by Joanna Wylde
“So, you want to know why I don’t hate you,” Eli said, his voice low and husky. I waited, but he took his time, brushing his lips against my cheek. Fuck. I was supposed to be listening to him and owning everything I’d done wrong.
“Okay,” I said, trying to focus. It wasn’t easy. Every time his thigh drifted over my clit, I sort of lost track of who I was for a moment.
“Hallies Falls is a small town,” he said. He’d started kissing softly along my jawline at the same time, which wasn’t particularly helpful. Although I hadn’t gotten the impression that being helpful was his goal.
“Yeah, I’m fairly sure we all know how small it is,” I said, wondering where he was going with this.
“So, when I got here, everyone knew why Gus had taken me in,” he said, shifting his hand to my breast. His fingers splayed wide and wrapped around it, giving me a gentle squeeze. “The shit my mom got into was all over the news. I was supposed to be a victim, whether I felt like one or not. The kids at school had to pretend we were friends, even when we hated each other. And all the teachers were so busy feeling sorry for me that none of them bothered to teach me. I was young, but I wasn’t stupid. None of them gave a shit about me.”
“Wait,” I said, not wanting to challenge him, but what he said didn’t add up. “You’d already been to first grade when you moved in with Gus. I remember because you were two years older than me, but only one year ahead. They held you back.”
“That didn’t actually happen,” Eli said, pausing to trace my ear lobe with his tongue. “Someone told me to lie about it. Said it would make me fit in better than admitting I’d never been to school. They were wrong.”
He gave my ear a sharp nip with his teeth, and I sighed. Couldn’t quite decide if that counted as pain or pleasure. Maybe something in the middle.
“So, suddenly, I was in this weird little town where I didn’t know anyone. Not even my own uncle. And no matter what I did, everyone treated me like I was weak—”
My snort of laughter cut him off, and he let my boob go long enough to attack my side with a vicious tickle. I screamed, arching under him and begging for mercy. He laughed but let his hand go back to my breast while kissing the side of my neck at the same time. That sent a fresh wave of tingles rushing through me. My hips lifted, my right leg bending and falling to the side.
“So, like I said, they all thought I was some kind of victim, and they treated me that way. Drove me fucking crazy,” Eli murmured. “Because I was strong. I’d kept myself and my mom alive. For years. And then suddenly I was supposed to turn into a kid again. It was bullshit. All of it. But there was one person who saw through it. You. I was your enemy, and you were out to get me because you knew I was dangerous. Not only that, you saw that being younger was an advantage you could use. Anytime you wanted to, you could’ve screamed for help, and we both knew people would’ve taken your word over mine. But you never did.”
“Of course not,” I said, feeling slightly offended. “That was our only rule. Remember?”
Eli lifted his head, studying my face carefully. I had no idea what he was trying to see—maybe some trace of the little girl I’d been?
“That was the rule, all right. And you never broke it. Not once. That’s how I knew I could trust you.”
“You trusted me too much,” I told him. His fingers let my breast go, only to find it again after sliding his hand up and under my shirt. “I still wish I’d broken it, at least that once. I should’ve talked to the cops.”
“You’re really not going to let that go, are you?” he asked, shifting his pelvis so the hard ridge in his jeans could rub back and forth across my hip bone.
“No,” I said, determined. Eli started grinding against me, slowly swiveling his hips. Shit. I couldn’t think when he did that. Simply wasn’t possible. “Let’s compromise. We can talk about it after. I don’t know how long I can take this. At some point, you’re gonna have to fuck me. Sooner rather than later, please.”
“I love it when you’re all horny,” he told me, his voice registering slightly lower than before. At least I wasn’t the only one slowly going crazy. “It used to be that I’d get frustrated when I looked back on those years. I needed to learn how to read, for fuck’s sake. I didn’t have time to be a victim. But now, it’s our games that I think about the most. They were the only part of my life that made sense.”
“Those were fights,” I reminded him gently. His fingers found my nipple, holding it lightly. “I never played with you. You broke my teacup.”
“Peaches, those were definitely games,” he said, and I saw the laughter in his eyes. “My mom and me, we lived on the streets. Sometimes, we’d find an apartment somewhere, but one thing was always the same. There were always predators. Some of them tried to kill us, but a few of them went out of their way to give me the skills I needed to survive in that world. Do you really think that a little girl with a pink foam princess sword could’ve won against me? I fought other kids for food while our moms got high together.”
I shivered, trying to imagine what that might’ve felt like, but I couldn’t. The idea that a child had to fight for food…that was beyond my comprehension. And I’d known he and his mom had been homeless, but that hadn’t really meant anything to me back then. To me, suffering meant sharing my bedroom. He was right, I’d been naïve as hell.
Too naïve to pity him.
I swallowed, wanting to cry or apologize or do something. Anything. Except refusing to pity him was the one thing I’d gotten right as a kid. I’d be damned if I’d go weak and fuck it up now, just because I could finally understand the truth.
“What about Lemur?” I asked, trying to lighten the mood. “Was taking him one of those games, too?”
“No.” Eli grinned, lifting his hips to reposition himself slightly. “That was something else. That was about the fucking snakes you kept putting in my bed.”
I took advantage of his repositioning to slide my hand down between us. Eli was hard as granite, and I felt every inch of his thick, heavy length, despite the fabric separating us.
My fingers tightened around him, and he groaned. Perfect. I wanted to guide the conversation away from the snakes. Talking about them wouldn’t end well, for either of us.
“I’ve never forgotten how much I wanted you that night,” I told him softly. “Or how amazing it felt when you touched me.”
“I’ve never forgotten, either,” Eli replied. “The good news is that tonight, we’re gonna give that another shot. And this time, I don’t give a flying fuck if Gus is literally on fire. I’m not leaving you.”
Chapter Ten
~Peaches~
Eli’s mouth caught mine for another kiss, but this one was different. Deeper. Hungrier. Almost desperate in its intensity. I didn’t even notice when his hand drifted down toward my jeans, or when he opened them. The kiss consumed me completely, right up to the instant his finger found my most sensitive spot.
I froze, mesmerized as the digit circled my clit, sending little shockwaves of raw sensation radiating out from my center. At first, there was nothing but perfect pleasure. He’d found exactly the right spot, and now he was utterly focused on working it, every movement slow and steady. Tension started to build within me, along with fresh need.
This was great, but I needed more.
“Faster,” I whispered, letting my head fall back. Eli gave a low laugh, but he didn’t change what he was doing.
I squirmed, starting to feel frantic. But instead of giving me what I desperately wanted, he pulled away from my clit entirely.
“Eli—” I started to protest, but before I could say more, he plunged his finger all the way into me, hitting my g-spot on the first try. My back arched, and I made a noise halfway between a groan and a scream because whatever he was doing…it worked for me.
Holy hell, it worked.
I’d wanted him to go faster, and now he was. Fast and hard, his fingers plunging just like his dick likely wanted to do. I knew this beca
use my hand was between us, holding him so that every time he moved, I felt just how much he wanted to fuck me.
“I want to see you come first,” Eli whispered. As if I had a choice about the sensations ripping through me. That terrible tension was swirling and building with every stroke, and my heart was starting to race.
“That’s a great idea,” I gasped. I felt like I should remember something, but every time I started to form a coherent thought, that finger of his hit my g-spot again.
Probably something about getting him off, I realized.
Except he’d said he wanted to see me get off, which sounded more and more awesome by the second. His hand found a slightly different angle, somehow discovering a way to slide across my clit each and every time. I liked this development.
I liked it a lot.
I liked it so much that when he did it again, my toes curled so hard that it hurt, and I started to pant. I was close—really close—and I could feel my orgasm, hovering just out of reach, calling to me. The sound of my heart beating fast filled my ears as every muscle in my body tightened and…holy shit, was that his thumb touching my—?
I convulsed once, and then a second time, waves of release smashing through the coiled tension, rocking me in a series of little shocks that left me blinking.
Eli’s hand was suddenly on my stomach, rubbing it gently as the last tremors settled. I looked up at him, and he gave me a crooked smile.
“Hell of a bite you got there,” he said softly.
“What?”
“You bit my shoulder. Like a vampire. It was hot, but it also kind of hurt.”
My eyes focused slowly, and then I saw it. A set of bite marks that were already starting to bruise, right in line with my mouth. I swallowed, trying to remember how that’d happened, and coming up blank.
“I’m sorry?” I said, hoping that was right. Eli’s hand slid up, then caught my hair, fisting it as he jerked my head back.
“You’re gonna have to make that up to me,” he whispered. I tried to answer, but then he kissed me. If the last one had been hungry, this one was starving. He went deep, filling my mouth as he lifted his hips, his hand fumbling with his fly.
I wanted to help, but I couldn’t see anything. Suddenly, his jeans were open, and I felt the hard, sleek length of him brush my hand. Then he was settling between my legs, the head of his cock poised at my opening.
Raising his head, Eli pulled away from the kiss. I found myself wanting more and trying to catch him. He caught one of my hands, threading his fingers with mine as he pressed the back of my hand down beside my head.
Then he paused, looking down at me. I couldn’t read his expression. In that moment, Eli King was every bit as strange and dangerous as he’d been when I first met him, and he was holding me down.
He could do anything to me, I realized.
Anything at all.
It should’ve scared me, but instead, it turned me on.
“What’s the matter?” I asked. “Are you scared that I’ll bite you again?”
Eli slowly shook his head.
“No, you don’t scare me.”
“Maybe not,” I whispered. “But I know what does. You better fuck me right now, or I swear to God, I will fill this whole damned room with snakes while you sleep.”
“You are ridiculously fucking crazy,” he said. “And now you’re mine.”
He thrust into me as he said it, filling me so completely that I forgot how to breathe. Then he pulled back and did it again, moving faster with each stroke. Over and over again, he hit that spot inside exactly right, somehow sliding over my clit just enough to qualify as an art form as he did.
This time, I didn’t feel a slow build of coiled tension.
I didn’t have that luxury.
It was like my wires had gotten crossed, and my body wasn’t sure what to do, so I wrapped my legs tightly around his waist and just held on for the ride. I could feel him inside me, pulsing and growing, and I knew he wouldn’t last long.
That was okay. I wasn’t going to last much longer, either.
I’d just finished the thought when the climax hit, slamming into me as I screamed, convulsing around Eli. It was too much for him. His hips surged into mine one last time, and he jerked as he filled me.
I didn’t know how long we stayed like that.
Long enough that I’d stopped shuddering, and my heart rate slowed. We found each other’s gazes again, and I watched as a slow change came over his features.
He looked different. Happy.
Smiling.
“So, did you make it ten minutes?” I finally asked. “Because I forgot to hit the stopwatch.”
“Don’t talk,” he said, leaning down to kiss the side of my neck. “I don’t want you to ruin it.”
Outraged, my hands attacked his sides, and he started laughing. That set me off even more, and then he was tickling me while I tried to attack him with my nails. Then his head hit the wall, and I pressed my attack, rolling him over to climb on top of him.
Not long afterward, I discovered something quite wonderful about Eli King. Apparently, he really was a five-minute man, because that’s all it took for him to recover.
Directly after that, I learned something else.
He could keep going for more than ten minutes. Significantly more. So much more, that between the night ending and the next morning beginning, we realized that we absolutely needed to get something to eat.
That’s how I found myself on the back of Eli’s bike as he tore through the darkness, feeling wild and free in a way I’d never experienced before.
Eventually, Eli pulled off to climb a hill overlooking the valley. There, we sat and ate some snacks we’d gotten at a gas station, laughing and telling stories all the while, refusing to think about anything more than us, right there in that moment. That’s when I learned the best thing of all about Eli King.
Seemed he’d always had a fantasy about getting me off while sitting on his Harley, wearing nothing but his belt and a sprinkle of powdered sugar.
I didn’t just have a hot biker going down on me in the moonlight that evening.
I had a hot biker going down on me in the moonlight while I ate mini donuts coated in powdered sugar.
Life simply did not get any better than that.
The roar of a different motorcycle woke me up early the next morning, just as the sun started to rise.
That’d be Gus, finally coming home from a night of whatever it was he did after the bar closed. I knew this because that’d been his habit ever since I was a little girl. Not every day, but definitely two or three times a week.
I’d loved those mornings.
Mom would still be sleeping, so those were my special times with Gus. He was always in a great mood, too. He’d announce that he wanted waffles, but that he couldn’t make them without a helper.
It was my job to watch the waffle iron for when the light turned off so they didn’t get burned. Sometimes, I got distracted and missed it. That never bothered Gus, though. He’d just give me a hug and insist that he liked them best when they were extra crispy.
Then we’d sit down and eat together while he told me stories and let me use as much syrup as I wanted. We always finished by putting together a breakfast tray for Mom. Gus had to carry it upstairs, but he’d let me take it into the room to give to her.
Mom loved getting breakfast in bed, sometimes so much that she cried. Tears of happiness, she’d told me, because she had the world’s best daughter. Those mornings were some of my favorite childhood memories, pure and beautiful and precious.
Mom’s reaction hadn’t been tears of happiness, though. I’d figured that out years later once I learned the real reason she left him. The real reason he came home late all those mornings and was in such a good mood.
Eli’s arm tightened around my waist, reminding me that I wasn’t a little girl anymore. His body spooned mine, our legs tangled together in a delicious echo of what’d happened last night. His solid
bulk was comforting, and the gentle rise and fall of his chest reassured me that all was good.
Safe.
Funny how that worked. There wasn’t another person on Earth with the power to piss me off like Eli could. Yet when shit got real, we stood together.
Always.
We kept each other’s secrets, and while I loved torturing him, I was protective, too. Watching his court case had been like a slow-motion car crash, and his refusal to take my help cut me. Deeply. I’d hated him for it.
I’d also written to him in prison and sent care packages.
Downstairs, the kitchen door thudded as it closed, reminding me that I had unfinished business with Gus. He’d used Eli to save his own ass, something Eli seemed willing to leave in the past.
Very Christian of him, but I was feeling less saintly about the situation.
Eli shifted, rolling onto his back. Moving carefully, I started untangling myself. I hated to leave him, even for a minute. This still felt like some kind of crazy dream that might evaporate if I wasn’t careful, but putting things off with Gus would only make it harder in the long run.
I padded to the door, instinctively avoiding the board that creaked. The bedding rustled. I glanced back and saw that Eli had rolled into the warm spot I’d left behind.
His eyes were still closed, and his lips had parted just a bit. He looked so young and innocent…almost sweet. He wasn’t innocent, of course. Eli had suffered more as a small child than most people did their entire lives. He’d survived, though. Survived and then sacrificed himself to protect the only family he had left.
Downstairs, I found Gus mixing the waffle batter, whistling a little song to himself. The sound was happy. Cheerful.
“Morning, Peaches,” he said, like nothing had changed last night. I suppose that, in his mind, it hadn’t. He had no clue that I knew what’d really happened. “Coffee is started. There are fresh strawberries in the fridge if you want some with breakfast.”
Walking over to the coffee maker, I pulled out two mugs, filling one for myself and one for Gus. He sprayed the waffle iron, carefully spooning the batter onto the griddle.
