Elsie
Chapter Thirty-Nine
“What are you doing?” I froze, not entirely convinced my imagination hadn’t conjured this moment up.
“Trying to show you what I’ve been too much of an idiot to figure out how to say out loud.”
“Are you trying to say you like me?” I asked, smiling, his face just an inch from my own.
“I think that’s pretty damn obvious.”
“I think it was not.”
“Elsie,” he said seriously.
“Will?” I responded, equally grave.
“For the first time since I’ve met you,” he said against my lips, “I want you to stop talking.”
And only because I was too dizzy for words, I complied.
Lost in the kiss, he pushed me against the counter, cradling the back of my head before it could hit the wall.
Then, dissatisfied with that position, lifted me up on top of the counter until our faces were more evenly aligned.
He kissed me, and kissed me, and kissed me again, the way I’d only ever seen done in a really good romance film.
I’d once read a line in a book about getting kissed breathless. This was the first time in my life I understood the truth of that line.
“Wow,” I rasped shakily, barely getting the words out before he kissed me again. “I guess I should go on dates with Theo more often if this is how I get treated after.”
He paused, only to shoot me a scathing glare that said more than words ever could.
“No?” I laughed. “Not a fan of that?”
“Give me a year, and then maybe I’ll feel comfortable seeing the two of you in the same room again,” he said before coming back to claim my mouth once more.
He worked his way down to my neck, leaving me breathless and feverish as if I’d never been kissed before.
And damn, he was making me think I hadn’t.
At least, not like this.
Wow.
Kissing had always been mundane. Sometimes pleasant, but usually more of a chore than anything.
I should’ve known it would be different with Will.
My hands gripped his face, holding him still in a desperate attempt to make sure he kept doing whatever it was he was doing to make it like this.
And then, suddenly, he stopped. A whimper escaped me as he pulled away, taking his lips with him.
“Why’d you do it, anyway?”
“Do what?” I tried to pull him back.
“Go out with him,” he clarified. “I would’ve taken you to the stupid festival if you wanted to go.”
“You would’ve?”
I was oddly touched.
“Of course I would have.”
And then, as if that was all the time he could spare for words, he dove back into me, lips meeting mine once more.
“I was just doing what you suggested,” I said between kisses. “Putting myself out there.”
“I meant with me, smartass.”
“Oh,” I said, eyes widening in realization. “Oh.”
“Yeah.” He kissed me again. “Oh.”
“I hadn’t picked up on that.” I laughed against his lips.
“Clearly,” he muttered. “Otherwise you wouldn’t have been on a date with fucking Theo.”
I pulled back, bracing my hands on his chest as I stared at him, barely suppressing a laugh.
“Isn’t Theo your friend?”
“It doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have kicked his ass if he tried anything with you.”
I smirked, some lesser part of me pleased by this blatant display of jealousy over my wildly unremarkable date.
“So possessive, William.”
He rolled his eyes.
“Apparently.”
I shot him a questioning look, and he sighed, his hands tracing the length of my arms until they found mine.
“It’s new for me,” he admitted, intertwining our fingers and staring down at them. “Feeling all this…everything.”
“Feeling all this everything?” I laughed. “So eloquent.”
“Leave me alone,” he said, pulling me closer. “I can’t think around you, let alone speak.”
“Actually, I think you just don’t like talking to people in general.”
“I don’t,” he agreed.
“Well, you talk to me.”
“You’re the exception.”
“Why?”
“You like talking.”
“But do you like talking to me?” I batted my lashes dramatically.
“There are other things I like doing with you better.” His eyes fell to my lips.
“Come to think of it,” I reached up to wrap my arms around his neck, “talking might not be as great as it’s cracked up to be.”
I don’t know who leaned in first this time, but it didn’t matter.
With his lips on mine, I couldn’t think of a single thing in the world that did.
“Jesus Christ, Elsie,” Will said after several hours and tangled limbs later. “Why is it so damned cold in here?”
“Maybe because you’re not wearing any clothes?” I teased, trying to pull him back to where he’d been hovering above me.
He didn’t budge, glancing around the room as if he might suddenly find an open window responsible for the chill in the air.
While he was distracted, I looked him over again, letting my gaze linger.
For the millionth time that night, I felt myself blush. For the first time in my life, even my wildest imagination had been unprepared for how much better the reality of him was.
He caught me staring before I could hide what I knew was written all over my face. But I guess I didn’t need to anymore.
He surged forward with another kiss, my arms moving instinctively around his neck to pull him back on top of me, content for another few hours of this.
Just as I sank back into the pillows and let out a contented sigh, Will remembered his former complaint and sprang up into a sitting position beside me.
“Okay, something is seriously wrong,” he said, looking humorously grumpy against my paisley sheets.
“Yes,” I agreed, pulling the duvet up to cover me, “you’re not kissing me.”
“I meant the temperature in this house, Elsie,” he said, pulling on his pants and going to examine the baseboards.
“It’s fine,” I assured him. “I just forgot to move the heater from the living room to the bedroom before we, you know.”
“Are you telling me it’s always this cold in here?”
“Not when I have the heater on,” I said, dramatically obvious.
“Elsie, why the hell didn’t you tell me this place doesn’t retain heat?” He turned to glower at me, and damn it, if that look wasn’t some part of me was attracted to that particular expression more than any of his others.
“It didn’t bother you earlier.” I rolled my eyes, watching as he pulled his jeans on.
“I was a little busy earlier,” he deadpanned.
“We could be busy now…” I countered, but he was already getting dressed again.
“Or,” he said, tugging clothes out of my laundry basket that I hadn’t gotten around to fold yet, “we could go to my house.”
“Your house?” I sat up straight in bed, intrigued. “But I’ve never been to your house before.”
“There’s a first time for everything,” he said, crossing the room to pull one of my sweatshirts over my head.
“I just sort of thought you don’t like people at your house,” I said, head popping out from the opening in time to see him pulling my sweatpants over my legs.
“You’re not exactly ‘people,’” he said, moving to tug a thick pair of socks onto my feet.
“You know,” I frowned, “most men aren’t this interested in dressing a naked woman.”
“Well, I’m not driving you through town wrapped in bedsheets,” he said. “That’s a sight I’d rather preserve for my eyes only.”
“Not a fan of voyeurism, then?” I asked cheekily.
His answering glare gave me all the satisfaction I was looking for.
“Come on,” he said, scooping me up against him. “Let’s get out of this icebox.”
“If you insist.” I sighed dramatically, unable to resist the urge to tease him. “But hey, if public displays of indecency aren’t your thing, and you’re looking for other ways we can spice things up—”
“No,” he cut me off. “Before you ask again, I’m also not a fan of swingers, threesomes, or any other type of activity that involves me sharing you. Okay?”
“Fine by me, Will,” I said, arms around him while I smiled against the crook of his neck. “That’s fine by me.”
“What the hell, Will?” I gasped as the truck drove down a dirt road I had no idea existed. Shadowed by trees, the night seemed even darker, and it felt like Will was leading us out of civilization until the sight of a modest cabin came into view, lit by the headlights.
“What?”
“Of course you would live here.” I shook my head.
“Meaning?” he asked, killing the engine.
“Leave it to you to find the one spot of isolation in the smallest town in America.”
He huffed a laugh before climbing out of the truck to open my door.
“My grandpa liked his privacy as much as I did,” Will explained, helping me out of the car. “Thank God for that.”
When the night air hit me, I was grateful for the warm clothes Will had insisted on me wearing.
After coming down from the high of our earlier excursions, I was desperately relieved to be somewhere that didn’t require three pairs of pants and a dozen blankets to get through the night.
“Wow, it’s so quiet here,” I remarked as the sound of crickets filled the air. “I mean, I know it’s like midnight and it’s Colbridge, but still.”
Will held my hand as he led me to the door, the simple act of it making me feel ridiculously juvenile as my stomach fluttered at the contact.
“Yeah, we’re as far as you can get from any other house while still technically being in town,” he explained, unlocking the door and bringing us in.
I held onto his arm, using the darkness as an excuse for why I stuck so close to him.
Or maybe I just liked finally getting to know what his arms felt like under my touch.
Either or. He didn’t need to know which.
He flicked the light on, revealing a space that was so perfectly Will, I couldn’t help but smile.
There was little in the way of furniture besides a couch on one wall, a wood-burning stove on the one across, and a coffee table in between.
The curtains were rustic, as was the section of the room dedicated to fishing poles and tools, while all along the perimeter of the wall there was a makeshift ledge serving as a home to Will’s CD collection and other trinkets.
Right as I was about to make a quip about the Bruce Springsteen collection, sprinkled with a surprising array of John Mellencamp, something more interesting caught my eye.
“Shut up,” I said, feet padding across the floor toward the sliding glass door that led to his backyard. “You live on a ? I didn’t even know Colbridge had a lake!”
“Glad you approve,” he said, and though he muttered it in his usual tone of sarcasm, something in his eyes told me he really meant it.
“This is, like, the perfect place for a writer’s retreat,” I told him, moving around to inspect further. “You know you could make a ton of money renting it out for a few hours to people who need the peace and quiet to work.”
He looked at me like I was insane.
“The only writer I want in my space is you.”
He gestured for me to sit before moving to start a fire. I settled down on his couch, surprised by how comfortable it was.
“So, are you saying you’ll let me come here to write sometimes, then?”
“Whenever you want,” he said, making some gooey, sentimental feeling bloom inside my chest.
If I were a lesser woman, I might’ve let out an embarrassing giggle purely from the giddiness I felt at having him here like this, with me.
“You know, there’s something very attractive about watching you start a fire,” I told him as he worked.
“Yeah?” He snorted. “Why’s that?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “I guess it just seems masculine.”
The fire came to life under his hands, and he turned back to face me, noticing my grin.
“Your standards are low,” he said, coming to sit down beside me. “Lucky me.”
He stretched an arm around my shoulders, and I nestled into his side, wondering how four hours ago I’d wanted to scream in his face, and now I was in his house, never wanting to leave.
“I also like watching you hold tools,” I admitted.
“Tools?”
“Yeah, watching you fix things is very hot,” I said with an air of drama to underplay how honest I was actually being.
He laughed. “That’s just a basic human skill, Elsie. Anyone can do it.”
“Not everyone looks as good as you do doing it.”
He rolled his eyes, but he was smiling, and in the matter of full disclosure, I kept going, just so he knew where I stood.
“And you know what else I like?”
“I can only imagine.”
“I really, really like watching you make me coffee. That one’s probably my favorite of all.”
“Good thing I like making you coffee,” he said, fingers tracing circles on my wrist.
I sighed contentedly into him.
“While we’re at it, are there any other incredibly mundane things that do it for you? Maybe watching me unlock doors? Or, I don’t know, drive?” He snorted, as if it were ludicrous.
All I could offer was an unapologetic shrug.
“Elsie, you can’t be serious.”
“What?” I asked defensively. “It’s not my fault you look so incredibly capable doing normal tasks.”
He shook his head in slow disappointment, barely holding back the smirk that appeared on his lips.
“To tell you the truth,” I admitted. “I think I just like watching you do everything.”
His eyes burned into mine in a way that would’ve made me feel embarrassed if we hadn’t already broken down so many barriers tonight.
“Same here,” he said, pulling me even closer. He leaned down, pressing a kiss to the top of my head. “Watching you exist is my favorite part of the day.”
With the fire crackling and Will’s heartbeat thrumming under my ear, I fell asleep warm and content, hoping beyond everything that this was the one thing in my life that wouldn’t be fleeting.