Chapter Twenty-one #2
It was a sweet offer, especially given the trouble she’d obviously gone through to get ready. “I can’t think of anything that would improve my mood more.”
“How about a steak salad with strawberries and bleu cheese?”
“Shut up.” His stomach rumbled and his mouth watered at the prospect.
“I try not to buy strawberries out of season, but they looked so good and I’m definitely developing spring fever.” She grinned. “I figured if I put a big piece of meat with it, you’d be game.”
“Big salad with steak is definitely one of my love languages.” He didn’t always need meat, had actually made a point of doing a couple of meatless days each week. Still. The combination was one of his favorites. Like the lunch he hadn’t gotten the chance to enjoy, only more extravagant.
“We should eat first, then, because I have plans for after.”
Knowing what those plans entailed gave him half a mind to forget about dinner. But she’d gone to the trouble. And he wasn’t such a hormone-addled teenager that he couldn’t contain himself for the next hour or so. “What can I do to help? Do you want me to man the grill?”
“How about you turn it on while I pour you a glass of wine, then you can put your feet up and relax?”
Jack had never put much stock in the fifties housewife vibe, but her phrasing hinted at it and damn it all if it didn’t sound enticing.
He picked at the underlying meaning of that while he went out to the back patio and lit the grill.
Then he shook it off. It was a game, not some statement on what he thought he deserved. And Ellie was the one who’d started it.
He’d just settled into the idea when Ellie joined him outside with a gorgeous ribeye and an oversized pair of tongs.
As promised, she shooed him in, pointing at a glass of red on the side table and snapping the tongs at him for emphasis.
He couldn’t help but laugh. The woman might be looking to wait on him tonight, but there was nothing docile or demure about her.
Ellie swayed to the music in her mind while she stood over the grill. She sashayed around the kitchen, slicing strawberries and toasting up fresh croutons. It wasn’t the show she promised, but he enjoyed it all the same.
He moved to the table she’d already set, and she set down an artfully composed platter that would have rivaled most of the restaurants he’d been to. “I’d say this is the most beautiful thing I’ve seen in a while, but you’re here, so there’s really no comparison.”
She paused, fork suspended between her plate and her mouth, and smirked. “I haven’t even taken my clothes off yet.”
“If I say you’re beautiful fully dressed, do I still get to see you naked?”
“Always.”
Although tempted to rush through dinner, he resisted, both to savor the food and the time Ellie took to make it. Even without the promise of what was about to happen, it would have turned his mood entirely. But Ellie—happy, playful, impossibly sexy Ellie—wasn’t asking him to choose.
They finished eating, and Ellie directed him back to the living room.
He sat on the sofa, suddenly unsure of what to do with his hands.
He rubbed them along his thighs, which only served to rev his imagination and his libido.
Would Ellie slink into his lap at some point?
Would she tell him he could look but not touch?
“Comfy?” Ellie asked, pulling him back into the moment.
“Uh-huh.” He swallowed, present but no less filled with anticipation.
“Good.” Her index finger hovered over the screen of her phone. She gave it a single tap and turned to face him.
The horns started first. Trumpet, maybe?
Sensual and insistent. Bass followed, pulsing and sure.
Ellie struck a pose, held it. Held his gaze.
When she started to move, he had a momentary crisis over where to look.
But she was there, only for him. So he drank in the lines of her body, the way her hips and breasts undulated in time with the music.
The song wasn’t slow, and Ellie didn’t make her dance overly serious. She bit her lip and jutted her chest forward, sort of like an old school pinup. She shimmied and wiggled, leaning close enough for him to touch but then wagging her finger to deny him.
After a minute or so, she kicked off the shoes and inched up the hem of her dress, giving Jack the most delicious view of black garters and the tops of her sheer stockings.
She flicked the front clasp, then the back, then jiggled her ass while she worked it down her leg.
But instead of simply removing it, she bent her leg behind her and pulled the stocking off over her shoulder.
She repeated the move with the second stocking before going to work on her dress, untying the bow that held the fabric in place and giving him a few playful peeks before sliding it off and letting it pool at her feet.
She continued to dance around in a sheer black bra that showed off her nipples and a pair of cheeky lace panties that covered only about a quarter of her ass.
His hand itched to touch, to pull her onto him so he could kiss and lick and bite every inch of her.
But just when he thought she might let him, she slipped away and turned her back to him.
With surprising skill, she unhooked her bra one-handed, and in a single fluid motion, she turned around, whipped it off, and let it drop to the floor.
The music ended at that exact moment, driving home just how much she’d rehearsed her routine. Jack nodded and clapped, unsure the appropriate way to show appreciation for a private strip tease. “Wow.”
Ellie stood before him, in nothing but those lace panties, looking pleased with herself. She stroked circles around her nipples, making Jack’s already hard cock strain. “I considered pasties but decided you’d probably rather a full view.”
He nodded. “I like this view very much. Also, wow. Seriously. And thank you. No one has ever done that for me before.”
Ellie extended a hand and he took it, letting her help pull him to his feet. “I like being your first for something.”
He wanted to be her first for something, too, though he couldn’t fathom what. A problem for another day. “Do I get to take you to bed now?”
She dipped her chin, playing shy all of a sudden, before looking up at him through thick lashes. “I sure hope so.”