A Reason to Stay (Oak Hollow) (2 page)

There was definitely something about Jake that drove women wild, and it was more than just his good looks. Oh, he was good looking, that was for sure. In fact, he was
downright gorgeous with his jet-black hair and piercing, charcoal eyes.

His body wasn’t too shabby, either. Being a fire fighter
, he had to keep in shape, but he’d always had a body that made the girls drool. The six feet, four inches of his broad shouldered frame was covered with lean, hard muscle. Even Ellie, who could never in a million years be considered tiny, felt small next to him.

Thinking of Jake's big, strong body sent a shiver through Ellie. Unbidden, an image of Jake using his strength and fireman’s training to throw her over his shoulder and carry her up the curved staircase in his farmhouse popped into her mind. Heat that had nothing to do with the temperature of her bath water coursed through Ellie.

In an effort to flush the image from her mind’s eye before the couple in her fantasy reached Jake's bedroom, Ellie plunged her head beneath the warm, scented water. When she emerged, gasping for breath, Jake's face was still emblazoned across her mind. He was wearing that goofy, sweet, lopsided grin of his. That grin, even more than his to-die-for body, was what drove women wild for Jake McAllister. Jake had a rare charm. All he had to do was flash those smoky eyes and that lopsided, innocent grin and women fell at his feet. The most compelling thing about him was that he didn’t realize he had this power. The root of the matter was that Jake had a heart of gold. He would do anything he could for others, even risk his life. That was apparent in his job choice. That goodness deep within shone from him like a beacon and drew people to him.

Ellie’s heart ached. That sweet, boyish charm and heart of gold was what made women fall in love with him. And Ellie was no different. She was just one in a long line who had fallen in love with the untamable Jake.

She didn’t think Jake even knew he had that effect on women. He knew the effect he had on their bodies; he’d been studying women’s bodies and their reaction to him since his teens. But what he didn’t know was the havoc he played on their hearts. She was sure he didn’t know the number of hearts he’d unwittingly broken over the years, the girls who’d pined over unrequited love. She knew in her heart of hearts that he’d never want to bring heartache to anyone. That was why she had to leave. That was why he could never know how she felt.

If he ever found out the pain she felt every time she thought of him in the arms of another woman, he would feel guilty. Of course, he wouldn’t be able to return her love, and it would hurt him to know he caused her pain. That would drive a wedge between them they would never be able to overcome. She didn’t want that. She couldn’t stand it.

Forcing those depressing thoughts from her mind, she took the bar of lavender scented soap and began washing her body. It was not a bad body, she had to admit. No, she wasn’t thin and long legged, but men tended to enjoy her full, plump breasts and rounded hips. Not all men had a taste for women with voluptuous curves—Jake being the prime example of a man who preferred tall, thin, women whose big breasts came from the nearest plastic surgeon instead of nature. But then, not all men had a taste for waifs either. It takes all kinds, Ellie had always thought. Personally, she preferred tall, broad shouldered men, so she didn’t feel as if she could judge anyone for their preferences in the opposite sex. Though she sure wished Jake had different tastes.

Well, it’s his loss, she thought as she lifted one tanned leg from the water and worked the soap into a lather over the taut calf muscles. Yes, definitely his loss! Her
dress size might be a 20, but she damned well filled that 20 out quite beautifully. Her body might be big, but it was firm and healthy.

Ellie ran the soap over her arms, first one, then the other, then moved on to her chest. She swirled the soap over her full breasts. Discarding the soap, Ellie re-traced the soap's journey over her wet skin with her fingers. She loved the way the soft, slick skin felt under her fingertips. She drew tiny circles in the suds covering her skin, imagining what it would feel like for Jake to be the one gliding his hands over her wet and waiting body.

Heat curled in her belly as she closed her eyes and allowed Jake’s image to form in the darkness. Her hands developed a mind of their own, trailing over her body of their own volition, as in her dream world behind her eyelids they traveled over the hard plains and muscles of his body.

With her eyes squeezed shut, her hands were sliding over his soap-slicked skin, up the defined muscles of his arms, gliding over the hard muscles playing in his shoulders. In her mind it was Jake’s hands slipping over her breasts, kneading them gently, teasing the nipples. It was Jake who was sliding one hand down the gentle swell of her belly, his fingers burning her skin. The wayward hand that should have been Jake’s slipped even lower as the other hand continued to pinch and tease first one nipple, then the other.

Ellie’s southern-most hand continued its journey, grazing the inside of each thigh before stopping to rest over the warm mound at their juncture. A soft moan escaped her lips as she, and Jake in her mind’s eye, softly rubbed the heel of her hand over the throbbing mound, caressing it.

Her body held a flush that had nothing to do with the warm bath water. In her fantasy, Jake was trailing kisses over her body, first softly sucking her hardened nipples in to his mouth, then down, following the trail burned in her skin by his fingers, till that lovely tongue reached the luscious area between her thighs.

Just as Jake reached the region in her fantasy world, Ellie slipped one finger into the cleft at the apex of her thighs. The wetness there was a mixture of the bath water and her own free-flowing juices. As Fantasy-Jake’s tongue lapped over it, her finger rubbed the swollen little nub ant her center.

Caught up in the pure pleasure of her fantasy world, Ellie was unaware of the moans and gasps escaping her lips. She was aware of only one thing, the throbbing heat in her body that screamed to be quenched. As she stroked her clit rhythmically, her other hand abandoned her swollen nipples to thrust first one, then two fingers in
side herself.

As her Fantasy-Jake stroked
her with his tongue, she stroked herself with her fingers. Water sloshed the floor as she rocked in an ever increasing rhythm, every nerve in her body screaming for release. Her blood boiling, she rubbed and stroked harder and faster until she sent herself over the edge with a tiny squeal.

After several long moments, the shaking of the orgasmic aftermath began to subside and Ellie floated back down to earth. As she began washing away the remnants of her solitary interlude, she was thankful Jake was downstairs watching TV and couldn’t hear her pleasuring herself.

Jake’s body was on fire. He felt ashamed that he
had stood there and listened, but the shame was not what caused the burning in his loins. He’d only meant to knock on the door and let Ellie know the take-out was on its way. But when he’d reached the bathroom door there had been sounds coming out that told him Ellie didn’t want to be disturbed right then. He hadn’t meant to eavesdrop, really he hadn’t. But the soft gasps and moans were just too delectable. Sounds he’d always imagined coming out of Ellie’s lips. But in his dreams there hadn’t been a door separating them and he’d been the one making her groan, not her own fingers.

That thought brought the image of Ellie in his bathtub, her body slick from water and soap. Her hands were sliding over her smooth skin, playing over her plump breasts, teasing the nipples hard, then moving down to her creamy thighs.

As much as he wanted to leave, to give Ellie her privacy, that image along with the tantalizing sounds glued his feet to the floor. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t do anything but listen and wish he had the guts to bust through the door and join her in that huge tub. Then he could turn her gasps into screams and release the unbearable heat pooled in his belly. But, he didn’t have the guts.

He’d made his decision weeks ago when he’d learned she was moving. He wasn’t going to try to stand in her way. He wanted her to be happy and if moving to Chicago was what it took, then he would make sure that is what she got. If he were comple
tely truthful, he was just downright afraid, too. He could rush in there and offer himself to her, but what if she refused. Damn, no other woman had ever made him feel as uncertain as Ellie Blaylock. No other woman had ever made him feel the way she did, in any way.

So, he didn’t rush in there, but he didn’t leave either. He stood there, his heat rising and his jeans getting tighter with every second. He stood there and listened to every breathy gasp, every soul-stirring moan, and every slosh of the water. He tightened his hands into painful fists to keep from stroking himself. He couldn’t give her the privacy she deserved, but he was damned if he was going to stand there and jack himself off like some hormonal, teen-aged Peeping Tom.

When the last strangled gasp and high pitched squeal announced Ellie’s climax to him through the door, it was all Jake could do to stifle his own moan of frustration. God, he wanted to be the one causing her to cry out with pleasure. The urge to rush into the bathroom and take her in his arms welled up inside him again, but the moment was gone.

He heard water swirling down the bathtub drain, then the spray of water from the shower. Ellie must be washing her hair. That meant she would be out any minute, and if he didn’t get out of there she would find him standing there and know he’d been eavesdropping like some weirdo creep. But he was still glued to his spot with the thoughts of a naked Ellie just beyond the door.

At that moment, the doorbell chimed the arrival of their dinner. Thankful for the interruption, Jake hurried downstairs to open the door before the bell chimed again. He didn’t want Ellie to wonder why it took him a long time to answer the door.

By the time Ellie came downstairs, Jake had the massive amounts of Chinese food they always ordered arranged on the coffee table along with a beer for himself and a berry flavored wine cooler for Ellie.

He’d also stood in front of his open freezer door for several minutes in order to force himself to cool down. He realized his efforts were in vain when returned from the kitchen, where he’d went to hunt down some soy sauce because the delivery guy had forgotten to put little packets of the stuff in their order, and found Ellie lounging on the couch.

His heart nearly stopped as he took in the beauty of her. She’d partially dried her hair and damp curls fluttered around her face in a chestnut halo, the ends leaving tiny wet spots on the shoulders of her t-shirt. His eyes flickered over the t-shirt. There was nothing remarkable about it. It was a huge, over-sized pink nightshirt that fell to her knees and had "Princess" emblazoned across the front, her standard Movie Night attire. Because they usually stayed up so late watching movies, she stayed over in his spare bedroom.

No, nothing remarkable about that old t-shirt at all, except the way it clung to the moisture left on her skin from her bath, outlining every curve of her luscious body. Or the way it clung to her ripe, braless breasts, the peeling "Princess" not able to cover the jut of the nipples that were hard from the slight chill in the air. Or the way the hem slipped up her smooth, tanned thighs, stopping just short of giving him a peek of what he knew were white cotton panties when she sat cross-legged, as she was doing now.

Get a grip,
McAllister! He knew he was being ridiculous. Ellie had been wearing the same thing or something very similar for Movie Night for as long as he could remember. Hell, he’d seen her in much less when they’d shared an apartment in college. There was no reason for him to suddenly freak out over a t-shirt.

But he knew it wasn’t suddenly. That shirt had given him many a sleepless night, especially in the past year or so when he’d begun to realize just how much Ellie really meant to him, how he loved her and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, not as her best friend, but as the man she loved. But tonight it was different. It was even harder than usual to keep his hormones in check. Probably because of what he’d heard upstairs, but maybe it was because tonight would be the last time he would be seeing Ellie this way for a very long time, maybe forever. That thought was a knife in his heart. Ellie picked that moment to look up and notice him standing near the doorway.

"Hey, bring me that soy sauce, I’m starved!" she said, as if there was no way she could begin eating without the soy sauce. Truthfully she couldn’t, or at least she didn’t think she could. Ellie had a very precise way of working her way through Chinese food, and the first thing she did involved an egg roll and a ton of soy sauce.

"What are you grinning at?" Ellie demanded, taking the bottle from his hand and applying the salty sauce liberally to an egg roll she’d broken in half.

"You and your crazy eating habits," laughed Jake.

Ellie feigned outrage "Weird? Me? You’re one to talk, Mister Never-Try-Anything-New!"

She had a point. Every time they got Chinese he stuck to his favorite of Mongolian Beef, refusing to try the huge variety of dishes Ellie always ordered. He supposed it was a little stick-in-the-mud of him. He could risk his life daily, but he couldn’t taste Mu Shu Pork. And he couldn’t risk his heart enough to tell the woman he loved how he felt.

"Okay, I’ll make a deal with you. You don’t drown the fried rice in soy sauce and I’ll try any of the dishes you want me to."