Chapter Nineteen
Nils loving me is everything I ever hoped it would be and more. He’s tender at the right times and rough and wild at others.
We’re insatiable too. We christen the bed, the floor, and, when I tell him about my fantasy of helping him in the shower, we end up in there, acting out everything I imagined…and more.
We spend the whole night in bed and the next morning too. We get some sleep, but not much.
That’s okay.
I feel amazing.
Around ten in the morning, Nils heads down to the kitchen, insisting that I stay.
A short while later, he brings me breakfast in bed, which is so freaking sweet. Buttered toast and orange juice on a wooden tray with enough to share and a little pink rose bud in a vase.
He apologizes, “I’m sorry the flower isn’t real.” He lies down next to me, propping up on one elbow.
“It’s perfect and beautiful,” I assure him as I sit up and lean back against the pillows. “I mean, it’s not like you had time to run out and buy flowers.”
“True.” With a mischievous smirk, he reaches under the covers, trailing his hand up my leg and curving in to my inner thigh. “You’ve kept me busy, babe.”
I let out a little gasp, warning him, “If you keep that up, you’ll be ‘busy’ again, and breakfast is going onto the back burner.”
“Fuck eating,” he growls as he lifts up and places the tray over on the nightstand. Rolling onto me, he says, “All I’m hungry for right now is more of you.”
Smoothing back my hair, he flutters kisses on my forehead, my cheeks, and my chin. Then he continues down my body, kissing between my breasts, over my stomach…until he’s between my legs, licking and sucking and devouring my pussy until I shudder and shake with the most mind-blowing orgasm yet.
That is until he moves up my body and gives me his cock.
Yeah, this is even better.
After this new round of loving, he props up the pillows next to me and, leaning back, tells me this time was the best for him too…so far.
“So far?” I scoff. “That was so fucking good. I really don’t know how much better it can get.”
“Stick with me, sweetheart,” he says, chuckling. “I’m always up for a challenge.”
Reaching over and placing my hand on his smooth chest, I say, “In all seriousness, I plan to stick with you through thick and thin.”
He sighs. “Babe…”
We decide to finally have our toast and juice.
Hell, we need some kind of sustenance.
As we’re laughing and enjoying our light breakfast, our phones ding in unison.
Holding the last bite of toast halfway to my mouth, I remark, “Huh. That’s weird.”
“Maybe it’s some kind of an emergency alert,” Nils throws out, shrugging.
“I don’t know about that.” I pop the last of the toast into my mouth and lean over to the nightstand on my side to retrieve my phone.
Nils does the same, reaching for his cell on the stand on his side.
We pick up our phones and peer down at them at the same time.
Almost instantly, I shriek, “Shit, it’s Arden.”
We look up, our eyes meeting in horror. “And he’s on his way over,” Nils says.
“Fuck.” I jump up. “We have to get dressed—and fast. He says he’s in the neighborhood. It won’t take him long to get here.”
It’s amazing how quickly two people can throw on clothes when the threat of being found out is hanging over their heads.
I’ve never tugged on undergarments, jeans, a sweater, and even my fuzzy pink socks so quickly.
Once I’m fully clothed, I look over at Nils. He’s back in his jeans and has his flannel buttoned up over his tee.
Blowing out a breath, he says, “I think we look okay. Wait…” He reaches over and combs his fingers through my hair. “There, that’s better. You were looking a little wild there.”
“Oh, great.” I reach up and comb my fingers through my hair, trying to make myself even more presentable. But I feel like it’s a lost cause. “We are so fucked,” I mutter.
“No, we’re not.” Nils nods once decisively. “We’ve got this, Ellie. Just stay calm.”
“But we didn’t have time to shower,” I lament. “What if we smell like sex? I mean, we’ve been having a lot of it.”
“True.” Nils glances around the bedroom, then he suddenly says, “Wait, I have an idea.”
Quickly, he hurries into his walk-in closet and comes back out with a blue spray bottle.
“What’s that?” I ask.
“Febreze,” he says as he starts spraying it all over his clothes. “What’s their motto? ‘Stink out, freshness in’? I think it’s something like that. Anyway, we should be good if we use this.”
I remind him, “But our clothes aren’t the problem, Nils. We are.”
“Nah.” He hands me the bottle. “I’m telling you, this shit covers up everything. I’ve even sprayed my gear with it.”
I raise a brow. “And it worked?”
“It did.”
“Let’s hope you’re right,” I murmur softly as I spray away.
When I feel that I sufficiently smell like fresh laundry, I nod. “Okay, let’s do this. Hopefully, Arden won’t suspect anything. I’m not ready for his wrath. I mean, I know he’ll have to find out about us eventually, but not yet.”
Nils agrees that now is not the time to hit him with the news, and then, sucking in a few final sobering breaths, we head downstairs.
Just in time, too, as the doorbell is ringing.
“Oh, geez.” I cringe. “I think he’s going to know.”
“No,” Nils insists. “We’re fine.”
As he walks over to open the door, I stand at the base of the stairs, trying to casually lean against the banister as I plaster on a fake smile.
Yeah, like this doesn’t look suspicious.
Nils is much calmer than I am. He lets Arden in, and they do some kind of shake and bro-hug thing. They then engage in a quick discussion about Nils’s ankle.
From the entry hall, Arden finally notices me standing randomly at the base of the stairs. “Hey, Ellie,” he says, eyeing me up and down.
Oh God, I hope I don’t look too rumpled.
“Hey.” I rush over to give him a hug, mainly so he’ll stop looking curiously at me.
It’s more personal than the barely touching bro-hug he had with Nils, so I’m not totally surprised when, letting go and stepping back, he says, “Wow, you smell like…what’s that stuff called again? Oh, I know—Febreze.”
Oh, great.
Well, at least he didn’t say “sex.”
With a quick narrowed-eyed side glance to Nils, I try to sound casual as I explain to Arden, “Yeah. I wore this sweater yesterday, and it still looked clean. But when I put it on, I wasn’t so sure. So I sprayed it with, you guessed it”—I point at him like he just won a prize—“Febreze!”
“Huh.” He frowns a little, like he knows something is off. “Okay.”
Looking at me, then at Nils, then back to me, he asks, “So, what were you two doing when I texted?”
Shit, really?
Nils stifles a cough, and I freeze.
“I was in the kitchen having some toast,” Nils says at the same time I blurt out, “I was eating breakfast with him.”
That would be fine and line up with his answer to Arden’s question, except my stupid ass just pointed up the stairs.
Arden looks past me to where the freaking bedrooms are, eyebrows knitting.
Before he can question us—or, worse yet, put two and two together—I hurry up and divert the whole conversation by saying, “Hey, I haven’t told you yet, but I made a decision about my future.”
That gets his attention.
Phew!
He’s looking at me again, not up toward the bedrooms, as he asks, “Wow, no way. What did you decide?”
Throwing my hands up in the air like I’m doing some kind of a crazy cheer, I say, “I’m staying in Atlanta!”
Arden ignores my theatrics—thank God—and just replies warmly, “That’s fantastic, Ellie.”
He comes in for another hug, and all I can think is I hope the Febreze is still doing its thing.
When he lets go and steps back, he smiles and says, “This is so great. I mean, really fucking wonderful. In fact, it’s so good, I think we should go out to lunch to celebrate.” His gaze pivots to Nils. “What do you think, man? You should come along too. We can also celebrate how well your ankle is healing. Good news all the way around.”
“Sure,” Nils replies. “Lunch sounds nice.”
“Yeah,” I chime in. “That’ll be fun.”
I hope.
The timing’s not great, but I guess this little impromptu outing should go okay. I’d prefer to talk with Nils alone first, so we don’t have any more screwups like the breakfast thing.
But it looks like that’s not going to happen, seeing as Arden just turned to the door and said, “Cool. Let’s go.”
But then, before anyone moves, Arden’s phone starts ringing.
Yes!
Saved by the bell…or ring, like literally.
He looks down at the screen and says, “Hey, guys, it’s Willow. Let me take this outside. I’ll be back in a minute.”
Once Arden steps out, Nils and I look over at each other and, shoulders slumping, blow out simultaneous relieved breaths.
“Oh…my…God,” I say. “I can’t believe I almost blew it when I freaking looked up the stairs and said we were having breakfast together. Ugh!” I place my hand on my forehead and shake my head. “I don’t know why I did that. It was some kind of a Freudian slip, for sure.”
Nils says, “Ah, don’t worry about it. You were just caught off guard. You recovered quickly, though, with the news that you’re staying in Atlanta.”
“Yeah, but now Arden wants to go out to lunch to celebrate. Are you kidding me? Nils…” I give him a stern look. “We have to be really careful.”
Shrugging, he says, “Maybe we should just tell him about us at lunch.”
“I don’t know,” I hedge. “I sort of wanted to be the one to tell him. You know, in case he’s really mad. That way I can bear the brunt of his anger. Then I can explain to him that it’s not just some hookup fling-type thing.”
“Nah.” Nils shakes his head. “We should do this together, Ellie. And you’re right—it’s not a hookup fling-type thing. We’re a couple now.”
Though we’ve professed our love, and I know we’re “together,” it’s nice to hear him say the words.
“Are we a couple?” I ask, just to hear him say it again.
Laughing and shaking his head, he says, “You’re funny. You know we are. I love you, and you love me. That pretty much says it all right there.”
“Yeah, it does.” I smile, wishing I could go over and give him a hug. But Arden will be coming back in any second now.
In fact, just as I’m about to say, “Maybe we should just get it over with and tell him at lunch, after all,” my brother steps back inside the house.
He doesn’t look happy, so I ask, “What’s wrong?”
“Oh, it’s nothing terrible.” He waves his hand. “Willow was shopping up by our house, and she came out of the grocery store and noticed she has a flat tire. She called for road service, but I’m going to head up there anyway and wait with her. So…” He blows out a breath. “It looks like we’ll have to postpone that lunch.”
Relieved, because maybe this is the universe telling Nils and me that we definitely should wait to say anything to Arden about us, I hurry up and say, “No worries. We’ll celebrate another time.”
“Okay, but soon.” Arden points at me, then at Nils as he adds, “I’m not waiting too long to celebrate with two of my favorite people.”
Yikes, I hope he’ll feel the same way once he finds out two of his favorite people are in a relationship behind his back.