Surrender To You (3 page)

“I will wait outside,” he declared, walking past me without another word and out the door.

I approached the bed and sat in the chair. Then my eyes met Liliana’s and I grabbed her hand with mine.

Squeezing her hand, I sniffled and willed the tears to wait until I was alone. “I’m here.”

She gave me a weak smile and squeezed my hand back, albeit weakly.
 

“You…are still…as pretty…as always. I’m glad…you’re here.”

The words came out in between short breaths and I tried to look past the obvious agony she was in. “You don’t have to talk,” I assured her. “I know you must be in so much pain. I’m sorry for not calling…”

Right now I truly was and I hated myself. She had done so much for me and yet once I’d left, I’d never called her, not once.

“Don’t…worry. I…understood. But you have…to tell him. He…deserves…to know.”

My eyes filled with tears as I shook my head, trying to deny the emotion the mere thought induced. “I can’t.”

“That is my…final wish. That…you two…would make up. You…owe me.”

Closing my eyes, I couldn’t speak. I didn’t know what to say. Five years wasn’t long enough. In my mind, not even twenty years would be enough and the pain would be a fresh wound the very moment the words left my mouth. I’d done so well at piling other crap on top of it, at making sure those memories would never hurt me again. She asked too much.

“How could you ask this of me? You know how much it killed me…it still kills me.”

“I love you…and him. You both…deserve happiness. Quit…being a fool.”

“Lily…” Though I tried to sound firm, my voice cracked under the weight of her demands. “Please, I—”

“Don’t. I will tell…if you don’t.”

At this she closed her eyes. As I released her hand and placed it gently by her side, Stefan spoke from behind me.

“What was my mother talking about?”

Standing up, I took a deep breath and walked to the door without answering him.

He followed me and closed the door, taking my arm in his and steering me up the steps to the second floor. The touch of his hand on mine had me sucking in a breath and I tried to appear unaffected.

“Boy, you’ve gotten brave, haven’t you?” I asked sarcastically and he glared, directing me into an empty room and shutting the door behind us. “Get your hands off of me!”

“I’ve only got one hand on you, but I can use the other to spank your ass if you don’t shut up, if that’s what it would take.”

Mouth dropping open, I gaped at him. A beat later, I gasped. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Try me.”

Quickly shutting my mouth, I swallowed my smart-ass retort and jerked my arm out of his hand.

“Now…tell me what she was talking about.”

Averting my gaze - really, I wanted to look anywhere but at his eyes - I crossed my arms over my chest.

“No, Stefan. It is none of your business.”

“Bullshit. I heard enough to know that you better tell me or she will, so out with it.”

I did my best to give him an icy look as I met his eyes with mine. “Go ahead. I’m leaving the day after tomorrow, so I don’t give a crap. It won’t change a thing.”

He took a step forward and I backed up. It wasn’t long until I felt the wall against my back and he placed a hand on each side of my head, leaning in. Our faces were so close our mouths nearly met. When he spoke, I shivered, his minty breath tickling my lips.

“I’m not letting you leave until you tell me.”

I knew he wasn’t bluffing, yet I had no plans to back down, especially from Stefan. We were both stubborn and it showed. “Make me.”

The words were out before I could stop them. His eyes widened, the dark blue depths flaring with a look I knew all too well even as his mouth split into a wide grin.

“You know me, never one to turn down a dare.”

His right hand gripped my hair near the nape of my neck as his lips descended upon mine.

CHAPTER THREE

Wrong. So wrong. We shouldn’t be kissing.

The press of his lips upon mine after all these years set the pit of my stomach in a near nauseous swirl of excitement. I couldn’t help myself though. It had been so long since I had felt his hungry mouth on mine.

Right now wasn’t the time. His mother lay downstairs dying and here we were, about to make out in the room upstairs because I couldn’t keep my mouth shut. It wasn’t right, yet I couldn’t pull away. I didn’t want to stop him. His kiss was gentle - way more so than I thought possible considering how angry he had seemed with me since my arrival.

His desire, however, was apparent. While one hand gripped my hair firmly, the other slid down the side of my body, giving me goosebumps along my right side. He snaked his arm around my waist, pulling me flush against him. With an involuntary gasp from me, he took advantage and swooped in with his tongue.

With a moan, I relaxed my body, his answering groan accompanied with a tightening of the arm he had about my waist. Pushing me against the wall with his body, he ground against me and I brought my arms up to push him away.

“Oh no you don’t,” he growled against my mouth, releasing his grip on my hair and waist to grab my hands. Lifting my arms above my head, he gripped both wrists with one hand and held them there. “I’m not done making you talk yet.”

His high-handed tactics pissed me off. “You bastard! You think you can just—”

He cut the words off with a punishing kiss, invading my mouth with an urgency I’d only felt from him during my dreams. I wanted to cry at the exquisiteness of these feelings I’d been missing all these years even as I wanted to kick him for making me feel that way.

With his free hand, he unbuttoned my blouse, shoving it open when the last one slipped through the buttonhole. Unhooking my bra with the expertise of a man well-versed in the bedroom, he cupped my breast in one hand, his palm hot against my skin. Moaning as he ran his fingers along the underside of my breast
 
before pinching the nipple gently, I felt him chuckle into my mouth.

Stefan leaned in, using his weight to trap my body to the wall while I bucked against him to try and get free. Even though he was tall and lean, he wasn’t weak by any means. I could feel the heat of his skin through his shirt, the fabric teasing my nipples as if asking them to come out and play.

Releasing my mouth, he lowered his head, licking a path from my throat to my nipple, taking it in his mouth and sucking on it. Letting out a soft cry, I bucked again.

“Stefan…please…” I looked down to find his eyes staring up at me while he rolled his tongue around my nipple, over and over again until my knees felt as if they would collapse beneath me. “We shouldn’t…I shouldn’t…”

At that, he nibbled lightly and a sob of desire escaped me.

He knew me, even after all this time. I wanted his touch, trusted it, even as I tried to deny my need.

I hated myself for wanting it, desiring it so much I didn’t want to say no even though I should. Hating him for being the one to make me feel this way, the
only
one.

Unaware of my internal thoughts, he released my breast, his hand gliding down my chest and abdomen as his mouth moved to my other nipple, teasing it with the same devilishness as he had the other just moments before. With a quick motion, he undid the button of my jeans and unzipped them, sliding his hand smoothly into my panties as well. Standing up abruptly, he released my arms and grabbed my ass, thrusting me upward for better access.

Devouring my mouth with his, I responded with a ferocity I didn’t know had been left in me, my fingers clawing at his shoulders as I tried to anchor myself.

I wanted him to touch me so badly. I wiggled as he slipped lower and lower, aching for the touch I’d denied myself for so long by not telling him my secret. I felt the tears streaming down my cheeks even as our tongues battled, the saltiness mixing in with the mint of his breath. I sobbed harder, incapable of pulling away and even more unable to stop this. I was starved for his touch, desperate enough to not care about the consequences.

His hand finding me was my undoing.

With a few skillful touches, I cried out at the sweetness coursing throughout my body as he gave a triumphant and utterly male chuckle. No doubt he was proud of himself and he should be. Nobody knew me and my body like he did. Years of familiarity had given him an advantage and he knew it.

As he pulled his hand out, he let me down gently before stepping away. I gripped the side of my blouse together and glared at him.

“I bet you’re mighty proud of yourself right now, aren’t ya?”

Oh, that’s brilliant Ellie. The man gives you the first orgasm you’ve had in six years and you gotta be snarky? Nice.

Stefan’s face closed up as I threw a withering look at him. Then he responded with a cocky grin and I knew I’d done it now.

“Damn right I am! I don’t hate you, Ellie. If I did, I wouldn’t be caught in the same room with you, let alone with my hand down your pants. Now, tell me what you and my mother were talking about.”

“Fuck you!” I wasn’t telling him a thing.

With a quick perusal of me from head to toe, he shook his head. “No thanks. Now get dressed and when you’ve calmed down enough, come to the kitchen. Mother wanted you involved in her final preparations so be prepared.”

Like I’d been hit in the face with cold water, I could do nothing but gape at the man as he walked out the door.

~*~

I took my time before attempting to head downstairs. Pulling myself together enough to face him and his five siblings took an effort. Part of me wanted to walk up to him and smack him for his treatment of me just now, so I needed to calm down first. Not to mention, I’d let him touch me. If I’d have said no, he would have stopped but I hadn’t because I’d wanted him to touch me.

That’s how it had always been with us. Hot and heavy…and angry. Anger had seemed to invade whatever room we’d been in during the last year of our relationship and the actions of both us in that room suggested that hadn’t changed one iota.

Truth is, I missed how things were before they went all wrong. As I slowly descended the steps, my mind drifted back to the day before he left to go abroad that summer…

“Hey Stefan, come on in!” I heard my roomie greet him and I hurried to finish applying my mascara. “She’s in the bathroom.”

“What’s new? She always takes forever,” he replied with a laugh as the door closed. “I’ll just go to her.”

“Nah, she’ll be out in just a moment. You want a drink?”

Grace was just that - full of grace. And she was also such a sweetie. She had been thrilled when Stefan and I had finally ‘gotten together’ because, according to her, best friends always made the best boyfriends and husbands. Her whole family was full of marriages of people who had done the same thing and she swore by it.

Sailing into the room, Stefan’s face lit up at the sight of me and my heart clenched almost painfully. He’d always been happy to see me, but ever since his proposal three months ago, it was as if his love grew every day. I didn’t know what to do with it but I appreciated every moment. I had loved him for ages and for him to return it just made me the happiest I’d ever been.

“You ready to go, Ellie?”

He was the only person who called me that. I always introduced myself as Elizabeth to everyone and they stuck with that. He’d never liked it though and had given me a nickname instead, saying it suited me way more. I loved that we had that between us though and the sound of my nickname on his tongue always turned me on.

Walking over and putting my arm through his, I nodded. “I’m always ready for you!”

With a chuckle he leaned in and stole a kiss.

“Earth to Ellie!”

Jumping at the sound of his voice, I looked up to find Stefan with hands on his hips, one brow raised.

“What do you want?”

His amusement disappeared, replaced with a frown and punctuated with a sigh.

“Are you all right? You were just staring at the floor and I called your name like three times.”

Great. Apparently, I’d stopped at the end of the steps and just stood there, looking like a fool as I thought about the old us. Wonderful.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I was just trying to figure out when you turned into such a prick.”

“I think it was a little after you turned into such a bitch,” he retorted hotly as his ears turned pink, giving away his embarrassment. “If you’re done taking your damned time, we’re waiting for you in the kitchen!”

“Ass,” I muttered as I walked past him. When he didn’t shoot back at me, I figured he hadn’t heard my reply.

He entered the kitchen right behind me and five heads turned in unison.

“I found her daydreaming at the end of the steps,” he announced to his siblings, and as the heat rushed to my face, they laughed. “She looked pretty into it.”

Rolling my eyes, I took a seat next to Penny. “Hi guys. Ignore him, he’s just jealous it wasn’t him making me daydream.”

Liar, liar pants on fire. That was me right now.
 
I wondered if the others in the room were capable of reading the blatant lies I knew were written all over my face.

Penny snickered even as her three brothers - Adrian, Evan, and Jerome - tried to hide their grins by ducking their heads. His other sister, Yvette, scowled at me. She hadn’t liked me for a very long time though, so her lack of amusement didn’t shock me.

“Well, Stefan, you and I have already spoken so I’m going to go sit with mom,” Yvette said, leaving the room before anybody could respond.
 

No doubt she only did it to escape being in the same small space with me. I never quite knew why she’d stopped liking me but I suppose it mattered very little now. I didn’t plan on being here long enough to care.

Stefan pulled up a seat in the empty space next to me around the center bar. Automatically shifting my legs to try and avoid touching him, I wasn’t prepared for the shock of his hand on my leg, stilling my escape. My eyes clashed with his as he squeezed, his message delivered with stealth.

I wasn’t going to get away from him from this time. He’d get his answer one way or another.