by Arianna Hart
Grant brushed his teeth and splashed some water on his face. When he felt like the scent of fear was washed off him completely, he went back to his room and yanked on a pair of gym shorts. He’d just go check on Ellie, make sure she wasn’t working herself into the ground.
And if she argued with him about not needing to rest, well, he could think of plenty of things to do in bed that didn’t involve sleep.
He crept downstairs as quietly as he could, skipping the third and fifth steps as they squeaked. His mom had ears like a cat and would be on high alert after his fall. Thank God, he’d oiled the screen door or he’d never get out of the house undetected.
As he crossed the driveway to Ellie’s apartment, he let the chill of the night air and the sound of crickets in the distance soothe his jangled nerves. It took a little while to come down from a nightmare. He really shouldn’t be bothering Ellie, but he needed to see her.
No, not needed, wanted. He wanted to lose himself inside her soft body, to watch her go over the edge with pleasure. She held nothing back with him, didn’t try to fake things she didn’t feel. Every reaction was honest.
The memory of her stroking his leg, his stump, as she licked his cock made him weak in the knees. It also made him hard as a rock. He practically ran up the steps.
Her door was unlocked, as usual. Christ, didn’t she have any sense of self-preservation? Anyone could just walk in and rob her blind. Not that the lock on the door would hold up to much, a well-placed kick and he could be through the door in five seconds, but at least it would give her a little warning.
As he eased open the door, he saw Ellie at her kitchen table. Her laptop was running, but she was sound asleep, her head pillowed on her folded arms. How had she managed to fall asleep like that sitting in a ladder-back chair? He kicked off the sandals he’d put on to cross the gravel driveway and went across the kitchen so he could scoop her up.
“Mm, what? Grant?” she muttered sleepily. “What time is it?”
“A little after four.” He carried her across her tiny living space to the bedroom.
“What are you doing up? What are you doing here?”
She nuzzled into his neck like a kitten. Heat spread through him with a soft glow.
“I couldn’t sleep.” She didn’t need to know why. “I saw your light on and figured if you couldn’t sleep either, we could be awake together. Except you are sleeping, so I’m tucking you into bed instead.” He held his breath, waiting to see how she’d respond to that idea. If she was so exhausted she’d rather sleep than have sex, he’d leave her alone.
But if she had other ideas…
“I was just taking a little nap while I waited for a report to run. I’m not sleepy at all.” She nipped little bites up his neck until she reached his earlobe. He’d lost a lot of feeling on the left side of his neck from all the scar tissue and skin grafts, but her warm breath against his ear shot a bolt of fire straight to his dick.
Hooya.
Grant released her legs so her body could slide along his before her feet reached the floor. She wore a pair of boxer shorts and one of those camisoles that drove him fucking insane. In seconds, he had the thin top off and her breast in his mouth.
Ellie sighed as he swirled his tongue around her nipple. She scraped her nails down his ribcage until she reached his gym shorts. Thank God, they were stretchy, because she whipped them off along with his boxer briefs in seconds. When she wrapped her hand around his length, he captured her wrists and held them behind her back.
“Not this time, sweetheart. I want to play with your body, and your busy little hands get me so worked up I can’t think about anything else than getting inside you.”
“I really don’t see the problem with that,” she said, her voice thick with desire.
“The problem with that,” he said between kisses down her stomach. He used his free hand to tug her shorts down her thighs and got on his knees. “Is that there’s so much of you I haven’t explored. Like this little birthmark here.” He kissed the heart-shaped mark that graced the curve of her hip. “And I really should spend more time learning every inch of your adorable ass.”
He turned her so he could nip the globes of her behind, licking the sensitive skin at the top of her thighs. Ellie let out little whimpers of pleasure as he ran his hands down her long legs and up again. With each pass, he got closer and closer to her sex, dying to feel the slick heat of her but knowing the wait would make the payoff even better.
She didn’t resist as he turned her around again. His knee fucking killed from staying in this position on the hard floor, but the pain was easily ignored because it put his mouth in the perfect position to tease her plump clit.
“Have I mentioned I absolutely love tall women?”
“Not as much as I love tall men,” she fired back with a gasp as he traced her folds with his tongue.
Fuck! She was hot and wet and felt like melted honey against him. He slid a finger inside her and groaned as she squeezed the digit tight. His cock throbbed, wanting to be inside her, wanting to feel those muscles milking his length, but he fought back the urge to drive into her and instead concentrated on bringing her to the edge and backing off again and again.
Ellie let out little moans as he held her on the knife edge of completion. He was about to back away again when she clamped her hands on his head and held him to the apex of her thighs.
“Finish it!” she growled, thrusting her hips forward.
Grant smiled and did as she commanded, licking her clit and pumping his finger into her, trying to hit as many nerve endings as he could. Her orgasm ripped through her body with a force he felt to the base of his aching dick. He lapped up her juices and chuckled as she tried to pull away, but it was his turn to hold her trapped. The vibration of his laughter against her core gave her aftershocks he felt along the finger that was still inside her.
“God. That was just… God,” Ellie said, her knees buckling as he pulled free of her warmth.
“Sure you don’t want to get some sleep?” he teased.
“Maybe after.”
She yanked on his arm as he stood, and he fell onto the bed on top of her. The box spring creaked ominously at their combined weight but didn’t collapse.
“I love the feeling of being under you like this.” She wrapped her legs around his waist, brushing her mound against his straining cock. “Condom?”
“On it,” he said, reaching for the night stand. She didn’t make it easier on him by unwinding her legs. In fact, she made it even harder for him to concentrate by running her nails along his ass, brushing all the way down to his sac.
“Hurry,” she whispered, licking his neck.
“Trying,” he answered, fumbling with the string of foil-wrapped packages. Why did they make these damn things so hard to open? “You’ll have to let go of me long enough for me to get it on.”
“Then you really better hurry, I like having your weight covering me.”
His hands damn near fumbled the whole thing as her words made him clumsy with desire. Finally, finally, he got them protected and eased his straining cock into her welcoming body. It was a fight, but he managed not to drive himself into her like a teenager with his first woman. Using every ounce of control he possessed, he forced himself to take long, slow strokes that rubbed each inch of his length against her.
“This feels so fucking good,” she groaned, arching her back.
“I love it when you talk dirty.”
He slid slowly out and then pushed quickly back in. Ellie’s head thrashed against the pillows and sweat dampened the hair along her brow. She dug her nails into his shoulders and he relished the sting. His body felt on fire, everywhere they touched, a thousand sparks lit on his skin, burning him with pleasure.
Ellie was beyond words now, her face flushed with desire, her eyes blind with it. Grant picked up the pace, maki
ng sure every stroke brushed her clit, driving her higher and higher. Just when he thought he wouldn’t be able to hold on a second longer, she clasped him like a vise and exploded beneath him.
He came with a rush that sucked every iota of energy out of him.
“Am I crushing you?” he asked as soon as he regained the power of speech.
“I’ll let you know when I can feel my extremities again.” She ran her hands gently over his back, the motion soothing now that he’d spent himself.
“You can talk, which means you can breathe, so I’m not suffocating you at least.”
“Breathing is overrated.”
She ran her foot down his thigh, and it was only when the sensation abruptly ended that he realized he’d never taken off his foot. He tensed, prepared to get off her, but she tightened her hold on him.
“I can take it off if it bothers you,” he said as neutrally as possible.
“It doesn’t bother me in the least. It’s part of you. I think it might be a little uncomfortable if the battery pack wacked into my shins in the middle of the night, but I only just now noticed it. You had my attention…elsewhere.” She squeezed her inner muscles around his semi-hard dick and he groaned at the almost painful overdose of pleasure.
Relief made him weak. She wasn’t repulsed by him. “I was worried having it on in bed would be like having sex with my shoes on.” He laughed a little ruefully. “It wasn’t.”
“For the record, I wouldn’t care if you had combat boots on in bed if you could make me feel like that again. It was amazing.”
“Boots might do a number on your sheets.”
“I’ve got more.”
He laughed again, which made his cock slip fully out of her. “I better deal with this. Keep my spot warm.”
“Hurry back.”
As he disposed of the condom in the bathroom garbage, he couldn’t help but marvel at the miracle that had brought Ellie into his world. He’d gone from reliving one of the most hellish experiences of his life to having probably some of the best sex of it in less than an hour. A part of him wondered how Ellie would have reacted if she’d been his wife when he’d been blown up. Somehow, he didn’t think she’d leave his hospital room after twenty minutes because seeing him injured was too hard.
But would she have acted any differently when he had screaming nightmares? Chastity had already been sleeping in the guest room so she wouldn’t hurt him accidentally, but she’d still been terrified by him waking up shouting. He could only imagine how frightening it must be to see someone trapped in a nightmare and not be able to do anything.
“Hey? You taking a shower in there or what? Your side is getting cold and I have to get up for work in a couple hours,” Ellie called out.
Grant shoved aside the doubts. It was about time he got it through his head that Ellie was not Chastity, and he couldn’t predict her reactions based on his previous experiences. He used to be good at adapting. It was time to try it again.
He walked back to the room, naked except for the sleeve keeping his prosthesis on. Ellie’s eyes ate him up from his toes to the top of his head and back down again. His cock twitched and she licked her lips.
“How do you feel about doggy style?” he asked, pulling the sheet off her so she was open to his gaze.
“I’ve never tried it, but I’m all about new experiences.”
“I was hoping you’d say that.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Ellie knew Grant was still alive because he texted her daily, but she hadn’t seen him for days. Her work schedule was brutal and he’d been busy with the police and his aunt. Greg had regained consciousness but was still heavily sedated. She didn’t know for sure, but she suspected Grant had tried to get some information out of him anyway.
He’d texted her yesterday saying he’d talked with his old swim buddy who had connections to the DEA and he had the situation under control. Whatever that meant. She just prayed whatever Greg had gotten mixed up in wouldn’t come back on the rest of the Andersons.
God, she missed Grant something fierce. His texts were great, usually short, sometimes funny, and they always sent a jolt of pleasure through her. She found herself re-reading the ones where he described what he wanted to teach her next. Which only got her all worked up and made her miss him more.
Could someone get addicted to sex? Her body craved the pleasure he gave her. Ever since she said she didn’t mind him wearing the prosthesis in bed, he’d been more open with her, staying longer and not flinching every time she touched his scars. He laughed more and retreated less.
And it had her hoping beyond anything sensible that someday he might be able to love her as much as she loved him.
Idiot.
Who had she been trying to fool by telling herself that she could just enjoy a physical relationship with him and then walk away? It was almost laughable how quickly she’d embraced denial. There was no way she’d come through this without a broken heart. And like a junkie, she couldn’t stop going back for more, even though she knew in the end it would hurt her.
The more time she spent with Grant, the more she wanted to spend. Not seeing him this week had been torture, and they’d talked or texted all the time. What was going to happen when it ended and she couldn’t talk to him without it being awkward and uncomfortable?
Don’t borrow trouble. When it ends, it ends. Why waste the time you have worrying about what’s going to happen later? Enjoy it now.
Absolutely.
There was no way to prevent the pain that would come when Grant ended things, so screw it, she’d enjoy what time she had and let tomorrow take care of itself. Today, she was going to a parade and a picnic and she’d clap her hands raw as Grant rode by.
Ellie put the finishing touches on her makeup and debated her choice of outfit for the fifth time. The black and white polka-dotted sundress was fantastic but not very practical for a picnic on the town green. It had a halter top that made the most of her small bust and the flared skirt flirted around her knees, showing off the length of her legs. Paired with black sandals, it was flattering and comfortable. And would probably be covered with barbeque sauce and grass stains in less than an hour.
But she knew Pansy would be dressed to the nines, showing off her surgically enhanced boobs and wearing heels that could double as ice picks.
It was ridiculous of her to try to compete with Pansy Campbell, or anyone else for that matter. If Grant didn’t want to be with her long-term, no dress, no matter how great, would change his mind. Still, she felt better looking her best when she knew the entire town would be hanging over Grant the second he stepped out of the reviewing stand.
Her phone beeped, signaling an incoming text.
You ready?
Coming now! she texted back.
She grabbed her camp chair, bowl of pasta salad and a sweater in case it got chilly during the fireworks and headed outside. It felt weird to leave the house without her messenger bag, but Founders’ Day was a big event for Dale, and she’d promised herself she’d take the day off. She still had two weeks until D-day and was actually in good shape, so she wouldn’t feel guilty for enjoying one free day.
Any thoughts of guilt dried up and died when she caught sight of Grant in his dress white uniform. Colorful medals stood out on his chest, and his eyes gleamed from beneath the brim of his hat. He literally took her breath away and she almost stumbled down the stairs.
“Here, let me help you with some of that,” Grant said, taking the chair and the bowl.
“Don’t get olive oil on your shirt.”
Grant smiled and stored the items in the back of his mom’s car. “I’ve gotten worse on this thing. You’d be surprised how many people spill drinks on you when you’re wearing white.”
“No, I wouldn’t. I bet most of them are women and they’re using it as an excuse to touch you when they
wipe up the spill.”
“Sometimes. You look beautiful, all pressed and fresh. It makes me want to mess you up a little.” He pulled her into his arms, his blue eyes gleaming hotly like he knew exactly how much seeing him in uniform turned her on.
It was all she could do to stop herself from dragging him upstairs with her right then and there. If his mom hadn’t walked out the door that very second, Ellie probably would have done it too and said to hell with the parade. The slam of the screen door made them spring apart, but Grant kept a hold of her hand.
“Oh, you two look perfect together. Hold on, I want to get a picture.” Mrs. Anderson put a tray of cookies in the trunk and took her phone out of her purse. “Now give me a minute to figure this out again. Oh, here it is. Get a little closer, Grant. There. Smile.”
Ellie smiled, still in a daze from the spell Grant had cast over her with one look. His arm felt right circling her waist, and for a second, she held the illusion they actually were a couple close to her heart.
“Oh, that’s a great picture. I’ll send it to you both.”
“Thanks. I brought Dad’s wheelchair to the green already so your spot is saved, right up front.”
“But how will he get there without his wheelchair?” Ellie asked, confused.
“Watch,” Mrs. Anderson said as Grant disappeared inside the kitchen.
Ellie waited, a little puzzled but unconcerned. After a few minutes, Grant propped the door open and moved back out of the way. Slowly, Mr. Anderson appeared, using a walker one slow step at a time. Grant helped him get the walker over the threshold and then hovered slightly behind and to the right of him, but Mr. Anderson stood straight and tall under his own power.
