by J. S. Scott
"Well you're acting like I shouldn't need some time to myself. I need to regroup, take a bath--"
"You can take a goddamn bath here, Elaina." He swung his arm in the direction of the bathroom before continuing, "So tell me how it was."
"Tell you how what was?"
"You started it. You asked the damn question. Why were you still a virgin? Was it because you never had the opportunity?"
"Really? You think that?" Surprise and a small amount of indignation colored her voice.
"Fuck no. I think every goddamn straight guy in his right mind that came across you wanted to crawl on top--"
She sucked in her breath in a gasp and his words came to a halt.
Her shoulders stiffened and her tone chilled a degree. "I don't even want to talk about this. I don't know why I worded it that way. I'm just saying that even though I haven't dated a lot, what we did tonight meant something to me. I don't sleep around--yeah, I've had opportunities in the past--" He growled at her words and she went on, "but it was never the right time, or the right person--"
"So I was the right guy and this was the right time--"
"Maybe not the right time--you pushed me into this--"
He slashed his arm through the air and gritted out, "And there it is! I knew you'd hold that shit against me. I told you."
"I'm not holding anything against you. I'm just ready to go home now. You're the one who's acting like we're fighting. I just want to go home." She grabbed the top sheet, jerked it away from the mattress and held it over herself as she slid off the bed and began picking up her clothes.
"Elaina," his voice subtly threatened.
"I'm going home Raul, even if I have to walk." She turned her back to him and began slipping her underwear back on.
"This isn't about you wanting to go home. This is about you getting your fucking way," he blasted.
"Yes!" she screamed, turning around and mumbling, "finally, geez."
He watched her dress and glared at her menacingly. "I could force you to stay," he said in a heated threat under his breath.
She snapped her head up and a chill came over her features. "That would be a mistake." Her eyes froze his in an impenetrable glare. "I promise you."
****
Elaina had been too tired to do anything but fall into bed when Raul dropped her off the night before. But now, after several hours of uninterrupted sleep, she lounged back in the bathtub, and remembered the night before, as the warm water soothed her aching muscles.
He had pulled the truck up in front of her house and cut the engine. He turned to her, sifted his fingers through her hair and ran his eyes up and down her length.
When he spoke, his words were intent, questioning, trying to gauge her feelings. His fingers were gentle on her. "What do you want, baby?"
His eyes tangled with hers and she sucked in a breath at the naked emotion and blatant need in his voice. "That," she answered him softly.
His fingers tightened. "Explain."
She reached up and put her hand over his where it entangled her hair. "I want you to care about what I need--what I want," she said.
"I do care," he answered.
"I think you probably do, but it's kind of hidden underneath what you think I need--what you want for me. What you want."
"You're saying I'm selfish?
"News flash, Raul. You are selfish."
His cheekbones colored slightly. "Elaina--"
"I'm not saying you're a selfish person--you're not. I know you're an incredibly good person. But when it comes to me--," she stopped, looked down and cleared her throat, "for whatever reason--you want what you want and nothing and no one--including me--seems to be able to stop you."
"Are you trying to blow me off?" his voice was sharp.
"No!" she exclaimed.
"Then what?"
"I need some distance--"
"You are blowing me off."
"No--I'm not. Not even close. If I hadn't made you bring me home tonight--I get the feeling that--this is going to sound stupid--I get the feeling you'd never let me leave." Her voice came to a stop and she watched him silently watching her, interrogating her without saying a word.
He never tried to dispute her claim.
"This is serious shit, Raul. It's not a game. I wouldn't begin to know how to play games. You think I belong to you. That fast--I sleep with you one time and that's it for you. Hell--you thought it before tonight. You're going to trample all over me if I let you."
He jerked from her last sentence. "Trample you? What the hell, Elaina?"
"Honestly? This isn't just sex. You want a relationship. And I'm okay with that as long as it's two ways. Equality."
His lips thinned and his frown deepened, but he didn't try to deny what she was saying. "So, again, I'm asking you--what do you want?" he hissed out.
"I want to take some time to get to know you. I'll stay here. I'm not saying we won't--have sex. I'm just saying I need to go to bed at night here. Wake up here. It's too soon to start staying with you, and I don't want to fight about it every time we see each other."
"You're putting me on a goddamn trial?"
"Do you want to give me what I need to feel comfortable with you?"
"Yes," he blistered between grinding teeth.
"It's not you that's on trial," she tried to soothe. "It's us."
He jerked her to him and her hands fell helplessly to his chest. "We'll play it your way for a while. I'll give you space. But it is a relationship, Elaina. You can argue fucking semantics with me all night long. But this little body you got going on," he gripped her with one hand while he ran his other up and down the curve of her waist, "it is mine. That's not up for debate. You understand me?"
His hand fell between them and landed on a breast and squeezed. His eyes glittered down at her, challenging her.
Her heartbeat escalated and her voice froze as his thumb swiped back and forth across her nipple. His grip tightened and he gave her a slight shake as he demanded her acquiescence.
She swallowed hard. "Yes, she whispered in submission, and his mouth fell on hers.
****
Elaina came back to the present and reached for a towel as she climbed from the bathtub. Had she gotten through to him? Had she made him understand?
Really, only time would tell.
As for herself; she knew, she wanted him. What they had was intense, and she was old enough to realize that what they shared might not ever come around in her lifetime again.
But it had to be right.
His masculinity was fearsome. There was no doubt that was what she found so exciting about him. But it was also what scared her the most.
She hoped and prayed it could work out. The sex had been addictive. Crazy. Crazy addictive. She could happily go her whole life with only him as a lover. If--
If they could find a happy medium.
Again, only time would tell.
Thank God, she had a lot of time to make it work.
****
Elaina spent the day cleaning up after the party alongside her aunt. Janie gave her several probing looks but never asked any questions.
It was still too new for her to talk about, so Elaina didn't offer any details.
They spent a pleasant day together regardless.
Her cell phone rang at six o'clock that evening and she answered on the second ring. She knew by the display it was Raul. "Hello?"
He cut to the chase. "What are you doing?"
"Nothing, right now."
"Have you eaten?"
"No, not yet."
"I'll pick you up in twenty minutes."
His arrogance was inborn; she wasn't going to get him to change that. Besides, she wanted to go.
"Okay."
She was sitting on the porch swing waiting for him when he drove up.
He pushed the passenger door open from the inside and she stepped on the running board and up into the seat. She buckled and turned to him.
"Hey," s
he said softly.
He put the truck in reverse and looked over at her. "Hey."
"Where are we going?"
"You've got two choices--"
She cut in with a smile in her voice. "Mmm. Choices. I like it already."
He sniggered and ran his hand caressingly over her thigh. "Little shit."
"Me?" Her eyes cut to him flirtatiously, then away again. "Surely not."
His smile broadened in approval as he turned his eyes back to the road. "The diner in town or my house. I've got steaks we can grill."
"A real date?"
The truck came to the fork in the road and he stopped before turning onto the county road. "Would you like that?" His eyes radiated indulgence as he contemplated her mischievous mood.
"Yeah." Her eyes searched his playfully. "Can we go to the diner and then--" Her voice stalled.
"And then?" He lifted his hand and rubbed her silken chin between his fingers.
"And then--can we go parking?"
"Parking?" he almost choked on the word.
Their eyes tangled as incendiary heat flowed between them. "I've never been."
"Never?" he questioned her.
"No, never," she qualified.
He leaned down and kissed her softly on the lips. "Baby, if you're going to be so easy to please, I don't think we're going to have any worries at all."
Chapter Eleven
Elaina sat across from Raul in a booth at the only diner in town. Almost all of the tables around them were filled.
His eyes were hot on her face as they searched for hidden answers. His hand entwined hers on top on the table as he played with her small white fingers. "You okay today?"
Her eyes flew from watching the rough pads of his fingertips up to his heated, expectant expression. She knew what he was asking with that question. "I'm fine," she said quietly.
His hand compressed over hers. "You sure? No residual effects from last night?" His thumb stroked back and forth across her palm.
Elaina had the absurd notion she should be feeling embarrassment. But she wasn't. Arousal, immediate and all-consuming, slid through her veins and landed in a pool of heat between her thighs.
His eyes pierced hers and she saw the same arousal reflected in his expression as his jaw tensed visibly and his skin pulled taut over his cheekbones.
She sucked in a shaky breath. "Maybe a tiny bit--sore. But it's mostly gone now."
"You sure? You bled so much--Jesus, babe."
Elaina glanced quickly around to see if anyone was paying them any attention. She was relieved to find they were completely alone in their conversation. "Raul, please, be quiet. I'm sure it was normal."
"I guess so. I worried about you after I dropped you off."
"Don't you know so?"
"What?"
Now Elaina did feel the blush of embarrassment. "How much I bled," she whispered so softly she knew he would have a hard time hearing her. "Don't you know if it was normal?"
"No, I don't. Christ, wait--what are you asking me?" His eyes flared and his fingers entwined with hers, grasping her hand completely.
She remained silent as he studied her.
His voice was firm when he spoke. "I haven't had any virgins before you."
Pleasure, sharp and intense slid through her system. She was about to try to convey that emotion to him when her eyes looked past his to see the man coming up from behind him and toward her.
It was Mr. Reynolds, from the bank. He had a smile on his face and stopped in front of their table.
Elaina looked up at him and gave her best attempt at a smile as she retrieved her hand from Raul's. Had the banker heard Raul's last statement?
Mortification pierced her, but she didn't have time to dwell on it as the man moved on to the business at hand.
"Elaina, I've been trying to find the time to call. We want you to start on Monday if you're still interested in the job."
Surprise and pleasure lit her face as she began nodding her head. "Yes, sir! Thank you, that would be great." As exhilaration infiltrated her, she knew she needed to introduce the two men.
She was about to do just that when she realized it wasn't necessary. Mr. Reynolds had obviously only now discerned who she was with. He held his hand out to Raul for a handshake as his eyes darted between the two of them in inquiry.
"How are you, Raul?"
"Good. You?"
"Fine, just fine," the other man said as he looked like he was recovering from finding his newest employee having a tete-a-tete with the town's hard-nosed, yet most eligible bachelor.
Gossip was rampant around here and everyone would know they were seeing each other long before she showed up at work on Monday.
She thanked Mr. Reynolds and watched him walk away and pay his bill at the counter. She looked back at Raul and found his frowning attention fixed on her.
"I didn't know you were actively looking for a job."
"I was, I'm not anymore," she said with satisfaction in her voice.
His frown became a scowl. "Why do you want a job so bad?"
"I need a job."
"You don't need a job."
"Yes, I do! I can't leach off Janie and Brian forever," she said with a distinct chill.
Raul was about to respond when he thought better of it. She already looked about to come unglued on his ass. He could almost see the steam rising off her. He was irritated with her wanting a job, but he had enough brains to realize this was the kind of shit she was pissed about. The reaction he was trying to suppress was exactly why she wasn't comfortable with him.
He bit the inside of his cheek until he tasted blood and took her hand back in his again.
He gave her his best smile. "Fine, baby."
Elaina almost laughed out loud at the play of emotion streaking across Raul's face. Tension gripped his shoulders and he held himself so tightly he looked like he might snap. His face was twisted in a sad imitation of a smile that totally failed. She choked back the humor in the situation and focused on how he was attempting to respond. There was no telling what it was taking for him to back down. Pleasure spiked through her. He was trying.
She was going to give him this one.
She wasn't keeping score. She wasn't.
Still, an imaginary line went up in the chalkboard in her head.
One point for Raul.
****
The windows were foggy and her panties were hanging from one ankle. They were in the backseat of his truck and he was pulling her over him in a straddling position while he sat in the middle of the bench seat.
She thought parking meant petting. She was wrong. Evidently, it meant seducing her into going all the way.
She was semi-ashamed to admit to herself it wasn't taking much seducing.
She clenched her hands on his shoulders and tried to lower herself over him. "Mmm," she let out a tiny moan of anticipation as her legs shook with the effort of holding herself over him.
A drop of sweat dripped down his face and his control threatened to snap as he rasped out, "Hold still and let me get the condom on."
They were on a narrow dirt road at the back of his property. It was dark outside but there was just enough moonlight shining in for her to see what he was doing.
His erection pulsed thick and hard and ready. There was something incredibly sexy about seeing him holding his engorged penis while he rolled the condom down its length. She bit her lip and tried to push her torso closer.
"Baby, just--okay, now." His hands bit into her hips as he lifted her over him and began pushing up into her as his grasp on her silky skin pushed her down to meet him. He adjusted her legs, moved her minutely and then impaled her completely.
He sucked in a shuddering breath and threw his head back against the rear window as the fierce pleasure from their joining consumed him. The vibrations from her sharp inhalations reverberated through him. He expelled his breath as the provocative feel of the shiver that attacked her body flowed into him, from her sweet si
lky arms wrapped around his neck.
They panted together for the titillating count of five heartbeats and then he lifted her, introducing her to the motion of riding him.
She sucked in a breath and he helped her take another stroke. And another.
He felt a rush to his head as she took over from him, lifting and falling on him, creaming for him so sweetly he had to grit his teeth and start counting backwards from one-hundred.
When he thought he had a modicum of control and couldn't stand it anymore, he put a hand on her jaw and lifted her face to him. His mouth sunk down on hers, opening her lips and plunging his tongue inside for a hot, wet, deep kiss that blew his mind.
He was close, but he needed her to come first.
While she clung to his lips and gyrated over him, he slipped a hand between them and began rubbing her sweet spot.
It was silky, so silky, and the combination of her internal muscles clenching him was too much for him. He felt a last surge of blood thickening him, making him even harder and then his mind shut down to everything but the ecstasy consuming him.
Only when he was at the peak of pleasure did his disjointed mind realize she was feeling it too.
They were coming together.
****
Two weeks slid by. The best two weeks Elaina had experienced since before her mother had fallen ill.
The time was magical. Her days were spent learning her new job, and her evenings were spent with Raul.
By the time he came and picked her up after he finished working on his ranch and she got back from her job in town, there was no sunlight left to do anything outside.
But he came and got her every night. And they spent every evening together, either cooking at his house or having supper at the diner in town. They watched movies sitting on his couch together and usually never made it to the end of the film before they were touching each other and were out of breath and naked.
He never complained about her job, but he did ask her leading questions that at first seemed innocuous. But the more nonchalant the question was, the more she knew the answer meant to him. Finally she threw up her hands and told him he had no reason to be jealous. She only wanted him. She saw that statement sink in and a calmness come over him that was almost tangible.
