Chapter 14 Ewan
EWAN
“Tab A goes into slot B.”
Fuck, yes, it does…
Aluminum poles clatter against each other as they hit the ground, slipping out of my hands. The beautiful, melodic giggle that accompanies that borderline dirty innuendo sends a shiver ripping up my spine, almost making me forget I just dropped what I needed to erect this tent.
Erect. Ha.
Walked right into that one. Because thanks to her, that’s exactly what I am.
“In this case,” I say, picking up the pieces I let fall to the ground. I turn to look at Maisey, locking my gaze with hers. “It’s more like the pole slides into the sleeve, nice and easy, and fits perfectly.”
Maisey swallows hard, the muscles in her neck contracting, her eyes never leaving mine, as she saunters across the camping showroom floor toward me.
I’m at work, and I know I should behave, but that’s not easy, watching a shudder course through her when she stops in front of me.
Licking her lips, she lets out a long exhale, and I can’t help but smile.
“Oh.”
I toss the partially built tent to the ground, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her in for a kiss. She melts into me, kissing me back like it’s been years since we’ve seen each other rather than days, letting her lips linger against mine.
To be fair, we have been like two ships passing in the night over the last few days.
Thanks to her taking on the new shift with the EMTs, plus my gearing up for Reel Madness and the summer in general, it’s been a busy week.
It’s almost closing time though, and I’ve been counting down the minutes until I get to go home to be with her.
Guess I don’t need to do that anymore.
“Hi, beautiful.” I press my lips to her forehead, inhaling the sweet scent of her shampoo. I’ve missed having that on my pillow the last couple of nights, and need to get her back in my bed. “To what do I owe the honor? I can’t imagine you’re here to help me set up the new camping display.”
“Is this your way of telling me you need help getting it up?”
Ugggggh….
I groan, simultaneously proud of her pun and unable to believe she went there. Gotta admit, though, it was a good one.
“When it comes to you, baby, I promise you, that’s not a problem.”
My comeback is thankfully locked, loaded, and landed almost without thinking.
Because if I took the time to think, then all the same insecurities from this past weekend would creep back up.
Actually, that’s not true. They never went anywhere.
They’ve been front and center in my brain since Sunday dinner.
Leaving me wondering if she was as satisfied as I thought.
Or worse, if I’m going to live up to her expectations. Small-town life can have its charms. But small-town sex? What if that isn’t what she’s after?
Maisey crouches down, reaching for the tent, handing me the set of poles that I dropped. I take them from her, continuing to slide them through the fabric, as she picks up another set, starting to snap them together. I smile, loving how natural this feels.
“I know we’ve had a busy week, and we haven’t really seen each other, but you’ve been all up in that head of yours since Sunday. Wanna tell me about it?”
Just like it comes natural to her to call me out on that.
I glare at her for a second, taking half a heartbeat to consider telling her that there’s nothing going on up here and that it’s all in her head.
But she’s known me long enough to know that’s a lie.
I could tell her no, I don’t want to talk about it, but then she’ll opt for what I call the tornado tactic—where she holds an entire conversation with herself, rambling on and on, winding herself up like the Tasmanian Devil until you finally break down and spill whatever it is just so she will stop.
Looking down at the gear in my hand, I make sure everything is secure, trying to buy some time, and find the right words before proceeding. My insides tense, a knot forming in my chest as I work up the courage to say this.
“Was it Anton’s comment?” she asks, trying to prompt me.
“Fucker…” I mutter, taking the set of poles from her.
Grabbing the other side of the tent, I start to push them through the fabric, my heart banging against my chest. I need to tell her. I know I do. It’s not like any of this is a secret. Or anything I’m ashamed of. I just want everything to be perfect for her.
“His comment wasn’t entirely accurate,” I defend. “I’ve been on the pub crawl. I’m not a…”
I arch the last two poles, snapping them together with a loud click. Feeling triumphant, I hold up my arms like I just won a gold medal.
“Virgin?” Maisey finishes my sentence for me.
Yeah…that…
Nodding, I round the tent and sit down just inside the unzipped front. I pat the spot next to me and wait for Maisey to come join me. It’s a tight fit, my large frame taking up a good portion of the two-person tent, but she squeezes in, snuggling up next to me.
“Not a virgin,” I say, softer this time.
“Cashed it in with Laura Suttle when I was twenty-five after a drunken night at The Giddy Up with Hux, for no other reason than I didn’t want to be a virgin forever.
We hooked up once or twice after that, but I was clearly not what she really wanted.
That said, unlike my brothers, my uh…dance card, as Jace would put it, isn’t very full.
Other than Laura, and a couple of miscellaneous blow jobs—”
“Miscellaneous blow jobs?” she scoff-laughs, cutting me off. “With who?”
“What do you mean with who?”
“You name-dropped Laura.”
I pause, narrowing my eyes, trying to determine whether she’s serious. The expectant expression staring back at me says yes, so I opt for the coy answer.
“A gentleman doesn’t kiss and tell.”
Maisey scoff-laughs again, shaking her head, the smirk on her face so kissable it’s distracting. “Miscellaneous blow jobs…”
I ignore her remark, pushing forward, afraid that if I don’t, I’ll never get this out.
“Other than those, my only other real experience is you.”
There’s a beat of silence, and the only sound I can hear is my pulse rushing through my veins, growing faster the longer Maisey takes to respond. The knot in my chest tightens, multiplying into more and more knots that continue to turn in on themselves.
Then she squeaks.
Yes, squeaks.
I look at her, not sure that I heard her right.
She smiles up at me, her squeaks turning into a giggle, those bright blue eyes shining like someone set a pair of aquamarine gemstones in the sun.
What the…
“Are you…” I start, the knot tightening to the point it cuts off my ability to breathe.
Maisey giggles again, and this time, there’s no mistaking it. Nor the growing smile on her face.
“I don’t know what you’re laughing at, Maisey. I’m trying to tell you how I feel. That I’m actually kinda insecure about this,” I blurt out, my voice louder than I intended. “That there’s no way I’m going to measure up compared to all your international lovers!”
Clapping her hand over her mouth, Maisey closes her eyes, and it’s clear that she’s trying to hold back laughing even harder.
Fuck me…
“Ewan Porter Hayes, I love you so damn much.”
Errr…what?
Cupping my face with her hands, she holds me for a second, her skin soft and warm against mine, her thumb brushing gently against my cheek.
The gesture is tender, comforting, and loving, but is nothing compared to when she leans in to kiss me.
Her lips are just as soft, if not more so, but the power behind them is everything.
The brief contact sets me on fire, igniting me from the inside out, soothing every part of my soul that had been aching just a moment ago.
I reach for her, trying to pull her closer, wanting all the space between us to disappear, but she pulls back, holding on to my gaze and letting me know that she has me.
And she isn’t letting go.
“I have no idea what thought process got you to international lovers,” she says, trying to hold back her giggle with my made-up term. “Or what makes you think that men all around the world have sex differently.”
“They might…”
She cocks an eyebrow at me, her judgment not so silent. “I can tell you, as a nurse, the basic mechanics are the same everywhere.”
Shifting, she crawls into my lap, straddling me and resting her forehead against mine. I grab on to her hips, yanking her down to me, enjoying the moan she lets out as her core makes contact with my hard-on.
“I also don’t know why you seem to think I took a lover in every new country I was in. Because that is not at all the case.”
I pull back, sweeping the hair out of her face and tucking it behind her ear.
Maisey sighs, all the mirth slipping away as she stares back at me, leaving only love.
My heart squeezes, the series of knots loosening, feeling like they start to flow out of me and toward her, enveloping her in a whole new bind.
One that contains the two of us—together.
“It’s not unreasonable for me to believe that you've had relationships in the last ten years.”
“Just as it wouldn’t be unreasonable for me to believe that about you.”
I lift a shoulder casually. She’s not wrong. It’s not an unreasonable assumption. It’s just also not who I am.
“I’ve been focused on other things.”
“Same,” she whispers, grinding against me, making my dick throb. I groan, digging my fingers into her hips, wanting her to do it again. “There was one—once—nine years ago. That was it. No miscellaneous blow jobs…”
I laugh, her little taunt there at the end almost too much to handle. Especially paired with the wiggle she adds in for effect. My dick strains against my jeans, desperate for attention, but more than anything, I want to taste her again. To hear the little noises she makes.
I want to make her mine.
“I’d say that I might need to up my game to make you forget those, but I have no game, soooo…”
“They’re already forgotten, baby.”
“Good.”
Running my hands up her sides, I breach the hem of her tee, her warm skin greeting me as I venture up north. Maisey leans forward, pressing her lips to mine, and I lose myself, my mind going blank as we kiss.
“Tell me, baby,” I whisper, kissing along her jaw. My hands reach her breasts, running over the thin fabric of her bra. “You said once. Did you really mean—”
“Once,” she cuts me off, arching into my hands for a second, then pulling back.
“I let it slip to one of my fellow nurses that I was still a virgin, and she told me I was putting too much weight on it, and that once I got the first time over with it was no big deal and dating would be easier. So, she set me up with this guy she knew so I could get it out of my system.”
What the…
Despite my best efforts, my shock shows on my face, because Maisey giggles, kissing me again to reassure me.
“That makes it sound worse than it was. He was a nice guy, I promise. We went out a couple of times, and there was no pressure or anything, so I thought, yeah, maybe I do just need to get it over with. Turns out, the whole thing was just okay. I give myself better orgasms. So I turned my focus back on work and—”
Errr…excuse me?!
“Did you just say that you give yourself better orgasms?”
Maisey nods, a devilish smirk spreading across her face. If I thought my dick was hard before, fuck me, I was wrong. It’s solid concrete now. The thought of her playing with herself, making herself come, is making it almost impossible to think.
At least about anything other than making her come.
“Fuck, Maisey…you have no idea how badly I want to fix that.”
“No time like the present.”
Yanking her down into me, I make sure she knows I’m not kidding. That she has me ready to go. Based on all her wiggling and grinding as we’ve been talking, there’s no way she’s been unaware, but still. I am making sure it’s crystal fucking clear.
“This is a two-person tent, right?” She giggles.
Sure the fuck is.