by TN King
Ellie stared at him, not necessarily buying it, but more outraged by the implication therein. “So then you tried?” she asked, her voice low and lanced with hurt.
He stared at her like she had lost her mind for a few moments, shaking his head and laughter bursting out of him. “God, you are so beautiful,” he came back, refusing to even give any credence to her question. “You’re too good for me actually,” he explained, his mirth dying down. “I’m sorry that I hurt you, not just the once, but twice.” He blinked rapidly as if it was hard to believe even of himself.
Ellie’s whole body felt dead, like she had expended too much energy on her emotions alone, the fight draining from her and her face just lifting to his tiredly. Sorry could only get him so far after all, and she wasn’t even sure how far that was any longer.
Her anger evaporating made her feel lost, made her feel vulnerable, but more than that even—it left her feeling empty.
Morgan stepped further back, shaking his head and looking around the room as if something there could help him from the words that he wanted to use. “I want to… to start again, again,” he said lamely, gesturing wildly. “I don’t expect…” he trailed off for the second time, lifting his gaze to hers and shrugging with the most vulnerable expression she thought she’d seen on him yet. “I don’t expect for you to sleep with me. I don’t expect to start back where we left off. Honestly, Ellie, I don’t expect you to give me anything save the time to show you that I do love you and that I plan to cherish you for the rest of my life. Although, honestly, I’m not even expecting that, it’s just what I’m asking you for.”
Ellie couldn’t help it, just like she couldn’t stop the tears running down her face, she wanted to believe him. She wanted it so badly that it choked her up. Him saying all of the things he did… really all that she’d ever wanted to hear, all that she had hoped to hear from him for days on end, but now she didn’t know if it could be true. If she could believe him, even when she wanted to. Had he really run away from her because he loved her? Was that even a thing? It sounded insane. It sounded fake. But looking directly at him, meeting his steel like gray, magnificent eyes she thought that maybe she knew the answer.
Morgan was a powerful man, always in control, always choosing his own path and making his own decisions. You only had to look at the way he handled her throughout them having sex for that to be clear. He was all power, and in the bedroom, she had loved it. Hell, even out of the bedroom, she had loved his being in command. But if he had fallen in love with her like he was saying… he had lost his sense of everything. Lost his sense of control, of knowing how to control, and he wouldn’t have known how to handle it. She watched him, thinking about all of that, thinking about what she did know of him already.
“Morgan,” she broached carefully, tilting her head to one side. “Have you ever loved a woman before?” she asked, thinking that she already knew the answer. Just from his reactions with her, just from how he handled things.
He shook his head in the negative, looking at her in slight confusion. “No,” he admitted after a slight pause. “Never.”
The words struck her to her core, her eyes steady on him for too long of a moment before dropping again, walking away from him to go and sit on her bed. She nearly fell into it, sinking onto one corner, and staring at her hands as she lost herself in thought. She knew she could make sense of what he said, knew she wanted to believe him, it was just the, if she should part, that was tripping her up.
“I’m going to go now and let you think it over,” Morgan interrupted her, his voice hoarse. “Because if I don’t…” the words sounded vaguely threatening, low and in the back of his throat.
Her gaze lifted, confusion marring her features and her eyebrows pulled. Because if he didn’t…what?
His lips parted, staring at her with an indecent amount of frankness, mouth stretching into a grin. “... I’ll be too tempted to just grab you up and fuck you right now,” he swore, the levity on his features nowhere to be found in his voice. “Cause dammit Ellie, you angry and naked? At the same time…” he trailed off, his gaze traveling from the top of her head to the tip of her toes hungrily as if to exemplify his point.
She gasped, mouth popping open and moisture pooling uncomfortably between her thighs, even as she shoved them more tightly together. And when he says it like that, looking at you like that, you’d let him Ellie. She felt fully chastised, as she shot up from the bed to stand.
His eyes stayed on her, gazing with that same look that so easily made her body burn up. The one that promised all sorts of indecent, decadent things from his mouth and his hands. From his cock pumping inside of her. She had to squash it down, looking at him squarely in the face and reminding herself of all of the reasons that jumping into bed with him right now would be a bad—very bad, idea.
Finally, Ellie sighed, shaking her head. “Let me get dressed, ok?” she asked after another moment, gesturing to the door for him to head on out, though hopefully only to the living room. “I don’t want you to leave yet,” she admitted, following him as he backed out of the room at her direction.
He looked relieved, nodding in time with her words and almost tripping backwards over the door frame. “Okay,” he agreed verbally, his eyes round, glancing down one last time to take in all of her body, and nearly tripping himself again in the process as he backed out of the room.
Ellie shut the door, breathing a sigh of relief as she fell against it. She already knew she was going to let him stay for a bit. She did, she also just knew that she wanted to talk more, only this time over the both of them being dressed so they could figure things out appropriately. There would have to be ground rules this time, and he’d really have to prove to her that he was in this for the long haul, not just an intermittent every few days when he felt like it.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Two weeks Later…
True to his word, Morgan had taken her out on real dates. Two weeks worth of real dates. Ellie had told him that she just wanted the normal stuff. Nothing fancy or extravagant like he’d treated her to before. She didn’t want fancy galas or the Met. She wanted movies, trips to the museum, and taco trucks. Even just strolling in the park like they had that one evening, talking and allowing themselves to get to know one another on a different level. No limo, no driver, no exorbitant fees for what they were doing.
She even wanted to pay sometimes. Not often, because let’s be honest, there was a large income gap, but she wanted to be able to spring for the tickets and laugh when he came up to see her having already done it. She wanted to drive them too, something that he’d seemed fine with at first. He’d even laughed their first time getting into the car, quipping that she was much more attractive than his usual driver. But his laughter had faded as he’d gripped the dashboard for dear life.
Yes, Ellie’s impulsive nature bled over into her driving as well. She liked switching lanes at the last minute, weaving in and out of traffic, and testing the lights as they went. She knew she was going to make it, she knew her limits of what she could and couldn’t get away with.
He’d told her, when he was back on safe land, and standing on his own two feet… that his life had flashed before his eyes whenever she was driving. It had been her turn to laugh, twirling her arms around his neck and pecking him on the cheek with a large grin. “And was I in it?” she had quipped, raising one eyebrow as if daring for him to do anything but laugh and agree.
And laugh he had.
He’d laughed so hard, and for so long, that he had tears in his eyes by the time he kissed her back. “Touché!” he had muttered against her lips, still chuckling.
They were golden going by their new rules. Their movie dates were fun, their walks in the park introspective and telling. Everything they did brought them closer to one another, learning new facets of the other’s personality. He learned that she couldn’t stand any sort of normal horror movie, but that B movie slashers made her crack up and that she would pick them over a
romance movie. She learned that his left foot was ticklish, but not his right, and that he was allergic to oak pollen. They learned how to make one another cry from laughing, and how to approach serious discussions. She learned about his family, and he about hers. It was working better than either of them had even anticipated.
In the midst of all of this, she had started school, still under the Hunt scholarship fund. They talked about it that first night, going over extensively why it was the better option for her, with him even offering to get out of her life completely and leave it to her. She’d refused the, him leaving part, but had agreed to keep the scholarship.
School wasn’t nearly as taxing as she’d imagined it to be, and much more laid back than she had anticipated. In her mind, she’d been picturing a kind of secondary high school, or even what one saw in the movies. It was just college though, where she came and went as she pleased, and was expected to hold herself accountable. She loved it, especially with the new knowledge she was gaining from it.
And he did have to go back and forth between New York and Philly, just like she’d been scared of. When he had first told her he was going to New York for business for two days she had almost had a heart attack. Neither time when he’d cited leaving for business had gone over well, but this time she’d faced him head on. She had narrowed her eyes at him over the counter they were separated by, lifting the spatula like a sword. “This time, you won’t forget my number though, right?” she’d questioned, hiding her anxiety behind her anger.
He’d seen right through her though, smiling and rounding the counter in order to approach her again, leaving the eggs she had on the stove without her attention. “No,” he’d promised, dipping his head to kiss her lightly on the lips before spinning her back to the food she was cooking on the stove. “I also promise to answer your call, day or night,” he’d continued, laughing at her surprised expression when she’d gone to flip the eggs.
Of course, him being so sweet had kind of made her feel like some sort of bitch. They were moving on after all, she was just… still wary. “No, that’s okay,” she’d assured him, by then half- laughing at herself and her antics. “I won’t be calling you off the hook. I’m fine on my own,” she’d promised, moving the eggs off of the stove onto their plates.
“Yes, yes you are,” he’d said, his voice full of pride, beaming at her behind her back. But she could hear it in his voice, that pride and wonder. That somehow she inspired in him.
Then as she’d guessed, the entire two days while he had been gone, she had been torn to ribbons with anxiety, she’d even dropped and broken a coffee pot at work. Something that Joanna had laughed at her for, and told Morgan about as soon as he entered the diner upon his return. Which had been a whole other surprise. She hadn’t been expecting to see him until late that evening, but there he was, in all of his finery, grinning at her from across the diner.
Joanna had encouraged her to leave her shift early, citing some nonsense about wanting to work the floor herself for old time’s sake.
Really, Ellie was just sure her boss and friend just didn’t want any more coffee pots broken.
They’d spent the rest of the evening together, dining at some new restaurant that he wanted her to try, and then lazing together on a bench by the pond at the park.
It was there when he’d told her how awful being away for two days had been for him too, and the accounting error he had almost made ‒ something that only Chance catching in time saved him from fully making ‒ because of how preoccupied he’d been.
It was on that bench when he told her because of this he wanted to move his offices to Philly to be closer to her, and it was there where he informed her he’d already started the process of doing so.
And announcement made Ellie finally realize how serious he actually was. For a man like him, running a company like his, to move his entire corporate office just to be where she was? This was monumental. She’d reacted with appropriate excitement at the time, and even questioned him to make sure it was what he really wanted and not just something, he thought that she did. After satisfying that question, she realized she was done. She hadn’t told him that of course. But she was done. Done watching his muscles ripple when he lifted his arms high enough, or watching the way his smile stretched so beautifully as he watched her, done watching his lips move so distractingly… She was done just wanting him.
Ellie decided she wanted to change that. To move from wanting him to having him once more. It’d been too long, and policing both of their bodies only went so far, she had learned her lesson there. He was off of parole finally. She refused to play warden anymore, unless it involved some kind of dress up that resulted in an orgasm, that kind she would still be okay with. She couldn’t take a moment more of not having him.
No matter what. She still had no guarantees, but again, she knew that no one ever did. If he up and left her this time….well, then she really would be done, and this time she’d make him pay for it as well. She even had Chance’s number on speed dial should she ever need to use it. Not that Morgan knew that yet either. Chance had called her just a few days previous to ask how she was, and tell his side of the story upon having found Morgan that last time when he had left. These facts were all things that she had needed to hear, just like Chance had needed to hear her intentions for Morgan… that she really had forgiven him.
She didn’t know what type of women they were used to, listening to Chance make her swear that she wasn’t just back with him now out of a plan for revenge. But she didn’t want Morgan ever with one of those kinds of women again. Chance had sworn that if Morgan pulled another runner she could call him for help…and that he would personally rip him limb for limb if he did.
So, she wasn’t waiting on the right time any longer, any time was right with him. She knew this now. There would be no more depriving either of them of one aspect they were still missing. No more waiting for her courage, it was already there. She had it already and like the gold credit card that now resided in her purse…she intended to use it.
Ellie had thought about planning it all out elaborately. She had even considered trying to get the Hunt Hotel penthouse and recreating their first night together. Then she had decided this needed to be a fresh start, and so they should do this all anew. Tonight was the night and she was ready. She knew how she wanted to do it, maybe not the specifics, but she knew she wanted to surprise him. So when he called and told her he would be at her apartment in under and hour, she set about getting things ready.
She didn’t go on a huge cleaning spree throughout the place, nor did she dress up. She’d put on a simple, blue sundress and left her feet bare. They weren’t going anywhere after all. She didn’t do anything different at all really, other than making sure that the lingerie she wore beneath the sundress was fit for teasing. It was all lace and powder blue, setting nicely against her peaches and cream complexion.
Then she waited, going about her normal routine. There were times when her impulsivity could come in handy. Tonight she intended this leaping to be one she wouldn’t regret.
Although the knock at the apartment door still made her jump slightly, laughing at herself as she headed over to the damned thing. Nervous again, Ellie? Of course she was. They’d only been together that once in the Hotel suite here in Philly and everything since then had either been heavy drama and emotion or a build up to this. She wanted him more now than she had even then, even if at the time she wouldn’t have believed it possible. And she knew he still wanted her too. The way he looked at her, the way he kissed her now, it told her as much. Things had just changed, they were different now, and she felt ready for something more fitting of that. More than what though? More than hot sex with my Greek god of a man? Yes. It was definitive. She just didn’t know what more was quite yet.
She intended to wing it. Hoping that again, impulsivity would serve her.
She lifted up onto her toes, peeking through the peephole just to be sure that it was Morgan and not some
delivery or god knows what else. Smiling when she saw that yes, there was her angel now. All stunning and nearly glowing from the lamplight behind him. Always glowing. She wondered if that was ever going to fade… or if she was just going to view him in that light for the rest of their lives. She fell back to the balls of her feet, swinging open her door with a grin.
But he stood still, hands held behind his back even as he grinned back at her.
Her eyes dropped to his hands, eyebrows lifting, she knew by the way he was behaving and hiding his hands that he must have brought her something. She was half tempted to tell him they’d talked about this…he had no need to ply her with lavish gifts, even if he wanted to as he said. He’d already given her more than enough. He knew how she felt about him spending money on her where he didn’t have to now.
But the look on his face stayed her tongue, sighing as she stepped back to allow him into the apartment as well, and even giving him the option to pass her. Admittedly, so she could try and take a peek at what he was hiding, but she never knew when he’d actually fall for something like that and when he’d catch on.
Morgan gave her his winning smile, walking into the apartment deliberately in a way that made her back up. Which of course he had intended. Apparently, he’d seen through her attempt after all. He kicked the door shut behind him, staring at her the whole time.
God, but did he have to be so hot doing it? How am I supposed to chastise him looking like that? His jeans fit the curves of his thighs in a way that no man should have been able to pull off, his t shirt fitted to his form without being too tight. And while Morgan’s suits were all kinds of attractive, when he wore jeans with t shirts that showed off his pecs? He looked downright sinful. Like a somewhat more approachable Greek god. Who wasn’t really approachable at all. He just looked… delightful.
She almost missed his stepping forward, hands outstretched, she’d been so focused on checking him out. It was only when her eyes fell that she saw the box he was presenting her with.
