Because of Ellison (32 page)

“It’s scary isn’t it?”

I wasn’t surprised she knew what I was thinking — she
always did. Walking up from behind, I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her
against me. “Yes.”

She nodded and said, “I found this place on accident. Bear
had run off after a squirrel and by the time I caught him, I was at the edge of
this field. It was frightening and awe-inspiring all at the same time. But I
couldn’t figure out why I was scared. I know a lot of people can’t handle
closed in spaces, but I think it’s the wide-open ones that scare me the most. I
feel exposed to the world and to myself, opened up so that I realized just how
insignificant one person is in such a massive place. Despite how much this
place scared me, I visited it often. It’s a place for me to think.”

She turned around so that she was facing me. “I don’t want
to be insignificant. I don’t want to die and have that be it. I want to think
that we go on, that there’s a reason for all of this, and that by some grace
we’ll understand our purpose when we die.”

She paused and rested her head against my chest. “But, it’s
different with you here. I noticed on Christmas night when you followed me out
here. After the storm had cleared and we sat there freezing our
asses
off, I wasn’t scared, I didn’t feel small and I didn’t
feel alone — and I don’t feel that way now.

She looked up at me again and when her eyes met mine a small
spark ignited within me. I could never look into her eyes enough even if I did
so for the rest of my life.

“You were right, Hunter. When you called me a liar … you
were right.” Her voice grew quiet and she looked away quickly before her gaze
locked back with mine. “I fell in love with you that first night in my room.
You were the only person who could give me shelter, whose touch was enough to
chase off all the pain I had inside me. I’ve never known anything like it. I
feel it again now, out in the middle of this big ass field that normally scares
the shit out of me. I feel grounded, like I’m not going to just float away when
the Earth turns on its axis, you know?”

I laughed softly. I’d missed the weird shit that came out of
her mouth and my heart was doing a happy dance to hear her talking like she had
when I’d first met her. But even more than that, my heart danced to hear her
tell me for the first time that she loved me.

Grabbing my hand, she walked us out onto the field in the
direction of the small group of trees in the center. I was too busy watching
her to notice that in the middle of those trees was a blanket spread out on the
ground and a cooler set to the side. However, when I did notice, I did a double
take before turning my confused expression to her and finding a beaming smile
spread across her face.

“Surprise!”

I laughed out a broken and shocked chuckle while motioning
to the blanket. “What’s all this and how the hell did you get it out here?”

She pulled me down onto the blanket and crawled over to open
the cooler. Pulling out sandwiches, fruit, drinks and chips, she placed them in
front of us. “Lily and Ryan helped me haul it out last night. You’d fallen
asleep, so I snuck out while you were snoring away.”

I actually did wake up when she’d left the bed. I just
thought she was going to the bathroom and I fell back asleep waiting for her to
return. Grabbing a sandwich, I pulled it from the plastic bag and took a huge
bite. It was absolutely perfect and we finished off the food pretty quickly.
Lying back on the blanket, Ellison and I looked up into the tree canopy above
us and noticed a small group of squirrels that were chasing each other,
chirping their little hearts out in the game.

Ellison laughed. “Well, there’s a sure sign of spring. Those
little guys can’t have sex with one another fast enough.”

My lips twitched when I realized I knew exactly how the
squirrels felt.
 
Eventually they
moved on and the trees were quiet above us. Rolling over, I pushed Ellison to
the ground and crawled over her. She laughed when I kissed her all over her
face and I pushed up to look down into her twinkling eyes. “What’s so funny?”

She reached over and snagged the strap of her bag. “Got
another surprise. It’s not as fancy as butterflies, but I think you’ll
understand.”

My brow arched over my eye curiously and I took the bag from
her grasp.

She smiled. “Open it up.”

Without taking my eyes from her face, I unzipped the bag and
reached in to find a cardboard box. Pulling it out, my eyes settled on an
unopened box of condoms with the words “next time” scribbled over the box in
permanent marker. Choking on my own shock, my eyes flicked back to her face and
she shrugged her shoulder.

“When I asked you what that meant before, I actually knew
the answer. I just wanted to see if you would admit it.”

My face hurt because my smile was a mile wide. The dimples
were in full force and effect, the sudden blush to her cheeks giving away the
fact that they still affected her. I pushed up so I was hovering over her and
my eyes traveled down her body before slowly working their way back up. “Oh,
you are asking for it now.”

I couldn’t help myself. My hands fisted in her hair and I
was on that girl before she had a chance to change her mind. My mouth hungrily
sought hers and when a small moan escaped her throat, I growled in response.
Every nerve ending in my body was instantly alive. It felt like electricity
sparked across my skin and I used my legs to force hers apart.

“Holy shit, Hunter! Aggressive aren’t we?” Her words came
out breathless and broken because I wouldn’t stop kissing her as she talked. I
responded with another feral growl and she laughed like I’d been kidding. When
my hands released her hair to grip her shirt and pull it off her body, she
realized how much I was NOT kidding.

I ran my mouth along the tops of her breasts and back up to
her neck. When her body arched in my hands I became unglued. There was nothing
stopping
next time
from happening and
I wasn’t taking any chances that something would come along and fuck it up. She
writhed beneath me, seductively moaning and her breath caught with every new
part of her skin that my mouth came in contact with. My fingers gripped roughly
into the soft flesh of her body. Instinct and desire had cancelled out my
ability to think and I was operating by pure need to dominate and conquer.

Within minutes I had Ellison naked beneath me. She reached
down to remove my shirt, and I helped her by reaching up and ripping it over my
head. My shorts were next. When I was stripped down to my underwear, I mentally
surveyed her body again before touching, licking and kissing every inch of her
skin. My hands got busy removing what little bit I had left on my body and when
we were skin to skin, I groaned out of desperate want and frustration. Her
taste was fucking fantastic and I could smell the traces of coconut from the
sun lotion she’d put on for the hike. When I licked down her stomach and kissed
her bellybutton, her hips bucked up in welcome. I moved farther down to bite
along the insides of her thighs when she grabbed me by my hair and pulled me
back to face her. “Inside me — now.”

Her hand reached down and grabbed me and an almost painful
jolt shot out from where she touched me. I grabbed the
next time
box, tearing the entire side off in my attempt to get a
condom. Finally snagging one from the box, I ripped the package open with my
teeth and Ellison laughed. I flashed her my dimpled grin and watched her melt
beneath me.

Lifting her hips, I pulled her up while burying myself
within her. Her head fell back and my mouth fell on the taut skin of her neck.
The salt taste to her body drove every primal need I had into a frenzied state.
Pushing myself up, I moved slowly inside her and watched as she wriggled
beneath me. My mouth found hers again and we moved against each other in
perfect unison igniting an inferno within me. Her fingernails trailed down my
back and my hips bucked forward when she reached my lower back.

My mouth found her ear, “Fucking love you.”

I felt her get off on those words, her muscles gripping at
me hungrily and my name tearing from her swollen lips. I pumped into her,
pulling her legs damn near up to her chest, and when I joined her in her
release, my forehead rested on hers as my eyes locked with her gaze.

In a voice so soft and breathless I could barely understand,
she responded, “I love you too.” A tremor of ecstasy rippled along my spine at
those words and my body floated in a void of everything good and pure and raw
because she was the one who spoke them. Our hearts beat against each other, our
chests collided from our labored breath.

Rolling to her side, I pulled her against me and we lay
there together, our bodies calming, small bits of sunlight illuminating our
skin where it broke through the cover of the trees above us. My face was buried
in her hair and my hands couldn’t stop traveling softly over her skin. She
rolled over eventually, facing me, smiling at me and I grinned at her, my
dimples standing proud. “Thank you … ” I tapped her
nose
with my finger. “ …
for
next time.”

Her smile brightened but I covered it with my mouth and
tasted her once again. Coming up for air, her eyes were opened wide and her
beauty beamed out at me.

“Well, um, we should probably get dressed and head back … we
are naked in public currently and it would be bad if someone found us.”

I groaned at having to let her go. Eventually we were
dressed again and packing up the picnic to carry back home. Once everything was
shoved into the basket, I grabbed my pack and starting walking out onto the
field.

“What the hell? Aren’t you going to help me carry this stuff
back?”

I turned back to her and winked.

“Not a chance.”

Another few weeks flew past and I wouldn’t have believed it
was possible, but I fell for Ellison harder each day. She still had days where
she broke down over her father and others where she wasn’t actively upset, but quiet
and reserved instead. I didn’t push her on those days, but I paid attention to
her triggers. Sometimes it was something as simple as what a person said, and
others, she’d run across something that her father had used often. There was
one day in particular where we were driving — thankfully with me behind
the wheel — and a James Taylor song started playing over the radio. She
doubled over in her seat and I pulled over worried that she was sick. She
crawled over into my seat, curled up in my lap and cried. I tried to turn it
off, but she grabbed my hand and shook her head, silently asking me to let it
play. So I held her while it played, let her seek shelter in me like she’d told
me in the field that day.

“This sucks, Hunter! Why are we doing this again?”

I looked over and laughed as Ellison’s whole body shook from
scraping at the old paint on her house. I’d noticed on the many days that I
stood outside in the driveway waiting for Ellison to start our hike that the
two houses didn’t match. One stood proud — sanded and repainted, the
porch rebuilt, the roof repaired and the landscaping trimmed and maintained.
The other — well, that house still remained haggard, forgotten, damaged
by the elements and time. I’d spent a summer fixing up one and I’d decided to
spend the next summer fixing up the other.

“Because we need to make sure the surface is sanded down and
clean before we apply the first coat of primer. A solid foundation … ”

She threw the scraper at me. “Oh, would you stop it with
that solid foundation speech
?!
”

I laughed.

“I just want to know why we’re sitting around fixing up this
old house when we should be out there hiking or swimming or … ” A blush fell
across her cheeks. “ …
having
picnics.”

She walked over to me, seductively swaying her hips in her
cute as hell attempt to deter my desire to fix up her house. I leaned against
the stair railing and crossed my arms over my chest waiting for her to get
close enough that I could grab her. When she reached me, I captured her in my
arms and pulled her against me. She threw her arms up to push herself away
while protesting.

“Damn it, Hunter, you’re all sweaty.”

Her laughter carried across the wind and I smiled. “So are
you.” I pulled her against me again and licked a line up her neck, nipping
along the sensitive skin. My next words came out as a throaty growl. “I love
the way you taste.”

“
Ew
!” Her laughter howled out of
her as she attempted to pretend she was disgusted with what I’d just done. But
I didn’t let go and I kept up my assault until her body went limp in my arms.

“You two should seriously get a room. I know daddy isn’t
going to be happy about the peep show outside if you keep this up.”

Both our heads spun to see Ryan and Lily standing to our
side. Lily smiled brightly and Ryan looked like he was trying to hold back a
grin. I nodded in his direction and he nodded back.

Releasing Ellison, I bent over and picked up the scraper
she’d thrown at me earlier. Holding it in front of her face, I said, “Think
you’ll be needing this.”

She scowled at me before snatching the scraper from my hand.
“You suck. You know that?”

“You’ll thank me for it later.”

I watched her walk back to the wall she’d been working on
and I turned my attention to Lily. “Bill’s finally come around, huh?”

After I’d starting working at the Tavern, Ryan and I became
friends. We spent many nights sitting behind the bar talking. Ryan told me
about the things he’d been through in high school and how difficult it had been
for him to straighten up. He credited Lily for giving him a reason to want to
make the effort. Over the months that I worked there I talked to Bill the
following mornings, making a case for Ryan. It took a while, but eventually
Bill seemed to come around. My best argument had been that Ryan wasn’t any
different than me, and all he needed was for people to believe in him to become
a person worthy of Lily’s time. Seeing Ryan standing on the property without
fear of being shot was a good sign that my talks with Bill had been a success.