Chapter 16
Sixteen
Lily
It was only the beginning of October. I had to go through the entire month before I could see Eliot again.
I clicked the TV off. The house was quiet. The kids and the dog were asleep. Pebbles was snoozing in her cat tower in the corner. She was not a fan of the snake aquarium that I’d moved next to the tower along the wall, but she didn’t protest enough to sleep somewhere else.
I was sleeping regularly in Grandma’s old bedroom. Safe to say, it was my bedroom now.
Eliot had only stayed over three weekends, but the house was empty without him. I couldn’t look at the kitchen on nights like this and not picture us dancing. This bedroom was a mindfuck. I’d gotten new sheets and bedding, but none of the memories with Eliot were attached to them. So I hadn’t put them on yet.
New mattresses would be arriving soon. I couldn’t very well leave them in the hallway. They wouldn’t fit, and I had arranged for the deliverers to haul out the old ones.
If I got any more pathetic, I’d be in the closet, sniffing his shirts. Thankfully, I hadn’t done that. Yet.
I trudged to bed and set the baby monitor on the nightstand. Kellan had been sleeping mostly through the night.
Before I crawled under the covers, I shot off a Good night text to Eliot. We’d been texting more, but despite what happened between us in this very room, the messages hadn’t been more than check-ins. I refused to seem needy.
The neediness inside me was not just emotional.
How are you guys? From him.
Doing well. He slept through the night! I didn’t tell him when Kellan was fussy.
Way to go, champ!
I was staring at my phone. With a sigh, I crawled between the covers.
Jasper had started working with Eliot. Should I text him and make sure everything’s okay?
What was I worried about? That Eliot realized I wasn’t worth the wait and was at the bar? Was Wilder’s ex hot and interested in him?
Gah! I was never like this.
But then, I’d never gotten the butterflies in my stomach like I did with Eliot. I’d never gotten off like I did with Eliot.
My phone buzzed. I should be ashamed of how quickly I scrambled for the phone.
Eliot: You awake?
Me: Yes
I kept staring at my phone. When it vibrated, I nearly dropped it on my face. He was calling.
I answered with a “Hey.”
“Hey. Did I catch you at a bad time?”
My breathlessness was from my scramble to answer. “No. I’m in bed.”
“I wanted to hear your voice.”
“Oh.” I did a little wiggle. Pure giddiness. “Well, here I am.”
“You sound as sexy as ever.”
I didn’t recognize my giggle. I didn’t make those sounds. “So do you. The first thing I noticed about you was your voice.”
“The first? I need to work on my ass.”
More laughter. “I was a little distracted the first time. I could barely look at you.”
“I noticed. I thought I had cookie on my face, but I didn’t even have one because Bug knocked them over and ate them.”
“I was a mess that day.”
“A cute mess.”
Cute. There it was again.
“You weren’t a mess,” Eliot reassured me. “Or was it the cute that silenced you? Oh shit, it was cute. I said it the night we first kissed, and you got quiet.”
“No, cute’s fine.”
“I can’t quit looking at your tits. How about that?”
I grinned. “I like that.”
“You’re sexy as fuck, Lily.”
“You don’t have to?—”
“You’re adorable. You’re cute. But I can’t quit thinking about how much you’d flush once I buried myself inside of you and got you off again. If that’s not sexy, I don’t know what is.”
Heat coursed through my veins and a throb hummed between my thighs. “When you put it that way…”
“Trust me. I’d put it a lot of ways if we were in the same room.”
“What exactly would you do?” Horror flashed cold into my lungs. I did not just ask that.
“You really want to know?” His voice was deep and rough.
“Yes,” I whispered, afraid he’d keep going but terrified he’d stop.
There was a rustle of clothing on the other end. “You said you were in bed? Are you alone?”
“Yes.”
“Slide that hand of yours down your belly and tell me how wet you are.”
Shivers of arousal rippled over my skin, but I did as he asked. I closed my eyes, moved my sleep top out of the way, and imagined it was his calloused fingertips running over my abdomen.
I delved into my slick seam and let out a moan.
“How wet are you?” he asked, his voice low.
“So wet.”
“I bet that clit of yours is as puffy as your bottom lip.”
I licked my lips like I had to verify what he said.
“Rub it for me, Lily pad.”
The nickname did it for me. Hearing it in his low growl? I could get off without touching myself.
I traced a finger around my swollen nub. “Eliot.”
“I bet it’s so fucking wet. Make circles and imagine it’s my tongue.”
I widened my legs, my hips pumping. I could feel his weight over me, his hot breath in my ear, and his groans vibrating through me. “That’d feel so good.”
“Christ, you’re probably so hot I’d sear my skin. Do you know what I’m doing?”
“No,” I said on a gasp, lost in the fantasy. All I had wanted was a good-night text, but I was getting way more. He couldn’t be in the same bed, but this was a close second.
“I’ve got my hand around my cock, and I’m fisting it tight. I can feel how wet and hot you’d be, gripping me so fucking hard.”
I whimpered. He made me so needy, and he never seemed to mind.
“Can you get a finger in?”
“Yes.” I adjusted my position and pushed a finger inside. He’d be so much bigger, so much harder.
“Ride it, Lily.”
I did as he asked. “I wish it was you.”
Another growl came over the line. “It will be. Soon.”
“Eliot. I’m close.”
“Me too, Lily.”
“Eliot?” I didn’t know what I was asking. Permission? Acceptance? I’d never had phone sex before.
“Let go. Let me hear you.”
I had both his permission and his acceptance. My detonation was hard to keep silent. Whimpers and gasps came out of me. I dug my teeth into the lip Eliot seemed obsessed with.
“That’s it. Ride it out. Fuuuck.” He made similar sounds to me. Grunts and groans. Heavy breathing. I loved every second. He got off on the phone with me. He’d said I was sexy and then he’d proved it while I was in a different town. A different state.
“Eliot?”
“Yeah?”
“This was my first time.” I rested my hand on my abdomen. If he was here, I’d roll into him and cuddle. He hadn’t pushed me away yet.
“Since you have two kids, I’m going to assume you’re talking about over the phone.”
I giggled. “I didn’t give birth to Cali, but yes.”
“Get used to it. I’m gonna have to call you every night.”
“I’m gonna have to answer.” I’d go to bed early if I knew this was waiting after I crawled between the sheets.
“I have to be as quiet as you. Your brother is across the hall.”
“Seriously?”
“Yup. My half-retired bookkeeper doesn’t have to take on extra duties when I’m gone. Jasper can be up here answering the phone and teaching Chambers how to use new apps.”
It was nice to hear my family could help Eliot as much as his had helped me.
A gusty sigh came over the line. “Halloween ain’t gonna come fast enough.”
“No, it’s not.”
“I like you, Lily. I know we’re married, but this, what we did when I was there last, it’s not because I’m trying to convince your aunt about a damn thing.”
“I know.” My response was heavy. I didn’t really know, did I? He told me he wanted me, so why was it so hard to believe him?
“My hand is full of cum because of you, and I’m alone in my room. No witnesses. But next time I see you, I’m going to prove it. Maybe I can take you on a date.”
“Mr. Knight, are you asking me out?”
“Yes, I am, Mrs. Knight. Now I’m going to let you go to sleep because I know those kids get up early. Then I’m going to call you tomorrow night, and I want to hear those needy little moans again.”
Eliot
I sat at the kitchen island, tapping into my phone. Jasper was usually out most nights and I had the house to myself. I thought the kids would be in bed, but Lily had sent me a picture of Cali and Bug playing in the early October snowfall they were getting.
The jumbo box of condoms I had bought sat unopened in my bedroom by the duffel I usually packed when I went to see Lily. Three more weeks and I’d get to see Lily again. Phone sex with her was on another level, but it was nothing like having her come apart in my arms.
As much as I looked forward to calling her in the evenings, I enjoyed our messaging throughout the day. The guys gave me shit for looking at my phone so much.
Me: Who’s having more fun, Cali or Bug?
Lily: No contest—both. The dog and the girl are fast asleep.
Me: Kellan too?
Lily: I have a quiet house. Even the cat is in Cali’s bed.
Me: What are you wearing?
She sent an image. She’d held her phone high and shot a picture of herself giving me a sultry smile while also showing off her kitty-cat pajama pants and a top that had a saucer of milk.
I laughed. She didn’t have to explain her clothing. She was still nursing and would think having a milk graphic on her shirt was hilarious. I did too, and I liked that she was comfortable enough around me to be herself.
Lily: Before you get taken over with lust, I should tell you we have a fish now.
I was taken over with lust regardless, but I had to hear about the fish. And I wanted her voice in my ear.
“How’d that happen?” I asked when she answered.
A soft chuckle gusted over the line. “We went snow pants and boots shopping in Bismarck. In the pet aisle, we saw this little betta struggling. He’s so pretty, but he wasn’t doing so hot in his little container. So…”
She’d never have left that fish behind. “You bought everything he needed, and now he’s in his new palace.”
“He visibly started doing better right away. You should see him. He’s got the prettiest blue fins.”
“I think you’re going to outdo Aggie on the rescue front.”
“I do have room for a horse or two and enough veterinarian connections to mitigate the cost. Cali’s been asking about riding lessons. A lot of kids in her class do 4-H and rodeo.”
If I was closer, or hell, lived in the same zip code, I could teach Cali how to ride. I could even provide the horse. I’d know its lineage and have all the records of its training and temperament. But I wasn’t there. “Whenever you’re ready, I could talk to Aggie and Ansen and see if they had a good lead on a pony for Cali to get her started.”
“That sounds nice.” She paused. “What are you wearing?” There was a slight teasing note in her tone.
I snapped a pic of myself. I had all my clothes on, and my hair was crushed from wearing a hat all day, but I sent it anyway.
“Hot stuff.”
“That’s what an older lady at the grocery store said the other day. I think she was the mom of a classmate.”
Her laughter was music to my ears. “You’re telling me I have competition?”
“Nah, Lily. There’s no one else with tits that fill out the saucer of milk on your shirt. In fact, I think you need to slide your hand down those pajama pants.”
“I’ve never gotten off so many times in my life as I have this last month.”
That was exactly what I wanted to hear. I’d make this year of marriage worthwhile for her. “Are you wet for me, Lily?” I asked her that each time, and each time, I lived for the answer.
That earned me a small gasp. “Yes.”
“Then I’ll have you coming in no time.” I had to shift positions on the stool. My zipper was biting into my erection. I could go to my bedroom, but I liked talking her through an orgasm, out in the open, like I could do it anytime I wanted to.
“Circle that tight little bud with your finger.” I kept the phone to my ear, propped my other elbow on the island, and sank my head into my hand. I widened my legs to take the pressure of my pants off my dick. It didn’t help, but I liked the intensity. I could pretend it was her pressing against me.
Her moan came through the line and went straight to my cock. I could imagine pumping in and out of her. I knew how her walls rippled when she climaxed, how she’d squeeze me.
“Do you need more?” I asked, my voice rough.
“Yes,” she said on an exhale.
“Push one finger inside and ride your palm.”
Another ragged groan. Fuck, she did everything I asked. I curled over the phone like it was my lifeline. My heartbeat thrummed in my erection, but I was focused on her. “Pump in and out.”
“Eliot.” There was the needy whine I loved so goddamn much.
A door banged open. “Hey, the new man of the house is home.”
Fucking Jasper. Her yelp was a bucket of water to my libido.
“Is that my brother?”
“Yes,” I said tightly.
“Oh, hey.” Jasper appeared from the hallway. He’d come through the garage dressed in clean jeans and a flannel. Why wasn’t he at the bar? “Any chance that’s Lily on the phone?”
“Yes,” I answered him with all my irritation.
He continued into the kitchen, oblivious to his massive intrusion, and went to the fridge. “Hi, Lily!”
“This is so embarrassing,” she whispered.
“She says hi,” I told him. He was clueless about my glare stabbing him between the shoulder blades. He’d been sleeping his way through the single-women population of Buffalo Gully, or so I assumed since he was gone most evenings and was a bleary-eyed mess in the mornings. I could’ve gone to bed with the sounds of her orgasm in my ear. I’d be fresh as a daisy in the morning, thanks to my Lily.
“Did he catch you with your pants down?” she asked.
With my dick in my hand? Thankfully not, but I couldn’t say that out loud. “No. I’m sitting at the island.” I continued to glower at Jasper. He turned from the fridge. His hoodie said King Oil and had a giant oil well in the middle. When he’d arrived, he’d dressed for the job like the other guys. I couldn’t place him in an office working on a computer all day. “And he’s raiding my fridge.”
Jasper leaned back to peer at me. “I bought groceries last week. Why are you so grumpy?”
Another light chuckle came over the line. “Cockblocked by my brother. I’m going to bed, and I’m going to finish what you started.”
I made a choking sound. Could I ask her to record it? Send me a picture? Dammit! I would miss out. “Don’t you dare.”
Jasper narrowed his eyes at me like he was afraid I was talking to him.
“Don’t what?” she asked innocently and damn if that didn’t get my blood flowing to all the wrong places when I was in the same room as her brother. “Don’t come really hard while thinking about you?” she purred.
“I didn’t know you had a mean streak,” I growled into the phone.
Jasper let the fridge door fall shut. “Did I walk in on something I shouldn’t have?”
I ignored him. “Lily—Halloween.” I said it like a warning.
“I look forward to it. I might even show you what I’m going to do to myself in bed tonight. Good night, Eliot.” She disconnected. Who knew when I met that girl she’d be the ultimate tease?
I squeezed my eyes shut. How the hell was I going to last until Halloween without taking three showers a day and jacking off? I hadn’t even been that bad in high school.
I clicked my phone off and buried my face in my hands. I could not hurt my wife’s brother. He was my family, if only until the summer, and he was my employee.
“I don’t want to know, do I?” Jasper asked.
“No.”
He contemplated me. All that rummaging in the fridge and his hands were empty. “So you two are actually a thing?”
Crankiness was setting in. Yes. No. Sort of? “We’re married.”
“On paper. But come on, man.”
The arousal from earlier was doused as thoroughly as a week-old campfire. “Come on, what?”
“I love my sister, but we all know you caught her when she was a train wreck.”
I bristled at his description.
He just shrugged. “You can’t convince me that a freshly divorced mom, with a newborn no less, a house that still smells like my grandma, with vet school debt that her douche of an ex made sure stayed in her name before he married her was exactly the kind of woman you were looking for.”
“I wasn’t looking.”
He gave me a steady stare.
What would they think if they knew we’d gotten physical? Neither of us wanted to hear that maybe fooling around when we were supposed to be married in name only wasn’t a good idea. Lily wouldn’t want her family to know. Mine did, but we understood, and my siblings would stay out of her life.
“I like her.”
His gaze stayed steady. The most serious I’d seen him. “You like her, or she’s convenient?”
If he wasn’t looking out for his sister’s best interest, I’d want to deck him. “I like her. And it’s none of your business.”
“But it is. She’s my sister, and I care about her.”
“She’s my wife, and I care about her.”
“And when the year is up?”
That goddamn deadline. This was why I’d been happy with no one knowing. “I can’t move.”
“Can’t or don’t want to?”
I pushed away from the island. At least my erection was gone. “Like I said, it’s none of your business.”
“Don’t hurt her, or it will be.”
“Yeah, and what’d you do to Carter?” I was being a dick, but it seemed like her family only butted in when she called them desperate.
“Just so happens the IRS might be taking a hard look at the books of his vet clinic, and the soon-to-be ex-husband of the woman he left Lily for might’ve been sent time-stamped photos of the two cheating assholes that’ll only strengthen the settlement he gets in the divorce.”
I sputtered, “Holy shit.”
He grabbed a banana from the counter next to the fridge. “Lily hates when we interfere, and Carter did his best to make her feel like shit for it. But that doesn’t mean we’re going to sit back and do nothing.”
My respect for him grew stronger. “If I do anything remotely as damaging as that prick, you have my permission to destroy me.”
His gaze turned appraising. He seemed pleased. “As long as we have an understanding. Just don’t tell me what I walked in on. I’d like to keep this banana down.”