Welcome to Sugartown (35 page)

Ana shoots up
out of her chair. “Who wants dessert?”

Everyone
mutters their approval and Ana hurries off to the kitchen. I follow
after her. Despite the fact that it’s thirty-four degrees outside,
she pulls a couple of pies out of the oven and places them on the
bench.

“
Holy shit,
that smells amazing,” I say, breathing in the sweet, homey smell of
caramel, pecans and pie crust. “Need some help?”

She just
glares at me, so I get to work pulling out bowls and cutlery and
the ice-cream from the freezer. As she serves, she sings along to
some folky, sweet-sounding song playing from the stereo—thank fuck
it’s not Christmassy—and she sounds terrible. Kinda like a cat in
heat, but when I look over she’s swaying her hips in a way that
makes me want to dance with her. I don’t. Because I’m an Aussie
bloke and we don’t fucking dance.
Ever
. But that doesn’t stop me from
fantasising about sliding my hands from her waist to her
sexy-as-fuck full hips and down to her completely fuckable arse and
back up again.

I move closer
and she glances up at me. I half expect her to rim me out for not
helping but there’s a hint of curiosity in her gaze. “I have
something for you.”

“
For
me?”

I nod. “It’s
my real gift to you.”

She arches
her brow and twists her lips into a disapproving frown, like she
expects me to whip out my cock and dangle it before her. “Okay, I
so do not have time for this.”

“
Get your
mind out of the gutter, dirty girl,” I tease and then I make out
like I’m going to kiss her as I lean over and hook my hands behind
her neck. It takes some effort to get the tiny clasp to open and
then close on account of my giant hands, but eventually the
necklace complies and I let its weight fall and rest against her
chest. I step back and allow her to take in her new
gift.

A tiny golden
swallow rests on a gold chain, just above the line of her cleavage.
It’s just as perfect on her as it was on its previous owner—maybe
more perfect, and seeing it again on someone so beautiful makes me
smile like the cat that didn’t just get the cream, he got the whole
fucking carton.

Ana runs her
fingers over the swallow and tests its weight in her hand. “It’s
beautiful.”

“
It was
Lil’s. It’s been taped under the seat of my bike since she died. I
had a jeweller clean it up and fit it with a new chain a couple
weeks back.”

She shakes
her head. “I can’t accept this.”

“
Yeah, you
can.”

“
No, Elijah,
it was your sister’s. It’s all you have left of her. I can’t take
that away from you.”

I ignore all
this. It suits her, and I’d rather see someone as perfect as her
wearing it than know it was collecting dirt and dust under my bike.
Lil would want that, too. Lil would have loved Ana. She would have
idolised her, the same way Sammy idolises me. Hell, one look at Ana
and Lil would have asked if she could swap siblings. “You know what
they mean?”

She shakes
her head, no.

“
Love,
freedom.” I stick my hand out in front of her and turn my palm up,
then I trace my finger around a tiny shape beside the reaper,
hidden amongst the rest of my tattoo sleeve. It’s Lil’s swallow.
Ana’s swallow, now, I guess. Maybe that tattoo was always intended
for her and I just didn’t know it. “Loyalty. A swallow represents
the loyalty of a person always returning to them. I’ll always
return to you, Ana. There’s never been anyone else for
me.”

Ana stares up
at me, all doe eyes and sad smiles, but there’s something else in
her expression, too, and it’s as clear as the day is fucking hot.
She wants me. Right here, in this moment, Ana Belle wants to fuck
my brains out. It doesn’t change anything, though. She still won’t
allow herself to give into it and I won’t push it upon her because
she’s not ready yet, and when I do finally get that woman beneath
me I won’t ever be giving her up. Not even if she begs me
to.

I pull her in
and place a soft kiss to her lips. I hadn’t meant to linger there,
but her mouth is so god damned inviting and she doesn’t push me
off, so I take the opportunity to draw out the moment I’ve stolen.
I don’t force my tongue down her throat, it never even leaves my
mouth, but there’s heat all the same because our eyes are open and
neither one of us is walking away.

“
Ewww, dude,”
I hear Sammy whine behind us. He runs back to the dining room
complaining, “Dad! Anath’s thucking on Elijath’s face
again!”

I place once
last kiss against her lips and then I saunter away, feeling
satisfied. I’m probably about to be murdered by Ana’s father in the
next few minutes, but I don’t care. Every second was worth
it.

I’m halfway
to the dining room when Ana says, “Elijah?”

“
Yeah
babe?”

“
I love it,”
she whispers and gives me a megawatt smile.

Best fucking
Christmas ever.

Chapter Thirty
Seven

Ana

“Hurry up,
bitches, or we’re starting this lame-o movie without you,” Holly
yells from the lounge room. Elijah and I are in the kitchen;
apparently we’re the designated snack providers for our impromptu
cinema night. I swear, sometimes being the only person that can
cook in a household of constantly hungry boys and cranky pregnant
women kinda sucks arse.

“
Yeah, and
don’t forget the beer.”

“
Popcorn and
beer? That’s disgusting!” I hear her say, and Jackson rattles off a
list of reasons as to why ‘that shit is the fucking bomb’. “My baby
is crying right now inside of me, you know that, don’t you? You’re
making him cry with your disgusting eating habits and then he’s
going to throw a tanty and start kicking my vagina and then I’ll
want to throw up all over you, so could you please, just for once,
shut up? And where the heck is my chocolate milk? I had like, half
a glass left.”

I finish
dusting the popcorn with icing sugar while Elijah fishes out two
beers for himself and Jack. “You want one?”

“
No thanks,
could you grab me a Stoli though?”

“
Uh-oh. You
better tell me now if you’re planning on getting so shitfaced you
have to be carried to your room.” He waggles his brows at me. “I’ll
go easy on the beer so I don’t drop you.”

“
Very
funny.”

I grab the
bowl of popcorn and head for the lounge. I’m halfway there when
Holly yells, “Can you bring the chocolate milk, pretty
please?”

I swing back
and run smack bang into Elijah, who clearly wasn’t watching where
he was going because I’m pretty sure his eyes were firmly fixed on
my bum.

“
Shit.
Sorry.” He rights the bowl of popcorn before it falls from my
hands, but not before several pieces fall and find a new home in my
cleavage, which of course turns him into a drooling boob of a
man—pun intended. “You’ve got popcorn … uh.”

I fish the
pieces from my bra and pop them in my mouth, then I push him back a
step before heading over to the refrigerator. “Geez, Elijah, it’s
like you’ve never seen boobs before.”

“
I never seen
boobs as perfect as that.” He points to my chest with his stubbie
and then takes a long pull while openly ogling my
breasts.

I shake my
head and retrieve Holly’s milk from the fridge. I almost make it
out of the kitchen before she yells, “Bring a glass too, Jackson
drank from mine and I think he has cooties.”

“
You ever
feel like we’re running a hotel here?”

I let out a
sigh. “With those two? Ha! More like we’re running a
daycare.”

“
You know
that’s actually a pretty apt description.”

“
Oh, like you
can talk, Mr I-Go-Gaga-for-Boobies.”

He shrugs.
“They’re nice boobies.”

I roll my
eyes and follow him into the lounge room. Holly and Jack are
hunkering down on the couch. Despite sitting at opposite sides from
one another, their legs stretch out in the middle of the couch,
leaving no room for anyone else. Elijah plonks himself down on the
recliner and I shoot all three of them dirty looks.

“
Where the
heck do I sit?”

“
Jackson, get
up,” Holly commands.

“
I’m not
getting up, you get up,” Jack says, and shoves her foot with
his.

“
I’m
pregnant! Besides, Ana’s a woman. You’re supposed to give up your
seat to women and the elderly; it’s the gentlemanly thing to
do.”

“
Gentlemanly?
Since when do you care about gentlemen?”

“
It’s fine,
I’ll just sit on the floor.”

“
Sit with
me,” Elijah ventures.

“
I’m not
sitting with you.”

“
Why
not?”

“
Because
you’re … big, you hardly fit on that thing as it is.”

“
Fuck, you
two are worse than a couple of tweeniebopper virgins trying to
figure out where the condom goes. Just sit on him already and be
done with it.”

“
Jackson!” I
chide.

At the same
time Holly pouts at him and says, “Hey, that’s my line.”

I’m thinking
I might just forget this whole movie night thing and go to bed, but
Elijah’s looking all too sure of his ability to ruffle my feathers
so I smile snidely and say in my most seductive voice, “Where do
you want me?”

The cunning
in his gaze is immediately replaced by desire, and I bite down hard
on my lip. I shouldn’t be flirting with him. It’s cruel and
wretched, and yet I can’t seem to make myself stop. I don’t
want
to stop. From the
looks of it, Elijah doesn’t want me to stop either, because the
challenge is back in his eyes, the one that says he doesn’t think
I’ll do it.

“
Right here,”
he says and—surprise, surprise—he pats his lap.

It’s just
sitting on his lap for goodness sake, it’s not like I haven’t done
it before,
I think, and then that evil
voice in my head helpfully supplies,
Only
the last time we were completely without clothes and trying to get
as close to one another as possible
.

Ignoring that
judgemental bitch in my head, I casually stroll over and lower
myself onto his lap. I’m only resting half my weight on him and the
rest is on my knees and feet as I push them against the floorboards
in an effort to ground me. Elijah’s not happy with this
arrangement, though. He wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me
into the hollow created by his open legs. Before I can get my wits
about me enough to move away, he pulls the lever for the footrest
and I’m flung back against him in a reclining position.

The first
thing I notice is his hard body pressing against my back. The heat
and delicious all-male scent of him blurs my senses, forcing me to
momentarily lose my mind and fall prey to how good it feels to be
in his arms again.

The second
thing I notice is that he’s rock hard … everywhere. I try shifting
away but he presses his large hand to my abdomen to secure me
against him. I squirm in my seat, my breath becomes laboured and my
knickers are soaking wet.

Elijah tilts
his head so that his lips are pressed against my lobe. “Unless you
want me to blow my load, baby girl, stop squirming and watch the
movie,” his words are low and hushed, but the authority in his tone
causes goose bumps to break out all over my skin. They also cause a
streaking bolt of alarm to shoot through me. Until now, I wasn’t
aware the movie
had
started, but Paris Hilton’s plastic-fantastic face is
plastered all over the screen and her friends have just made a
gruesome discovery in the woods.

I glance
around. The lights are off, Holly’s eyes are growing heavy just a
few minutes in, the popcorn’s been demolished and Jackson’s madly
typing away on his phone.

I’m hyper
aware of Elijah behind me, around me. It’s intoxicating and
frightening, all at once. I also don’t think I’ve ever been this
turned on—which, given that all my past sexual experiences, bar
one, had included this man, is really saying something. Elijah
knows exactly how to seduce me and he’s certainly not pulling any
punches. One hand is grasping the back of my neck with only the
barest hint of pressure, just the way I like it. The other is
splayed against my lower abdomen, his pinkie and ring fingers
resting against my pubic bone and causing pleasure to arc between
the gentle press of his hand and my core.

I hear him
inhale and then whisper, “You smell so fucking edible, baby girl.
I’m gonna die if I don’t get to taste that sweet pussy of yours
soon.”

My breath
leaves me in a rush that sounds an awful lot like a whimper. I hate
that I can’t control myself around him, that even as I sit here
I’ve been turned into a whimpering ball of need and longing and he
knows it. He knows just how to slink past all my defences and twist
the knife deeper into my heart. It’s the night outside the
Sugartown Hotel all over again, only this time I’m the only one
he’s screwing over. And he’s enjoying every second of
it.