Untwist

by Coopmans, Kathy

  “Do you remember what you said to me that day? I do. You said, ‘I don’t know who you are, sir. You appear to be about the same height as my daughter, you kind of sound like her too. But whoever you are, you don’t belong to me. You see, my daughter, she’s a princess with long black hair and these big blue eyes that melt my heart whenever she laughs. She isn’t allowed to date until she’s thirty either. Have you seen my little girl?’”

  I laugh, recalling how he started running around the house hollering my name.

  I laughed really hard that day. So hard, I fell to the floor in a fit of giggles and laughing tears.

  “Then you squatted down, tipped up my chin and said, ‘Oh, thank God. There she is — my pretty little girl. One of these days you’ll make a beautiful bride just like your mother was. Although, I’m not sure there’s a man out there who’s good enough for my daughter. If there is, he’ll move to the end of the earth to make you happy. Until then, I’m the only man you are supposed to love, young lady. Now come here, bluebonnet, and give your dad some love.’ Then you picked me up and tickled me.”

  I had no idea what he meant about moving to the end of the earth. I didn’t want to move anywhere. I loved Galveston. Loved how it didn’t take long to get to Houston. The big city I would call it.

  I get it all now. That deep-seeded love that before you know what’s happening, it takes root and grows into something beautiful.

  Logan and I might have started backward as we talked about before. We’ve progressed forward, grew quickly and as much as I’m going to miss Renita and Norah, it’s time for me to spread my wings and live.

  “Anyway, I met someone; his name is Logan. You were wrong, Dad. There is a man good enough for me.” I tell him everything there is about Logan, leaving out all the ugly details of both our lives that led us to where we are today. “I’m doing something out of the ordinary for me, Dad. I’m going to move here and live with Logan. Hasty or not, it feels so damn right.” I lift my knees and rest my chin on my hands.

  “I have your guns and Mom’s wedding dress, lots of her clothes too. And he bought me our house.” I don’t tell him about the letter. That’s between my mother and me, although I can’t help but wonder if she told him about it.

  I bring him up-to-date about Renita and Norah. I tell him how I’m going to miss them and everyone else, and an hour later, I get to my feet. “I’ll be back in a week or so, Dad.”

  As I make my way to the truck, I swear I hear my father say, “You were never lost princess, you were just waiting for the right man to find you.”

  Chapter 16

  Logan

  Twirling the ring in my hand, I take turns between admiring the beauty of it and watching Ellie stand knee-deep in the water.

  Shortly after she returned home from visiting her parents, we took off so she could show me some of her favorite places between here and Houston. I found out that just like she hasn’t seen snow, she’s never been to a pro football game. That conversation led into how big of a fan her father was. I scored us two tickets to the season opener while she ran into a candy store to buy an assortment of old-fashioned candy for Lexi.

  Earlier when I caught her reaction when we stepped onto the pier and how her face lit up when she started telling me stories about the many times she went there, and how she couldn’t wait to bring Lexi, I knew for sure this is the place for Ellie to be. Knowing Ellie as I do, I see why she loves the area. It makes you feel like a kid. Carefree. Until today, the only other time I felt that way was before my dad died.

  Funny how we don’t think about the things we’re missing out of life until it’s right there smack in front of your face.

  Out of greed, revenge and a habit that wore me down, I missed out on what life is all about.

  Living, learning, loving, and laughing.

  Pretty sure I’m going to settle into it just fine. That is if I can find the courage buried beneath the nerves that are trying to wrap around my throat to do the one thing that will assure the incredible woman who turned my life around is mine for life.

  My smile grows, right along with those damn nerves that are now stealing the breath from my lungs as I take her in. All Ellie’s doing is standing there, the breeze from the ocean whipping those locks around and I can feel her peace from here.

  I’ve been waiting for this moment all day to be alone on the beach with her, had this whole speech of how she’s changed me, unmanned me in a way that no other woman could do. Not that watching her finally re-visit the one place she’d been dying to go to was a hardship, far from it. But watching her then and watching her now has me not only losing the words but also acknowledging how short life truly is. How my father was right when he said someday I’d want children. How he wanted me happy, and I could do whatever I wanted to do.

  I knew I was in love with Ellie, right here is when I realize how much. Instead of thinking about it I’m going to tell her if I can get my nerves to calm the hell down so I can ask the most important question I will ever ask in my life.

  The waves pick up, crashing against the shore, but it’s Ellie’s words from last night when she said she wanted to live here with me that I hear.

  It’s the hitch of her breath when I’m near, the way she’s adjusted to being here as if she’s never left. That smile on her face that gets me every damn time she flashes it my way, the way she trusts me, loves me regardless of the things I’ve done, and so much more, I’d sit here long into the night telling myself that placing this ring on her finger is right.

  I take in a deep breath and try swallowing my nerves with it. All the little bastards do is stir my stomach.

  I had a purpose in life, a plan for years to open a business of my own. I knew I’d somehow find a way to set it in motion, and now I had a reason. One I never thought I’d get the chance to have.

  Ellie Mae Wynn is my reason, and regardless if we’ve only known one another for a few months, she needs to be my wife.

  My cock jerks as she jumps back to avoid a wave, her ass jutting out as she bends over and squeals out a laugh. All I can do is smile; the woman has been laughing like that all day. I’ve found it’s one of my favorite things about Ellie. It’s short-lived when another wave has her losing balance, and she falls on her ass.

  “Well shit, I forgot how those suckers could sneak up on you.”

  “Just like you did on me, serves you right.” I laugh. It’s loud and feels so damn good coming out of me.

  When her head shoots my direction, and the wind lifts her hair, for a single moment, I lose the tightness from my nerves in my chest. It all comes rushing back when Ellie brings her left hand up, pushes her wet hair out of her eyes, and captures me in the depths of her bright blues.

  Goner. A sucker for a woman I’ll spend the rest of my life bowing at her feet. That thought has me internally shaking my head, tugging at the corners of my mouth.

  How funny it is that I thought I’d get Ellie to bow at my feet when one defiant word out of her mouth, I knew it would be the other way around.

  That profound connection sizzles and snaps — her drawing me in with just a simple look, telling me I have someone who loves me for the man I am and not what I can give her causes every part of me to come alive.

  “You have it all wrong, mister. You snuck up on me.”

  More laughter pours out of me — free and unbound — gratitude with every heave of my chest.

  “You think that’s funny, do you? I’ll show you funny? I’ll show you just how sneaky I can be.” There’s a devious smirk on her face when she gets to her feet.

  “What are you going to do? Toss me into the water? You might be a tough woman; you aren’t that tough, baby.”

  “Nope. I have something else on my mind; you’ll have to wait and see.”

  My heart threatens to jump out of my chest with how lucky I am.

  Placing the ring on my pinky, I get lost in the sway of her hips, her nipples showing through her drenched shirt as she makes her way
toward me, her smile reaching to her mischief-filled eyes.

  Damn, she is something else — my reason, my life, along with the best choice I’ve ever made. A decision that made several significant changes in both our lives.

  Life-altering.

  For minutes, I sit while she stands dripping wet in front of me, loving how her smile increases and heat flares in her eyes while she roams my face. My bare chest. My arms.

  I’m getting harder by the second.

  My plan about pushing onto my knees, taking hold of her hand and asking her to marry me the right way blows sky high when she swipes her tongue seductively across her bottom lip. It soars over the ocean when her eyes land on my crotch. Her dark lashes fluttering. Once she bites the corner of her mouth, I lose my ever-loving mind.

  Momentarily, the sneaky little vixen has tied my tongue.

  “Keep looking at me like that, and I’ll take you into the house and rattle the windows harder than the night we met. There won’t be anything funny about it, Ellie. I will fuck you until you scream.”

  A sharp breath escapes Ellie’s mouth. Her eyes go wide, and her hands rest on her hips before a throaty laugh makes my dick strain against my zipper releases from that sassy little mouth. It also has me relishing in how happy she truly is. It radiates off her like a beam of light to the soul. It’s as bewitching as the way she looks at me with so much love that I won’t ever tire of it.

  Her eyes are sincere, but they are also blazing with desire.

  Straight pin-up version of sex is what she is. Earth-shattering sex. A little rough with a whole lot of meaning.

  Torture. Jesus. H. Christ.

  Damn, the way she’s looking at me like she wants to rip my clothes off and straddle me has me leaning back and stretching out my legs.

  “I don’t think so; you can make me scream right here. I thought you wanted to have sex in the ocean?”

  Well, fuck me. Not only has this sudden turn snuck up on me. Ellie has beaten me at being the master of seduction. Both turn me on like an uncivilized savage.

  She doesn’t wait for me to answer. Not my seductive woman, she unties the knot at her waist, fingers slowly unbuttoning her shirt while my eyes follow her every move.

  Sweet Mother of God.

  It takes everything in me not to get up and touch those lush curves. The urge to do so has me burying my hands in the sand.

  “Is that right?” If I get her naked in that water and see the moonlight shining down on her body, I’ll be placing this ring on her finger while I’m buried balls deep.

  That is not how I want to propose.

  “Yes.” She lifts her brows in a challenge, and I gulp when the shirt drops to the sand. Nipples hard as diamonds show through a white lacy bra. Rivulets of water drip from her hair, down her chest, stomach, and legs. If I thought she was a goddess last night, she’s an angel with a dirty mind drenched in white tonight.

  Fuck.

  A few months ago, her standing in front of me with confidence when she didn’t think she was enough would have shocked the hell out of me. Now, nothing she does or says surprises me.

  Sureness. She’s basking in it. And that is a turn-on like no other.

  I can smell her hunger for me from here. I inhale deep, as I let it fill my senses, seep into my blood. I want to both give Ellie what she wants and hold back right now.

  Reaching down, she pops open the button on her white shorts, and slowly, inch by inch, she peels them down her legs, and then she bends forward, that hair blocking my view of what I’m salivating to see.

  By the time she works them to her ankles, steps out of them, and lifts her head, my restraint is gone.

  “My God, Ellie.”

  She stands in front of me naked. Sinful. Radiant in the soft light from the moon.

  I don’t know whether to bow at her feet or weep.

  Appreciate and admire. I do just that, but I don’t do it by roaming my gaze over her body. I do it by latching onto her eyes.

  Wide, trusting eyes stare back at me.

  Impaling my soul.

  She owns it.

  I press onto my knees, kneeling in front of her, wrap my hands around her ankles, making sure my pinky doesn’t touch, and I run my hands up her wet legs until I reach the curve of her ass.

  Palming it, I look up into the deep sea of her blue eyes. Christ, how I desperately want to strip out of my shorts, capture her by the waist, bring her onto my lap and thrust into her while I bury my face in her hair. Twice last night I was buried inside her snug pussy, and once in the shower this morning and I still want more.

  But I’m doing this right even if she’s naked and wanting and waiting.

  “I love you, Logan. Everything about you. When I walked into the room and realized those boxes contained things that belonged to my parents, the word everything came to my mind. That word connects to you. You are everything to me. All I want is you.”

  I pause, the air in my lungs punching as it looks for a way to get out. Every time I hear her say she loves me, it untwists me in a way I can’t explain if my life depended on it. Her saying I’m everything makes those words mean so much more.

  Briefly contemplating how I want to do what I’ve thought about doing for days, I decide easy enough this is who I am. Who we are. A woman with a tragic past that frightened her away from sex and a man who had sex with strangers because he was forced and threatened by a woman who lost herself a long time ago. That forcedness led to greed, but somewhere through it all, Ellie and I remained joined. Unknowingly to her.

  Ellie deserves a better proposal than what’s rolling through my mind right now, but she wouldn’t want it done any other way.

  Pulling away so I can watch her unravel, I stand and shuck out of my shorts; my hands go right back to touching her, this time I tag her by the waist and pull her onto my lap. Those silky smooth legs of hers wrap around my waist. Her warm pussy grinding against my cock.

  I inch my way around the curve of her hip, her trembling thigh and I revel. Fuck, do I ever bask in the way she looks at me just like the words that are stuck in my throat. She’s gazing at me as if I’m every damn thing to her.

  I love the way she moans, her body heating right up in an instant, liquefying as quickly as butter does in a matter of seconds when I skim my fingers toward her center.

  “You are everything to me too, and I want you in all the ways a man wants a woman, Ellie. Right now though, all I want.” I drop my head, running my nose up the side of hers as I inch closer and closer to warm heat between her thighs. “Is you dripping on my fingers, your chest heaving, my mouth over the top of yours to swallow those sexy as hell noises you make as you come.” I thrust up just a little, and when my fingers reach her pussy, I tease as I run two fingers down her slit slowly.

  A sigh along with my name comes out of her mouth, and she grabs hard at my waist to steady herself.

  I tease her mercilessly, her wetness drawing that itch out of me to plunge them deep inside of her, but I wait, that old need inside of me winning out to hear her beg.

  “Touch me, please,” she pants as I drag my smiling lips across the silky flesh of her shoulder, and sink my teeth into her collarbone as I apply pressure to her clit.

  “Oh, I’m going to do more than touch you. I’m going to tumble you over the edge, and you’re going to give me the orgasm your body is screaming you want. Spread those legs a little wider for me, baby. Let me give you what you need.”

  Her hands go to my biceps, cinching down as she spreads enough for me to drive my fingers in and out of her sweet body, fucking her slow and hungrily. Enticing moans out of her that I seize with my mouth. I fuck her with my fingers, wishing it were my dick inside of her instead.

  I’m fucking wrecked over her. Utterly wrecked.

  I can’t wait to make her my wife.

  Chapter 17

  Ellie

  Pleasure winds up fast. All thoughts of the fun we had today are long gone as Logan brings me down and has me s
traddle him on the blanket we brought from the house after we stood at the water’s edge and watched the sunset.

  With all that has happened, I’d lost track of the days. I didn’t realize it was Sunday until I went looking for flowers for my parents’ graves and the first flower shop I went to had a ‘Closed on Sunday’ sign hanging in the window.

  Sunday nights the pier shoots off a spectacular firework display. So we decided to sit here and wait them out.

  I’m glad we did.

  A whimper escapes my mouth when I look down to where we’re still connected. Logan’s big hand is cupping my mound, two fingers inside me, thumb circling in languid circles over my clit. Eagerness shouts in my veins as I grind down and move my hips in a silent plea for him to stop teasing and give me what I need.

  Need.

  It’s true. I needed Logan. He’d become a part of me I couldn’t imagine living without, filling my heart when it was empty for so, so long.

  Desire, respect, and love, it all fuses into this enraptured moment in time for us. There’s something different about the way he’s touching me though. He’s still dominating my body, controlling it and giving me the roughness I love, but at the same time, he’s gentle too. I can’t explain it; I only know I love it as much as I love all the sides of this man.

  “I fucking love your body, Ellie. The way it reacts when I’m near, the way your heart picks up speed, causing the pulse in your neck to become visible. There’s no denying you want me, no fake bone in your body. That’s only a portion of the many reasons why I love you.”

  I part my lips to say something, but when his free hand palms a butt cheek and his fingers trace over the still tender scars, I internally gasp. They’ll be there for life. Another reminder of what I went through. A horrible, unreturnable gift left by the devil’s spawn. It’s with what I endured that I met Logan, and even though I will never have to go through hell again, it led me to him.

  “Love this ass, going to want it again soon.”

  He groans. I become impossibly drenched.