Twisted Up (18 page)

First her marriage, now Justin. “Are we moving too fast?”

“Too fast?”

“Well, yeah. I mean, I’ve only been divorced… Well, less than a year.” Not too many more months and it would be a year, but she wasn’t going to remind him of that.

“And?”

“Isn’t this too soon? Shouldn’t we be taking it slower?”

“How much slower do you want to take it?” He stood to his full height from where he’d been bent over going to through a box of beer. “We saw one another for a weekend every other month, sometimes every month. Until last weekend, I hadn’t seen you for two months. It’s not like we’ve spent every day together.”

“We talked just about every day or emailed.”

“Not the same thing, baby, and you know it.”

She did, but the fear made her question it all. “But then because we haven’t spent a lot of time together, may—”

He had her pinned against the wall before she could finish her sentence. His tongue was in her mouth, his hand loose around her throat, his leg pushed up high against her bare and
sans
-panties pussy. He rubbed at her mound with his thigh until she was moaning and kissing him back, clutching at him, sliding herself against his jeans, her heels leaving the ground.

He tugged his mouth away, across her cheek, to her ear, where he nibbled on the lobe around the small purple dangle of her earring. “Now listen to me very carefully, Ella.”

She nodded and felt his lips curving into a smile. She couldn’t believe how turned on he had her within seconds. She hadn’t even been thinking about an orgasm when she’d protested how much time they should have spent together, but now it was all she could think of. His hand at her throat, his knee between her legs. She was balanced on his thigh and held up between him and the wall and both were immovable.

Her arms hung limply at her side, and her mouth was suddenly dry. But her pussy, dear God, it was soaking wet. There would be a trail of her juices along the faded denim of his jeans when he dropped his leg to the ground. There’d be no way to hide it. Everyone inside the bar would see it. She groaned and ground herself against him harder.

She evidently liked that idea. She liked knowing that everyone would know what they’d been doing. Well, maybe not know for sure, but they could at least suspect. Only one of his jeans legs would be wet and she’d probably still have that dazed look on her face—that one she’d had back in the mirror in the hotel.

“You listening, baby?”

“Yes,” she whispered around the cotton in her mouth.

“Stop trying to borrow trouble for us, okay? We’ll be fine if you’ll stop worrying about how much or how little time we’ve spent together.” He bit the whirl of her ear. “I know intimacy scares you. I know you think I’m gonna do to you what he did, ignoring you and not caring enough to ask about your day. I know you think there’s something wrong that you like it rough and hard like this. But stop. Let me show you that this can be and is different. I’m gonna take such good care of you, baby. I just need you to trust me and stop worrying. You’re here—give it a chance.”

With every word he uttered softly, he was rubbing at her, holding her at the hip, driving her forward, upward. She heard what he was saying, every syllable, every inflective nuance, but the arousal was high and pointed and she was right on the edge of the cliff.

He pressed her clit hard with the edge of his knee when he stopped speaking, and she buckled, gripping his shirt at his sides as the orgasm pounded through her. She saw stars behind her eyelids. Stars in the bright light of day. Heat suffused her body from the tips of her toes to the top of her head. Her pulse throbbed beneath his fingers, and she’d have given anything to be stripped naked and fucked against that wall right then and there.

He let her ride it out, let her keep it going as long as she needed. And she needed… She gasped when his hair brushed her chin and his mouth settled just under her jaw. She felt the edges of his teeth and then he was sucking at her skin.

She jolted again and another small gush of come soaked into his jeans.

Leaning her head back against the wall, she opened her eyes and tried to focus on her surroundings. The first thing she saw was the blue of the sky, the pickup and Joe. Joe was standing just on the edge of her vision, but she saw him just the same.

She tapped Justin on the shoulder. “We have company,” she whispered brokenly against his hair before turning her head as far as she could with his lips and teeth still attached to her neck.

Joe was smiling. Well sort of half smiling, half smirking. She felt her face heat and couldn’t help the moan that slipped out when Justin’s tongue licked at the spot he’d just been nibbling on. He laughed and lifted his head, kissing the tip of her nose before turning and looking at his brother.

“Somethin’ catch your attention?”

Ella tried to push at Justin’s shoulders, but he didn’t budge and he didn’t remove his knee. He kept her pinned against the wall, kept his chest pressed against hers, kept flexing his leg against her pussy. She had no recourse other than to stay, to calm down, to relax and let happen what was going to happen. He did however remove his hand from her throat, but not completely. He stroked the side of her neck, pet her hair, caressed her face with his fingertips.

It was designed, she knew, to keep her in the moment, to remind her that he was there, that she wasn’t alone, that this was part of what turned him on, being naughty and sexual in public. He liked extreme public displays of affection and evidently displayed in front of his brother didn’t bother him. His touch and the way he kept her from moving away without her making a scene was his way of helping her to be comfortable with it rather than be embarrassed by it.

Joe glanced from Justin to Ella and back again. She couldn’t read the expression on his face. Amusement? Arousal? She couldn’t read his eyes either.

“I’m done at the feed store and came to see if she needed a ride back to the house.”

A ride. She needed a ride all right, but not back to the house.

“Appreciate it, but no, I’ll take her myself. I won’t be here much longer.”

“Okay.” His eyes focused on Ella. “It was nice to finally meet you.”

Ella tried to keep from blushing, but she knew she hadn’t been successful by the wink Joe tossed her way. “Likewise,” she managed, though she wasn’t quite sure how around the large boulder lodged in her throat.

“Now where were we?” Justin asked, his full attention turned to her after Joe went inside. He touched the sensitive skin where her pulse beat beneath. “Should I give you a mark on his side too?”

“No.” Though, her sex clenched and screamed yes.

“You sure? I’m not sure your body agrees.” He leaned down and licked a trail from the hollow of her throat up to that pulse point.

The man was more than she could handle, and she wasn’t sure how she was ever going to get enough of him. She wanted him all the time. Even as her body calmed from her orgasm, it immediately began to heat again, preparing for another one.

To her relief—or disappointment—he let her go. She used the wall to brace herself until she could steadily move away from it.

“You need a drink?”

Yes, actually. Can I have that entire case of beer you’re checking out?
“Maybe some water.”

“Bo has cold bottles behind the bar.”

“You think he’ll mind me asking for one?”

“Not a bit, but I’ll go get it for you.”

“I can get it for myself.” She started to walk inside but stopped. “Justin? Do you think he heard me? You know, earlier?”

“I imagine he did. Hell, I imagine everyone in the bar did.”

Ella groaned and closed her eyes. “Great. Just great.” She pushed through the doors and moved toward the bar slowly, one foot in front of the other. Bo looked up. If he’d heard her come on Justin’s leg outside against the wall, his face gave no indication of it. He smiled kindly at her.

“What can I do you for?”

“Justin said you had bottles of water.” Even though his face didn’t give anything away, did hers? Could he tell she felt embarrassed?

“That I do. Just one?”

“Two if it’s not a problem.” Did her voice give it away? Or was she just paranoid because she wasn’t used to public displays?

“Not at all.”

She took the bottles and turned away quickly. She had half her bottle empty by the time she got back to Justin. He was unloading another case of beer from the truck and looked up when she handed him the extra bottle.

“Thanks, baby. I’ll be done soon and we can go.”

She took a seat on the corner of the tailgate. When she looked down to adjust her skirt, she cause sight of the small tear in her blouse from Justin’s teeth. She had completely forgotten about it, but from her angle, she could see the hole and directly onto the skin between her breasts.

“Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to rip it.” Justin was looking at her as he took a long drink.

“I know.”

“You want to get something to eat before we head home?”

Home? Where was home? With him? And where with him? Texas? Alabama? “Not unless you do.”

Even though she’d rationalized that she could live anywhere because of the travel nature of her job, she wasn’t sure she wanted to live just anywhere. She didn’t know where the best place for her or their relationship was. He was right in that things needed to change and that they needed a fair chance, but where?

“No, I’m good to go back to the house and clean up. I’ve got plenty of food there to feed us.” He finished off his water and capped the bottle, his gaze trained on her. “What are you thinkin’ so hard about now?”

She smiled guiltily. “How this is going to work,” she replied honestly, again. “We live in two separate states.”

“We do.” He spun away and knelt on the ground to inspect the beer. “I’ll go to ’Bama. Look for work, a place to stay.”

“You wouldn’t live with me?”

“You’re not ready for that.”

She wasn’t. He was right. “Joe said you’d offer to leave Texas for me.”

“Yep.”

“I can’t ask you to do that.”

“You didn’t ask. I volunteered.”

“What if you can’t find something for work there?”

“Then we talk about you coming down here.”

“You’re very accommodating.”

“I’m very much wanting a relationship with you. Compromise, sacrifice, give and take. It’s all part of it, and I’m willing to do whatever I have to in order to make it work.”

Exactly how many times was she going to make him say it? Not those exact words really, but repeat that same sentiment? “I know.” And she did. She just had to make sure he knew she was willing to do whatever it took as well to give them a fair shot. “How about this solution? I move here. I see about leasing my place for what? The summer? I’ll get a little place somewhere around here that isn’t too far from you, and we work on things.”

He whipped around and leveled a stare at her. “Yeah? You’ll do that?”

“Yeah,” she said without hesitation. “I’ll do that. We both know it’ll be easier for you if I do.” They also both knew, without speaking it aloud, that it was the hardest thing for her to offer. She could offer her body no problem, her mind too, but leaving her comfort zone, moving close to him, opening herself up to the deepest kinds of intimacy on a normal, everyday basis was the hardest thing for her.

“I know a place, and you could move in immediately.”

“Okay.” Her heart was pounding clear up into her throat. She wouldn’t, couldn’t back out. Justin was special and deserved her openness, her willingness. The grin that broke out on his face told her everything she might ever need to know about how this was going to work from there on in.

“We should seal this deal with a kiss. C’mere.” He crooked his finger at her.

She stood, curious about the look on his face, one she couldn’t describe. Sort of smiling, sort of lusty. Almost lecherous, and for a moment, it gave her pause. What was he up to? She stopped in front of him and reached out her hand, thinking he would take it and stand himself. Only he didn’t.

He kissed the palm of said hand and placed it on his shoulder, and then dropped to both his knees and dove head first under her skirt, planting his mouth at the top of her mound and sliding his tongue down through the lips of her hot, wet, very needy pussy.

Parting her legs allowed him to deepen the kiss and he braced her with an arm around her hips. As kisses went, it was the best one so far for sealing deals and one type she could get used to when it came to agreeing on things.

Ella lifted her skirt in one hand and looked down. Something about the sight of his dark head between her legs… She twisted her fingers in his hair with her other hand and held on tight. Pleasure arced through her and her knees started getting weak. She held fast though. She didn’t want him to stop, didn’t want to break the contact.

At this rate, he’d never get done with the beer inventory.

And at this rate, with his tongue doing wicked things to her, she didn’t think he cared about finishing the beer inventory.

Epilogue

Three months later…

Ella loosened her grip on the slats in the headboard. He was driving her insane. I.N.S.A.N.E. He was only as far up her body as the back of her right knee and she was ready to scream. She hadn’t gotten any better at the slow, sensual lovemaking in the last three months than she’d been at it in the months and year previous. At the same time, it didn’t mean Justin was giving up or stopping. No, at least once a week, sometimes twice a week, he was killing her softly and tenderly with whispers and strokes and caresses.

“Admit it, baby. You love it,” he mouthed against her thigh before he took a little nibble. It was only meant to tease and not inflame.

“I will not admit anything,” she replied, grumpy and aroused and so ready to fuck it was ridiculous. That was the crux of the matter anyway. He’d spend hours licking and touching and it did indeed arouse her to the point she was writhing and nearly crying by the time he sank deep inside her.

She didn’t love it. She didn’t hate it either. And she’d never, ever admit that his tenacity in this was one thing she’d grown to love most about him in the months she’d been living in Texas. He never gave up. Not on anything, and most definitely not on trying to seduce her into slowing down sex and slowing down her mind.