by J. M. Maurer
Eli lifts his head, his expression seemingly amused. “I’m happy I’ve pleased you, but are those lightning bolts and storm clouds on your pants?”
“Yup. You’d get a good laugh at all the nerdy products we created for the Department of Meteorology.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” he says, then surprises me when he lifts me up and positions me so my legs are draped over his. “Especially since you make easy work of going about turning nerdy into sexy.”
My cheeks heat through a smile as I lean my back against the armrest of the couch, feeling Eli move his fingers between my thighs. “People think it’s all about sexy chic. But honestly, it’s a lot of work pulling off sexy geek.”
Eli laughs. “Well, I love your brand of sexy geek. You’ll have to tell me where I can place a subscription for daily delivery.”
Shaking my head, I heat up even further, secretly loving Eli’s playfulness.
“Your mom must have put the tree up today while we were out,” he adds, tipping his head back toward the far corner.
I shift my gaze off Eli. The tree is as huge and beautiful as any other Mom has decorated for the holidays. I’m glad it’s there, but its beauty holds nothing in comparison to the man seated beside me.
“The way the lights sparkle in your eyes,” Eli’s soft tone draws my attention back to him, “it’s like a million stars are shining back at me. You’re a beautiful sight. I’m really glad you came up so we could spend some more time together.”
My core burns, and I know it won’t be long before the heat in my body is blazing out of control. “Mom has a flare for decorating and making ordinary things look beautiful.”
“Of course she does.” He deepens his gaze on me. “Though you are far from ordinary.”
Held captive by his stare, I catalogue every word he says. The heat between us is flaring up too fast. I need to slow things down.
Thinking quickly, and hoping a diversion will dampen my desires, I waggle my brows. With his full attention, I pick up the present and jostle it, and watch as Eli’s expression switches from serious to cheery.
“So, I can give this to you now, or I can put it under the tree for you to open up later. I know what I want, but you’re my guest. What would you like me to do?”
His pupils grow large and dark. He’s back to Mr. Sexy, and speaks with confidence while continuing his deliberate, sensual onslaught to my inner thighs. “Anything and everything your heart desires.”
My head swims with all sorts of ideas. Mainly, I want him. On the couch. On the floor. In front of the fireplace. At the desk in the library. In his bed. The exact location, I don’t care. With his eyes probing mine and his fingers skating along the soft fleece covering my skin, the pulsing between my thighs is definitely building. His fingers feel so good, moving up and down, sneaking ever so close to a part of my body that I’m beyond ready for him to claim.
Knowing where this is heading, I need to cool off, and quickly, but the hot liquid inside the carafe on the coffee table isn’t going to tame my desires. At a loss for how to handle myself under his mesmerizing touch, I decide to hand over the gift I brought him, thinking I might come down from the edge if I can manage to switch off the sexy thoughts running a loop inside my head.
Eli accepts the gift and thanks me with none other than a sultry grin; the seductive sight forces me to squeeze my thighs even tighter.
So much for my safe flight down from the edge.
Aroused even more, I nod to the present, unaware my voice is about to lift a few octaves. “That right there,” I let out a cough to clear my throat and tap my finger on the box, “is the gift. Honestly, I don’t know how you’ve lived so long without it.”
I flash him a wry smile, but the upward curl of his lips stirs the pulsing at my core and practically drives me crazy.
Like a man, he tears into the box. The instant he lifts his gift from under the red and white tissue paper, he laughs.
“I should have known. When did you get this? I didn’t leave your side once, so I know you couldn’t have picked this up today.”
“Since you love my hat so much, I ordered one just like it for you. Put it on. I’ve been dying to see it on you.”
He slides the red hat over his head and slowly rolls the edges down over his ears.
Immediately, my mind returns to the gutter.
“So how do I look?” he asks, his brown eyes as bright as his smile.
I blink, only half-certain of what it was he said. How’s it look? The hat? Or the mental image of you standing naked above me with nothing on your beautiful body but that hat?
I grapple for a reply. “Well, now that I see it on you, I think you’re right. The two emblems look nothing alike.” Not that I care. With his new OU hat on, Eli is sexier than ever.
“And you’re just now figuring that out.” He laughs again and tosses the box to the table. Not a second passes before he returns his fingers to the location they were before I gave him his gift.
With his hands back on my thighs, I bite my lip harder than I probably should. I’m just now figuring it out? That I want you to make love to me? Crap. Did I say that out loud?
“Well. Umm. Yes. No. I mean, I love it on you,” I say a bit hastily, trying to pull myself together. “You don’t have to wear it. I thought we’d make pretty awesome twins if you had one of your own.”
Jesus, Makayla. You’re scrambling your words. Settle down or he’ll think you want to make babies. Though I admit it: practicing making babies has definitely crossed my mind.
He seems to recognize I’m teasing him and twists me around until he has me straddling his lap. He cradles my body with his strong arms as I wrap my hands around the back of his neck. “Thank you. I love it and will happily wear it. I’d do anything for you, Makayla. You know that, right?”
I nod and feel my stomach flutter while I stare into his eyes. “It’s going to get pretty cold here the next couple of days. I need to keep you warm. And besides, you’ll fit right in down here with your new OU hat on.” He will fit right in regardless. It doesn’t matter one bit whether he has an OU hat on or not.
“You keep me more than warm.” He taps my lips with his, his hands at my hips pulling me deeper into his lap. “I love the way your body snuggles up against mine. I think we fit together perfectly. Don’t you?”
I agree, but don’t dare rub my sensitive tissue against his hardened bulge. I’ll succumb right then and there if I so much as move.
“Is this okay?” he asks, his eyes searching mine.
I grin, and once again he covers my lips with his. He opens his mouth. I follow his lead and allow his tongue to tenderly glide with mine. He could ask me to strip naked and I’d gladly comply and let him take me right here on the couch.
Screw the no-falling-for-the-cameraman rule. I accept that I already have. Now I need him to make love to me and tell me I’m his.
As if hearing my thoughts, he stands to lift me up and lays me on the couch, flat on my back. His eyes grow darker, his expression even wilder than before. He’s perfect, standing above me, waiting for me to tell him I’m ready for more.
Looking up at him, I hear “This Must Be the Place” by the Talking Heads. I open my arms and welcome every bit of him as he positions himself in a comfortable spot between my legs. I listen to the lyrics and wonder what he’s feeling. What are his wants? What might be on his mind? Is he possibly feeling the same way I am?
He covers my lips, and I close my eyes, content that he is once again kissing me senseless.
Slowly, he slides one hand up my side to cup my breast. My body arches and my head falls back. The instant his fingers give my nipple a squeeze, a soft moan of pleasure rumbles up and out my throat.
“Is this okay?” he asks, his lips grazing mine.
“Yes,” I murmur, and contemplate whether I should let him know I’m ready for more.
When the music switches over to Al Green’s “Lets Stay Together,” I wonder what was goin
g through Eli’s mind as he put the song list together. As the classic soul song plays in the background, he deepens the kiss and tightens his hold on both my head and my breast. In that moment, I know the answer to my question. He’s expressing through music what he wants me to feel with his touch.
He’s making me his priority and telling me his feelings for me are strong.
I think I love him even more now than ever.
I tangle my hands through his hair and toss his new hat into the air. I’ll pick it up later. Much, much later. Like when Eli is no longer kissing me breathless.
Our tongues continue to dance, and I prepare to give him everything I know he wants. Each time I make a noise to let him know what he’s doing pleases me, he tightens the seal he has on my lips, preventing me from making much of a sound. The thought crosses my mind that he’s as aroused as I am, and that my noises are taking him closer to the point of no return.
“Makayla,” he breathes across my swollen lips.
“Eli,” I moan, pulling his soft hair through my fingers.
“I want to make love to you.”
“I want that too,” I admit, watching his expression grow serious as he stares down at me.
“But not here.”
I lift up on my elbows. “Would you like to take the secret passageway down to my room?”
“No,” he says breathlessly, allowing his lips to intermittently engage in a tango with mine. “I won’t make it downstairs. You moan one more time and I’m going to come.”
“Then take me to your room. You know you already have the key to my heart.”
He pulls me into an embrace and lifts me up and off the couch. With ease, he carries me down the hall to the side of his bed where he plants my feet on the hardwood floor and takes no time lifting my shirt up over my head, still kissing me as if he’s afraid this moment will never come again.
I kiss him back with equal vigor, and grow weak at the knees every time he runs the pads of his thumbs across my nipples.
“Makayla,” he mumbles, moving his lips over mine.
“Yes?” I reply softly as Eli dips his head. He kisses my neck before moving on with his tongue and his lips, making certain to give each breast equal attention.
Eventually, he is low enough that his hands slip from cupping my breasts. His fingers blaze a scorching trail down my skin until his thumbs dip inside the elastic band of my pants. In time, he slides the fabric down my legs and past my feet, all while placing tender kisses to each quadrant of my belly.
“I want the key forever,” he whispers, his breath pulsing hard across where I need his touch the most.
I stand before him, hot and needy, my fingers working on their own to lift his shirt up and over his head. Not caring where it lands, I let it float to a puddle on the floor. Then I sift my fingers into the silky strands of his hair and pull against the roots. His naked torso glistens under the moonlight streaming in through the windows as he kneels before me and acquaints his lips with the most secret region of my body. I tug harder against his wavy locks, knowing that if he keeps up what he’s doing with his tongue, this moment will be over before it has even started.
In the height of pleasure, I wiggle and squirm. Eli slides his hands around my hips to firmly grab hold of my backside. He pulls me closer. I can no longer let him continue and move to help him up. With him standing before me, I run my palms down the curves on his chest and smooth my fingers along his trail of hair. Once I’ve given the pulsing at my core a moment to settle, I glide my hands along his skin and rest them at the base of his waist.
With our eyes on each other’s, I hesitate. It’s not that I don’t know what I’m doing. It’s more last-minute second-guessing what’s going to happen between us after we make love.
Eli lifts my chin, his expression telling me he senses my uncertainty. “If you’re not ready, just let me know. Trust me, I’ll understand.”
I find his heart in his eyes as he studies my face. It’s right there in front of me, exactly where I found it on day one. Searching his eyes, I’m certain mine show the same feelings. We’re both ready. There’s no going back.
“Make love to me, Eli.”
After kissing me, he flips the covers to one side of the bed, places me where he wants me, and steps out of his black cotton pants. He’s beautiful. Beyond anything I could have ever imagined. I close my eyes for a moment, but only to take a mental snapshot of the way he looks. Lifting my eyelids, I appreciate every sexy square inch of his body, as he stands before me naked.
I follow his movement as the bed dips when he sets his knee between my legs. With ease, he reaches toward the nightstand and removes a condom from his wallet. Somehow he manages to tease me with the fingers of one hand while sheathing his hardened length with the other.
With his breathing picking up and his fingers driving me crazy, I arch into his touch and anticipate what it will feel like when he eases his full length deep inside me. Slowly, he leans forward and kisses me with the same gentleness he uses as he inches his way in. I clinch around him as he pauses briefly and swaddles me with his arms. I hold him back, my nails clinging to the taut muscles of his back. Like a flower closing up at night, my legs tangle around his hot body.
“Makayla?” he says, squeezing me hard, his hands pulling me further in against the base of his length.
“Eli.” I run my hands down his back, noticing he still doesn’t move.
“I hope you know how I feel about you.”
I shift enough to lock my gaze with his. “I do.”
Surprises are the best. And amazing getaways never seem to last as long as you want them to.
Since Ed has already done a number on my eardrums with all his yelling, when the alarm on my phone signals it’s time to head back to the airport, I clench my teeth and hold back a seismic scream that might have been intense enough to cause catastrophic destruction for the entire state of Oklahoma.
There is just something about being home in Oklahoma with Eli that makes me not particularly excited about returning to Cleveland. I suppose waking up all warm and cozy with Eli’s arms around me isn’t helping the matter.
Heading out to the airport, I stare out the side window of the limo, my head against Eli’s shoulder, his fingers combing my hair, the email I received the night we made love pushing to the forefront of my mind. As I think about it, equal amounts of excitement mix in with hair-raising alarm. I’ve wanted to share the news with Eli since the morning I slipped out of his room, padded my sexually intoxicated self back to my own room, and under the soft light of the rising sun, read the email I’d heard pop in but chose to ignore at the time. But as soon as I take one look at him, I hesitate and change my mind. How do I tell him that for the first time since I vowed to make a name for myself, I really don’t want to go back to Cleveland?
On the contrary, I should be popping a champagne cork in celebration of being offered a full-time position teaching meteorology at my alma mater. Since I’d love the opportunity, my decision to accept should be a no-brainer. But a pain in my chest grows stronger as my mind grapples with something else entirely.
That something else is the fact that I’m falling in love with Eli—a man who happens to live and work in Cleveland, Ohio, not a thousand miles southwest in Norman, Oklahoma. Taking the position would most likely mean I’d have to leave Eli or try to make a long-distance relationship work. I don’t see that as a viable option and I can’t ask him to follow me, especially now that his career is moving in a positive direction. Since I can’t bear the thought of distancing myself from Eli, I make a final decision to keep the whole thing to myself and not take the job.
A chill rushes through my body as Benji veers the limo onto the exit leading us to Will Rogers World Airport. Like our moment on the football field, and the night Eli and I became one, I can’t help but think that this moment, this decision, is yet another monumental shift in my life. I snuggle a little closer and seek out the warmth and comfort that for some reason I
can’t seem to find. With every cell in my being, I hope I’ve thought this through and ultimately made the right choice.
“I had a great time,” Eli says, his soft tone lifting me out of my haze. “I can’t thank you enough for bringing me here.”
I look up into sad eyes. “It was my pleasure. I just wish I could have convinced the clouds to drop a much thicker layer of freezing rain on the entire continental United States so we would have been able to spend some more time together.”
“You’re not ready to go back, are you?” he asks, his voice rich with concern.
I shake my head. “I really enjoyed our time together, the indoor pool and playing volleyball with Celia and Wyatt, and I’ve always enjoyed playing cards with Mom and Dad in the evenings. I might not be fully ready to go back but I’m ready to go back… with you.”
From the time Eli and I sat together in the subway car that early morning heading out to the Cleveland airport to these last moments in Oklahoma, Eli’s mental status has flipped a full one-eighty. Our time together these last few days has given me the opportunity to get to know him and his many expressions a lot better. The smile on his face and the way he hung out in the kitchen with Mom and me this morning told me that he, too, isn’t all that eager to head back to Cleveland. But it’s time.
Time to go back.
Time to let Makayla Stan and Eli Barringer ease into a relationship I know we both want.
I can do that. I’m just starting out. There will be more opportunities like the one in the email crossing my path. Right now, there’s something I want more.
And nothing says that I can’t one day have them both.
Back at work we part ways, but only after Eli escorts me up to my office and gives me a kiss that doesn’t go unnoticed by Jim Tagarelli, the senior meteorologist. Of course Mr. Tagarelli doesn’t say anything, but his rosy cheeks and warm grin give me the impression he approves.