Because of Ellison

  My mouth crashed against hers and her hands pulled at the bottom hem of my shirt. I grudgingly broke away from the kiss to allow her to pull my shirt off. My mouth immediately returned once I’d been freed of the material and I growled when her nails dragged down the skin of my back. I didn’t care about anything at the moment but giving her what she needed. I didn’t care if Henry heard us and walked in to shove the muzzle of his gun up my ass like he’d threatened previously. If she wanted this, if this would fix her, this is what she was going to get.

  My hands wrapped around the sides of her abdomen and I pushed up, taking her shirt with me. She broke free of me just long enough to raise her arms above her to free her. When I brought my hands back down, my palms met with the skin of her naked breasts and her breath blew out breezing along my cheek and ear. I almost lost it right fucking there.

  Our legs were entangled, our hips ground against each other as we pressed closer, were desperate to become one with another. I allowed my mouth to trail along her jaw-line, along her neck until my mouth met with that sweet spot where her neck joined to her shoulder. I let my teeth nip softly at the skin and her body bucked against me. The heat between us was suffocating and intoxicating. Sweat beaded on our bodies and skin slid erotically against skin. My jeans had become agonizingly tight but I didn’t want to remove my pants. Not yet. Not until she made the move. I’d let her have whatever she wanted of me, but I wouldn’t be the one to force it on her. This was her moment — with me — and I was allowing her to drive it at any speed she wanted.

  My tongue met the edge of her ear and she groaned, her head falling hard against the pillow beneath her. Her chest pressed up against me and I moved to wrap my mouth around the hard peak of her breast. I slid my tongue around the rim of that peak and she moved under me, moaned under me, drove herself even farther inside of me. We were a tangled mixture of heat, of sweat, of salt and I couldn’t get enough of it. I tasted every inch of her chest and stomach. I nipped at the skin I knew would twist her up inside. Her body trembled and shivered and my breathing became eratic and painful as I slowed myself down — as I allowed her to build the pace.

  Finally, she reached down to grab me over the material of my jeans. I moaned out her name, let the three syllables slide over my lips to her skin where my mouth was still kissing her, still tasting her — still worshipping her. She fumbled with my belt and I pushed myself up off of her so that I could reach down and help her. The cool air of her bedroom snuck in between our sweat soaked bodies and a shudder ran over my skin. I pushed my pants down off my legs and could feel her under me trying to push her pajama pants off of hers. Grabbing the material of her pants, I ripped them down while she kicked at the material, desperate to remove the barrier between us. The only bit left was my boxers and her panties and my hand moved up to softly rub along the tiny scrap of silken material that she wore. Her breath came out in gasps and I reached up with my other hand to find tears trailing down her face. I leaned down and kissed each tear away while I rubbed along the sensitive skin between her thighs.

  My heart broke above her, but I wouldn’t let her know it. I wanted to be her island, her rock, and her strength. I wanted to take on the world for her and battle against anything that threatened her. Ellison was soft hearted — she didn’t need pain to make her hard. It wouldn’t be right. There was too much beauty in her heart and soul for that to happen.

  My fingers slipped beneath the material and met with the slickened and soft skin beneath. My cock was hard against her thigh and every movement of her leg almost set me off. I grit my teeth against the inferno she was building within my body. Ellison wasn’t just a girl I was with — she was an experience I would never forget. When I pushed my fingers up inside her, she bit down on my shoulder and a low growl built and vibrated from my chest over her body.

  “Now … I need you inside me now.”

  She didn’t have to make the demand twice.

  I pushed my boxers down and stripped her of that small triangle of silk. Her legs fell to either side of my body and I positioned myself at her opening.

  “I don’t have anything. Shit. I don’t have a condom.”

  “Shut up, Hunter.” And then her hands grasped the cheeks of my ass and she pushed me forward, slowly, inside her.

  My mouth fell open. She wasn’t thinking straight, but she wasn’t taking no for an answer. Her muscles grasped around me and I began to move inside her — agonizingly slow so that I could keep this going for as long as she needed. Her body arched against mine and my mouth fell against hers. I explored every inch of her, my hands couldn’t stop moving over her. I was being consumed by her.

  Her hands came to my chest and she pushed up to roll me to my back. Climbing on top of me, she slid down over me again, burying me deeply inside her. She rocked over me, her body moving up and down, her hips rotating in seductive little circles. My head was glued back against the bed, but my hands found her breasts and I pinched and massaged their weight. She was exquisite, a fucking goddess that held me captive — that had stolen my ability to think or breath or speak.

  When I felt her muscles start to ripple and roll along my length, I knew she was close. My hands gripped at her waist and I pulled her even tighter against me. Her hands came down on my chest and my fingers dug into the sensitive skin of her hips. She leaned forward suddenly, her mouth found mine and when I opened to allow her entrance, she screamed my name into my mouth, she released and let me swallow the sound of what I’d done for her. And that was all it took. I lost myself and I swelled inside her before letting go and filling her.

  My body quaked beneath hers as she fell limply against me — she was sated and obviously, exhausted. There was no telling how long we lay there. I’d grown soft inside her and her head was laid down on my chest. Her breathing evened out eventually and I wrapped my arms around her realizing she’d fallen asleep. My mouth curved into a smile to hear her breathe comfortably, to know that her tears had finally stopped falling. I didn’t sleep at all that night. I just held Ellison on top of me as she slept. I allowed our bodies to breath in unison and only when the sun started peaking up over the horizon did I roll her to her side and get up from her bed. I didn’t want her family walking in to wake her and find her naked, so I found her pajamas and dressed her before I tucked her in. Placing on single kiss on her cheek, I snuck quietly back out of her window.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Life returned to normal the following day as I knew it would. I was working on the porch separating the junk from the parts that could still be used. Most of the chemicals were unlabeled and I grew nervous just working around them. Placing them in a spot far out on the lawn, I walked back to the porch to see Ellison walking out with Sasha and Bear towards the trail. My heart fractured a bit. She’d not made a move to talk to me; she didn’t even turn to look at me as she passed.

  I didn’t hold it against her. I knew the night before had been about that moment alone and that it wouldn’t change the tension between us. I’d failed her by failing myself. I’d disappointed her by falling so easily back into the numbness of drugs when Tiffany had come down. It would take time to fix that problem between us, but I was more determined than ever to make sure it would be fixed.

  Day after day went by and each day it was the same story. I worked tirelessly on the porch and Ellison pretended like I didn’t exist. But, after a week’s worth of mornings where Ellison walked by without acknowledging me or even looking at me, I couldn’t take it any longer. Lily had warned me to give Ellison time, but I knew other stuff was going on in that head of hers and I knew she was trapping it inside without reaching out for the help she needed. She was distancing herself from everybody but her father — and her father was dying.

  So, on the eighth morning that Ellison tried to walk past me, I allowed her to do so, just like every morning before that. Except, this time, when she entered the trail and disappeared into the overgrowth of the path she’d cut, I stepped in behind her and silen
tly followed her along to the bigger trails beyond.

  She noticed me almost instantly and turned to scowl at me before ignoring me and keeping up her pace. I smiled because I couldn’t help but smile. Even her scowl was adorable and I was completely captivated by the girl who walked in front of me. I wasn’t there to annoy her and I wasn’t there to try and force her to finally talk to me about everything that had happened between us. I was there to lend her strength and I was there to let her know that she didn’t walk her path alone.

  It went on like that for seven days. There was absolute silence between us except for the heavy fall of our feet against the packed earth of the trail. The first few days she tried to teach me a lesson. She didn’t stop at her normal places to rest and she didn’t slow down when I tripped on a rock, fucked up my ankle and hobbled along behind her. I wasn’t mad at her for it. She hadn’t invited me and, essentially, I was hiking alone. But I refused to stop being there for her — whether she wanted me to be or not. Following Ellison for those days taught me many things about her. I already knew that she was strong, but I’d had absolutely no idea just how stubborn she could be.

  Lily had said Ellison should come to me, and I hoped that by hiking out here everyday, following behind her with Bear and Sasha, she would eventually turn around and talk to me. No such luck. Everyday when we returned to the houses from our silent march, we went our separate ways. I would walk inside and the calendar would be stuck to the kitchen wall, front and center, letting me know I was running out of time to fix things with her. I had exactly a month left before I returned home and, at the rate it was going, I might get her to a point where she would wave goodbye as I climbed into my uncle’s truck to head back to the plane. I couldn’t allow that. I needed to get her to talk to me, but I needed to find a way to make her approach me.

  Sitting at the kitchen table, I rested my head on my hand and stared up at that calendar like a little bitch. I had no idea what I could do to make Ellison approach me. I tried leaving her alone and I tried being there for her. And if there wasn’t a stop watch ticking down the hours I had left with her, I would have kept being there for her, silently walking behind, acting like the stalker she knew I was.

  Lily walked in and as soon as she caught sight of my face, she frowned and sat down at the table beside me. “I take it today was another quiet day?”

  “Yeah.” I huffed out a sigh and sat up straight in my seat before stretching my arms above my head. “I have to give it to you, Lil. You know your friend well. I’ve been following behind her like another one of her dogs for days now and the most I’ve gotten out of her is a scowl cast over her shoulder and a snicker when an errant tree branch slapped me in the face when we passed through an overgrown part of the path. She hasn’t said one word to me and she barely even looks at me.

  Lily nodded her head. “Yeah. That’s the difficult thing about Ellison. Once she’s made a decision in her head, getting her to change her mind is damn near next to impossible. In fact, in the entire time I’ve known her, I’ve only seen it happen once or twice.”

  “Well, that makes me feel better, Lily. Thanks for that.”

  She shrugged her tiny little shoulders and sat back in her chair.

  It was obvious that I had a problem that needed to be resolved. Unfortunately, I had no experience in this area because, before I’d come down here, I’d never cared if someone was not talking to, or upset, with me. Typically, I would brush them off and be thankful that I had an excuse for not dealing with them. Plus, when it came to people like Tiffany, I never had to make much of an effort to get her to talk to me. The girl never shut up and the endless voicemails, text messages and emails made it next to impossible for me to ignore her. Most of the time, I read them out of curiosity and would eventually fold and contact her. And maybe that’s what it takes with a stubborn person. You can’t get in their face to force their hand, but if you can put enough bait out there, and if there’s even a bit of interest in them, eventually they’ll break down and take it.

  It occurred to me that what I needed with Ellison was bait. Unfortunately, I had no electronic means of putting messages out there; and, even if I had the means, Ellison wouldn’t see them anyway. I’d never seen her get near a computer and, although she had a cell phone, she never took it anywhere with her. It seemed that, lately, all the girl did was stay home except for her daily hike. I’d attempted putting myself out there on those, and it was getting me nowhere.

  And that’s when it hit me.

  “Hey, Lil? Do Ryan and you have plans for tonight?

  She shook her head ‘no’ and an eyebrow cocked over her eye. “Why?”

  A smile crept across my face when I thought about just what kind of bait I would need to get a message out to El. It would cost some money and I knew exactly to whom I could go for that, but I needed help in the execution.

  “I need you to take some pictures for me. And I need to borrow your phone again.”

  She scowled. “You’re not calling Tiffany, are you?” The scorn in her voice was amusing and you’d think Tiffany was her arch nemesis by the way Lily said her name.

  I laughed; half because of what Lily had said, and half because I suddenly had a good feeling about fixing things with Ellison.

  “No. I’m calling my mom.”

  . . .

  The next week was busy. I’d called my mom like I told Lily I would and, after three hours of soul spilling and begging, my mom finally relented to wiring me the funds for my project. It didn’t hurt that she’d already talked to Bill after Tiffany had returned home to report about me, and Bill had assured her I was doing a great job on the house and seemed to have straightened up. With the money she sent, I refilled Lily’s minutes after using them up, I bought some screening for Bill’s porch, and I’d purchased the supplies I’d needed to bait Ellison.

  Seven days into the baiting project and I was finally finished. During that time, I’d stopped following Ellison out on our hikes. The first day didn’t seem to faze her because she left at her usual time and returned at her usual time without bothering to glance in my direction. On the second day, I noticed her head turn to look at me as she entered the narrow path, but that was the only acknowledgement I received. Days three, four, five and six were the same. But, on day seven, she passed me while I was repairing the last broken board on Bill’s porch and she stopped for a moment to watch me. I forced myself not to look up at her from what I was doing. She didn’t approach me and she didn’t say anything, and, eventually, she made her way out to the trail. But it was the fact she’d stopped that made me grin. It meant she was still interested and it meant that it was time to put out the bait.

  On day eight, I was outside scraping off the remaining bits of paint on the porch in order to prime and paint it. I’d replaced all the rotting wood and I’d removed the torn and tattered screening that looked like it might have been original to the house. I heard Ellison’s front door open and close and the usual barking of the dogs as they were introduced to the first bits of sunlight in the day. I was tired as fuck because I’d been up until almost before those bits of sunlight appeared over the horizon; but, I’d spent the night executing my plan and now I would get to watch it unfold and discover if it would work.

  She passed me by without a glance, probably because I was staring right at her. But I smiled anyway, grabbed the hiking pack that I’d also purchased with the money my mom had sent, and I followed behind her. When we entered the path, she turned to look at me. She sighed when she saw me, but I swear there was the tiniest smile peeking out at the corners of her lips. I smiled brightly — flashing the dimples, of course — and took my place with the dogs following her onto the trail.

  We passed a low hanging branch just as the path broke out into the trail and hanging from that branch was a little plastic bag tied to a string. Inside that bag was a note. It was like an archaic text message and I knew the plastic bag would piss Ellison off because I didn’t belong in nature. She ran up to
it almost immediately and ripped it off the branch. Looking down at it she must have noticed it had her name on it. She glanced back at me and her brows furrowed between her eyes. I just smiled and shrugged my shoulders at her. I’d hoped she would take the note out and read it, but instead she just shoved it in her pocket, plastic bag and all, and kept hoofing it up the trail.

  I wasn’t worried though, because I knew that it was just the beginning. We approached the second mile mark of the hike and a person was standing up ahead. He stood on the sideline of the trail with his hand waving out at us. The only thing about it was, he wasn’t moving and he looked just like me. Ellison stopped in her tracks and the dogs ran ahead to investigate. When they approached the man, they jumped up and knocked him over. It didn’t take much for them to do so considering he was a cardboard cutout of yours truly. I’d had Lily take pictures of me is different positions until I was satisfied with a few I could have blown up and made into life-sized images.

  Ellison slowly approached and I silently followed behind her. When she reached the cut-out she noticed the note it held in its hand, also wrapped within a plastic bag. She looked back at me confused at first, but eventually, she rolled her eyes and grabbed the note off the cutout and shoved it in her pocket.

  We continued walking and I tripped over my feet when she spoke.

  “You do realize you can’t leave that cardboard out here, right? It’s not good for the environment.”

  I smiled. “I’ve already got that covered, El.” The guy at the print shop had assured me that the cutout was biodegradable, but I still had plans to walk the trail again with garbage bags in an effort to clean up the remnants of the bait.

  She didn’t respond.

  Mile three came and went but when we reached the four-mile mark, another note hung in a plastic bag from another cardboard cutout. I was in a begging position for this one, which helped, because it hid the box tucked into the brush behind it. Ellison sighed up ahead of me, but still approached “Begging Hunter” and tried to pull off the note.