Take What You Want (9 page)

She wanted to thank him. To tell him what this meant to her; even if she only got to keep him for this week, he’d changed everything.

Everything.

She moaned into his touch and moved her hand around to cup his balls, gazing down to hide her face from him. It would say entirely too much.

“One thing at a time,” she said.

With that, she dropped to her knees, cushioned from the floor by the wet mass of her robe. She sucked in a deep breath. He was long and thick, hard and perfect in front of her. Still not looking up, heart racing, she traced a single finger up and down the length of him, watched as he bobbed, flexing at her touch.

“Yeah,” he groaned as she leaned in and slid her mouth around the head. He cupped the side of her face, a gentle touch of fingertips against her scalp. He didn’t push her or try to guide her onto him, just held on. It felt possessive. Sexy.

Curling her fingers around the base, she took him in, a slow slide of lips over hard flesh and low noises of pleasure—a soft “baby” and “God” spilling from his lips as she sucked him deep.

When she slid even farther down on him, he shook. “Fuck, that’s good. I love your mouth.” He flexed his hips, a gentle push in time with her own motions as he hit her throat, sliding back before she could gag.

She wanted to make him feel good. Better than anyone. She wanted…

“Baby…” His fingers touched the edge of her jaw, nudging her up. “Look at me.”

She sucked harder and felt his legs tremor.

More insistently, he tugged. “Look at me.”

She forced her eyes up, still scared of what she’d show him. But in that instant, his gaze held the same fire she felt burning inside of her. The same need and connection.

His next grunt was agonized.

“Babe, I’m gonna—” He let go of her, pulled his hands from her hair and slammed one fist into the wall of the shower, but she didn’t let go. “
Ellen
…”

With a shuddering pulse, his release filled her mouth, hot and bitter, and she swallowed it down, still moving on him, only easing off on her pressure when he touched her shoulder and pulled his hips away.

His gaze still burning, he grabbed the back of her head and pulled her up, slamming his mouth against hers the second she was standing. “You are…” he mumbled between kisses, “the sexiest…most dangerous woman…”

“Yeah?”

“God, yes.”

Her back hit the wall of the shower, and then he was on his knees, hands holding her hips to the tile and lips sucking at her inner thigh. Eyes on hers the entire time, he picked up her right leg and hung it over his shoulder, spreading her.

“Hold on to me,” he urged, and then his face was buried between her legs.

She cried his name and reached out, one hand connecting with the shelf beside her and the other with hot skin. Just like he had, she held his head, touched his neck. With lips and fingertips and tongue, he opened her, sucking and licking at her clit while pressing just inside. Her whole upper body strained as she clenched her jaw shut against the onslaught of pleasure.

He pulled away to kiss her thigh. “Let me hear you. Tell me what I do to you.”

“Jesus.” Her mouth hung open and her eyes drifted skyward before slamming shut as he pressed his fingers deeper and brought his tongue back to her flesh. “I’ve never—”

Felt anything like this. Been this close before.

She snapped her mouth closed, trembled as she gave in to it. In a matter of minutes, Josh had her on a precipice, wet and open and soaring, pushing until there was only his mouth and his hand.

“Say my name, Ellen. Say my name when I make you come.”

Her head smacked tile.

“
Josh!
”

Over and over again, his name echoed on her tongue and off the walls, melting into the water and his touch as her whole body shivered and exploded from the center out. From the hot, ripe apex of her pleasure and his kiss.

Had she ever come this hard? Felt this much?

“God, Josh.”

The fog slowly faded, and she opened her eyes to look down at him, still on his knees, hair slicked back from his face with water, lips shining. With a low, wet sound she could hear even over the shower, he pulled his hand from her and sucked his fingers into his mouth.

And it was then. Right then and there, naked and shaking, with the water pouring down over them, that Ellen knew.

A week and a day would never be enough.

Chapter Six

Thursday

The second the front door closed, Josh was there.

“Hey, Dad.”

His father looked up, suspicion already clear in his expression. “Hi.”

“I need to talk to you and Mom. Now.”

With a withering sigh, his father took his coat off and hung it up. “Will I need bail money?”

“No.” Josh wrung his hands. “No, nothing like that.”

“A shotgun?”

“Don’t think so.”

“Huh.”

After no small amount of corralling and cajoling, Josh managed to get him into the living room and seated. With a raised eyebrow, his father looked at his mother. “Apparently our son needs to talk to us.”

Josh’s mother hummed, and Josh took in a deep breath, pacing a few steps one way and then a half dozen in the other. He’d already told his mom that they’d be having company for dinner, but the real bombshell he’d waited to drop until now. He balled his hands into fists and straightened his arms at his sides, then pivoted to face them.

“I invited a girl over for dinner.”

His mom’s face twisted into a knowing smile. “I knew it.”

“Right, right. So, her name is Ellen, and she’s really great.”

His father was less enthused. “You’ve been seeing this girl?”

“Yes.” Josh swallowed around the lump in his throat. “Not for long and it isn’t serious, yet.”

“Does she realize you’re going to med school in the fall?”

“Dad. Cart.” He gestured at a spot in the air with one hand, then at another spot a foot ahead of it in space with his other. “Horse.”

“This isn’t the time to be getting distracted with—”

“
Dad
.”

His father glowered but raised his hands in submission. “Continue.”

“Anyway, she’s…special. And she wanted to meet you guys. But it’s complicated.”

His father sat up straighter. “She’s not pregnant, is she?”

“God, no.” Josh shook his head. “Nothing like that. Just… Look.” He forced a long inhale and an exhale. “Here’s the thing. I need a favor.”

“Here we go…”

“I don’t have time to explain. She knows I’m in school, but she…” Josh winced and just dove right into it. “She doesn’t know I go to school
here
. When we met, she assumed I was just home for spring break, and I didn’t correct her, and now…”

His mother arched her eyebrow. “Seriously?”

“Seriously. I know it’s stupid, and it’s ridiculous, and I have to set everything to rights soon, but things are going really well, and just for tonight, can you please, just…” He glanced from the clock to the door and then back to his parents. “Can you play along?”

They were both looking at him like he was an idiot. Probably because he was.

“Play along?” his dad asked.

“Yeah, just…like, you don’t have to lie. I haven’t lied to her. Just don’t, you know…tell the truth.” He shot them a grimacing smile. “Please?”

Before they could answer, the doorbell rang, and a cold sweat broke out on the back of his neck.

Why the hell had he ever agreed to this?

Edging toward the door, he pled with them again. “Please? For me?”

His father and mother exchanged exhausted looks, doing that weird silent-communication thing that always freaked Josh out, especially when he was pretty sure he was in trouble—basically in moments like this. His mother shrugged and his father rubbed his temple with one hand and waved Josh off with the other.

“We’ll behave. For now. Go let her in.”

“Thank you. I will make this up to you, I promise.”

“Sure, sure.”

Josh was barely out of the room before he heard them laughing behind his back. As if he hadn’t been nervous enough.

Pushing their reaction out of his mind, he wiped his palms on his jeans and crossed the entryway to the door. For a second, he paused there with his palm on the knob, forcing himself to return to his role. When he felt like he had himself more or less under control, he flipped the lock and pulled the door open.

On some level, every time he’d seen Ellen since that first night in the bar, he’d braced himself, just waiting to find out which version of herself she would choose to reveal. The person standing on his doorstep was one he felt pretty sure he’d never met before, and yet he knew her better than any of the Ellens he’d met so far. Halfway between the shy girl he’d watched and the brash woman he’d taken to bed, she stood before him in a modest skirt and heels and a top that showed just enough but not too much. Her stance and smile were confident, but there was something uncertain in her eyes.

As he took her in, her gaze darted from his face to the space behind him and back, her head tilting. “Am I early?”

“Nope.” He coughed to clear the gruffness from his throat. “Right on time.”

“Okay.” Her eyes shifted around again and her chin jutted out. With a nervous laugh, she asked, “Can I come in?”

Right. Idiot.

He stepped aside and held the door open for her. She angled her face up, her eyes moving around the space as she entered. He closed the door behind her, then offered, “Can I take your coat?”

“Oh. Sure.”

Standing behind her, he slipped his fingers under the collar of her jacket, brushing his knuckles over the bare skin of her neck and soaking in her shiver. She shifted something from one hand to the other as she shrugged her arms free from the sleeves of the coat. As he hung the garment up, she turned to him, a foil-wrapped bundle held in front of her. “I brought some rolls. They’re just from the diner, but…”

“That’s great. Thanks.”

Finally, he closed the space between them and brushed his lips over the smooth, sweet-smelling skin of her cheek. “You look beautiful.”

“Thank you.”

He wanted to do more. To take her mouth and taste her tongue or push her up against the wall and trail his fingertips up her thigh. Instead, he pulled away and put his hand at the small of her back. “Come on. My parents can’t wait to meet you.”
And to humiliate me.

“No pressure.”

He chuckled and put his lips near her ear as he walked them forward. “Remember: you asked.”

“Don’t remind me.”

His folks were still sitting together on the couch as they turned the corner, but they stood when he cleared his throat. “Mom, Dad, this is Ellen. Ellen, these are my parents, Dr. and Mrs. Markley.”

His dad stepped forward first, hand outstretched. “Please. Tom and Nancy.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Ellen said.

His mom took Ellen’s hand in both of hers. “We’re so pleased to finally meet the girl Josh has been spending so much time with this week.”

It was exactly the kind of innocently barbed comment his mom excelled at. Ellen smiled tightly and shot a look at Josh, echoing her comment from the day before about what his parents must think about his being gone so much.

The awkward silence only lasted for a few seconds before his mother let go of Ellen’s hand and gestured at the two wing-backed chairs opposite the couch. “Please. Make yourselves comfortable.” As the rest of them sat down, she motioned toward the wrapped plate Ellen was still holding. “Is that…”

“Just some rolls. I thought…”

“How nice of you. I’ll just pop them in the oven.” After asking Ellen if she wanted anything to drink, his mom disappeared into the other room, leaving Josh and Ellen to wither under his dad’s gaze alone.

God. What had he been thinking?

Ellen wasn’t the first girl he’d brought home to meet his folks, but it had been a long, long time. He’d certainly never brought someone over after such a short time, and
definitely
never anyone he’d been straddling such a fine line of a lie with. One offhanded comment from his dad and—

“So,” his dad said, shifting back on the couch. “Nice weather we’ve been having.”

“Very,” Ellen agreed.

“I hear it’s supposed to be nice tomorrow, too.” Josh wanted to beat his head against something as he scrambled for anything to talk about besides the weather. Or the truth. “Nice enough to take the bike out.”

Both Ellen and his dad perked up at that.

“You’ve ridden it a couple times this year already, haven’t you?” his dad asked.

“Yeah.” He shot a glance at Ellen. The guilty expression on her face said she was thinking the same thing he was, remembering how it had felt to ride with her on the back of it, her arms and legs tight around him.

His dad turned to her, too. “Do you ride?”