“Nghhhh.”
“I didn’t want anyone else to touch you, to even look at you,” I said, not caring anymore that he knew the truth. “You’re mine. I wanted everyone else there to know it. Do you understand me?”
“Oh god,” he whispered. His fingers tightened around mine as I fucked in and out of him from behind.
“Want you to come,” I said, finally withdrawing one hand from his so I could jack his cock. He gasped and threw his head back on my shoulder.
Ellison’s faint sound of agreement almost made me smile. His body’s hot, tight clench on my dick made me see stars. If he didn’t come soon, I was going to beat him there. “Fuck, babe. Fuck. Please,” I said. “You feel so fucking good on my cock. Need you to come for me. Fuck.”
Ellison reached back and grabbed my hair before groaning out his release. I felt the hot pulse of his dick in my hand, and it was all I needed to let go of my shaky control and thrust deep into him one more time until my own release hit hard and fast.
We lay there entwined together as our heartbeats slammed and our breathing stuttered. The bed was in ruins around us, and one of the bedside lamps lay tilted halfway off the table.
“Maybe I’m gay,” Ellison said weakly after a few minutes spent trying to catch our breath.
I laughed and reached for the condom before pulling out of him. Ellison made a whimpering sound of discontent, so I pressed a firm kiss to his shoulder. “Wait here.”
When I returned with a wet cloth, he’d rolled onto his back and lay studying me with one arm behind his head. The pillows were nowhere to be found.
“Why do you let me get close to you when we’re having sex but not when we’re talking?” Ellison asked after I finished wiping him down.
I shot him a look. “Are we going to talk about our feelings now?”
“Yes. Buckle up, buttercup. It’s going to be excruciating.” His grin was pretty fucking enticing, but I kept a decent scowl on my face to discourage him.
“I don’t get close to people as a rule.”
“No shit?” He faked shock for two seconds before rolling his eyes.
I gestured for him to get off the bed so we could replace the sheets. Thankfully, I’d noticed the extra set on a shelf in the top of the armoire. The cleaning crew was going to give us the stink-eye after noticing we’d sexed up yet another set.
As we worked together to fix the bed, I thought about what he was asking. “I didn’t trust you,” I admitted. “I didn’t want to give you more ammunition to disappoint me with.”
Ellison nodded. “That’s what I thought. What about now, though?”
He leaned across the bed to smooth the sheets. His naked body still called to me like a damned snake charmer even though I was spent from our earlier activities. “Now, I’m willing to try and open up a little more, but it’s not like a switch I can flip.”
“Old habits die hard,” he suggested.
I nodded.
After we finished making the bed, he followed me into the bathroom so we could brush our teeth. “Will you tell me about what happened after that night at the country club?” he asked when we were finished at the sink.
I met his eyes in the mirror. “I cursed everyone associated with Crosbie Country Club, the York family, Heath and Kelty, and all those fucking drunk assholes who dared you to fuck with me. Then I vowed revenge on your dad, Norman Heath, Bob Kelty, and Paulina Benson.”
Ells turned his back to the sink so he could face me for real. “Why Mrs. Benson?”
“She came and found me the next day and propositioned me. Said if I would show her a good time—and who even uses that phrase anymore?—she’d make sure her husband hired me after graduation.”
“You’re kidding!” Ellison looked so disappointed, as if he couldn’t wrap his head around the fact some people were simply shitty humans.
“No. I even considered it. A job at Benson Investment Partners would have been even better than the one I had lined up at Heath and Kelty. But how the hell would I have worked for the man after sleeping with his wife?”
I saw the storm brewing on Ellison’s face, so I reached out to pull him into my arms. “Don’t be mad at me for considering it. I was desperate. I didn’t want to go back to flipping burgers and delivering dry cleaning.”
“I’m not mad at you,” he snapped. “I’m mad at those fuckers who screwed you over. I’m mad at my dad, at Bob and Norm, at Will Dinsmore for starting the dare, but most of all, I’m mad at myself for not speaking up right away. For being a fucking chickenshit. For not looking out for you. For not making it right.”
His voice cracked at the end. I leaned in and kissed him gently before pulling back. “Do you remember Justin Nottely? He won the tournament that night with his dad.”
Ells nodded. “Of course I remember him. He’s the one who took your job at Heath and Kelty.”
“Do you know where he is now? Besides working for me since I took over the firm?”
“He’s… I think he’s a VP or junior partner by now.”
I took Ellison’s hand and led him back to bed, pulling down the covers so he could climb in. Once we were settled in bed, we lay on our sides facing each other. “He’s a junior partner. He makes five or six hundred thousand dollars a year.”
Ellison’s forehead crinkled. “Yeah? So?”
I ran my fingers through his messy hair. “If that night in the club hadn’t happened the way it did, that’s where I’d be right now, working for someone else and making a fraction of what I make now. I’d be begging for a seat at the decision-making table instead of sitting at the head of that table. Do you see what I’m saying?”
He clenched his jaw and exhaled through his nose. “Yes, but you had to work way harder for it.”
I nodded and leaned back on the pillows. “I heard about this guy at Yale during our senior year who’d applied for a patent. He’d come up with a new method of coating termite bait pellets so they wouldn’t break down in the digestive tract of other animals like dogs and cats. He’d spent all his money on running the experiments, compiling his data, and applying for the patent, so he needed outside funding to help him create a professional presentation and enough samples to give potential clients the ability to do their own testing. I knew it would be big, and I wanted to be part of it. The guy said he’d cut me in if I could help him scrape together the money. I talked to my mom, trying to brainstorm ideas, and she offered to sell her car. We gave the guy five thousand dollars, and I spent another thousand I had in savings on drafting an airtight contract giving me a share of his future profits.”
“And it paid off.”
I glanced over at him. “Hardicoat, the chemical coating company that started with that product, is valued at three hundred million dollars today. Unfortunately, I had to sell him back most of my shares early on because I needed the cash. I paid my mom back, obviously with interest, and then used the money to invest in two other opportunities. One failed terribly, but the other was Lumeniar, which hit paydirt. From there, it was a matter of grinding, working my ass off to research and select the best opportunities.”