Chapter 8 Elizabeth
elizabeth
Elizabeth, I knew you were the one when I followed you that first night to make sure you got home safe.
The one.
I was the one.
For him.
For Austin Hart!?
For a split second, it felt like I’d entered some kind of Twilight Zone episode or was the butt of some really bad joke, getting pranked on some kind of reality show.
Austin Hart, the guy whom I’d had a crush on from afar in high school turned into the most eligible bachelor of our small mountain town, was talking about not just me being the one but about love.
Love. My eyes widened as his head nudged mine with a soft nod. The gesture made me realize I’d said the words out loud.
“I love you, Elizabeth.” I blinked slowly.
Once. Twice. Three times. My brain couldn’t seem to process what he’d just said.
What his words really meant. No one other than family had ever said that to me.
I’d never been in a relationship serious enough for those three little words.
“I love you, angel.” My hands shook. And my heart? My heart melted.
“You love me?” I repeated, the shock and awe clear in my voice. I didn’t even bother to act like I didn’t care. I didn’t have it in me. “After one innocent, little kiss?” I questioned. A voice inside my head shouted at me to shut the hell up. Why are you questioning him?! He might change his mind!
“Beautiful, there was nothing innocent about that kiss, nor was there anything innocent about all the dances we’ve shared.”
“But—“
“No buts,” he cut me off. “That kiss only made me realize just how fucking stupid I’ve been this last month,” he said with determination I would have found almost scary had it not been for the fact I thought I felt the same way about him.
Holy shit! I loved Austin Hart. I was in love with him.
“I’m done with hiding in the shadows, following you around—“
“You mean stalking,” I corrected because I was me and couldn’t seem to shut up when needed.
Nor did it seem like I had any kind of common sense, because not only had I known he’d been stalking me this entire time, I’d thrived off it.
I’d loved his attention on me, the way he happened to be around everywhere I was without ever approaching me.
I mean, the man was a big guy. With russet red hair and light skin.
It wasn’t like he was exactly going to blend into the background.
Especially in the bright light of a new day.
He’d made me feel safer and more alive than I had ever felt in my entire life.
That was saying something since I was an emergency room traveling nurse who lived for the adrenaline rush of helping others.
What about at night? My thoughts drifted. The nights I’d dreamt him next to me. Fingertips that had brushed my hair and body in my dreams. Had it only been in my sleep? You know the answer to that, a little voice perked up inside of my head.
“Tomato-tohmato.” He grinned adorably. I had to bite the inside of my lip. Not because I was in any kind of distress but because I knew what I was going to do.
It was crazy.
It was an immensely huge risk to take.
“You’re impossible,” I muttered without really meaning it.
“I’m yours,” he said. I licked my suddenly dry lips. I’m yours. Why did I like that so much? No, I loved it.
“You know telling me this stuff could freak me out?” His thick thumbs brushed the apples of my cheeks just as his beautiful baby-blue eyes went warmer than I’d ever seen them. “I could be terrified of you and your stalker tendencies.”
“I’m pretty sure you like those stalker tendencies, Elizabeth,” he drawled slowly, his voice slightly scratchy.
Austin shifted beneath me, and my lips parted when I felt him.
His thick, hard, and long manhood was wedged between us.
“What would I find if I slipped my hand down and under this pretty, little dress you have on?” My skin flared with goose bumps. His dirty words turned me on even more.
“Austin.” I whispered his name like a prayer I wanted him to answer. Instead, his other hand dropped and stroked my bare back. I’d never been happier with what I’d chosen to wear in my life. The broad tips stroked my skin with a feather-light touch that made my already stiff nipples harder.
“Would I find you wet, angel?” I shivered with anticipation. That was exactly how he would find me—soaked and dripping, the tiny red panties I’d chosen for tonight with care completely ruined.
Just like he would ruin me in the best way possible.
And I was going to let him.
“You should check,” I dared him. His jaw clenched.
“Elizabeth.” The warning was clear in his voice.
I touched the hand he had on my right cheek and brought it to my lips. Without taking my eyes off his, I kissed his fingertips, one by one, before moving his hand down and dropping it to my side, just at the bottom of the skirt.
“Check,” I urged, my sex clenching tightly, feeling so empty it was close to painful.
“This isn’t how tonight was supposed to happen. I was supposed to—“ His jaw clenched, and he ground his teeth.
“What were you supposed to do?” I asked, shifting, rising on my knees, getting closer to eye level.
“Take you to my place. Serve you a home-cooked meal—"
“You cooked for me?” The smile on my face was genuine.
“No.” His Adam’s apple bobbed. “I sked Brett, the cook from the brewery, to stop by. He left me instructions on how to heat it up.” My insides felt all warm and fuzzy from the effort and thought he’d put into our first date.
“Then?” I leaned closer. My hand rose to cup his cheek before I brushed my lips to the other side.
“We were going to go to my backyard,” he rasped. My lips peppered tiny kisses on his check then the other side. “Turn the firepit on, sit by the bonfire while we talked for a bit before we danced.”
“Again?” I was still kissing his handsome face softly.
“I love dancing with you.”
“I love dancing with you, too,” I whispered back, emotions overwhelming me. “And after dancing under the stars in front of a bonfire?” I asked, with a shaky exhale, whispering the question against the shell of his ear.
“I’d kiss you softly and take you home.”
“Home?” My body stilled over his. “After just a kiss?”
“It’s our first date,” he reminded me. I chewed on my bottom lip.
“But…” He shot me a look like he was begging me to stop, to somehow help him find the self-control he’d lost when we’d kissed and he’d picked me up and I’d wrapped my legs around him.
“I think I like this a little more,” I shared honestly, not giving two shits about how fast or stupid I might be.
I’d had a handful of one-night stands in my life, enough to scratch an itch when one arose, so to speak. I had a drawer full of toys that helped me take care of my own needs when I needed to. Bottom line was, I wasn’t a blushing virgin.
But this thing between us felt different.
Bigger. More important than anything I could have ever wished for. More essential than any relationship I’d ever had. And maybe because of how honest he’d been with his feelings for me, it’d let me open up to him.
“I like being on your lap. Close to you. Feeling your hands on me.” A soft moan escaped when his touch slowly but surely turned firmer, steadily moving up and down the line of my spine.
God, his touch made me feel so delicate. Feminine. Tiny in the best way possible.
“Elizabeth.”
“I love how you say my name.” My breath hitched in my throat with my confession. “All growly. Like you need me.”
“I do.”
“I Iove you, Austin Hart.”
“Baby, you don’t have to—“
“I know.” I smiled gently before kissing the tip of his nose.
“But I do. I’m not sure when it happened, but it did.
You slipped in and burrowed yourself under my skin with how you make me feel seen.
There’s something about being around you, even that first night, that makes me feel alive.
Like I’m sparkling with crazy-colored glitter and disco balls from the inside out. ”
“Fuck,” he cursed, pressing his lips against mine. They slid and then slanted before they pulled my lower lip into his mouth with a sucking motion I felt it pulsate through me, and that throbbing settled between my legs.
“Please, Austin.”
“What do you want, angel?”
“Check. I dare you to check to see just how much I like the idea of you slipping inside my house in the middle of the night to watch me sleep. Of you reading my journal and… and—“
“What?” he groaned, his voice thick and rough, just as his calloused palm skirted under my dress and stroked my bare thighs. “Jesus Christ, Lizzy baby, your skin’s so fucking smooth. Warm,” he huskily murmured against my lips, and I kissed him.
Our tongues dueled for dominance. I let him have it.
For a hot and heavy moment, before his lips moved from mine and down my chin to my jaw then my neck.
He licked and nipped at my neck. My hips rolled and ground against his heavy, thick length, but it wasn’t enough. I needed more. I needed all of him.
“Are you wet for me, honey?” he huskily asked, and a moan vibrated through me.
“Yes,” I hissed and gasped like I couldn’t catch my breath.
Which I couldn’t. And who could blame me when his hands moved under my dress and between my legs in a way that felt like more than a touch, like a branding? Like his talented fingers and calloused palms were leaving his mark on me.
“Fuck, I can feel just how hot you are. Love how these sexy-as-hell thighs tremble for me.” His filthy words only made the ache grow.
“Austin.” My voice cracked, and I couldn’t beg him to touch me.
Our eyes connected, and I knew I didn’t have to plead with him to give me what I wanted.
His caress rose higher and higher until he was right there.
Right where I needed him. His face transformed.
His eyes narrowed, and his nose flared in a way that reminded me of a starving feral lion ready to devour its prey.