Chapter Twenty-Eight
Twenty-Eight
Elsie
I was glad my view of the backyard didn’t include the pool. If they did go skinny-dipping, like Lula Mae had insinuated, then I wasn’t sure I could move on from that sight. With my arms crossed over my chest, I stood there, staring into the moonlit darkness.
The sound of footsteps caught my attention, and I glanced back toward the door.
Please don’t let someone be coming to tell me I’m needed downstairs. I’d had all I could handle.
While I waited to see if they were going to stop and knock, I held my breath.
The footsteps slowed until they went silent at my door.
But there wasn’t a knock. I sucked in a breath, taking a step back when the door swung open wide.
Before I had a moment to panic, Forge came striding in like he belonged in here.
His gaze swung to mine, and there was a smirk on his lips.
“Forge?” I choked out his name.
“Yes?” he replied casually.
I glanced at the door, then back at him. “What, uh … what are you doing?” In my bedroom, unannounced.
He lifted a shoulder nonchalantly, but the gleam in his eyes didn’t seem nearly as calm as he was acting.
There was an … intensity there. I shivered.
Kind of like dangerous animals in a zoo.
The way you looked at them and they stared back.
As if it were your fault they were held captive.
It always made me feel funny, guilty even.
My stomach would tighten, much like it was doing now.
“Coming to find you,” he replied.
I cut my eyes to the door again. Okay. He had found me and barged right on in. What now?
I watched him, waiting. A little scared to ask anything else.
He tilted his head slightly, and his eyes scanned my body slowly.
“Did you decide you didn’t like the company after all?” he asked as his eyes traveled back up to meet mine.
“I, uh …” I stammered, not sure what to say to that.
Admitting why I’d left would be embarrassing. He didn’t need to know I’d been jealous. I had to live here with him for I wasn’t sure how much longer. I’d hidden my feelings about Calvin for years. Over a decade. Yet, with Forge, I was already struggling.
“You, uh, what, Pickles?” he asked, his gaze softening.
I licked my lips nervously. Okay, what lie did I tell him? Why did he have to rattle me so much? If he just wasn’t so … so … really nice to look at—oh, God, who was I kidding? He was gorgeous, and I knew just how incredible he looked naked.
“It—well—I just—” I blew out a breath. Think, Elsie. “I felt out of place. I wanted to be alone.” Close enough to the truth.
His eyes narrowed. We stood there in silence for a moment.
“The only thing out of place was where you were sitting and who you allowed to touch you.”
Oh.
His eyes were heated again.
“Wayon wasn’t touching me.”
“Yes, the fuck he was. He touched your back.”
He had done that. I’d forgotten. Lula Mae pressing so close to Forge had been all I could focus on at the time.
“Why is that an issue?” I asked him, feeling defensive.
No one had told me that talking to Wayon was a problem.
“Because I didn’t like it.” His tone was dark. “I fucking hated it.”
Sucking in a breath, I held it as I replayed that response back in my head.
He moved then, causing me to tense, but he wasn’t coming toward me. Was he leaving? I opened my mouth to say something, but he closed the door and locked it, then turned back to me.
“You pulled out of my hold,” he said as he began coming my way this time. Slowly, like the predator he reminded me of. “And you went to him.”
A smart girl would back away. Not continue to stand here while a riot of tingles went through her body.
Excitement began to bubble inside me. Was I crazy?
When he was in front of me, barely an inch between our bodies, he grabbed both my wrists in his hands, wrapping his fingers around them. It wasn’t painful, but his grip was firm. My instinct should be to try and get free, but my body wanted to sway toward him. Close the little space that was left.
Crazy, crazy girl.
“You gonna pull away now?” he asked in a husky tone.
No, I wasn’t. I swallowed hard, then shook my head.
Using his hold on me, he jerked me against his chest. I stared at it as my breathing accelerated. Then I felt it pressing on my lower stomach. The massive penis that was fully hard and erect at the moment.
“What about now?” His voice was just above a whisper, but the threat in it was clear.
I closed my eyes and inhaled, and then on my exhale, I replied, “No.”
There was a rumble in his chest, followed by a hoarse, “Fuck.”
Tilting my head back, I lifted my gaze to his. He was watching me, his pupils so big that his eyes appeared black. The area between my legs throbbed. It clearly wasn’t aware of the size of his penis.
While I had never actually had one inside me, I had used a super plus tampon, and I knew how uncomfortable that could be.
It didn’t even begin to compare to the weapon he was carrying.
Not that he was going to, well, put it in me.
This wasn’t that. I mean, he didn’t want to, did he?
Sure, he was hard, but that could be from …
dancing with Lula Mae. The thought put a slight damper on the things I was feeling.
Forge released one of my wrists and lifted his hand to touch the side of my face. His thumb brushed over my lips, and his eyes slowly drifted over the details, as if he was memorizing them. “Jesus, this mouth,” he muttered.
A small gasp escaped me right before he bent down until his lips were on mine.
Stunned, I stiffened, but his other hand moved from my wrist to slide around to my bottom, grabbing it and pressing me closer.
The tip of his tongue ran along my bottom lip, and I opened, feeling an urgency that lit up every nerve in my body.
He tasted of mint with the slightest lingering of beer. I heard a moan and realized it had come from me. My hands slid up his chest, and I fisted his shirt, holding on to him, for fear he’d take this away, stop whatever he’d started, and I wasn’t ready for that. I needed more.
A carnal fervor began to take over my thoughts, my actions, making me ravenous for something I’d never experienced.
An abandonment for depraved sensuality. To feel things, I’d never known.
Things I had denied myself while wanting a man that would never feel the same.
Preserving my innocence for the day Calvin finally wanted me.
I didn’t feel that here with Forge. There was nothing but how I burned for his touch. Wanting to have more. Indulge in all the wickedness that I’d seen in his eyes.
He rocked his hips against me with a growl, and then he tore his mouth from mine. Panicked that this was over, I tightened my hold on his shirt. I might die if this ended now. Explode in flames.
Before I had a chance to plead—and I was about to—my shirt was being pulled up and over my head. The cool air touched my heated skin, and I shivered. Forge’s focus was on my chest as he began to skillfully unhook my bra, then rip it off my body.
“Fuuuck, I’ve beaten off to these tits so much that my dick is raw,” he said as he covered them both with his hands.
“I’m going to suck these pretty nipples until you come,” he said, then grabbed my waist and backed me up until the edge of the bed stopped me.
“Stay right there,” he ordered, his eyes locked on my breasts.
I didn’t move. I watched him as he stripped off his shirt, giving me the view I’d used in my imagination last night with my hand between my legs.
“Can I … touch you?” I asked the words without thinking them through. The craving was controlling me now.
“Where do you want to touch, baby?” he asked.
I stepped forward and laid my palm on his right pec. It was hard and flexed beneath my touch. A startled giggle escaped me. Slowly, I ran my fingers down until they were brushing against the first row of his six-pack abs.
“Keep going,” he urged. “I just want to see your fingers on it.”
By it, he meant his penis. It was still inside his jeans, but very visible as it pressed against the fabric.
The thrill of what I was doing and who I was doing it with had me ready to do anything he asked.
I wanted to please him. I wanted him to want me.
I’d never had a man I wanted like this touch me intimately.
The things I had done with past boyfriends was always something I endured to make them happy since I refused to have sex with them.
Never had I enjoyed the moment. Reveled in the depravity.
Easing my hand down, I went past the V-cut just above the waistline of his jeans, slipping over the rough fabric until my fingertips felt the tip.
Even with the barrier, the head of his penis was huge.
I squeezed my thighs together since my clueless vagina had no idea the pain this would cause and was currently aching with desire.
His breathing grew deeper as my hand molded against the thick, long ridge.
I squeezed slightly, and his sharp intake of breath made me want to do more to please him.
I lifted my eyes from what I was doing to his face.
His nostrils were flared, and his jaw was clenched tightly.
It was his gaze that sent a tremble through me though.
A wicked storm in his eyes brewing with a threat that I didn’t fear but waited willingly for a taste.
“Take it out,” he said thickly.
Again, there was no hesitation. My fingers went to the button on his jeans and quickly began to undo them, lowering the zipper slowly. He shoved them down past his thighs, but a pair of black boxer briefs stayed in place. I stared at the bulge, then back up at him.