Camilla
My next quarter of online classes begins tomorrow, so I’m in my study after lunch, getting a head start on reading before our first assignment is posted.
Rubbing my eyes, I yawn. Since Ellis and I were up most of the night talking and having sex, the exhaustion has caught up with me.
Emma is keeping an eye on Liam while he naps, so I think I’ll take a short one myself. I have a feeling I’ll be dragged to the playroom soon, and there’s no way I could keep up with Ellis without sleep. I stroll to my bedroom, pull the curtains closed and get in bed.
“Red’s your color,” Ellis says as he rubs his fingers along the bottom of my negligee. Fingers that are getting close to my bare thigh and panties. “It matches the auburn in your hair.”
“Thank you.” I rub my temple. “Damn, the champagne seems stronger than usual.”
“Probably because we drank the whole bottle.” He holds it up before setting it on the nightstand, along with my glass. He falls back on the bed next. “Lie down with me. We can be dizzy together.”
This could lead to trouble, so I hesitate, but if I refuse, he might leave the room and look for Tony. He can’t find out his brother left the house to go to his. He’ll be suspicious for sure.
I lie back on the bed, my head making the decision for me. It spins and spins. Ohh, I’m lightheaded, so I shut my eyes. Much better…
“You seem easy to talk to. I think it’s because you’re not asking me how many zeroes are behind my name. Hell, you haven’t even asked me my damn name.” Ellis’s last words are slurred before he laughs.
I suspect his behavior is out of character for him since Tony described his personality as serious and drab. He also said Ellis can’t hold his liquor and will pass out within five minutes.
Well, we’ve surpassed the five minute mark, and I’m becoming anxious. Maybe he’ll pass out soon, and I can sneak out.
“So, what is your name, Lady in Red?”
“Let’s keep this night a mystery,” I mumble as I try to stop the tilt-a-whirl I’m riding on. My hands reach out, but there’s nothing there. I feel around to gain my bearings until I suddenly realize I’m patting Ellis’s firm stomach.
In a heartbeat, he rolls onto me. My eyes fly open, and he’s so close. Ellis Burke is so close and so good-looking, and he smells yummy, too.
“It usually takes me longer to warm up to a woman, but you’re sweet and easy to talk to,” he says while his eyes open and close … open and then close. Mine are doing the same.
“Something’s wrong. We shouldn’t feel like this from a bottle of champagne.”
“Maybe something’s right. Maybe we’re supposed to be right here, right now, sharing this moment together, because I can say with certain–certainly–with absolute certainty that you feel incredible beneath me.”
“I want to fall asleep so my head will stop spinning.”
“And I want you.”
Oh, fuck. “Please get off of me.”
His lips kiss up my neck, and I smell a citrus scent from his coarse hair that tickles my face.
“Let me touch you,” he whispers.
“You weren’t supposed to do this.”
“But you feel so good beneath me. Please, whoever you are, give me this one night with you.”
Fighting to hold my eyes open, I see the sincerity in his. He presses his lips to the corner of my mouth in the gentlest way. They move up my cheek, and then press to my forehead.
“You’re genuine. I feel it,” he exhales.
“I guess somewhere inside of me I still am, but I don’t know that girl anymore. I had to lock her away years ago and become someone distant and untrusting, all to keep my sister and me safe. It gets lonely.”
Why am I sharing my secret with him? It’s one I’ve never told a soul.
“I’m lonely at times, too. Wearing armor and feeling misunderstood. But I don’t know what I’m protecting. My heart maybe.”
My fingers find his hair and play in it. We stare into each other’s eyes, sharing an intimate moment, a telling of secrets.
His lips land on mine, and I can’t deny I’m getting aroused. His erection presses between my legs and against my thin panties.
His tongue pushes inside my mouth, and his hand massages my breast. His touch is soft, not threatening, and I realize I’ve passed the point of control. I want Ellis Burke to touch me. For some reason, I want him to know me.
What’s happening? My god, the tilt-a-whirl ride won’t end.
His lips swirl over my nipple before he pulls down my negligee and finds the stiff peak with his wet mouth. I moan from the pleasure of him sucking and nipping.
“Fuck, you smell so good, and those sounds... Let me inside you,” he breathes against my lips.
“OK.”
Sitting straight up, I discover I was dreaming. I’m dressed, and sweating beneath my clothes.
“Oh, my god,” I utter.
Moving to the side of the bed, I lean my head back and gasp for air. All these years I figured we passed out before he could do anything. We were drugged, so I assumed he couldn’t perform. I mean, we could barely hold our eyes open.
Rubbing my forehead, I struggle to see through the fogginess of that night. Even under the influence, there was this connection between us. An intimacy, like two lost souls found their way home at that precise moment.
I remember it now.
I remember Ellis Burke being inside of me.
My phone buzzes on my nightstand from a text message, so I lean over and grab it.
I need to know your hard limits, my Rose.