By turns surprised and then exceedingly pleased, Neil pushed his chair away from the table and pulled Ellie onto his lap. He managed all this while never removing his lips from hers.
The kiss deepened.
It continued to grow in intensity, making Ellie’s head spin so much, she felt as if she had lost her bearings, not to mention any grip on reality.
For a second, she couldn’t even remember where she was.
All she was aware of was Neil, who was setting her whole body on fire.
Neil kissed her over and over again, making the entire world fade away until it was nothing more than a pinprick in the scope of the universe.
Yes, he had kissed her before and it had been a really, really wonderful experience. But this was on an entirely different level.
This was something spectacular and oh, so hot. Her pulse was beating so hard, the rhythm reverberated throughout.
Though her breath was growing shorter and shorter, Ellie didn’t want to break away and come up for air. She definitely didn’t want what she was experiencing to stop.
She closed her arms around Neil’s neck, huddling her body closer to his, glorying in the warmth transferring from his body to hers.
Neil was aware that he was pressing his advantage and a sense of propriety was telling him that he really should be putting the brakes on before this went too far—if it hadn’t already.
Maybe it was his state of mind, but he just couldn’t help himself, couldn’t keep from absorbing and glorying in everything that this woman had to offer.
Her sweetness. Her sustenance. The delicious ripeness of her mouth pressed against his.
Oh, Lord, her wonderful mouth.
He couldn’t get enough of her, feasting on everything Ellie had to offer and craving more.
Even so, Neil forced himself to pull back. As wonderful as this was—and this was wonderful—he felt he wasn’t allowing her to think, much less to say no if she was so inclined. Neil didn’t want to overwhelm her, he wanted her to want him of her own free volition.
Drawing his head back, he asked her, “Do you want me to stop?”
Ellie stared at him, bewildered. She couldn’t understand why Neil would ask her that. “Why? Did I do something wrong?”
“You?” he questioned, stunned. The woman had to be the closest thing to perfect he had ever encountered. “Lord, no. I just didn’t want to railroad you into doing something you might not want to do.”
She didn’t think she could be so touched while lost in the wild throes of overwhelming desire, but she was. He was being gallant. More than that, he was actually willing to step away if she didn’t want this to happen—which just made her want it all the more.
Ellie could feel herself growing very, very warm as passion swept through her.
She framed his face with her hands, already making love with him in her mind, and warned, “You just try to stop now and see what happens.”
Neil grinned then, his heart swelling. The emptiness he had been harboring began to evaporate. This was, he couldn’t help thinking, exactly what he needed both to help him cope with the events that had transpired this morning as well as to finally come to terms with what had gone down between him and Judith. He had been right to end his soul-draining engagement and now he could see why. Because it left him open to the promise that Ellie bore within her.
She was his destiny even though he hadn’t seen it at the time. It was both unnerving and exhilarating.
“You’re a scary lady, Ellie Montenegro,” Neil told her.
Her eyes were filled with laughter as she replied, “You have no idea, Dr. Eastwood.”
“Okay,” he declared. “Enough of this chitchat. More kissing.”
And with that, Neil kissed her again, harder and with even more enthusiasm than he had displayed the last time.
Her head began spinning again. All the available oxygen was being sucked out, leaving her caught up in a world filled with only him. A sensation she desperately wanted to continue.
By degrees, Ellie became aware that he was picking her up, aware that he was carrying her to the other room while her mouth remained sealed to his, affording her the very sustenance she needed to thrive.
When Neil finally drew his lips away from hers, she almost felt bereft. But then that feeling faded as he began to trace his lips along her neck, her throat, the planes of her face. Anointing all of her and making her desperately eager for more.
Ellie gave back as good as she got. For every place along her body that Neil kissed, she returned the favor. She was almost desperate to devour him with her eager mouth, wanting to do to him what he was so clearly doing to her.
She was acutely aware of the fact that when it came right down to it, she hardly knew Neil, but that didn’t really matter. Her soul knew him, had known him, she felt.
It made no sense in reality—wouldn’t have made any sense to her had someone said this to her only a short while ago. And yet, in her heart, she knew that what she felt was true.
And if what was happening between them never went anywhere beyond tonight, she would deal with that later. Right now, the only thing that mattered was this moment, this man. This wondrous feeling that was exploding within her and creating incredible rainbows in her soul.
Ellie gloried in his artful hands, which touched her everywhere, caressing her, possessing her, making her feel incredibly beautiful, cherished and wanted.
Her heart pounding, she was only vaguely aware of unbuttoning Neil’s shirt, pushing it away from his wide shoulders and down his arms. She was eager to feel his naked body beneath the material. Eager to touch and caress. And possess him.
She could feel him doing the very same thing to her as she undid his trousers, tugging them away from his torso.
Ellie could hardly recognized herself.
She had never behaved this way before. But then, she had never felt this way before. It was as if some sort of wild animal within her had been set free, given the go-ahead to behave in a manner that was completely foreign to her.
Ellie didn’t even want to think what had to be going through Neil’s mind about her right at this moment. About what he thought about her wanton behavior. All that was secondary to this moment, this sensation, this man who had lit her fire and managed to set her off this way—making her sizzle.
She wanted more. More of this fantastic sensation. More of him.
Neil couldn’t even begin to describe what he was feeling right now. This woman with the adorable face was behaving in ways he wouldn’t have ever even begun to imagine.
She took his very breath away. It was like handling liquid fire, trying desperately to contain it without getting burned, and yet being utterly fascinated by it.
Neil was creating havoc within her as he was covering her eager, throbbing body with a network of hot, openmouthed kisses. With each one, though it didn’t seem possible, he only managed to fuel his desire to higher and higher levels.
He was making her crazy, Ellie thought. He was blotting out her very thoughts with what he was doing, leaving her to be a throbbing mass of pulsating, yearning desire.
Working his magic, he had managed, by using his clever mouth, to bring her up to one climax and then quickly to another.
It was all she could do to keep from screaming out loud.
Ellie bit down on her lip, holding in her exploding joy as it seized her—but it wasn’t easy.
After each episode, she fell back on the gurney, exhausted beyond her wildest imagination as well as incredibly sated.
The second time it occurred, she didn’t think she would be able to even move, but at the same time, she felt guilty that she had received all the pleasure and he hadn’t.
When she realized that Neil was beginning to undertake the same path again, Ellie put her hands against his shoulders and stopped him. And
then, before he could say a word, she drew him up to her level.
“Together,” she breathed. Her meaning was as clear as she was able to make it, given the fact that she was having trouble dragging in air.
“Whatever you want,” Neil told her. There was a gleam in his eyes as he slowly dragged his body up along hers, arousing both of them as he did so.
Neil was more than ready for her, but even so, he wove a wreath of kisses all along Ellie’s face and neck one more time before he finally united them and entered her.
And then he began to move. At first slowly, then faster and faster, until they found themselves racing, breathlessly, to the final pinnacle, the final all-engulfing explosion. When it came, wrapping itself around both of them, the impact was so surprisingly powerful it all but disoriented them.
They clung to one another, holding on tightly and relishing every single nuance about the moment.
Ellie felt like there were stars exploding in her head, dancing through her very system. Everything else she had ever felt before paled in comparison. She held on to him, clinging to Neil and to the moment, wishing with all her heart that it would never end.
But she knew it had to. And when it did, the sadness that drenched her was all but overwhelming.
Ellie hung on until she managed to surface from the sadness, her breathing coming in short spurts until she finally managed to steady her pulse, getting it down to a normal rate.
Neil’s arm tightened around her, holding her close to him. The feel of his heart beating against hers was incredibly comforting, more than she had ever thought possible.
Ellie sealed the moment to her, preserving it so that she could remember this in the times when Neil would no longer be there with her.
“Well, I have to admit that I never saw the day ending like this,” Neil said, lightly kissing the top of her head.
“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” Ellie asked him.
“It’s an unusual thing,” he answered because although, quite honestly, he had wanted to make love to Ellie practically from the first moment he had first laid eyes on her, he hadn’t really thought he would wind up doing it. He had felt that Ellie seemed to be out of his reach.
“Oh,” she replied, thinking that perhaps he was already putting distance between them.
He thought he could detect a note of disappointment in her voice and he certainly hadn’t intended to offend her in any way.
“But it’s definitely a good thing,” he told her with a broad smile. “A very good thing,” he stressed. “In fact, it’s so good that I’m thinking of getting my strength up for seconds,” he teased.
“You need to get your strength up?” she asked. He struck her as being such a hearty, robust specimen of virile manhood.
“Hey, don’t kid yourself, fly-girl,” he told her with a straight face. “You took a hell of a lot out of me just now.”
She was trying to follow him. If he was drained, why did he want to go another round? “But you want to go again?”
“Oh, I definitely want to go again,” Neil said with enthusiasm.
“Mmm,” she murmured, turning her nude body into his. “So just how long do you think you’ll need to get your strength back up?”
He pretend to think. “Hard to say,” he answered, his voice trailing off.
Ellie began to kiss him, at first with small, butterfly kisses then she progressed to longer, deeper ones that crisscrossed his face and torso, anointing every part of him.
“Is it getting any easier to say?” she asked Neil as she went on kissing him.
“Not yet,” he answered, his voice catching. Then he changed that answer to, “Well, maybe just a little easier.” And then that changed to, “I think it might be soon. Very, very soon,” he amended, as she continued kissing his face and throat, then worked her way—slowly—down along his chest, moving ever lower.
Ellie could feel his heart pounding beneath her parted lips.
“In my humble opinion,” she told Neil, “I think you’re going to be ready for round two...oh, just about any minute now.”
As she said it, she feathered her fingers along his nether regions, mischief in her eyes as she grinned wickedly. She could feel his response to her growing as she stroked.
He caught her hand before she could continue. Ellie was really making him crazy, he thought, wanting her more with every passing second.
“You keep doing that, Ellie, and I’m not going to be responsible for whatever consequences are going arise,” he told her.
She pretended to think it over and her wicked smile grew wider. “I think I’ll take my chances,” she told him with a laugh.
Catching her up in his arms, Neil rolled over onto her.
“Round two,” he announced, his eyes shining as he went on to make love to her.
Ellie didn’t waste her time with a verbal response. In her opinion, actions spoke louder.
Much louder, and their time together was growing shorter and shorter.
She fought off and blocked the pang that threatened to seize her.
Everything had grown so complicated but she couldn’t think of that now.
She just wanted to make love with Neil now. She would think about all the rest later.
Much later.
Chapter Seventeen
“You’re getting in kind of late, aren’t you?” Eduardo commented when Ellie drove up to the ranch house in her Jeep and got out.
Her grandfather was sitting on the front porch in the weathered rocking chair that he had once carved for his daughter-in-law when she was first pregnant with Ellie. It was close to midnight and she had thought that Pop would have been in bed by now.
“I was getting a little concerned,” he went on to tell her.
She came up the porch steps and stopped at his chair. “Pop, I’m a big girl now,” she reminded him affectionately. “You don’t have to worry about me.”
“Doesn’t matter how ‘big’ you are or how old you are,” he told her matter-of-factly. “I’m always going to worry about you and your sister. It’s what family does,” he said simply. “So, is everything all right?” Eduardo asked.
He wasn’t the type to pry. Ellie was right, she was past the age where he felt he needed to be overly protective of her and keep track of what she did. But at the same time, he was determined to always be there for his granddaughters should they ever feel that they needed him.
She decided that since he had waited up, he deserved to hear part of the story. “Dr. Eastwood finally got to run those tests on Miss Joan.”
Eduardo nodded. He’d hoped that Miss Joan would live up to her word. “So how did that go?”
Ellie sighed. “Not well,” she confessed. “The test results showed that she needs to have surgery and she didn’t want to hear about it. Dr. Eastwood isn’t used to being disregarded and I think her reaction really bothered him. I tried to make him feel better about the situation by telling him that it wasn’t him, it was just Miss Joan being Miss Joan,” she told her grandfather.
If he suspected that anything else happened beyond that, she knew he wasn’t going to push the matter. It was an unspoken agreement between them.
“Well,” Eduardo said thoughtfully, “he knew that going in.”
“Yes,” she agreed, “but knowing something and being confronted with it are two very different things. It hit him hard. He felt he should have been able to convince her to have the procedure.”
“So, were you able to make the good doctor come around and feel better?” Eduardo asked.
It was hard to keep the smile from her face, but she didn’t want to have to explain about that, too, so all she said was, “I think so.”
Eduardo’s eyes met hers. She could see that she hadn’t completely convinced him, but he wasn’t about to push the matter.
“Good,” he
pronounced. “Get some sleep, Ellie. Maybe things will look better by tomorrow.”
That had always been her grandfather’s guiding mantra, she thought. “Maybe,” she echoed. “G’night, Pop.”
He rose slowly from the rocking chair, his limbs not as cooperative as they used to be.
“Hold on, I’m going to call it a night, too,” he said, walking into the house with her.
* * *
Ellie’s cell phone rang early the next morning. She was groping around for the device she’d left on her nightstand before she was fully awake.
Finding it, she held it up to her ear. “Hello?” she mumbled thickly.
“I found her!”
The woman’s excited voice echoed in Ellie’s head before she could make any sense of the declaration or discern who the caller was.
“Found who?” she asked, sitting up as she dragged one hand through her hair, desperately trying to bring consciousness to her brain along with it.
“Zelda. I found Zelda,” the woman on the other end cried. And then, in case Ellie was still only half-awake, she added, “Miss Joan’s sister. She’s alive!”
Ellie blinked as she realized who was calling her—and why. “Olivia?”
“Of course it’s me. Who did you think it was?” The lawyer didn’t wait for an answer as she continued with her effusive narrative. “I located Miss Joan’s sister,” she repeated. “I had a long talk with her, told her what was going on with Miss Joan, and she’s more than willing to come out and talk to her sister. She is concerned, though, that Miss Joan might not want to talk to her.”
The full import of what Olivia was telling her was taking root.
“Don’t worry about that part. I’ll take care of it,” Ellie told the lawyer. “You did the hard part. You found her,” Ellie declared. “How did you manage to find her?”
“Networking,” Olivia answered glibly. “By the way, I heard about Miss Joan’s reaction to the test results yesterday.”
Ellie suspected that by now probably half the town, if not more, had heard about Miss Joan’s stubborn refusal to have anything done to alleviate her condition. But now that Olivia had been able to actually find the woman’s sister, this gave them a measure of hope that they would be able to get Miss Joan to come around and change her mind.
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