Changing Everything (10 page)

“Okay, now I’m really confused. Whatever it is, just tell me.”

“This is so embarrassing! And you’re going to laugh at me, and I just can’t.”

Eli lay back down beside me and brushed his fingers across my cheekbone. “If I promise not to laugh, will you tell me?”

I watched him for a few moments as I contemplated the outcome of this, and finally gave in with a sigh. “I thought it would have gone away by now.” I bit down on my bottom lip and scrunched up my face. “I went and got waxed on Wednesday night, and I had a really bad reaction to it,” I said in a rush and covered my face again so I wouldn’t have to look at his anymore.

A hard laugh burst from Eli’s chest after a few seconds of deafening silence. I felt the bed shift as he pushed himself up again and grabbed for my shorts. “I have to see this.”

“No!” My hands flew to my shorts to keep them on my body. I’d thought I was mortified just telling him what was wrong; this was taking it to a whole new level.

“Pay, I
need
to see this, baby.”

“You really don’t.”

“I’m pretty sure I do,” he argued.

As much as I tried to keep him from taking off my shorts, Eli was stronger. And soon I was lying there with my hands over my face for the third time in just a handful of minutes. Eli was shaking the bed from how hard he was laughing. He dropped his forehead against my stomach and placed a few soft kisses there, and lightly brushed a finger across my overly sensitive vaj.

“Don’t!” I yelled, and swatted at him.

“It’s not that bad, Pay. I was expecting something
really
bad.”

“Stop!” I said, and swatted once again. “It still hurts a little.”

“How much worse was it?” he asked with an amused grin.

“So much worse. I almost didn’t go into work on Thursday because of it.”

His grin widened, and he brushed a finger across it again. “And it still hurts?”

“Yes, Eli!” I punched his shoulder as hard as I could, but he just started laughing again. “It still hurts, stop touching!”

“Okay, okay,” he said on a laugh, and pulled my underwear back up, then my shorts. “I won’t touch you until you’re ready as long as you promise not to do this to yourself again.”

“Deal,” I agreed quickly.

Eli got up and walked over so he could grab my ankles and pull me off the bed. “Come on, let’s go pick out a movie.”

Chapter Eleven

October 2, 2013

Eli

“S
WITCH,”
I
SAID
that next Wednesday, and held my cup in front of Paisley.

I hadn’t seen her since she’d left my apartment Monday morning—despite how much I’d begged her not to leave and even tried holding her down. At that point, I hadn’t had an update on the Brett situation, and had no idea what would happen to her if I let her out of my sight. But the last three days had been quiet; and tonight there was no stress, and no worries. I couldn’t help but notice how different everything felt from this weekend. Hell, even from two and three weeks ago.

My family was recovering from what had happened to my sister and dad. Brett had turned himself in; and while he probably wouldn’t even face a year in prison, I doubted we would have problems with him again. And I had my Paisley. Every day with her was better than the last, and left me still wondering how it’d taken me so long to realize what I’d had right in front of me. But the past didn’t matter anymore. I wouldn’t waste another minute with her now that I had her, and I was never letting her go.

I’d been slammed at work all day and hadn’t left until almost eight, but I’d needed to see Paisley. We went and grabbed a late dinner, and after staying there to relax and talk for a while, we’d driven out of town and were now at a secluded beach that had little crests overlooking the ocean. I’d backed up my truck on one of them, and we’d pulled the blankets out of the backseat to wrap ourselves up as we enjoyed the cool night air.

After we’d gotten milkshakes.

“There’s nothing left in yours,” she complained.

“That’s why I said switch.”

She laughed and jammed an elbow into my stomach. “Jerk.”

When hers was empty as well, I set both cups down on the other side of the bed of my truck, and wrapped my arms around her waist to pull her close. We sat there for countless minutes just staring out at the darkened ocean, not speaking as I ran my fingers up and down her arms, across her stomach, and along her bare legs.

“What was that for?” I asked when a soft sigh came from her.

“I don’t know. I’m just happy and calm. I love how it feels like no one can find us here . . . like we’ve found our own private place.”

“I like the idea of having our own spot overlooking the ocean,” I murmured, and let my hands glide up her stomach and over her breasts. Her lips parted and her breaths grew heavier as I focused on them. When a quiet whimper sounded in her throat, I slid my hands down to the top of her shorts, and quickly unbuttoned them and pulled down the zipper.

“Eli,” she protested, her tone laced with anxiety.

My hands froze. “Is it still bad down there?”

“No, but—”

“Does it hurt?”

“No, it’s fine now. But we’re in public,” she hissed.

I smiled against her neck and bit down teasingly in a way I was learning drove her crazy. “No one is out here, Pay,” I said softly. “Remember what you were just saying.” Sliding off her shorts and underwear, I slid my hand back up the inside of her thigh.

“But—oh God,” she moaned, and my fingers stilled against her for a moment.

“Fuck, Paisley,” I groaned against her skin.

“Language.”

She arched off my chest when I pressed two fingers inside her and teased her entrance as I fought for control. I’d never had a preference if a woman was bare or not, but something about the feel of Paisley, and knowing she did this for me, had me wanting to forget that I’d promised her another week before we had sex.

I pinched her clit, causing her to gasp and jerk back before pressing against my hand again, then gently massaged her. “Sit up,” I whispered in her ear, and watched as goose bumps covered her arms and legs.

From the way she quickly turned to give me a confused look, she hadn’t registered what I’d said until I was moving out from behind her. “Wait, where are you going?” When I knelt in front of her and began unwrapping the blanket, her eyes widened. “Eli, no. Not here.”

“I think this is the perfect place,” I disagreed. “And I’ve missed four days of this already.” When she started protesting again, I leaned forward to press my lips against hers and teased her entrance with my hand. “No one can find us here. Remember that.”

“I said it
felt
like it. If we found our way here, someone else could too!”

“No one’s coming here, Paisley,” I assured her, and lowered myself between her legs, staying just a breath away from her.

Paisley’s eyes filled with heat, and her chest rose and fell sharply as she waited for what I would do. I kept my eyes on her the entire time as I slowly leaned forward to taste her, and her mouth fell open with a soundless huff when I flattened my tongue against her. She fell back so she was propped up on her elbows, and quiet moans and whimpers filled the night air as I continued to tease her entrance with my fingers, and alternated with quick flicks of my tongue, and slow, hard strokes.

I watched as her head fell back and she tightened around my fingers, and when she barely started trembling, I sucked hard on her clit to push her over the edge and watched as her body fell apart. Paisley lowered herself onto the bed of the truck when it got to be too much, but I continued through until her body was only trembling from the aftershocks of her orgasm.

I moved out from between her legs and wrapped her up in the blanket before I sat up against my truck, and pulled her against me again. Looking over her flushed face and bright eyes, I smiled down at her. “Happy belated-Sunday.”

She laughed shakily. “I can’t believe we just did that out here.”

“I told you, Pay, no one’s here.”

She tried to give me a stern look, but couldn’t hold it. “And I told you, someone could’ve shown up.”

“And they would’ve gotten one hell of a view.”

“You’re horrible.” She laughed.

“I meant the ocean.” I smirked when she elbowed my stomach. I ran my fingers over her sensitive bud, and my blood heated when her legs fell open and her eyes automatically shut, and a breathy whimper left her. “You think I’m going to let anyone else see you like that? This, these faces you make, and those sounds that come from you are for me, Paisley. No one else.”

“No one,” she agreed.

October 3, 2013

Paisley

M
Y EYES BLINKED
open to a dark room, and I sat up quickly as I looked around for Eli. I was in his room, in his bed, but he wasn’t there. I didn’t even remember getting back in Eli’s truck to drive home from the lookout point. Looking at the nightstand, I started leaning over to grab for his cell phone lying there when the sound of the running water registered in my mind, and my body relaxed.

Checking to see that it was a little after two in the morning, I scrambled out of his bed and into the bathroom. My eyes widened, and my stomach heated and curled in the most incredible way when I saw him standing under the spray of the shower with his hands running over his hair and the suds dripping down his body.

I knew I should go back to the bedroom, try to go back to sleep, or at least just wait for him to come in there—but even as I acknowledged those thoughts, I was slowly taking off my clothes and leaving them near the door.

Eli jerked back when I opened the door. “Jesus—Pay.. . . what are you doing?” he asked as his eyes ran over my body.

“Can I join you?”

He swallowed roughly, and his eyes darted up to my face and back my body. When he spoke again, his voice had dropped an octave. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“I know
you
don’t think so, but I don’t really care what you think right now.”

Ignoring the way his voice conveyed his warning when he said my name, I stepped in under the hot spray, and finally allowed myself to look away from his face. Even with the nights over the last week and a half when he’d slept in his boxer briefs, I couldn’t have been prepared for Eli like this. He was beautiful, masculine, and as I’d thought so many times before, built like a god. My fingers twitched as my eyes followed the lines from his chest, down his stomach, to that muscled V on his hips, to his erection.

I stepped forward and let my fingers run over his body, and my hands became bolder when a low groan sounded in his chest the lower I got; but just before I got to his muscled V, he grabbed my hands.

“If I let you go any lower, I’m not going to stop you from continuing, and you need to stop.”

“Why, Eli?”

“I’ve told you, these two weeks are about only you.”

“This is what I want,” I argued.

Molding his mouth to mine, he growled “Not tonight” around the kiss as he pressed me against the wall.

“Not fair,” I whimpered when his hand teased me and spread my legs. “Eli—”

“Your weeks, Paisley,” he reminded me as he lowered himself to his knees, and lifted one of my legs over his shoulder.

“But you’re just— Oh God,” I moaned, and I wanted to punch him for knowing how to get his way.

My fingers gripped at the slippery, wet tile uselessly as his tongue reduced me to moans and needy sounds for the second time in just a couple hours. With only being on one leg, it was all I could do to stay standing as my body instantly responded to him.

The steam in the room, the constant spray from the shower, Eli’s wet shoulders between my thighs, his fingers spreading me wider, and his tongue’s assault had the tight knot in my stomach building faster than it ever had before.

The hand holding on to my back started lowering, and it wasn’t until his finger was pushing against me that I even realized what he was doing.

“Please,” I panted, and Eli chuckled darkly—the sound sending small shockwaves through my body.

His fingers continued until they took the place of his tongue, dipping inside me a few times before he trailed them back, circling around the place I was craving him—and yet didn’t want him.

Just as slowly as the first time, Eli pushed one finger inside me as his tongue went back to licking and sucking me.

I cried out, and again wanted to get away from the intrusion, but at the same time my next plea for him to go deeper was on the tip of my tongue.

It no longer felt like there was a knot in my stomach. It felt like there was white-hot lava, and my entire body was vibrating in anticipation of what was coming—and just as it got closer, he would back off, making me groan in frustration until I was whimpering again.

It was the sweetest suffering I’d ever been through.

I came with a loud cry, and wasn’t sure if I was still standing or had collapsed onto the floor. I wasn’t sure of anything other than the pleasure and heat that were coursing through my body. I couldn’t get enough of it . . . couldn’t get enough of him.

My face scrunched together and a whimper bubbled up from my chest when he removed his finger. He gently set my foot back on the tile of the shower floor before standing to face me; the entire time he kept one hand on my waist like he was afraid I would fall. Which actually felt like a very real possibility right now.

Pulling me into his arms, he turned me so my back was against the spray, and reached to the side of me to grab the soap.

“You’re perfect,” he mumbled. “Absolutely perfect.”

Unable to voice my thank-you to him, I nodded against his chest instead as I tried to control my breathing.

When he was done washing his hands, he ran the bar of soap over my shoulders and down my back. My body was exhausted from tonight, and while I should be tired from how late it was, my mind was extremely alert. And even though my arms and legs felt like they were weighted and useless, I forced my arms to move. Eli’s erection was pressed firmly against my stomach, and best distraction ever, or not, I hadn’t forgotten why I’d originally come in here. I still wanted this. I wanted to be able to touch him.

Bringing my hand between our bodies, I glided my fingers up his thick length, and Eli’s body tightened as he hissed a curse.

“Paisley . . .”

Moving far enough away to allow what I wanted, I wrapped my fingers around his base and slowly stroked up.

“Fuck,” he harshly whispered, and dropped his head back before looking down at me.

I sent him a slow, coy smile as I moved my hand down and back up, and his blue eyes became hooded as they looked down at where I was touching him.

His eyes shut for a few seconds before opening on me again when I added my other hand, and I nervously asked, “Like this?”

He nodded without saying anything, and brought one hand up to caress my cheek and brush back the wet hair hanging in my face. “Tighter,” he said a few minutes later, and I gripped him harder in my hand.

A deep groan sounded in his throat before he slammed his mouth onto mine. Eli took advantage of my shocked gasp when he bit down on my bottom lip, and slid his tongue along mine. I could taste me and immediately recoiled, but Eli followed through with the kiss until I was greedily meeting the strokes of his tongue with my own.

The force of the kiss had moved us against the wall under the showerhead so the water was pouring down Eli’s back as he bent over me.

“Fuck, Paisley, keep going,” he begged with a rough voice, and pumped into my hand.

We both looked down to where my hands were moving from base to tip on his long length, and the only warning I had was the pause in Eli’s rough breaths before he was coming on my stomach. He groaned with his release, and I just stood there staring as his hips slowed their movement. His chest moved roughly a few times before he bent and captured my lips again. This kiss was light, but searing, and moved through my body in a way I knew I would remember in the months to come.

“Let me wash you off,” he breathed when he pulled away, bringing me with him.

Turning my body so my back was to his chest, he let the spray pound against my stomach as he reached for the soap he’d set down at some point, and rubbed it between his hands. I wiped at my stomach to get the lingering stickiness off me before he pulled me away from the water and began running his hands over my body.

He started with my shoulders and each arm, then moved to my chest and paid special attention to each breast before he moved over my stomach and hips, and around to my back. Kneeling down while he created more suds, he lathered up each leg before looking up at me with a wry smile and moving between my legs.