CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Scarlett laid back against the passenger seat of Eli’s truck and wondered how on earth a night sky could get so ridiculously clear. Even through the window, the velvety-black canvas stretched infinitely overhead, littered with stars ranging from faint smudges to brilliant bursts of light. Her wanderlust kicked with the reminder that there were hundreds of places to see, thousands of places to explore beneath the sprawl of the night sky, and that she’d shelved all of them for an entire month now.
She sighed. Cross Creek was beautiful in ways she’d never expected. The things she’d uncovered there, even more so. But she didn’t belong in one place—she never had. It was past time for Scarlett to follow her passion to the next thing.
And Eli was going with her.
“You okay over there?” His voice rumbled through the interior of the truck in a living embodiment of speak of the devil. Not that she should be surprised Eli had guessed how deep in thought she was. Or that the look he was currently giving her through the soft glow of the dashboard lights made the whole mischievous devil thing reallllllly freaking fitting.
“Mmm.” Scarlett’s heart tapped faster as the warmth in her belly spread out and traveled south. “After tonight, that doesn’t seem like a fair question.”
Eli let out a soft laugh. “True. Tonight has been pretty perfect so far. But you know, the night’s not over. I’m thinking we could make it even better.”
“More perfect than all that dancing and laughing and incredible food?” At the height of the evening, Scarlett hadn’t been able to tell what had made her sides hurt more—the reminiscent stories from every member of the Cross family, or the recipe for vegan apple cobbler that Clementine had nailed perfectly and made just for her.
“More perfect than that,” he agreed. “As it turns out, there’s a place here in Millhaven you haven’t seen yet.”
Scarlett straightened against the leather seat back. She’d been so preoccupied with looking up that it had been a while since she’d looked out. Not that she could see much of anything other than the slim ribbon of asphalt within reach of the truck’s headlights. “Where are we?”
“Technically?” He waited for her to nod before continuing. “We’re on the stretch of land between Pete Hitchcock’s farm and Curtis Shoemaker’s property. Nobody really knows who owns it, and since it’s way the hell out here in God’s country, there ain’t but a handful of people who know it’s even here.”
Eli turned off the paved road, angling the truck carefully onto a dirt path that couldn’t be much wider than Scarlett’s arm span, and whoa, he really wasn’t kidding about the God’s country part. “I see,” she said, trying again—and failing again—to see anything out the window. “And not technically?”
He drove on for a few more seconds before pulling beneath a copse of trees she’d come to recognize as red oaks.
“Not technically, you and I are smack in the middle of one of the best places on earth. Come on. I’ll show you.”
Sliding from the driver’s seat, Eli rounded the front of the truck just in time for her boots to hit the soft grass beside the passenger door. The cool air on Scarlett’s bare legs was proof that the evening had long since surrendered to nighttime, and she wrapped her arms around herself with a shiver.
“I’m not sure you’ll be showing me much of anything,” she said, only half-kidding as she closed the door behind her to cloak the two of them in pure, deep darkness.
“Oh ye of little faith.” The smile hung in Eli’s voice as he pulled the flannel shirt from his shoulders, wrapping it snugly around her own before lacing his fingers through hers. “Your eyes will get used to the dark, and anyway, we’re not going far.”
He proved to be a man of his word a few seconds later when he stopped at the back of the truck, lowering the tailgate and jumping up into the bed.
“Wow. You weren’t kidding.” Scarlett laughed, following him into the back of the truck, where he’d popped open one of the two large storage containers built in by the cab.
“About the not going far part? Nah. But I will argue your claim that you won’t see much.”
“How’s that?” Her eyesight was good, but come on. Millhaven boasted a whole new level of pitch black at night. Especially this far from town.
Eli closed the storage container with a metallic bang, unfurling what looked like a huge, thick blanket over the bed liner at their feet. “You can answer your own question, bumblebee. All you’ve gotta do is c’mere and look up.”
He sat on the blanket, which turned out to be a well-cushioned featherbed, stretching his long, denim-clad legs in front of him. Scarlett didn’t think twice about settling in next to him, her smile growing even bigger as he shook a quilt out over their bodies to ward off the chill, then leaned back against the featherbed to wrap his arms around her rib cage.
But as soon as she looked all the way up, her smile became a gasp.
“Oh, Eli. Look at the sky.”
Scarlett stared, unable to disguise her breathlessness. Once again, something she thought she’d seen—something she had seen, that had been right above her for hours, even—stunned her into place when she slowed down to adjust her perspective. The shadows surrounding her and Eli on the ground made the stars above them look that much brighter, illuminating each one in a way that was both bold and beautiful. A flawlessly carved crescent moon hung not far over the tree line, its delicate, silvery curve offset by twin pinpoints and its light adding to the ambient glow being cast over the truck bed. The sky itself was the sort of lush color only found in nature, some combination of purple and black that had no name. But rather than being extravagant or gaudy in its presentation, the scene over her head made Scarlett prickle with awe, as if the stars and the sky simply went on forever with all sorts of promise of what lay beneath them.
“I knew you’d like it,” Eli said, his voice gently bringing her back to the warm circle of his arms. “I come out here from time to time to think. On clear nights like this, the sky seems to show you how big the world can be.”
Scarlett pressed closer against him, breathing in the spicy, masculine scent of his soap, his skin. The world was big. Enough that in three weeks, they’d be under the same stars in Brazil.
The thought sent a thrill all the way through her. “Kind of makes you think the possibilities are endless, huh?”
“No. You do that.”
“What?” Her heart sped faster beneath the gauzy cotton of her dress.
But Eli was steady and calm. “I don’t need the sky to remind me what’s possible,” he said, dipping his chin to look at her. “I have you.”
He lowered his lips to hers. The kiss was deceptively gentle, just a light brush of mouths, a slight hint of contact. But the intensity of Eli’s words—of the pounding in Scarlett’s chest at what they meant—turned the connection deeply passionate. With a hot exhale, she reveled in the feel of the kiss, the juxtaposition between the soft pressure and his firm lips, the slow, intimate glide of his tongue slipping out for a taste of her. Where before she’d have rushed, moved faster, hotter, harder, and tempted Eli to do the same, now Scarlett didn’t. Instead, she took in his movements, letting herself feel each one, second by second.
And oh God, she felt everything. Hooking his hands in her hair, he pulled her closer, bringing their bodies flush and warm under the folds of the quilt. The sinewy flex of his shoulders stretched and released beneath her fingers as she met his embrace in a provocative push-pull that belonged solely to them, unique as a signature. Every sweep, every press and nibble and stroke of his lips and tongue made her hungrier for the next, until she was certain he could kiss her for a month and still, she’d want his mouth on hers this badly.
“Eli.” His name flew out of her, unchecked. He parted her lips farther in response, the sinful swipe of his tongue making her sex turn slick behind the thin cotton of her panties.
“Do you have any idea how hard it is for me to resist you when you say my name like that?” Eli asked, his lips curving into a seductive smile over the question.
The heat between her legs doubled. “You don’t have to resist me. I want this. I want you.”
To her shock, his smile turned into the low rumble of laughter. “Darlin’, ‘want’ doesn’t come within a country mile of how hard I’m achin’ for you right now. But I don’t just want you here.”
Eli reached beneath the quilt to trail a finger over her sex, and even with the barrier of her dress and her panties between them, Scarlett cried out with want.
The sound turned his stare even darker in the scant starlight. “I want you here.” His hand trailed up her body, his touch reverent as he returned it to her face, his fingers grazing her temple. “I want you here,” he whispered, stroking his thumb over her bottom lip as if he were committing every nuance to memory. The move, which by all accounts should have been tame—sweet, even—was more erotic than if he’d torn off her panties and pushed his cock inside of her until she could no longer think.
Yes. This. Yes. Scarlett opened for him readily, her tongue darting out to trace the blunt edge of his thumb. A moan grated up from Eli’s chest, but still, he didn’t hesitate with his touch, his hand moving lower until his fingers opened to cover the wild rhythm of her heart.
“Most of all, I want you here. I’m not trying to resist because I don’t want every last part of you.” He paused to prove it with another punishing kiss. “I’m trying to go slow because I do. I want all of you.”
Although the words made Scarlett’s pulse press even faster in her veins, she answered the only way she knew how.
With the truth.
“Tell you what, cowboy.” The sexy, silk-over-gravel lilt to her voice sent yet another ribbon of want uncurling through her, but she refused to hold back. “You go on and take whatever you want, however you want it. I’m right here with you. I’m yours.”
Eli moved before the words had fully disappeared into the hush of the night around them. Wrapping one arm around her shoulder and the other around her waist, he guided her to her back, settling her against the downy softness of the featherbed. For a minute, he did nothing but look at her, his long, slow glance as powerful as any touch as it traveled from her eyes to the loose neckline of her dress, then over her breasts and belly before lowering to the spot where the quilt covered her legs.
“You are so beautiful,” he said, leaning in to let his breath coast over her neck. His mouth hovered for one tantalizing second before he made contact with her skin, stringing a line of lazy kisses from behind her ear down to the slope of her shoulder. It occurred to Scarlett to answer, to kiss Eli back, to touch him, too. But she’d promised to let him have her, and what’s more, she wanted him to.
Scarlett let her eyes drift shut. Pressing against her side, Eli kissed his way over her collarbone, then the soft divot where her throat met her chest. The swell of her breasts was only half-covered by her dress, and he paused just briefly before sliding his tongue over the rapidly beating pulse point at her neck.
“Ah.” The sigh barged out of her without her brain’s permission, but the hot, sharp exhale only seemed to spur Eli on. With only a few deft moves, his fingers made quick work of the tiny buttons marching down the front of her dress, then the front closure of her bra, exposing her from shoulders to navel.
Now Eli cut out a breath. “So beautiful,” he repeated. He kissed gently down the center of her chest, the smooth skin on his jaw creating just enough friction to turn her nipples into hard, aching points as he turned his attention to the curve of one breast. Scarlett kept her eyes squeezed shut, staying right there in the moment as she’d promised even when his lips closed over one nipple and she was sure she’d lose her mind. She arched into his touch, her shoulder blades lifting off the feather bed and her fingers closing over the sleeve of his T-shirt, gripping tight. Cupping her breast with one hand, Eli swirled and sucked and licked. Scarlett’s breath grew thicker in her lungs, her clit aching harder with every move of his mouth, until finally, he broke away from her body.
“Jesus, Scarlett. You taste just as hot as you look.”
She fluttered her eyes open. Pale moonlight draped over her skin, the tight peaks of her nipples standing out in relief against the smooth curve of her breasts. Eli kissed his way lower, propping one palm on either side of her hips as his mouth continued its southerly slide.
“Eli.” It took every last scrap of her remaining restraint not to buck into his suggestive touch. The hem of her dress had rucked up around her thighs beneath the quilt, and Eli reached down to follow the path of the fabric with one hand.
“I’m not done tasting you.” His stare was all promise, and oh God, Scarlett had never wanted anything so deeply in her life. She widened her knees at the same time Eli tugged the quilt from her body. Two fast moves had her boots off her feet, one more bringing him low over the frame of her hips.
“Scarlett.” One whisper. A pair of tiny syllables he’d said probably hundreds of times before now. Yet this time, right here under the stars and all the possibility in the sky, the sound of her name on Eli’s lips found all her deepest places, turning them brand new.
She parted her knees even wider in clear invitation, and—thank God—he didn’t scale back. The hem of her dress became a pool of white fabric at her waist as Eli pushed it up to settle himself in the cradle of her hips. His shoulders fit firmly beneath the backs of her thighs, the fingertip he trailed over the seam of her sex sending shockwaves of pleasure sparking up her spine.
“So sexy,” he murmured, his lips brushing the cotton of her panties right where she ached. “But I want you.” His tongue pressed a path over her sex, making her panties even wetter and the friction between the fabric and her hypersensitive clit almost unbearable. As if he sensed the need radiating out of her, Eli pulled back to curl his fingers beneath the top of her panties. “Which means these have to go.”
He removed them in one long pull. A shaky exhale warmed Scarlett’s inner thigh, surprising her with its softness.
Then Eli lowered his mouth to her body, and she couldn’t feel anything other than breath-stealing pleasure.
At first, he didn’t move, simply letting his lips and tongue rest against the seam of her in a connection both hot and soft. But then his tongue edged up in a wicked taste, and need pulsed through her so darkly that her movements weren’t her own.
“Eli, please.” Scarlett canted her hips at the same time he pushed deeper to meet her. “Please don’t stop.”
He didn’t. Parting her folds with his fingers, he kissed her intimately, exploring her body with bold strokes of his tongue. Pleasure built almost immediately between her legs, beckoning fast and bright, and she couldn’t hold back. Scarlett thrust against Eli’s mouth, her climax rushing closer by the second. For half a second, she walked the tightrope between need and release. Then he closed his lips over her clit in a slow, suggestive pull, and she flew apart under his tongue.
Ragged breaths passed, and dazedly, Scarlett realized that time probably did, too, as Eli lightened his touch by degrees. But he didn’t move from between her legs, and finally, when she dropped her chin to her chest to get her bearings, she found him staring up at her with more desire on his face than ever.
“You okay?” he asked, the question kicking the corners of her mouth into a smile.
“Yes.” Scarlett shifted her weight, fully intending to pull him toward her and undress him so she could return the favor and then some.
Eli didn’t budge. “Good.”
“Good?” she repeated, unable to get anything else past the confusion taking root in her brain.
“Very. See, I’m not done with you yet. When I said I wanted all of you, I meant it.”
He ran the tip of his tongue over her folds, and God, she’d never seen anything so wantonly sexy. As if he’d never stopped, Eli returned his attention between her thighs, kissing and licking and loving her until desire rekindled in her belly. Scarlett reached down to splay her fingers over the back of his neck, not caring how lust-driven her moans must surely sound or how brash she looked as she held him close.
That was the heart of it, though. The thing that made her more wild for him than anything he could do to her body. Scarlett wanted all of him. Not only for her but also with her.
“Eli. Come here.”
He looked up, his eyes glittering as he met her stare, but she didn’t even think twice.
“If you want all of me, come here and take me. But let me have you, too.” She shifted forward, pulling him in until they were heart to slamming heart.
“I don’t just want you. I want you and me.”
Eli dropped his forehead to hers, nodding even as he slanted a kiss over her lips. He quickly shed his clothes, pausing only to take a condom from his wallet and sheath himself before wrapping the quilt around his shoulders and covering her with his body. Fitting his hips against hers, Eli slid his cock over her entrance, just once before thrusting all the way into her heat.
All of Scarlett’s breath rushed out on a gasp, and for a second, she thought the sensation, the pressure, the raw pleasure, would be too much. But then he began to move, and just like that, too much became not enough. Eli filled her in long strokes, one hand on her shoulder, the other gripping her hip. Her clit throbbed in time with his movements, ripples of need spiraling through her with each thrust and retreat.
All too soon, her need became an undeniable demand. Scarlett met every push of his hips, every press of his cock as he filled her over and again. Her orgasm crashed into her, her sex squeezing and releasing in waves of undiluted bliss. The moans tearing from her throat changed the tempo of Eli’s movements, and he pistoned into her, harder, deeper, until his body went rigid over hers.
“You and me, Eli,” she whispered, arching up from the feather bed until he was flush inside of her, filling her to the hilt. “I want all of you, too. Please.”
The tension in his muscles unraveled on a shudder, his fingers digging into her as he came with a broken, guttural shout. Scarlett rode out every ragged breath until Eli’s fingers loosened from her hip and her shoulder. Reaching up, she gathered him into her arms to pull him close.
“You and me,” she whispered.
And as she looked up at the stars over his shoulder, Scarlett knew the sky was right.
Anything was possible.