Chapter 29
CHAPTER 29
A rcher
“I have an idea,” Ella says, indicating that I should get off the highway at the next exit. “Field trip time. And no, it’s no ‘wine-tasting experience’ but it’s something fun we can do.
“I’m just going to ignore your mocking of my wine tasting.”
“At your peril.”
She points at where I should turn next. We’re not near anyplace I can think of that has entertainment venues. This part of town is mostly businesses. There’s a car repair place, a mini mart, and a gas station, but not much else. I wonder if I should offer Ella some help since she probably doesn’t know the area.
“We could drive to St. Helena. Have you been there?”
She laughs. “Of course I have. Your sister took me there for lunch after one of our planning meetings.”
“Seriously? She cheated on Butter and Rosemary and took you to a place in town? Wow, she really must like you.”
“It’s what people do for rom-com princesses,” she deadpans .
“Fine. I deserve to be mocked for that.”
“Multiple times,” Ella emphasizes. “The mocking will continue, let’s be clear.”
I roll my eyes. “Great.”
Ella looks delighted as she directs me down a street that has nothing but warehouses lining both sides. Not a car drives down the street. The desolation screams crime scene. “Keep going. It’s down there.”
I turn the wheel of my truck down the one-way street she indicates, worried she’ll be disappointed when she sees nothing there where we can eat or do something date-worthy. “Are you sure? There’s not much?—”
“Turn here,” she says, pointing to the dilapidated bubble carwash next to a gas station. I do as instructed, taking in the sagging roof on the place and looking at the gas station in hopes that it has a mini mart where she can use the bathroom. I assume that’s why we’re here.
“If you had your heart set on sex in a gas station restroom, I’m game, but I should warn you that it probably hasn’t been mopped in a bit and guys don’t always have the best aim.”
“Ew and double ew. Are you serious?”
“Some guys don’t pay that much attention, especially in public?—”
“No, I mean, do you really think my fantasy date would be sex in a gas station bathroom? Dude, not a rom-com princess move.”
I look around, wondering what else she could possibly have in mind. “Something involving gas station snacks?”
Shaking her head, she points to the bubble wash at the end. “Drive in there, buddy. I’ve got lots of quarters.” She holds up a change purse and presses her lips together in a no-nonsense expression. I do as instructed.
Once my car is parked, Ella starts loading coins into the machine. Lots of coins. Way too many for a simple wash and rinse. “Slow your roll there. You only need a couple quarters for each cycle. You’ve programmed that thing for, like, a half hour.”
Her eyebrows bounce. She pushes the button for the spray nozzle. And aims it straight at me.
Before I know what’s happening, I’m being pelted with a spray of water. Through the mist, I see Ella holding the nozzle like a rifle, joyously soaking me. “What the hell?” I yell, more shocked than irritated. On a blazing hot day like today, the water feels good.
“Good date, no?”
She’s grinning like the Cheshire Cat and I fucking love it.
“Oh, it’s great. But you’re way too dry.” I rush her like a football tackle, and she dodges me, squealing as she moves to the side. The water sprays the ground, and she tries to use my truck as a shield. I’m too fast and too big for her to defend herself for long.
Wrenching the spray nozzle from her hand, I turn it and aim it at her bare legs, drenching them with water as she dances from foot to foot. “Wow, that’s cold.”
“Uh-huh, gotta give as good as I get,” I remind her, holding the nozzle over my head so she can’t reach it. It doesn’t matter. The roof on top of the shed ensures that all the water spraying out rebounds back at us. We’re both soaked. Ella’s hair twirls in corkscrews around her face, curlier and longer than when it’s dry. I’m sure I look like a drowned puppy myself.
I start spraying the roof again, letting the water fall on us like summer rain, but Ella goes to the wall and starts pushing buttons. A moment later, she has the bubble brush in her hand and my spray nozzle stops shooting water.
Ella comes closer to me with the bubble brush. “We haven’t really washed down the truck. Let’s not soap it yet,” I say.
“Haven’t you figured it out yet?” she asks. “We’re not here to wash your truck.”
The mist clears around us and the image of Ella with her sly smile and that bubble brush in her hands sends a jolt of heat through me that dead ends at my dick. I’m hard before she sends the first spray of soap from the brush to my chest.
“Oh, my little rom-com princess is actually a naughty little housemaid,” I say as she mimes scrubbing the floors like Cinderella.
A moment later, I’m covered in a froth of bubbles. Ella points at me to turn around. She sprays more bubbles down the length of my spine and rubs circles with her hands. I’ve never felt anything hotter, never wanted a woman more than I want her.
Spinning around, I take the brush from her hands and squeeze out a stream of bubbles, painting her with them from shoulders to knees. I don’t touch her with the brush. Instead, I hang it up and return to where she stands waiting to see what I’m planning. I stand in front of her and let her wait.
And wait.
Dripping with suds, she waves a hand in front of my face. “You sleeping there, big guy?”
Slowly, I shake my head. I take a step toward her. Then another. When I’m close enough to put my hands on her, I reach for her waist, spreading the bubbles up and down as I stroke her skin through the soaked T-shirt.
The sheer cotton of the wet shirt hugs her curves, accentuating the swell of her breasts. That’s where my hands go next, lathering her up until her nipples harden beneath my hands. She sighs and presses into me.
The beauty of her choosing this random carwash in the middle of nowhere is that there’s no one here, and the idea of someone driving past and seeing us soaping each other up only adds to the forbidden thrill of what I’m already planning to do with her here.
It’s only out of the corner of my eye that I notice an eighteen wheeler that has positioned itself between us and the street, effectively blocking the carwash from public view. “Did you hire a giant truck for privacy? ”
She laughs. “I sure did. Perks of the job.”
That’s all I need to hear. Tipping Ella’s chin up with my index finger, I keep one hand on her breast, massaging circles into the foamy soap. She groans against my mouth when I kiss her, and it takes all of two seconds for me to lift her up and turn her, so her back is up against my truck. Her legs grip my hips, and her arms wrap around my neck.
Our kisses grow deeper and more intense. The water mingles with our lips and tongues. Soap squelches between our bodies, making them slick.
Ella’s hands grip my hair, pulling my mouth against hers as the space between us vanishes entirely.
My hands move to cup the ripe cheeks of her ass and hold her so she’s moving directly against my cock. I can’t distinguish between our respective moans, and I don’t care.
Her hands grip the hem of my shirt, pulling it up so she can rub suds on my chest and abs. Grabbing the back of my collar, I yank the wet fabric over my head. Then I strip off her shirt, gazing down at the incredible swell of her breasts, rising and falling with each breath.
“More,” she pants against my neck, kissing a trail up to my ear. “More.” Her need is more insistent this time.
I loosen my grip and let her slide down my legs until her feet hit the ground. Then I kneel in front of her and unbutton her denim shorts before peeling them down her legs. Ella’s skin is still soapy, and my hands slide along the skin of her inner thigh as her head falls back against the door of my truck.
I lean in and plant a row of tiny kisses from her jaw to her ear. “Princess, this was a very good idea,” I rasp as she hums her agreement.
The motor of the bubble brush rattles against the wall, and water hangs in a mist around us. It’s a ramshackle situation of imperfect car door angles and a sudsy, slippery flood. Fucking perfect .
Ella’s hands work at my belt, unbuckling it and pulling it open. She pops the button on my soggy jeans and shoves them down my thighs. The water makes them stick like a wetsuit, so I bend down to push them off, and before I stand back up, I spend some time wiping the soap away from Ella’s legs with my hands, taking special care as I move up her inner thighs to the spot I’m dying to taste.
“You sure about this, darlin’? It’s pretty public,” I say, looking around at the empty street. Not a soul is using the gas station, and the walls of the carwash stall block the view from two sides, so I’m feeling pretty good about our public display. Still, I want to be sure she’s comfortable before my tongue touches her skin and I lose all sense of where I am.
“I’m sure,” she breathes.
I don’t need any further permission, diving in and lapping a long stroke between the wet hot folds of her flesh, ending at the hard bud of her clit. I pay extra attention there, sucking and circling her with my tongue until I hear her moan. It’s become the sound I love more than anything else, as she gives over to feeling everything I want to give her.
Her hands flex at her sides and come up to grip my hair. Drips of water roll into my eyes and I close them against the sting of soap.
Ella’s hips jerk as I insert two fingers inside her, curling them so I hit the spot that makes her go crazy. Her back arches and her hips jut forward, begging me for more. I give her all of it, feeling her start to shake beneath my hands.
“Archer, oh God.”
Hearing my name on her lips brings me close to the edge myself, but my focus is her.
“Yeah, princess. Come for me,” I growl against her before I take her clit into my mouth again and suck.
“Archer, oh…” She trembles beneath me, and I feel her release on my tongue, but she doesn’t say another word. I feel more powerful and more necessary in the world than I ever have in my life. This is why I was put on this Earth. This one moment—Ella coming apart beneath me and screaming my name.
When her breathing slows a bit, Ella pulls me to my feet and her lips ravage mine. It feels like she’s giving me a piece of her soul.
It’s seamless how she moves her body against me, still backed against the side of my truck. Her hands move down my torso, rubbing the last bits of soap into my skin.
Someone honks a horn as the car drives by. Ella laughs and fills up my soul with the soft musical sound. It’s a balm to my senses. I want to make a recording of her laughter and play it like a mantra, reminding me that I was this happy in this moment.
Even if it disappears someday like I fear it will.
For now, I have everything I want, and I tell myself to focus on that alone.
Ella slithers from her spot between me and the truck and goes to the wall. She punches the button to turn the water sprayer back on and carries it back to the truck. It takes a bit of maneuvering and my longer arms to do what she wants—and it takes me a minute to figure out what that is—but together we get the arm of the spray nozzle to drape over the roof of my truck.
Ella resumes her position with her back against the car door and pulls me toward her with one hand. Her fingers run the length of my torso, pausing to appreciate my pecs and abs. I watch the delight on her face as she rubs circles over my skin.
With her other hand, she turns on the water spray and holds it there. The shower of drops flies up toward the ceiling and cascades down on us in a cool shower that chills my skin just as Ella reaches for my cock and gives it a few good strokes.
I don’t think I’ve ever been this hard in my life. Never been so hot for a woman. Never been so in love .
The thought snags in my brain, but I push it aside, needing to focus on the intensity of the feeling of her when she guides me between her legs. I’ve never unwrapped a condom so fast. She rolls it on, and I thrust inside her.
Ella lets go of the spray nozzle when I lift her hips and bracket her face with my forearms. I hammer into her body and stare into her eyes through drips of water and mist in the air.
“This is the hottest fucking field trip in the history of time,” I rasp against her temple.
It’s all lips against skin. Hard absorbed in softness. Goose bumps and rivulets of water. The best goddamn hour of my life.
When I can’t hold out any longer, I cup Ella’s face in my hands and our eyes lock. She nods, knowing what I need and giving me even more.
Her hips buck against me and I thrust once more. Deeper. Harder. And then I can only yell her name on an oath and a prayer.
I collapse against her, grateful to my truck for holding us upright. Grateful to the universe for not giving up on me.
Maybe this is what my sister meant by manifesting what I wanted because I sure manifested the hell out of today.
Slowly, our breathing slows. Slowly, we peel ourselves away from each other.
Ella turns on the sprayer and shoots it around the space like a wild hose. I’m not even sure it hits either of us. Then she opens the passenger side door and retrieves two towels from the tote bag she brought with her.
“And here I thought you’d packed us a picnic lunch,” I say, taking a towel and using it to carefully dry her skin, every inch of it.
She smirks. “Would you have preferred that?”
“No fucking way.”
Laughing, Ella digs into the bag again, producing two wrapped sandwiches and handing one to me. “One’s turkey, the other’s vegetarian. Preference?”
I shake my head. Then answer, “Turkey.”
She hands it over and we walk to a bus stop bench where we sit on the damp towels in the sun until our clothes are dry and our sandwiches are gone. Then we drive home.
My truck isn’t clean. If anything, it’s worse for the wear than before—streaks of soap on the hood, spots of water mixed with dirt on the windshield. But I feel like I’ve been cleansed from the inside out.
Gone are my ideas about not risking my heart on a woman who might not stick around. I know we’re different, but right now I don’t care.
We drive down the Silverado Trail toward Buttercup Hill, and I drop my hand onto Ella’s thigh. She puts hers on top of mine. Everything about us feels right. For the first time in my fucking life.
It’s what gives me the courage to tell her the one thing I know for sure. “I love you, Ella Fieldstone. So much.”
I don’t have to look at her to see her smile, but there’s no chance I’m missing an opportunity to do so. “Wow.” I need to watch the road, so my gaze shifts back and forth between her and the highway.
“Wow?”
“I mean, if I knew I could get you to love me by washing your car, I’d have done it weeks ago.”
I let out a long breath, not sorry I confessed my heart to her, but worried I misjudged whether she might feel the same way. But it’s okay. I still want her to know how I feel, even if it’s one-sided.
“That’s not why?—”
“I’m kidding.” She takes off her seat belt and scoots closer to me on the bench seat of my truck. “Sorry. I was trying to lighten the mood because I got nervous. ”
“I didn’t say it to make you nervous. I?—”
She puts a finger against my lips. “I meant I was nervous to say it too. But it’s true. I’ve fallen hard and fast for you, Archer Corbett. I love you.” It makes me the luckiest man alive.