“You snooze, you lose,” I taunt as I roll my ball. It jumps into the highest point slot. “Yes!”
“All right. Let’s see what you got,” he says as he leans against the machine next to us.
“I got moves you’ve never seen.” I wink at him and I roll another ball. It too falls into the highest point slot.
“You’ve got a lot of stuff I’m starting to feel like I’ve never seen,” he murmurs so that only I can hear him. His left eyebrow shoots up as he grins at me.
“And whose fault is that?” I ask. “Wasn’t me who wanted to wait.” I toss another ball, and it goes into a high point slot. I raise my arms to cheer.
He stares at me, pure heat in his gaze. “I don’t want to wait any longer.”
My stomach drops straight down toward my toes, and my heart starts to race. “Well, dude, you’re going to have to wait until I knock you off that leader board.”
“Better make it quick,” he warns.
I roll my ball, but it bounces wrong right at the last. “Dang it,” I say.
“Hey, Bess,” he says softly. “You want to get out of here and go somewhere and make out?”
“In a minute,” I reply tersely, trying to concentrate on my shot, but all I can think about is the way he’s looking at me, the way his body tenses up, and the way he makes me feel. I roll the ball. It shoots into the highest point slot. That’s more like it.
“You better make it quick, Bess,” he warns again.
I roll another ball, but my hands are shaking so badly that it falls into the discard tray. “Shit,” I say, and I pick up another ball. I roll it, and it goes into the highest score spot. It still won’t be enough. But I pick up the next ball anyway.
“Bess,” Eli says, his gaze pure heat. My knees go weak when I look at him.
Mr. Jacobson stalks over, slaps an out-of-order sign on the machine, and unplugs it. “You could cut the sexual tension in here with a knife,” he says. “You’re welcome,” he says to Eli, who crows out a laugh, his head falling back as the loud noise bursts from his throat.
“Hey!” I object. “That’s not fair!”
Eli walks over to me, bends at the waist, gently sticks his shoulder in my stomach, and lifts me up. I beat on his back, but he just laughs and walks toward the door. I hear clapping and cat-calling from behind us, and Sam runs up to take my camera from around my neck. There’s no telling the expression on my face as she quickly snaps a shot of me and Eli in full caveman mode.
“Have fun, Bess!” Aaron calls.
“Where are they going?” Kerry-Anne asks, and Aaron replies, “They must have forgotten something at the cabin.”
“Are they coming back?”
“Not if he’s any good at finding what they lost,” Aaron says, and he winks at me as we walk out the door. I shoot him the bird, which makes him and everyone else laugh.
“Put me down, Eli,” I demand as Eli stomps toward our cabin. A gentle rain has started to fall, but I can’t even feel it. I bob there over his shoulder like I have no will of my own, but to be honest I don’t want to have any will of my own. I want Eli to want me as desperately as I want him—and apparently he does.
“This was easier when I was in better shape,” Eli says with a grunt.
“Are you calling me fat?”
He sputters. “No, of course not. Do I look stupid? I was calling myself out of shape, which I am.”
He walks up the steps and into the house and goes straight to the bedroom. He wastes no time in throwing me onto the bed, where I bounce a couple of times. He reaches for the elastic of my shorts, then he pulls both my shorts and panties off in one move.
“Eli,” I protest, kicking my feet at him, but I’m laughing at the same time. He sits me up so he can pull my shirt over my head, and then my bra follows, landing on top of my face. I brush it to the side and stare up at him.
He stands at the side of the bed while I look up at him, suddenly completely naked. “Eli, this is crazy,” I say as I start to sit up. But suddenly he’s naked too and he’s on top of me.
“Shh,” he says as he pushes my knees apart and his head dives down toward my curls.
“Eli,” I say again. I push his shoulder, but he’s determined. My defiance weakens. “Oh, that feels nice,” I breathe out as his tongue laps at my slit. He’s been there before, many, many times, and he explores it like a man who knows the terrain. “You don’t have to do that, Eli,” I say as I tug gently as his hair.
He looks up at me. “It has been a long time since I’ve been down here, so be quiet and let me do my work.”
I relax against the pillows. He has always been good at this, ever since we first met. What he didn’t know how to do initially, he learned to do as time went on, and then he became a master at it.
He latches onto my clit and gives it a suck, and my hands reflexively bunch in the covers. He grabs my hand and moves it to his shoulder. “Touch me, please,” he says, his voice betraying his need. I run my hand through his hair as he brings me higher and higher, and my grip turns frantic as he gets me close.
“Please come, Bess,” he says as he briefly lifts his head, and then his fingers sink into my heat, he gives them a little crook as he sucks my clit, and I finally find my release. But Eli isn’t finished. He accompanies me all the way through my orgasm, and then brings me very gently back to earth.
He wipes his face on the covers as he crawls up my body. He grins. “You came quick,” he says. He looks awfully pleased with himself, his grin as boyish as the day I met him, but there’s still a need in him. I can feel it in the way he holds me tight, in the way he looks at me.
“It has been a while,” I admit as I rub his shoulders. He rests there, staring into my face as he looks at me, his gaze soft and hot and adoring. “I love you, Eli,” I say.
He buries his face in my neck and nuzzles me gently, his hips flexing as he pushes inside me. He moves slowly, and a pained groan leaves his throat when he’s fully sheathed. “I love you, Bess,” he says. He grins. “I’ve missed fucking you.”
Eli always did have a filthy mouth when we had sex, and it was a huge turn-on.
I open my legs a little wider, and he changes the angle of his thrust to hit that secret spot inside me that Eli always knows how to find. “That’s it, right?” he asks. “Right there?” He watches my face.
“Yes. God, yes. Don’t stop.” I lift my legs and wrap them around his back, and that’s when it feels the best. In moments, I’m coming apart around him. In short, gentle thrusts, he brings me patiently through it.
“Bess.” He says my name so I’ll open my eyes and look at him. “Do you want me to pull out?” He stares into my eyes, and his are so full of love for me that it’s almost more than I can bear.
I touch his shoulder gently, running my hand across his sweat-slick skin. “Do you want to pull out?” I ask, and I hold my breath as I wait to hear his response.
He closes his eyes, pumps once, twice, and then he comes inside me. He doesn’t pull out. My eyes fill up with tears because I know what this means. It means he’s open to whatever life brings us. It means he’s in it with me, whatever we may face.