“No one,” she agreed.

October 3, 2013

Paisley

MY 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.