Friends With All the Benefits

23 Ethan

I t was petty and it was stupid, but I was jealous of Natalie, and she hadn’t even spent a night at the cottage yet. I had been so used to having Ellie to myself whenever I wanted her, and Nat staying here, even temporarily, was going to put a stop to that.

Ellie and I had agreed to keep this arrangement between us a secret from our friends, but there were so many times that evening that I wanted to just pull Ellie to me, or just reach over and touch her. I could have done so without anyone watching if I had sat myself next to her. Instead, I had foolishly put myself across the table next to Callum and Hannah and felt like I was the third wheel the entire time. All I could do was watch Ellie as she played the part of the perfect hostess. She was doing everything in her power to soothe Natalie and make her comfortable. I was still angry at Natalie for how she treated Ellie, but even I felt sorry for her.

The moment Ellie got up to go into the house to grab more beer from the fridge, I went after her. As Ellie turned into the kitchen, out of sight of all our friends, I came up behind her and pulled her into an embrace, nuzzling my face into the nape of her neck.

“ Ethan ,” Ellie gasped, then dropped her voice to a whisper. “The others might see.”

“They can’t see a thing from here,” I assured her. “I miss you already.”

Ellie smacked one of my arms that held her in place, but she let herself sink into them. “What do you mean you miss me? You already had your merry way with me this morning.”

“If I remember correctly, you had your merry way with me.” The memory of our morning fucking brought a smile to my face. I had moved the hook in the kitchen to my room, and this time, it was me tied up and Ellie on her knees giving me a mind-shattering blow job. After I recovered, I made sure to return the favour. “But—” I let Ellie go, and I gestured outside. “—now that Nat is staying with us, it’s going to be hard to keep any of that up.”

Ellie’s gaze followed mine. “Yeah… We’ll probably have to stop while she’s here.”

A strangled noise escaped my throat. I was too far gone with my addiction to Ellie, but she sounded so casual when she suggested stopping.

“Or…” The edges of her mouth turned up. “We can be sneakier about it.”

“Damn right, we will.” Thank God. Ellie didn’t want to stop either.

Ellie grinned, reached inside the fridge to grab two cans of craft beer and walked back outside. I managed to give her perky ass a smack before she was out of reach, then hung around the kitchen for a little bit. It would look too suspicious if I went back out with Ellie.

Ellie passed Callum on the way out the back door. Callum looked at her, then at me. A suspicious look crossed his face. He went to wash his hands at the kitchen sink, then turned to me. “Something is going on between you two.”

Denial came out of me without a second thought. “Whaaat? No. We’re just friends.”

“Ethan, you couldn’t keep your eyes off Ellie all night. You haven’t been able to do so the last few times we all hung out. And when she looks back at you… If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were sleeping together.”

The last sentence caught me like a deer in the headlights.

Callum’s eyes widened. “You are sleeping together.”

I nodded.

“What the hell are you doing, Ethan?” Callum hissed. “Because it looks and sounds very much like you’re playing house with Ellie. Why are you two keeping it a secret? You’re going to hurt her.”

“No, I’m not,” I retorted. “She doesn’t give a fig about me.”

Callum looked at me like I sprouted an extra head.

“What?”

“Never mind.”

Callum wasn’t letting it go. “Do you want more, Ethan?”

“I don’t know.” It came out semi-intelligible, but Callum got the gist of it.

“She likes you,” Callum repeated, his tone censorious.

“She does not,” I shot back hotly. “She might have at one point, but not any longer.”

“And how would you know that she’s over you?”

“Because she told me so, multiple times.”

“Uh huh.” Callum snorted. “And any man who takes what a woman says at face value is a fool.”

“Ellie’s not the kind to play games.”

“No, she’s not, but has it occurred to you that she might be saying so only because she thinks you don’t want more and she doesn’t want to push it.”

No, I hadn’t, but Callum’s argument didn’t convince me. “We’ve got a good thing going. I don’t want to ruin it. Ellie’s a good friend.”

Callum just gave me an exasperated look. “Well, I hope for both your sakes, you decide what you want soon. You can’t have your cake and eat it. It won’t end well.”