No matter where that led, he’d have Julia by his side. Her house, newly remodeled, would give them something to grow into, to find themselves as a couple. If she wanted that.
Measure, cut, and nail, smiling to himself as he envisioned them weekending at his cabin, trying to get away from life and sit back, slow down.
Measure, cut, and nail, hoping that someday, Julia would turn to him when she was ready to share her needs instead of Kelsey. Instead of feeling jealousy or pangs of annoyance, he was deep down glad she had someone to turn to.
Measure, cut and nail. He put his tools down when a text pinged his phone. It was Julia.
I’m in your kitchen. Do you have much longer in the garage?
He didn’t answer the message, but poked his head outside. Sure enough, her little silver Audi was parked in front of the house. Without putting anything away or cleaning himself up, he hurried across the sun-dappled grass and into the house where he did indeed find Julia.
She looked intimidatingly beautiful standing behind the island in his kitchen, watching him with a leery expression.
“Hi,” he said.
She held out a hand and motioned forward. “Can you come sit?”
He slowly walked across the hardwood and took the stool across from her, tilting his head in question but letting her take the lead. She turned and grabbed something off the counter behind her and then slid a plate across in front of him. He looked down at a small, sort of lopsided cupcake.
He looked up at her for an explanation.
“I made it,” she told him, so quiet he almost couldn’t hear her at all. “I thought we could share it.”
He just looked at her, willing her to explain without making him beg. She put her hands on the counter, almost to brace herself.
“My therapist suggested that if I pushed through some of my fears and tried to understand the scientific measurements of cooking, I might be able to get past some of my issues,” she looked down at the crooked little cupcake and then back up at him. “I’ve been seeing her a few times a week, by video chat mostly. I know it isn’t much to look at, but I made it for us.”
When he looked at the lopsided confection again, he saw something completely different. She’d gotten herself some help, and even though she hadn’t let him be a part of helping her get there, she was letting him be part of her recovery. Not only had she made something for herself, but she’d made it for him too. In some ways, the undersized cupcake had become a symbol of their future together.
“Are you ready for this?” he asked, his lips turning up into a smile.
She took a deep breath, and nodded, watching him unwrap the paper.
“It’s carrot cake.” She flicked her eyes up at him and then away again. “That’s my favorite.”
He made a mental note to remember that. He grabbed a knife from the block and cut the thing in half, taking his in hand and sliding the plate back to her. He tried not to stare as she brought it to her mouth and took what he would call a nibble, but he stopped dead still, hand halfway to his mouth and just watched her. She chewed with her mouth closed and didn’t rush for another bite, but she seemed thoughtful.
“How are you?” he asked. Though he never fully understood how she could live the way she had, he knew that her fears were very real, very strong, and very valid.
She continued chewing and covered her mouth with a hand as she nodded. “I’m good,” she answered.
Only then did he pop his entire half in his mouth. It wasn’t the best he’d ever had, but it was the sweetest in what it represented for Julia.
“How is it?” she asked, watching him nervously.
Elliot had waited long enough. He stood and quickly rounded the island and took her in his arms. Her mouth met his, her fingers tunneling through his hair and welcoming him in every way. Her leg snagged his waist and her arms wrapped around his neck. He’d never experienced receiving such erotic affection with anything that matched Julia’s total abandon. She loved so freely with her body, gave everything that she had.
He lifted her onto the counter, pulling her sweater off and leaning back to admire the masterpiece that was Julia Hawkins in what had to be very expensive lingerie.
She watched him watching her, her eyes a hot and fiery green. Elliot trailed open-mouth kisses along her breastbone and up to her neck, licking until her body arched beneath him, begging. He wanted to rip her bra off, open her to him, but he wanted to see Julia in nothing but that bra and what he knew were matching panties more. She had a fascinating knack for wearing matching bras and panties.
He kissed and licked his way down her body, paying close attention to the indent of her belly button, which made her squirm, and the spot just inside her hip bone, that made a small squeak escape her throat, but he growled when he saw what was underneath her denim shorts.
She was wearing tights.
“You okay?” she asked as she slid off the counter in front of him. One look at her face and he knew she was kidding; she knew exactly what had him so agitated.
Elliot hooked his fingers under the waistband of the tights and ripped them down. They stretched and then stretched some more, and after a few seconds of struggling, he finally just left them stripped down to her ankles. He’d gotten what he was after, Julia standing before him in her ivory bra and panty set, her body flushed and ready for him.
He pressed his face to her heated skin, inhaling the scent of her and letting it spread through his body. She was everywhere; from the tips of his toes to the soles of his feet, she lived inside him, and every breath he took pulled her in deeper, exactly where he wanted her.
Calmly, gently, he extricated her feet from the tights and he kneeled before her. He didn’t care that he was hers, supplicant to her whims or needs. Hell, it was all he wanted. He’d spend the rest of his life on his knees in front of her if she asked. As long as she looked at him the way she was, heart in her eyes, and that dimple puckering her cheek, he’d be there. As long as she had that damp patch growing on her panties, he’d live on his knees if she asked.
Elliot ran his palms up her legs, smooth and soft, stopping only when he reached the incredible barrier between them. His thumbs slid underneath and with no effort at all, he pulled them down along with his hands. Her hand braced on his shoulder and her heat was like a brand. It may as well have said Julia’s because when she touched him, used him to hold her up, that was how he felt. Like he was utterly and completely hers.
He kissed her from the soft skin under her belly button, all the way down to the silky flesh of her thighs, then directly to the softer, silkier place between. He buried his face in her, breathing her in as he buried his tongue, searching for the spot he knew would make her dissolve. And even when she did, he stayed, teasing and torturing her, driving her back up again until he was the one on the edge, teetering on the brink of total meltdown.
Her fingers gripped his hair; heedless and with total abandon, words that made no sense fell from her lips. She was murmuring, a seductive chant of encouragement, while at the same time, she begged for mercy. One of her thighs quivered against his neck, the muscles having lost all control. He knew exactly how they felt, he too had lost all control, but he stayed until she pushed him away, her breath heaving.
He lifted her to the counter, then lost his pants, using his hands to shove her back until he could climb on top of her. His foot knocked into a plate, sending it crashing to the floor and he barely heard it, a roll of paper towels tumbled off, leaving a long trail behind it, and he didn’t bother with it. Sliding into Julia was a religious experience. Looking into eyes that were dreamy and lost was a surrender he was happy to relinquish.
“Elliot,” she whispered, arching her back and exposing her throat.
He licked her neck, tasting her skin and feeling the pulsing life beneath his tongue. He thrust into her, faster and harder because he wanted to fill her but also because he couldn’t help himself. The more he filled her, the harder he pleased her, the closer s
he’d stay, and, Holy God, did he want her to stay.
He filled her until there was nothing left of him on the outside, until every breath she took was Elliot Williams and a part of him lived inside of her. He rocked into her, urgently, straining and rigid until he felt her quiver around him. Until her fingernails tore into his skin and her heels dug into his backside. Until she cried out his name and he finally poured everything he had, everything he was, inside of her.
Making love, Elliot thought.
That was making love.
Julia couldn’t have imagined that going much better. In her heart, she’d known Elliot would understand when she told him what she’d been doing, but she’d needed to take that step in therapy on her own. She’d needed to know that she could get there and take her future in her hands. It had been empowering and liberating.
She lay on her stomach, hands under her chin, looking out the window of Elliot’s bedroom at the water of the lake. Elliot shifted behind her, surrounding her with his warmth, and placed a gentle kiss on her shoulder.
“I’ve missed you,” he told her. “You’ve been here but not really here.”
“I know,” she admitted. “I’m sorry.”
He shook his head. “Don’t be sorry. I get it. Just don’t cut me out, Shorty. Don’t let me stand on the sidelines when I could be part of your team.”
“Sometimes I have to stand on my own.”
“No, you don’t,” he argued, cupping the side of her face. “I already told you I’m here to help you stand when you need me. Use me, Julia. Use me if you need to but don’t cut me out.”
“I won’t,” she promised. “Not ever.”
16
Elliot woke the next morning to five annoyingly insistent texts from his brother Cole. He wanted Julia back at her house for the big closet reveal, had been planning on showing her when she got back from the city the night before.
That plan had gone long and far out the window once he’d gotten her clothes off, and he didn’t have a single regret. In fact, all he had to do was close his eyes and see her standing in his kitchen, wearing nothing but her bra and underwear—that might change how he saw his kitchen from now until the end of time. The taste of her, sweet and delicate, was a craving he itched to satisfy.
“You’re getting hard again,” Julia murmured, her backside pressed against his lap as they spooned, her eyes still closed.
“I was just thinking about licking you until you screamed again. It’s my new favorite hobby.” He ran a hand down her side and over her smooth hip, dipping forward, closer to where he wanted to touch her.
She let out a soft moan and opened for him, like she always did. It wasn’t frantic or blindingly intense, not like it had been the night before. This was slow and deliberate, warmly intoxicating in its languid and lazy pace. It was long, unhurried strokes and contented touches, soothing as they were arousing. Julia was stretched out underneath him, and their skin touched from stem to stern and everywhere in between.
Long moments later, still inside her, Elliot murmured into her neck. “My brother texted earlier and requested that I bring you home immediately. No dilly-dallying, he instructed.”
“I don’t think you follow instructions very well,” she whispered back, somewhere between relaxed and back asleep.
“No,” he admitted. “No, I don’t. But I know if I don’t get you over there, he’ll end up coming here looking for you and that’s the last thing I want.” He reluctantly extricated himself from her and pulled her out of bed. She was pliant in his arms, a rag-doll that didn’t want to move. He quickly flipped her over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry, making her squeak in surprise. With a hand on her butt, he shouldered her into the bathroom.
“Shower,” he said firmly, then narrowed his eyes at her. “And keep your hands to yourself or we’ll never get out of here.”
He held in a laugh when she looked offended it his accusation, sliding the curtain shut behind him.
They had filled her closet with her personal belongings and waited on pins and needles for her reaction. Every request from her had been so specific on what she wanted, and Elliot hoped like hell they got it right.
He and his brothers lined the hall, all wearing matching expressions of apprehension as Kelsey brought in a blindfolded Julia to see the finished results. When there was nothing but silence, they cast each other worried glances. Cole widened his eyes and sent a look to Elliot, Tucker nodding as if he agreed with Cole’s gesture.
They wanted him to see what was going on. With a roll of his eyes, he peeked around the corner and pulled his head back out again. Kelsey stood stock still, her back to the closet, wiping tears from her eyes, her hand in Julia’s. Julia looked wide-eyed and shocked, but not necessarily upset.
Elliot just shrugged at his brothers. If they wanted to know what was going on in there, they would have to check it out for themselves. Hesitantly, they both shuffled into the closet, Elliot on their heels.
Julia stood in the center, running her hand along the granite island, taking in the grandeur of the room. Her eyes were red and she had tears in her eyes.
She held a hand up, holding Cole back when he would have gone to her.
“I, uh—” her voice was choked with emotion. “This is amazing.”
“It is what you wanted, right?” Cole asked warily.
She nodded. “I just told Kelsey,” she paused to collect herself. “You guys are my best friends. I got a lot more than what I asked for when I hired you.”
Elliot said nothing when Cole embraced Julia, letting them have their moment of friendship before Tucker took his. If it hadn’t been for Cole and this damn closet or Tucker and his fascination with her computer program, Elliot never would have met Julia Hawkins, and he couldn’t imagine where he’d be now without her.
May and June passed in a blur of therapy for Julia, and her big kitchen remodel. Elliot and his brothers worked hard, making every aspect of the kitchen what she wanted it to be—now that her therapy had begun and she was hopeful about her recovery, and she’d tweaked some of the plans to include more appliances and more cooking space. It had proven an interesting road for all of them and they’d all sampled the things Julia had attempted making. She’d been encouraged by seeing recipes more like mathematical equations and less like unknown entities. Some things worked well and she flushed, embarrassed under their praise. Some things didn’t work so well, but she never took it to heart. She just kept trying.
To have her tell it, she still had a lot of work to do, but Elliot thought she had already improved in leaps and bounds. Her energy levels had risen and she’d gained a little weight, and overall seemed happier.
Happy for Julia, Elliot had realized, came in a few different forms. One of them was spending money. A lot of money.
She’d taken to ordering him clothes which he wanted to be annoyed with because no one had bought him clothes in years, but he secretly enjoyed it. Not only did she buy him the good stuff but it was one less thing he had to worry about. He drew the line, however, when she’d tried to buy him new furniture for his cabin. Not only had it crossed a line, trying to take out his vintage plaid couch, but she’d tried to replace it with something ugly and modern.
They’d argued about and Julia had turned pink from her cheeks to the tips of her ears, and he’d loved every glorious second of it. He’d shown her then why he kept that plaid couch, laid her out on the thing, and they’d sunk into it like it was a pillow. She hadn’t complained then, but she also hadn’t dropped the search for a new couch.
She bought herself a new car, claiming the Audi was old.
It had less than five thousand miles on it, was in mint condition, and she’d just made a phone call and bought a new one, then offered to buy him a new truck when he’d questioned her about it. That kind of lifestyle was all new to him and he tried to hang back and let her do her thing, but as they drove to his cousin’s wedding in Rhode Island in her new fucking Jaguar, he felt like he had to say s
omething.
“You know, I know you’ve got this whole unlimited funds thing going on, but don’t you think maybe you should slow down?”
She looked at him from the passenger seat, because she didn’t really like to drive. His knuckles tightened on the wheel as he drove the stupidly expensive car she didn’t like to drive.
“Slow down on what?” she asked, no hint of offense or anger in her voice.
“Spending money,” he said, spelling it out for her. “You know, none of us need you to buy us new cars or furniture.”
“I only tried to buy you a car and furniture,” she pointed out.
“I don’t need you to buy me those things,” he corrected.
“No one needs those things,” she agreed, turning in her seat. “But if I can afford them and want to give you a gift, why wouldn’t you want to take it?”
He peeked at her again and her eyebrows were bunched down as she waited for his answer.
“It’s not that I don’t want to take them,” he hedged. “I just want to buy them for myself.”
“So, it’s about your pride?” she reasoned.
Elliot sighed. “A little.”
Julia nodded. “Okay.”
“You also shouldn’t just buy things for people. You don’t want to get in a position where you’re trying to buy people.”
“People aren’t for sale.”
“That’s not what I mean and you know it,” he said. “People shouldn’t expect you to do things for them.”
“Did you expect me to buy you something?”
His shoulders dropped with frustration. “No.”
“I don’t understand,” she said, looking away, turning away from him completely.
“I don’t want you to pay my way,” he explained. “I like that you can take care of yourself and I want you to know that I can take care of myself. I don’t need extravagant gifts from you, Julia. I’m a simple guy.”
She glanced back at him, almost sheepish. “So, I shouldn’t look at buying an island in the Caribbean?”
Elliot: The Williams Brothers Page 21