Her libido had taken a nosedive after having Levi the previous November, and she was beginning to worry because it had yet to bounce back. Eli had been incredibly patient with her, making sure when they did make love that she was thoroughly satisfied every time, but she didn’t feel the way she had before.
She was afraid to admit to Eli that it was possible she had some sort of hormonal imbalance. The good Lord knew he was still any woman’s ultimate fantasy in how he performed and in the way he treated her. It was unfair to him to go through the motions the way she had been, and she wondered where the fire inside her had gone. Add to that the fact that she still had baby weight to lose and her entire self-image was a little battered.
Sales on her books were great, but she had felt no new inspiration since the release of her last book, shortly before Levi had been born. She’d intended all along to take a year off to devote her time and energy to being a mom, but it secretly frightened her that no new stories were brewing in her mind the way they had prior to the birth. Even in the midst of morning sickness, new characters had constantly whispered to her, but now? Nothing.
He turned his head and flipped up his visor. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Let’s go.”
He closed the visor, and they got back on the road. They arrived at the location predetermined by the group, off the scenic road which ran the perimeter of the lake. The fireworks were set up on a small island in the middle of the lake so no matter where they went along the shore, the show would be spectacular.
Eli parked beside Ethan Grant’s truck and stood with hand held out to take her helmet from her when she removed it, allowing the long coil of her dark-brown hair to unwind down her back. Her hair caught in the chin strap of the helmet, pulling painfully. She gasped as it yanked at the hair near her temples, sending shooting pain along those sensitive nerve endings. She cursed softly, and tears filled her eyes again.
Get a grip, you fucking ninny! It’s hair, not the end of the world!
“Whoa, let me help.” Eli set his helmet aside and held hers in one hand while he extricated her hair from the buckle.
Her lip trembled, and she breathed slowly through her nose, praying for calmness as the emotions surged within her, sure that he could hear the pounding of her heart over the conversations all around them.
Coming out here was a bad idea. I should’ve just taken Levi home. The day started too early, and it’s not near to being done. I was a fool to commit to so much today!
Eli loosened the hair and freed it, stowed the helmet with the other one, took the keys from the ignition, and secured the bike. Hoping nobody would notice her flushed face in the dark, she took his hand and prepared to join the others. He stopped her and turned her toward him. The moon was at its brightest, fullest point and illuminated blue and silver highlights in his jet-black hair, which was so much like their son’s. She bit her lip, knowing he would be able to see the tear tracks on her cheeks by the same light.
“Wait here, angel.”
Thankful for a respite from being sociable some more, Rachel leaned against his bike and waited. He returned a moment later, and without a word, he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her hard and just held on.
The tremble started out small, like she’d overused a muscle. But then it spread outward from her core until even her hands shook when she lifted them to wipe a strand of hair from her eyes. She buried her face in his chest as people walked by so they wouldn’t hear her sniffling as her crying jag signaled it was about to get its groove on.
Keeping it bottled up inside made her feel like she would explode, but he still just held on, not asking questions, only anchoring her. She dug her fingers into his back through his T-shirt, unable to stop herself from sinking her nails in as she held on for dear life. She muffled a sob against his chest that erupted from deep inside, and her tears wet his shirt as she cried silently while he stroked her hair down her back.
Her world tilted oddly as he lifted her into his arms and carried her across the road, away from the people finding spots to sit on the shoreline. She buried her face against his neck but was aware of the sound of his boots as he walked through the brush and occasionally felt the snap of a small tree branch or twig against her as he moved steadily uphill.
“Where are you taking me?”
“Up the hill where we can be alone but still see.”
“But Grace—”
“I checked in with her so she wouldn’t worry about us.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Angel, don’t.” He placed her on her feet and then settled down against the trunk of a large tree and beckoned to her. She hated that she felt self-conscious as she climbed into his lap. That was a powerful indicator for how off-center she felt because lap time with Eli had always been one of her favorite things. “We have a while before the show starts. Can you tell me what’s going on? It rips my heart out to hear and feel you cry like that.”
Rachel hiccupped, and the tears started again as she let it all out. Eli held her and gently rocked the whole time until she felt utterly deflated.
In the telling, she realized she should’ve taken Emma more seriously when she asked at her postpartum follow-up if she’d been feeling blue. To all appearances, Rachel had a perfect life and had answered “No.” To say otherwise implied that something wasn’t going right. Eli helped with the baby at every opportunity and had been the ideal dad and husband as far as she was concerned.
Obviously coming to the same conclusion, Eli asked, “Do you think it’s postpartum depression and has nothing at all to do with whether everything’s all right or not?”
“Telling you all of that leaves me feeling ungrateful. I should be happy. We are in love. We have a healthy son, and you’re a wonderful provider. I should be fucking ecstatic. Here I sit moping and crying like the world’s crashing down around me.”
“Is it possible this is depression brought on by stress, lack of sleep, and hormones?”
“Yes. I guess I’m just not willing to admit it. How did you know?”
“Besides the symptoms, your mom told me to watch for it. She thought you might be getting depressed. She said she suffered from it too, when you were a baby.”
Rachel looked up at him in shock. “When did she say that? All she’s ever told me was that she was so happy when I was born. She couldn’t get enough of me when I was an infant. She’d never felt more blessed. Mom never said anything about having postpartum depression.”
In the light of the moon, Rachel could clearly see his smile and the light reflecting in the pale gray of his eyes. “Angel, did you hear yourself? You just told me you felt all the same things. You were happy when Levi was born. You can’t get enough of him. You said yourself you’ve never felt more blessed. It’s possible to feel all those things and still be depressed. It’s a product of all those factors I mentioned. Plus, you’re being really hard on yourself, and pushing yourself too much. Take today for instance. You insisted that you could handle all the activities that were planned.”
“I have in the past.”
“But not when you’re feeling under par. Where is it written that we had to be present for the whole day?”
“But then I miss all the fun.”
“It’s not fun to watch you fight tears, angel. I wondered how long you’d last. Although, it was nice to see you singing with Michael. I had a feeling you’d crater eventually but didn’t want you to think I was curtailing your freedom. The temperature got to one hundred four degrees today, which didn’t help, either. We’re going home after the fireworks, and then you can get a full night’s rest.”
“We’ll see. Maybe I’ll bounce back now that the sun has gone down. I love you, Eli.”
She tightened her arms around his neck and kissed beneath his jaw bone. His five o’clock shadow scraped against her lips and made them tingle. When she licked them she tasted a hint of salt, and her mouth watered. His masculine scent permeated her senses, and she nestled close to him,
smiling at the warmth growing in her core. Maybe she wasn’t dead inside after all.
Eli squeezed her tight. “I love you too, angel. I wish I’d talked with you about this sooner. At times you seemed to struggle then other times seemed to be okay. Since you had Levi, I think you’re even more beautiful, more…womanly and sexier than ever.”
Rachel stuck her fingernail into the stubborn pudge that remained at her abdomen. “You find this sexy?”
Eli frowned and smoothed his hand over her soft abdomen and around her hip to her ass cheek in a sensual caress. “Don’t be so hard on this body. I love it. And a few pounds doesn’t change that.”
“But I—”
Eli smiled and swiped a strand of hair from her forehead. “You what?”
“I jiggle when I move. When we make love…” Things wobbled now that had been firm before.
A soft growl rasped from his throat, and a thrill rippled up her spine at the sexy sound. “I know. You’re so soft. I’ve always loved holding you and it didn’t matter if it was before Levi, while you were pregnant, or after he was born. I’d hold you tighter, but I’m afraid of hurting you. This soft, beautiful body you just criticized is my idea of heaven on earth, so go easy on it.” Rachel hadn’t felt herself blush in a while, but her cheeks warmed as she listened to his heartfelt words. He squeezed her as if to punctuate his statement. “And if you don’t stop wiggling on my lap I’m going to have to show you just how much I love it.”
“Oh, yeah? Do you love it this much?” She held up her index fingers about three inches apart. “Or this much?” She giggled and spaced them only slightly farther apart while shifting her hips back and forth on the hard ridge beneath her ass.
“Angel,” Eli growled warningly as he pressed back against her. Rachel sighed happily as her pussy warmed and swelled with desire for him.
“This much?” She felt naughty as she spread her fingers a good ten inches apart. “I could handle this much for sure.” Her cunt quivered in agreement.
Rachel heard a distant sizzle as a rocket shot straight up into the air and exploded into a brilliant, white sparkling mass before being replaced by three more in red, white, and blue.
Eli groaned and flexed against her again and pressed his lips to her temple. “And I’d love to give it to you.”
“Are we secluded enough here? It’s completely dark.” Someone turned on a car radio down the hill, and she could hear patriotic music playing.
“We’re about one hundred yards from the road here. I haven’t heard anybody else moving around us. I’d think they’d all be closer to the shoreline.”
“These are great seats,” she murmured as they watched the lightshow through the break in the treetops down the hill.
“I found this spot when we were doing those portraits for you a couple of years ago. Raquel said the light was good, and I liked the view.”
“You posed against this tree trunk?”
“Yeah.”
Rachel shifted in his lap and straddled his thighs. “I wish I had a camera on a tripod right now.”
She lifted his braid and pulled the tie loose and set his luxurious, long hair free, running her fingers through the silky mass of it.
“I’d be up for that, angel.” It was dark, but Rachel could hear the smile in Eli’s voice. He pressed a warm kiss against her cleavage and slid his fingertips inside the leg openings of her shorts and panties.
Feeling wanton, Rachel ground her pussy against the hard ridge of his erection. She rested her forehead on his shoulder and moaned softly as he stroked her cunt with a skill that left her breathless with need. Her formerly flagging libido blazed to life as her copious juices coated his fingers. Simultaneously, they set to work, unbuttoning and removing the necessary articles of clothing. Eli shifted around in the dark then held her upper body and guided her down.
“What are you doing?” Her back made contact with what must’ve been his shirt, laid out on the ground to protect her skin. A burst of light flashed overhead confirming that fact.
“Showing you how much I love this body.” He pulled her loosened shorts and panties from her and swiftly parted her legs.
She gasped as he licked her pussy with deliciously slow strokes of his tongue. She arched her back and cried out as a loud boom sounded across the lake, accompanying the exploding rocket.
Eli chuckled evilly and lifted his head long enough to whisper, “Unless you want an audience, you’d better keep it down. Someone might come up the hill to investigate and decide to watch our fireworks from the bushes.”
Rachel giggled. “You’re saying that to turn me on even more, aren’t you?”
“Hell, yes!” He returned his hot mouth to her throbbing clit, flicking it with the tip of his tongue with deadly accuracy. Light burst above them, and she could hear voices down the hill oohing and aahing. Eli tilted his head and licked at her bare lips with a painstaking skill that left her a quivering mass of need. He teased her, and he knew it, judging by his chuckle at her lusty moans.
“Please, Eli.”
The light faded from the sky as he shifted suddenly, encompassing her with his wonderful heat as he moved up her body. Another rocket burst overhead, surrounding his shadowed face in white sparkles as he nudged her entrance and thrust home. Rachel wrapped her arms and legs around him as she bucked against him, seating all of his hot length as deep as she could, wanting even more. Leaves shifted around them as Eli moved.
“Hold on to me, angel.” She complied, and he sat up, bringing her with him.
Eli growled as he gripped her ass cheeks and thrust hard, sending a thrill though her. He’d been very careful with her because she’d had some pain with sex after she’d been cleared at her postpartum checkup. She no longer needed him to be that careful, but they’d gotten in the habit. The fucking that she was getting now reminded her of their sexcapades predating pregnancy. She realized she’d craved it as she reveled in his firm hold on her.
Holding on tight, she moved with him as the fireworks flashed, popped, and whistled high above them. Opening her eyes, Rachel gazed up at the man she adored, and a different sort of tears misted her eyes as she watched the pleasure grow in his features even as it swelled inside her.
“I love you, Eli.”
She thrust against him, and her cunt clenched on his hard, hot shaft. He smiled as he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her lips tenderly in sharp contrast to the rough pace of their fucking. Her heart pounded as the flickers of an orgasm swelled and gained momentum inside her.
“Oh! Eli, here it comes!”
She heard him growl as she arched her back and rode with him to completion, her cunt liquefying as her orgasm burst like fireworks inside her. Rachel felt strong and powerful, wild and crazy, as they continued at the same pace, and she knew he wanted to give her more.
“I love your sweet pussy, angel. I’d fuck you all night if I could.”
Rachel laughed, and Eli groaned as her mirth caused rapid contractions in her pussy. “We might die if we did, baby. They’d find us up here…eventually.” Knowing he had a tight hold of her, she switched to a circular hip-grinding motion as she spoke breathlessly. “They’d print our obituaries together. Eli and Rachel Wolf died of great sex a week or so ago. They died with smiles on their faces. Their friends and family weren’t shocked at all that even in death they preferred to not be parted.”
A guffaw of laughter burst from Eli, and he groaned when she licked at his nipple and raked her lower teeth across it. “I know I’d die a happy man. You’re killin’ me, angel!”
Making like he was her dancing pole, Rachel hooked a forearm around his neck, leaned back, and undulated on his cock, feeling sexier than she had in well over a year. Wild. Wanton. More like…herself. She didn’t realize how bad she’d gotten until she remembered what feeling good was like. The realization stunned her. Who had she been all this time? Where had she been?
Eli pulled her close, evidently sensing the shift in her mood as his movement
s gentled, and he clasped her to him tenderly as he continued thrusting. She wanted this back, this wonderful, healing, sexual intimacy that she’d missed so desperately. It sucked that the only way she’d reclaimed it had been to admit there was a problem. Energy and the desire to give him back the woman he loved and needed swelled within her, and she poured it out on him.
She grasped big handfuls of his luxuriant, silky hair as she held on for dear life and another orgasm flashed and burst within her as he cried out, pumping with forceful strokes to his own climax. They both held on to each other for dear life, and she panted against his chest as he rocked with her.
“Wow,” she whispered in a long-drawn-out breath.
He kissed her crown and then gently gripped the back of her head and tilted so he could gaze into her eyes. Fireworks burst above them, illuminating their embrace and the intimacy of their trysting spot.
“You are the most beautiful, sexiest, most loving woman I’ve ever known, Rachel Wolf, and I’m going to spend my life loving every inch of you.”
Her pounding heart swelled with love as the deeper connection between them was renewed both physically and spiritually. “I remember now what it was like between us. I don’t know when I lost it, but I’m glad you waited for me. I love you with all my heart, Eli.” Rachel squeezed his immense, solid body, stroking the muscular planes of his bare back as she offered a silent prayer of gratitude. “I’ll make an appointment to see Emma about the depression on Monday. Tonight helped so much, but I don’t expect it to magically go away.”
“We’ll deal with it together, one day at a time.”
They both looked up as another trio of rockets shot into the sky and burst in brilliant shades of purple, gold, and white. Rachel smiled and snuggled against his chest. “Wonder if anyone missed us.”
Eli chuckled. “I wonder if anyone heard us.”
She laughed and Eli groaned as the muscular contractions did funny things to their still-connected parts again. Feeling around on the ground, Eli pulled his cell phone from his jeans pocket. The screen lit up for a second. “We still have ten minutes left. They were probably so into the fireworks nobody even noticed we weren’t there.”
Rainier, Heather - Sparks Fly! A Divine Creek July 4th Family Reunion [Divine Creek Ranch 11] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 12