by K. M. Scott
I stopped in front of Summer’s door and closed my eyes. All I wanted was to feel good again. To smile and maybe even laugh. Nothing else. Just to feel happy with the one person I missed having in my life.
She answered after the first time I knocked, and I didn’t say a word as she stood there looking out at me. I simply stared back at her, happier than she could ever know to see her after four days.
“Ethan, what’s wrong? You don’t look right. Are you okay?”
“I wanted to see you. To tell you I missed you,” I croaked out, my emotions threatening to spill out all over the hallway.
“You said that the other day. What’s happened?” she asked, but I couldn’t explain what was wrong. “Do you want to come in and talk?”
Her invitation made my heart feel lighter for at least a few seconds, and I walked in to that hotel room hating that it was nothing compared to the apartment she lost. She closed the door behind me, and before I could stop myself, I said, “I’m sorry you have to stay here and you lost your place. I really am sorry.”
Summer walked around to stand in front of me and looked up with confusion in her eyes. “I know. I don’t blame you. It’s okay.”
“It’s not okay, Summer. None of it’s okay. I break things and then other people are left to clean up after me. That’s not fucking okay.”
Before she could say another word, I stepped toward her and took her face in my hands. I didn’t want to feel like this anymore. I didn’t want to keep fucking up and then feeling sorry for ruining people’s lives. I wanted to be the person I believed existed inside me somewhere. The kind of person who people like Summer and Diana thought I was even though I’d shown them differently.
“What’s wrong, Ethan? Why are you saying these things?”
I couldn’t explain why to her, as much as I wanted to. I wanted to tell her about that night and how I never meant to hurt Diana. How I tried to escape even thinking about it by running away to any distant place I could find.
But I couldn’t.
“I never meant to hurt you, Summer. I need to know you believe me about that.”
I wanted her to understand that there was never anyone else when I was with her. That there was never anyone else until she came into my life, even if I couldn’t explain some things about me.
She nodded and gave me a sweet smile. “I don’t think you did. I don’t think you’re a bad person. I don’t.”
“I loved being with you. I wouldn’t miss you so much if I didn’t. You made me happy.”
Summer cupped her hands over mine on her cheeks and looked into my eyes. “Why aren’t you happy now, Ethan? From where I stand, you have everything a man could possibly want, so why aren’t you happy?”
Her question hung in the air between us as I tried to think of an answer, but it was no use. I didn’t need to search for why I wasn’t happy. The truth was standing right in front of me.
“Because I don’t have you.”
Lowering her head, she said, “I don’t know why that should matter. It didn’t matter enough to call me after we had one fight. I think you’re confusing losing your livelihood and losing me.”
I tilted her face up so she had to look at me. “I can take pictures any time I want. You told me that. Fuck, I barely do any work at Stone Worldwide, so it isn’t like anyone would miss me if I walked out every goddamn morning and didn’t come back for hours. But I still don’t have you.”
“What do you want from me?”
“I want you. That’s it. Nothing else. No one else. Just you, Summer.”
“And you’ll tell me the truth?”
“I’ve never lied to you after we got together. Never. I swear.”
I waited for her to voice that same demand as before, but it didn’t come. For the first time since that night I lost her, she didn’t ask for what I couldn’t give her.
And then quietly, she said the words I’d longed to hear. “I miss you too, Ethan.”
Pressing my lips to hers, I felt a rush of happiness wash over me that made me feel lightheaded. I slid my tongue into her mouth and felt hers meet mine as eagerly.
She missed me.
Summer ran her fingernails along the back of my neck, sending strings of pain across my skin. I deserved whatever she did to me after all she’d been through, and as she tore those nails over me harder each time, I reveled in the reality that she was mine again.
Chapter Twenty-One
Summer
Silently, I prayed to God that I wasn’t making a mistake as I slid Ethan’s shirt off his shoulders to reveal that perfect body I couldn’t help but adore. Our first time I’d been drunk. The first night we made love once we were dating I’d decided I didn’t want to wait any longer to enjoy him again.
This time? I had no good reason for letting him back in. He hadn’t told me the whole truth about that text, and even though I wanted to believe him, a tiny part of me couldn’t because of what I’d read.
And still, there I stood tugging at his pants to get them off as he sent the most delicious sensations racing down my body with his tongue on my skin. At least if it was just about fucking, I could think to myself that I was safe. Sex was just sex with some people, after all.
That wasn’t the way it was with him, though. Even if I wanted to be detached, the way he stared into my eyes as he pumped into my willing body made me betray that desire to keep him at arm’s length, at least emotionally. With Ethan, sex had always been all-consuming, and I knew tonight wouldn’t be any different.
He murmured my name next to my ear before his hands cupped my breasts and squeezed just hard enough to send a ribbon of need directly to my pussy. I finally unbuttoned his pants to find his cock hard and ready to go.
Tugging my head back, he looked down at me with a wickedness that always seemed to come out in him at times like this. “God, I need to be inside you, Summer.”
Implicit in his words was something of an apology, though, like he wished this time could be romantic but all he had inside of him was pure need. I didn’t need hearts and flowers tonight either. I just needed him.
I wrapped my hand around his cock and smiled. “Then don’t wait.”
In a flash, he kicked his pants and boxer briefs away and lifted me in his arms. I wrapped my legs around his waist and clung to his neck while he walked us into the bedroom, his muscles tensing with each step he took.
“I’ve missed you like this,” he groaned as he lowered me to the bed and followed a second later.
Before I could tell him how much I missed feeling him next to me and worshipping every inch of him, he lay his body over mine and reared back. Grabbing a handful of hair, he tugged hard in that way that never failed to make me run wet with desire and then thrust his hips forward, filling me in one swift push. It took my breath away so only a tiny whimper escaped my throat as he began pumping into my body.
He stared down at me with brown eyes utterly filled with need—need to possess me, need to find that happiness he’d always found with me. Need to escape whatever he’d been running from for so long and find solace in my body.
His gaze practically hypnotized me and made me forget how much he demanded as his cock stretched me each time he slammed into my body. I lifted my legs to wrap them around his waist, tilting my hips to take every delicious inch of his cock inside me. The change in position elicited a low moan that sounded like it came from deep inside his chest.
“Oh…fuck…just like that,” he said breathlessly before filling me completely once more.
I watched him watch me, entranced by how his focus never faltered. He fucked me like a man on a mission to utterly possess me, and I loved every second of it. My body reacted as it always had with him, and I felt the first hint of my orgasm begin to form deep inside me. He sensed it too and changed his motion from hard and fast to slow and easy.
“Not yet,” he groaned. “I don’t want this to end yet.”
“You can always make me come a second and third ti
me,” I whimpered, desperate to feel my release.
A wicked smile formed on his lips. “I know, but I always love the first time you come the best,” he whispered while he slowly eased out of me, leaving my body feeling empty.
I nudged my heels into the base of his spine to bring him back. “I love it too, so since we’re in agreement, why don’t you give me what I want?” I playfully begged.
He filled me again inch by inch until our bodies joined and kissed me sweetly. “I love it when you whine like that as I’m fucking you. It makes me want to tease you even more.”
My lower lip pushed out into a pout. “Not fair.”
“All’s fair in love and war,” he said with a grin as he thrust into me.
I arched my back and closed my eyes when he hit a spot no other man had ever reached on my body. “Which one is this?”
Ethan slid his hand from my hair to around my neck and pushed hard into me. “It’s not war,” he whispered against my lips.
I opened my eyes to see something different in his eyes now. They seemed softer, even as his hand gently squeezed my throat and his cock once again pounded into me.
My body reacted to the way he looked at me, and I knew I wouldn’t have to wait much longer to come. Tilting my head back, I closed my eyes and hung on to his shoulders as my release washed over me. His hand closed in around my neck to let me know the feel of my body tightening around his cock was inching him closer to him coming too, and seconds later, he plunged into me one last time.
I didn’t know how long we lay there together, our bodies still joined as intimately as possible. Ethan breathed heavily next to my head, and when I turned to look at him, his eyes were closed and his long dark eyelashes fanned out on his face.
On those nights when we would drift off in one another’s arms at my apartment, sometimes I’d wake up and see him sleeping beside me. He looked so peaceful and sweet, just as he did at that moment in my temporary bedroom at his family’s hotel.
Reaching out, I ran my fingertip over his cheek. His eyes slowly opened, and just like always when I woke him, he smiled at me.
“I missed you,” he said in a low voice that hit me in that same place his words did as he made love to me.
“I missed you too.”
He closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again. “I love you, Summer.”
Surprise rushed through my brain, and before I could stop myself, I said, “You love me?”
Ethan nodded. “I didn’t realize it until I saw you with those kittens the other day. I’d been so busy first being angry at you and then missing you more than I could bear that I guess I hadn’t realized everything I was feeling was because I love you.”
I stared at him as if to see if he was telling the truth. From the moment we met, I struggled with why a man like him would be with me. I slowly realized with each minute we spent together that even though he seemed to have been blessed with everything life could offer, for whatever reason, Ethan Stone wasn’t happy. And that’s what he found in me.
Happiness.
But still I could never be sure if he felt what I felt. I’d never said it to him for fear I’d scare him away, but now that he’d spoken those three little words, I finally wanted to say them too.
As he stared at me waiting to hear what I’d say in return to him, I kissed him softly and whispered, “I love you.”
With my eyes closed, I felt a smile form on his lips and then I heard him sigh and say, “I promise I won’t make you regret saying that.”
He had no idea how terrified I was that he’d do just that.
I pushed my hair off my face and looked for Ethan on the other side of the bed, but he wasn’t there. Sitting up, I glanced down at my naked body and instinctively pulled the sheet up to cover my breasts.
“Why do you do that?” I heard him ask and looked up to see him standing naked in the doorway, perfectly comfortable in his skin as usual.
“It’s in every movie I’ve ever seen with post-sex scenes. I guess I’m impressionable. Why don’t you ever think to put a stitch of clothing on when you walk around other people’s places?”
He laughed and shrugged at my suggestion. “Who’s going to see me? You? You’ve seen everything there is to see more than once, and this time you were even sober, so I don’t know why I’d cover up.”
“You make it sound like I was drunk every time we had sex before tonight. I was drunk the first time, and I wasn’t even really drunk. Just buzzed and a little out of my head.”
He walked over to the side of the bed and leaned over to kiss me softly on the lips. “I’d say you were a bit more than a little out of your head that night. I thought I was getting a nice girl, but that idea was blown out of the water about five minutes in.”
Looking down at his cock stiffening as we spoke, I rolled my eyes. “Are you ever not ready to go?”
He followed my gaze and then lifted his head to look at me with a devilish glint in his eye. “He knows what his job is, and he’s an overachiever. What can I say?”
“What time is it?” I asked, suddenly worried I’d overslept and would be late for work.
Casually, Ethan checked his phone on the night table. “A little after one. Do you have somewhere you need to be?”
“No, and would you get back in bed, please? I feel weird with you standing there pointing that thing at me like that,” I said, lifting up the covers for him.
He chuckled at me and slid under the sheet next to me. “Okay, I’m here. Do with me what you will.”
God, he could be so cute at times!
“What makes you think I want to do anything?” I asked, pretending to be disinterested in him. “We’ve had a few sessions already, and that shower was so hot it pretty much knocked me out. Maybe I just want to sleep.”
Smiling, he slid his hands down my back to cup my ass and pulled me to him. “I know. Remember, I was the guy in there with you when your legs started to give out? I think for the future, shower sex with us needs to be with cooler water.”
“I love how you just ignore my claim that I might want to sleep.”
Ethan nuzzled my neck, sending ripples of need through my body. “Well, I’m hoping that was you just teasing me.”
“Don’t you ever get tired?”
He leaned back and shook his head. “I’m making up for lost time. Not having sex for months makes me this way.”
“Don’t lie, Ethan. You don’t have to do that with me,” I said in a serious voice, unable to believe he didn’t go with anyone while we weren’t together.
“I’m not lying. I wasn’t with anyone since the last time we were together. By the way, my hand and I were getting a little too chummy, so I’ve decided to break up with him. That leaves things up to you. Just thought you should know.”
While I had a hard time believing Ethan had forgone sex with other women for the cold comfort of his hand during the months since we were together, his cute way of talking about him masturbating make me giggle.
“Please tell your hand I’m sorry. Maybe he can find another cock to make happy.”
“I don’t think so. He’s a one-cock hand, and he’s officially retired.”
The way he looked at me with such innocence in his brown eyes while he talked about sex and his one-cock hand made me love him even more. “Well, if that’s the case, I guess I better get to work.”
I pushed him onto his back and pulled the covers back to reveal his naked body all ready for what I planned to do. Straddling him, I leaned down and kissed him long and deep. Surprised since he thought my hand was going to take over for his, he pulled me down on top of him and angled his hips to enter me.
Lifting myself off him, I moved down his body. “Uh-uh. I have something else in mind, so you lie back and enjoy yourself.”
He put his arms behind his head and grinned wickedly. “I like where this is going. Do continue.”
Ethan’s body was truly something to enjoy. I ran my hand over his muscular arms
and chest covered in tattoos down his torso to those washboard abs punctuated with that beautiful V that seemed to point directly down to his cock. A light dusting of dark hair trailed through the middle of that V. I traced it with my fingertip, making his skin quiver beneath my touch.
I’d never been with anyone so gorgeous who seemed oblivious to his appearance. Or maybe he was just so comfortable with how he looked that he never thought about it. Whatever it was, I loved to look at his body as the work of art it was.
His cock stood at attention and ready for my mouth, so I flicked my tongue over the crown as a tease. Ethan’s eyes rolled back in his head, and he let out a deep moan.
“This is already way better than my hand, I want you to know.”
I looked up and met his gaze with a fake look of irritation before taking his cock in my hand to stroke it. “Shhh. I’m working my magic here.”
He bit his bottom lip and moaned again. “Oh, yeah…”
My gaze fixed on his expression of pure ecstasy as I slowly took as much of him as I could. My hand held him tightly at the base the way he liked, and I began to slowly move my mouth up and down his cock, flicking my tongue as I made my way along the shaft.
Above me, he groaned low and deep as I sucked the head like a lollypop. I liked to tease him a little before giving him what he wanted, and when he stuffed his hand in my hair, I sensed he’d had enough of my teasing.
I looked up at him and saw the playfulness had left his eyes, replaced by that look of complete need that made him look so incredibly sexy. Clearly, the time for games had ended.
“Summer…you’re driving me crazy here,” he said in a voice that didn’t even sound like his.
“I guess you want something more, huh?”
He stared down his body at me and nodded. “Yeah, and if you don’t do something fast, I’m going to flip you on your back and fuck your brains out. Your choice.”
As I slowly stroked his cock, stopping each time I hit the tip, I licked my lips and smiled. “So impatient.”
