Chapter 12 #3
It was best left out that he was the only man in Jupiter whose cock I had been exposed to, which was entirely the point.
I was trying to insinuate that I’d slept around.
Which was well within my rights to do. I could sleep with a different man every night should I want to.
But I didn’t want to. Too much work, and truly, not enough men knew the intricacies of female pleasure.
Vibrators were the safer and more efficient bet.
Elliot, instead of looking possessive or revolted, threw his head back and laughed.
I watched the corded lines of his throat work in laughter, the sound prickling my skin in a way that wasn’t entirely unpleasant.
No, nothing about it was unpleasant.
Everything about watching Elliot laugh, with the backdrop of the ocean and the buzz from the wine I’d consumed earlier, was perfect.
He stopped laughing, yet he didn’t stop smiling, that easy, contagious and impossibly warm smile.
“I’m glad that at least one part of me has your esteem,” he rubbed the back of his neck.
“I’ll keep working to ensure you miss what’s attached to my cock in due time.
” His voice was thick with teasing. “But as it stands, you’ll be reunited with my cock soon.
” He paused, the smile morphing into something that wasn’t as laidback or warm.
This smile burned through my clothes, my skin, scalding my very insides.
“If you’re a good girl,” he added, his voice a raspy drawl.
I jolted before I could think to steal myself and hold on to my mask.
Years. I had years of training to not let men affect me. Not once had I slipped. Not even with Jasper.
I straightened my spine, rendering my expression neutral. Cold. But the damage had been done. Elliot had picked up on my reaction. It was impossible not to, considering the way he watched me like I was the only thing worth watching on that beach.
“Well, I suppose we’ve given my family and friends enough of a show.” I was done with the conversation. “And I assume I won’t be able to convince you to leave.”
He tilted his head with a smile. “Unfortunately not. I was invited. Leaving would be rude. And I couldn’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be.”
I clenched my fists at my sides, swallowing my need to argue. It seemed to serve as foreplay between us. And my body was already eager for him.
Instead of replying to him, I turned back to the house. Although my steps were shorter, slower, knowing that I’d be the victim of teasing, jokes, and worse, hope. My family and friends were prone to that. Hoping for happy endings.
Which I was far too cynical about, but even I could’ve deny that there was something in the water around Jupiter since the place seemed to be happily ever after central.
Still, I was a realist, and I understood these people, whom I loved and was immensely happy for. But they were the exception, not the rule.
They wouldn’t listen to reason when I told them Elliot and I were just sex. They would nod condescendingly with light in their eyes, planning a fucking wedding.
So I dragged my feet in the sand. Not just because I wasn’t wearing the shoes for it.
And maybe because I also was greedy to remain near Elliot.
When Elliot threaded his fingers into mine as we made our way back up the path to Nora and Rowan’s backyard, I ripped my hand away.
“Absolutely fucking not,” I snapped. “I do not hold hands. Especially not in front of a bunch of romantic assholes who are already too involved in this.” I gestured between us angrily. “Holding hands is for teenagers and idiots, of which I am neither. And we are not together. We’re fucking.”
Elliot’s smile didn’t dim any as I said all of this, he just watched me like I was a toddler having a tantrum he found adorable. Which made no sense since I’d been around plenty of toddler tantrums as an aunt, and they most certainly were not adorable.
I stomped ahead in front of him, intent on creating distance that didn’t make logical sense since I’d already screwed up by kissing him.
I was off-kilter in a way I hadn’t been in my entire adult life.
It was my trademark to stay cool, unruffled in any kind of situation.
In boardrooms with billionaires yelling, threatening to ruin me, in darkened offices with heads of crime organizations…
In all of those scenarios, I had kept my cool.
Yet there on the beach with Elliot, I was akin to a chicken running around with its head cut off.
His hand curled around my wrist to haul me back to him. Our lips met again, though this time, it wasn’t a furious crash of need. No, he grasped my chin softly, and his lips moved delicately, slowly. Tenderly.
And I let it happen.
I liked it.
As usual, he was smiling when he pulled back from my lips, and I was greedy for more, breathing rapidly and appalled at my body’s response.
No one, no one had kissed me like that before.
I hadn’t let them. Wouldn’t let them. Moreover, I hadn’t wanted to let them, hadn’t found anything remotely attractive about kissing like that. It felt belittling, somehow.
Yet with Elliot, it felt empowering. Like I held this man in the palm of my hand. The kind of power I had thought I enjoyed having over men made me feel vaguely sick when I thought of using it on Elliot.
I didn’t want him anywhere near me. I couldn’t trust myself not to ruin him.
Yet I couldn’t be the cause of that smile dimming.
I hadn’t realized how cold I’d been while living in the shadows, and Elliot’s smile was sunshine.
Greedily, selfishly, I wanted to bask in the sunlight for a little while longer.
I didn’t say anything, didn’t allow myself to snap at him, just stared into his eyes.
“I know you’re not an idiot, or a teenager, despite what your flawless skin communicates.” He winked, grabbing my hand again. “But you’ll humor me, for now, and you’ll hold my fucking hand.” His voice stayed serene, casual, despite the order punctuated with a curse word.
Again, I had the ability to spit proverbial tacks back at him, to rip my hand from his and properly stomp away.
Yet I didn’t.
Warmth spread from the palm of my hand up my arm to my chest, then my limbs relaxed. I hadn’t realized just how tense I was at baseline until I was touching Elliot.
He was the human form of Xanax.
Once he registered that I wasn’t going to yank my hand away, he smiled contentedly, leading us back up to the backyard where not a single person even tried to hide their blatant stares and shit-eating grins.
We were saved by the children, who piled on top of me and demanded that I play with them.
Elliot happily indulged them, expertly catching the escape artist Mabel as she tore from the yard in search of the ocean and a general sense of trouble.
She was already showing signs of being a daredevil like her father.
Eventually, we went our separate ways, Elliot reclaiming the beer he was offered then drifting over to the men at the grill. I sought solace in my wine glass, ignoring every single pointed look that went in my direction as I sank back into my chair.
“You’re with Elliot Shaw?” Tiffany smiled against the rim of her glass.
“I was thinking about the menu for the—" Avery attempted to change the subject, taking pity on me and earning my forever loyalty—though she already had it.
Nora let out a small squeak that had everyone’s eyes darting toward her, and Rowan seemed to teleport the few steps between them.
“Oh, thank god.” I pointed to Nora’s stomach. “Officially my favorite niece.”
“Hey!” Ava protested from where she’d been delicately pulling petals off daisies.
“Except you.” I gave her a wink. “You’ll always be my secret favorite, not some baby I don’t even know yet. She could suck.”
“We’re trying to get Ava excited over being a big sister,” Nora said through gritted teeth. “Not thinking she’ll suck.”
I gave her a smile. “She’ll like it.” I glanced over to Rowan. “It’s pretty fun.”
Rowan, who was in absolutely no mood to get into a warm family moment, didn’t even look in my direction. His attention was hyper-focused on his wife.
“We need to go, now,” he growled at Nora, who didn’t seem in any hurry.
Nora—who was known to be convinced that she had a brain tumor or blood clot on any given day, thanks to previously debilitating health—looked as calm as anything.
She patted Rowan’s hand. “We have time.”
His jaw tightened, and I watched panic cloud over his features before he replaced it with his ‘I am man, I take care of shit’ mask. “That’s what you said last time.” I watched him take a visible breath before his eyes fluttered, everything in him changing in an instant, softening.
“Buzzy Bee,” he murmured his pet name for his firstborn. She hurriedly climbed into his outstretched arms, a definite Daddy’s girl. Her limbs clamped around him.
“You’re going to have a sleepover with Aunt Fiona and Uncle Kip and your cousin,” he told her, brushing her long hair from her face. “And then we’re going to introduce you to your baby sister.”
I watched the bottom lip protrude from across the table. “I’m not excited anymore. Aunt Calliope’s right. She might suck.”
Now Rowan’s gaze shot to me, no longer anywhere near soft or loving. “Thanks a lot for that.”
I gave him a winning smile before focusing on Ava. “If she sucks, you can come live with me.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” Rowan’s eyes were comically round.
I smiled wider.
“You said ‘fuck’,” Ava giggled, tugging on his beard. “You owe me a princess tea party.”
I almost swallowed my tongue, trying to hold down my laugh.
Nora’s soft giggle told me she wasn’t even trying.
She made to get up from her chair, and Rowan expertly changed his grip on his daughter so he could help his pregnant wife up.
As Nora held out her arms to her daughter, I watched Rowan hesitate, no doubt worrying about his wife’s ability to hold their daughter while pregnant. Nora challenged him with a simple stare, one that communicated without words since they’d been in this battle since she found out she was pregnant.
As was normal, Nora won.
Nora took her daughter, nuzzling into her neck and whispering in her ear.
Everyone else was leisurely rounding up their children, preparing to get them home, Kip fiddling with the grill, Kane chasing his daughter.
“Looks like dinner is cancelled.” I hadn’t realized Elliot was beside me until he spoke. “And I’m in front of you unable to believe any excuses you may make. So how ’bout that dinner?” His eyes twinkled. “You know, the one you promised me. You don’t strike me as a woman who goes back on her word.”
I glared at him.
There was provocation in his tone. And a teasing warmth that always existed with him. Under the weight of his gaze, I either felt comfortably warm or alight with an inferno of desire that wasn’t at all bad. I felt none of the coldness from the shadows that seemed to stick to me like glue.
It was disconcerting, to feel such comfort with someone who wasn’t part of my family or inner circle. Especially being a man I barely knew.
“I am a woman who keeps her word. But I have to help clean up here.” I gestured to the table cluttered with glasses and appetizers.
Tina let out a snort from beside me, from where she’d obviously been shamelessly eavesdropping. “Since when do you help clean up?”
My head swiveled in her direction. “Since my brother and sister-in-law are going to have a baby and deserve a clean house,” I said through gritted teeth. I hadn’t been willing to go up against the take-no-shit biker babe before, but I considered doing it then.
“Don’t worry, hon,” Tiffany singsonged from where she was stacking plates. “We’ve got this. Go have a date with your fisherman.” She gave Elliot a sweet smile.
I might’ve glared at Tiffany if her wife wasn’t right next to me and likely to wallop me one for daring to do such a thing to her wife. But Tiffany wasn’t being calculated or scheming; she was a genuinely nice person who wasn’t reading the nuance of me not wanting to have dinner with Elliot.
Which made sense because on the surface, who wouldn’t want to have dinner with the amiable, attractive, eligible, single man who could eat pussy like a champ?
Well, not Tiffany or Tina, who I figured could give Elliot a run for his money in that department.
Jesus, how my mind wandered just so I didn’t have to formulate an answer.
“See?” Elliot’s white, slightly crooked self-satisfied smile pummeled me with its beauty. “I take you away and ensure you’re a woman of your word.”
His grip on my hip was gentle, the pressure a whisper of what was to come. Him directing me. Without clothes on.
Desire blasted through my entire body, setting fire to all the reasons why this was a bad idea.
“Fine,” I barked out. “But I can’t guarantee that I won’t have to rush out to meet my new niece or nephew.” He couldn’t argue with that, he was far too good of a person.
I stepped out of his grip to go hug my sister-in-law. “Make it a quick labor, for both our sakes,” I whispered.
She laughed. “Yes, Calliope, I’ll endeavor to make my labor as short as possible to ensure your comfort.” Her sarcasm was good-natured and without any venom— the woman simply wasn’t capable of it.
“I’ll have my phone on,” I spoke to Rowan. “Call me the second she crowns.”
“How about we don’t and say we did,” Nora cut in, wincing at the mention of crowning. I didn’t have any first-hand experience, but I was guessing a head stretching your vagina to its limit was not a pleasant experience.
“I’ll come pick up the girls in the morning for a coffee date,” I told Fiona. “Does Mabel want to come?” I asked Avery.
“If you’re game enough to take on three toddlers,” she nodded.
I grinned. “I’m game enough.”
I just wasn’t game enough to turn my back to my family in order to face the smiling man I’d been craving for days.
Therefore, I stretched out my goodbyes, using the children as human shields against the onslaught of emotions I felt toward Elliot.
But soon there was no one to say goodbye to, and there was just Elliot, waiting patiently, an amused look on his face and an outstretched hand.
I didn’t know if the hand was a taunt or a test.
Or maybe he just wanted to hold my hand. Maybe it was that simple with Elliot. Maybe my reptilian brain didn’t need to operate, scan for threats.
Maybe I was safe with Elliot Shaw.
Which was the scariest thought of all.
And yet I took his hand.