“Come to my room,” I said to her. It wasn’t a command or a suggestion, simply an invitation. She paused for a moment as if she were thinking, then leaned in and kissed me softly on the mouth while she nodded. I took her hand and pulled her into my room, shutting the door behind me.
“We have to be quiet,” I said to her, taking her hands in my face and kissing her fiercely on the mouth, tasting her tongue with mine. “We have to be quiet, Ella.”
She whimpered against my lips, kissing me back, her hands frantic on my belt. She wanted me as much as I wanted her, as much as I always wanted her—I could feel it in the way her body pressed against mine, the way her hands wrapped around my cock when she freed it, pulling me gently to the bed. She lay down on her back and pulled me on top of her, lifting her dress over her hips so that I had access to her pussy. I shook my head, not wanting to rush in. I wanted her naked, bared beneath me. I undressed her before I touched her. She seemed impatient, but I was going to take my time with her no matter what. I had never gotten the chance to really touch her on my own, and I was going to do it now.
I kissed down her body, taking her nipples into my mouth one at a time and sucking on them gently. I applied more pressure when she didn’t react, flicked at them with my tongue until she squirmed and let out a long sigh. I crawled down further, but when my face was between her legs, she sat up and shook her head at me.
“No,” she said, taking my face in her hands and pulling it to hers. She kissed me once, then again with more fervor, lying back down so that I was lying on top of her. I wrapped my hands under her ass, lifting her hips so that I could slip my cock into her just like she wanted. I started by grinding her slowly, holding her legs apart in my hands and looking down to watch my cock move in and out of her tight little pussy. I grinded against the back of her channel, feeling how good she felt clenched over me, taking me deep inside of her.
“Feels good after a long night out with the wrong person, doesn’t it?” I asked her, unable to help myself. “Feels good to come back to my arms.”
She glared at me, kissing me instead of responding with her words. She didn’t have to. Her body was telling me everything that I needed to know by riding up against mine, her hips moving in rhythm with my thrusts. I fucked her until I found that sweet spot within her, until she started squirming and moaning out of control. I had to put my hand over her mouth as I continued to hit that spot over and over, my thrusts deliberate and slow. Her hips started bucking and her breath caught in her chest as she started to come underneath me, letting out a whimper against my hand that made me continue to ride her through it until she came one more time for me. She pulled away from me then, slipping out from underneath me and putting her dress back on.
“I’m going to bed,” she said, chewing on her lip. “I’ll see you tomorrow, I guess.”
She turned around before I could say anything and disappeared from my room. I leaned against the wall for a moment, taking a deep breath, trying to compose myself before I went back to bed. Still, I spent a long night thinking about her before I fell asleep.
I woke up in the morning to the sound of my mother shouting and shot up out of bed and down the hall toward her voice before I even got fully dressed. I saw her standing in Ella’s doorway and my heart dropped to my stomach. I knew what she was angry about. She had no doubt heard about last night with Julian and was blaming it on Ella. A surge of anger raged through me when I heard the words that were coming out of my mother’s mouth.
“I knew that you were nothing but a whore when I married your father,” Lola spat.
“Mom,” I nearly shouted as I came at her from down the hallway. “Do not talk to her like that.”
My mother didn’t react to me as she normally did, with calm and kindness. She glared at me instead, wrinkling her nose up in disgust.
“You’re a part of this too. All three of you are. I saw you two kissing last night. It’s disgusting.”
I shook my head. That’s what the noise had been—my mother had come out of her room and seen us, but waited until morning to confront Ella. I stepped past my mom and into Ella’s room, where Ella was sitting on her bed with her face in her hands. I went to her without thinking, put my hand on her back to comfort her, but she shrugged me away fiercely and looked up at my mother in the doorway.
“I thought you were the smart one, Eric,” my mother spat. “Better than your brother Julian. I would expect this depravity from him but not from you.”
“Depravity?” I asked. “That’s what you think?”
“She’s your sister,” Mom said.
“She’s our stepsister. And we barely know her. We’ve spent the last ten years apart.”
“You barely know her, but you’re having sex all over the house with her anyway?” my mother scoffed. “Shows how sick she is.”
“It’s not their fault,” said Ella. “It’s my fault, I—I wanted them both.”
“Why am I not surprised?” Mom’s tone was sarcastic, poisonous. It was then that Julian swept past her and into the room, taking Ella’s arm and pulling her to her feet.
“We’re leaving,” he said. “I’ll come get the rest of your things later.”
“Julian—” I said.
“Come on, Eric,” he said. His voice was deadly serious and I knew better than to argue. Julian could be intense when he meant something, and he wanted to get Ella out of there more than anything. I was in agreement with him.
“So you’re just leaving?” my mother asked as we filed past her out of the doorway.
“Yes,” I said, looking back over my shoulder. “Julian and I will be back for Ella’s things, then we’re going back to Washington.”
Mom huffed, stomping her foot like an angry horse. I gave her one last glance as we went outside to Julian’s car and I got in the backseat. We pulled away in silence, the tension thick in the air as we drove off with nothing. Julian started to head in the direction of the lake house. I saw that Ella was looking out of the window, decidedly not speaking to us. Her reflection in the glass was tormented, and I found myself reaching out to put my hand on her shoulder before she yanked herself away.
It stayed quiet until we got to the lake house, and when we went inside I was instantly reminded of what we had done the last time we were here, how the three of us had been intertwined, both of us pleasuring Ella at once. I opened the windows, airing the room of the smell of sex that seemed to hang in the air like a memory.
“Ella,” I heard Julian say as I went around the room. “I’m so sorry—”
“Shut up,” she said. “Don’t even apologize. Neither of you. I shouldn’t have—I shouldn’t have let it go as far as it did. It was my mistake.”
“It wasn’t a mistake,” I said firmly. I felt the cool grip that I usually had on situations slipping when I heard Ella talk like that. “There was nothing wrong with what we did. My mother doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”
“Lola is just saying what everyone else would say,” Julian said quietly. We both looked at him. The last thing I had expected was to hear Julian agree with Lola on anything. “It’s not right. You know that, Eric.”
I ran my hand through my hair, sighing. “So we’re just going to give it up?”
“Yes,” Ella said.
“We’ll leave tomorrow,” Julian said. “Ella can stay here. I’ll pay for everything—”
“No,” said Ella, shaking her head. “No, I’m not staying here. And you’re not paying for me. I have some money saved up.”
“You have enough to take care of you and your grandmother?”
She shot me a look. “I’ll make do.”
I sighed. Julian was staring at her intently, as if trying to think of a way to get her to change her mind. I knew she wouldn’t, though. I could tell by the look in her eyes that she was finished, done with us entirely. She didn’t want our support or our love, she just wanted us gone. “Ella,” I said, before I could stop myself. “I love you.”
; She stared at me, but Julian’s gaze never flickered from her face.
“I want you to take me to a motel,” she said, her eyes breaking from mine. She couldn’t look at me. I took a deep breath and looked over at Julian, who met my eye and nodded sadly.
We found her a motel in the city that was close to the transit there, not knowing where she might need to go or what she was going to do. We took her there in silence, dropped her off in front with a promise that we would bring her grandmother and her things by as soon as we got them. She glanced at us one last time over her shoulder before unlocking the room of her door and disappearing inside without another word.
13
Ella
The minute the twins left I sat down on the bed of the motel room, putting my face in my hands and trying to take a few deep breaths. I needed to calm myself down—hearing Eric tell me that he loved me had caught me off guard and put a lump in my throat that I would have choked on if I had responded. I waited like that for a long time until they came back with my grandmother and my things. I opened the door and helped her to the bed, then watched as Julian and Eric put my suitcases in the corner of the small room. I didn’t know how I was going to share it with my grandma and all of her things but I knew that I had to find a way—there was nowhere else for me to go, as far as I was concerned, and Eric and Julian were going back to Washington.
They stood there in the doorway for a minute before they left without a word, and I sank into my grandmother’s shoulder, my body shaking with the sobs that I had been holding back. My grandma wrapped her arms around me, kissed my forehead and tried to calm me down. After a few moments beyond my control, I managed to relax, looking at her through my tear-rimmed eyes.
“I love them,” I said to her.
“Tell me what happened,” she said, her voice patient and kind. But I was afraid to tell her, afraid that she would judge me. Lola had only confirmed what I knew—that what I had done with Eric and Julian had been wrong, strange and unnatural. Especially since it was with them both at the same time.
“Tell me,” she said again, with a little more firmness to her tone, though I knew she was just trying to coax me to open up to her.
“Eric and Julian—I got close with them both,” I said, not looking at her. I hoped she wouldn’t read the details on my face.
“And what’s wrong with that?” she asked. I looked at her then, my eyes full of questions.
“Everything is wrong with that,” I said to her, sighing. She stroked my hair back from my face, kissing my forehead again.
“It’s going to be okay,” she said, her voice soft and gentle as it always had been. I wished that she could say more to me, that I could give her more detail so that she could make everything better again. I felt dirty and ashamed of what I had done, and I couldn’t share that with my grandmother.
I fell asleep there with her, though it was early afternoon and we had things to do. When I woke up, I tried to start the day by going out to get us something to eat. I knew that this situation couldn’t be long-term—I couldn’t properly care for my grandmother in one room with no accessibility for her to get around. I didn’t know what I was going to do—I would have to work, of course, but then I didn’t know who would be around to take care of my grandmother.
I tried not to think about it, instead going through the day like normal until my phone rang a little later. I picked it up to see that it was Xavier and my heart fluttered, though it was more out of disappointment than excitement. I had been half-hoping that it would be one of the twins, that they had changed their minds and decided to stay or convince me to take me with them. I had enjoyed my time with Xavier before Julian had ruined it though and I did like his company, though it wasn’t the same way I felt when I was with either Eric or Julian.
“Hi, Xavier,” I said, going outside and shutting the door behind me. I leaned back against it, gazing over the nearly empty parking lot of the motel.
“Hi, babe,” he said. I smiled at the nickname. If there was one thing to be said for Xavier, he was fast, but I found it charming the way that he wanted to sweep me off of my feet. I looked around bleakly at my surroundings now, knowing there was no way that I was going to be able to have him come pick me up here. It would make him ask questions—questions that I was ashamed to answer about my current situation. I had always known that one day Lola would throw me and my grandmother out but I had expected to be more prepared than this.
“How are you?” I asked him.
“I miss you,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about you all day.”
“Oh,” I said, chewing on my lip. “I, uh—I had a really great time on our date last night. I’m sorry again about Julian.”
“I don’t blame you for that. Julian’s always been like that—he’s kind of dumb and apish.”
I gritted my teeth, but didn’t say anything to defend Julian. I wanted to, but I knew that I had to distance myself from the twins altogether in order to maintain some sort of reputation with Xavier. I had been lucky that I had been too shocked to kiss Julian back in the bar, so it hadn’t looked like I was as interested in him as he clearly was in me.
“Did you want to see me again?” I asked him.
“Yes,” he said immediately. “And I know where you are already. I’m heading over now.”
“You know where I am?” I asked, confused as I looked around.
“Your phone,” he said. “It’s hooked up to mine. That’s how I found you in the first place. I’ll be there in a minute.”
“No, Xavier—”
But he hung up before I could stop him, before I could tell him not to come. I felt panicked almost, wondering how it was possible to play off the fact that I was staying here with my grandmother. I could tell him that my car broke down, pretend that my grandma wasn’t inside, that I was just here by coincidence. I thought even of tossing my phone, locking myself in the room and telling him that I’d lost it if I ever saw him again. In the end, I decided that there was nothing that I could do. I sighed and went back inside the room, tossing my phone on the bed.
“Xavier is coming here,” I said to my grandma.
“That handsome young man you told me about?”
I nodded, frowning. I glanced at myself in the mirror to see that I look frazzled and unkempt. Quickly, I disappeared into the small bathroom and did what I could to fix my appearance. I threw on some makeup at expert speed, doing little to hide the fact that I looked as exhausted as if I hadn’t slept in days.
“Why is he coming here?” she asked when I went back into the bedroom. I changed into a dress, something simple that I hoped he wouldn’t hate, and looked at myself in the mirror again. I felt self-conscious and stupid; Xavier was so wealthy, so used to having everything, and now he was going to meet me at a cheap motel and would know that I had no money, nothing to offer him.
There was a knock at the door then and I took a deep breath, turning around to answer it. Xavier was on the other side with flowers, peering with distaste around the small room. His eyes settled on my grandmother and he gave her a bright, charming smile.
“Hello, Ella,” he said, wrapping his arms around me then, pulling me in for a kiss that I couldn’t seem to return. “Is this—is this where you’re staying?”
“Yes,” I said to him, looking away from his face. A wave of humiliation washed over me at the confession. He put his hand to my chin, tilting my face upward to look at him.
“We’re gonna get you out of here,” he said. “Get your things.”
“What?” I asked, looking at him with my eyebrows raised.
“You can come stay with me. Both of you. I have plenty of room.”
“Xavier, we just met—”
He took my face in his hands and held my eye then, kissing me softly on the lips. “I know we just met, Ella, but I’m crazy about you. I want to take care of you.”
I stared at him, studying his features. He was so handsome, so charming and kind. I didn’t want to depend on
the help of anybody but in this case it was starting to feel like I had no choice—I didn’t know how many days my grandmother and I could hold out in the small motel room but I knew that those days were limited.
“Okay,” I said, though a large part of me hated it. Most of me knew that my grandmother was the priority, and she deserved better care than I could give her in a cheap, dirty motel room. I sighed when he smiled and wrapped me in his arms, looking over at my grandmother.
“Hello,” he said to her.
“Hi, I’m—”
“Are you ready to go?” he asked me. “It looks like you have most of your things packed.”
I looked at my grandma, whose voice was soft, but not so soft that he couldn’t have heard her. I knew he must have cut her off by accident.
“I just have to throw some stuff together. We’ll meet you in the car.”
“Good,” he said and turned around to leave without offering to carry anything or help me out. My grandmother’s eyes were on my face as I turned to throw what little stuff I had taken out back into my bags.
“Ella,” she said. “Is this a good idea? Is he a good man?”
“He’s a good man, Grandma,” I told her. “He’s kind to me. He wants to take care of us, and I know he has the money.”
“Okay, sweetheart,” she said, although she didn’t look fully convinced. I hoped that Xavier would grow on her, that she would see in him what I saw in him—he was gentle and safe to be with, unlike the twins. Someone I could see myself having a future with.
Dirty Ella: A Fairy Tale Inspired Stepbrother Romance Page 10
