I take a swig of the vodka in my hand as I try to decide which of my friends to ask about sending me my stuff. I’ve never been attached to things, but I have some things in my Corrigan apartment that I’d like to have back. My dog tags, some pictures, and yeah, some things Ellie gave me. I shouldn’t want them, but I do.
The cabin door bangs open, and I reach for the gun I put on the coffee table. I turn, and then sigh as I see who it is. Matt, Nate, Jake, Theo, and my dad are walking in. “I could’ve shot you guys.”
“Nah. You don’t shoot without looking. You’re too good for that,” Nate says.
“What are you doing here?”
“Trying to talk some sense into you,” Matt tells me.
“If you’re referring to Ellie, you might as well save your breath.”
My dad walks over and smacks me on the back of the head. “I used to always brag about how smart my son was. I wished I’d realized just how stupid you were years ago.”
“She betrayed me.”
“So did I. And your mother. And your friends.”
“That’s different.”
“How?”
“I-I didn’t love any of you the way I loved Ellie,” I say, swallowing hard.
“You still love her, so stop using the past tense,” Jake reminds me.
“How can I love someone who lied to me? She kept things from me that I needed to know.”
“Because I asked her to,” my dad reminds me.
“And let’s not forget that she protected you, and took down the person who was trying to destroy you. But then again, that right there is the big problem, isn’t it,” Matt says.
“Yes,” I admit quietly. Matt, Nate, and my dad know me well enough to know the truth, and the other guys have probably guessed it by now.
“You have to let go of this stupid code of yours that says no one can help you while you help everyone else. That’s not the way the world works. It’s not the way love works,” my dad says.
“What if I don’t want it to work that way? I want to be the one to protect her. I can take care of myself.”
“Really? And how’s that working for you right now?” Theo asks.
“I’ll find someone who just wants to be taken care of.”
“You think you’ll be satisfied with that? With some woman who just sits back and lets you take care of her? That’s going to be enough for you after Ellie?” Jake asks me.
“It will have to be. I can’t change who I am.”
“Bullshit. We’ve all had to change, and evolve. Not just for our women, but for ourselves. To be the men we are destined to be. Any man would be lucky to have Ellie, and she chose you. She put her life on the line for you. She put her recovery on a fast track to be with you. If you can’t be man enough to appreciate it, then walk away. But don’t spout off some crap about how you can’t let her help you,” Nate tells me.
“It’s not crap. I don’t need help.”
“I seem to remember helping you out of a trench that was being attacked,” Matt says.
“And I carried you down a mountain when you got shot in the leg,” Nate reminds me.
“I held your hand on your first day of school,” my dad says in a quiet voice.
“I haven’t done anything that monumental for you yet, but I would,” Jake says.
“Me, too,” Theo adds.
“I’m an asshole,” I tell them, realizing that I’ve accepted help all my life from people, without even thinking about it. Without giving it the importance it deserves. I just focused on who I could help instead. Wanting to be the hero of the story every time, and not understanding that the hero always has someone to help him. Bruce Wayne has Alfred, and I have my guys. And Ellie. Or at least I had her until I screwed it all up.
“I blame myself for setting you on your path,” my dad says. “I always told you that a man needed to be honorable, and give more to the world than he took. I didn’t realize you would take it so literally. I’m so proud of the man you are, Aiden. You’ve done great things, and while I can’t condone some of your actions, I know they came from a good place. I hate to see you give up on Ellie just because she kept some things from you.”
“You kept things from her, too,” Nate reminds me. “You didn’t tell her about your nighttime activities. Yeah, she knew. But not because you told her.”
“I’m a hypocrite.” I realize it, and now that I’ve gotten past my pride, I own it.
“Yeah, I hate to say it, but you are,” Matt tells me.
“I don’t know how to make this right. I can’t just knock on her door and tell her I’m wrong.”
“Well, you could,” Theo tells me.
“Or you could just surprise her at her birthday party,” Jake says.
“Shit. Her birthday’s this weekend.”
We’ve never spent one of her birthdays together. I mean, I’ve been to her parties, but I’ve never been with her because I fought my feelings for her for so long, and now I’m about to miss my chance again.
“Yep. Her family’s throwing some big barbeque at one of their lake houses in Wisconsin. It should be epic,” Nate tells me.
“If you guys can help me out with something, I can guarantee that it will be.”
“All for one,” Matt says.
“And one for all,” I finish.
There’s more than just the three of us now, and I really like the idea of that. Of expanding my group of friends, and letting more people in. Ellie’s friends are almost all paired up, and the guys they’re with are pretty awesome. I hang out with them sometimes, but I’ve kept my distance. I’m not going to do that anymore. If this whole mess has taught me anything, it’s that friends and family are the most important things you can have in life. Pride, honor and justice can be great things, but they won’t carry you down a mountain, or kiss you like you’re the most important person on the planet. I have my friends for the first part, and if my plan works, I’ll hopefully have Ellie back for the second part.
Chapter 18
Ellie
I love my family, I really do. But I specifically told them that I didn’t want to celebrate my birthday this year. I should’ve known they’d ignore me. I was hoping my friends wouldn’t do the same, but here they are at my parents’ lake house in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Every single one of the Society women, and their men, are here. They know how destroyed I am, and yet they came. Well, maybe that’s why they came—for moral support. Lord knows I need it.
My mom and aunts have been parading a string of guys past me, practically begging for me to pick one. That’s not going to happen. There’s nothing wrong with the guys. They’re just not the guy. Aiden. The only guy I’ll ever want, and the one I can definitely never have.
“How are you holding up?” Jade asks, dropping into the chair next to me.
“About as well as you were when you and Nate were broken up.”
“Well, see, we got back together. There’s hope for you and Aiden.”
“We never had the fairytale, J. There’ll be no happy ending for us.”
“You need to fight for him if you want him. Not sit around looking like someone killed your cat. I mean, if you had a cat.”
“I’m more of a dog person, but I may need to look into some cats.”
“Oh hell no. You are not going to be a cat lady. Who aspires to being a cat lady?”
“Me?”
“Nope. Not gonna happen.”
“What’s not gonna happen, Angel?” Nate asks, walking up to us.
“Ellie is not going to become some lonely cat lady. So, you better tell your boy to get his shit together.”
“I’m working on it.”
“Good.”
“I need you to come with me for a few minutes, though. I’m sure Ellie will be okay without you.”
“What? I’m not leaving her alone.”
“It’s fine. Go on.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yep. Go make-out with your man. Just don’t scare
the children.”
“Actually, we should send them inside so we can have some adult fun. And Ellie, maybe you should sit at the bar.”
“Umm, okay. I guess. Why?”
“Just a hunch,” he says. Then he yells to the crowd as I move to sit on a bar stool. “Can all the kids go inside? We have some adult entertainment for Ellie.”
“Ooh, is it a stripper?” one of my aunts asks, and I want to sink into the ground.
“No. It’s not,” I say.
And then the music starts. It’s one of my favorite songs, Love Runs Out by One Republic. It’s not the music that has my jaw dropping, though, it’s Aiden. On top of the bar in a backwards baseball cap, tight t-shirt, and jeans. He’s dancing, and oh my God, I know that he is going to strip. He promised me a dance, and he’s delivering.
I never thought of this song as one you’d strip to, but he’s making it work. His hips are moving, and he’s pulling his shirt off, and where the hell are my dollar bills? Does he have oil on? Oh fuck, he’s oiled up, and I think my grandma just passed out from the sight of his abs. I hear the commotion, but I can’t take my eyes off the show in front of me.
He jumps to the ground and pulls me to my feet, dropping low to simulate what his tongue loves to do to me as my panties catch fire. His jeans drop to the ground as he moves back up my body, and he steps out of them easily. I notice for the first time that he has no shoes on. Good call.
A lower chair appears, and he sets me in it as he moves over me, giving me the lap dance of a lifetime. He’s holding onto the chair behind me as he thrusts his hips, and rolls his upper body. He’d be a billionaire if he was in a club doing this. Seriously. As the song gets close to ending, he hooks his thumbs in his boxer briefs and starts to tug them down. I reach out my hands to stop him, and then pull him down so he’s straddling me.
“Oh, come on El. Let him finish,” one of my cousins yells to me.
“Yeah, we want to see the rest of the show.”
I whip my head around at that one. “Mom? Seriously?”
“What? I’m a hot-blooded woman, and I can tell he’s packing something very nice.”
“Shoot me now. Just shoot me,” I beg Aiden.
“Not a chance, Doll.”
“Fine,” I tell him, then turn to yell to the crowd. “This is my present, so all you cougars can back the fuck off. All you younger women, too.”
Aiden smirks at me as he pulls the hat off his head and places it on top of mine. “This isn’t your present.”
“But I want it.”
“Oh, you’ll have it. As much as you want. But there are a few other things I got for you.”
“Did you get me a pony?”
He rolls his eyes. “I hate Nate. I think all men should hate him, but no. I didn’t get you a pony.”
“I was kidding.”
“I did get you a puppy, though.”
He whistles and a little black French Bulldog puppy comes running around the side of the bar. He’s so adorable, and I cuddle him close when Aiden hands him off to me. “I love him.”
“Not as much as me, though, right? I’m not interested in competing for your affections with an animal. I’ve seen how that shit has messed with Nate.”
“No, Hawk. I definitely love you a lot more than this puppy.”
“Thank God. Can we go somewhere and talk? Or do we have to wait until after the party?”
“We can go inside after you put your clothes on. The kids might ask to go camping in your briefs if they see you like this,” I tell him, looking down at his very hard and sizeable erection.
“You’re funny,” he tells me, kissing me on the nose before stepping back into his jeans.
I put my puppy down, take his hand, and lead him inside. The teenage girls all blush when they see us walk in, letting me know they caught at least part of the show. When Aiden winks at them, I worry that more than one might swoon to the floor. “Knock it off. They’re too young to know how to deflect your charm.”
“Good thing I only use it for good.”
“Just shut up and follow me up the stairs.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he tells me with a mock salute and a slap to my ass.
* * *
Aiden
I expect Ellie to lead me into one of the bedrooms, but she takes me up another short flight of stairs instead. We end up on a rooftop deck. She takes a seat and gestures to another one across from it. Okay, I get it. I may have turned her on with my dance, and melted her heart a little with the puppy, but her head is still warning her not to trust me. I just lay it all out before she can tell me to go away.
“I’m a hypocritical asshole who doesn’t deserve you, but wants you all the same. I’m so sorry that I pushed you away, El. I know you only did what you did to help me.”
“Go on.”
“Oh. That was pretty much the extent of my speech.”
“So you thought you’d come here and give me the lap dance to end all lap dances, and present me with a puppy, say you’re an asshole—which I already knew by the way—and then what? My ovaries would explode, and I’d jump on your cock and ride it until the sun sets?”
“Yeah?”
“What happens the next time I want to help you? Because I have to tell you, I’m never going to be the woman who sits back and lets you risk everything for me without doing the same for you.”
“I don’t want a meek woman who will let me walk all over her. I want a partner, someone who will call me on my bullshit and shoot any bastard who threatens me. I want you, Elletra Gallagher. Only you, no one else.”
“You can do that? Let me help you with big things, small things, and everything in between?”
“I’m going to try. I want to, but I’m not going to lie, it’s definitely an adjustment. I’ll fuck it up a bunch of times, and piss you off regularly, but if you can stick it out with me, I’ll give it my all and then some.”
“Why? Why me, why now?”
“I’ve heard people say that the person they love is who they think of when they first wake up and also while they fall asleep. But Ellie, I think of you more than that. You’re the one I think of when everything’s going right in my day, and also when it’s all going to shit. I also think of you when my day’s just going okay, and I don’t need to celebrate or rant. I think of you then because you’re everything to me, and so my thoughts of you aren’t confined to one time of day, or one type of event. You’re on my mind no matter what I’m doing, or who I’m with. When I’m sitting next to you or thousands of miles away. And all I need to do now if figure out how to prove to you that I want to spend forever with you. Because I do. You’re it, the one for me. The only one. I love you so much.”
Tears are running down her face, and neither one of us tries to wipe them away. This moment is too real, too raw for both of us. “I love you, too. That…that was the most beautiful and romantic thing I have ever heard… in my life. I want to spend forever with you, too.”
“Good, because if you let me go back down there alone, I may not make it out alive.”
She groans. “I cannot believe you stripped in front of my family.”
“Sorry. Not sorry. I should be, but I needed to get your attention and prove that you’re important enough to totally embarrass myself over.”
“You didn’t embarrass yourself. That was totally hot. When we’re dancing down there, all I’m going to be able to think about is peeling your clothes off of you. Very slowly.”
“It may be a little while before I can walk comfortably, especially if you keep talking to me like that.”
“We only have another fifteen minutes tops before someone comes looking for us. Probably my dad or one of my brothers.”
“Fuck.”
“That’s exactly what we need to do in order to take care of that problem of yours,” she tells me as she reaches under her flirty little skirt to pull her panties off. She has a bright green and black bra/corset type thing on top that’s been driving me insane sinc
e I saw her in it.
I lean back as she straddles my chair now, and frees my cock. She strokes up my length and I moan. “I love your skirt. And your top.”
“Do you?” she asks as she lowers herself onto me.
I can’t answer her as I’m overcome by the feeling of being inside of her again. I could say it’s like coming home, which it is. But it’s also so much more. It’s so right.
“Back to the present, Hawk.”
“I’m here,” I reply, rolling my hips to thrust into her as she rides me hard.
“You haven’t even touched my tits.”
“Poor things. Are they feeling neglected?” I ask, unhooking the bra top and then cupping them in my hands.
I run my thumbs over her nipples, and feel her get even wetter for me. “Aiden.”
That one word is enough to spur me into action. I open my mouth wide to take as much of her left tit into my mouth as possible. I bite and lick while caressing her right one with one hand and reaching my other hand down between us.
She starts moving faster on me, and I know I won’t last much longer. I hold off until she starts to clench around me, and she arches her back as she whimpers out my name. I know she wants to scream, but we are outside with her family just below us. I growl out my own release, and then lift her up.
I place her on her back on one of the loungers, and lift her legs between us, so her ankles are over my shoulders. I came hard, but it wasn’t enough. I’m still half-hard inside of her, and honestly, it’s nothing new. Most times with Ellie keep me half hard and ready within minutes. My body can’t get enough of hers.
I love that she’s so thin that I can pretty much bend her in half to go deep. Nate loves Jade’s curves, and I get it, but being able to bend Ellie’s body around is hotter than anything else I’ve ever experienced. I love her small tits and tight ass. And let’s not even get me started on her long legs. The ones that are currently wrapping around the back of my neck.
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