Inside Out

by Lauren Dane

  He knew exactly what he wanted, and it was right on the other side of the door.

  He heard music, her scratchy, cartoon-voiced humming and her steps as she moved around. He smiled as he knocked.

  When she opened the door, her gaze slid up his body and to his face, her lips curved into a smile he knew was just for him as she caught sight of the armful of flowers he carried. All as he stood there stunned. Her hair was tousled, like she’d just woken up and rolled from bed. Her eyes, normally gorgeous and often doe-wide, looked mysterious and smoky. The sweater molded to her breasts and down her waist to well-worn jeans.

  She looked good enough to taste. He’d developed some sort of physical addiction to her, to touching her now that he could after so many years of yearning.

  “Hello, Andrew. You look very handsome.” She managed to be sweet and come-hither all at once as he handed her the flowers.

  “Honey, whatever I am, it pales next to you.” He reached up, caressing the side of her neck, up the smooth silk of her skin into her hair. Many men had a thing for long hair, but he loved the sight of a woman’s neck, and hers was the ultimate aphrodisiac.

  “You look beautiful. Sexy.” He moved closer to her; she held her ground, looking up into his face. Without breaking his gaze away, he closed the door at his back. They stood alone in the quiet, small entry. She wore perfume, earthy and spicy. Interesting, he hadn’t noticed any perfume before. How could he have missed it?

  “I’ve never experienced anyone like you before,” she whispered.

  “How so, Red?” He kissed the tip of her nose because he could and because those freckles called to him.

  “No one has ...” She licked her lips. “You look at me, and I feel like I’ve had a glass of champagne or something. You make me drunk with, gah, I don’t know, your sexuality maybe, your presence. Whatever it is, you have it on at ten, and I can’t seem to get enough.”

  Her skin, so pale, sprinkled with ginger freckles; the curve of her cheeks, the lush pillow of her bottom lip, that red hair he was so in love with, that and her voice, the voice no one else on earth had, everything about Ella Tipton called to him. No one was like her. He wanted to laugh, but she’d just exposed herself in some sense, and he didn’t want her to hesitate to do so again.

  “I think that may have been the best compliment I’ve ever been given.” He dipped his head and kissed those lips, the wrapping on the flowers she held crinkled, their heady scent mixing with whatever perfume she wore and the heat rising from her skin.

  He groaned, the flowers stopping him from hauling her against his body. Frustrated by the reality that they would be expected at the pub by their friends. When all he wanted was to take her to her bed, undress her slowly and kiss every single inch of her body.

  She sucked his tongue, bringing his hips forward into the softness of her body. The fingers of her right hand dug into his left biceps, holding him in place as he plundered her mouth. Damn it, she tasted so good he never wanted to stop kissing her.

  Still, he did bring her the flowers, and he hadn’t gotten three steps into her place before he started smooching on her. He broke the kiss, resting his forehead against hers as he tried to get his breath—and his control—back.

  “I missed you yesterday. I tried to stop by the café, but my schedule was crazy all day long.” He followed her into the tiny kitchen, where she put the flowers, none the worse for wear, into a vase.

  “Well, I did see you today.”

  He liked the amusement in her voice.

  “Well sure. But not yesterday.”

  “As much as I like seeing you, I figured you were busy. Ben came in to give Erin a ride home, and he said you were taking your mom to a doctor’s appointment in the afternoon. Is she well?”

  “She’s fine, normal, pretty healthy. But the stress of this rift over Ben is hard on her. She’s having trouble sleeping and all that sort of thing.”

  Her smile softened, and she reached out slowly to cup his cheek. “I’m so sorry. I wish I could help.”

  She was helping, and she had no idea. Just the way she listened, the way she calmed him down and made him warm and happy was helping.

  “I really wish I could have you all to myself tonight.” He hadn’t been prone to blurting in a very long time, probably since he was a teenage boy.

  She grinned, ducking her head, the delicate pink of her blush rising up her neck and making his mouth water with the desire to kiss her just there, at the base of her hairline where he was sure she’d be very sensitive.

  He sighed. “But we have a date. They’re going to be in our business enough as it is. Imagine if we were late.”

  “Enough for what?”

  He exhaled slow, looking for his self-control. “Long enough to make it count.”

  The moments between them thickened, the energy between them heating. It felt good to be with her, good to have this back-and-forth, and the sexual tension made him as antsy as he’d been at sixteen. Just bursts of desire as he thought about her all day long. When they finally landed in bed—and he knew without a doubt they would—it would be something major.

  He held his arm out. “Come on, before I decide to take that invitation in your eyes.” They walked to his car, his arm around her shoulders.

  The drive to the pub wasn’t very long. Long enough for his car to smell of her, just lightly, almost as if he dreamed it up. By the time he parked the car near the pub, it had wended its way through him, exciting every part of him, body and mind.

  “Did you get a new perfume?” Again with the blurting. She smiled at him, amusement in her eyes.

  “No. Well, sort of. One of my new coworkers gave it to me. Her sister is some essential oils whiz. It’s got frangipani in it and something else, I can’t remember what just now. I thought it was lovely. Is it too much?”

  “Not at all. I love the way it smells. Warm. Sexy. Provocative.” He smiled slowly. “Did you put it on all your pressure points?”

  Her eyes went half-lidded. The long silence inflamed him and then made him nervous and the blurting thing seemed to need to return.

  “I’m so glad I can finally say all the stuff I’ve been thinking. You’re so sexy, and it’s driven me nuts. I just, god, I just don’t want to scare you or freak you out. Will you just, you know, give me the sign if I push a button or go too far? I’m torn every time I’m with you.” Now that he’d said it, he hoped like hell she took it the way he thought she would. He had this need to tell her what she did to him. He wasn’t used to that. Wasn’t used to being unsure about a woman. Brody had laughed when he confessed this to the guys. Had laughed and laughed and then said, “Welcome to being in love.”

  Cope was pretty sure that’s what it was. Love.

  She turned to face him better. Even in the dim of the car, through the gap in her coat, he saw the shadow of her nipple on her right breast as it pressed against the sweater.

  He licked his lips, imagining her nipple there, what she’d respond like. His cock ached, hardening against the zip of his jeans.

  “Torn how?”

  “I’m caught between this intense desire I have for you and wanting to protect you and take it slow.”

  “Oh.” She smiled, cocking her head. “Sometimes I don’t know what to say to you, Andrew.”

  God, she undid him.

  “I vote for honesty. I’m not going to judge you. I like all of you, Ella.”

  She swallowed, licking her lips and driving him even more crazy. “That’s a very nice thing to say. I . . . God!” She hit her thigh with her fist, and he took it, unfurling her fingers and laying a kiss on the heart of her palm.

  She gasped softly but didn’t take her hand away.

  “You don’t have to say anything. I don’t want you to feel like you’re being tested.” He looked up at her. “It’s just me.”

  “Okay, so don’t laugh. I don’t know if I’m doing this right! But since you voted, I will too. I vote, if it matters, for the former. Go with desire
. I like the way you make me feel when you get up in my space and flirt. No, not flirt, you”—she licked her lips—“you turn your sex up so high it makes me sweat. But in a good way. No one has ever wanted me like that. It’s ridiculously awesome.”

  He groaned, really wanting her to himself at that point. “Babe, you have no idea how much desire I’ve got pent up for you. I don’t want to scare you. I know it’s been a while, and you’ve only recently begun to have a more active social life and date.”

  “Andrew, you don’t scare me. Not in that way.” She paused, cocking her head to look him directly in the eyes. “Never in that way. But . . . you disturb me. You’re big and bold, and I’ve just never truly imagined anyone like you saying this stuff to me.” She laughed, lightning quick, catching her bottom lip between her teeth a moment. “Okay, well, I may have imagined it, but I never thought it would happen in real life. I don’t know how to say this right, but I really dig that you want me. No one has ever regarded me with this”—she waved her hand at him—“level of sexual intensity before. It’s ...” She lowered her voice. “It’s the most thrilling thing I’ve ever felt. It’s dirty but only in, like, the best sort of way. I’ve never felt dirty like that before.”

  Relieved and admittedly pleased, he leaned back, relaxing a bit. “Well, I can do dirty as long as you understand it’s the good kind.”

  Her laugh seemed to surprise her as much as it did him. She clapped a hand over her mouth, but he took it, laughing as well. Looking down, her hands in his, her fingers entwined with his, something inside him burst and filled him in a totally different way. She may not have felt that wanted before, but neither had he. He wasn’t just Cope with her; he was Andrew.

  What an odd moment; steeped with a lot of sexual energy, so much his cock ached, his balls crawled close to his body and every inch of his skin was hypersensitive to her. At the same time, it was sweet, old-fashioned in some sense, and he believed it was about Ella’s spirit more than anything.

  “I still want you to tell me if you’re bothered.” And he had to admit to himself, the idea that he could touch her more, talk to her more on a physical/sexual level greatly appealed to him.

  “You’re my friend, and I trust you. That you’d even worry about any of my past issues making me feel scared by your incredibly flattering attention only underlines how amazing you are. I promise you I’m not afraid of you. I may have some button pushed at some point—goodness knows I have a few of them—but if that happens, it won’t be your fault, and wow, I sound so creepy.”

  He started to speak, but she pressed her fingers against his lips.

  “What I’m trying to say is, I’m more than all right with the way you’re being. I like all the sexy stuff, and back to your original question, maybe you’ll find out later on. About the pressure points, I mean.”

  The top of his head nearly blew off at the idea of it. Of sliding his mouth along her neck, down in between the mounds of her breasts, the curve of her belly, south, past the desired valley of her pussy, to the backs of her knees perhaps.

  “It will be my pleasure to await that moment.”

  Quickly, he leaned in, kissed her hard and pulled back, getting out to open her car door to recover from a hard-on the size of Wisconsin.

  Cope opened her car door, and she took the hand he’d offered. He tried not to stare, it wasn’t that she looked so very different than she normally did, but he wasn’t normally her date either.

  It made a difference, he realized as he leaned down to kiss her again. His to touch at long last. Her arms wrapped around his neck, and she fit perfectly against his body. “Ella, I gotta tell you I like the way you feel on me.”

  She hesitated and then snuggled closer. He smiled against her skin.

  “I like it too.”

  He kissed her again, just a quick one, before spinning and escorting her through the front doors of the pub, her hand in his.

  10

  Ella was pretty sure her smile might have looked scary or maybe just goofy. Either way, she was so freaking happy, she didn’t care. He held her hand like she was his. While she’d been down that road, it was different with Cope. He didn’t own her the way Bill had. That she knew it, felt it and wasn’t freaked by this different version made her feel all well-adjusted and stuff.

  Or something like it.

  And she needed that feeling after her experience earlier in the day, needed to know she was capable of getting past the fragments of her past left inside her gut like jagged glass.

  Their friends had already gathered in their normal spot near the pool tables in the back where the booths were gargantuan. Elise grinned and waved, the sparkle of the diamond Brody had given her at their engagement party catching the light.

  Cope took her coat and hung it on the nearby rack with everyone else’s before sliding into the booth beside her.

  “Pizzas ordered. Beer should arrive momentarily.” Brody leaned back, his arm around Elise.

  “We were just ready to draw lots to see who’d play the first game. Erin is making some janky argument that since she’s pregnant she should automatically play first. I, of course, call bullshit on that.” Adrian rolled his eyes.

  “I am pregnant, mister! I’ll have you know my feet swell when I stand too long. The doctor even said so, smarty-pants.” The impact of this statement was undermined by Erin’s inability to deliver it without a snicker.

  “Then you’ll have sausage feet whether you play now or the next round. I’ll even haul a stool over for you so you can sit and watch between rounds. When it’s your turn, that is.”

  The server arrived with the beer, so the argument went away until everyone had filled their glasses.

  Except Erin, who was drinking water with a twist of lemon. She lazily poked at Adrian again. “Shouldn’t you be out cashing in on your rock star cred to pull some chicks?”

  “Plenty of time for that after I play pool. Great thing is, my rock star cred won’t evaporate by morning or anything.”

  “Children, please.” Brody sighed and grabbed the straws. “Longest is in first game. Winner keeps playing, other three drop out. And so on.”

  Ella shook her head when he gestured her way. “Oh no. I’ll just watch.”

  Cope nuzzled her temple. “Why?”

  “I totally suck at pool. But I don’t suck at eating pizza and drinking beer. So I’ll watch from here.”

  “How you gonna get better if you don’t play?” Adrian asked with a grin.

  “Who’s to say I want to get better at pool? Hmm? What if I just want to watch all you guys bend over so I can ogle your butts?”

  Elise laughed. “Put that way, I can truly see the appeal.”

  Ella was just content to just sit and chat, taking one long look at Andrew Copeland’s ass and then back to their group at the table.

  “So how have you been?” Adrian asked, sliding a huge slice of fully loaded pie onto his plate.

  “Since you saw me last this afternoon?” she teased.

  “Yeah, but Cope came in, and I didn’t get much of a chance to talk with you. He’s an Ella hog.” He took a measuring look at her. “How’s life?”

  “Um. I don’t know. Mainly the same as it was last week, or even last year. But totally different. Which makes no sense, but that’s the only way I can describe it.”

  “No, I get it. And good. I imagine if it wasn’t a good thing, you wouldn’t look so happy. When you first started at the café you were like this. And then it faded. Slowly so that I didn’t really see it until I’d come back from a tour and you were not the same.”

  “Something like that.”

  “No, I mean it. But you’ve been coming into focus over the last year especially. You’re blooming, and it’s beautiful.”

  She blinked back tears. “Thank you for that. It feels like each day I have that’s just normal is a win. And then I add in the other stuff. Good friends. Family. A good job.” She looked over to the pool table where Cope had just bent to take h
is shot. A lock of hair had fallen over his forehead, his biceps gloriously bulgy against the wool of his sweater. She smiled at him as he noticed her. He blew her a kiss and took the shot, making it.

  “That’s part of the way you glow.” Adrian spoke softly. “The two of you light up when you’re together.”

  “As I told Elise as she eagerly planned the wedding earlier tonight, it’s our first date. I like him. He likes me. I don’t know what else it is past that.”

  “Little liar.” Adrian smirked as he took a big bite of pizza. “You and Cope have been having foreplay for years now. More for him than you, at first anyway.”

  “Ew. Well, okay not ew, but what the heck did I miss?” Elise slid into the booth. “Foreplay for years?”

  Adrian laughed. “I was disagreeing with Ella that this was her first date with Cope.”

  “Oh that. Yes, I agree that they’ve been dancing around each other for years. Though Ella didn’t know it for some reason.”

  “Okay, hello, I am right here.” She took a bite of her pizza and looked back at Andrew, catching his gaze immediately because he’d been looking at her too.

  Cope moved to her, dropping a kiss on her forehead. “What’s that smile for?”

  “Just looking at you makes a girl happy, Andrew.”

  He grinned, a dimple showing just to the right of his mouth. “I’m at your service.”

  “Stop flirting and take your turn,” Ben called to his brother.

  “Hush, you. I’ve got something more important to do first.” He kissed her again, this time on the lips, and went back to the game.

  “Anyway,” she said, blushing madly as she returned her attention to Adrian, “it’s different. We know each other, yes, and there’s a level of trust between us that I don’t share with too many people. I haven’t dated someone in years. Years. Believe me when I say this is new.”

  “But good, right? ’Cause, honey, you’re giving off loopy happy like mad. There’s something major between you and Cope.” Adrian filled her glass as he spoke.

  “I don’t really know what it is beyond good, but yes, it feels major. Maybe just to me. But really good in any case.”