Twenty-Four | Eva
Twenty-Four
Eva
I waited until Ethan was comfortable on the bed before I climbed over and straddled him, lifting my skirt in the process. My thong was still pulled to the side, and the way his eyes focused on it told me he liked that I was still wearing it. I reached down and wrapped my hand around his cock, stroking him a few times as he closed his eyes and let out a soft hiss.
I wanted to take my time and enjoy sex with Ethan, but I was too wound up for any lovemaking tonight. Right now, I wanted it hard and fast, just like every other time we’d had sex.
I lifted myself, making sure I was lined up before slowly sliding down on his hard cock.
His fingers dug into my hips as he held me steady while I worked on taking my shirt and bra off and tossing them to the floor. My nipples hardened in the cold air, begging for him to suck them.
“I’m not wearing a condom,” Ethan said softly, his eyes fluttering open to look at me.
“I know. I’m on birth control and recently had a physical. Nothing to report on my end.”
“Same for me. Mine was right after everything happened, and I haven’t been with anyone since.”
He didn’t have to say Cora’s name for me to know who and what he was talking about.
I leaned down and kissed him as I began grinding my hips and taking him deeper inside of me. His hands slowly roamed over my ass before one gave it a hard slap, startling me in the best way as heat spread through my core.
I pulled back, leaving my breasts hanging freely in his face as I lined my clit up to rub against his cock. It was the perfect position, and I loved being in control as the friction spread tingles along my spine. He leaned in and eagerly pulled a nipple into his mouth, sucking hard enough to bring me a hint of pain right before I came on his dick.
“Fuck,” I whimpered, letting my head fall back as I rode out the waves of pleasure while he took his time torturing my other nipple.
My body was on fire in the best way. Moments later, I felt the warmth spread through me as he gripped my hips and held me in place as he released his load inside of me.
I was, by nature, a planner. Yet everything that happened tonight was totally unplanned, from our dinner double date to him staying the night with me after having several rounds of mind-blowing sex. My body was the most relaxed it had ever been, and I felt calm and at ease having Ethan with me. It felt like we had crossed a lot of hurdles in the past few days, and I was looking forward to where things could go for us. I knew there were still a lot of obstacles ahead of us, including things with Cora, but at least now we both knew how we felt about each other. For now, that was good enough for me.
We sat on the couch watching TV as his fingers lazily stroked my leg, which was resting in his lap. I was tired, but I wasn’t willing to call it a night early, not when I had unrestrained access to Ethan. But that also didn’t stop the thoughts that kept weighing on my mind now that I had time to sit and think about everything.
“Can I ask you something?” I said, tilting my head up to look at him.
“Of course.” His smile was warm and genuine, sending butterflies fluttering through my stomach.
“I know that it’s none of my business, but my curiosity keeps getting the better of me.” I took a deep breath and blew it out as I sat up straight and looked him in the eye. “What did you talk about with Brent? I mean, as far as us .”
I expected to feel his body tense beneath me, but instead, he stayed relaxed and trailed a finger up and down my arm as he spoke.
“I don’t remember word for word what I said, but I’m pretty sure I was a blabbering idiot. I think that’s why Chasity took pity on me and wanted to help. I didn’t go into much detail and just kept it simple. I confessed that I was falling in love with you and that things were getting muddled because of another woman. I also didn’t go into detail on what was happening with Cora, just that we had a one-night stand, and now she was claiming to be pregnant with my child.”
I felt his chest rise and fall behind me as he took a deep breath.
“But I am sorry for discussing what was happening between us with someone else. I didn’t mean to disrespect you. I hadn’t realized what a complete mess I was until Brent called me out on it and told me that I needed to get my head straight. He was right, obviously. But still, I’m sorry that I didn’t know how to talk to you about everything. I haven’t been in love like this before, and it scared me.”
“I’m glad that it helped you to talk things out with him,” I said, feeling somewhat relieved that he had found some comfort in talking to someone that he trusted. In reality, it wasn’t much different than me confiding in Brittany, Lucy, or Gabi. They knew everything that happened in my life, and I would probably go crazy if I had to deal with stuff on my own.
“He was easy to talk to, and he didn’t judge any of it. Maybe it’s because he and Chasity have their own situation going on with his ex, Karly—I don’t know. But it felt nice to know that he could relate, and so could she. I knew that she wanted to talk to you; I just had no idea what it was about. For all I knew, she was going to pull you aside and tell you to run for the hills before you got caught up in all of my bullshit.”
I laughed and shook my head.
“She didn’t say that.” I rolled my eyes as I looked up at him. “She just reminded me that relationships aren’t perfect, and if you want to be with someone, you have to make it work. It takes both people to put in the effort, though.”
It reminded me of my relationship with Jeremy and how no matter how hard I tried to fix us, we couldn’t be fixed because he didn’t care. He never put in the effort and I didn’t see that until now.
“I’m willing to put in the work,” he said, freeing me from my thoughts.
“Me too.” I smiled and squeezed his hand, which was still resting on my leg.
“Hey, have you heard anything from your sister about Art? Has she reached out to him yet?” he asked, changing the subject for me.
“Yeah,” I said, clearing my throat. “She has a meeting with him on Monday, and then they’re meeting at Jeremy’s office on Tuesday to start mediation. I forgot to ask if it would be okay if I took a longer lunch that day to go with her?”
He let out a heavy sigh and squeezed my hand.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
I pulled my head back and tilted it to the side to look at him.
“Why not? If it’s about the time I’m missing in the office, I’ll stay late to make up the hours.”
His face softened as he looked at me.
“Eva, it’s your ex-fiancé and your sister. There’s no way that you can attend the meeting without letting your personal feelings get in the way. That could completely jeopardize things for your sister. Art is an amazing attorney—the best of the best. But he can’t do his job if you create additional complications that he can’t fix. The last thing you want is for your ex to go after your sister in retaliation.”
I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the couch. He was right. I didn’t know why I hadn’t thought of it.
“I didn’t think about it that way,” I admitted. “But she’s my baby sister, and she needs help. How can I not help her? I have to protect her.”
“You are helping her by staying out of it. She has the best lawyer in Manhattan. Let him do his job.”
“How am I supposed to just step back and walk away from this?” I asked, not expecting an actual answer to my rhetorical question.
“You’re not. You just have to be there for her in a different way,” he said softly. “Instead of going to the mediation with her, maybe you can take her to dinner when it’s over? You can still be there for her and support her. Just not in the same room as your ex or her husband. Don’t give them any more ammunition than they already have.”
“I know,” I said and sighed.
“It’s hard, I get it. I really do. But she will get through this. I promise.”
“If anything were to happen to her or Jackson...”
“It won’t,” he interrupted. “You just have to have faith and allow the system to do what it’s supposed to do.”
“I guess you’re right. It seems like there’s a lot of trust that we’re having to put into the system these days.”
I felt his body stiffen next to me and knew that I had hit a chord. I wasn’t trying to, but his situation with Cora wasn’t over, either. It also required us to trust the system and have faith that everything would work out as it was supposed to. Little did we know that our faith was about to be severely tested in the blink of an eye.