Uncomplicated Choices

by Cara Dee

  "Now I can do what I didn’t have the courage to do at the waterfall." He gave me a wet kiss. "Kiss you all I want, touch you everywhere." He proved his point by gliding a hand along my ass cheeks, two fingers slipping between and brushing over the sensitive skin.

  He knew how to change my mind about getting out of the water.

  "Keep going." My ass clenched, and I grasped his shoulder. Shit, around him, I was one needy puppy. Insatiable, as well.

  "Or…" He smiled and brushed his nose to mine. "We could enjoy our swim before I maul you again."

  There was nothing wrong with mauling. One couldn’t really have too much of it. So why the fuck was he swimming away from me? That was goddamn criminal.

  "Lie back and appreciate the moment, Casey." So that’s what he was doing. Most of his magnificent body was submerged, with his gaze and part of his chest facing the sky. He was the one I wanted to appreciate.

  I looked up, though. "Yes, Dad." Last time I followed his direction, I'd seen the Milky Way and then…then I got him. I wasn’t disappointed this time, either. It was a peaceful war between east and west. Midnight black and stars on one side, fire and pale blue on the other.

  I sighed contentedly. The man had been right. This was kind of wonderful.

  "Do you ever miss your parents?" he wondered.

  "Way to ruin the moment," I huffed. "No, can't say I do. They hurt me pretty fucking bad." At times, I wondered what hurt me most, being in prison or being disowned by my parents because I was in prison. "These days, I'm even relieved. I wouldn’t want them around Haley." The thought of their uppity, narrow-minded bullshit made me shudder. "I hope you don’t miss your folks."

  Ellis's mother and father were part of the very rare breed that my pacifist ass would get homicidal with.

  "Goodness, no." He snorted quietly. "I can relate to the relief, particularly when speaking of my mother. I ordered pizza when I heard she passed away."

  No one could blame him for that. I would've probably ordered cake, too.

  Ellis's dad had died of a fatal heart attack the year after I left Michigan. According to Lincoln and Keith, Ellis had been quiet a day or two, then moved on with his life. Keith had mourned the brother he'd grown up with, not the orthodox nut job he'd died as.

  "Did you always want to work in landscaping?" Ellis asked next.

  "If we're quizzing each other, isn't it my turn?"

  "Let me think… No."

  I grinned, angling myself to float closer to him. "Since you made such a valid point… No, not at all." Once upon a time, I thought I was going to be a software engineer. "I guess there's been an engineer in me since I was a kid, but… The landscaping part was because I was in prison. Not being able to go outside whenever I wanted…? And the monotonous lifestyle. Every day was the same."

  When the day came and Lincoln told me to get my ass to the nearest college, I didn’t have a fucking clue what to go with. Adeline sat down with me, having gone through something similar where she didn’t know what she wanted to do with her life, and she helped me narrow it down. From my time in prison, I knew I wanted to use my hands as much as my brain. I needed variety in my work atmosphere as well as my schedule.

  She'd gotten us into the field of landscaping, and after some research, I found the profession landscape architecture.

  "It just clicked for me, I guess," I finished. "What about you? How did you get into marketing?"

  It was a big leap between Trapped by Cult and CEO of a big agency he'd started himself.

  "My freshman year in college, I took as many classes as possible that were related to human behavior." What he said sparked a memory. He'd once mentioned being driven by understanding people. Presumably to make sense of why some shitheads acted the way his parents had. "I didn’t have any interest in working in psychology," he went on, "but I saw how readily it was used in sales and marketing. The art of manipulation."

  I tilted my head in his direction.

  "It can get utterly nasty and dishonest in marketing." He paused. "To sell a cure, we often have to make up a disease first, and in my naïve days as a student, I wanted to change that."

  "Did you?"

  "Not even close," he chuckled softly. "I do have fairly high standards. I'm in a position where I can afford to choose what client and product to represent, but at the end of the day, the honest truth is too boring to market. It has to be explosive somehow."

  I wasn’t too surprised to hear that. In general, we became bored very easily today. We were spoiled.

  We'd forgotten there was a difference between wants and needs, and unless someone told us we needed something, the chances of us buying it weren't as good.

  "Can I visit you at work sometime?" I asked. "I'm trying to picture you as a boss."

  He let out a laugh. "Having problems envisioning it?"

  "Yeah… You're too nice."

  "Hmm. I'm not going to demonstrate that side of me, but you're more than welcome to stop by the office." He swam closer to me, and soon, I felt his fingers gripping my wrist. "Have I told you how much I enjoy getting to know you better?"

  "Every complicated quirk of me?" Back in a vertical position, I treaded water and circled him until I was behind him.

  "You're not complicated." Goose bumps rose across his back as I kissed the spot between his shoulder blades.

  "So you keep saying," I murmured. "In all seriousness, though…it's strangely fulfilling to get to know myself through your eyes. I like the way you see me."

  "Same here." He turned around and pulled me close, encouraging me to wrap my legs around him. "I've learned a lot about myself by talking to you."

  "For the better?"

  "Always." He rested his forehead to mine. "Enlightenment is never bad."

  Maybe.

  I searched his steely eyes, having run out of words, and pushed back some hair from his forehead. Then I covered his mouth with mine because I needed again. Needed, needed, needed. Why did it feel that way? Superlatives were generally used to highlight and emphasize; they weren't supposed to be so fucking accurate. I'd told partners I found them irresistible before, but that didn’t mean I literally couldn’t resist them physically. With Ellis, though, all bets were off.

  I didn’t know he was moving us back to the boat until my leg hit the immersed ladder behind me. He pushed the tip of his tongue into my mouth and reached for the handrail to the ladder, then deepened the kiss further. My weight was fully supported, meaning I could let my hands wander.

  "Shit." I sucked in a breath as he rubbed the head of his cock between my ass cheeks. "I wish we could fuck here."

  "One day." It sounded ominously like a promise. Promises were dangerous, so I kissed him before he could say something else.

  Holy fuck, he felt good. The cold water eased the soreness, whereas his cock heated me up and made me crave more. Namely, that big cock shoved up inside me. Since I couldn’t have that, I settled for his teasing.

  Sliding my hands up his biceps, I felt his muscles flexing underneath his flesh. One of his hands had disappeared between us, but I couldn’t see clearly. For one, the water and my cock obscured the view. For two, his hungry kisses kept stealing my attention.

  "Are you stroking yourself?" I muttered, out of breath.

  He nodded, breathing just as heavily. "I want to come—right here." He pressed against my hole, and for the goddamn life of me, I couldn’t kill the whimper before it slipped out of me. If my desperation wasn’t clear earlier, it was now. "And when I do…" He grazed his teeth along my bottom lip. "I'll think of the day I get to fuck my come deep inside your perfect ass and watch it drip."

  "I…" I had nothing. My mind went blank. Until the images he'd just pushed into my skull were everywhere. It was all I could see and think of. "Fuck, Ellis. I want it. I wanna feel it." Because I knew I would. I'd feel the heat pulsating across my skin, and the thought made my mouth water. Think of what could follow. "For the love of—only you would make me wanna do that to you an
d then use my tongue to clean you up."

  Ellis groaned and screwed his eyes shut, the idea evidently not unwelcome. One day, maybe—fuck, I could beg for that to happen. As the pressure grew yet not nearly enough, I wrapped my fingers around my cock and jerked myself to my own fantasy. How would he react to my tongue-fucking him? I'd tease him for all the teasing he'd given me. I'd go gently and softly until he fucking begged.

  "I'm close," he breathed out through clenched teeth. "Ah, Casey—fuck…"

  My undoing was when he started coming and I felt the first pulse of his release ghosting across my opening. I clenched, hard, my entire being wanting him to just slam in and fill me up. My orgasm rocked me unsteady, and everything was a reaction to his actions. One moment, his cock slid slowly between my cheeks, drawing a heavy shudder from me. The next, he jerked forward and almost entered me, and the spike of pleasure hit me sharply.

  The second my climax subsided, I knew it was the last one I could handle for a while. I fucking hurt. How many times had we gotten off last night? I must've come four or five times at least. My skin was crazy sensitive, too.

  "You're g'na have to…carry me." I could barely speak, for chrissakes. My brain felt like it'd been dipped in cement.

  "Are you okay?" Ellis swallowed, his voice strained and breathy, and I managed one nod before my forehead hit his shoulder. "Did I wear you out?" Smug bastard.

  He totally had, though.

  "I'm only glad I…I didn’t make a just-the-tip joke. 'Cause I was getting ready to beg when you came."

  He chuckled through a tired groan and hugged me to him. "I'm glad you didn’t. I would've caved. Christ—I need to sleep for a week to recover."

  Sounded about right.

  "Let me draw us a bath. I can give you a massage if you want?" He palmed my jaw and made me face him. I blinked sleepily. "Adorable."

  "Yes on the massage. No on the bath—because I'm not sure how to get there."

  He thought that was funny. "I've got you." He kissed me briefly. "I promise."

  Oh no, I couldn’t allow him to promise me things.

  Chapter 14

  If no promises were made, they couldn’t be broken. On our slow, yet too-fucking-fast, journey back to Camassia, I interrupted Ellis every time he tried to make promises. I didn’t even want him to reassure me of anything. My hopes were already way up there, and I told him the truth. In the event that something happened, one promise fewer could at least diminish the risk of any resentment. Ellis was the last man I wanted to resent.

  "Well, aren't you a ray of sunshine, you stubborn man." He nipped at my jaw, hands on my hips.

  "That's us, Princess and the Ray of Sunshine." I batted away his hand as it dipped too low. He had to get back to driving the water raft, and I was gonna fix us some lunch.

  He shook his head, amused, and returned to the wheel. "I told you once you hide other things. Remember?"

  "My cock needs to stay hidden at the moment. Fucking like bunnies causes chafing."

  "Jesus," he muttered and slid on his shades. "Definitely not what I was referring to."

  Yeah, I know.

  We'd already established I hid some fears behind humor, however reluctant I was to admit it. Sue me.

  Fucking like bunnies was what we'd done our last few days on the yacht. Tonight, we were scheduled to be home again, and I could feel myself retreating. Mentally, anyway. I couldn’t bear to retreat physically, nor did he deserve any skittish behavior from me.

  Heading below deck, I dug out the ingredients to improvise a pasta dish. You couldn’t really go wrong with pesto, mozzarella, and tomatoes.

  *

  Docking in the marina at home put a rock the size of Mount Rainier in my gut. Whatever little I'd brought with me and bought along the way was packed in the bag from the store where I got my Date Pants, and I was back in the clothes I'd worn the night I got kidnapped. Anxiety about work was creeping in, as well. I'd played hooky way too fucking long and had a lot of catching up to do.

  The low rumble of the engine was exchanged with dead silence, and Ellis grew quieter as he secured the boat. He'd told me he planned on sleeping on the yacht for a while, though he was returning to work shortly and hoped to talk to his wife tomorrow or the day after.

  Back to normal, we go.

  Ellis approached and took a seat next to me on the sofa. He gave my leg a gentle squeeze. "Ready to face reality?"

  I scowled at him. What was he thinking? "It doesn’t help when you put it that way, jackass. It implies the trip was a fairy tale and now everything's ending."

  "You truly are a drama queen." He gathered my hands and kissed them. "Allow me to rephrase so it'll suit Your Highness. Are you ready to face the more grim facets of our reality?"

  My mouth twitched. I fucking loved the way we bantered.

  I was going to miss it.

  "You have my new address," I told him quietly. This reality he mentioned was sinking in. Vacation was over. "I have thirty-six hours to get the house ready before I pick up Haley and Lyn in Seattle. If I'm not at home, I'm at work."

  I'd sent a text to Madigan and a few friends who were able to help out on such short notice, so putting all the furniture where it was supposed to be wouldn’t take more than a few hours.

  Ellis nodded with a dip of his chin. "Give me a week—two at the most. I'd like to have the conversation with Marilyn out of the way, and I need to look for my own place." Before, he'd mentioned he needed to process, too. That was the scariest part.

  "Take all the time you need," I replied. "I can be awesome at waiting. More awesome than Sherlock fans waiting for the next season."

  "I…don't know what that means."

  I waved a hand. "It's a brilliant TV show. I'll school you in Netflixing one day."

  He smiled then grasped my chin and tilted my face for a kiss. "I look forward to it."

  Right. Me, too. For now, though, this was it.

  *

  I woke up the next morning anxious about…everything in my life, really, and I got ready on autopilot. Shower, brush my teeth, jeans, my gray "I spit" tee… I hesitated in front of the boxes in the hallway, then grabbed my beanie, too.

  After stacking the boxes of clothes in the bed of the truck, I left Lincoln and Ade's house and drove down the hillside. The guys were coming over in ten minutes, which meant I was running late. I'd promised to bring breakfast, something I'd hoped to have done once I'd picked up the rest of my shit from work.

  As I drove onto the quiet little street five minutes away from the marina, I spotted Madigan's car outside my new house. He and Jameson stepped out when I parked behind them.

  "Morning." Madigan took a sip of his coffee. "We're ready to build muscle."

  I mustered a grin and dug out my keys. "I guess you guys can warm up with the boxes in the back. It's all clothes." I liked that I was the owner of a house with a picturesque picket fence, although it needed a coat of paint. As I bent down to scrape some rust off the handle, Jameson sidled up next to me. "Hey. Thank you for coming."

  He smirked and leaned close to speak in my ear. "I had to prove a point, and…yeah." He nuzzled my jaw and skimmed a hand over my ass. "Still gorgeous."

  I spluttered a chuckle and straightened. "Hands off the merchandise, you flirt."

  He winked, then headed over to assist Madigan.

  I shook my head, amused, and opened the gate. Even with the rising anxiety because of my stupid—not unfounded, but sometimes irrational—fears, a sense of pride swelled in my chest as I looked up at my new house. Two stories of all mine.

  The old brick offered a vintage feel to it, but it'd been painted not too long ago, and the pristine white made me happy. It went fucking perfectly with the ivy that slithered up the little porch, not to mention the plants and flowers I had planned for the flower beds. I was saving those for next spring, though.

  After unlocking the door, I returned to the street, only to veer right to my driveway. "There're some boxes in the garage, too.
They're all labeled." It was mostly going up in the attic. "If you bring this in, I can go get the rest of the stuff from work, and I'll be back with breakfast. That okay?"

  Madigan nodded, heading inside with two boxes in his arms. "You know what I like."

  Before I left, another two buddies showed up, too. I made quick introductions before I took breakfast orders from everyone and then took off. I wanted to hurry so they didn’t get stuck with the most tedious work.

  *

  I worked up a sweat getting all the furniture onto my truck. Feeling bad for having left my employees alone for nearly two weeks while I was with Ellis, I told Beth to order pizza for lunch for the three of them. It'd been a good month, so I'd add a bonus to their paychecks, too. I didn’t take vacation days very often; I'd needed to get away more than I'd initially thought, but it hadn't been fair to leave without notice. Even if they handled everything great on their own.

  All in all, I was gone an hour and a half, and the guys were hungry when I got back to the house.

  I unpacked the food, filling the kitchen island with coffees, teas, muffins, bagels, and whatever else they'd ordered. "Your misspelled names are on the beverages, guys. Dig in."

  Jameson lifted his latte. "'James On.' Seriously?"

  I pressed my lips together to stifle my laugh, though Madigan's cup always did it for me.

  It just said Bob. He'd long ago given up on baristas getting his name right, so he used Bob.

  Other than the occasional KC, they tended to know how to spell my name.

  "Have you talked to Jesse lately?" Madigan asked me.

  "Maybe a few weeks ago. Why?" I tucked into an egg sandwich in between sips of my coffee.

  "Lincoln's worried about him."

  I furrowed my brow. "Is something wrong?"

  Jesse was…an interesting character. I loved the guy, but he frustrated the crap out of me, too. He struggled a lot with the concept of family; he went looking for it in the wrong place. His biological dad was dead, and his mom abandoned him when he was around ten or eleven. Ade and Lincoln would do everything for him, and the thing was, Jesse needed them, yet something kept him from accepting it. As far as I knew, it'd been like that since Lincoln got out of prison.