“Do you feel better?” he asked.
“Yes,” I told him. “Thank you.”
“It was my pleasure,” he said, kissing me one more time. I went around the desk and put my panties back on, shooting one last look at him before I left the room. I felt giddy suddenly, shocked by what I’d done. I found a bathroom and went inside, locking it behind me. I looked in the mirror at my face, which was flushed, my lips red and slightly swollen from the kisses and taking his cock in my mouth. I looked like I had just been fucked, and I took a moment to let my body cool down before I went back downstairs to the ballroom.
I found Julian in there talking to a girl, leaning against the banister with a grin on his face. For some reason, I felt a twinge of something inside me when I saw them together. I pushed it away and approached them, meeting Julian’s eyes.
“Can I talk to you for a minute?” I asked him. He excused himself from the girl without taking his eyes off me, as if she didn’t even exist anymore. He followed me outside and into the cool night air, which felt good on my overheated skin.
“Are you okay?” Julian asked me, studying my face. I felt embarrassed, like what I had done was written all over my features. I felt like he knew, and suddenly I was ashamed of my actions.
“I’m fine,” I said, looking down at the ground, anywhere but his face. “I was just wondering when we were leaving.”
“Do you want to leave? I can take you home and come back,” he said. I shook my head.
“It’s okay,” I said. “I was just curious. Are you having fun?”
“Not really,” he said, and when I met his eyes again they were sparkling and lively, looking me over with interest. He looked a little tipsy, and he kept gazing at my lips for long moments that he didn’t try to hide from me at all. “Are you?”
“No,” I said.
“I think I could make this more fun for you,” he said in a low voice.
“How?” I asked him, staring up at him with a smile. I couldn’t help it. The blatant way he looked at me was hot but I also found it amusing that he was so uninhibited. He leaned in close to me, putting his lips to my ear as he pulled me by the waist against him.
“Dance with me,” he whispered. I nodded. He took my hand and warmth spread from the place where our skin connected. He pulled me on the dance floor and didn’t hesitate the way his brother had, but put his hands on my hips and pulled me against him so that my body molded to his. He had a grin on his face that reminded me of the man I’d been with upstairs. I could feel the length of his cock against my belly. He wasn’t trying to hide it, but looked down at my face with a hungry look in his eye. I found myself rubbing against him slightly beyond my control, not even thinking about it, doing what my body was telling me to do. I was hot and flustered all over again and he knew it, his hands traveling down my back and cupping my ass as he pulled me as close as we could get with the barrier of clothing between us. I thought about stopping him but couldn’t seem to bring my hands to do it. We were moving slowly, grinding up against each other with our eyes connected. I thought about kissing him but decided against it, too nervous that it would break the spell and push him away. I didn’t want to get too attached to him anyway, didn’t want to connect with him any deeper than this dance.
“Do you want me, Ella?” he asked, his voice soft near my ear.
“Julian—” I said, but he cut me off by pressing his lips to my cheek.
“Do you want to go home right now?”
I knew what he was asking. He didn’t just want to go home, he wanted to stay there with me, to bring me to his bed and fuck me and touch me all over. I shook my head, knowing that would be going too far.
“I think—I think we should stay,” I said to him. He searched my face for a moment and nodded. He didn’t look disappointed at all, his arousal unaffected by my rejection. I was glad to see the understanding in his eyes.
He pulled me off the dance floor then, and I felt a little regretful that we hadn’t stayed. It had been such a sensual moment, one that I could easily become addicted to if I wasn’t careful.
I sat for the rest of the night with Julian; occasionally, Eric would come up to our table and sit with us, but he was busy with his friends for the most part.
“Don’t you have any friends?” I asked Julian. That made him laugh.
“Uh, I guess not,” he said.
“I mean—why are you sitting here with me?”
“Ella, you are by far the most interesting person in this room.”
I smiled. “You’re just flirting with me.”
“I might be,” he said.
“You were with a girl earlier. You didn’t look bored.”
“I wasn’t. But that girl isn’t you.”
Eric came over to the table then, noticing how Julian and I were looking at each other. He shook his head at us, meeting my eye.
“You guys ready to go home?”
“Yes,” we answered at almost the same time. He nodded, then we followed him out and waited for the valet to bring our car to the front. It was nice to be outside, though chilly, and I stood close between both of their bodies so that I could feel their heat on my skin. Julian noticed and moved closer so that we were pressed together, his arm wrapped around me. He stroked my waist up and down, making me shiver with something other than the cold.
We got into the car when it pulled up and started home.
“How was your night, Eric?” I asked him. “We didn’t see you much.”
“I’m sorry about that. I got caught up with some old friends and sort of got stuck there.”
“It’s fine,” Julian said. “We had a good time.”
“I bet you did,” said Eric. I looked at him over my shoulder where he was sitting in the backseat, worried about what he was thinking about Julian and me. I didn’t want him to be upset about the way I reacted around Julian. When I looked back though, he had an amused look on his face.
We got back home and I felt Julian’s eyes on my face as we climbed the stairs. I knew what he wanted because I wanted it too. But I knew it was a terrible idea. I forced myself to tell him goodnight and go into my room. I locked the door, mostly as a gesture to keep myself inside. I couldn’t help but imagine creeping into his room, climbing into his bed and straddling his hips in the middle of the night.
Lying in bed, I thought about the man I’d let touch me today, fuck me in a way that was hard and rough and made me feel dirty. I thought about my confession about how I’d felt dancing with Eric, the man’s response to it, how he told me it was filthy and wrong. It had somehow made me hotter, although when I was alone and no longer so aroused I could barely breathe, the thought made me feel slightly ashamed of myself. I was ashamed, too, of how easily the man at the party had gotten me to spread my legs for him. He had been wearing a mask—I had no idea who he was, didn’t even know his name. I felt wanton and wild and I found myself blushing in bed just thinking about what I’d done and how easy it had been to get what he wanted from me. He had barely had to try before he had me wrapped around his cock, taking it deep and fast.
I fell asleep thinking about it, squirming in my bed as thoughts of all three men filled my head. It made it hard to sleep, but I finally dozed off within a couple of hours.
8
Julian
In the morning I was in the kitchen waiting for Ella; I had started cooking and was whisking eggs in a bowl. When she saw me, she smiled, raising her eyebrows.
“Sit down,” I said, gesturing at the counter. She pulled out a stool and sat down on it, watching me as I turned my back to her to put the eggs in the pan.
“How are you this morning?” I asked her. It was hard to keep myself from staring at her or going to her. I had wanted her so badly the night before that it ached to go to bed without her. It seemed like every few hours I woke up from dreams about her and had to stroke my cock to relieve some of the tension in my body. It felt nothing like how I knew her pussy would feel—warm and tight and wet.
I had no doubt that it was perfect. Just thinking about how wet she must have been the night before drove me crazy.
“I’m fine,” she said, though she sounded tired. I poured her a cup of coffee and passed it over the counter, meeting her eye as I did. She looked much like she had the night before, flushed and flustered. I wonder what it was that was affecting her so much, if it was me or Eric or both of us. I had noticed the way she was dancing with him, the same way as she had with me, only more controlled. With me, she had let go almost completely, and it had been the sexiest thing I had ever experienced with a woman.
“I was wondering if you wanted to come out with me today,” I said. She shook her head.
“I have a lot of cleaning to do. I’ve missed the past two days—”
“You’re on vacation,” I said, looking over my shoulder at her.
“I really can’t, Julian.”
I turned around and leaned on the counter, looking her in the eye. “You are allowed to do anything you want to do. Nobody is allowed to stop you. Come with me today.”
She licked her bottom lip and I couldn’t help but stare at her mouth, wondering how she tasted. I regretted that I hadn’t gotten to kiss her last night at all after the way we’d been dancing with each other. I didn’t know how I’d managed to resist taking her mouth with mine considering the desire I felt for her all over my body.
“What do you have in mind?” she asked. There was a coy look on her face, anticipatory but shy, as if she were half-expecting me to tell her the truth about what was on my mind.
“We’re going to the stables,” I said.
“I don’t really—I’ve never ridden a horse.”
“That’s okay. We can help you.”
She shook her head, looking away from me. “They make me really nervous. I haven’t seen one since I was a kid but I—they just freak me out.”
“What if I let you ride with me?” I asked her. I saw a look cross over her face, one of interest as she considered it.
“Maybe I’ll see how I do on my own.”
“That’s fair,” I said, though I couldn’t help hoping that she would prefer not to ride alone. I could just imagine her nestled up in front of me while we rocked on the horse, my arms wrapping around her to hold the reins. Holding her so close would be torture yet it would give me a chance to touch her again, even if it wasn’t as intimate as it had been the night before when I’d pulled her completely against me, as close as I could get her with our clothes on.
“When are we going?” she asked me.
“After breakfast.”
I turned back to the stove and scraped the eggs out of the pan. I was arranging them on a plate when Eric came into the kitchen, pulling up a seat next to Ella at the counter. I sat down across from them and looked at Eric.
“We’re going to the stables today. Do you want to come?”
Eric met my eye for a moment, reading the hint I was trying to send to him.
“No,” he said. “I’m going to get some work done today. But I’m sure you two will have fun without me.”
That made Ella blush as she looked at me. I wondered what she expected of us being alone together, whether or not she thought that something would happen between us. I had no idea what to expect of our day together, whether she would be riding with me or not.
When we were finished with breakfast, Ella went upstairs to change into something that she could ride in. She came down in jeans and a t-shirt, looking just as sexy in casual clothes as she had in the dresses she’d tried on for us. I kept my eyes on her body as she moved past me and out the door, then we walked toward the stables side-by-side across the property.
“Have you ever been to these stables before?” I asked her. She shook her head.
“I never wanted to go. Your mom tried to get me to learn to ride before she stopped trying to make me into her princess. She gave up on that pretty quickly.”
“Why did she want you to learn to ride?”
“Oh, you know,” Ella said. “It’s what all of the upper-class young women are doing. Riding was very in at the time and she wanted to introduce me to her friends.”
“How did that work out?” I asked her. She snorted, then covered her mouth with her hand.
“It’s a long story,” she said.
“We have all day.”
She stared at me for a moment, as if deciding whether she could trust me or not.
“She brought me to a party. I was eighteen and she wanted me to meet a man. There were three other women there besides me. It was horrible.”
“What did you do?” I asked her. It angered me to think that my stepmother would ever put her in such a demeaning position. Since I’d gotten back and spent time with Ella, I had regretted every moment we’d spent away from her. We had left her here to be abused by someone we knew didn’t take care of her, and for that I knew I would always be ashamed of myself.
“I got caught smoking a joint out the back.”
I laughed. “Did you?” “Yeah. It was a huge scandal. Suddenly I was this dirty drug addict.” She laughed. “She never brought me to another party and I never heard from any of the men, thank god.”
We had gotten to the stables then and were approaching the horses when Ella froze. Her eyes were wide and there was fear on her face.
“I can’t,” she said, turning around to walk away. I took her arm, turning her back toward me.
“It’ll be okay,” I told her in a gentle voice. “I’ll be with you. We’ll start by just going inside the stables, okay? You don’t even have to touch them.”
She stared at me for a moment as she considered it, then nodded. I took her hand without asking and was grateful when she didn’t pull it away. I held onto her as I led her to the stables, pushing through the door to see that our trainer was inside with one of the horses.
“Hi, Sam,” I said, pulling Ella gently toward me when she hesitated in the doorway. “You mind if we have a minute in here?”
“I was about to leave anyway,” Sam said, wiping his hands on his pants. “You go ahead. Lock up when you’re done.”
“Will do,” I said, and Sam walked past us and left us alone together. Ella was standing in the center of the room, as far from any stable as she could get. Most of the horses were outside right now, but there were three of them in the building. I went to Ella and put my hand on her waist, guiding her over to the stall with the youngest of our horses, one I knew to be particularly gentle. Ella lingered in my arms when we stopped at the stall and she wasn’t looking at the horse but at me. I looked down at her, and there was a soft smile on her lips. I tilted my face toward hers, about to kiss her, when she jumped back away from me and gasped. The horse had leaned in toward me and nuzzled me on the shoulder. I lifted my hand to stroke her mane, grinning at Ella.
“This is Doxie,” I said. “She just likes a bit of affection. She always wants to be petted.”
“Okay,” Ella said, staying a few feet back from the stall. She was staring at the horse with fear in her eyes, one that came from something that was deeper than a simple anxiety.
“Come over here, Ella,” I said gently, gesturing her over with my hand. “You can just pet her mane. I promise she won’t hurt you.”
“I don’t think so,” Ella said. “Thanks. I think I’ll go back to the house.”
“No, you won’t,” I said. “You wouldn’t let yourself run away from this. Come over here. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
She chewed her lip, staring at me for a moment with uncertainty on her face. She knew I was right. There was no way she was going to allow herself to back down and show weakness in front of me, not after what our relationship had been like when we were kids. She stepped toward me slowly, slipping into my arms so that her back was to my chest, my arm wrapped around her as I stroked the horse. I found myself breathing her in as she lifted her hand tentatively to pet Doxie’s mane. Her hand lingered just a few inches above the horse, as if she were unable to push her
self to go any further. I put my hand over hers, pressing it to Doxie’s mane. She leaned back against me, pressing against my body as I used her hand to stroke the horse’s neck.
“See?” I said softly. “This isn’t bad. She’s not going to hurt you, Ella.”
Ella’s face was intent on the horse, even as I put my hand on her hip, tracing the outside seam of her jeans with my finger. She broke away from me then, moving from Doxie’s stall to the one two stalls down, where my personal favorite horse, Knight, was standing. She stood a couple of feet away from him with a look of curious trepidation on her face. He was much larger than Doxie—massive and solid compared to her sleek frame. His body was all black aside from his back leg, which was swirled with white from his hoof up.
“Who is this?” she asked, not looking at me. She was focused on the horse, and I didn’t get close to her as I had last time.
“This is Knight,” I said. “He’s mine.”
“He’s beautiful. He’s huge.”
“He is, but he’s gentle. Go closer.”
She took a step forward, then another until she was close to the stall. She froze when Knight came forward to sniff at her, then stuck his neck out for her to stroke him. She hesitated but then started to pet his long black mane, actually smiling when he nuzzled her shoulder.
“Which one are we going to ride?” she asked.
I grinned, glad that she had decided she wanted to ride together. It was going to be hard to be so close to her without touching her, but it would be worth the torment just to feel her body against mine again.
“We’ll take Knight. It’ll be a smoother ride.”
“I don’t think I could handle it rough,” she said, then looked at me and blushed a deep red. I hadn’t even considered her statement in a sexual way until I saw her face and realized what she had said. A wave of affection for her washed over me, desire mixed with a fondness for how sweet she was, how easily flustered.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I told her. She looked away from me and I started to saddle Knight, leading him out of the stall and the stables. I climbed onto his back and pushed myself backward in the saddle as far as I could go, making room for her body in front of me. I helped lift her into the saddle then and she settled between my legs, her back pressed to my chest. I wrapped my arms around her waist, taking the reins in my hands and letting Knight know to move forward at a slow pace, one that would keep her comfortable and keep the ride from getting too rough for her.
Dirty Ella: A Fairy Tale Inspired Stepbrother Romance Page 5
