The Blank Canvas (Apartment #2) (17 page)

“No, I’m driving back now. Just wanted to let you know I wouldn’t be back.”

“It’s a three-hour drive! You’ll fall asleep,” she warned, the worried tone in her voice easy to pick up.

The image of Lily sleeping in their room flashed before his eyes again, and suddenly there was no other place in the world that existed. He glanced at the keys dangling from his ignition, the light reflecting off of one that was old and brass and had seen better days.

“I’ll be fine. I’m going home.”

Sometime after five in the morning, Lily opened her eyes begrudgingly, not wanting to ruin the best dream she’d had in months. Not knowing what woke her since she still had another hour before her alarm clock would go off, she closed her eyes again tightly, trying to will herself back to sleep, hoping that just once she would be able to pick up where she had left off in her dream. In it, Ethan had come to her, sliding into bed next to her in the darkness, wrapping her up in the warmth of his arms. It wasn’t the content of the dream that was so wonderful—she certainly had more erotic dreams recently—but it was the fact that it felt more real than any other dream she’d had in her entire life.

Concentrating so hard on the heat of his body that she could swear she somehow still felt it, Lily was startled when the bed shifted behind her and a large hand with long, slender fingers slid under her tank top and settled on the bare flesh of her stomach. Choking back a loud squeak, she shifted her body enough so that she could roll over and face her dream visitor.

“Mmm… stop wiggling,” a deep voice slurred next to her in the darkness, sounding heavy with sleep.

When her eyes finally adjusted to the lighting, Lily was treated to the sight of Ethan curled against her, his face peaceful with rest. Boober was rolled up in a fuzzy ball behind the back of his knees, effectively trapping him under the covers, and Wembley was stretched out on the pillow beside him, slowly tapping the tip of his tail against Ethan’s forehead. It was so cute she hated to ruin it, but she knew firsthand what it was like to wake up to an eyeful of cat ass.

“Get!” she whispered, shooing Wembley away with a few gentle nudges until he relocated himself next to his brother. He took his sweet time moving, and the look he shot her as he padded across the mattress told her exactly what he thought of her at that moment.

Once Ethan was free of his cat bandana, Lily snuggled against him, wrapping her arm around his side and resting her hand on the firm muscles of his back. Kissing him softly on the lips, she pulled back just far enough so that she could look at him without her eyes crossing.

“I thought I dreamt you,” she whispered, so close to him that her warm breath fluttered against his skin.

“Mmm,” he mumbled, pulling her more firmly against him without opening his eyes. “Sleep.”

Too excited to relax, she pressed him further. “I thought you were going to stay over another night.”

“Missed you,” he finally replied on the tail end of a loud yawn, distorting his words as he exhaled. “Couldn’t wait.”

“Aww,” she cooed. “So adorable.” She burrowed her head into the nook between his jaw and his shoulder, breathing him in deeply. Just as she was about to drift back off to sleep, another thought occurred to her. “Hey, how did you get in here?”

“Still have my key. Couldn’t get rid of it… gave the landlady a copy. Was really happy you didn’t change the lock.”

“Never,” she said with a catch in her voice, turning her head to kiss the angular curve of his jawbone. “I could never lock you out of our place.” And then in an even smaller voice, “I kept hoping you would walk through that door.”

That woke him up further. He reached up behind her and smoothed her hair back, cradling her head gently against him. “I’ve never told you how much it meant to me that you kept this place. When I learned that you were living here now, I just knew. I knew we had a chance.”

Lily tilted her face up to meet his now serious gaze. “I couldn’t let you go. It was all I had left of you.”

“I’ll be thankful for that for the rest of my life.”

Their lips met in a tender kiss that slowly burned hotter. When he felt the wet tip of her tongue flicking against him, searching for entrance, he opened to it gladly. As the kiss deepened and they swallowed each other’s moans, Ethan began to feel himself stirring in his boxer briefs, so he tried to pull his hips back from her a bit to keep from poking her in the stomach.

Lily, however, had other plans. As soon as she felt him trying to scoot away from her, she slid her hand down to his ass and gripped him firmly, pulling him back until his hardness was rubbing against her inner thigh. Moaning loudly against his mouth, Lily wrapped her leg around his hip, sending the grouchy cats sleeping behind him running for the other room. Before he could stop himself, Ethan cupped her bottom and thrust his hips, grinding his erection more directly against her moist heat.

“God, baby… we have to stop,” he gasped as he pulled himself away from trailing wet kisses down the column of her neck.

“You stop,” she panted, getting up on her knees and shoving him until he was lying flat on his back. “I’m doing no such thing.” Kneeling at his side, Lily threw back the covers, exposing him to her hungry gaze. As soon as she saw the dark gray cotton of his underwear tented up with a telltale wet spot growing at the tip, she let out the most animalistic grunt that he’d ever heard her make before pulling and yanking the elastic down over his hips.

“What… what are you doing?” he somehow managed to ask, mesmerized by the look of determination on her face.

“Relax,” she huffed, not looking at him until his boxers were down past his knees. “I’m not going to attack you—even though it’s the least you deserve for showing up in my bed half-naked like this,” she smirked. “I mean, a girl can only take so much teasing before she snaps.”

She reached out and gently touched her fingertip to the underside of his erection, trailing it slowly up the length of him as it strained back towards his abdomen. When she reached the swollen tip, she swirled her finger around the collecting moisture she found there, causing Ethan to hiss loudly through his teeth. It wasn’t until he looked back up and met her stare that she wrapped her fingers around his shaft and squeezed.

“Oh fuck!”

“No, not quite,” she said, giggling to herself. “Someone won’t let me yet. But don’t think for one second that I forgot it’s my turn to return the favor.” With that, she leaned over and sucked him deeply into her mouth, not stopping until he hit the back of her throat.

“Jesus Christ!” he groaned, instinctively bringing his hand to the back of her head to guide her movements. Lily worked him viciously, bobbing her mouth up and down his length, swirling her tongue around him on the upstroke. His grunts and moans were steadily growing louder, accentuated by the thrusting of his hips. “Fuck, baby… it’s been so long since I’ve felt you there… your goddam perfect fucking mouth.” He sounded like he might cry from the pleasure, and there were more than a few times he had to stop himself from just grabbing her hair and pounding into her until she choked.

Lily moaned around him as she moved, growing more and more aroused at how primal his noises were becoming. She began to sway a bit on her knees, seeking out the friction between her thighs that she was starting to need more than oxygen. Before long, she felt Ethan’s hand slide down from the back of her head to the back of her thigh, moving swiftly between her legs and pulling her panties to the side. One very long, talented finger slipped inside her aching heat, and after she moaned so loudly that it vibrated down the entire length of him to settle in his balls, he added a second.

“That’s it, baby. Ride my fingers.” He plunged them into her deeper and deeper, loving the way that she worked herself on him, bucking and grinding her hips while her inner muscles squeezed him tightly. “God… you’re so fucking wet!” he whimpered when he felt her juices starting to drip down his hand. She could only moan and nod, unwilling to stop feasting on him for even a second.

Ethan slowly pulled his fingers free and sucked them into his mouth, her hypnotic flavor making his eyes roll back. With a possessive snarl, he reached over with both hands and started pulling at her panties, tugging them down over her bottom as he jerked her hips closer to his face.

“Get these fucking things off or I’m going to rip them,” he growled. She lifted her knees, allowing him enough clearance to slide them down past her calves until she could kick them the rest of the way off. As soon as she was freed, he was pulling at her hips again. “Get the hell over here right now.”

When she was close enough he grabbed her, lifting her up so that she could swing one leg over his head. He settled her over his mouth, lapping at her swollen folds as she writhed around, squirming from the overload of sensation. Never once did she let up on her own task, sucking him deeper still and loving the feeling of his grunts and snarls against her wet flesh.

Lily bucked and swiveled her hips, grinding herself against his eager tongue, and when he slid two fingers back inside her from behind, she thought she might actually die from the intense pleasure. Knowing that she was going to be absolutely useless from the strength of her impending orgasm, she decided to try something new in the hopes of getting him there faster. Leaning forward, Lily sucked him as deep as possible. Only this time when he bumped the back of her throat, she swallowed.

It took her a couple of tries to relax her muscles enough for it to work, but when she felt the broad tip of him pushing into her throat she imagined that she was a porn star and Wonder Woman rolled into one. When Ethan let out a guttural moan against her and involuntarily jerked his hips, she felt damn near smug.

Eat your heart out, Jenna Jameson
.

Lily could tell from the tenseness in Ethan’s thighs that he was about to come, and the fact that he had begun working her even harder meant that it was going to be a race to the finish. His long fingers slid deeper and deeper, curling at just the right spot while he sucked on her clit, his own moaning making the most sensational vibrations. By the time Lily reached down to cup and massage his scrotum, it was all over.

The feeling of him swelling unbelievably harder in her throat sent her careening over the edge, and the feeling of her screams around his cock and the tightness of her inner muscles clamping down on him made Ethan come so hard that his ears began ringing. There was a moment when they became one enormous shaking orgasm before Lily fell to his side. She had barely enough energy to drag herself up next to him and collapse on his chest. No words were spoken between them, both out of exhaustion and awe at what they had just shared.

Before long, they were both asleep.

* * *

“Have I ever told you how much I love this little patch of freckles on the back of your shoulder?” Soft lips pressed to the area in question as Ethan wrapped his arms around Lily from behind, looking up at her over her shoulder in the mirror.

“I didn’t even know I had a patch of freckles there,” she laughed, leaning forward to finish applying her makeup.

“Well, you do. And it’s adorable. I can’t tell you how many nights I would lie awake, thinking of it.”

Lily stopped and looked at his reflection again, her lip-gloss applicator suspended in midair. “You thought about my freckles?”

“Of course I did,” he smiled, kissing her shoulder again. “You have tons of little treasures all over your body. Like this tiny chicken pox scar here, on your hip. Drives me crazy!” He leaned over and pulled the elastic of her pink cotton boy shorts down a few inches, smacking his lips loudly against a spot on her skin that she’d never even noticed before.

“Oh, you’re crazy, alright,” she giggled, a blush spreading over her exposed flesh at the thought of him paying such close attention to her. “I guess I’m not one to talk, though. You have a mole on the back of your neck that makes me want to do naughty, naughty things.”

“Where?” he asked in disbelief, standing up and turning, trying to angle his head so that he could see himself in the mirror.

“Right here.” Lily touched the small brown spot just below his hairline, and the gentle glide of her fingertips across his skin sent a shiver through his body.

“Stop that, you’re giving me goosebumps.”

“Gee, maybe that’s because you’re still standing here in a towel with wet hair. Now, would you please go and get dressed already? I’m trying to get ready for work and having you here looking like that and kissing on me is not helping!”

“Alright, I’m going,” he sighed, raising his hands in mock surrender as he backed out of the bathroom. “But only because you’re going to lick my neck mole if I don’t.”

“Don’t you forget it!” she called after him, rolling her eyes at how playful he was being and secretly loving every minute of it.

By the time Lily had thrown on her scrubs and tossed her hair up in a messy pile on top of her head, Ethan was already dressed and waiting for her by the door, munching on a warm s’mores Pop Tart. As she grabbed her purse and joined him to leave, he held out the pastry’s twin to her, causing her to stop in her tracks.

“Here, I thought we could split a package since you’re running late.” When she didn’t say anything for a moment and continued to stare at the item in his hand, he began to worry. “Oh, hey, I hope that’s okay. I mean… I hope you don’t mind that I helped myself. Shit, I should have asked, huh?”

After another second she reached out and took it, slowly shaking her head. “No, no… that’s fine.”

“Then what’s wrong?” he asked as she walked past him in a daze, heading for the stairs.

“Nothing,” she called back absentmindedly, leaving him to lock up as she nibbled her breakfast on the way to her car.

Ethan hurried after her, grabbing her by the elbow once he caught her in the parking lot. “Here, why don’t you let me drive you today? I can pick you back up later and we can hang out here tonight, how does that sound?”

“You don’t have to do that,” she said quietly, averting her eyes from his.