Chapter 13 #2
“I… I know that. Why do you think I have it?”
Fucking hell. I did not need to be asked that question.
“I’m surprised you have one, that’s all. Pleasantly so.”
Her spine straightened, like she was readying for a fight. “I might be permanently single, but I still have needs, you know?”
My cock thickened at the thought of all those needs. “Do you?”
There I was being an asshole again.
“Do we have to talk about this?” Ellie muttered. “I’d like to pretend the last five minutes never happened.”
“You can pretend but I’m sorry, I can’t. I have a visual in my head now.”
“Well, then. Stop. Visualising!” She punctuated each word with a smack to my chest. “We’re friends. You’re not supposed to visualise your friends like that.”
“Too late.” I grinned and flinched as she whacked me again. “Sorry. It’s not like I can help it.”
“Oh my god. Can the ground open up and swallow me whole?”
I had to force myself to not say ‘I bet you could swallow this whole’ because Ellie was too mortified for any type of innuendo right now. Instead, I gave her a friendly pat on the back. “There, there.”
It was stupid enough to shake her out of her internal freakout. She peered at me, then laughed out loud, the amusement easing the fight and embarrassment strangling her shoulders.
“You’re ridiculous, you know that?”
I grinned. “Yeah, we already established. It’s kinda my thing.”
Ellie finally managed to snatch the vibrator out of my hands, shoved it back in the drawer and closed it hard enough the lamp and all the perfume bottles swayed on top. Next, she opened one of the large drawers at the bottom of the chest, empty and ready for my clothes.
“You can put your things in here.” It took a few seconds before she found the courage to face me. “Let’s never speak or think of this moment again.”
I nodded, but it would be a while before I thought of anything else.
After an excessive amount of time spent finishing her chores, Ellie hid in the kitchen, baking up a storm and filling the flat with the sugary, vanilla scent of cookies and cakes.
Jake
I’m sorry about before. I like to joke around but I invaded your privacy and that was wrong.
Ellie
Texting is speaking about it!
I chuckled to myself, then debated whether to go out for the rest of the day, give Ellie some space to freak out, but after the whole awkward shower debacle, I decided to stay put.
You’re not getting away this easily, baby. Not this time.
It hadn’t taken long for Noah to grow bored of playing Schools, so we built a mini fort on the sofa and argued for a solid ten minutes on what to watch before settling on Toy Story 2.
Ellie startled when I strolled into the kitchen like I owned the joint and made a show of rifling needlessly through the treat cupboard, dragging it out, even though the sachet of microwave popcorn was right there in plain sight.
“Just making some popcorn. Want some?”
“No, thank you,” she replied stiffly.
“You sure? It’s salty and sweet. Your favourite.”
“I’m sure. Thanks though.”
“Well—”
Ellie switched on the electric food mixer, cutting me off and drowning me out.
I laughed, shoving the popcorn sachet into the microwave. A frisson of energy danced up my spine when I caught Ellie’s gaze by pure chance and made a point of slamming the microwave door shut.
Two can play that game, baby.
Ellie’s mouth quivered as if she was trying not to laugh or give in, and she lifted her chin and looked away.
We stood there at opposite ends of the kitchen, locked in a battle of I wasn’t sure what anymore, but it was fucking fun and I wanted to keep doing it.
When the popcorn was almost ready, I treaded closer, clasped Ellie’s waist from behind and stretched above her for a large glass bowl.
She tensed for the briefest moment, not expecting my proximity or my touch, and I had a split-second of regret because the dip of her waist was the perfect fit for my hand.
I’m not supposed to know that.
I’m not supposed to want to know that either.
“There’s some plastic bowls in that cupboard down there,” she said, her voice syrupy soft now.
It was loose and breathy in a way that reminded me of orgasms and the blissful, breathy aftermath, and so naturally my mind went to vibrators, then Ellie’s vibrators and all the dirty things she did with them, and suddenly I had no choice but to pull away.
“I want this one though,” I said gruffly, trying not to think about how wet Ellie got whenever she masturbated.
“I know what you’re doing, Jake.”
“Do you?”
“Oh my god,” she huffed as the microwave pinged.
Laughing, I emptied the cooked popcorn into the bowl and strolled back into the living room tossing popped kernels into the air and catching them in my mouth.
Twenty minutes later, Noah demanded a drink, so I headed back to the kitchen like the dutiful Nanny and announced, “Just grabbing Noah a drink now. He’s thirsty.”
“That’s usually why someone wants a drink,” Ellie muttered.
“Funny that.”
“Hilarious.”
I filled a plastic Lilo & Stitch tumbler with water, and a regular glass for myself, and leaned back against the sink to take a couple of sips, watching Ellie spoon her chocolate icing mix into a disposable piping bag.
“So… are you ever gonna look me in the eye again?” I asked casually.
“I haven’t decided.”
“Ellie, come on. We’ve been through this before. There’s no reason to be embarrassed.”
“Logically, I know that. I do. But knowing and doing are two different things. It might be better if we don’t talk about it. I’ll be fine tomorrow.”
“Okay,” I said, even though I very much wanted to talk about it. A lot. I’d thought of little else, my mind plagued with all sorts of dirty images and intrusive questions.
How often do you masturbate?
What’s your favourite toy?
What does your face look like when you come?
I cleared my throat, but the action did little to unclog the pure filth blocking my brain. “What should we talk about instead?”
“I don’t know. What do you want to talk about?”
“I want to talk about whatever you do.”
“You’re bugging me now.”
“It’s what I do best.”
Ellie shot me a half-hearted glare, and let out an exasperated sigh. “How about we order pizza for dinner tonight and watch another movie and try to forget all about today? We still need to scratch off Wall-E.”
“Pizza and a movie sounds great, but I’m never gonna forget that you’ve got a hoard of vibrators and dildos in your chest of drawers, Ellie.”
She made a noise that was part laugh, part shriek, whacked me with the tea towel and chased me out of the kitchen. I ran through the flat, laughing and dodging tea towel hits the entire time.
A sleepy Noah watched us from the sofa, curled up and sucking his thumb, grinning with glee at the pure silliness of it all.
“You can’t help yourself, can you?” Ellie laughed, breathless now.
I ducked to miss the decorative cushion aimed at my head, and it was impossible to smother the white-hot joy lighting up my veins.
“Never.”