“What’s wrong?” Ella tilted her head in the way that told me she was concerned about something.
I shook my head. “Nothing.”
She furrowed her brow. I knew she didn’t believe me. “I know you’re going to love the exhibit.”
I gave her my best attempt at a smile but I knew it wasn’t as genuine as I wanted. I also knew Ella could see right through my deception.
***
It turns out all of my worry and rumination over the Cheyenne Robison exhibit was for nothing. The guy was a little older than us, maybe early 30s, and good looking, in an Aaron Donovan sort of way, but a bit more rugged and rougher around the edges. He was also apparently very happily married. He talked about his wife and daughter incessantly, not that it was a bad thing. They both seemed to be quite an artistic inspiration to him. Of course, his admission made me wonder what inspired Ella’s art. I wondered if one day I would be an inspiration for her.
The Cheyenne Robison exhibition was packed. It was early afternoon but the museum was hosting a special meet-and-greet event with the artist and it appeared that every art lover for miles showed up for the event. Cheyenne gave a short talk about his artwork and his background then introduced his wife and daughter, who were seated not very far from us in the audience. His wife looked a little older, may late 30s or early 40s but she was very attractive. She had a way about her that kind of reminded me of Rainy. Their daughter, who was just a toddler, was cute as a button.
After his formal presentation, Cheyenne was crowded by fervent admirers. Ella and I waited patiently on the sidelines until the crowds diminished and headed over to the wine and cheese bar before we approached. I noticed Cheyenne’s daughter ran over and grabbed his leg and he scooped her up and held her while he was talking to the last of his fans.
When Ella and I approached, Cheyenne’s little girl reached out and tried to grab my nose. I always considered it a rather obtrusive part of my anatomy and apparently the little girl agreed. She laughed when I made a honking noise whenever she pinched my nose.
“Lucia,” Cheyenne said in a serious daddy voice. “You can’t just grab people’s noses.”
The little girl looked up with him with sad eyes and I thought she might cry. It made my heart heavy. “It’s okay,” I said quickly. “I love kids. I don’t mind. Really.”
Cheyenne winked at me. “Lucia is such a friendly girl. We’re working on personal boundaries.”
Cheyenne’s wife hurried up next to him. “Let me take her,” she offered as she grabbed Lucia from her daddy’s hip. “Is she causing trouble?”
“The usual,” Cheyenne replied and the two parents gave each other a knowing look. They seemed to be a very sweet couple—a sweet family. I’m not sure why but I thought about Rainy and Aaron and what their kids would be like. Maybe it was because Cheyenne and his wife reminded me of the pair, so perfectly matched and so in love. Not that Aaron and Rainy had ever talked about having children and they were still newlyweds.
When I glanced over at Ella, I expected her to be watching Cheyenne and his wife and daughter but she seemed to be watching my reactions to them instead. I’m not sure why but it made me suddenly nervous. Maybe it was because she had such a strange expression on her face and such a faraway look in her eye.
When Cheyenne put out a hand to greet Ella, it finally pulled her out of whatever kind of trance she seemed to be in. “Thank you so much for coming,” Cheyenne said pleasantly as he shook her hand.
“I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to meet you,” Ella was bubbling with excitement. “I’m an artist as well. Mostly oil paints. Some water color. I’m Ella Warner.”
Cheyenne smiled. “Well, maybe I’ll be attending your art exhibit one day, Ella Warner.”
Then Cheyenne turned to me, his hand extended. “Are you Ella’s husband?”
Why did everyone seem to think we were married? I wasn’t sure how to respond. I just said, “I’m Lucas Young. I’m not an artist.”
That made Cheyenne laugh. “Let me guess.” He looked me up and down. “You’re in computers.”
“Close but not close enough. I’m an engineer.”
“Well, thank you both for coming. If you have any questions about any of the pieces, I’ll be here for another twenty minutes or so.”
“Do you have a gallery?” Ella asked.
Cheyenne turned to her. “As a matter of fact, I do. It’s in Sedona.” Cheyenne reached into his front pocket, pulled out a business card and handed it to Ella. “Do you collect art?”
“No,” she said. “But I might start.”
Cheyenne smiled. “We ship everywhere in the country.” Then he turned and winked at me again. He did remind me a lot of Aaron, who always seemed to be oozing charisma every time he winked. “If you’ll excuse me, I think my wife could use a hand with our pride and joy.”
And with that, he was gone.
Ella still didn’t look herself somehow. It was like someone had pulled her plug and her battery backup was slowly dying.
“Is everything okay?” I whispered as I moved closer to her.
She heaved a sigh. Then she was still for a long moment as if she was thinking about what to say. She didn’t answer my question. Instead, she grabbed my hand. “Come on, we still need to look at Cheyenne’s sculptures.”
Ella was right when she said Cheyenne knew how to capture movement with metal. His sculptures were amazing. Ella was fixated on a piece, a small child in a flowing skirt, dancing happily. Not surprising, the girl looked a lot like little Lucia.
“Ella.” I tried to get her attention but she seemed intent on studying that particular sculpture. I carefully touched her upper arm because I didn’t want to scare her. She turned to face me and her expression seemed muted.
“What’s wrong?” I probed.
“I saw the way you were with Cheyenne’s daughter.” Her voice was so faint, I struggled to hear her.
I smiled. “She’s an adorable little girl. Very spirited.”
Ella still wasn’t right. It was obvious something was bothering her. I had no idea what it could be.
When she looked up at me, her eyes looked pained. “Do you want to have children?”
The question took me by surprise. “I don’t know,” I said truthfully. “I never gave it much thought.”
“Why not?” There seemed to be an urgency in her question.
I shrugged. I suddenly felt uncomfortable talking about such a sensitive topic in the middle of a museum. I grabbed her hand and pulled her into a quiet area in the corner away from the last of Cheyenne’s fans still viewing his work.
“To tell you the truth, I wasn’t sure I’d actually get the chance to have kids.” I heaved a sigh. “I wasn’t sure I’d ever find someone to marry me.”
Ella’s mouth popped open and she was gaping at me. “Why?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” I said.
She shook her head. “No.”
“Seriously?” I asked in utter disbelief.
“Seriously,” she assured me.
“Because I’m me,” I blurted
She actually laughed, which kind of pissed me off.
“Why is that funny?” With my brows now furrowed, I imagined I looked even funnier. The situation was becoming completely ridiculous.
She bit her lip to try and hold back her laughter. Then she took a few deep breaths to compose herself. “Any woman would be lucky to have you, Lucas. You’re smart, funny, gentle, kind and patient. You’re the sweetest guy I’ve ever met. And you’re loyal and devoted. You’re the guy that every girl wants to marry.”
Now I was the one who was laughing. “No, every girl wants to marry Aaron Donovan or Cheyenne Robison. They want a good looking guy with a great body and lots of charm. I’m about as attractive as a mud fence and sometimes I think I make mud fences look good. I’m the textbook definition of a geek. I’m definitely not the guy that girls dream of being with. I think a girl would be with Steel before she’d be with me.”
I realized as soon as the last sentence came out of my mouth, it was a mistake. Ella looked like I’d slapped her. “I’d rather be with you,” she said softly.
“I know.” I tried to choke back the lump that was forming in my throat. “I’m sorry.”
“Lucas,” Ella was now looking into my eyes. “I want to be with you. But that’s the problem. You deserve a lot better than me.”
I placed a hand on her cheek. “That’s not true. You’re everything I want.” I wasn’t one for public displays of affection but I felt it was important, so I placed a soft kiss on her lips. The electricity in the air and flowing between us was unmistakable.
“We need to go back to the hotel,” she said as she placed her hand on my chest and our eyes locked. She had so much need and so much desire in her eyes it nearly took my breath away. And it was me she wanted—me she desired. This beautiful woman standing before me—wanted me.
“We do need to go back to the hotel,” I agreed.
***
Our hotel room door barely had a chance to close behind us before we were undoing each other clothes. The overwhelming desire I had to be inside her was like nothing I had ever felt before—it was all-consuming, like being swept up into a tornado of wild passion.
Our kisses were light and tender one minute and deep and hungry the next. The need to have our clothes off was so urgent, we nearly ripped them off of each other. I pulled her naked body close to mine and I could feel my rock hard erection press against her cool stomach.
“I want you so badly,” I moaned into Ella’s ear. Then I licked and nipped at her earlobe. The sound she let out almost sounded like a purr.
We made our way over to the bed, our bodies still enmeshed, and fell into the bed in a lust-filled heap. My hands made their way over every inch of Ella’s thin body. I loved the fact that she was beginning to feel like familiar territory that I was free to roam—my territory. I had never felt possessive over anything in my life, especially a person. I always prided myself on being the type of guy who would give a stranger his last dollar or even the shirt off of his back.
Ella was different. I didn’t want anyone else to have her. I wanted her to be mine, and mine alone. Ella was definitely turning me into a caveman.
I swept a few strands of hair away from her face and then ran my hand down her soft, pale cheek. She had skin like porcelain. She was so fragile yet so perfect at the same time.
“Ella, have you ever had sex without using a condom?”
Her eyes narrowed and she shook her head slowly like she was responding but simultaneously wondering why I was asking.
“Would you ever consider having sex without a condom?”
She didn’t respond for a moment, obviously giving it some thought then she nodded.
I grabbed her hand and placed a kiss on her knuckles. Then I looked into her eyes. “I want to be with you, I want to be inside you, without anything between us. But do you know what that means? If we don’t use a condom?”
She nodded again but I wanted to make sure that she knew what it meant for me.
“I don’t want to be with anyone else but you, Ella, and I’m asking you to make the same commitment to me.”
“I know,” she said quietly then placed a tender kiss on my check. “I don’t want to be with anyone but you, Lucas.”
I could feel my heart quiver. Ella wanted me, and only me. Before she could change her mind, I crashed my mouth into hers and pulled her close. Our naked bodies began to move in a perfectly synchronized dance as our hands roamed each other. I had never been so thoroughly turned on in my life. I felt like I could explode at any moment. The desire I had to be inside Ella completely consumed me.
When I lunged deep inside her, she let out a moan of pleasure. The feeling of being inside her, bare, without any protection was so intense I nearly came right away. But I wanted Ella to come with me. I wanted us to join in the ultimate union.
As I continued to push inside her, I noticed she closed her eyes. “Look at me, Ella,” I whispered. I didn’t just want Ella’s body, I wanted to see her, to look into her eyes, the window of her soul.
She slowly opened her eyes and I met her gaze. The glow of her passion made her look more beautiful than I had ever seen her.
As I alternated between long slow strokes and harder faster thrusts, each movement seemed to propel me closer to the finish line. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could hold off my inevitable release.
When I saw Ella’s mouth open slightly and her eyes widen, I knew she was almost there. And I knew I wanted to be right there with her. I pushed quicker and with more force until Ella cried out, then I let go. The release was so powerful my entire body trembled as I spilled everything I had into Ella.
I never took my eyes from Ella’s. I wanted to see her experience every moment fully and completely. I wanted to see every moment on her face and how her eyes changed when she climaxed. And I didn’t want to break the connection between us in any way. I wanted us to be joined in body and in soul.
I placed my hand on Ella’s face and wiped a few beads of sweat from her temple. “How was it?”
A lazy smile lifted the corner of her mouth. “You’re never using a condom again, that’s for sure.”
“I guess that means you liked it?”
“Yeah, I liked it,” she mocked. Then she playfully smacked my ass. “And maybe I’d like some more later.”
“You are insatiable.” I gave her a peck on the cheek.
“You know what they say: you can never get enough of a good thing.”
We both laughed.
It wasn’t long before we feel asleep in each other’s arms.
***
I’m not sure exactly what woke me up. I may have been having strange dreams, which for me, wasn’t that strange. I had a lot of unusual dreams. Something felt off, though, and when I searched for Ella in the bed, I panicked when I realized she wasn’t there. Where could she have gone? It was dark, the middle of the night. I flipped on the lamp over the nightstand and glanced around the room.
No one but me.
I hopped out of bed and pulled on my boxer briefs. Then I hurried over to the bathroom. It was dark and empty. I could feel my heart start to race. Where was Ella?
Before I allowed full panic to set in, I decided to check one more place. I opened the sliding glass door and walked out on to the deck. Ella was seated on one of the deck chairs with her knees folded to her chest. She was looking at the mountains that were lighted by the full moon. I pulled up a chair and sat down next to her.
“Is everything okay?” I asked.
She looked up. “Aren’t the stars amazing?”
They were bold and bright. The scene was breathtaking. But she was avoiding my question. She was really good at that. “What are you doing out here? It’s the middle of the night.”
She put her arm on my shoulder and kissed my check. All the anxiety I was feeling started to melt away. Well, maybe not all of it but a lot of it started to dissipate.
“I was having trouble sleeping and I didn’t want to wake you up.” I sensed there was more that she wasn’t telling me so I waited.
We both looked out at the vast nightscape and listened to the faraway hum of the city traffic.
“There’s something I need to tell you,” Ella stated.
I braced myself for the worst possible news. Had she finally figured out that she was out of my league? We may have felt like a reunited pair of socks but I’m sure people thought we looked like a mismatched pair. We could have posed as the cover for Beauty and the Beast. Or maybe she was lying about the sex. Maybe I was no match to the other fifty-eight partners she’d had. Maybe number fifty-nine didn’t measure up.
“It’s something I’ve never told anyone.”
“What’s that?” I held my breath waiting for the inevitable. I was convinced she was going to dump me.
“I love you,” she said finally.
“What?” I couldn’t
believe what I was hearing. I wanted to make sure I heard the words correctly and I wasn’t just imagining it.
“I love you, Lucas,” she repeated.
I finally understood what it meant when people said their hearts were singing. My heart was belting out a tune. In my utter joy, I jumped from the chair and pulled Ella with me. Then I picked her up and swung her around.
“Ella Warner loves me!” I yelled because I couldn’t contain my excitement. Then I realized we were outside in the middle of the night and the rest of the guests in the resort were probably going to come after me because I’d woken them up with my reverie.
“I guess I should keep it down,” I whispered.
“Don’t keep everything down,” Ella teased as she pushed against me. “I think a little exercise might just put me to sleep again.”
She didn’t need to say another word. I could already feel myself getting hard.
***
After a leisurely breakfast in bed, we spent all day Sunday at the Phoenix Zoo. We couldn’t keep our hands off of each other as we walked through the park and viewed the various animal exhibits. As much as I’ve always enjoyed zoology and loved animals, as the afternoon wore on, I found my thoughts coming back to Ella and imagining the two of us back in bed.
Then something happened when we were watching the meerkats. A little girl, maybe five years old, stood next to us. I wasn’t sure where her parents were but she started talking to me.
“Did you know that when meerkats are threatened, they begin digging to create a cloud of dust in order distract their attackers?” the little girl asked.
“I did know that,” I replied. “And did you know that meerkats are immune to the venom of snakes and scorpions?”
The little girl looked up at me through thick black-framed glasses. “Keen observation.”
Final Play (Matchplay Series) Page 11
