Chapter 14 #3
“Uh, uh.” Henley tips my chin up so our eyes connect.
“Don’t talk about yourself like that. You’re not na?ve, Elodie.
You have natural instincts that most grown adults don’t, and trust me, I’ve seen the worst of the worst doing what I do for a living.
You’re witty and joyful, not too young. Hell, you make me smile and that’s a feat in itself.
Only someone who really has a way with words can do that. ”
I try to fight my smile, but it’s no use. “A compliment from Henley Clark? I think I should document this moment so I never forget.”
He tickles my ribs, making me squeal. “Watch it. Gorilla man can still appear at any time.”
“Who?”
He shakes his head. “Never mind. Continue.”
As I rehash the events that led to me leaving Los Angeles, I find it difficult to gauge Henley’s reaction.
His face is stoic and his jaw is hard, which isn’t much different from how he normally looks.
But when I get to the night at The Charming Bull and brace for his response, he asks a question I wasn’t expecting.
“What’s Liam’s last name?”
“Uh…why does that matter?”
“Just tell me.”
Narrowing my eyes at him, I say, “Henley, you are not going to get all murdery like your sister.”
He arches a brow at me. “The two of us are related, sweetheart, which means we share a lot of the same tendencies.”
I place one hand on his shoulder and frame his face with the other. “I’m okay.”
“You had a panic attack because of what some stranger said to you, and it was triggered by a man forcing himself on you. None of that is okay, Elodie.”
“I know, but I’m working through it.”
He frames my face with his hands now, his hazel eyes boring into mine. “You know I would never do that, right?”
“Yes, Henley. I know that.”
He brushes his nose against mine again. “I want you to feel safe with me.”
“I do. Safer than I’ve felt in a long time.”
“Good.”
“Okay. Now it’s your turn, Henley.”
Leaning back, he creates distance between us and lays his head on the back of the couch, staring up at the ceiling. “I don’t know if I can yet, El.”
“I think you can, but I’ll give you time if that’s what you need. Just know that when you’re ready, I’m here to listen.”
“My story? What’s made me so closed off from feelings?” He blows out a breath. “It’s long and makes me so fucking mad that the idea of sharing it gives me the urge to hit something.”
I rest my head on his shoulder. “Then don’t tell me the whole thing. Tell me one part, one piece that will help me get to know you better. That’s all I’m asking.”
Henley is quiet for so long that I wonder if he truly isn’t ready for this. But when his words come out, my heart breaks. “I didn’t eat for almost an entire week when I was ten.”
I lift my head to see the pain etched in the lines of his face, but his eyes remain locked above him. “Henley…”
“My parents left for six days. They left a ten- and eight-year-old alone for six days with no food in the house. It was summer, so I couldn’t depend on school food to get us by.
I stole a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter from a gas station and fed Dilynne peanut butter sandwiches for an entire week. And she didn’t complain once.”
My eyes well with tears.
“Survival was all I could focus on. When my parents finally came home, they yelled at me because there wasn’t any bread left.
And when they went to the store, they bought me a box of cereal and told me and Dilynne to make it last.” I rest my head back on his shoulder as my tears fall, landing on his shirt and making the fabric wet.
“That was the moment I realized how much I hated them.” He goes silent again, so I let him.
We sit there on the couch until I feel the tension leave his shoulders as he exhales.
“Thank you for sharing that with me,” I whisper.
“Why? So now you know how fucked up I really am?”
I straighten and turn his face toward mine. “No. Because it proves you’re so much stronger than I already knew you were.”
Our eyes bounce back and forth between each other, and then suddenly, Henley is sliding me onto his lap, my legs draped around his hips. He buries his hands in my hair and studies my face, toying with my bottom lip with his thumb before pulling my mouth to his.
And we drown in each other.
I feel weightless, yet heavy at the same time, this physical need pushing down on me, building pressure between my legs. I know that Henley said he wanted to take things slow with me, but my body is protesting the idea, and my hips start moving over him in a leisurely rhythm, testing the waters.
“Elodie…”
“I’m so horny, Henley,” I moan, pushing down on him harder. “I’ve been pent up for weeks and God…” Closing my eyes, I pick up my pace, gyrating my hips over him faster. “I just need a release.”
He leans back but tightens his hold in my hair. “Then use me. Let me watch you get off.”
“What about you?”
Shaking his head, he says, “This isn’t about me. Not tonight.”
“Henley…”
He drops one of his hands to my hips, prompting me to keep moving.
I can feel how hard he is beneath me, the flimsy fabric of his athletic shorts and my soft denim the only barriers between us.
“Fuck, take your shorts off,” he rasps, guiding me to stand and reaching for the button on my jean shorts, releasing it and helping me push them down.
My eyes fall to his erection tenting his shorts. Licking my lips, I shimmy out of my shorts, standing there in a plain white tank top and yellow lace thong.
Henley’s gaze drags over me, his voice rough. “God, you’re perfect.”
I return to his lap, straddling him again and positioning myself so that his length lines up perfectly with my slit, the wetness on my underwear seeping right into his shorts.
“I can feel how fucking wet you are, El, how needy you are.”
“I told you.” Bracing my hands on his shoulders, I find my pace again and moan out loud from the difference in sensation of not having as thick of a barrier between us.
He closes his eyes, tips his head back, and groans. “Fuck, Elodie. Keep using me, sweetheart.”
Our heavy breathing fills the room as I work my clit against him, wishing he was inside of me instead, wondering if him stretching me open with his cock would teeter on that line of pleasure and pain, given his size.
“Jesus, give me that mouth.” He pops his head up and pulls my lips back to his as I rub my clit along his length, fighting for the friction I need to find my release and moving faster as I search for it.
Those first familiar tingles appear and then I break free from his mouth, fighting for air as I feel myself get closer to the edge, pressing my cheek against his.
I whisper in his ear, “Yes…yes, Henley. I’m—I’m gonna come.”
“Fuck, fuck!” he grates out as my dull cries muffle his groans, my hands burying in his hair as I clench around him, riding out the waves of my release and wishing it would never end.
When my body finally starts to relax, Henley’s head is resting on the center of my chest, my hands holding him there. “Holy shit…”
A tremor races through him. “Fuck, El.”
When I lean back and he follows suit, I peer down at him, smiling softly. “Well, that just happened.”
His chuckle is reassuring before he points down to his shorts. “Yeah, that just happened too.”
The wet spot in the fabric has me puzzled until realization clicks. “Did you…”
“Pretty sure I was a teenager the last time this happened, so be proud.”
I’m not gonna lie, I kind of am. “You sure that’s not just from me?”
“No, sweetheart. You made me come just from feeling you, watching you, and hearing you get off.” He drags his nose up my neck. “And I’ve never experienced anything so…fucking…sexy.”
My body is still wired from the physical release, but my mind is humming too.
“What is happening between us, Henley? What does this mean?” I whisper, afraid of what his response will be. But I need to know.
I’m not going to let this be something we brush under the rug like our kiss.
He sweeps my hair from my face, tucks a strand behind my ear, and surveys my entire face before answering.
But the wait is worth the response. “It means that for the first time in my life, I’m letting myself feel something instead of running from it, and all I’m asking is that you let me while I figure out the rest.”