Her Perfect

by Walls, Stephie

  One of the worst parts of being a perfectionist was trying something new, something I wouldn’t likely be good at on the first go—and the pressure to get this right should have been overwhelming. I’d never asked, but I didn’t believe Eli was a virgin. Even if he’d only had sex once—which wasn’t possible—he’d at least know what he was doing. I’d never even watched porn. But being with him quieted my spirit.

  I dragged my fingers down the well-defined dip between his abs. I didn’t have a clue what to do, I just wanted to explore. It might prove to be torturous for Eli. His nipples pebbled and bumps prickled his skin in the wake of my touch. Each reaction I witnessed grew my confidence that much more. It didn’t seem right to just go for gold, and the truth was that I wanted to know every inch of his body the way my heart was familiar with his. When I reached the patch of hair beneath his navel, I added my other hand to the exploration and trailed it up the insides of the prominent V. That might have just become my favorite part of him, more so than the veins on his forearms. The muscles on his stomach tensed as my nails started up his sides.

  When I dared to find his eyes, I expected to see him holding back laughter; instead, his lips were set in a firm line and his jaw ticced. “Am I doing something wrong?”

  His hand caught my wrist in a cat-like reflex when I tried to pull back. Eli moved his head from side to side and then licked his lips. “Uh-uh.” It was more of a grunt fueled by longing than an actual word.

  He freed my wrist to allow me to continue; only, this time, he draped his hands over the dips in my sides and slid them behind me to cup my butt. I stumbled forward, closing the few inches that had remained between us. Instinct took over when my naked body fell flush with his. Eli dipped his head, and I took the opportunity to steal a kiss. Once I’d closed my eyes, my hands roamed free, no longer bound by fear, and the warmth that spread throughout my body felt feverish.

  My mind went blank, leaving me without stress or worry, and my heart soared at the love flowing through my veins. Each swipe of my tongue against his shot electrical impulses straight to my pussy, and I had to fight the urge to find relief by grinding against his leg. I dug my nails into his skin, and he kneaded my ass with one hand while lifting his other to palm my breast. The pinch of his fingers around my nipple had me gasping for breath. My head fell back and exposed my neck, which Eli took as an invitation to feast. The nip of his teeth on my skin teetered on pain until the swath of his tongue and lips soothed away the sting. It was delicious and divine, and I’d lost control.

  Control I freely gave to the man before me.

  I lost my hold on his back when he dropped to his knees, but before I could question where he’d gone, his lips latched on to my breast, and I threaded my fingers through his thick hair, holding on for dear life and praying Eli didn’t stop.

  I couldn’t keep track of his hands or his mouth. They were everywhere at the same time, and sensations I’d never experienced swam over my flesh, one drowning the other. Lips kissed and pecked down the center of my stomach, and every once in a while, he’d tease me with his tongue. The need for more drove me crazy, but my mind couldn’t sort out what more was.

  I got desperate when he breathed a warm breath on my pubic bone, and I couldn’t find words to confess what he did to me. “Eli…” His name was nothing more than a breathy moan, a begging plea.

  He responded, just not in the way I’d expected. His fingers slipped between my thighs, and I spread my legs to offer him what I hoped he sought. I probably should have been embarrassed by my shameless greed; however, I wasn’t. His mouth on my hip bones kept me swirling in nirvana, and almost oblivious to him parting my lips. When I tensed ever so slightly, he stilled. I glanced down to find him staring up. That was when my cheeks flushed with heat, and an impish grin rose on my swollen lips.

  His eyes shined with something I’d never seen. Before I could question it, Eli dipped inside me. One finger, and then two. He held my stare, yet as much as I wanted to keep my eyes open, my lids grew heavy and my breathing hard. In and out, the friction blossomed like a flower in the sun. My knees trembled, so I braced myself against his shoulder, which did nothing for me when his tongue joined his hand, sliding between my folds. Lips suckled my clit, and I couldn’t quiet the moan that escaped, followed by another plea. “Eli…”

  Chest heaving, breaths short, my skin glistened with perspiration, although I’d done nothing to exert myself. I could barely get out his name again. “E-Eli.” I huffed, panting, yet not knowing what I was begging for.

  His ministrations continued, his tongue, his lips, his fingers. Tingles, tinges, warmth, electricity. I couldn’t decipher one from the other as I climbed toward an apex of ecstasy. I had no idea how high he could take me or what it would feel like after the fall, but like a drug addict, the peak was the only thing I cared about reaching.

  Eli got to his feet, taking with him the fullness of his fingers and the wetness of his mouth and the heat of his tongue.

  “No, no, no,” I murmured. This had to be the sensation guys felt when girls cut them off. Personally, I was on the verge of tears if something didn’t relieve the pressure Eli had created.

  He ignored my protest and trailed my essence up my side. I tasted myself on his lips when he captured them in a kiss, which built a different kind of fire. My entire body danced on the edge of torture and pleasure—a nudge could send me in either direction.

  I broke away and tucked my head into his neck where I huffed out a fake cry. My nipples rubbed against the hair on his chest, and the head of his dick poked me in the stomach. He stroked my back, and my hair began to fall when he pulled out the clip. I all but whined, standing in front of him, nerve endings raw.

  The hair that tickled my spine lifted when he fisted it, and so did my head when he pulled back my hair. There was no more denying what I’d seen in his eyes, and mine went wide. Eli growled. It was a low rumble in the back of his throat that had started in his chest. Animalistic, and I dared say, the hottest things I’d ever heard or seen.

  “Tell me what you want, Colbie.” He still struggled with the right thing to do, but in my mind, that choice had been made when the two of us stood naked in his bedroom. And it sure as hell went out the window when he’d put his mouth between my legs.

  With all the emotion I could muster without sounding like a desperate whore, I said the only thing that summarized my answer. “You.”

  The most seductive smirk I’d ever witnessed formed on his lips just before he bent at the knees and wrapped an arm under each of my thighs. And when he stood, I circled my legs around his waist and clung to his neck.

  Eli’s breath was warm against my ear. “I won’t let you fall.”

  For a split second, those five words seemed like a premonition, but the instant the head of his dick touched me from that position, that thought was lost, and I jumped a bit in his embrace. The room lost shape as he moved. I had no idea how he carried me across the floor, much less laid the two of us onto the mattress without so much as a flop. Eli positioned the two of us gracefully like a dancer.

  My ankles unlocked, and my knees fell to his sides with him nestled between my thighs. There, he supported most of his weight on one forearm. I could have stared into his eyes all night. His regard was tender yet searing, loving although smoldering, soulful. With each emotion I caught sight of, another one floated in and layered itself on top of the last so I couldn’t pick them apart.

  Eli tucked my hair behind my ear. His lips parted, and I waited for what he had to say. And when nothing came, I softly stroked his cheek with reassurance and lifted my head to kiss his succulent lips. In that moment, he was the epitome of poetry. A silent stanza.

  “Don’t think, Eli.” The last thing I wanted was for him to get stuck in his head, worried about the right and wrong, the should or should not. “It’s just us.” And I became the seductress. The one to ply him to my will and want.

  He huffed, shook his head slightly, and the corners of hi
s mouth tipped up in a bit of a grin. “It’s not that.” He cooed as much as he whispered, like his words might break me if he spoke too loudly. “This is going to hurt.”

  I scrunched my brow, trying to figure out what could hurt. Sex was supposed to feel good. Men all over the world had been doing it for centuries. I didn’t know much, but he had to be doing something wrong if this was painful.

  Eli licked his lips and shifted between my legs. He slipped between my folds and nudged my clit. “The thought of hurting you”—oh, me, not him—“guts me.”

  I lost track of what he said when he rocked his hips again, and my back arched as my eyes closed the next time. God, I didn’t want him to stop. I encouraged his motion with my palms on his muscular butt, and I lifted my lids to find him peaceful and happy…and well aware of what he did to me.

  Every muscle, from head to toe, had relaxed. Eli warmed me from the outside in. The only thing I wanted right then was to connect with him…fully. My hips found his rhythm and worked to build the pleasure he’d started, and when he covered me, shifting his weight from my side to my center, I never wanted to leave his cocoon.

  He found my eyes and waited. I bit my bottom lip and held his stare. Nothing could have prepared me for what it felt like to have Eli fill me. With each inch, he allowed me time to adjust and silently beg him for more. When he stilled completely, I knew what he waited for.

  I wasn’t sure how he even detected the subtle movement of my head that gave him permission, but I braced my hands on his taut biceps and cried out in searing pain as he tore through my hymen. The burn came from deep inside and ripped across my abdomen. And when I blinked, tears seeped from my eyes and down my cheeks.

  As the pain subsided, I realized he was balls deep, seated to the hilt, and I was terrified for him to move. I tensed with apprehension and fear spilled onto my cheeks. I tried to hide behind my hands, but Eli refused to let me shield my emotion.

  “Baby.” His thumbs brushed away the moisture, and he graced my lips with a kiss. “Look at me, please.” He’d never called me anything other than my name, but those two syllables stole my resolve.

  My eyes cleared, and Eli rested his forehead against mine.

  “Talk to me.”

  I shook my head like a petulant child. If I spoke, I’d choke on emotion, but if I didn’t, I was afraid he’d move, causing me agony.

  “Just give it a second. I promise the pain stops.”

  It had started to subside, but I wasn’t ready to admit that. And Eli didn’t make me. He took control, starting with my mouth. His tongue parted my lips, and the second mine joined, that familiar warmth that pooled between my legs returned. I didn’t know when he’d started to move or when I’d joined him. Eli found our rhythm, and holy hell did he play me a song. It was a quiet ballad of love I never imagined him capable of. Football players weren’t tender and gentle; they were fierce and aggressive.

  Eli had one hand under my shoulder and one wrapped around my thigh, using both for leverage when he dipped his head into my neck. “Fuck, Cole.” He breathed the words onto me. “You’re so tight.”

  I assumed that was a good thing, because the reciprocal side of that was how full he made me. It was a sensation I could easily become addicted to and had no idea how to maintain. But as his pace increased, the thought of making it last flew out the window. The build inside me grew exponentially with each of his thrusts. My nails scraped his back and clawed at his skin, and when he growled, I felt the vibrations in my chest. The two of us had climbed the mountain together, and the sounds he made indicated he was near the top.

  “Eli…” I panted his name in his ear because no other words would come to me.

  His teeth nicked my neck and then bit at my ear. “I want to hear you.”

  The warmth of his breath and the scent of sex on the man I loved all but forced me to give him what he craved. My shrill voice reverberated off the walls when I cried out his name in ecstasy. I held on for dear life, wrapping my legs around his waist and locking my ankles. He grunted with each push until he finally roared.

  Any other time that sound would have sent me reeling, yet knowing it was for me, because of me, I tried to capture it in my memory to save for a rainy day. Eli now had a piece of me that I could never give to anyone else.

  I expected him to pull out, and I tensed, waiting for it to happen, for him to fall to my side in a heap of tired mess, even though I had yet to release him. Instead, he pushed onto his knees, and lifted me up so I straddled his waist. Eli twisted us so his back was against the headboard and his legs were out in front of him. With me settled into his lap, he held me in place with his hands on my ass. And he still hadn’t broken our connection.

  I stared down into his brown eyes. His smile had changed, and I wondered if mine had, too. A moment of panic struck when I thought that if I could see that change that everyone else would as well.

  “I love you, Colbie.”

  But those three words erased the care from my mind. Nothing mattered other than Eli. The rest of the world could go to hell. I kissed his perfect mouth and then whispered into his ear, “I love you, too, Eli.”

  Nothing had ever felt so right or more perfect. I never wanted it to end, although I had no idea how we’d get through the next six and a half months.

  There was no turning back for either of us.

  12

  Eli

  I wasn’t looking forward to the call I was about to make. I’d just hung up the phone with Caleb, and now I had to let Colbie know. Thankfully, I didn’t have to do that through text anymore. Once she had given me the green light and assured me that no one cared who she talked to, much less listened in, I preferred to hear her voice as often as possible. Until now.

  She answered on the first ring. “Hey.”

  “You busy?” I knew she wasn’t, but it seemed like a good opener.

  Colbie giggled. “No.” The effervescence in her voice since the recital didn’t go unnoticed, nor did her affinity for me. “And if I were, you know I’d stop whatever I was doing.” She would, even though I was supposed to see her in thirty minutes.

  I hated to burst her bubble, but I also didn’t want her to find out from anyone else. “I just got off the phone with Caleb.”

  “And?”

  My relationship with her brother hadn’t come into play since Colbie and I had met. His life had been filled with a new wife and football, while mine had been occupied by a new school and his little sister—both of which I loved. “It seems I’ll be having Thanksgiving dinner with him tomorrow.”

  “Okay…”

  “At your parents’ house.”

  A door closed in the background and then another before her anxious whisper came through the phone. “Are you crazy? Why would you agree to that?”

  It wasn’t funny, and while her panic was cute, she’d ream me for laughing. “Baby, he’s my best friend. And I’m in a town where he doesn’t think I have any friends. Caleb knows I can’t go home to see my parents and didn’t want me to be alone. How could I say no?”

  “Easy, you purse your lips, open your mouth, and out comes sound.” She huffed and tried to keep her voice down. “Eli, they’ll know. This is going to be a disaster.”

  “No one will know anything. No one at school has.” That was the truth.

  Colbie did an amazing job of feigning indifference—so much so that at times it bothered me—where I was concerned. It helped that she had never been close to many people, so the only ones who might have noticed would have been Jess, Caden, and Caleb. Any of those three finding out would be catastrophic. I’d followed her lead. I’d also avoided her in the halls at all costs.

  We still ran together, but we did so under a cloak of darkness early in the morning. And nine times out of ten, that jog ended in my bed. A smile rose on my cheeks, thinking about Colbie naked and riding my cock. I couldn’t get enough of her over me, under me, next to me—at my side. Colbie was more than a lover; she had quickly become my b
est friend.

  “Eli—”

  I’d drifted off into thoughts of her instead of focusing on the conversation. “Colbie.”

  “Don’t patronize me.”

  I loved her spunk, even if she were frustrated with me, she didn’t hesitate to call me out on it. “I’m not. I’m sorry. I got lost in thoughts of this morning.” And it had been a great morning. “I promise, it’s going to be okay.”

  If I hadn’t heard her breathing on the other end, I would have assumed she’d hung up.

  “Cole, don’t work yourself into a frenzy. There will be a ton of people there. No one will even notice me, much less us. Your parents think I’m coming as Caleb’s friend, not your boyfriend.”

  She sniffled and the hitch in her breath came through the line.

  “Baby, why are you crying?” There was nothing more I hated than for tears to fall from her eyes—except not being there to wipe them away.

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “Don’t start that shit with me, Colbie. Talk to me.” I also loathed having to get firm with her, but no one had listened to her in so long that she didn’t believe anyone valued her opinion, and therefore, she avoided sharing it.

  She sputtered and started and stopped a handful of times before forming coherent words. “I don’t want you to see me that way.”

  I softened my tone to keep her engaged. “I don’t understand.”

  “It’s one thing for me to tell you that my family doesn’t care. It’s another completely for you to witness it and be a part of it.”

  Even without seeing her face, I felt her pain. “Why would I be a part of it?” Jesus, I needed to hold her, comfort her, show her how wrong she was in her assumption.

  “How can you not? If you try to be what you are to me, it will draw attention. If you act like you care at all, Jess or Caden or Caleb will notice. Which only leaves you being there with your best friend and me out in the cold. I can handle being alone with them. I can’t fathom it with you.”