by S. L. Scott
“Look at me, Mallory,” I demand, but keep my voice low.
Her head shoots up and our eyes meet as I swirl my tongue around her gloriousness. The sounds of her pleasure make my cock throb, so I press it into the mattress seeking some kind of relief. My body seems to have its own agenda and I’m thinking this mattress isn’t going to satisfy that need. She drops her head against the pillow maintaining our eye contact. Her eyes look how mine feel, heavy with lust, but a depth of something more hidden behind the beautiful color.
The grip on my locks tightens, but the pain is nothing compared to the pleasure I’m receiving from this simple act of intimacy. That’s it. That’s why I haven’t done this in forever. This is something I can do to her to show my feelings through my body. This is intimacy. I think my heart stopped at the exact second I discovered that I’m in love. I’m in love with Mallory.
As I continue, she struggles to keep her eyes on me, so I give her a reprieve. “I want you to come for me, baby.”
Her head drops back and her body jerks forward, harder against my mouth and she cries out in ecstasy. I enjoy the sight of her so tense and yet euphoric, and it’s all because of me. As she settles back down, relaxing onto the bed, I leave a wet trail of kisses on her stomach.
Just as I lower the hem down to cover her midsection, she says, “I want you in me, Evan.” Her eyes go wide like the words accidentally slipped out.
Crawling up her body, I press my hardness against her stomach. “I think you can tell how much I want to be inside of you, too, baby, but, not tonight.” I can’t believe I just fucking said that. This is the girl of my dreams. I’m in love with this girl, but that is the exact reason I shouldn’t do it. “I don’t want to screw this up,” I say as her hands rub my back, “so I think this should be all we do tonight.”
“But I want to,” she says, bringing my cupped face to hers and kissing me, still encouraging me.
I pull back, brow furrowed in confusion, to gaze down at this siren beneath me. She runs her nose along my jaw and ends near my ear. She whispers, “I want you, Evan. I need you.”
“Fuck, Mallory. What are you doing to me? I don’t have the willpower to fight you. We should stop.” I sound authoritative and in control, but even I can hear the slight whine in the back of my throat.
She giggles. So much for control.
She kisses me again then licks the side of my mouth. Maybe I have died and actually did get into heaven despite my mother damning me to hell. My eyes close at the sensory overload of her plush lips on me.
I jump, pinning her by the wrists to the bed. “No! You must stop.” Me and my throbbing erection roll onto my back and I slam my arms down next to me.
Rolling onto her side, she props her head up by her elbow. “Evan Ashford, I think your façade is slipping. I think you like me.”
With an epic roll of my eyes, I laugh with mild irritation. Okay, it’s actually sexual frustration, but I play it up as I look over at the temptress next to me. She’s glowing and beautiful and her expression is proud. “I’m not playing games with you. I can admit defeat.”
“So, you’re comparing liking me to losing?” she asks incredulously.
“That’s not what I meant. It… it feels like freedom. Does that make any sense?”
“Because you don’t have to put on the charade for me.” She leans forward and kisses me on the tip of my nose then retreats to lay flat on her back. “I like you, too by the way. There, we’re even. Does that make you feel better?” She asks smugly. “It is freeing, isn’t it?”
“Like jumping off a cliff.”
“Or falling in love for the first time.”
I’m stunned by her ability to say that so easily. She smiles and my heart fucking melts and I think for the first time in my life, I know exactly what she means. I reach over and pull her against my side. After bringing the sheets up to cover our chests, I kiss her on the forehead. “It’s exactly like that,” I whisper. “Goodnight, baby.”
* * *
Morning comes too soon when I’m holding Mallory in my arms. Morning means daylight, which means getting out of bed, which also means not holding her much longer. I sigh in discontentment at this bothersome predicament.
She shuffles, snuggling closer as her breath warms me with its steady cadence. I tighten my arm around her shoulders and appreciate what I can tell are her last few moments of sleep.
Looking down at her, I allow myself to indulge in her natural beauty and how she fits so perfectly into my side. I can’t hide my smile just as her eyes open and she looks up at me. In the cutest groggy voice, she asks, “What are you smiling about, gorgeous?”
Her name for me comes as a surprise. “You think I’m gorgeous?”
She looks down, drawing her hand across my bare chest, and adds, “Who doesn’t think you’re gorgeous?”
I am well aware of the attention I get from the opposite sex, but none of it ever mattered because it’s superficial. It’s meaningless, but for some reason I care that Mallory thinks I’m attractive. “I don’t care about anyone else, just what you think of me.”
Her eyes flicker back to meet mine and with a smile reflected in them, she says, “In that case, I think you’re really fantastically gorgeous, Evan.”
“Well, I think you’re really fantastically gorgeous too, baby.” I back my words with a lingering kiss on her forehead.
She giggles, encouraging me to ask, “What has you all happy this morning?”
She sits up and slides her face closer to mine. Her expression goes from playful to genuine within the flash of a second, before she says, “You’re here. You’re here with me this morning just like you promised.”
I gulp, not wanting to be anywhere else but with her, and I want her to know that. “Mallory,” she remains calmly looking at me as I continue, “I should explain about that first morning when you woke up mad.”
“I didn’t wake up mad. I was hurt when I discovered you left me here alone.”
I pull her back down into my arms. “I know you were, but that wasn’t my intention. You thought I had just screwed you over, but it wasn’t like that for me. It was actually the complete opposite.” This is the part that still gets jumbled in my own mind, much less trying to verbalize it to sound like I know what I’m talking about.
My hesitation causes her to look up and rest her chin on my chest, waiting. “Are you okay? We don’t have to talk about this right now. I mean, we did just wake up.”
“No, I want to say this. You need to know that I wasn’t abandoning you. I didn’t treat our night lightly. It was so much more to me than that. But, I had to organize my thoughts and get some clarity on the situation, on us. I did that by surfing.”
I take a deep breath and finish. “Surfing helps me clear my mind of the extraneous stuff that’s not important. I can focus on the waves and what I need to, which for me that morning, was you.”
“Evan, I should apologize—” She sits up trying to talk, but I quickly cut her off.
“No, don’t. You don’t have to apologize. I really need to tell you this because it’s important and yet I feel like such an asshole for letting this get out of hand.” I sit up, touching her arm, wanting to touch more. “I knew you were different. I knew as soon as you made your smart-ass comments to me at the airport. Then during our conversation at the diner, I realized you were too good for me. You became a challenge. So when we got to my place and kissed, it was surprising. You let me make love to you. I almost couldn’t contain myself. I fucking won the lottery that day and I tried to play it off like what we were sharing was just a standard fuck for me. But you sensed how I really felt and you kept going. Why’d you go through with it? That’s not you. I knew when I met you that you didn’t do that kind of stuff and yet you did with me. Is it because you’re on vacation? Wait, I might not want to hear the answer. Do I want to know the answer?”
I wait for her to respond, but I can tell she’s processing everything I just laid on her.
I nod my head, unsure of why she’s focusing on that tidbit out all of the other stuff I said.
“Let me get this straight. You went surfing to think about the feelings you had already developed for me starting at the airport and you were shocked that a girl like me would come home and sleep with you? And now, you want to know why I had sex—”
“Yes, that sounds about right, but I prefer the term make love.”
“Okay, you want to know why I let you ‘make love’ to me that day?”
“Yes.”
She narrows her eyes in analysis of me and starts to say something, but then stops. Her mouth opens in confusion, but nothing comes out again. Finally, she scratches her head, leaving her hand to lightly rub against the bandage across her temple, and says, “Thank you. Thank you, Evan.” She throws her arms around my neck and using me as resistance, she pulls herself onto my lap.
I try to captivate her mind and soul, embracing her fully. “Why are you thanking me, baby?” I whisper into her ear while inhaling her in. She’s flowers and beach, sunlight, and beauty combined.
When she looks down, her dark lashes lie in beautiful contrast against her pink blushing cheeks. Slowly, she lifts them up and looks me in the eyes. “No one has ever treated me like that before. You look at me like I’m special.”
I don’t comprehend her words because I can’t understand their meaning in the context. What does she mean by that? “Special? You’re everything,” I say, running my hand softly across her cheek and bringing her in for a kiss. Our tongues meet eagerly and as I’m absorbing every taste and sound that she makes, I pull back and look at her. “Mallory, you’re beautiful and smart. You are special. Promise me you won’t ever settle for being treated less than that, even if it’s by me. Because if I ever forget even for a second how wonderful you are, you should leave me. I’m not perfect as you already know. I didn’t feel worthy that first night and I still don’t, but I’m going to try to be the man you deserve. I want this to work out—”
“I’m here for the summer, but I only have just a little over a month left.” Her tone is solemn, and the reality that she’s going to leave me squeezes my heart.
“We’ll just make the most of our time left together—”
“But you sounded like you meant more than just a month.” She phrases this more like a question and it makes me feel that maybe she’s not into me as much as I’m into her. Maybe I just misread everything that’s happening between us.
“I was just, you know, rambling. I know you only have a month. There’s no pressure from me,” I say, silently berating myself for opening up to her too soon.
She’s still looking at me, waiting for me to say something else, but I don’t know how to back track and I don’t want to lie, so I change the topic. “Should we get some breakfast?”
Chapter 18
Mallory
“I have to be at work in a little while. I don’t usually sleep this late.” I wanted him by my side when I woke up and he is, but he’s probably wondering now what?
“So breakfast?” He asks.
“Coffee?”
“Don’t tell me you don’t eat breakfast, Mallory. It’s the most important meal of the day,” He leans over and kisses me on the forehead. Taking my hand, he smiles as he looks into my eyes, searching them. “I need to know we’re good. We told each other stuff that we shouldn’t have confessed this soon into a relationship, but I think I’m good with that. I like this, that we’re this comfortable.”
I gulp, realizing he used the word ‘relationship’ while referring to us. My insides warm at the thought there might be an actual ‘us.’ I swallow the building tension and sit up. “You’re right, Evan, and I like our honesty, too.”
Swinging my legs off the side of the bed, a light touch on my shoulder stops me. “Mallory.” He looks me straight in the eyes. “I don’t want you to date anyone else, and I won’t date anyone else either.”
I’m speechless by his declaration. His eyes beg me to say something, to let him know that I’m not rejecting him, making me wonder if he’s ever been rejected before. I also wonder if he’s even been exclusive with a girl before.
“Evan,” I say, getting as close as I can to him and brushing my lips against his.
His hands go to my waist and hold me as his eyelids drop close. I inhale the moment, savoring every second. With our eyes closed, I whisper, “I only want to be with you.”
I’ve been holding back on my true feelings for too long. Giving in, body and soul, I become one with him. It’s no longer Mallory and Evan. It’s us as one now and I kiss him.
He gently uses his weight to push me back onto the bed. His chest presses into mine as we deepen the kiss, his hand finding their rightful place on my chest, right over my heart. His lips work their way down my neck to linger between my breasts then he sighs in satisfaction. I slowly drag my hands up his back and hold him to me. He asks, “When do you have to be at work?”
“Eleven.”
“It’s ten. You get ready, and I’ll make you coffee. Then, I’ll drive you to work.”
“That’s an offer I can’t refuse. Do you work today?”
“Yeah, but not until noon.”
Fifteen minutes later, I step out of the shower and wrap a towel around me. Standing in front of the mirror, I see beautiful Mallory again. I laugh that a boy affects my self-esteem like this, but there are definitely worse things he could be affecting, that’s for sure.
I’d taken the bandage off before my shower and lean toward the mirror to get a better look at the stitches. It’s starting to heal and doesn’t look that bad.
There’s a soft knock at the door.
“You can come in, Evan,” I say, rolling my eyes. “We’ve slept together, so I think we’re past knocking at this point.”
The door opens and he leans against the frame holding a tall travel mug out to me. “You look beautiful,” he says, admiring me. I feel a little embarrassed under his adoring eyes, and blush, feeling the heat reach my cheeks. “Especially when you blush… you have ten minutes until we need to leave. If you keep that up, you’re going to be calling in because I’m not gonna let you walk out that door.”
My cheeks flame at his heated insinuation, knowing that’s exactly what I want to do with my day—not walk out that door. Memories of our time having sex flood my mind and I unknowingly smile. “Seriously, Mallory, you’ve been warned. One more adorable gesture like that and I’m calling Alana myself to tell her you’re not coming in.” He comes over and wraps his arms around me. He whispers, “I’m here for you. I’m not going anywhere. We’re together now.”
My heart melts at the sweetness of this man.
He kisses me on the cheek at the same time I feel his hand slide under my towel and rub my ass. I smirk, and he smacks it. “Your head looks good,” he says, referring to my stitches. “Get ready, good looking, you’ve only got five minutes now.”
I burst out laughing when I notice how the sting on my butt cheek is delightfully tingling. Evan Ashford is going to be the death of me—one way or the other—and yet I’ll happily walk hand in hand towards that death with him. I don’t have time to dwell on the joy I feel, the happiest I’ve been in ages. I’ve had boyfriends in high school and a couple in college, but I’ve never felt for them what I feel for Evan.
After throwing some clothes on with light makeup—lip gloss and mascara, we hurry out the door. He holds my hand while he drives me to work. Racing around to my side of the car, he opens the door when we arrive. When I stand up, he pulls me against him, and says, “Can I pick you up after work?”
Sunny parks next to us and gets out with a devious look on her face. “Good morning, Mallory. Evan.”
Evan releases me and returns the greeting. “Good morning, Sunny. If it’s all right with you, I’m going to be spending an inordinate amount of time with your best friend for the remainder of the
summer.” He leans towards her, lowers his voice, and adds, “I’m kind of smitten with her.”
They share an elbow nudge then laugh. “Well, I guess that’s all right by me,” she says sassily. “I’ll see you inside, Mal.”
I grab two handfuls of his T-shirt and pull him closer. “I’ll see you later then.”
“I’ll be here.”
“Goodbye.”
“Goodbye, baby.”
We say this, but remain standing there still staring at each other. The fire building in his eyes reflects the same in mine.
“So, I guess I should go in now. I think I’m officially late.”
“Uh-huh, late, definitely late.”
I can’t resist him any longer. I lift up on my toes and kiss him hard. He returns the favor.
“We should probably open up for the lunch crowd. Don’t ya think, Mallory?”
We jump apart as if we were just busted by our parents. Alana is standing between us and the entrance to Big Kehones with her arms crossed.
“Hi, Alana,” Evan says, nodding at her, smirking, and adjusting his pants.
“Aloha, Evan. If you’re not here for lunch, I suggest you remove your hands from my employee so she can get to work.”
His hands immediately drop to his sides, and he chuckles. “Yes, Ma’am. Sorry, I was just dropping Mallory off.”
“Okay then. She’s here, so you have a good day. Mallory?” Alana looks at me, waiting. She’s teasing, trying to refrain from smiling.
I rush past him, smacking him on the ass, and whisper, “See you later, sexy.” With a smirk and a little extra wiggle to my hips, I walk inside with Alana.
Sunny is at the bar. She’s busy filling ketchup containers when Alana and I come inside. Alana looks at me, all knowing, and says, “You and Evan Ashford are dating.” It’s not a question, but she seems to ponder it.
Discussing who I’m dating is an embarrassing conversation to have with my boss, but the relationship is so new it’s weird to talk about it with anyone. I’d hate to jinx it. I start filling a napkin dispenser, keeping my eyes on the task at hand. “Yes, we are.” I sound too giddy to appear casual.