Chapter 6 Stella
STELLA
“Eli!” I gasp as my head hits the wall behind me. I have no idea how I’m still standing, but I am.
Kissing Eli feels amazing. His mouth on my neck sends zings of electricity through my body. Just him kissing me has me on edge, ready and needy to come. I might be a virgin, but I know how to get off. Which he’s about to do with just his knee between my thighs and kisses.
My sight’s blurry with lust and an ache I have never, ever felt.
An ache so big, I didn’t know anything could feel this way.
Need blossoms through me like a wildfire.
I’m ridiculously wet. All from a kiss. No, that isn’t right.
This isn’t just any kiss. Kissing Eli is life-altering, mind-blowing beauty.
Like standing in the eye of a hurricane, and you knew life will never be the same after you get swept up in its power.
“Grind down, babe. Get that pussy fucking wet on my thigh. Use me to get off,” he demands in a tone that sends shivers of electricity through me. I never thought of myself as someone who would enjoy dirty talk, but then again, I don’t have that much experience.
“Eli,” I purr. There is no other word for it as I do as he instructed. My eyes never move from his dark ones. I’m drowning in those intense passion-fueled pools.
“Need to watch you, baby,” he mutters before taking my mouth with his.
I’ve made out before, but nothing like this.
Not even close.
His hands, his beautiful rough hands, tangle in my hair and pull my head back, exposing my neck to him, and I lose sight of him. Not only does his head dip down to kiss and lick and nip at my neck, but my eyes close to absorb everything he’s doing. And I don’t want him to stop. Ever.
I grind and squirm, so close to coming it scares me.
I’ve gotten myself off in the privacy of my own bed, beneath the sheets and in the cloak of darkness. But no one else has ever brought out this sexual being inside me. The farthest I have ever let things go was a quick feel of my breasts over my shirt before I shooed those hands away.
But not with Eli.
With Eli Woodman, I don’t want his hands away from me. Dios mio, I want so much more. ?Mucho mas!
“Mas,” I whisper, and he growls. “More, just like that.” I can’t seem to shut up. “Eli, I… Ohmygod, that feels good.” I feel the drag of his teeth against my pulse point. My breath hitches in my throat as my toes curl in my shoes. When he licks the spot, something comes over me.
A small lucid moment pushes through.
Reality washes over me for a moment as I realize what I’m doing.
What we’re doing. And I can’t stop myself when I freeze completely.
He feels it instantly and stops, resting his forehead on my shoulder.
For a moment, we stand there, both catching our breath, my hands clinging to his shirt.
My eyes pinned on his chest before he lifts my face so our eyes lock.
“What? What’s wrong?” he asks, pulling his head away from my neck and putting a small amount of space between us.
“Umm…” My voice sounds shaky in my ears, slightly unsure, and he notices. His hands cup my face, and his thick thumbs stroke the apples of my cheeks. My dirty mind thinks about what those thumbs could do and how they would feel. What is my issue right now?
“Talk to me, Stella,” he urges. “Did I hurt you?”
“No,” I answer immediately, my head shaking “I just… umm, we just met, and I think, umm…” God, I’m stuttering! Everything was fine a second ago. Why am I such a prude? Why did I stop it?
“It’s too much,” he guesses. I press my lips together. Shame, I have no idea why, floods my pores. I’m twenty-five, not fifteen. Why am I stopping this when I want it? My body braces for him to be angry, for him to accuse me of being a tease like Jake the fake did.
But I should have known better despite having just met Eli.
“Baby, Stella, look at me,” he gently orders, and I realize I’ve shut my eyes. My body’s taut as I open and look into his dark ones. My knees go wobbly at everything I see there, none of it anger or frustration. My body relaxes slowly as I give him a little of my weight.
“We have all the time in the world, sweetheart, you hear me?” he says, and I lick my lips.
“I just, umm…” My face is hot, and the heat is spreading throughout my body.
“Eli, you should know something about me,” I whisper softly, and the only reason I know he heard me is because his hands hold my face just a little tighter.
“I’m probably… umm… I’m not probably going to be. ..” Why is this so hard to say?
“Stella, talk to me. Whatever it is, I got you. I got you, I promise.” His words somehow settle my heart, calming it down. “Nothing you say would freak me out or change the fact I’m right where I want to me.” God, every word from his mouth is better than the last.
“I’m almost sure that…” His head tips down, his eyes locked on mine. “I won’t be good at this,” I blurt out and wince as the words repeat in my head.
“You might not be good at what?” My eyes drop down to his chest, but he doesn’t let me look away for long. The fingers of his right hand move under my chin and pull it up to meet his dark gaze. “You might not be good at what, Stella baby?”
“Kissing. Sex. Foreplay. Oral. You name it, I’ve probably not done it,” I rush and get out, wishing with my whole heart that a huge black whole would swallow me up. I don’t look away as he processes what I just said. As it starts to dawn on him how seriously inexperienced I am.
“Are you…” I simply nod because there is no need for either of us to say it out loud. “Baby—"
“It’s okay if you’ve changed your mind about dinner,” I cut him off, feeling mortified.
“Stop right there.” His fingers brush over my lips, and I swallow hard. “That right there, Stella, is not a possibility here. Nothing, and let me repeat, nothing could make me change my mind about you. And knowing this sure as shit isn’t a turn-off, Stella.”
“Eli—"
“Men where your from have shit for brains, sweetheart. How they didn’t know they had treasure right in front of them…” His voice drifts off, and when he speaks again, his tone is raspier. “Fucking fools. All of them.”
“I’m not everyone’s type. I’m too curvy and too boring and—"
“Shh.” His nose grazes against mine, and somehow, that small gesture has me relaxing.
My body sways closer to his. “I don’t want to hear you talk about yourself like that,” his voice rumbles against my lips, and I kiss him.
Our lips dance for a moment before he pulls away and rests his forehead against mine.
Eli’s calloused hand holds the nape of my neck, and I look up at him. God, his eyes kill me. I see so much I’m afraid to believe what’s there. We just met. How can that much emotion even be possible?
“You feel this, don’t you?” he asks. “This connection.” I nod because I don’t think I can say anything, even if it’s a simple three-letter word.
His eyes flare and warm up. “Okay.” He breathes in deeply, and I can tell stepping away from me is difficult for him.
But he does. He puts space between us, and my eyes divert to the obvious bulge behind his jeans.
He groans. My eyes move up, and I swear his lips twitch in the cutest little almost grin.
“You can’t look at me like that, Stella. ”
“Like what?”
“Like you want me to teach you everything about pleasure.” I open and shut my mouth. I didn’t know I had that look in me, but the idea doesn’t sound horrible. Does that make me a slut?
He runs his hand through his hair. “Okay,” he exhales roughly. “I am going to pick us up dinner and dessert. I will be right back.” He fishes his keys from his front pocket when something comes over me.
I close the small amount of space he put between us and reach to touch his forearm. I feel as the muscles contract and flex beneath my hand as our gazes connect.
“What if… What if I want you to teach me?” I manage to ask.
“Stel—"
“I feel…” My voice drifts off to nothing, but the way he’s looking at me only makes me feel warm.
All over.
From head to toe. And I know what this is. “I just…”
“Stella, right here and now, you want that, baby, I am going to tell you I’m here for it,” he lays out, leaving me a little speechless.
Does that mean he’s going to strip naked? Would I?
Right here in the living room?
He cracks a smile and kisses the top of my head. “To know what’s going on in your head right now,” he teases as he pulls me in close and strokes my hair. “There is no rush. We’re not rushing anything. I’m a grown-ass man and can control myself.”
“Eli—"
“That means, baby, as long as you know you belong to me, you can trust me to take care of you, I got you. Do you get me?”
“Umm…” I press my lips together and shake my head. Because there is now way he’s saying what I think, right?
“We just met, and I know I’m coming on strong. But I know,” he adds as if sensing I need further explanation.
“You know what?” I ask so quietly I wonder if he’s even able to hear me.
“That you’re mine,” he answers without hesitation.
There is something in his voice, his tone that has a part of me believing him.
Completely. And if his statement isn’t enough to rock my world, he keeps talking in that same tone.
“Now, we can take this as slow or as fast as you want. I have no issues either way.”
“You say that, but—"
“Babe, don’t mean to cut you off, but I see something in your eyes I don’t like, but I understand,” he says.
I chew on my lower lip, my eyes locked on his as he explains, “This is fast. Real fast. But let me be clear here. You tell me you wanna wait till we get married to kiss you again, that’s fine with me.
Anything, as long as you let me share space with you and we get to know one another. ”
“Wait to kiss me until… that’s a little extreme.”
“Thank fuck you feel that way,”—he chuckles—“because you’re a really amazing kisser.” I soften and lean in a tad closer. “You taste sweet.”
“I do?” I ask on a whisper, and he nods, his eyes gentle and warm yet intense.
“I just want time for you to get to know me and to get to know you. I wanna do that for a lifetime.”
“A life… You just met me, Eli,” I remind him. He isn’t kidding about this going fast. Warp speed.
“And you’ll find soon, baby, I’m not the kind of man who sits around with his finger up his ass trying to decide when to make his move when he knows what he wants.”
“Wow.” The mental note slips through my lips.
“Wow is right.” His lips twitch as he studies me for a moment. “Now, it’s been a long day. A lot has happened. I’m gonna go get us food, and we’re gonna sit back and relax. Eat, talk, and relax. Together. You get me?”
“I think so.”
“Good.” He nuzzles my nose before dropping a soft kiss on my cheek.
“Relax, baby, I’ll be back.”
I don’t know what to say as he hurries out the door almost as if he’s in a rush to get back to me. And I don’t mind that at all because I’m really looking forward to being around him again.