The Blank Canvas (Apartment #2)

by Amanda Black

  They sat at the small, informal table in the kitchen, talking easily as they ate. Ethan was amazed by how comfortable the two women seemed to be together, laughing and sharing more in thirty minutes than Rachel had with his mother in ten years. Watching them like that only served to drive home a fact he’d recently learned to accept: Lily belonged there, in every aspect of his life.

  When they were finished with lunch, Barbara didn’t linger. She thanked Lily again for visiting and made her promise to return soon, then excused herself, claiming that she had some errands to run in the Cities for the day and that she would be back later. He hadn’t even asked her to leave, but when she hugged Lily one more time, she looked at him over her shoulder and winked.

  Leave it to his mother to be the best wingman he’d ever had.

  As soon as they were alone, Ethan grabbed her laundry basket again and headed toward the stairs to the basement. Lily followed closely behind him, reclaiming her dirty clothes once they were standing in front of the washing machine. She sorted them quickly into two loads and threw the darks in first, turning to face him after she was done.

  “Okay, that should be almost an hour before this load is ready to go in the dryer. What do we do now?”

  Ethan smirked knowingly. “That depends on which game you want to lose first.” He turned around and disappeared into the darkness behind them, flipping on the light switch to reveal the enormous rec room. “You remember this room, don’t you?”

  “Well, I certainly remember the pinball machine,” she choked out, already turning a deep shade of red.

  His smirk bloomed into a full-on wicked smile. “Yeah… if I remember correctly, I was just about to hit the high score before Maggie interrupted us.”

  “Uh, no!” she huffed. “You weren’t about to hit anything, thank you very much!”

  “I think we remember things differently.”

  “What are you talking about? Your entire family was upstairs! There is no way I would’ve let it get that far.”

  “Maybe not intentionally,” he teased, “but I don’t think either one of us had our wits about us that day.”

  Lily thought for a moment and sighed. “Alright, I’ll grant you that. Now stop being so smug and get over here so I can kick your ass at pool.”

  “Awful sure of yourself, my dear.”

  “I’m pretty not bad,” she smiled.

  “Well I’ve also been known to be pretty not bad,” he replied as he grabbed two cues from the rack on the wall.

  She walked up to him slowly, reaching out and wrapping her fingers around the cue that he held out to her. “And I’ve been known to play dirty,” she whispered, stroking her hand up the long, smooth shaft a few times while licking her lips seductively.

  Ignoring the twitching in his pants, Ethan took a deep breath and smirked again. “Two can play that game, baby.”

  “Then rack ‘em up.”

  What followed next was the most sexually tense game of pool in the history of rec rooms.

  Every time Lily took a shot, she made sure to lean way over, strategically displaying her ample cleavage right in front of a nearly drooling Ethan. She would then slide the cue back and forth between her fingers, looking up at him through her lashes as she did so. Whenever she had to take a shot from close to where he was standing, she would make a show of leaning over slowly and sticking her ass out, never failing to look back over her shoulder before striking the ball.

  To say that Ethan was distracted would be an enormous understatement. However, he wasn’t completely unarmed in their little game. Rather than trying to distract her during his own shots like she was doing, he would wait and make his move while she took hers. When she would lean over with her cleavage on display, he began meeting her gaze with his smoldering jade eyes, licking his lips and adjusting the now prominent bulge in his jeans.

  While she was visibly affecting him with her tricks, his were clearly working as well. Her shots grew increasingly sloppier the more obvious his arousal became. When she bent over in front of him again, he closed the distance until he was leaning over her back, whispering tips into her ear.

  She missed the ball altogether, and he gently placed his hands over hers and guided her, brushing his lips against the outer shell of her ear as he breathed, “Like this.” And then he proceeded to gently rub himself against her backside as they followed through the shot, causing Lily to moan and throw her head back, squeezing her eyes shut against the sudden pleasure of feeling him so close again.

  He stilled his movements, trying to decide through his haze of arousal if he should take advantage of the situation or back away quickly to stop things from going any farther.

  Lily chose for him.

  She threw the cue down on the table and brought her hands up behind his head, effectively trapping him against her. She leaned back into him, rubbing her bottom against his painful erection as she pulled his mouth down to her neck. Between her luscious scent and the extreme pleasure of feeling her grinding back against him, Ethan was quickly drunk with desire.

  He parted his lips and left wet kisses along her neck, punctuated by soft nips with his teeth. Her groaning in his ear only fueled his desire, causing him to buck his hips against her more fully. He reached his hands around the front of her, sliding them under her shirt and anchoring her with one large hand pressed against the soft flesh of her stomach. The other hand had a mind of its own, roaming higher until he was cupping one of her breasts, squeezing it roughly when he felt her nipple pebbling up under his palm.

  She gasped loudly and spun around in his arms, pressing herself against the front of him as his hands slid down to grip her ass. Their mouths met frantically, each of their tongues fighting as they swallowed each other’s groans of need. Ethan desperately wanted to touch her everywhere at once, so he lifted her up by her backside and sat her down on the edge of the table.

  Positioning himself between her legs, he growled against her lips when she wound them around his waist eagerly. It felt like home to have her wrapped around him again, even through all of their clothes. He suddenly needed her to know just how right it felt to be back with her, both physically and emotionally, where he had so badly needed to be. He reached up to hold her face and pulled back so that he could stare into her heavy-lidded eyes.

  “I love you, Lily,” he whispered, surprised at how easy it was to say now that he was certain it was true.

  “I love you too, Ethan,” she smiled, and he felt a jolt of elation rip through his chest. “Can we please keep kissing this time, though?” she panted, glancing between his eyes and his lips.

  “Yes, my beautiful girl,” he chuckled.

  “Oh, thank God!” She pulled him back to her lips, igniting a whole new kissing frenzy. Shoving her hands into his hair, she yanked and pulled at it as she sucked on his lips and tongue. He moaned deeply, wondering if his eyes might completely roll back into his head at some point from a pleasure overdose.

  When Lily needed more, she began to lean backwards, pulling him down with her. Ethan followed happily, climbing onto the table on his knees as she continued to pull him down on top of her, sliding farther back to allow him room. When he finally settled the full weight of his body on hers she cried out, wrapping her arms and legs around him and holding him tight, as if she was afraid he could disappear at any moment.

  He slid her shirt up high enough to expose her black lace bra, and with a hungry groan he lowered his head and sucked on her swollen peaks through the material. His hands began gripping and squeezing them as he feasted, and before long he had to yank the material down and taste her sweet flesh. The moment the hot wetness of his mouth came in contact with her aching nipples she almost wept, and the intensity of it caused her to buck her hips wildly underneath him.

  They both felt it at the same time then, the first full contact of his straining erection against her heated sex. They stopped moving and locked eyes, hers questioning and his conflicted. After only a few seconds he smiled again,
rocking his hips more fully into her. They both cried out that time, and the frantic way she was clutching at his back only drove him on.

  He resumed his position at her breasts, alternating between squeezing, sucking, and licking. Lily began to moan incoherent words and phrases, sinking her fingers into his hair again as they continued to move together, the feel of their clothing creating a new and interesting friction between them. Each new thrust of his hardness against her made her see stars and fireworks when she closed her eyes, and they eventually set up a steady rhythm that kept him rubbing exactly where she needed him.

  “You’re so fucking beautiful,” he groaned against her flesh before he kissed it again. “Everything about you feels so perfect!”

  “Oh God,” she panted, her breath shaking as she felt herself winding tight like a spring, climbing higher and higher and loving every moment of it because he was with her again. “I missed you,” she cried out, on the verge of something explosive. “I missed you so much!”

  “Never again,” he groaned out, moving up to look her in the eye, his thrusting becoming more erratic as his release neared. “You’ll never be without me again.” He kissed her deeply, pouring everything he was feeling into it, begging her with his body to feel what was in his heart.

  “Oh… oh God, I’m right there,” she moaned when their lips broke apart, causing him to speed up his movements and press himself more firmly against her.

  “Yes, baby,” he gasped between thrusts. “Yes… let me hear you,” he begged. There was so much warm, wet heat between their bodies that it felt amazing, and he was barely hanging on.

  When the tightly coiled spring finally snapped inside her, Lily threw her head back and wailed, her entire body spasming beneath him. The feral beauty of her climax triggered his own, and Ethan buried his face in her neck and began rambling so fast that she barely understood him.

  “I love you so much! I love you, I love you, I love you, oh fuck!” His hips jerked a few last times before he collapsed, laying his head on her rumpled shirt and still-exposed chest.

  They lay there together like that for a few minutes in silence, Lily stroking his hair lovingly as he tenderly kissed the spot over her heart.

  “Was this… okay?” she finally asked him, hating to break the comfortable quiet in the room.

  “It was more than okay,” he whispered against her skin, sounding as if he could fall asleep at any second. “It was amazing.”

  “We didn’t go too far for you?” she asked, feeling guilty for provoking him now that the heat of the moment had passed.

  “No, I don’t think so. As much as I want to date you properly and get to know you all over again, we can’t exactly ignore this insane attraction between us. Things are bound to happen. I just don’t want that to be all it’s about any more, and I’m really trying to hold off a little longer before we make love.”

  “Aw… you called it making love,” she smiled. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you call it anything other than fucking.”

  “Well,” he explained, propping himself up on his elbow to look down at her. “I think there is raw, nasty, sweaty fucking, but I now know there is something on a deeper level that can be shared between two people when the time is right. I think we’ve even come close to it before without realizing what we had. Hopefully I’ll have the opportunity to do both with you so often we lose count. But the next time I’m inside you, I want to be making love to you.”

  “Why can’t we do that now?” she asked, pouting. “We both know how we feel about each other.”

  “Because in my mind, I haven’t earned it yet.”

  “But Ethan—”

  “Just listen,” he interrupted. “I know you have forgiven me, and for that I will be eternally grateful, but I haven’t completely forgiven myself.”

  “I don’t want to spend all our time together with you treating me like some delicate, fragile thing, putting me up on some pedestal.” Lily huffed. “I happened to like how things were before, at least physically. I just wanted us to get to know each other more and let each other into our real lives.”

  “Oh, don’t get me wrong,” he smiled. “There is way too much heat between us to ever become boring. I adored what we did too… but I need to find a way to balance out the hunger with the sweetness. I want to be in a real relationship and actually try to make it work. I’ve never really dated before. I’ve never had to try. To me, you’re worth it.”

  “Dammit,” she sighed.

  “What?”

  “Well, that was so damn beautiful I want to cry, and now all I want to do is throw you down and have my wicked way with you!”

  “You think I don’t want the same thing?”

  “We’re adults, dammit!” she pouted again. “If we want to have sex, we should be able to have sex.”

  “Normally I would agree with you, and that’s also why I know things are going to happen between us no matter what. I just really want to feel like I’ve deserved something for once in my life, and if I cave now I know I will always regret it.”

  “Alright,” she grumbled. “I guess I see your point. It’s just so easy to forget when you are on top of me like this.”

  “I know, baby,” he laughed, shifting to her side. “It’s going to be a struggle, but it will make it that much more worth it in the end.”

  “How long are we talking, here?”

  “That’s the hard part. There’s an actual event that I’m trying to set up, and I’m having trouble finalizing a date. Hopefully it won’t be too long.”

  “Will you tell me what it is?”

  “No, of course not! It’s a surprise.”

  “Will I like it?”

  “I really hope so,” he sighed.

  “Hey, look at me. If it’s something that you spent this much time and energy and sexual frustration on, I’m sure I’ll love it.”

  “Thanks,” he smiled, leaning down and kissing her softly. “Now, we should probably get cleaned up. I’m going to run up and change into a different pair of jeans. Things are starting to get a little… sticky,” he blushed.

  “Just bring those back down with you and I’ll throw them in my next load of laundry.”

  “Thanks, that would be great. I’ll see if I can find a spare pair of Maggie’s jeans in Eric’s room.” Ethan turned on the television for her before he left because she didn’t feel like playing any more games. When he returned less than fifteen minutes later, he tossed his dirty clothes in front of the washer and joined her on the couch. “Well, I couldn’t find any jeans. All she had were pajamas, so I grabbed you a pair of shorts. I figured that your clothes will be done drying before too long anyway, so you won’t need to wear these for very long.”

  “That’ll work, thanks.”

  “There’s a small bathroom over there if you want to go change, then you can throw the next load in.”

  Lily changed quickly and switched out the laundry, happy that all of her other jeans were going into the dryer and she’d be able to change back soon before Barbara saw her in Maggie’s shorts. She returned to sit by Ethan on the couch, feeling her heart soar when he comfortably wrapped his arm around her and pulled her against his side. When she snuggled against him even closer and rested her cheek on his shoulder, he leaned over and kissed the top of her head.

  “This is nice,” he sighed.

  “What, the Dukes of Hazzard marathon? I was going to ask if we could change it. I can only take so much unbuttoned beefcake.”

  “No,” he laughed. “Being together like this.” He handed her the remote. “Here, put on whatever you like. I can’t believe you aren’t feeling the good ole’ boys.”

  “Oh, I used to love this show when I was little. I had the hugest crush on Bo Duke. Now it’s kind of embarrassing when I think about it.”

  “I always loved Rosco and Flash.”

  “Oh, me too! I always wanted a basset hound that looked like Flash, but my mom would never let me have one.” She looked at him and t
hen back at the TV. “Funny, I would have thought you’d have been into Daisy.”

  “Oh, I never said I wasn’t,” he laughed. “Just look at those shorts!”

  “Okay, that’s enough of that,” Lily huffed, turning the channel quickly. “There, Top Chef. Not a single pair of shorty shorts in sight.”

  “True, but there’s always Padma Lakshmi’s post-pregnancy cleavage.”

  “Ugh!” She reached for the remote again and he laughed loudly, grabbing it out of her hand.

  “My God, you’re jealous! Of the TV!”

  “No I’m not,” she protested.

  “You totally are! That’s hilarious,” Ethan laughed even louder. “It’s damn adorable, actually.”

  “No, I’m not a jealous person. I don’t get jealous. All of my old boyfriends back in college thought I was the coolest girlfriend ever, because I can talk about how sexy women are and play ‘spot the falsies’ while watching porn.”

  “Spot the—? Wait, aren’t they pretty much all falsies?”

  “Yeah, but some of them are really cheap. You can see these nasty ripples and ridges when they move. That’s beside the point, anyway. The point is that I don’t get jealous.”

  “Hey, don’t be so defensive,” he chuckled, reaching around her and tickling her sides until she laughed. “It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. I think it’s kind of precious. Nobody’s ever been jealous over me, even if it’s just the TV.”

  “How is that possible?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Ethan… you’re painfully beautiful. Any woman who sees you must want you. How could someone not have gotten jealous over you before?”

  “You’re forgetting there was only Rachel. She liked the attention I got because having an attractive boyfriend reflected well on her. She cared less about me than what I brought her. So believe me when I say that it’s a refreshing change to have someone care.”

  “Well, it’s not like I’m going to shank the first girl who looks at you or anything. I just felt funny watching you ogle someone else.”