Chapter 30 #2
I didn’t want Rafe to have to choose between me and his father. I didn’t want him to know what kind of person the King was behind closed doors. It was a burden I had already carried, and didn’t want Rafe - kind, carefree, lighthearted Rafe - to have that weight on him, too.
I thought I was doing the right thing.
“Callum, wait up!” Elia comes sprinting to me.
“Elia, it’s cold outside, go back to the cabin.”
It isn’t that cold outside in actuality. The spring night air feels refreshing, the cold nip rejuvenating both my senses and emotions.
“I wanted…to make sure you…were okay,” she pants, catching her breath.
“I’m fine.”
“If you’re fine you won’t mind my company, then.” She loops a hand around my elbow, staring up at me, challenging me to contradict her.
I pat the top of her hand in surrender. “I never mind your company.”
We walk together silently, and I appreciate that she isn’t prying into my conversation with Rafe.
She respects my space, and I again am overwhelmed with how much I care for her.
Despite my initial pushback, her presence is comforting, and by the time we reach the barn, my head isn’t as heavy as it was.
“Come on, I saw a ladder to a loft when we were in here.” Elia drags me to the back of the barn, passing the horses munching on hay.
“After you,” Elia gestures to the ladder. I hesitate for a second too long. “Unless you wanted to sleep in the same room as Rafe?”
I hastily climb up the loft, not wanting to linger on the image that had passed through my mind of Rafe and I sharing a bed again.
The loft is small, but cozy, and anywhere is better than being in the cabin right now. We can’t stand up in the space, but Elia manages to find some old blankets in a corner and some filled feed bags we can use as pillows.
We lay down side by side, staring up at the wooden slats of the barn roof. To the right of us, there is a large enough hole in the ceiling that we can catch a glimpse of the stars. It reminds me of our stargazing on the Midas.
I gaze at the constellations again through the roof, noticing the Queen, the King, and the Hunter, and their presence helps ground me.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Elia asks. She brushes her hand lightly against mine. I hadn’t realized that my hand was shaking slightly, so I firmly clasp her hand in response.
“Not particularly.” Elia doesn’t press the issue further, but I find myself opening up to her. Maybe it’s because of what Rafe had said earlier, or maybe I am finally tired of shouldering everything.
“He told me why he never returned, and it was all because of a miscommunication. He threw away years of our lives for something that wasn’t true.”
“Did you tell him that?”
“He didn’t want to hear it.”
“He’s afraid to hear it.”
“What do you mean?” I adjust my body so I’m facing Elia, propped up on one of my elbows.
Elia mimics my position. “I mean, if this was all a miscommunication like you suggested, Rafe would have to come to the realization that he did throw your relationship away for practically nothing. That would be a hard truth to swallow.”
“I didn’t think of it like that.”
Elia waves a hand in a small motion. “He’s angry because he cared. If he realizes he was upset for no reason…” She trails off.
“You really want Rafe and I to smooth things over between us, don’t you?”
Elia nods enthusiastically. “You both have your own half-truths about what happened, and until you sit down and talk it all through, you’ll never land on the actual truth.”
“And if we do, somehow, fix the mess between us? What happens then?”
“We take it one day at a time, like I told you before. I won’t hold you back from Rafe, but nor will I give you up. Love is rare in this world. I believe that if you’re lucky to find it, no matter where it’s found or who it’s with, you should hold on to it.”
“You might be the best thing that’s ever happened to me, Siren.” I trace her lips with my fingers, outlining her smile that spreads across her face.
“You might be right.” She opens her mouth, capturing my finger in between her plush lips, and sucks lightly.
The sensuality of her motion makes my cock jump to attention. “Oh, I’m definitely right.”
“Maybe I’ll prove it to you, just in case.
” Elia’s lips crash to mine in a heated embrace, and I kiss her back with a desperation I haven’t known before.
A part of me acknowledges that I’m trying to prove to myself that Rafe’s presence doesn’t affect me, that I could love Elia wholly and completely without caring about Rafe.
I also know that this kiss might be overcompensating for the fact that Rafe did linger in my thoughts, that I enjoy both Elia’s soft curves and Rafe’s hard lines and angles.
Elia pulls back slightly, hand working its way down my body to skim my bulging erection. My pelvis jolts forward, trying to make full contact, but she continues to tease.
“Stop thinking so much,” she murmurs against my lips.
“Make me,” I whisper back, grinning as she captures my lips again. Her hand palms my cock fully and she eagerly swallows my groan that escapes.
I know this is not going to be a long rendezvous, no foreplay or preamble necessary. We both need this time to ground ourselves to each other, to remind ourselves of the connection we share with one another.
Elia strokes me a few times through the fabric of my pants. I can tell she wants to make this about me, but I would die before I would surrender my chance to touch her body.
Lips still locked together, my hands reach for the hem of her shirt and help her throw it behind her. I take a chance to breathe, enjoying the vision of Elia in the patches of moonlight, looking like the temptress and siren she is.
“You’re absolutely stunning,” I praise. “I don’t know what I did in life to deserve someone as beautiful as you.”
I appreciate the fact that Elia never shied away from my gaze. She doesn’t cower or try hiding her body in front of me. She emits a sexy confidence that is arousing. She is who she is and owns every part of herself. It’s a trait I both admire and am jealous of.
Elia arches her body into mine, and I focus my mind back on her body and her pleasure.
My mouth captures one nipple, lightly swirling my tongue around it until it’s a hardened peak.
I repeat the same motion for the other bud, and am rewarded with Elia writhing under my touch, pleading with me to continue.
My hands find her waistband, fingers lightly hovering around her skin there, not removing the fabric quite yet. It’s payback for her teasing earlier.
Instead, I lightly place kisses on each of her clothed inner thighs. Elia squirms underneath my caress, trying to angle her core to my face.
“If I remove these,” I place another kiss on her thigh, closer to where she is aching. “Are you going to be wet for me?”
“Yes,” she gasps. “Callum, yes, please.”
I love those words coming out of her mouth, especially when it comes out in a moan. I drag a finger down her slit, her dampness seeping through the fabric.
“Such a good girl for me, Elia. Already soaked.”
I remove her pants, leaving her bare before me. Elia sits up eagerly to help me remove my cock, straining against my clothing.
A sound of a slamming door reverberates through the barn sending vibrations through the loft platform where we lay, bodies entwined.
“What was that?” Elia asks. “The wind?” Her hand casually strokes my cock, and I struggle to concentrate.
The horses whinny.
“Elia? Cal? Come on - Ginna says to stop being children, and to come back to the cabin where it’s warm for dinner.”
It’s Rafe, his voice echoing through the barn.
I move to grab Elia’s clothes, assuming our fun is abruptly coming to an end.
Instead, Elia takes my entire length in her mouth. The surprise of her action makes me groan loudly, and she greedily sucks down my shaft, head bobbing.
Footsteps come nearer.
“Elia,” I whisper, “we should stop.”
She leans over the loft edge, peering into the barn, lit only by the patches of moonlight from the holes in the roof. Rafe must still be towards the front.
Elia releases my cock with a pop, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.
She repositions herself flat on her back again, this time with her head almost touching the ladder we climbed. She grabs me and directs me on top, so I’m able to see the barn.
Elia holds the sides of my face with her hands. “Do you trust me?”
“What?”
“Do you trust me? Right here, right now.”
I’m taken aback at her question. “Of course I do.” I lean down and press a kiss to her lips for good measure.
“Then fuck me.”
Whatever length I might have lost in the shuffle stands right back up at Elia’s words. I position my cock against her core, rubbing it lightly up and down between her folds.
“What are you up to, Siren?” I lean down to whisper in her ear, nibbling her earlobe.
Elia cries out, arching her hips. “Please, Callum.” Her voice sounds louder than usual.
Well fuck if I’m not going to give her what she wants. In one motion I thrust myself into her, temporarily lost in how tight and warm she is.
“Like that?” I murmur.
Elia’s eyes flutter shut in pleasure. I watch as she raises a hand to one of her breasts and starts tugging on her own nipple. Her other hand rakes its nails into my thighs, egging me on.
“More,” she pants.
I start to move inside of her, working my way out and then thrusting back in, bottoming out. I continue with one hard thrust after another, the sounds of our flesh echoing through the barn.
“I’m almost there,” Elia mewls, digging both hands now into my thighs.
“That’s right, Siren, come for me baby.”
Elia’s core convulses, clenching my cock as she bursts into an orgasm.
“Yes, Callum!” She screams.
I’m close myself and I tilt my head back slightly, eyes lifting only barely to see –
Rafe.
He stands in a small patch of moonlight, far enough back from the loft edge that he would be able to see Elia and I.
He doesn’t realize that I’d caught him yet. I expect him to say something, to laugh in disdain or disgust. But instead, there’s a hunger in his eyes, in his tight jaw, and in his clenched fists that I knew very well. A lust that I was all too familiar with.
And that’s when I realized that Rafe must have been standing there for a while, watching me and Elia together in silence.
I keep moving inside Elia, about to reach my pinnacle, when I can’t help myself and drop my gaze to Rafe’s leather pants that I decide right there and then that I love, right below the belt.
To where I see a very noticeable erection straining his pants. From watching us.
Without any warning, our eyes connect across the barn, him realizing he’s been caught and me realizing he’s hard. The lust in his eyes flares as he continues to watch in silence.
And it’s in that connection, in the heat of Rafe’s gaze and in the heat of Elia’s body, that I explode, emptying myself into Elia.
I turn my gaze back to Elia, thrusting a few lazy times before pulling myself out of her.
I glance back to the spot where Rafe had stood, but it is now empty.
Elia is grinning at me like a mad man.
“What?” I ask, grabbing one of the rags I started carrying on my belt and helping her clean herself off.
“Out of all the times we’ve had sex, that one might have had the nicest view. Wouldn’t you agree?”
I arch my eyebrows at her, until I see her eyeing the spot Rafe had departed.
And that’s when I realize that Elia had seen Rafe downstairs. Had positioned herself so we would be easily seen. So that I could see him.
I pull Elia into my chest, trying to both understand and explain what had happened. But, in the haze of the pleasure and warmth that blooms in my heart, I figure that could wait for another day, and fall into a dreamless sleep.