CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Thankfully, Eli was excellent at both making excuses and driving really, really fast. They didn’t talk much on the way back to the Twin Pines, which was okay with Scarlett. She’d already said the thing that had been front and center in her brain—and all her other parts—ever since she’d seen Eli walk into The Bar tonight.
She wanted him. And she was done waiting.
The headlights of Eli’s truck threw shadows over the faded pavement of the parking lot as he pulled into his usual spot in front of his apartment. Quiet filtered into the truck, punctuated by the creak and sigh of the now-still engine and the soft rustle of denim and cotton against leather as they both shifted against the front seats of the truck to look at each other.
“Hey,” Eli whispered, a curl of pure want unraveling in Scarlett’s belly as he dropped his eyes to her mouth for a beat before raising them back up to meet her stare.
“Hey.”
“Are you sure—”
She pressed forward to cover his mouth with hers before he could even finish. A ragged groan collapsed from the back of his throat, daring her to skip every pleasantry in favor of parting his lips with a deep, suggestive sweep of her tongue.
“Yes,” Scarlett murmured, her lips still touched against his. “I’m very sure. But unless you want to do this here, we really need to get out of your truck.”
Eli didn’t hesitate. In a rush of movement, he was out of the driver’s side, rounding the front of the truck to pull the passenger door wide on its hinges. Laughter welled up from her chest as he reached up to slide both hands beneath her arms, lifting her from her elevated seat and bringing her feet down to the pavement beside him.
“Better?” he asked, angling her back against the cool side panel of the door he’d just pushed shut. He pressed against her body, the hard plane of his chest and the brush of his even harder arousal sending all sorts of yes, yes, yes messages between her thighs, and she leaned in to meet the delicious friction of both.
“Mmm.” Scarlett’s head drifted back as Eli slid a slow, sexy-as-hell kiss over the column of her neck. Her fingers flexed hard on his shoulders, which made his tighten over her waist in return, and oh God, if they didn’t get behind closed doors right now . . .
“Your place.” She flattened her palms over his chest, buying just the smallest amount of space and sanity. “Go.”
He paused to flick a lightning-fast glance at his front door. “My place is—”
“Closer. Eli, please. The town gossip noticed my rental car in the parking lot. There’s no way people didn’t see us leave together, and we’re not going to make it all the way to my place with our clothes on. I don’t want to end up on YouTube, here.”
“Good point.”
They took the dozen or so steps needed to reach his threshold in various stages of kissing, touching, and laughing. Things got a little tricky for a minute at the end of the trip—in Eli’s defense, getting a key successfully into a lock while unrepentantly making out against the door in question had to be a challenge. But finally, he twisted the knob, and the front door gave way to the cool, dark interior of his apartment.
“That’s better,” Scarlett said. She gave her eyes a minute to adjust to the shadows, quickly discovering that Eli’s apartment had the same footprint as hers. Turning toward him, she reached out to wrap her arms around his neck and pull him flush against her as she returned her lips to his. The want pulsing between her legs became an insistent demand, and she started moving backward toward the hallway leading to his bedroom.
But the rush of cool air on her body stopped her in her tracks.
“Where’s the fire?” Eli asked from the spot where he still stood, a few steps from his closed and relocked front door.
Scarlett laughed. “Can you really not figure that out, cowboy?”
“All I meant was we don’t need to go so fast.”
“I like fast.” She closed the space between them, skimming her hand up the solid, denim-wrapped length of his thigh as proof.
A muscle ticked in his jaw, barely visible in the ambient light filtering in through the curtains. “I see that,” he grated. But still, he didn’t move.
“I want you, Eli.” Her heart pounded faster, her sex throbbing right now, right now, right now with every beat. “I don’t want to wait.”
To her utter surprise, he threw his head back and laughed. “Oh, darlin’,” he said, his sexy drawl sliding over her skin like silk and sin. “Believe me, I want you, too.” His hands coasted over her shoulders. Her rib cage. Her hips. “But I only just got started, and I’m not about to miss a single part of you.”
Scarlett’s want-soaked sigh spilled past her lips before she felt it fully form in her chest. “There’s only one part I’m really concerned with at the moment.”
“You really want to go that fast?” Eli dropped one hand lower, the calluses on his fingers rasping over the hypersensitive skin on her bare inner thigh as he pushed beneath her skirt, and oh God, she couldn’t tell whether she was going to die or scream or fly apart first.
Somehow, she managed to slip a “yes” past her lips, and he pinned her with a glittering stare.
“If you need to come quick to get it out of your system, I can get you there in the next ninety seconds. But make no mistake. I intend to go slow after that, just to watch you come even harder the second time.”
Scarlett’s moan in response was all the encouragement Eli needed. The hand on her thigh trailed higher, the glint in his eyes turning darker and more wicked as he lowered his stare to the suggestive contact.
“Do you have any idea how hot this skirt is?” he asked, his ragged tone turning her nipples to hard, tight peaks against her shimmery gold top.
“You like it?” While Scarlett didn’t normally give a flying fig what anyone else thought of her, she’d definitely noticed the raised eyebrows from half the patrons at The Bar tonight.
But Eli seemed to have his brows up for a whole different reason. “‘Like’ is a little weak for how I feel about you in this skirt.”
“Yeah?” Wetness bloomed between her legs, making her even bolder than normal. “Tell me.”
“This skirt looks like it was made for you.” Hooking his free arm around her waist, he pulled her close, anchoring her lower back firmly against his forearm and splaying his fingers wide against her opposite hip. “So sexy. It makes me wonder what’s underneath it.”
Eli’s fingers moved higher still, playing lightly at the juncture between her leg and the border of her panties, and Scarlett was helpless against the thrust of her hips in search of his touch.
“Go ahead and find out.”
“You really do live in the moment, don’t you?” he asked, coaxing her feet apart with a gentle yet intentional push of one boot.
Unable to make her mouth form an actual word—damn, she wanted him so much—Scarlett simply nodded. Eli flexed the fingers at her hip, his other hand a hot, sweet weight between her legs.
“Well, then. Far be it from me not to keep my word.”
With nothing more than a turn of his wrist, he shoved the lace of her panties aside and slid a finger all the way into her heat. Her inner muscles clenched out of sheer instinct, and the sudden, erotic pressure sent a shockwave deep into her center.
“Oh.” Scarlett turned her nails against the tops of Eli’s shoulders. A heavy exhale slipped out of him, coasting a path all the way past her ear and melting into her skin before he began to move the hand between her legs in a slow, deliberate rhythm. The sensation was too much and not enough all at once, rippling through her and pulsing along with her rapidly beating heart.
“Jesus, Scarlett. You are . . .” He finished the thought with a sound in the back of his throat, part appreciation, part something dirtier that Scarlett liked even more. Eli’s movements grew more purposeful, a second finger joining the first inside her, spiraling her desire into outright need. Her clit throbbed harder with each shift in contact, and her breath tangled in her lungs as he slid his thumb directly where she ached for it.
“Don’t stop. Please.” She ground against his hand to hammer the words home. But he didn’t need any encouragement, thrusting into her core with as much need as she had for him to fill it.
“So beautiful,” he whispered, his strokes growing faster, harder, even more flawless. “Take it, beautiful. Take everything you need and come for me.”
The words detonated deep in Scarlett’s body, triggering a release that flew through her in wave after hot wave. She arched up, her lower back bowing against the support of Eli’s forearm, her toes pressing into the carpet beneath them. He held her steady the whole time, his arms growing stronger as her knees weakened, and she rode out the pleasure with one last cry.
Slowly, her senses recalibrated—the whispering rush of the air conditioning, the clutch of soft cotton between her fingers, the rapid rise and fall of Eli’s chest against hers. Eli drew back, an unspoken question flashing through his stare, but Scarlett answered it out loud.
“Yes.” God, did that husky, honeyed voice belong to her? She lifted her chin, sliding her mouth over his before stepping toward his bedroom. “I’m still sure.”
The three words were all he needed. Desire rebuilt in her belly, sparking stronger with every step as he led her over the carpet and down the narrow hallway. Not stopping until they’d crossed the shadowy threshold to his bedroom, Eli turned, his fingers finding her shoulder and tracing a slow line to her wrist. The gesture wasn’t overtly sexy; in fact, the barely there contact was actually almost sweet. But then he lifted her wrist to his mouth, his lips parting over the wild hammer of her pulse point, and that weak-in-the-knees feeling slammed back into her, full force.
“Ohhh.” Scarlett shuddered out a sigh, surprised at the deep sensation that could come from a move so seemingly innocent.
Eli trailed his mouth higher. “See?” he asked, shifting to press his mischievous smile against the sensitive spot of her inner elbow. “There are so many places I want to touch you.”
“But I want to touch you, too.”
Eli stilled, but now it was Scarlett who didn’t hesitate. Reaching out, she cupped the smooth skin on his hardened jawline. She stroked her way softly toward the curve of his ear until he shuddered, and a bright lick of desire unfolded inside of her at his reaction.
“Don’t you see?” She stroked again, her breath growing heavier as he kissed higher up her arm in return. “I don’t just want to feel good, Eli. I want to feel you.”
He moved all at once, reaching down to pull his T-shirt over his head in one swift yank before returning the favor with her top. They traded pieces of clothing until nothing stood between them but his dark-gray boxer briefs and her black lace bra and panties, and Scarlett’s pulse hammered faster at the sight of him in the moonlight slanting past the blinds. She’d known Eli had to be packing some serious musculature—the outline beneath his clothes as they’d worked side by side for the last two weeks had been indicator enough.
But now that he stood nearly naked in front of her, she realized her imagination, as wild and vivid as it had been ever since Eli had kissed her in the horse barn, hadn’t done him justice. Shoulders chiseled like a Michelangelo gave way to a broad chest, the sun-bronzed, work-hardened expanse of his abs tapering to a deep “V” around his muscle-wrapped hips. His fully erect cock pressed a clear outline against the cotton of his boxer briefs, and sweet Jesus, Scarlett had never wanted anyone under her hands or inside her body so much.
One look at the glint in his eyes told her the desire was mutual. “Come here,” he said, the two gruff syllables making her breath catch in her chest. His hands were on her the second she took the step, bracketing her rib cage and guiding her back until her legs hit his bed. The covers were rumpled but soft, and she slid between them, inhaling a scent that was part laundry line, part cedar, and part something uniquely Eli.
“I’m still a man of my word.” Lying down beside her, he drew her face-to-face, his mouth brushing over hers. “You’re fucking gorgeous, Scarlett. I won’t rush through having you.”
“Okay,” she said, a smile hooking at the corners of her lips, so decadent that Eli could probably taste it. “But I’m a woman of my word, too, cowboy. I want to touch you, and I’m done waiting.”
They both pressed forward with equal measure, meeting in a hard, hot kiss. Eli explored every part of her, from the places she ached to the ones she’d never even thought of as erogenous, and Scarlett touched him in return—her fingers brushing his collarbone, his navel, the hard length between his legs. His kisses dropped from her mouth to her shoulder to her chest, his mouth hovering over the breast he’d cupped with one heavy palm.
Yes. There. Right there. All of her need seemed suddenly focused in that one place, the slide of the feather-light lace on her sensitive skin and the provocative promise of Eli’s lips so close to her nipple making her desperate. At her needy exhale, he traced the tip of her lace-covered nipple with his tongue, making her fingers go tight over the spot where they rested at his hip.
“Ah.” The noise drifting out of her was more moan than actual word. But rather than slow down or scale back, Eli repeated the ministration once, then again. And again, Scarlett exhaled, arching her back to seek out more contact. He gave it readily, reaching around to free the clasp on her bra, tugging the straps from her shoulders in the same move. His fingers cradled her breast, his lips closing over her nipple to lick and suck and taste, and the feel of his mouth on her bare skin sent sparks dancing through her field of vision.
“Eli.” Scarlett meant to move, to go faster, to touch him, too. But oh God, oh God, she couldn’t do anything but slow down and feel every second of his touch. With a swirl of his tongue, he sucked her again, harder, then faster, then so softly she was sure she’d die or come or both. Testing the weight of her breast between callused fingers, he added the slightest graze of his teeth on her already-throbbing nipple.
“You want more?” The cool air of his whisper sent another shot of lust pulsing through her core, and Scarlett didn’t think. Just spoke.
“No.” The word stopped Eli cold, and she spoke quickly to reassure him. “I don’t want more, but I do want you.”
Curling her fingers around the waistband of his boxer briefs, she lowered them in a decisive pull. His cock sprang free, and Scarlett’s heartbeat spiraled faster at the sight of his nakedness. She closed her fingers around him, his length hot and hard against her palm as she began to pump her hand in an up-and-down glide.
“I want to feel exactly what I was just feeling, only I want to feel it with you inside of me. I don’t want more. I just want you. Right now.”
A low curse tore past Eli’s lips, but God, she found it darkly sexy. He thrust in time with her movements, the flex of his muscles combining with the ragged sounds of his breathing to make her sex grow even slicker behind her panties. A push of her free hand had Eli on his back, and with a nimble shift of her weight, Scarlett was straddling his thighs. Her thoughts slowed, breaking through the lusty haze of endorphins as she realized she’d have to backtrack to his truck to get the stash of just-in-case condoms she always kept in her wristlet. She might be right-here, right-now with regard to every other aspect of having sex with him, but no matter how much she ached for Eli to fill the need that had once again become a demand deep between her legs, no way was she not taking five in the name of safety first.
Thankfully, Eli turned her thoughts into reality. Reaching back to open the drawer of his nearby nightstand, he grabbed a condom, sheathing himself in a few seconds’ worth of careful motions. Scarlett propped herself higher on her knees, sliding from Eli’s body just long enough to take off her panties.
“Eli.” Her clit pulsed along with her heartbeat, the delicate friction of her movements making her want to whimper as she returned to the frame of his hips. He looked at her, one lingering circuit that traveled from her eyes to her wet, waiting sex, and God, it turned her on more than any tease or touch.
She eased back, the blunt head of his erection nudging at her entrance. Slowly, Scarlett angled her hips to take more of him, the pressure sending tremors through her center to the pit of her belly and between every last one of her ribs.
Eli groaned, and somehow the sound was reverent. He levered his hips to fill her in one final push. For just a breath, Scarlett was helpless to do anything but register the sensations rioting through her, each one growing hotter and more intense than the one before.
Then Eli began to move, and she lost what little control she had over her thoughts.
Wrapping his hands low around her waist, he lifted her body, just by an inch before lowering her back into place. Scarlett’s inner muscles clenched, her need deep and hot and endless. She adjusted her weight, pressing forward as Eli thrust, retreated, then thrust again. On an exhale, she caught his rhythm, leaning in even farther to grip the bedsheets on either side of his shoulders. Her hips canted back, and he pushed up against her even though he already filled her to the hilt.
“Yes.” The word spilled out of her, the only thing she could manage. They moved together, Eli’s strong, wide hands holding her steady as he moved beneath her over and over. His breath grew sharper, his movements less smooth, and oh God, she wanted all of him.
“Yes. Yes,” Scarlett said. Release built low in her belly, dancing just out of reach. But Eli heard her, offering her desperate need no quarter as he slipped his hand between the tight press of their bodies, his thumb circling her clit. Between the merciless strokes where they joined and the blunt pressure of his cock stretching her so completely, Scarlett was lost. She gasped as her orgasm took control of her, making her tremble and cry out.
“Scarlett.” Her name, shaped by such ragged sounds, made her sex clench again. This time, Eli lifted her up nearly far enough to part their bodies before thrusting deep enough to steal her breath. He moved with nothing but sheer intensity, their hips meeting with a slap of flesh on flesh, until suddenly, he went completely rigid, then climaxed with a guttural moan.
Everything slowed save Scarlett’s heartbeat. Her body went loose, and her joints became liquid as she dropped over Eli from shoulders to chest to the spot where they were still locked together. The brightness of her pleasure ebbed away bit by bit, slipping into the night like the moonlit shadows on Eli’s walls. After an amount of time she could only guess at—and probably poorly—he moved her carefully to his side and murmured a quick “be right back.”
Scarlett’s thoughts rebooted in a series of breaths, and even though she knew she should get up, find her clothes, and start rummaging up something to say to keep them from the inevitably awkward small talk that almost always arrived post-sex, she couldn’t force herself to move.
Nothing about this felt awkward.
“Hey. You okay?” Eli asked, his words a soft rumble from the doorway. Although he’d paused to throw on a pair of shorts, his muscles still stood out in the low light, as nuanced and beautiful as if someone had drawn him.
“Are you kidding?” She laughed, because honestly, she felt too fucking good to do anything but. “I just had two otherworldly orgasms, and got to watch you have one of your own. I’m pretty sure saying I’m okay would be the understatement of the freaking century.”
His quick burst of laughter marked his surprise at her no-holds-barred truthfulness, and he slid under the covers next to her. “Otherworldly, huh?”
“Mmm. I should’ve known that would go right to your head.”
“Oh, it’s gonna go somewhere, alright. I just hope you weren’t planning on leaving this bed any time soon.”
Eli kissed her just in time to capture her shock full-on with his mouth. “Seriously?” Scarlett asked. “You want me to stay?”
His expression softened for a split second before his mischievous half smile took over. “The way I see it, we’ve got nearly seven hours before daybreak. Seems a damn shame to waste ’em apart when we could be doing something much more fun together.”
The suggestion sent a pang through her belly that quickly headed south. “I like the way you think, cowboy.”
“Oh, stick around, bumblebee,” Eli said, kissing her lips just once more before starting to move lower. “There’s plenty more good ideas where that came from.”