Inferno (7 page)

“Yes,” I croaked.

“Are you going to be a good girl?  I want control Alexis.  Can you give me that baby?”  

I nodded, and my body began to tremble with need and anticipation.  “Give me your hands.”  I complied immediately.  Ethan wrapped his socks around my wrists with one end and secured the other to my headboard.

“I’m going to take my time with you baby.  I want you so wet and ready that you’re begging me to fuck you.”

Ethan pulled my knees apart and knelt between them.  He licked and sucked at the inside of my thighs, never coming anywhere close to where I wanted his mouth to be.  His excruciating trail continued upwards, making stops at my hips, sides, and stomach before ending at my breasts. 

He licked over my nipple and blew a cool breath across the already extended point, forcing a moan to escape my throat.  He sucked on the tip, coaxing it higher, while his hand molested the surrounding mound.  Moving to the other breast, he swirled his tongue around the rigid peak, sucking and pulling away with a graze of his teeth.

“Lay still.  I promise when you’re ready, I’ll give you what you need.”

“I’m ready now,” I cried in a small, frustrated voice.

“Not yet, but you will be soon.  I’m going to taste you now Alexis.” 

Ethan positioned himself between my thighs, and with one slow lick, he set me on fire. He continued to lick, suck, and bite at my sensitive spot as my orgasm grew.  His tongue plunged in and out of my dripping center, and I arched my hips seeking more.

“Come for me Alexis.”

He was relentless, my whole body convulsed, and my vision began to darken.  His tongue flicked against my clit again, and the dam broke.  I cried out his name and bucked my hips.

“That’s it baby, I want to watch you fall apart,” Ethan said as his thumb continued the assault on my nub, prolonging my pleasure. 

“Please Ethan” I said in a breathy gasp.

“What do you want Lex.  I wanna hear you say it.”

“You.”

“Me what, Alexis, say it.”

I opened my eyes and growled, “Fuck me Ethan.”

Ethan thrust inside me, finding the rhythm that repeatedly hit a receptive spot hidden within me.  My body began to tingle with pleasure.  I angled my hips up, forcing his cock deeper as he ground against me.  My walls began to quiver, milking his tightening dick, until I felt the explosion of his release. 

He continued moving in and out, slowly stroking me until my tremors ceased.  He placed soft kisses along my cheeks and eyes.  Balancing on one arm, he reached up and released me from my bondage. 

I was spent.  Ethan maneuvered us under the blankets and pulled me tight against his chest.  I was drifting towards sleep and thinking about the man who held me. 
I love you Ethan
.  An arm tightening around me was the last thing I felt before sleep claimed me.

Chapter Nine

We pulled up outside of a red brick Cape Cod.  There was a big, white, wraparound porch with cushy chairs littered about.  Cars lined both sides of the street in this posh neighborhood for as far as I could see.  Ethan met me on my side of the SUV and took my hand in his, leading me up the drive and through a gate to the backyard.  Children of various ages were splashing around in the in-ground pool while watchful adults meandered throughout the large fenced area.  I spotted Makayla across the lawn talking with an older woman and gave her a short wave. 

“Ethan Michael! You’re late!” said a dark haired, short, portly woman in her mid fifties. 

“Hello Mama,” Ethan said as he bent down to kiss her cheek.

“And who is this lovely young lady?” she asked with raised eyebrows.

“Mama, I would like you to meet Alexis Reed.  Lex, meet my mother, Eleanor Storm.”

“Pfft, so formal, please, call me Elle,” she said as she hooked her arm in mine.  “Why don’t you come over and chat with the ladies while Ethan catches up with the boys.”

“Mother,” Ethan said in a warning tone.

“Ethan, you do not want to sit around with a bunch of gossiping hens.  Your father is over by the food table.  Go rescue him from your Uncle Charlie.”

I looked over my shoulder with a wry smile at Ethan as I was led away by his mother.  It was the first time I had ever seen anyone get the best of him.  This woman can definitely teach me a thing or two when it comes to dealing with her son.  

Elle motioned for me to take the seat next to hers and introduced me to the others at the table.  “Alexis, how did you and my Ethan meet?” 
And let the interrogation begin
.

“Oh, I, um, bumped into him one night at
Inferno
, and then I worked with Sebastian on the advertising for
Ardor
.  Sebastian and I became friends and were hanging out one night.  Ethan was there, and we just kind of hit it off,” I finished with a shrug.

“You know my Ethan owns
Ardor
with Sebastian,” she said with pride.

I couldn’t help but smile at her.  “Yes ma’am, I do.”

“Where do you work dear?” asked a thin, elderly woman with graying hair.  I think she is Ethan’s Aunt Mary. 

“I’m a Junior Associate at Bridgestone Marketing.”  The woman pursed her lips and looked confused so I elaborated.  “I develop advertising campaigns for local businesses.”

“So you sell things.  You’re a salesperson,” she said confidently.

“No, I don’t sell anything.  I help businesses sell themselves.”  She still looked like I was speaking a language she couldn’t understand, and I was getting frustrated. 

A petite girl, with dark hair in a pixie cut, sitting across from me laid her hand on the woman’s arm to get her attention.  “Aunt Mary, Alexis makes ads, like in the newspaper and on TV,” she said with a wink at me. 

“Oh, that’s wonderful.  You must be very creative,” Aunt Mary said kindly.

“I like to think so,” I replied.

“As you can see,” Elle said motioning around the yard, “we’re a big family.  It can be a lot to take in, if it gets to be too much, you just let me know.  I don’t want the first girl my boy brings home chased away.”

I laughed and said, “I’m use to big families.  Yours is actually more subdued than I’m accustomed to.”

“You have a big family too?” she questioned.

“No, not me, but I spend a lot of time with Makayla’s family,” I said as I pointed her out.  “They are loud and rambunctious and completely chaotic.  I love them to death,” I said with a grin.

“Do you have any siblings?” asked another one of Ethan’s aunts. 

“I had a brother, Philip, three years younger than me.”  My smile slipped from my face and I began twisting my hands, hidden under the shelter of the table.  No one noticed.

“What do your parents do for a living?  Do they live around here?” she asked.

“My dad was an architect.  I think that’s where I get my creative side from,” I said wistfully.  “My mom was a secretary at a law firm.  I’m originally from Ohio, but moved here to attend college.”

“Well, when your family comes to visit, you’ll have to bring them over for dinner,” Elle declared with a clap of her hands.  “When will they be here next?”

“Mama…” the girl across from me cautioned.

“What?  We’re going to be family.  I want to meet them,” she said.

“Mama, I don’t think…”

I gave the girl a small smile of gratitude for her attempt to redirect what she obvious realized was a distressing subject for me.  “It’s ok,” I said to her.

Turning to Ethan’s mother, I took a calming breath.  “My family died.”

My revelation was met with gasps from around the table.  Elle reached for my hand, squeezing in a show of support. 

“All of them?  How?” Aunt Mary whispered.

“I was at college my junior year.  I had just gotten back from winter break.  Philip was a senior in high school and played on the basketball team.  He had a game that night, and while my parents watched from the stands, it began to snow.  By the time they left the gym, the roads were a slushy mess.”  I paused in an effort to control my emotions, and Elle gave my hand another squeeze.  “A tractor trailer hit a patch of ice and lost control, swerving into my parent’s lane.  It was a head on collision.  Both of my parents died at the scene.  My brother held on for three days before he passed.”

“Oh, you poor baby, you’re all alone,” one of the ladies at the other end of the table said on a sniffle.

I looked across the yard at Makayla and with a sad smile answered the woman’s statement.  “No, I’m not alone.  I have a wonderful family that loves me.”         

The dark haired girl stood up and announced, “I’m thirsty.  Alexis, would you like to get something to drink with me?”

I gave her a grateful look as I stood to join her.  “I could use a drink, and please, call me Lexie.”

As we walked across the yard, and after admitting that I didn’t remember, I learned that my savoir was Ethan’s sister Sophia.  We grabbed water from one of the many coolers lined up below the tables, and headed over to a group of girls lounging in the grass.  Sophia introduced me to the mix of Storm and Graham relatives and we sat down joining them.  I spent the remainder of the afternoon laughing and exchanging stories with the girls.  When I revealed the details of my first run in with Ethan and the fight that ensued with the plastic tart, Cara, Sebastian’s sister, blew soda out of her nose.

“I cannot wait to meet your friends.  Jack sounds like a hoot!” Sophia laughed.   

“Oh, you have no idea,” I snorted.

Makayla made her way over and plopped down, laying her head in my lap and covering her face with her arm in the most dramatic fashion possible.

“Jesus H. Christ, I thought I was never going to get away.”

I pinched her arm, hard, and muttered, “be nice.”

“No worries Lex,” Cara said, “meeting this family can be brutal.  I wouldn’t wish the Graham/Storm inquisition on anyone.”

Makayla shot up into a sitting position and exclaimed, “I know right?!  I was waiting for them to jam slivers of bamboo under my fingernails or break out the lie detector and strap me to it.”

“Stop exaggerating, it couldn’t have been that bad,” I chastised. 

“It was horrible,” she cried.  “Picture the worst meeting of the parents you could possibly imagine, now multiply that by ten.  They just kept asking me question after question.  It was like taking a test where I knew all of the answers but somehow still got them wrong.  Just when I thought the interrogation was over, I was passed to another family member, and the sneaky, old biddies would change the phrasing but ask the same damn thing.  I think they were trying to trip me up.”

“How did you escape so quickly?” Makayla asked accusingly.

“One mention of the dead family tends to shut people up pretty quickly.”

“Ah, pulling out the big guns early on.”  She leaned into me and whispered, “how ya doing?”

I shrugged, “fine.”

“Actually, I think you’re sugar coating the experience,” Sophia giggled, deflecting the attention from me again.  “If it makes you feel any better, when one of us brings a potential boyfriend around, it’s a thousand times worse.”  She pointed over to where the men were gathered, and we all turned to look.  “Can you imagine facing
that
firing squad?”

“And don’t let Sebastian and Ethan fool you.  Those two are the absolute worst!” Cara added.  “Back in high school I made the mistake of inviting a guy I liked over when those two were home from college.  While I was helping Grammy fix dinner, the boys took Zach out back to the pond, said that they would be guy bonding over a little fishing.  Those two idiots came waltzing in the back door laughing their asses off and Zach was gone.  He never spoke to me again.  Even when I run into to him now, he can’t get away from me fast enough.  They still won’t tell me what they did to him.”

“Sebastian is always so laid back, I can’t imagine him being intimidating.  Ethan, on the other hand, can be a bit…intense,” I conceded.

“Ya think?” Sophia said sarcastically, and everyone laughed.  “That boy has no clue how to relax and just have a good time.  He’s coiled too damn tight.  One thing is for sure, he is totally into you girl.  Mama is over the moon happy that he’s finally settling down.”

“Oh no, he’s not settled.  I mean we aren’t serious…at least not yet.  We’ve only been dating for a few weeks,” I stammered.  I knew I was falling fast, but that didn’t mean I was ready to admit anything out loud, especially when I had no idea how Ethan felt. 

“He has tracked your every move since you walked through that gate.  And he was thirty seconds away from storming the table earlier when you were upset.”

Before I could form a rebuttal, the man himself approached.  His eyes did a quick sweep, stopping momentarily on his sister, before landing back on me.  Sophia gave me a look that clearly said, I told you so.

His piercing eyes gave the feeling that he had a direct line to my soul.  “Having a good time?”

“Absolutely, the girls were just regaling me with stories from your youth.”

“Don’t believe a word they say.  Liars, every single one of them,” he said with a wink.  He extended his hand to me asking, “are you ready to go home?” 

It took another fifteen minutes to say our goodbyes, with me promising Elle that I would visit soon, before we were able to leave.  Ethan, hand pressing lightly on the small of my back, guided me to his vehicle.  He pressed a chaste kiss to my temple, opened my door, and waited for me to climb in.  The anxiety over meeting Ethan’s family combined with spending hours in the sun had me exhausted.  We drove home in a comfortable silence.  The hum of the engine and Ethan’s thumb softly tracing circles on the back of my hand quickly lulled me into a light sleep.

We entered my apartment and I kicked off my sandals before turning to Ethan.  Upon seeing the heated look in his eyes, I began backing away with my hands raised, warding him off. 

“Oh no, I know that look.”

“Come here Lex,” he ordered.

“I’m all sticky,” I said in protest.

Ethan flashed me his trademark smirk.  “I can work with sticky.”

“Let me get a shower first,” I pleaded.

Ethan stopped his advance, standing perfectly still and focusing intently on something behind me.  I looked over my shoulder, seeing nothing out of the ordinary.  I took a step forward saying Ethan’s name questioningly, but he didn’t respond.  I closed the small gap between us to stand only inches away from his body.

“What’s wrong?”

With the speed of a striking snake, Ethan’s hand snapped out capturing the back of my neck and pulling me into a passionate kiss.  My body melted into his, and my hands gripped his firm ass in an attempt to pull him closer. 

“Sorry babe, I was just thinking of you in the shower… wet… suds running down that perfect body.”

“You could always join me,” I purred.  Evidently that was all the invitation he needed because I quickly found myself in his arms, swiftly moving towards the bathroom.

I’m standing under the jet of water with my back to Ethan.  His fingers massage the last of the product from my hair, and I turn to face him.  I take my turn thoroughly washing every luscious inch of his chiseled body.  My fingers chase the bubbles down his chest and over his cut abs.  Feeling uncharacteristically bold, I lower to my knees and take the root of him in my hand.  I twirl my tongue around the tip and shyly peek up at his face.  His pupils have dilated to dark pools of lustful need, and this emboldens me further.  I take him fully into my mouth.  Ethan releases a rumbling moan and braces his hands against the shower wall behind me, shielding me from the wet spray.  I continue ruthlessly sucking his manhood, feeling more empowered with the tensing of his body and the sounds I provoke.

Ethan pulls me to my feet, spins my body, and impales me in one fluid motion, brutally pounding me from behind.  His attack is relentless, and my already heated core explodes around him.  My pulsating walls grip his shaft, and with one final thrust, Ethan finds his own release.