Chapter 50
FIFTY
Austin
THE WAIT WAS OVER. MY future no longer presented itself in black and gray. Instead, it was colored by the endless ways Elle ignited my soul.
Hand in hand, we walked into the room where it had all begun. No words could prove how I felt. No more apologies or gifts. I needed to show her how happy she made me. Her return and confession in the kitchen had been enough to free me from my restraints.
Elle Madelyn was finally mine.
My girl scanned the guest room like a broken bobblehead doll, her forehead scrunching at the realization that her belongings remained scattered where she’d left them. Untouched.
“I never put your things away in case you decided to come back one day,” I admitted.
“Have you even washed the sheets since I left?” Her grin as she admired the unmade bed was stolen straight from Mona Lisa.
Was I obsessed? Yes. Did I care anymore if she knew it? No.
“Of course not. It was my reminder that you existed and weren’t just a fever dream.”
I released her hand, not because I wanted to, but so I could look at her better when she slowed. She stopped before reaching the bed.
“That’s not creepy at allll,” she said. Her last word stretched longer than the rest.
I chuckled.
“Men in love do terrible things. You’re lucky that’s all I did.”
“Are there … other things you wish you had done, Chief?” She stepped closer, challenging me.
The word Chief hissed as it left her lips and sank its teeth into my dick with a venomous bite.
My Navy days might have been behind me, but she could call me Chief for the rest of my damn life. The impact of the word spread through my groin. I shut the door behind us before returning to her.
“Why don’t you get on the bed and let me show you?”
My request barely touched the air before I grabbed what was mine by both shoulders and sat her sternly on the edge of the mattress. Elle bit down and softly sucked one corner of her bottom lip.
I couldn’t look away.
She was even more cosmic now that she finally saw me for who I really was—hers.
“If I ask nicely, will you take off your clothes?” I continued, needy. I’d beg if I had to. Adrenaline spread like lava through my veins.
She was a masterpiece in high-waisted jeans and a skintight vanilla sweater that blended seamlessly with her chest and neck. I noticed her French manicure too—my perfectly polished beauty.
“Isn’t that your job? What happened to the Austin from the woodshed? He’d never ask nicely.” She beamed.
Her thumb rose and drew a line from my cheek to the corner of my mouth. She deserved to see the parts of me I’d kept hidden under aliases of professionalism and gentleness the last time I saw her.
Her wish was my command.
“It’s time for you to prove you’re not going to take off on me again. So, I’ll say it a little less nicely this time. Take. Off. Your. Fucking. Clothes. Before. I. Shred. Them.”
“Or what? Is Big Bad Chief Carterson gonna get the surveillance camera hooked up and expose me to all my secret admirers?” she sassed.
Oh, she’d poked the bear.
“Mmm.”
My angel had a dark side that was equal parts inviting and hypnotic. My eyes closed. My boxers tightened. Every inch of me begged for release.
Silky honey hair was the only thing remaining on her bare shoulders after she obeyed my command. I stepped back to admire the girl who had stolen my heart piece by piece. Elle quickly shimmied her pants off as if she were allergic to every thread.
“Good girl. Finally listening to the man who has known what’s good for you this whole time. If only you’d listened sooner, we could have avoided all our lonely nights.”
I couldn’t help pausing to admire her. Her tits were perfect in every sense of the word, even more so with the snowflake pendant and delicate chain stopping short of her breasts. I made a mental note to buy her more jewelry because seeing her wear something I’d picked out made my dick pulse.
Throb.
Her nipples hardened under the cold air—my new favorite part of living in Illinois. My trance remained intact until Elle dragged her white lace panties down her legs, fracturing my attention.
She was pure magic.
“If you actually knew what was good for me, you’d shut your mouth and kiss me …” She scooted higher onto the bed, purposefully putting an additional foot of distance between us.
Her doe-eyed gaze never left mine. Our time apart had strengthened her resolve. I loved it.
I fixated on the glossiest lips I’d ever seen, knowing they’d taste even sweeter than they looked.
They did.
“Yummy,” I growled lightly into the skin next to her mouth. The flavor of her cotton-candy lip gloss brought me back to the Navy Pier. Slowly, I straddled her and pulled my lips away, less than an inch from hers, pausing before barely tasting them again.
And again. And again. And again.
Until it became fatal for both of us to hold back any longer.
My cock hardened.
“I think I’ve proven that I know the difference between what’s good for you and bad for you, haven’t I?” I whispered.
“Not recently,” she panted.
The good-girl facade came naturally to her, but her heavy, lustful expression told me she was ready to be something other than innocent. Goose bumps crawled up her stomach and arms when I traced the heart-shaped freckle below her collarbone with my tongue.
She sighed, loving it.
“Do you trust me?”
Her brow arched. “I’m here, aren’t I?” Without hesitation, she released the words into my atmosphere, filling my brain with the trust she’d found in me again.
Her sweet, feminine scent multiplied my cravings as she stared at me.
I imagined her touching herself to thoughts of my mouth on her, my cock in her, and my memory flowing through her since the last time she had been in my arms. Shock waves pummeled my stomach at the thought.
“Last time I walked away for five minutes, you vanished,” I stated. I gently placed her hands above her head onto the mattress, then continued, “This time, I have a plan.” My warning wasn’t faux; it was focused. I grabbed the roll of black paracord sitting on my nightstand.
When I couldn’t sleep, I often spent the time sharpening the rope-tying techniques I taught my recruits. Square knots, clove hitches—I could tie hundreds of variations of nautical knots with my eyes closed.
“Do I have your permission to tie you to the bed so you can’t run away again?” I asked ever so politely.
Elle’s face ignited. “You have my permission to do whatever you want to me …” she moaned feather-light, shifting her bare hips—the ones calling out for me.
My teeth met, and my lips parted in answer. I hovered, holding most of my weight in my legs as I brought her hands to the bedposts and secured them one by one. I’d never hurt her, but it sure was fun, proving to myself that she was mine in a real way. No more lies separated us.
“Handy stuff, this paracord, huh?” I sounded calm, but the view from above my girl suffocated me.
Her back kissed the sheets, and she winced, the stiff cord lightly nipping her wrists. The knots weren’t tight, but they were rigid enough to create some friction. To gently mark her as mine.
“Should I stop?” I stroked her cheek, unwilling to cause her anything but pleasure.
“Please don’t …” she begged.
I heard it in her heartbeat, the way her lean stomach rose and fell with the same desire pummeling mine. She needed me as badly as I needed her.
I ran both hands down her arms, pulling them away just before finding her neck. Bowing to her, I ducked my head and licked, savoring the taste of her salted candy skin. Her back muscles faded deeper into the bed, accepting their fate as I continued my invasion.
“That feels incredible. You’re not allowed to stop,” she ordered, breathy.
I paused, skimming her body until it reached her face.
“Oh, I don’t plan to. Ever, Elle. You’re mine.”
The bedposts quivered, jolting with every little nip I administered to her flawless skin. She moaned again when I approached her wide hips.
They were my favorite gateway drugs.
“Any last words before I eat you for dinner, dessert, and a midnight snack?” I asked.
“Austin, please … I …”
The cat had her tongue, but my tongue was about to catch that tasty little cat.
One thigh rested between my heated cheek and tattooed arm.
I pulled her other leg toward me, resting it opposite the other.
It was more than enough to send me over the edge.
We were from two different worlds, but those differences had built us.
Differences had no power when the tides were in control.
No doubt remained that they had been exactly what brought her back to me.
I planted a kiss into the crease separating her thigh from the depths of her and paused, delaying the touch a few seconds too long. I placed a second kiss, this time closer to heaven. One final swipe of my tongue grazed the last centimeter separating my taste buds from her clit.
“I need you … now,” she whined.
The sound struck me deep in my core.
I whispered into her, “Finally.”
Finally, she needed me like I needed her.
Desperately.
I broke the distance between us, and my tongue dived into her like rain meeting the ocean, neither of us able to distinguish what was her and what was me. Her pussy and my mouth were a single cresting, jumbled wave.
I let it pull me under.
“You taste so … fucking … sweet.” I nipped, every word separated by a flattened flick of my ravenous, starved tongue.
There wasn’t much I loved more than making out with the swollen, salivating parts of Elle spread open before me. No matter how much of her dripped down my throat or my chin, it would never be enough to quench my insatiable thirst for her.
I quickened, allowing her shivers to guide my pace and my movements wildly left and right.
“Come on, baby. I need more of you. Show me how much you missed me.” I spoke into my microphone.
The sentence vibrated her legs on impact. Her steady moans and the erratic tremble of her thighs told me she was close. But I didn’t need her close.
I needed her so far past the edge that she’d never forget whose mouth she had been made for.
“Ahhh, yes …” she cried out.
Finally, she crumbled around me. Her thighs tightened around my temples while I savored her release.
My smile dissolved into her. I took great pleasure in the satisfaction I brought her.
Not only did she deserve it, but it turned me on in ways that receiving pleasure of my own never could.
My gorgeous girl reeled, radiating from every inch of her overwhelmed body.
Slowly, her breathing steadied as she joined me back on earth.
“Untie me,” she urged, attempting to sit up quicker than I’d anticipated. She couldn’t though, her restraints keeping her in place.
“But I’m not quite done with you yet. I …” I spread my palm and fingers wide against her stomach, halting her.
“I’m serious. Untie me,” she ordered.
Oh no, had I gone too far? I obliged immediately, unwilling to push her past her limits. The paracord securing her unraveled, falling onto the corners of the bed as soon as I untied the knots.
With her freedom came a sudden, devious grin. She eagerly motioned to reverse our positions and climbed my body, mounting it like it was hers.
Without a doubt, it was.
Relief overtook me. No longer the rag doll being thrown around, my girl became the puppeteer.
I was more than happy to be her puppet.
“I love you,” she whispered, nestling her nose into my neck, her legs draping my sides.
“I loved you first.”
I wrapped my arms around her waist, feeling like a completely new man since her return to Haroldeen Lane.
The best night of my life was just getting started, and all I could think about was the time I’d spent wishing she were mine.
But I didn’t have to anymore because, finally, she was.