”

She didn’t have to make the demand twice.

I pushed my boxers down and stripped her of that small
triangle of silk. Her legs fell to either side of my body and I positioned
myself at her opening.

“I don’t have anything. Shit. I don’t have a condom.”

“Shut up, Hunter.” And then her hands grasped the cheeks of
my ass and she pushed me forward, slowly, inside her.

My mouth fell open. She wasn’t thinking straight, but she
wasn’t taking no for an answer. Her muscles grasped around me and I began to
move inside her — agonizingly slow so that I could keep this going for as
long as she needed. Her body arched against mine and my mouth fell against
hers. I explored every inch of
her,
my hands couldn’t
stop moving over her.
I was being consumed by her
.

Her hands came to my chest and she pushed up to roll me to
my back. Climbing on top of me, she slid down over me again, burying me deeply
inside her. She rocked over me, her body moving up and down, her hips rotating
in seductive little circles. My head was glued back against the bed, but my
hands found her breasts and I pinched and massaged their weight. She was
exquisite, a fucking goddess that held me captive — that had stolen my
ability to think or breath or speak.

When I felt her muscles start to ripple and roll along my
length, I knew she was close. My hands gripped at her waist and I pulled her
even tighter against me. Her hands came down on my chest and my fingers dug
into the sensitive skin of her hips. She leaned forward suddenly, her mouth
found mine and when I opened to allow her entrance, she screamed my name into
my mouth, she released and let me swallow the sound of what I’d done for her.
And that was all it took. I lost myself and I swelled inside her before letting
go and filling her.

My body quaked beneath hers as she fell limply against me
— she was sated and obviously, exhausted. There was no telling how long
we lay there. I’d grown soft inside her and her head was laid down on my chest.
Her breathing evened out eventually and I wrapped my arms around her realizing
she’d fallen asleep. My mouth curved into a smile to hear her breathe
comfortably, to know that her tears had finally stopped falling. I didn’t sleep
at all that night. I just held Ellison on top of me as she slept. I allowed our
bodies to breath in unison and only when the sun started peaking up over the
horizon did I roll her to her side and get up from her bed. I didn’t want her
family walking in to wake her and find her naked, so I found her pajamas and
dressed her before I tucked her in. Placing on single kiss on her cheek, I
snuck quietly back out of her window.

Life returned to normal the following
day
as I knew it would. I was working on the porch separating the junk from the
parts that could still be used. Most of the chemicals were unlabeled and I grew
nervous just working around them. Placing them in a spot far out on the lawn, I
walked back to the porch to see Ellison walking out with Sasha and Bear towards
the trail. My heart fractured a bit. She’d not made a move to talk to me; she
didn’t even turn to look at me as she passed.

I didn’t hold it against her. I knew the night before had
been about that moment alone and that it wouldn’t change the tension between
us. I’d failed her by failing myself. I’d disappointed her by falling so easily
back into the numbness of drugs when Tiffany had come down. It would take time
to fix that problem between us, but I was more determined than ever to make
sure it would be fixed.

Day after day went by and each day it was the same story. I
worked tirelessly on the porch and Ellison pretended like I didn’t exist. But,
after a week’s worth of mornings where Ellison walked by without acknowledging
me or even looking at me, I couldn’t take it any longer. Lily had warned me to
give Ellison time, but I knew other stuff was going on in that head of hers and
I knew she was trapping it inside without reaching out for the help she needed.
She was distancing herself from everybody but her father — and her father
was dying.

So, on the eighth morning that Ellison tried to walk past
me, I allowed her to do so, just like every morning before that. Except, this
time, when she entered the trail and disappeared into the overgrowth of the
path she’d cut, I stepped in behind her and silently followed her along to the
bigger trails beyond.

She noticed me almost instantly and turned to scowl at me
before ignoring me and keeping up her pace. I smiled because I couldn’t help
but smile. Even her scowl was adorable and I was completely captivated by the
girl who walked in front of me. I wasn’t there to annoy her and I wasn’t there
to try and force her to finally talk to me about everything that had happened
between us. I was there to lend her strength and I was there to let her know
that she didn’t walk her path alone.

It went on like that for seven days. There was absolute
silence between us except for the heavy fall of our feet against the packed
earth of the trail. The first few days she tried to teach me a lesson. She
didn’t stop at her normal places to rest and she didn’t slow down when I
tripped on a rock, fucked up my ankle and hobbled along behind her. I wasn’t
mad at her for it. She hadn’t invited me and, essentially, I was hiking alone.
But I refused to stop being there for her — whether she wanted me to be
or not. Following Ellison for those days taught me many things about her. I
already knew that she was strong, but I’d had absolutely no idea just how
stubborn she could be.

Lily had said Ellison should come to me, and I hoped that by
hiking out here everyday, following behind her with Bear and Sasha, she would
eventually turn around and talk to me. No such luck. Everyday when we returned to
the houses from our silent march, we went our separate ways. I would walk
inside and the calendar would be stuck to the kitchen wall, front and center,
letting me know I was running out of time to fix things with her. I had exactly
a month left before I returned home and, at the rate it was going, I might get
her to a point where she would wave goodbye as I climbed into my uncle’s truck
to head back to the plane. I couldn’t allow that. I needed to get her to talk
to me, but I needed to find a way to make her approach me.

Sitting at the kitchen table, I rested my head on my hand
and stared up at that calendar like a little bitch. I had no idea what I could
do to make Ellison approach me. I tried leaving her alone and I tried being
there for her. And if there wasn’t a stop watch ticking down the hours I had
left with her, I would have kept being there for her, silently walking behind,
acting like the stalker she knew I was.

Lily walked in and as soon as she caught sight of my face,
she frowned and sat down at the table beside me. “I take it today was another
quiet day?”

“Yeah.” I huffed out a sigh and sat up straight in my seat
before stretching my arms above my head. “I have to give it to you, Lil. You
know your friend well. I’ve been following behind her like another one of her
dogs for days now and the most I’ve gotten out of her is a scowl cast over her
shoulder and a snicker when an errant tree branch slapped me in the face when
we passed through an overgrown part of the path. She hasn’t said one word to me
and she barely even looks at me.

Lily nodded her head. “Yeah. That’s the difficult thing
about Ellison. Once she’s made a decision in her head, getting her to change
her mind is damn near next to impossible. In fact, in the entire time I’ve
known her, I’ve only seen it happen once or twice.”

“Well, that makes me feel better, Lily. Thanks for that.”

She shrugged her tiny little shoulders and sat back in her
chair.

It was obvious that I had a problem that needed to be
resolved. Unfortunately, I had no experience in this area because, before I’d
come down here, I’d never cared if someone was not talking to, or upset, with
me. Typically, I would brush them off and be thankful that I had an excuse for
not dealing with them. Plus, when it came to people like Tiffany, I never had
to make much of an effort to get her to talk to me. The girl never shut up and
the endless voicemails, text messages and emails made it next to impossible for
me to ignore her. Most of the time, I read them out of curiosity and would eventually
fold and contact her. And maybe that’s what it takes with a stubborn person.
You can’t get in their face to force their hand, but if you can put enough bait
out there, and if there’s even a bit of interest in them, eventually they’ll
break down and take it.

It occurred to me that what I needed with Ellison was bait.
Unfortunately, I had no electronic means of putting messages out there; and,
even if I had the means, Ellison wouldn’t see them anyway. I’d never seen her
get near a computer and, although she had a cell phone, she never took it
anywhere with her. It seemed that, lately, all the girl did was stay home
except for her daily hike. I’d attempted putting myself out there on those, and
it was getting me nowhere.

And that’s when it hit me.

“Hey, Lil? Do Ryan and you have plans for tonight?

She shook her head ‘no’ and an eyebrow cocked over her eye.
“Why?”

A smile crept across my face when I thought about just what
kind of bait I would need to get a message out to El. It would cost some money
and I knew exactly to whom I could go for that, but I needed help in the
execution.

“I need you to take some pictures for me. And I need to
borrow your phone again.”

She scowled. “You’re not calling Tiffany, are you?” The
scorn in her voice was amusing and you’d think Tiffany was her arch nemesis by
the way Lily said her name.

I laughed; half because of what Lily had said, and half
because I suddenly had a good feeling about fixing things with Ellison.

“No. I’m calling my mom.”

. .
.

The next week was busy. I’d called my mom like I told Lily I
would and, after three hours of soul spilling and begging, my mom finally
relented to wiring me the funds for my project. It didn’t hurt that she’d
already talked to Bill after Tiffany had returned home to report about me, and
Bill had assured her I was doing a great job on the house and seemed to have
straightened up. With the money she sent, I refilled Lily’s minutes after using
them up, I bought some screening for Bill’s porch, and I’d purchased the
supplies I’d needed to bait Ellison.