5. Elliot
ELLIOT
I ’m just refilling my coffee for the second time when my sweet sunshine pads down the hallway and pokes her head into the kitchen, where I’m sitting. She’s so damn cute with sleep still clouding her eyes.
“Morning,” she says with a shy smile. “I guess I kind of overslept, huh?” Brielle yawns and I grin, loving the fact that she’s here, in my space.
“You can’t oversleep on a Saturday. That’s like, the golden rule of Saturdays.” This earns me a sweet smile that has my heart melting for her.
“That’s true,” my girl agrees, nodding her head as she sits at the table next to me. “Plus, I was waiting for my wake-up call. Day one and you’re already going back on our deal?”
She lifts an eyebrow, half teasing, half challenging me to make good on my promise. I stand from my seat so abruptly that my chair clatters to the floor on its side. I’m leaning over Brielle in the next second, my hands resting on either side of the arms of her chair.
Brushing my nose against the side of her neck, I breathe in her candy-sweet, citrusy scent. I’ve been wondering if it’s her shampoo or soap that smells so good, but I think it’s just Brielle. She’s addictive, everything about her.
“Don’t think for a second I won’t spread you out right here on this table,” I growl.
Brielle’s pulse is pounding against the side of her neck, and I nip the skin there before placing a kiss over the same spot.
“But you were so tired last night,” I remind her, my voice softening as an image of her curled up in the passenger’s seat of my truck.
She was sound asleep by the time we got up the mountain. Her tiny snores made my heart ache for everything she’s been through. I’m just satisfied that she trusted me and felt safe enough to fall asleep in my truck.
I carried her inside and woke her up just enough to get her to change into one of my t-shirts.
Then I tucked her into bed before crawling in behind her and falling into the deepest sleep I’ve had in years.
I never thought I’d find anything in life as fulfilling as being a Ranger, but providing for Brielle, making her smile, and ensuring her safety clicks in a way nothing else ever has.
I know I would be content just to be in her presence every day.
“I know,” Brielle whispers. “I was kidding. Mostly.” My girl winks at me and nips at my bottom lip. I rise to the challenge, fusing our lips together as we push and pull, needing, wanting, and taking in equal measure.
We eventually break for air, and I smile at Brielle's mussed-up hair, swollen lips, and red cheeks. "Stay right there, beautiful," I tell her. "I'll warm up some breakfast. I made pancakes for us but didn't want to wake you up. They'll heat up quickly, so it'll just be a minute."
“I didn’t know you could cook,” my girl says, her blue eyes sparkling in wonder at this new piece of information. How does she make me feel so… special?
“There are lots of things you don’t know about me,” I say as I grab the plate of pancakes and stick them in the microwave. “Like that my three friends live up here in their own cabins.”
“You have friends?!” she exclaims, making me laugh.
“Well, at least two friends,” I say for some reason. I don’t mean to get into everything with Wilder, especially not on her first morning here. She’s already helped me through so much, I don’t want to just keep giving her my problems.
“What do you mean?”
“Nothing,” I’m quick to say. “It’s… It’s another part of my story I’m not proud of. One that I haven’t fixed yet.”
Brielle opens her mouth, but before she can respond the microwave beeps.
Thankful for the distraction, I take the pancakes out and grab some butter and syrup on the way back to the table.
I spread everything out for her, then grab another mug and fill it with coffee, setting it down next to her plate.
“Thank you, Elliot,” she says, covering my hand with hers once I’m seated next to her again. “For offering your place, for taking care of me, just like you said you would. I can’t believe I slept for like thirteen hours.”
“You needed it.”
“I only had one bad night of sleep,” she says dismissively.
“Brielle,” I murmur. “We both know that’s not true.” Our eyes meet, and I recognize the heaviness, the bone-deep weariness I’ve been dealing with in my own life. We may come from completely different backgrounds, but our pain is similar. We’re trapped, living a life we never thought we would.
She nods, her eyes watering before she blinks her tears away. “You’re right,” she whispers.
I squeeze her hand and lean over, kissing her on the top of her head. “Eat up, sunshine. I want to take you on a tour of the place before it gets too hot out.”
“Friends and a tour? Who are you right now?” she teases, cutting into her pancakes. I watch her lips wrap around the fork as she takes a bite, and Jesus, the thoughts I have are obscene.
I choke out a cough and take a sip of my coffee to give myself a moment to recover. “I’m hoping to be less of an ass and more of a… gentleman.”
“Gentleman?” Brielle repeats, her eyes shining with playfulness.
“Fine, maybe that’s going a bit too far, but you know what I mean. I just want to be… someone worthy of you.”
My instinct is to look away from her while I give her another piece of my heart, but I want her to see the truth behind my statement.
“Elliot,” she says softly. “You are enough. Just you.”
I don’t know how to respond to that, so I take another sip of my coffee. Brielle understands the moment is too intense, and as always, she gives me space to process. She doesn’t even know how good she is for me.
“So, who taught you to cook?”
I love that she can just switch the subject and move on to something else. I tend to linger in the darkness, but when I’m around Brielle, all I want to do is be closer to her light.
I launch into a story about being assigned cook duty by accident, and how I made a friend that week I was mistakenly there who ended up teaching me quite a bit. Brielle digs into her food, listening as I tell her about a few of my more disastrous escapades in the kitchen.
By the time she’s finished, my throat is sore from talking the entire time. I don’t think I’ve spoken so many words in one sitting since joining the military.
Brielle stands and clears off the table, but I take the dishes from her hands. “I’ve got it.”
“You cooked, so I’ll clean.” Brielle snatches the plates from my grasp, giggling while racing past me to the sink. I let her get to the counter so she can safely put the breakable dishes down, and then I wrap an arm around her waist and pull her against me.
“You, my sexy little sunshine, need to go put some pants on before I decide to skip the tour altogether and toss you down on the bed to fulfill my daily end of our deal.”
Brielle slides her hands up my chest, her delicate touch making me tremble with need. She’s so soft, so supple, everything about her fresh and fragile and all fucking mine .
"And if I don't want to put on pants?" she whispers, trying to be sassy. Her confidence wavers slightly, and I'm reminded of how damn innocent she really is.
“There’s no pressure,” I tell her, needing her to know she’s in control here. “We’ll go at your pace.”
Brielle’s hands glide up from my chest to my shoulders, then she loops her arms around my neck. “I want whatever this… this feeling is. When I’m with you, things just make sense. I… is that dumb?”
“No,” I rush to say. “Nothing you say or think is dumb.” She rolls her eyes at me, but I keep staring right at her. “I can’t explain it either. I don’t want to. I just want to experience it all with you.”
She nods, her crystal blue eyes boring into mine. She’s giving me her heart and soul, begging me to take care of them. I will. I so fucking will. Forever.
Brielle takes my hand and leads me to the bedroom, the moment both tender and erotic as hell.
“Show me, Elliot,” Brielle murmurs. “Show me how to experience everything with you.” My beautiful, brave goddess grabs the hem of the t-shirt she’s wearing and lifts it up her body, revealing her soft flesh to me.
I pull her shirt the rest of the way off and kiss a trail down her neck and over her shoulders.
Her gorgeous breasts are bare before me and my mouth waters at the sight of them.
I trace my fingers over her mounds, memorizing every curve.
I weigh them in my hands and brush her dusky pink nipples with my thumbs.
“Perfect,” I murmur.
Dipping my head to her chest, I take her breast into my mouth, sucking and flicking her nipple with my tongue. She gasps and arches her back, giving me better access. Brielle moans and I suck her harder, taking more of her into my mouth.
I pull back and she whimpers. I smile down at her before placing open-mouthed kisses along her jaw and down her neck, scraping my teeth on her collarbone and licking between the valley of her breasts.
Kneeling before her, I nip at the sensitive underside of her breasts, earning me a moan as she bucks her hips. I sit back on my heels to admire the stunning creature before me.
“Do you trust me, Brielle?”
I look up into her eyes, willing her to give herself to me fully, reminding her that she’s already mine. She nods.
“I need your words,” I whisper as I kiss her soft belly and then look up into her big, vulnerable blue eyes. “I know I’m your first. I fucking love that. It’s been so damn long for me. I don’t remember anyone before you, sunshine.”
“I trust you, Elliot,” Brielle murmurs. God, her words are my undoing.
“Good girl,” I praise as I help her lay down on the bed, her legs still dangling over the edge.
Lifting one leg over my shoulder and then the other, I grip her hips to keep her in place and run my nose along the seam of her pussy. I blow hot air over her juicy folds and feel her tremble in my hands. My tongue dips into her soaking wet entrance and up, up, up to her tight ball of nerves.