45. In Which a Barry White Record Skips Irritatingly on the Turntable
Chapter 45
In Which a Barry White Record Skips Irritatingly on the Turntable
A rectangle of light glowed softly, the only light in the room. After spending hours trying to sleep, Ellie ventured out to the sitting room between their chambers. She had taken a shower, figuring the warm water and time to herself would be all she needed, but as the night wore on, she grew restless. That’s when she decided a change of scenery would do her good. She scrunched into the corner of the couch, mindlessly staring at her e-reader.
“Can’t sleep?”
His deep voice sent a wave of shivers through her as she let out a squeal of surprise, almost dropping the device. Evander chuckled and rounded the corner of the couch. She threw him a glare.
“You about scared me to death,” she exclaimed breathlessly.
“Sorry. I saw the light.”
Her hand laid on her heart. The man dared to stand there in sweatpants, bare feet, and nothing else. The Greek warrior armor was one thing; it made him look fierce and foreboding. But this? The pants slung low on his well-toned hips had her all but hyperventilating. The moonlight through the windows backlit him, giving his wing an ethereal glow, glinting off his prosthetic. Her gaze traveled over him, taking in his sheer size, the dusting of hair on his chest. But her eyes slipped to the other line of hair that started at his navel and trailed down under the waistband. Ellie took in a sharp breath and returned to her device, gaining composure.
“Mind if I sit?”
He motioned to a spot on the couch and lowered himself into it when she nodded. Her cheeks flushed as he sat wordlessly beside her. Glancing over, he caught her staring.
“What?”
Clearing her throat, Ellie shifted her weight. “Nothing.”
Her eyes darted down at the Kindle. She had been trying to read, but her mind kept wandering back to the balcony on the ship. The night her world turned upside down. Her lips pressed to him, his tongue stroking hers, the soft moans, his hands on her had all felt so right. Once they came to Olympus, his hands and lips had reserved themselves to safe places, like her forehead. He stayed close and yet so far away. Last night, under the stars, she desperately wanted to kiss him again. She missed the intimacy they shared on the boat, the kisses that left her wanting more. Wanted them sliding down her neck, across her collarbone, lower. She fantasized about his lips on other parts of her body. The thought of him under her was all she had thought about for days.
“You couldn’t sleep either?”
“No. I was lying awake wondering about training tomorrow and if someone would be splitting apples off my head.”
One side of her lips quirked up. “Huh, I was thinking that very same thing.”
“Fancy that.”
“For the record”—she waved her electronic in the air—“I have no idea how this works.”
“Training?”
“No, silly. The e-reader. We are where? Somewhere on Mount Olympus in Asteria—whatever that means. Some fictional world that turns out to be true, and I can download books. Does Zeus have some magical data plan? Or did Hermes install a cell tower?”
His eyebrow arched elegantly. “Hermes?”
“Yeah. The man’s a terrible gossip, flitting from one god to another. I bet he installed some sort of magic server.”
Evander’s eyes widened for a split second before he exploded with laughter. He hunched himself over as his laugh rumbled. She could feel the vibrations through the fabric of the couch as his laughter echoed off the walls and seemed to bounce around them. Ellie laughed with him, soaking up the sound of his joy. From that first meeting when she forced him to play dominoes against his will, he had become a fixture in her day that she was reluctant to give up when she returned to her world.
A few more days .
That’s what Camulos said, and yet, she wasn’t eager to leave. Awkwardness crept in after the laughter subsided, and she watched the moon’s soft glow stream in through the windows. She caught Evander looking down at his hands.
“Did you get settled back in?”
She blinked. “Umm, yes. Well, no. Well, I don’t know. I guess so, sort of.”
He nodded and sighed, his gaze traveling to the window.
“I’m still confused by all this. I guess.”
“You don’t say,” he teased.
“Hey!”
Before she could say anything more, he shot his hands in the air.
“I surrender. I’m certain, tomorrow, Max will put us through our paces. Tossing us around. Although I’d rather like you landing me on my back.” He grinned at her like a madman and winked. She liked this side of him, the softer side. The side he had shown her the last few days.
She snorted. “Right, I bet.”
God, his dimple.
Before it registered that her hand moved, she brushed her fingertips against his forearm. Electricity shocked through her, sending a thousand butterflies loose inside.
Evander cleared his throat as she yanked her hand back. Scrubbing a hand through his hair, he attempted to act casual as he slid a long arm along the back of the couch and crossed his ankle over his knee.
The soft celestial glow bathed his handsome features in a silver light that made his eyes sparkle, and the dark made the room feel more intimate. With Evander sitting so close, she could trace the outline of his full mouth with her gaze. She fought the flood of memories of that mouth on her in her bed. His breathy whisper of ‘good girl’ echoed through her mind. Her heart sped up, and she ran the tip of her tongue over her parched lips, the memory of his taste flooding in. Shifting her weight, she was suddenly hot and flushed and needed air.
“What are you reading that you can’t seem to put down?”
“Nothing, just something for pleasure.”
Evander swung around to face her. “For pleasure?”
The raspy, breathlessness of his question sent a shiver through her. “Romance novel”—she leveled her gaze at him—“if you must know.”
One side of his mouth twitched. “Romance, yeah? A sweet one where two people kiss in the rain, I bet. Seems like a thing you would read. Crocheting and reading sickening sweet declarations of love.”
Her tongue clicked against the roof of her mouth. But it was the avoidance of his stare that gave her away. A sly, slow smile spread across his lips.
“Miss Ellie!” He exclaimed in mock surprise. “Is it a knight?” He shook his head. “No, not a knight for you. A pirate? Comes and rips the bodice off some maiden who simply can’t help herself.” He wiggled his eyebrows at her.
She tried her best not to give him the satisfaction by hardening her features.
She failed.
He faked a gasp and covered his mouth. “You little minx. You must be reading something very raunchy indeed.” Delight twisted his lips when she darted her gaze to the window. “Oh! It must be properly filthy. Naughty girl.”
The deepening of his voice went through her like a shot. She nervously bit the inside of her lip as she sat back on the couch, pressing her thighs together. She was sure the fire pulsing through her blood would consume her. Days left to only dreams of him had made her restless. Ellie needed to go back to her room before she did something stupid.
“It’s none of your business.” She tried to reply haughtily, but it came out breathless. Evander made a manly squeal of pure glee.
“Oh, it is properly filthy!” He chuckled as she cleared her throat. “Be a good girl for me, Ellie, and read some of your romance novel aloud. Only the saucy parts.”
There it was. Good girl . Those two paltry words. It was beyond understanding how it awakened something in her, but it did. Instantly, her cheeks flushed, and she became desperate to hear it again.
“Absolutely not,” she tried to gain her composure. “What I read is my business.”
“Aww.” He stuck out his lower lip in a fake pout, and she fought the urge to lean over and graze it with her teeth. “But how will I learn what you like if you don’t tell me? I need you to teach me, Ellie.”
Furrowing her brows at his darkening expression, she realized he wasn’t teasing, not as before. The heated look he raked over her sent electricity through her.
“You’re being childish.”
She placed the device in her lap and shook her curls as she loosened her hair. She needed something to keep her hands busy.
“Reading romance is about connection.”
“True. But the one you’re reading has you flushed,” he said with a wicked smirk, making her toes curl into the carpet. Ellie rolled her eyes, and that’s when he moved. Before she could react, he reached across her and grabbed her e-reader from her lap. She squealed to move away, grasping it, but his long arms came round her. He grabbed her wrist in one hand and wrestled it away with the other. Once free, he held it over his head like a trophy as she growled and lunged for the device. Clicking it open, he read aloud.
“She trembled under his touch–”
Lunging again, she grunted as she reached across him, landing in his lap.
“Evander!” she hissed as she swatted.
“His hand slid between her creamy thighs and found what he wanted. She was slick, wet, ready for him. He circled her–”
Ellie squealed in protest as he changed hands overhead and held the device far from her reach. An arm snaked around her waist and effectively kept her from stopping his unjust mistreatment.
“Not fair!” She squirmed against him, pushing his hands down, trying to wiggle free.
“One of his giant hands trapped both of hers overhead. ‘All mine,’ he breathed and entered her hard without giving her time to adjust to the width and breath of him. Her moan was otherworldly as he quickened—” Evander laughed at her attempts to swat at the device he was torturing her with.
“You are a very naughty girl, reading this filth. And here I thought you were so sweet. You had me fooled, what with all your books and your yarn. My darling is a bit lascivious.” He tsked at her.
Ellie swatted once more, and the e-reader dropped onto the couch. Using his thigh to push off, she pounced. Her body stretched across his lap, her butt high in the air, straddling his thigh. The now familiar sound of Evander sucking air through his teeth came as he let her win. He grunted as Ellie pushed herself up, and sat back against the couch, touching her shoulder to his. Ragged breath punctuated the moonlight room for several seconds.
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled, “I must have been too heavy when I—”
His mouth collided with hers hungrily, claiming her. He was rough and demanding, where he had always been soft and questioning before. Evander deepened their kiss, his tongue sweeping in. He tasted like everything she craved. The fire lit on the ship was low embers, but it roared to life under his hot mouth. Sinewy muscles rippled under her hands as she smoothed them over his chest. Her fingers traveled over leather straps as she slid her hands to rest on the back of his neck. A whimper escaped her at the feel of all that power moving under her palms.
He stopped and roughly grabbed her chin. His calloused thumb swiped her swollen bottom lip, black eyes swallowing her whole.
“You were not hurting me. You aren’t too heavy for me. I love your curves. I have wanted to explore every dip, every curve of you. Going slow. Teasing you. Tasting you. Until I have you desperate and shaking for me.”
His lips found her jaw and trailed kisses down, following the curve of her neck. With each press of his lips, she melted further into him as his desperation scorched her skin. Burrowing his hand in her hair, he held her immobile, angling for his sweet onslaught of kisses. As he tugged, she let out a gasp, and fresh waves of desire crashed into her, settling at her core. She kissed him with such force that their teeth clinked together, certain she bruised her lip. Coming up for air, his irregular breath brushed her kiss-swollen lips as he rested his forehead against hers.
“Damn it, Ellie.”
His hand on her hip kept her at bay or pulled her near, she couldn’t tell. Fingers dug into her ample flesh. Putting distance between them, she leaned back. A growl loosed itself as he slammed his lips onto her mouth. Their tongue clashed with fevered urgency, and he pulled her onto his lap. Straddling him, her moans turned into a whimper.
This is what she wanted.
Him.
Just him.
“By the gods be damned, Ellie, you’re driving me mad.” He kissed her lips, then one cheek.
“I don’t think I can stop.”
A kiss feathered across her other cheek.
“I don’t want to stop.”
Running his tongue down the column of her neck, she tilted her head, giving him more access.
“Tell me not to stop.”
“Don’t stop,” she panted.
Grabbing her ass in both hands, he lifted her and laid her on the couch in one motion. Effortlessly. Her arms went around his neck as she hit the cushion under her, and he settled between her thighs. One leg trapped against the back of the couch, hiked up, giving him sweet, delicious, torturous access. The fabric of her nightgown was thin, and as he swept his hand up, it tightened over her breast. His hand covered one, kneading, caressing, driving her out of her mind. Her aching nipples hardened into tight peaks at the contact.
“Tell me, is this how you want to be touched?”
Dipping his head, he took one cloth-covered peak into his mouth. Ellie’s back arched in response. When he pulled away, her nightgown was soaked to her skin. Any intelligent thought fell away as he reduced her to desperate moans. He traced her curves with expert precision. Mapping every dip for later exploration. She knew she had to stop this and be rational. He had a vow to protect. Or something about a vow. Cool metal brushed her knee, hiking her leg up as he flexed his hips, driving the tip of him into her core. She forgot why the vow was important.
A smile ran across his lips at her increasingly desperate attempts to rub herself against him. Starting at her knee, he smoothed his hand up her thigh, the hem of her nightgown traveling up her body.
“Lift up for me, darling.” Came the raspy command. In a second, he had it pulled up over her head.
“Ow!” she protested when the gown caught on her hair. Giggles bubbled up.
“Sorry,” he murmured against her neck, smoothing a hand over her hair.
Ducking his head, he explored her body with his mouth, laying kisses on her collarbone, the hollow of her throat, the tops of both breasts. His hands were everywhere at once: her knee, her hair, her hips. The leather strap that held his arm scratched against her sensitive nipples and caused Ellie to arch further into him. Gripping his hair with her fingers earned her a low growl and in second he had both wrists in one hand, pinning them above her head.
Something primal sprung to life in her with her arms restrained, her body his to explore. Raw desire coursed through her at the prospect of being at his mercy. Evander stared down, studying her, his eyes glossy as his breath fanned her cheeks. Ellie nodded, giving him permission, aching for him to continue. Something in his eyes changed, snapping to life, ready to devour her.
“Damn it,” he roared and jerked back, flying to his feet.
The loss of his weight, his warmth caused her to sit up, wrapping her arms around herself. Evander opened his mouth to speak, then snapped it closed. He did this several times, giving his handsome features a fishlike hilarity. Pacing, his fists clenched at his sides.
“Evander? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” He tousled his hair. “Everything. I don’t know.”
He paced back and forth in long strides, covering most of the distance of the room’s width. Unwrapping her arms, Ellie folded her hands in her lap. The motion would have been demure had she not been topless in only her underwear. Glancing at her, he hissed as his heated gaze raked over her.
He pointed. “I see you and all I want . . . I’ve always done the right thing, Ellie. I’ve resisted . . . but you—dammit! You need to run. Run and lock your chamber door,” he stammered, pointed to the room behind her, and gestured wildly.
“What?”
“Aren’t you listening? Run.”
“Why?” She furrowed her brow.
A strangled sound crawled up from the back of his throat. “Because I—fuck it, run. Ellie, run. Please.”
She tilted her head and watched him scrubbing a hand through his hair, flaring his nostrils like a dragon.
“Why?”
“I can’t resist you. Don’t you see? I can’t stay away. You consume my every thought. I’m struggling to keep control, and if I kiss you. If I touch you, I’m going to lose control.” He panted as he paced.
“And if I want you to lose control?”
“No. No!” he said, slicing his hand through the air. “I can’t. I’m so careful. Everything, every moment, is calculated . . . but now?” He stopped pacing and turned to her. “I’ve always been told a man needs to be gentle. Tender. And the gods know you deserve gentle after that animal . . . after he . . . but you’re sitting there. You look so fucking good. Damn it, Ellie, I don’t want to be gentle.”
She crossed her legs, and their eyes met; heat flashed in the dark.
“Maybe I don’t want you to be gentle.”
Evander laughed incredulously. As if the mere idea was absurd. As if she didn’t know what she desired. What she would like to explore. With him. Shaking his head violently, he began pacing again. His steps were shorter, keeping within the length of the couch. Not to be deterred, Ellie decided to show him exactly what she wanted. All her round, luscious body was on display as she rose to stand.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he scolded as he marched by.
She let a playful smile curl her lips. “Like what?” She fluttered her eyelashes, and he groaned, clasping both hands behind his head.
“Damn it, Ellie. When you look at me . . . with nothing but your . . . your.”
“My panties?” she glanced down innocently and snapped the waistband against her hip. The sound he made had her briefly thinking he would combust there on the spot. She bit her bottom lip, and he let loose another strangled groan, halfway between man and beast. She didn’t know teasing could be this much fun.
“Fuck! Don’t say panties and then look at me like that.” Evander sucked in his bottom lip as he paced. Several muscles in his jaw twitched as his hands clenched into tight fists.
She shrugged and looked down. “Why not?” she said with mock innocence. “They are . . . panties.”
“Damn it, Ellie. What I want to do with you. Say to you. You need to run. Run into that chamber and lock the door. Now! I’ll give you to the count of three.”
Slowing his pace, he looked like a tiger, ready to pounce.
“What do you want to do?”
“I want to fuck you,” he spat out. “I want you to burn me, consume me. I want to bury myself in you and feel you rise as I take you. Hear your pants, your moans. It’s taking everything in me not to grab you, throw you on my bed, and fuck the living shit out of you. Hard. Take what I need. Slate this damn lust.”
“What else?”
Returning to a dragon snort, he paused in his pacing. “What?”
Slowly, she raised her hand to her collarbone, dancing a finger along, and arched an eyebrow. She kept her eyes trained on him, enunciating every syllable. “What else?”
“I—I want you on your knees. I want those soft lips wrapped around my hard cock—taking me deep.” When she nodded, he continued, his voice gravelly, shaky. “I want to tie you down so you can’t move. I want to slide into you, feeling you around me, wet and hot.”
“Mmm,” she purred.
“I want to know how much you can take and how you like to be touched. I desire to control your pleasure and keep you on the edge for as long as you can take it. I long to bury my head between your thighs: my tongue, my fingers, my teeth. I crave you. Every part of you. My thoughts when I’m alone, and my cock in my hand, is you. You and me. And I’m fucking you until you scream out my name.” He stopped pacing. “Run, Ellie. I’m counting. One.”
Standing before her, he was so close she could feel the heat waves coming off him. Her tongue ran along her bottom lip. She was already aching, but that admission, those words, they danced across her already heated blood.
“Why don’t you run? That should scare you. It doesn’t scare you?” His aristocratic voice had turned husky.
“Are you trying to scare me? Or telling me how you fantasize about me?”
Evander clenched his jaw further and stared.
“Am I scared of you wanting to”—she swallowed—“fuck me? No.”
“But it’s ferine. This lust consuming me, making me want things with you I was told no woman would want. Awakening desires. Making parts of me I’ve hidden spring to life. You deserve softness and tenderness. After all you’ve been through, you deserve a better man than I am. I’m afraid to give in, to let go. To hurt you as this beastly creature.” He swallowed. “Run Ellie. Two.”
When she didn’t budge, he stepped closer. Ellie danced her fingers across his forearm.
“Not if both partners are into that sort of thing. Not if they both agree. Not if I also wanted you that way. To learn what you like, what I like. I’m not fragile, Evander. I won’t break.”
He raised his eyebrows so far up his forehead that she would have laughed had his face not been so sincere.
“But, I’ve always been told—” He waved his hands. “My proclivities are unfavorable. This wanting of you. Wanting you so badly I’m in pain. Wanting to tie you down in my bed. Thinking how I can use your body to wring every ounce of pleasure out of you.”
“No. Just a man.”
He trembled as she ran her fingertips up his arm to his bicep.
“You deserve better than me.”
“I want you.”
“You . . . You”—he swallowed, his hands still in tight fists—“you’d like that? Want me?” His voice was barely a whisper.
She nodded. “I have thought about you fucking me. I admit, I’m curious about”—she glanced up at him—“other things. It’s an intimate form of trust. I trust you, Evander.” She ran her hand down his chest, coming to rest on the leathers, and his tattoo. His heart thundered under her palm.
“Three.”
One second, she touched his chest, and the next, he had her against the bookshelf, causing her to grasp the rolling ladder for support. She landed with an “oof.”
His arms on either side caged her in, gripping the shelves behind. Lowering down so they were at eye level, he pinned her with a heated look, his mouth inches from hers.
“Tell me what you want,” he growled at her.
A coquettish smile spread across Ellie’s lips. He was daring her to give him a reason to push her away. She grabbed the waistband of his pants and, in a breath, wrapped her hand around him. Sweet agony scrawled across his face as he closed his eyes, enjoying her gliding up and back down his length.
“This.” She leaned forward and bit into his chin. “Tell me what you want, Evander. You want my mouth wrapped around your dick? Tell me.”
A strangled groan tore its way out of his throat, and his arms tensed on either side, muscles pulled taut like ropes. Behind her, well-manicured nails and machine scratched the wood, making a delightfully erotic sound. She thought for a moment he would push off the bookshelf, walk away, leaving her. When Evander’s eyes snapped open, she shivered at the pure lust mirroring her own.
“Fuck it. Get on your fucking knees.”
Sinking down, she didn’t waste time teasing him; she had done enough of that already. His pants were down, and her hand wrapped around him quickly. She stroked once, then twice. Looking up, she found him staring down at her between his arms, still braced against the bookshelf and the ladder.
“Uncircumcised, I see.”
When her tongue touched him, he jerked and groaned from somewhere above. Deciding not to prolong his torture, she reveled in the sounds he made as she ran her tongue along his shaft. Flowering her lips over the head, she took as much of him as she could in that first go, hitting the back of her throat. Hollowing her cheeks on the slide back up, he shuddered. Her head bobbed in a slow, steady rhythm that had him groaning, his hips flexing as she worked his cock. He became more enthusiastic, moaning, gripping the bookshelf to hold himself up. She looked up at him as her tongue stroked the underside of him, and he threw his head back.
“Gods, the sight of you on your knees. Take me.” His whisper gravelly and strained. “All of me.”
Obediently, she tried taking as much of him down her throat as she could. She grabbed the base and pumped as her tongue slid around him.
“I want to hold your head.” His request was hoarse, almost inaudible. Meeting his gaze, she nodded.
He threaded his hand through her hair, gently guiding her, the other still attached to the shelf.
“Damn.” he moaned. “Yes. By the gods. Use your tongue,” he panted, and Ellie eagerly obliged. “That feels so good. Such a good fucking girl taking me like that.”
Drops of cum on her tongue spurred her on, and he strained to hold out. She would enjoy having him fall apart in her mouth. She pressed her thighs together as her mouth took command, rolling her hips. Fingers from one hand expertly found her swollen clit while her other continued pumping him at the base. She honestly didn’t know who would finish first.
“Come for me. Come while you have my cock in your mouth.”
Evander’s whimpering overhead muffled her moans. Stroking herself and him simultaneously had an exhilarating symmetry she craved. She was close.
“Don’t stop, Ellie. I’m so close. You’ll swallow for me?” he hissed, and she nodded as she hallowed her cheeks, pulling her tongue along the underside. “That’s my girl.”
A couple more bobs of her head, some strokes of her fingers, and she fell, her cries muffled. His hips jerked forward, pushing his thick cock further down her throat. He let out a tense cry, pulsing and throbbing in her mouth. The taste of his cum was just as good as the taste of him. When she had swallowed all he gave, she rose to her feet.
They both were panting, quivering from their mutual release. Evander braced against the bookshelf and ladder as if, at any moment, he’d collapse. Her fingers glistening with her arousal, she swiped his bottom lip before stepping out of the cage of his arms. He shivered and pulled his lip into his mouth, closing his eyes at the taste of her release.
“I want you, Evander. Tender and soft or bound and fucking me—hard.” Her lips twitched as he struggled to catch his breath. “I’ll wait, though, until you’re ready.” She pointed to his chamber door and walked over. Opening it, she looked back at him.
“Whatever you decide.” She drummed her fingers against the wood. “I’ll be right here.”
She closed his door behind her with a soft click.