Broken Wings (A Romantic Suspense) (14 page)

“Don’t stop,” I plead.

“I’m not planning on it,” he growls into my chest.

The throaty sound of his voice drives me wild. I buck my hips against him, and wrap my legs around his waist. He takes my nipple in his mouth and I cry out before silencing myself into my hand. He sucks and it almost hurts, but it feels so good. When he releases my wrist and wraps his arms around my waist, I grasp hold of his hair.

He slides down my stomach, gliding between my legs. The feel of his sides against my thighs makes me shudder. I can feel his breath between my legs, and start to quiver. He’s not going to… Is he?

He does. His warm tongue glides over my pussy lightly, stroking my lips. I groan and arch on the bed, pressing myself into his face. He draws back, keeping his touch light as his hands move down my back to cup my ass in his palms. He squeezes and I let out a little yelp. When I look down I see him between my legs, his eyes staring up at me, a grin on his face before he flicks me with his tongue, and my head lolls back.

I hug myself as his tongue moves more urgently over my tender skin, hinting that it will enter me before it lightly brushes over my clit. Heat rolls up my body and down my legs, and I feel sweat popping on my flesh as little cold shocks run down to my toes, dancing across my body. Every lick is a little harder, a little rougher. His face is wet with my arousal, his chin slick and shiny, and he stops to lick it, running his tongue around his mouth before he returns to me.

Oh
God
. I can’t take much more of this. He suddenly pulls back and kisses my stomach, and starts working his way
up
.

“Ellie,” he murmurs, “do you want me to finish you or…”

“Fuck me.”

He blinks. “What?”

“I said fuck me, Jack. Do it.”

Rising, he moves over me. I lift my legs and wrap them around his waist and pull him toward me. Instinct takes over. I grab his cock and hold it, rubbing the head against my pussy. My cock throbs with anticipation, with need. He pushes a little and I groan as he opens me up, his thick shaft sliding inside.

I can feel tension in his muscles when I touch him, like he’s holding back. I can feel the tension in his body, a match for the thick cock filling me up as he groans and releases himself a little more, slowly pressing into me. When I look down I can see him entering me. He draws back a little and I can see the wetness on his cock before he goes deeper with the next slow thrust, and a cold shiver runs through my body.

He settles on top of me and buries his face in my neck, groaning as I dig my heels into his thighs. Deeper, deeper,
more
. When I think I can’t take any more I feel him press against me hard, buried to the root. He starts to move but I clench around him with my arms and legs.

“Jack,” I purr, “oh, Jack, it’s good. Fuck me, Jack.”

His stomach clenches. He shifts inside me, and it turns into thrusts, deep and slow, his body quivering with every movement, restrained power corded in his muscles. He’s so strong, I feel like he could crush me in his powerful arms. I love it. His muscles flex under my hands. When I squeeze his hips I can feel his ass clenching as he drives inside me. Every thrust is a little harder, sending twisting shivers through my body. The fullness is amazing.

He lifts up and looks at me. Stares at me. Thrusts harder. He kisses me on the lips.

“You’re beautiful,” he whispers, then again and again, turning it into a chant.

I writhe under him, flexing my stomach and hips to meet his thrusts, take him deep. I feel a pressure inside, like he’s expanding all through my body, become totally one with me. It builds until it feels like my skin will pop, like I’ll burst into flames.

“Shut up and fuck me. Stop holding back.”

He does. I cry out, wrap my arms around his neck and clamp down on him. Jack laughs and then rolls. I feel myself lift up in the air, a weird floaty feeling in my stomach, and then my weight drives his cock deep as I end up sitting on top of him.

I lean on him and his eyes rake my body along with his hands, cupping my breasts, caressing my face. I lean just the right way to grind on him and thrust my hips forward and back, faster and faster. The tension in our bodies mounts as I curl forward, leaning on him, clutching his hand. His ass clenches so hard it lifts me up in the air.

I hold it back, somehow. I contain the explosion, until Jack jerks up, lifting me with a full-body thrust, and I feel him explode. It’s like he spreads through my soul and blasts out of my skin as a wave of light and heat. His arms snake around me and he pulls me down on top of him, holding me as I thrash and his cock pulses deep in my pussy, filling me.

I go limp on top of him and close my eye. The tension eases out of him but his cock is still inside me, still hard. I wriggle my hips so I can feel it, and he gasps and shudders.

Slowly, without letting him draw out of me, I sit up, straddling him, and touch his chest. It feels different now. I feel…comfortable.

“Wow,” I gasp.

“Goddamn,” he blurts out, panting. “Wow, Ellie. Jesus. I didn’t think you’d have moves.”

I laugh and slap his chest. “Was that your first, too?”

“Yeah.”

“You ready for round two?”

He sits up and wraps his arms around me, breathing deep in my hair.

“Are you?”

Jack

Even asleep, Ellie looks very…satisfied.

Yeah, I did that.

She lies on her back, naked under the sheets, her burned hand resting on her chest, her lush auburn hair fanned out around her head. I slip out of bed, stopping when she shifts and makes a little noise. Her other hand stretches across the bed.

I touch her palm, tracing the lines with my finger. “I’ll be right back.”

I haven’t showered in two days. I don’t know how she could stand to be close to me like that. She’s only half awake, or maybe one quarter awake. She murmurs something affirmative, rolls onto her right side, and starts snoring.

Yeah, I did that.

Without bothering to dress, I step into the bathroom and leave the door open. It feels weird, sort of…domestic, for lack of a better word.

I need a hot shower. I scrub up hard, lathering myself with the cheap hotel soap. I rub it into my hair, just to feel cleaner. Before I get out I turn the hot water up as high as I can take and stand under it until I turn bright pink , then step out.

When I walk into the room Ellie is awake again, her head propped up on piled pillows.
All
the pillows. She doesn’t say a word. She just watches me dry off.

“Turn around.”

I shrug and do as she asks, facing away from her as I dry myself.

“Why?”

“I like your butt.”

She snorts and giggles, then stops herself. When I turn around again she’s staring off into space, her lip trembling. I quickly buff my hair dry and climb into the bed with her, take her in my arms, and pull the covers up to our necks.

“You okay?”

“Yeah. Very okay.”

She yawns.

Her skin is so soft. She feels amazing to touch. I wince a little when I run my fingers over the scars from the cuts and burns on her side. It must have hurt so much. A sympathetic pain wells up in my chest when I think about her all alone in the hospital, tied down and hooked up to a bunch of machines.

“I should have been there for you.”

“Why me?” she says.

“What?”

“Why me? Jack, look at me—”

“You know what happens when I look at you,” I murmur in her ear.

She shudders. I can feel it in my arms. We move together and she flops halfway on top of me, her head falling on my chest. She lies there in silence for a while. Her breath tickles my skin.

“I can hear your heart.”

I slip my arm under her and pull her on top of me. She lies on my chest and rests her head on my shoulder. The scent of her fills my lungs like hot smoke, and I wrap my arms around her and pull her to me, tight, so I can feel her breathing against me, feel her breath tickle my neck.

“I’m hungry,” she says.

“Let’s order a pizza.”

“That means we have to get dressed.”

“Well, one of us does. The other can stay in bed. Naked.”

She lifts up and shakes her head at me, in a weird, affectionate way, and slips off the bed. Of all the clothes to put on, she plucks my dress shirt off the floor and slips into it like a robe. For some reason, watching the white silk fall over her skin and cling to the curve of her ass is just as hot as watching her walk around naked, if not hotter.

She sniffs the collar and sits on the bed.

With great effort, I get up and pull out the phone book from the drawer, flip it open to the Pizza section, and dial the first local place with an ad. I could have looked on the Internet, but what the hell. After checking my wallet to make sure I’ve got the cash, I order a large pizza, covering the motel phone receiver with my hand to ask how Ellie wants it. Extra cheese, half pepperoni.

When it arrives, Ellie ducks into the bathroom. I pull on a pair of sweats and collect the pie from a bored delivery driver, and Ellie comes back out as I open the box on the table.

We end up sitting in bed, eating it silently while watching
Storage Wars
with the volume turned down low.

Between bites, Ellie says, “No way this isn’t fake. Who leaves a collection of vintage Barbie dolls in some storage bin?”

I just shrug. I don’t care. I’m up against the headboard, and Ellie is up against me.

“I think sex makes pizza taste better.”

She nods. “Mm-hmm.”

“Clearly we need to have sex before every meal.”

“Mm-hmm.”

She’s quiet for a while.

“We need to be careful.”

“You’re right. We’ll get some condoms. Have you ever thought about that? Having kids, I mean.”

She snorts. “No. I thought I was a virgin for life, to be honest.”

I take my slice of pizza and stick it in her mouth. After a few bites we start feeding each other, each chomping on the other’s slice. Ellie giggles a little when she gets some sauce on my cheek, and wipes it off for me.

“So how’d I do?” I say.

“Do?”

“Devirginizing you?”

She gasps and makes a funny little sound. “You did great.”

“It didn’t hurt?”

She shakes her head.

“It definitely did not hurt.”

“Good. You were pretty good, yourself. I wasn’t expecting you to jump on top and show me some moves.”

She turns even redder. “I didn’t even know what I was doing. We need practice.”

“Yeah, we do. Now eat this.”

I jam a slice of plain cheese pizza into her mouth. She mumbles something through it then tears off a bite with a motion of her neck and glares at me.

“Um,” she says after swallowing. “I can’t do, ah…”

“What?”

Her cheek turns a vivid pink. “I can’t really, um, give you a blow job. It’s too hard to open my mouth that wide.”

I laugh. “That’s okay, honey. Really.”

Her head droops, and she leans against me. “I can’t do everything other girls can do. I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to apologize for. Best sex I’ve ever had.”

I grin, and she looks up at me and sticks out her tongue. Quickly I dart in and kiss her. She tastes like tomato sauce and herself. I wish she wasn’t wearing my musky shirt, but I’m not going to take it off her. Well, maybe I will. I reach down and pop the top button and she bats my hand away.

She doesn’t do it back up, though.

“I’m tired. Where are we, anyway?”

“Phone says we’re near the Oklahoma border. One or two days and we should make it.”

“I don’t see why we should hurry. We don’t even know they’re looking for us. We have another three days before our parents even get back from their honeymoon.”

I sigh. “Ellie, they’re going to notice I’m gone. My father probably already knows. They’re probably back in the country already. For all we know, the FBI is looking for us.”

“For what? I’m an adult, damn it. I can go where I want. I wanted to go with you. Skipping work and leaving the house isn’t a crime.”

“You know,” I say, “Las Vegas isn’t far from Arizona. We could go to one of those wedding chapels.”

She sits up, facing me. “What?”

“Well,” I say.

“Did you just propose to me?”

I sit up and take both her hands in mine. She flinches when I touch her left hand, for all her protests that she can’t feel anything with it. Her fingers, or the first two, anyway, move a little and tighten just a bit around mine.

“Ellie, will you marry me?”

She doesn’t say anything. The tension thickens in the air. Every second that goes by that her lips don’t move, my heart clenches tighter. She blinks, faster and faster, and a tear wells in her eye before sliding down her cheek.

“Come on. I haven’t steered you wrong yet.”

“Jack, I don’t know if I can. I don’t know if I can have a family. What if I…” she trails off.

“What?”

“Nothing, it’s stupid. Jack, this is so sudden—”

“Sudden? I’ve loved you for twelve years of my life. We’ve already been apart so long. I never want to let you go. Stay with me. Take my name, have my children if you want. If my father doesn’t like it, we’ll go someplace far away, just you and me. We’ll stay out here and never go home. I want you, Ellie. Forever. You and no one else.”

“You shouldn’t. You should want somebody smarter and better and beautiful—”

“There isn’t anybody. You are beautiful.”

I let go of her hand and press my palm to her burned cheek. “I’m not going to lie to you, Ellie. The scars can be hard to look at, but they don’t make
you
ugly. When you laugh or smile you’re as beautiful as you ever were. That’s what I want in my life. I want you to be happy.”

“Okay. Let’s do it. Yes.”

A sudden burst of energy tears through my body and without thinking I’m on my feet, lifting her by the waist. I spin her around and she wraps her legs around me and kisses me, hard.

“I love you,” I tell her. “I love you.”

“I love you, too, Jack. For as long as this lasts.”

I lower her to the floor, and she leans on me until she gets her balance, grinning as she brushes her hair out of her face. She dumps the leftover pizza in the trash and I pull the covers back.