Book 4: Desire
Ellie
“You’re amazing,” Kyle moaned against my lips as he pressed his incredible frame up against me. “I am so lucky to have you.”
Love swelled in my chest as his naked, sweaty body sent bolts of lust racing right through me. I was happier than I’d ever been. Despite everything that was going on in the outside world, Kyle made me feel wonderful, and that was all I wanted to focus on.
Sure, my modeling career was still stuck on the ground, and that obsessive photographer was still following me, but that would all change. If Kyle and I could find our way back to one another after his ex-wife, Heather, had done everything that she could to tear us apart, then anything was possible. Now that Kyle had filed a restraining order against her, I hoped that things would just get better on their own.
An intense fire had sparked within my body, and that was enough to have me confident that everything would work out alright in the end. Kyle’s hands were everywhere, feeling every peak, every dip of my body. The way that he was growling against me had me all but screaming with joy.
As his mouth claimed mine with a kiss, and he slid inside of me, my entire body buzzed with lust. He had me feeling raw and animalistic, the complete opposite to the person I was when I first met him.
When I arrived in New York with only a dream in my pocket, I was shy, quiet, stilted from the strict upbringing my father had given me. I gave it my best shot, and didn’t give up. Now with Kyle by my side my dreams were becoming reality.
Now that I had him back in my life, I felt like I could take on the rest of the world easily.
The intense passion within me only grew stronger as his fingers finally found the outline of my underwear. I moaned and I arched my back against him. I practically begged him for more, but he played with me slowly and tantalizingly, driving me insane.
As he moved my underwear to one side, and he started to explore my deep, hot desire, I all but broke skin I clawed him so badly. He massaged my insides, sending hundreds of overwhelming sensations flooding through me all at once. Then he made things even more intense by working my clit with his thumb.
“Oh!” I cried as the bliss started to consume me. “Fucking hell, Kyle. You really are incredible.”
I moved my hand onto him too, grabbing at his thick, warm length. I stroked it lightly, wanting to bring him to the same point that I was.
“Stop,” he panted breathlessly against me. “Stop it, you’re driving me mad! I need you, I need you now!”
I moved my hands backwards above my head, allowing him to thrust powerfully into me. He filled me up, making me feel whole. With every movement he brushed against my clit. I’d never experienced lovemaking like this. I wanted to melt.
I already knew that I loved this man, with everything that I had, with everything inside of me. I thought that he might love me too, but we hadn’t yet said it aloud. I couldn’t wait until we finally felt brave enough to do so.
As the orgasm shattered through my body, my heart thundered powerfully in my chest, sweat poured from every part of me, I looked a mess. I probably looked like I’d been dragged through a hedge backwards. But in the middle of that amazing orgasm I couldn’t have cared less.
Kyle hugged me tightly, holding me close to him, and I molded into him completely. Heather had made me distrust Kyle. She’d made me think that he had been cheating on me the entire time that we were together, but she’d lied. All that she really wanted was for me to help her in her plan to take Kyle down. It seemed like she was still holding on to a lot of bitterness from the divorce, which she had been the one to cause by cheating on him. Sheer greed had her wanting more from him. The money that he’d paid her in the divorce settlement wasn’t enough. She felt like she deserved more.
I’d made things up with Kyle. All my trust was back, but I still had one person that I wanted to see. Talia, my friend and colleague model, had spent the night with Kyle a long time ago. Heather had convinced me was recent. I hadn’t spoken to her since then, and I needed to give her a chance.
“I suppose I should get going soon,” I told Kyle regretfully. “I arranged to meet Talia for a drink ages ago.”
“Yeah,” he turned to smile at me. “I have a lot of work to do too. I suppose I should let you go eventually.” I knew that he didn’t want to. I knew that he still felt worried about me because of this photographer, but I wasn’t going to be alone. On top of that, the photographer hadn’t actually done anything to hurt me. He was just a nuisance. There was no point in focusing too hard on him. He had to go away eventually. I just needed to be patient. “You will come back though, won’t you?” he said. “You are coming to stay tonight?”
“I am,” I confirmed, whilst sliding out from under the sheets. “It would be too weird to sleep by myself now anyway.”
I had gotten so used to being with Kyle that I honestly wasn’t sure if I could ever go back to being on my own. I needed him now. I was addicted to him, and that was all I cared about. To be perfectly honest, I would have been willing to even give up on my dream to have him… but luckily I didn’t have to. Fortunately I could have both.
***
Kyle
As I kissed Ellie goodbye and she left to meet her friend, my mind was racing everywhere. She seemed to have given up on trying to get rid of her asshole stalker, but I wouldn’t. It was constantly festering in my mind, driving me insane, and I wouldn’t rest until he was gone.
The restraining order against Heather had been successful, but it didn’t seem to be enough. She couldn’t contact me or Ellie anymore, but I guess that didn’t apply to anyone else.
It didn’t help that I hadn’t decided what to do about Greg yet. Maybe that was the problem. My business partner and best friend had fallen for my ex-wife and become consumed by her spell. She had manipulated him, and he had been a part of the plan to take me down. Despite all of that it was hard for me to simply turn my back on him. We’d been through so much together. I would have to make a solid decision in the end, but at the moment I was giving him a chance to continue working at the company (not that I had much of a choice while he was still co-owner) to prove himself to me. Hopefully everything would turn out okay.
I wanted someone to talk to, someone to give me the advice that I so desperately needed, but there wasn’t anyone. Ellie didn’t know what to do either, and my family were all tied up with their own affairs, running their own successful companies. I couldn’t go to them without looking like a complete and utter failure.
I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to work out how to deal with Greg, so I focused on the one problem that I hoped I could solve: the stalker. If he wasn’t anything to do with Heather, then he had to work for one of the newspapers, but Ellie had already mentioned to me that she didn’t ever see any of his pictures turning up anywhere.
It was a really odd mystery, one that I absolutely needed to solve, and the only way that I could do that would be to find out what he didn’t do in the hope that it would lead me to what he did do. Even if Ellie was willing to leave it alone, to hope that everything would simply work itself out, I wasn’t. Her life was potentially in danger, and I couldn’t have that.
I loved her.
In the middle of an argument with Greg, when he’d accused me of loving Ellie, I’d rebuffed that accusation completely, thinking that it was far too soon, but he’d gotten me thinking, and now it was obvious. No other woman had ever affected me so deeply or made me want to change so much. It had to be love! That was the only possible answer.
Ever since Heather had destroyed my heart by cheating on me and throwing our marriage down the toilet, I vowed never to fall in love again. For a while, that’s exactly what I did do. But then Ellie came into my life, and I had fallen for her hard.
I knew that I would have to tell her how I was feeling eventually, Right now, things were going so well between us. I didn’t want to spoil things by moving too quickly and taking things too seriously. I wanted to wait until the opportune moment to arrive, to do it right. Ellie and I had the potential to last forever. I wanted to start everything on the right footing, no matter what it took.
But first I needed to do my best not to call her up every few seconds. I had to stop worrying, and I had to put an end to this matter of the photographer before it got out of control. Once I had his name, it would be easy to get rid of him. I just needed some luck.
Suddenly, the phone rang.
“Shit,” I muttered to myself, seeing the name across the screen. “Hello, Greg, what do you want?” I couldn’t help being frosty with him, however hard I wanted to forgive and forget.
“I… I… I just wanted to tell you that I’ve made up for my mistake,” he stammered, nerves completely getting the better of him. “If you buy any fashion magazine today, you will see the original images in them. The advertising campaign has been reinstated in the way that it was supposed to be.”
“You did?” I gasped in shock, realizing that all that I’d wanted was for this to happen. I’d asked for it, but I’d never really expected it to come true. “Really?”
“I did, it cost a lot more,” he confirmed, which I honestly didn’t care about. “But it’s done. I hope… I hope that this helps to make up for what I did.”
I actually felt like it might have gone some way to doing just that, but I didn’t say that aloud. I still wanted him to do more. His betrayal had been absolutely awful.
“Well, I’m going to take a look,” I said. “Thank you.”
“Wait, Kyle I…” he started, but I cut him off and hung up. I didn’t want to listen to some impassioned speech from him about trying to repair our friendship, not just now.
My heart kicked up a notch. I started to feel really good as I grabbed my keys to go and find out more. I would buy a hundred copies of the magazine for Ellie. Anything to see that smile spread across her cheeks, anything to make her happy again.
The publication of the original photo was great news. It was a positive step in the right direction, and that was wonderful. We could finally move forward from this whole mess and really start over.
***
Ellie
“You know, I’m so glad that you came to talk to me,” Talia said, slurring her words only slightly. We’d managed to get a little tipsy during our time together. We felt we had to. The conversation had been a little stilted at first.
I’d met Talia during my modeling job at KM Styles. She and her friend Katya had taken to me immediately, really introducing me to the fun side of the modeling world. I had always noticed that Talia was less chatty than our other friend, but I hadn’t taken anything from it. I always assumed that was just the way that she was… but now I knew that it was because she felt strange around me.
She sensed that Kyle and I were growing close, even before we told people about it, and she felt weird and embarrassed about the fact that they’d hooked up a few years ago. She had just told me that she always wanted to get her brief affair with Kyle out in the open, to make things easier between us, but she didn’t know how.
Now, we were okay again. Our friendship was stronger. I didn’t think that anything could get in the way of that. It had just taken one boozy lunch for us to get it together.
“We should go out like this more often,” I told her with a tipsy seriousness. “It’s been so much fun.”
“Yeah, whenever you can drag yourself away from Kyle,” she teased. “You guys seem to really be into one another. I have never seen him like that with anyone.” She paused thoughtfully for a few seconds, before continuing. “You know what, I don’t think that he was even into Heather as much as he was you… not even when they were first in love.” I’d known for a while that Talia was one of the older models like me, but I didn’t realize that she’d known Kyle and Heather when they were married. “I think that was childish love. This, what you guys have, it’s real.”
Just then, my phone rang.
“Oh, sorry!” I jumped up and grabbed my bag. “It’s my phone, I just have to take this.”
I rushed outside into the cool, sobering air as I grabbed the phone from my bag. The name across the screen made my heart flutter. It was my mom… a woman whom I’d barely spoken to in months. She was under my father’s spell, totally controlled by him. Since he’d cut me off the moment that I ran away to New York City, she hadn’t been allowed to speak to me either.
“M… Mom?” I stammered into the phone, doing my best to sound sober. “Is everything alright?”
“Your father is out,” she replied in a hurried tone of voice. “I just wanted to call you to tell you that I saw your picture in the fashion magazine. I’m very proud of you.”
“But… it was cut.” Confusion flooded me at her words. She didn’t know any of my story, so why would she know that was my hand and leg in the picture.
“It was you. You have such a pretty face, Ellie.” I heard a door open in the background. Mom’s voice became more hushed, which showed me how little time I had left.
“I love you, Mom,” I managed to get out, before the line went dead.
I knew that Talia was still inside the bar, but I needed to check, just to be sure, so I raced across the street and picked up the first magazine that I could find. I flicked through the pages, my heart racing in my chest. All of a sudden I saw it. I saw me, wrapped around Kyle, and my spirits lifted tenfold.
It was happening, it was finally happening. All of my dreams were coming true.
I paid the shop keeper quickly, racing from the shop, back across to the bar where I could show my Talia. Even I had to admit that I looked good in these shots… hopefully this would be the start of something brand new and very exciting. Those long weeks of searching for a new job were surely finally over.
“Talia, Talia,” I yelled, not caring that anyone else was looking at me. “Look, you have to see this. Oh my God, I still can’t believe that it’s true.”
We jumped and screamed around the bar, looking like idiots as we saw the pictures. In that moment I knew for sure that any bad feeling had gone.
“We should call Katya,” I jumped in quickly. “Tell her the good news!” I meant about the pictures, but about me and Talia too. Katya had been trying to steer us back together for ages, but with no success. I felt a little bad finally doing it behind her back, but I wanted to ensure that it was the right move before I involved her. I didn’t want to disappoint her further.
“Yes, she will be so happy for you! Let’s do it.”
As the phone rang, my mind whirred back towards the phone conversation that I’d just had with my mom. She had risked a lot to call me just then, to let me know the good news, and I was really appreciative. Of course I still thought that it was a shame that we couldn’t just be a normal, supportive family, but I had to accept that would never be the case.
Calling me against Dad’s wishes was a real act of love for Mom, and that made me feel on top of the world. She really did care about me, she really did want to me to get what I’d always wanted. Her support made me even more determined.
I will make the best of it, I will do it for you, Mom. I promise you that I won’t let you down. I might have been a little tipsy, but the thought of Mom’s love and support would stick with me, and it would keep me going even when things were tough.
***
Kyle
I grinned happily to myself as I ran my fingers over the picture. I was proud to have starred in such a wonderful picture with the woman that I loved. People wouldn’t ever know it, not like Ellie and I knew it, but that photo pictured the start of an amazing love story for us. That was where we met, where we connected, where we fell for one another. That was where our romance started, and for that reason it would always be special to me.
I wanted to call Ellie up right now, to tell her everything, but I didn’t want to interrupt her when she was rebuilding that bridge with her friend. I would have to force myself to wait until she called me.
I smirked to myself as I recalled teasing her at the photo shoot, making her blush, causing her body to react to me, and I knew even then that she would be an incredible lover if she just let go of her fear. Of course I didn’t know that it would eventually happen, but still…
“Imagine, I’m leaning in to kiss you. Imagine we’re in bed and I’m on top of you, you can feel the weight, the warmth of me. You can feel me inside of you, moving in… and out…”
I remember how I made myself hard with those words, picturing it too. I remember seeing her reaction. She was feeling aroused too. Afterwards I’d been forced to return to a friendship mode, just to help her relax. That had actually been the best thing for all of us.
What a woman. She really was amazing.
Suddenly my phone rang. I snatched it up quickly, hoping that it was going to be Ellie, but of course I wasn’t about to get that lucky. It was Greg again. I’d been ignoring him ever since our chat earlier on, but he’d been persistent. I decided to just speak to him, to let him say whatever he wanted to say.
He probably wanted me to thank him for what he’d done, even though he was the one in the wrong in the first place.
“Yes, hello? Greg, what is going on now?”
“I just want to talk to you,” he insisted. “I had something to say to you earlier, but you cut me off. It’s important, I wouldn’t keep trying to call you if it wasn’t.”
“Go ahead,” I replied wearily, rubbing my forehead in distress.
“I just think that you deserve to know that people think your heart isn’t in the business anymore. There has been a lot of talk in the office, and people want you out.”
“What?!” I said back, anger bubbling inside of me. “The reason that I might not seem as interested anymore is because of you! I absolutely cannot stand to be around you anymore, you make me sick for what you’ve done. You betrayed me to my ex-wife!”
“I’m sorry…” he started, but I had no intention of letting him get another word in edgeways.
“I keep waiting for it to become obvious, for me to easily make a decision when it comes to you, and do you know what? It just has!” I paced the room, trying to keep my rage-filled pulse rate under control. “I want you out of the company,” it was obvious, there was no going back. “I keep thinking back on all the good times we had, but they are gone now. Heather has affected you in ways that I don’t even think you realize. I can’t work with you anymore.”
“You can’t just do that,” he replied coldly. “The business is mine too.”
“I will buy you out,” I shot back. “It’s KM Styles, my name. I will pay you and buy you out of the business. Then you and Heather can fucking run off together for all I care. I cannot have someone that I don’t trust around me. It’s affecting everything and I worked too hard for that.”
“I only did it because…” his voice was shaking. Clearly he hadn’t expected this reaction, which proved just how damn naïve he was. Did he expect me to just walk away? Did he think that I would give up that easily?
“No, there is no more chances, no more explanations. I just want you gone.”
As I hung up the phone to him, I hit dial on my lawyer’s number right away. This was it, the only way out, the only chance to put all of this behind us. I had tried with Greg, I really did. At first, I didn’t want to accept that it was time to move on, but things had changed now. I had made a bad decision by leaving him to keep working because he could have been poisoning all of my staff against me, but if that was the case I would just get more.
A fresh start. A fresh start for all of us. KM Styles had been needing a reboot for a long time anyway. That was why I’d agreed to use my notoriety to help boost the advertising campaign. Of course, Ellie now had her own notoriety these days, but we hadn’t expected that at the time.
I wanted Greg out, I wanted the company to be just mine. I would hire a manager to do the day-to-day stuff that he had been doing, but everything else I would have full control over. There wouldn’t be any more fiascos, not like the one with the photograph.
Of course it all made sense now… Greg had released the real images to butter me up before dropping that bomb shell on me. He hoped that it would make things alright, but he was wrong.
I felt good about my decision, positive about the future, and I knew without a shadow of a doubt that this time I was right.
***
Ellie
When I left Talia a few hours later with a big hug and the hatchet well and truly buried, I decided to head home first. I wanted to grab some fresh clothes before going to see Kyle again because I’d already ran out of what was there. Plus, I probably had mail that needed going through, and bills that wanted to be paid. I couldn’t continue to ignore all of that, however much I wanted to. Real life was still going on, the world was still turning, and I needed to keep up with that.
There was a massive smile on my face that I couldn’t seem to shake no matter how hard I tried. Everything was all coming together, and that was all I needed to know. I had Kyle, an up and coming career, friends… I had it all. Nothing could shake the good feeling that gave me.
That was until I spotted a man standing by my car… no, wait, he was inside my car, rifling around. Looking through my things, touching my stuff, invading my very personal space. It made me feel so nauseous that I wanted to throw up there and then.
“H… hey!” I yelled, trying to ignore the way that I stammered as those words left my mouth. My entire body was trembling with fear, but I needed to stand up for myself regardless. I needed to break out of my shell and make this man leave me well alone. “Hey, what the hell are you doing?”
I pulled out my phone, as if to call the cops, but as the guy pulled his head out of the car and I realized who it was. It was him. That paparazzo who’d been following me. I would recognize that creepy smile, those yellowing teeth, the few strands of greasy black hair that he had, those sunken eyes, anywhere. He’d gone beyond following me to breaking and entering.
I’d wanted to forget about him, to act like he wasn’t having any impact on my life, but now he was here, at my home, in my car. This was all too much. I couldn’t stand for it, I wouldn’t.
“What are you playing at?” I screamed loudly, sounding like a crazy person. The drunkenness was coming out in my voice, and there was nothing that I could do to stop it. “Why are you in my car? What are you looking for? What do you want from me?”
He stared at me, looking deep into my soul, and for a split second I thought that I might be finally about to get my answers. I assumed that he might actually be about to tell me the truth… but of course he didn’t. He spun on his heels and ran quicker than he’d ever gone before.
This time I wasn’t going to take it. I was going to chase him. I slapped my feet hard against the concrete. I moved so quickly that a sickness began to swirl in my stomach, mixing with the liquor there. My heart pounded so painfully that I feared it might burst from my chest. My breaths came out so ragged and painfully that I thought that my lungs could explode.
I didn’t want to lose him, but I just couldn’t keep up. I thought I could, I assumed I would be able to, but either he was far quicker than I thought, or I was terribly unfit. Either way, I couldn’t catch him.
“Fuck!” I screamed out, my body giving up, the exhaustion becoming too much for it.
Tears streamed down my cheeks, frustration knotted in my stomach, and I looked at my phone once more. I needed to call someone, and right now I didn’t feel like speaking to the cops. I wanted Kyle. I just wanted him to help me, I needed him to comfort me.
I called through to him, but he did not answer. My body slumped to the ground in fear and sadness. I needed Kyle, I needed him now, but I couldn’t get through to him. What was I going to do? How the hell was I going to solve this problem all by myself? I was too scared, too weak, too afraid to tackle it all alone.
“Kyle,” I whimpered to myself. “Kyle…”
I tried calling again, and again, but he was either on the phone or he had it switched off. Couldn’t he sense that I needed him? Didn’t he realize that I wanted him? If the paparazzo had been sent by Heather, then she really needed to back off. If he was with the media, then I would sue his employer for all that they were worth.
But what if it was someone else? Someone that I hadn’t even considered? I had spent so long considering only those two options that it hadn’t even occurred to me until now that I could be wrong.
But who?
Who would hate me enough to want to ruin my life? I thought that I’d gone through my life without making any enemies, but it seemed that I was wrong. Was it another model with a grudge? Someone from back home? But who?
The phone rang. I almost burst into tears of relief. I was finally getting through to Kyle. He would help me to solve this problem once and for all.
***
Kyle
I held my head in my hands as I finally hung up the phone to my lawyer, exhaustion flooding through me. That was long and arduous, but at least the process had begun. At least Greg wouldn’t be in the business for too much longer.
I had proof, a confession from him that he’d tried to undermine my business. That would help me if he tried to contest anything if we ended up in court. I didn’t think it would come to that. I got the distinct impression that Greg would cave pretty quickly, his adoration for Heather overshadowing everything else.
As my phone blasted out again, it took all that I had not to roll my eyes at the sound. I had spent the whole damn day on the phone, and it had worn me out. I didn’t need more.
But then I saw Ellie’s name on the screen, and my heart lifted. That was someone that I really did want to speak to.
“Hey, babe, how was your lunch with Talia?” I started, but it quickly became obvious that she was crying. My heart beat faster. “Are you alright?”
“I… I… he…” she was trying to speak through the sobs, but she wasn’t doing a very good job of it.
“Where are you?” I insisted, needing to get to her. If she couldn’t tell me, then I would have to find her and get her to show me. “Where are you, Ellie? I can’t help you if I don’t know where you are.”
“I… home… my home…”
That wasn’t much, but it was enough. “I’m on my way.”
Everything spun like crazy inside of me as I hopped into my car. Things had been building for weeks, getting worse and worse, and now something had finally happened on a day when I was distracted by something else. I’d been consumed by it all for so long and the one day I’d been sorting the business out, something had happened.
I’m coming, Ellie, I thought determinedly in my mind. Wait for me, I won’t be long I promise.
I sped along the roads, and soon found her standing outside her home with tears streaming down her face. I jumped from the car and grabbed her in for a hug, whilst waiting patiently for her to feel ready to explain.
“Him… the photographer… he was here, breaking into my car.”
“Is anything missing?” I asked, pulling back to look into her eyes. “Did he take anything?”
“No, no, I checked and I can’t see anything gone…”
“This has gone too far now,” I insisted. “We have to go to the police, it’s the only way.”
***
As we walked out of the police station, I felt terrible. Not only had they been very unhelpful, they’d made Ellie feel bad too. There were no fingerprints, as the man had been wearing gloves, and he’d gotten into the car because Ellie had accidentally left it unlocked. That all meant there was no physical evidence of the break-in, and the police could do nothing. But then they treated her like she just couldn’t handle a paparazzo, or that she’d brought it on herself! It made me feel bad.
“I’m sorry,” I told her sadly. “I thought they would be more helpful. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“You never know,” she shrugged, trying to look like she wasn’t as hurt as I suspected she would. “Maybe I scared him off, maybe he won’t come near me again.”
“I hope you’re right,” I told her seriously. “Because if I ever see him again, his life won’t be worth living.”
For a man to terrorize a woman like that, he deserved to be punished. He deserved to be beaten to a pulp, which was exactly what I would do to him. In fact, I hoped that she hadn’t scared him, I hoped that he would be around tonight so that I could finally put an end to it once and for all. I should have done it that very first night when I saw him, but I didn’t realize then how bad things were going to get.
Well he wouldn’t get away from me again. I would never make that mistake. I would kill him first.
“Let’s go back to my place,” I told her, just wanting her to be safe for now. “We can get some rest and decide what to do in the morning.” I knew in that moment that I wouldn’t leave her alone again. I wouldn’t let her be attacked or worse, not until her pursuer was gone.
She clung to me tightly, clearly not wanting to let me go. I wrapped my arm around her. I kissed her on the forehead with a silent promise to protect her, then slid her into the passenger’s seat of my car. Ellie looked sad and weary, almost beaten by it all.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” I told her, rubbing her hand gently. “But this won’t last forever, I promise you.”
“I know,” she said, nodding slowly. “I just hate that this has ruined such a good day.” She turned to look at me with a weak smile playing on her lips. “I saw the pictures, I know what you did for me, and I want to say thank you for that.”
“It’s…” I started to explain the story, before giving up. I would tell her everything soon enough, but now wasn’t the time or place. I would get to that when things were less chaotic. “You’re welcome.”
***
Ellie
It had been such a confusing day, but there was one thing I was certain of. When Kyle actually realized that I needed him, he was there in an instant, supporting me, helping me, wanting to do the right thing for me.
I loved him, and I wanted finally to tell him. I didn’t want to be weak and pathetic anymore. I didn’t want to wait for him to say it first anymore. I just wanted to tell him.
As we walked through his front door, I decided to show him, rather than tell him, so I grabbed him and kissed him, allowing all the emotion to flow from my lips. He responded enthusiastically by pushing me up against the wall, and running his hands all over my body. He stroked my hips, my breasts and my thighs. Eventually he began simply tugging at my clothes. He wanted me naked and I couldn’t have agreed more. I needed to focus on the sensations, I needed to get the hell out of my head and I couldn’t think of a better way to do that than to be completely naked.
I stepped backwards and slowly peeled off my clothing for him, giving him something of a show, and from the way his eyes devoured me and his breaths became ragged I knew that I’d done the right thing.
“You too,” I panted at him. “Get those clothes off.” Luckily for me he complied willingly, allowing my eyes to drink in that amazing body of his once more. I couldn’t believe how lucky I was. This was the sort of man that I never ever dared to hope for, never mind fall for. He was the sort of guy that I wouldn’t think would look twice at me. Yet here he was, with me, giving me everything.
Once we were both completely naked, he pressed my back up against the cold wall. He grabbed onto my knee to lift one of my feet up. Then he stood between my legs, allowing me to feel his throbbing erection, increasing my ache for him even more.
I slid my hands down his body until I reached his length. I took it in my hands, shivering lightly with desire as I did. He pushed his fingers into me at the same time and as he moved inside of me, I matched his rhythm and speed exactly. As we worked each other’s bodies, my head fell to one side in pleasure. I allowed my eyes to slip closed.
We both began panting, growling, groaning, almost losing it. Right at that moment, he decided to replace his hand with his cock, giving me exactly what I craved.
He slammed up into me, pushing me back against the wall. I gasped at the feeling of fullness. When he couldn’t get the exact angle that he wanted, he simply picked me up as if I didn’t weigh anything and wrapped my legs around him, giving me all the access that he so clearly desired.
As the pleasure-filled pressure started to build, I could feel them finally coming, the words that I’d been trying to keep inside for such a long time. The bliss was coiling, springing inside of me, and soon I could control it no more.
“I love you,” I panted loudly. “I love you so much, Kyle.”
He stopped for a second, staring into my eyes to see how sincere I was being. I did my best to show him everything. I wanted him to see how deeply I was feeling everything, even if it was crazy. I just wanted him to know. If it freaked him out and he ran away, then so be it. As long as he knew, that was all I cared about.
“I love you too,” he replied, before pressing his lips hard up against mine. I lost myself in his kiss, swimming in the realization that he loved me too and that we were in it together.
I never had to be alone again.
I wanted to scream it from the rooftops, I wanted the whole world to know. I wanted everyone to see that I was joined with the man of my dreams and that I was happy.
But for now I was just content with us knowing how we felt.
As the pleasure raced through my veins, I held on to Kyle tight, never wanting to let him go. Things might not have always been perfect till now, but the fact that we’d made it through hard times and come out the other side had to mean something. It had to mean that we were strong, and that we could survive anything.
For a split second I allowed my imagination to run free and I pictured us doing all the normal couple things, the milestones I hoped that we would eventually meet. I saw myself in a wedding dress, walking down the aisle towards him in a fitted tuxedo, making my heart pound faster. I pictured us saying our vows, declaring our love to one another for the rest of the world to see. I imagined myself pregnant, us with a baby, us with a bunch of kids, then us growing old together. It was everything that I wanted.
“I really do love you, you know?” he told me as we clung to one another breathlessly. “I have for a very long time.”
If nothing else had made me feel safe and secure in my relationship with him, then it as that. It meant that he was in it just as much as I was, that his playboy past was way behind him and he wanted to do this for real.
“I love you too,” I replied softly, stroking my hand along his skin. “I really, truly do.”
***
Kyle
“Okay, thank you Michelle, that’s great news,” I said into the phone to Michelle, the new manager of KM Styles.
“My pleasure. Anything else,” she said.
“Yes. I won’t be in today, but I might see you tomorrow,” I said.
Michelle was brilliant. She was organized, no nonsense, and had the company’s best interests at heart. I had struck gold with her.
I was trying to be in as much as possible, to ensure that people knew how dedicated I was to the business, but it was hard when I didn’t feel like I could leave Ellie’s side. I just couldn’t stand to leave her in danger for even a second. I knew that it was impacting on the rest of my life, but she was my priority. I needed to protect her.
“Go to work,” Ellie hissed at me. “I have a job this afternoon anyway, so I won’t need you.”
“Maybe, we’ll see,” I replied, hanging up the phone, but I already knew that I wouldn’t. Just thinking about Ellie being alone caused my stomach to tie up in knots and my skin to start breaking out in spots. I just couldn’t do it, even if I really wanted to.
She rolled her eyes at me, almost as if she’d forgotten how much that paparazzo upset and scared her. I could not forget him, though. Never ever… not until he was gone.
“So, what time do you need to be at work?” I asked her casually. “I’ll walk you there.”
“I have to be there at 2 PM. I think they want a late afternoon light in the background,” she replied casually, as if she was being totally cool about it all. I knew that she was worried about this job, and that she wanted to get it right, so I wanted to be there for moral support as well.
“Okay, so why don’t we go out for brunch? Get you ready for the day,” I said. I wrapped my arms around her, which caused her to relax, just a little bit. “It’s a big day for you today.”
“Yeah, that sounds good,” she said. She grabbed hold of her bag and swung it over her shoulder, before sending me a strained smile. With that I took her hand in mine and led her outside. “Oh no,” she whispered, her entire body language changing. She stood behind me, hiding, tensing up.
“What? What’s wrong?” I glanced everywhere, trying to work out what the hell she was talking about. Then I saw him. “That’s him?” I half asked. “That’s the guy who has been following you?” This was it, the moment that I’d been waiting for, the chance to make things right.
I shook Ellie off me, and stalked towards him. I felt bad for leaving her there alone, terrified, but I needed the answers. More than that, I really needed him gone.
He took snaps of me as I got closer, feeling too cocky, too confident to feel the need to run just yet. If he thought that he could outrun me, he would be very, very wrong.
As he stood, I grabbed him tightly, scaring the living daylights out of him and I pulled him roughly towards me until his face was touching mine.
“What are you doing?” I spat out angrily. “Who are you? Why won’t you leave Ellie alone?”
“Please, I… Please let me go…” he stammered, sweat pouring down his forehead. He looked terrified, but I didn’t care about that. He deserved to be terrified after all the hurt and pain that he’d caused Ellie. “I’m sorry.”
I pulled my fist back, waiting for him to get the hint, waiting for him to spill everything, but he didn’t. He simply continued to stand there, whimpering, so regretfully I slammed my fist into his face, causing it to snap backwards. I hurt my hand, so I sure as hell must have hurt his face.
“Fuck,” he muffled through the blood in his mouth. “Fuck.”
I dropped him, watching his body slump pathetically to the ground. I placed my foot on his chest to fix him in place, to ensure that he knew where he stood. “Just tell me what you’re doing. Tell me why you are harassing my girlfriend. Tell me why you keep photographing her, why you broke into her car. Tell me who put you up to this?”
He didn’t answer me. He couldn’t because he was crying too hard, but that wasn’t going to put me off. I wouldn’t feel sorry for him, not now. It was far too late for that. If I had to hit him again then I would, I truly didn’t care anymore. I would do whatever it took to get him to talk and finally end this. Anything.
I pumped my fists by my side, anger eating me up. I bit down on my lip, waiting for him to talk, and eventually he did. He opened his mouth slowly, almost too slowly for me to be able to handle it, and he said just two words. They didn’t spark any recognition in me, but from the way Ellie’s face fell, she knew exactly what he was talking about.
“Aaron Wilkes.”
I looked up at her as she gasped, waiting for her to explain and after a few moments she did.
“My… my father. He put you up to this?”
“Yes,” he nodded sadly. “Yes, he did.”
She paced the streets for a couple of seconds, mulling it over before turning to face me. “Let him go, I don’t want to look at him anymore.”
“No, let’s call the cops,” I tried my best to argue. “Let’s get him arrested…”
“Let him go,” she insisted firmly, giving me an intense look that I really couldn’t ignore. “I will speak to my dad and put an end to it once and for all.”
***
Ellie
I couldn’t believe it. I was in shock. I’d known that my dad wasn’t happy with me breaking out of my strict, sheltered life, and coming to New York to be a model, but I never would have thought that he would go this far. I assumed that cutting me off was punishment enough. I didn’t think that he would want to torment me too.
I grabbed my phone while the rage was still bursting from me, and dialed my landline number. I knew that this could tear the fabric of our family apart forever, probably causing my mom to stop speaking to me as well, but things were broken enough anyway and there was no way that I could allow this to continue.
“He… hello?” my mom answered in her meek tone of voice. I was certain that she had no knowledge of it, which was why I didn’t have anything to say to her.
“Mom, get dad. I need to talk to him.” I was shaking with temper, and I could tell that was evident in my voice.
“I… I don’t think that he wants to talk to you,” she told me honestly. “I think…”
“I don’t care what he wants,” I yelled back, taking my rage out on the wrong person. “Put him on the phone now.”
The line went silent for a while, but I could hear noise in the background. I kept expecting the line to go dead, but after a while my dad unexpectedly came on the line.
“What do you want?” he asked glumly. “What are you yelling at your mother for?”
“You,” I sneered at him, all the fear that I’d ever felt in his presence simply melting away. “You hired a man to stalk me, to torment me, to run my life. Why? Did you want me to come home? Did you want to force me back to you? Was that your plan?”
“No!” he jumped in, shocking me into silence. “No that wasn’t it at all.”
“So you aren’t denying it?” I gasped in surprise. “You admit that you did that to me?” Tears started streaming down my face, and I didn’t even try to stop them. This was utterly heartbreaking. I felt like the foundation of my life had been ripped away.
“It wasn’t like that,” he said. For the first time ever, I heard something in his voice, an uncertainty. My dad always seemed so sure in everything he said and did, all the rules he laid down, but now he wasn’t and I wanted to know more. “I was scared for you,” he admitted. “I wanted to know more. You just… you upped and left without a proper goodbye and I grew scared for you. We were all too worried to just call you up, so I hired that man to photograph you, to let me see where your life was at.”
“Do you know how mad that sounds?” I asked him, genuinely curious. “Do you understand how crazy you’re being right now?”
“Of course I do, but I was desperate. Then he got snaps of you with a man, a stranger that we didn’t know. I looked him up online, but all I could find were bad things, so I asked him to keep on with the mission, just until I could learn more.”
“Do you understand how scared I’ve been? Do you know how much he’s tormented me?” I exclaimed loudly, still not fully getting it. “He broke into my car the other day, I thought that my life was in danger.”
“He shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry,” I could hear the tears in his voice. “I’m really sorry, I never wanted to ruin you. I might be scared for you, but I want you to achieve your dream. It might not be the dream that I would have chosen for you, but I want you to be happy.”
“I am happy, dad,” I told him. “In fact, the only problem is this man following me. That’s the only thing that’s bringing me down. My career is starting to take off, I’m starting to be noticed, and the man that you could only find bad stuff online about… well, I love him.” At that moment, I glanced up at him and smiled through my sadness. He was a shining beacon in all this madness, and if it wasn’t for Kyle, I would still be stuck in a rut, never finding out the truth. “You should have just called.”
“I will, in the future I will,” he replied gratefully, seeming to sense that I was letting him off easily. “I want to make it up to you. Maybe… maybe when you are more settled, me and your mom can come and visit. Really see how you’re getting on.”
This was something that I never dared to dream about, yet it was happening for me. It would take a long time to heal the rift, I was perfectly aware of that, but this was a start. This really could lead to something very positive.
“I would love that,” I told him honestly. “I need some time to get more settled, more established, but when you come, you’ll be proud of me. And that’s all that I’ve ever wanted. But you have to tell that photographer to stop following me!”
“I am proud of you,” he told me, healing a hole in my heart. “And I can promise you this, you will never see that man again. I will contact him right away and tell him to leave you alone. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I will do whatever it takes to make this right.”
“I love you, dad,” I told him, feeling the weight of the world lifting from my shoulders. I was finally getting the sense of closure that I’d always needed, and that felt incredible. I really felt like the lucky one here, the one who was getting everything that she needed.
“I love you too,” he replied warmly. “You really are a great kid. Thank you.”
***
Kyle
It was over, it really was over. I actually couldn’t believe it. All the obstacles that Ellie and I had faced during our time together were all finally gone. The stalker was the last issue that we faced, and now Ellie was fixing that.
It was totally messed up that her dad had organized this, but who was I to judge? It wasn’t like I didn’t come without my own baggage… all that nightmare that my ex-wife had inflicted upon us. Still, I was glad that it was all finally coming to an end. The future looked bright.
As Ellie said goodbye to her father, with a promise to speak again soon, I felt my spirits soar. She was finally smiling again, a genuine smile.
“Well?” I asked her, moving close to her side. “Is it all done?”
“It’s great,” she replied happily. “I didn’t expect that. Now that it’s done I feel incredible. I think that there has been a massive weight on my shoulders for far too long now, and I didn’t even realize it.”
I pulled her in for a deep hug, allowing her to lose herself in my embrace. “Good, I’m so glad that you’re alright. I’m so glad that it’s over and done with now.”
“It’s done,” she giggled like crazy. “It’s over. But what do we do now?”
“Well, you have your job to get to soon,” I reminded her, making her laugh even louder. “I know, doesn’t that seem too normal after all that we’ve just been through?”
“Totally,” she giggled.
I pulled back from the hug to look into her eyes. “After that I want you to gather up your belongings and move in with me.”
“What?” she gasped in shock. “Are you serious? You want me to move in with you? Isn’t it a little soon?”
I kissed her hard, allowing everything to flow free from within me. “Of course it isn’t too soon,” I murmured against her lips. “I love you and you love me. Why hold back anymore? I want you to come and live with me, I want you to be mine forever, I want you to one day be my wife.”
“Is that your way of asking me to marry you?” she chuckled.
“No, of course not,” I laughed along with her. “When I propose to you, you will know about it. You will be swept from your feet, totally unable to resist.”
“I will, will I?” she teased, kissing me again.
“Come on then, hop in the car, let’s get the hell out of here,” I said, as I turned and started to walk her towards the car. “You have work to do.”
Epilogue – Ellie
Ten Years Later…
“Mom?” Kate asked in a sing song tone of voice. “How did you meet Dad?”
“What makes you ask that?” I smiled at my beautiful daughter, before wrapping her up in my arms.
“Well, we were talking about it at school today…”
“What? Already? You’ve only been at school for a few months,” I teased her playfully. “Do you really want to know?”
With that, Kyle walked into the room with a tray of cookies for us both. “What are you two talking about?” he asked with a smile across his face.
“I want to know how you and Mommy met,” Kate insisted. “Will one of you just tell me?” That girl was incredible. She’d inherited Kyle’s determined nature, and my feistiness – a personality trait that I didn’t even know I had until my life in New York set me free and allowed me to be myself. Kyle brought me out of my shell. He had helped me to be who I was, and I would always be grateful for that. I told him that on the day we got married, and it was still true today.
“Oh that’s a great story,” Kyle smiled. “Shall I tell it?”
He shot me a look, and we smiled secretly to one another, remembering that moment, that fateful day, the one that would be ingrained in both of our memories forever. “Well,” he started, settling down next to us. “Did you know that your mother was a model? I gave her a job.”
“At your fashion company?” Kyle still ran his business, really successfully, and I was a part of it too, but more on the design side. I’d given up my modeling the day that I discovered I was pregnant after a short but very successful career, and I discovered a new passion. I realized that it was the clothes that I loved, and that I could actually create some amazing stuff.
“Yes, at the fashion company. And I fell in love with her at first sight,” he said. My heart fluttered at those words, remembering the same sensation flowing right through me when I first saw him. “And it’s a good thing I did, because that led us to have you.”
As they hugged, and Kyle continued to tell Kate everything, I thought about how wonderful our lives were. We faced a lot of adversity in the beginning, but that had only served to make us stronger, and had gotten us through everything.
Now I had something else to tell Kyle, another secret buried deep inside, but I would wait until Kate was in bed before I said anything. I held my stomach gently, cradling our brand new baby, filled with excitement at the prospect of making our perfect family just that little bit bigger.
THE END