“Let’s see. We’ve got you all ready for winter now.” I check the bags I’m holding to make sure we’re not missing anything. “You’ve got a coat, gloves, a hat and scarf. There are your new boots.” I shake a bag holding a pair she tried on earlier.

Ella looks around the Cherry Creek shopping center and then down at the new bags dangling from my hands, worry etched on her face.

“What’s wrong?”

“No, nothing. But you’ve spent so much money on me. I know I can never repay you and I feel awful about it. You’re holding so much and you’ve already put all those other bags of toiletries and lingerie and shoes in the car. It’s just, it’s all too much.” She tugs at her lip uncertainly. “I don’t deserve all this, Jackson.”

I wish she could put her hand on my heart and feel what a simple glance at her face does to me. I wish she could understand the surge of happiness she brings me.

“Ella, you deserve so much more than some clothes and kindness.” I hold out my weighed down arm and she snuggles into me. I wrap her in my hug. The bags hang down her body like a quilt. A patchwork blanket that symbolizes her new beginning, her fresh start, with me.

“Listen, everyone needs a toothbrush and that other stuff. It’s not your fault that you couldn’t take anything from Sylvia’s house. Not that I’d want you to anyway. I like that you’re cutting out that part of your life and starting with all new things for a new life. And, well, definitely don’t worry about the lingerie, because that’s just as much for me as it is for you,” I murmur in her ear and give her a full-body squeeze.

Ella gives me a knowing smile. I can’t believe that only a little while ago she was still a virgin. And a shy, nervous virgin at that. Now she seems to want sex just as much as I do. She and I can barely keep our hands off each other, every night stripping each other down as fast as our hands can manage.

“You’re too good to me.” She stands up on her tiptoes and kisses my cheek.

“No, you never should have had it so bad. This is just normal, and I hate that you think normal is good.” My lips tug down as the snippets of her life she’s shared with me haunt my thoughts. The idea that she’s been through as much as she has in her twenty-one years is heart-wrenching.

When Ella finally told me more of the details of her life with Sylvia and Raymond, I had half a mind to go back to their house and burn it down. The way they ordered her around, barely feeding her, making her work all hours of the night and day, it’s deplorable. It infuriates me and I know there’s so much she hasn’t told me yet. When she was explaining to me how she lived in constant fear that they could make everything even worse, she clammed up, clamping her jaw shut no matter how much I tried to pry the meaning of her words from her.

I know it will take time before I learn everything. Ella has every reason in the world to be hesitant to trust. After her father’s betrayal killed her family and then the beacon of hope that she was supposed to go to in the United States turned her into some kind of modern day Cinderella, it’s amazing that she has any trust left in her heart for anyone.

“How about we hit up a couple more stores?” I nod to the women’s department store up the hall. “We’ll get you some pants and shirts and stuff like that, all right? Then we’ll head back home.” I drop my arm from around her and start to walk toward the shop.

Ella stays at my side and tries to grasp onto some of the bags weighing down my hand. “I can carry some of those too,” she offers.

“Naw, I like how beefed up and manly it makes me look to be slinging them all.” I puff out my chest and throw back my shoulders dramatically as she giggles. “I, uh, don’t know if I’ve mentioned this or not, but I was a Navy SEAL, so I’m pretty tough,” I mock myself and add a little exaggerated swagger to my step as her laughter gets louder. I love making her laugh. It’s impossible for me not to smile when I hear it.

We round the corner into the store and start riffling through the clothes. Ella picks out some jeans and a few shirts, but her eyes keep wandering over to the dresses. She doesn’t actually move to them. It’s like she’s stopping herself from checking them out for some reason.

“Why don’t you see if there’s anything over there that you like?” I nod to the racks that keep calling her attention.

“Oh, I don’t really need dresses. I just like them. This stuff is more than enough.” She holds up the arm full of clothes.

“Ella, we’re not leaving here until you’ve picked out at least one dress. I want you to be comfortable and happy with me. If that’s what you like to wear, go pick some out.” I lead her to the bright rainbow of colors.

Uncertainty dances in her sweet brown eyes. Then she looks back at the dresses. “Are you sure?”

“Do I look like I’m stressed about it? I want you to get them. Besides, it’ll be a lot easier to rip those new panties off you when you’re wearing one of those.” My voice drops and I watch with satisfaction as a long shudder of desire overcomes her.

“Okay, what do you think of this one?” She holds up a bright dress that would flare around her legs.

“It’s great. How about you try this stuff on, though? I want to make sure we get the right size.”

Ella nods and we head back to the change rooms. I peer inside the long corridor of stalls, but don’t see a customer service person to check in with. I shrug and flop down in a seat outside the dressing rooms. “I’ll wait here for you. I don’t see anyone to help you out, so just go in and get changed. If someone comes along I’ll let them know you’re trying on your stuff.”

“I’ll be quick,” she reassures me before disappearing into the stall at the end of the hall.

I lean my head back against the wall and fight with the exhaustion trying to grip me. One of the side effects of working, looking after Chloe, and then staying up way too late every night to fuck is that I’m constantly tired. Not that I will ever in a million years complain about it. It just means I need to drink a few more coffees in the day and that is a tradeoff I’m willing to make. I let my eyelids slide shut and the tension in my muscles slips away as sleep threatens to take me right here and now.

“What do you think?”

My head snaps up quick and my eyelids pop open as Ella’s voice surrounds me. As soon as my eyes focus on her my mouth drops open. “You look absolutely amazing.” I soak in every inch of her. The way the fabric cinches under her ample tits and then puffs back out around her full hips, it was made for her body.

The energy that was draining out of me only seconds ago has come back like a shot of adrenaline. “There’s only one way you could look better in that dress.” I lick my lips hungrily.

“How’s that?”

“If it was hiked up over your waist and you had no panties underneath.” I stand up, looking around at the vacant hall. I can’t restrain this urgent need aching inside me. It’s too powerful of an instinct to ignore. Leaving the bags by the chair, I lead Ella back to the change room she chose and lock the door with the flimsy eye-hook behind us.

“What are you doing?” she whispers, her eyes wide like a doe.

“Face the wall and hold up your dress,” I demand gruffly.

Ella does what I tell her to and I drop to my knees behind her, quickly ripping off her panties and pushing her forward until her ass is pressed out at me and her cheek is resting against the wall. She acts so innocent, but I can see her glistening pearls of desire at her entrance as I lean into her and lick them away.

She softly mewls as I delve my tongue past her lips, gliding it forward in her folds until her hard little nub is pressed firmly against me. Ella whimpers and opens her stance so her ass cheeks open a little and I grab them, holding them until I can see her asshole puckered up. Someday that will also be mine, but right now isn’t the time.

Leaning into her, my face is buried in her from behind as I suck on her clit and then thrash my tongue against it. Ella moans and I smack her swiftly on the ass. “Shhh!”

I lick her clit, flicking it up and down over the tip of my tongue as my fingers knead into her plump cheeks. Ella’s hips buck back and her thighs shake as she shudders against me. I can hear her restrained moans as her orgasm rips through her and she’s left shivering like a leaf on a tree.

I stand up and she starts to turn around to face me, but I slide my hands over her shoulders and make her face the wall. “I’m not done with you yet.” I yank out my wallet and grab a gold foil packet from inside. It probably takes half a second before I’ve got my cock yanked out and covered with a condom. I grab it by the base and slide the tip inside Ella’s slick entrance.

“Oh,” she breathes the word.

I grab her shoulders and thrust my entire length inside her fast. None of this slow and sweet shit. Not right now. Right now I need her tight pussy squeezing down on my shaft. Right now I need to fuck her with the hard, long strokes of a man who can’t hold back for another second.

I wrap my hand under her hair and tug it back toward me as I stretch her walls around me. My hips slap against her as I fuck her roughly. Her legs shake as I thrust into her again and again.

Pleasure tears through me, overwhelming my senses as I bury my cock deep inside her. My cum spurts into the condom, filling it up with my seed until the shudders of bliss stop traveling through my body. I pull out, careful to hang onto the ring surrounding the base of my shaft, and dispose of it, tying off the end.

Ella tugs up her underwear and smooths her hands down over the dress as I get it zipped up with a smile. “I’d say that’s the one.” I grin. “You should definitely get that one.”

“Mmmm, if it’ll make you that crazy, it’ll be the only thing I ever wear,” she murmurs.

I pull her into me and give her a quick kiss before opening the door and peeking out into the hallway to see if anyone is there yet. Lucky for us, the customer service in this place seems to be terrible. I slip out the door and head back over to my chair, surrounded by bags, and try to fight off sleep as I grin stupidly and wait for Ella to finish up.

Honestly, though, is there anything better than being exhausted from fucking all the time? If there is, I’ve never heard of it.