Elias (New Adult Romance) (West Bend Saints Book 1) (15 page)

"Turn around," he said.  "I want to see all of you."

A breeze rustled the trees, and my nipples hardened in the coolness of the air.  I felt like I was under some kind of spotlight.  Even after I turned around, I could feel his eyes on me.

I didn't hear him move, but I felt his touch, his palm on my shoulder.  I shivered involuntarily, a reflexive response.  "And?"  I asked.  "Do you like what you see?"

He didn't say anything.  But I felt his hands on my waist, and then one hand on my thigh, pushing my legs apart.

And then he was kneeling at my feet behind me, his head between my legs, his mouth on me.  His tongue moved down me, and I nearly lost my balance as he ran his tongue down the length of my slit.  "Shit," I said, the word little more than a whisper.

He brought his face away from my pussy, and I could feel his hot breath on me, teasing me, taunting me with every word.  "I definitely like what I see from this angle," he said, probing me with his fingers.  "And I definitely like how you taste."

My muscles clenched down around him, like they had a mind of their own.  My body definitely seemed like it had a mind of its own when it came to Elias.  Or maybe this was what it meant to have a rebound.

Either way I didn't care.  Not when Elias was doing what it was doing.  He had me so desperate, needy for him, that I would do whatever he wanted.  I wasn't used to feeling like this, my body aching, yearning to be filled.

He brought me to the edge, my breath coming in gasps as he probed me relentlessly with his fingers.  Then he stopped, and stood.  The throbbing between my legs was all I could think about.  I wanted him to keep doing what he was doing.

Facing him, I let my fingers roam over his chest, then down his abdomen, and over his ass.  His mouth came down on me, hard, and he kissed me hungrily, his tongue finding mine, probing me.  I gripped him, and ran my hand over the length of his cock.

When he let go of my mouth, he looked at me expectantly.  "Well?"  he asked.  "What about you?  Like what you feel?"

"Fishing for compliments again?" I teased.  He sure didn't need me to tell him he was hung like a horse.  Hell, with what was between his legs, he should be walking around like he owned the fucking world.

Elias reached between my legs and pulled his fingers back, slick with my wetness.  "Nah," he said.  "You obviously like what you feel."  

I dropped to my knees, the grass cool underneath me, my eyes following down the length of him as I helped him out of his jeans.  I felt his gaze on me as I ran my hand up over the side of the prosthetic.  I kept my eye contact with him, somehow aware it mattered that he understand I wasn't repulsed by any of it, by any of him.  I ran my palms over the outside of his thighs, feeling his powerful muscles flex under my touch, and then opened my mouth to take him in.

"Shit."  Elias ran his hands through my hair, grasping at the roots as I covered him with my mouth.  "Your mouth is so fucking hot."

He was the one who was fucking hot
, I thought, looking up at him as I held him in my mouth.  I liked this, taking him in my mouth, completely in control of his pleasure.

When he grasped my hair, pulling me off of his cock to stand up and face him, his expression was clouded with lust.  “Any more of that, and I’d be coming,” he said.  “And I don’t want that.  Not yet.”  He kissed me hard on the mouth, and then along my collarbone and the side of my neck.  Then he spun me around to kiss the nape of my neck.  I felt him inhale, and the hardness of his cock pressed up against my ass.  I arched against him as he wrapped his arms around me, his hands kneading my breasts.

“Please,” I whispered.  I was practically begging.  I was wanton, needy for him.

Elias pushed me forward a few steps, toward this tree, and I giggled at the idea of being out here, naked, where anyone could find us.  I’d never dared to do anything like this, not as River Andrews.

It felt ridiculous, silly, dangerous…and freeing.

“What?” Elias asked.

I shook my head.  “Just thinking about us, out here naked.”

He slid his hands over my arms, guiding them to touch this low-hanging branch of the tree that sloped to touch the ground.  It was picturesque, this place, and I imagined it was one of those places people came to picnic, back when the riverbed wasn’t dried up and cracked.

“That’s funny, is it?” he asked.  “Us, out here, naked?”  He plunged his fingers inside me, and I gasped.

“Not...now, it’s not.”

Pleasure rushed through me, and I heard the crinkle of foil.  Over my shoulder, I saw him tearing open the packet with his teeth.  I had never been so ready for anyone.

When he entered me, it was with no hesitation.  In one swift thrust, he was inside me.  I arched my back, pressing my ass against him, and his hands grasped my breasts, pulling me into him.  I braced my hands against the branch, the rough bark cutting into my palms, but I didn’t care.  All I could feel was him.

“You are so fucking tight,” he said, and I felt a rush of wetness in response to his words.  I’d never much been one for dirty talking, but something about how this man spoke got me hot and bothered earlier, and it was doing even more for me now.

“Yes,” I gasped.  “Harder.”

I felt his mouth near my ear as he spoke, punctuating each ragged word with another thrust deep inside me.  “Careful what you wish for, sweetheart,” he said.  His fingers pinched my nipples, and a shock of pain ran through me.

“Oh my God.”  I was so close.

“Wait,” he growled, close to my ear.  “Wait until I tell you you can come.”  

I could hear myself moaning, from somewhere outside my body, but there was nothing else except him and I.  I didn’t want anything else.  His touch erased everything in that moment, made it impossible to think about anything except what he was doing to my body.  All I could imagine was him - his hands on my breasts, his breath on my ear, his lips on my neck, and his cock, filling me up.  It was ecstasy, pure and simple.

“Now,” he said, and the instant he spoke the word, I let go, crying out as he came into me.  The white heat of my orgasm eclipsed everything else.

Afterward, I stood there, completely motionless as the throbbing between my legs subsided and the fog in my head cleared.  I moved my hands and winced.  My palms felt raw where I’d clutched at the rough bark of the tree.

Elias breathed heavy against my neck.  “Goddamn,” he said.

I’ll say,
I thought.  
Goddamn
was about the only thing there was to say.

Afterward, I sat there, my arms wrapped around River, her back pressed up against my chest.

"Thank you," she whispered.

"For what?"  I felt her chest rise and fall under my arms as she took slow breaths.

"All of this," she said.  "No one's ever done anything like this for me before."

"No one's ever fucked you like this?" I teased her.

"Shut up," she said.  "You know what I mean.  No one's ever done something like this, what you did for me tonight, out here."

"You mean that none of those boys out in Hollywood haven't done anything like this for you?"  I asked.  "I find that hard to believe."

River laughed, but it sounded bitter.  "You're joking, right? 
Boys
are exactly what they are.  And no, I meant what I said."

I couldn't help but be pleased with myself, doing something for her that was different from all the other guys who had to be chasing her.  Especially that douchebag musician boyfriend of hers.

Viper. 
What a fucking name.

"Well, I also meant what I said earlier, before you distracted me," I said, nudging her up.  "I am going to feed you."

River tucked her knees up to her chest, and wrapped her arms around them, watching me open the picnic basket.  "So this is a proper date now?"

"It always was," I said.  "Are you cold?"

"Chilly."

I reached for an extra blanket and tossed it to her, then joined her underneath it as I took out the food I'd brought.

"You went to a lot of trouble," she said. 

I shrugged.  "Just went to the store and shit," I said.  "Not like I cooked it or anything."

"It was a compliment," she said.  "You should learn how to accept one gracefully." 

"Less talking, more eating," I said, and held up a cracker I'd smeared with some gourmet cheese or some shit I'd gotten at the store - the lady at the grocery said it was imported something or other.

River laughed and took a bite.  "Classy," she said.  She leaned in next to me, and as much as I'd never been much for the cuddling bullshit with other girls, with River I decided it was okay.  In fact, it felt kind of nice, the same way it had been with her last night.

"What happened in town yesterday," River began.

"I really am sorry about snapping at you," I said.

"Oh, no, I'm not talking about that," she said.  "June told me about your father."

"Oh.  That."  I tensed automatically at the mention of him.

"Yeah, that."

"He died," I said.  "I'm not sorry in the least.  He wasn't a good person."

River didn't say anything at first.  She just nodded.  "I don't know who mine is," she said.  "My father, I mean."

"Fuck family," I said.  "The whole blood is thicker than water thing is such horseshit."

"You have brothers, though?" June asked, her voice soft.

"Four," I said.

"I just have a sister," June said.  "I mean, obviously.  My sister is the one screwing Viper.  What are your brothers like?"

"We used to be close," I said.  "Not as much anymore."  That was the goddamned understatement of the year.

"How many of you are there?"

"Mason was the oldest, died when I was a kid."

River was silent, and I just continued, this deluge of words, non-stop.  I didn't talk about my brothers much, or about my family at all.  Even to the guys in my unit.  They knew I was going home to West Bend, but not about much more than that.  Telling someone about my family felt foreign.

"My mother married the asshole -"  I cleared my throat.  "My father, I mean, after that.  Had Mason when she was a teenager.  The rest of us were from him - Silas, Luke, and Killian.  There's four of us."

"Are they in West Bend?"

"Silas is," I said.  "Works at a bar- bounces, I guess."

"Are you close?"

"It's complicated."

"Seems like a straightforward enough question."

"You're fucking pushy, aren't you?" I asked.  River didn't seem bothered by my language or my irritation. She just shrugged and smiled.

"Been called worse," she said.

"We used to be close," I said.  I didn't have to talk to her about my fucking family, I reminded myself.  I could just tell her to fuck off and mind her own business.

Except I didn't want to.  Not really.

For whatever the hell reason, I found myself wanting to tell River things I didn't talk about with other people.  And that's the part that was scaring the shit out of me.

"And then what happened?"

"I don't know," I said.  "Life, I guess.  People change."

"You're so full of shit, Elias Saint," River said.  But she didn't press me on it.  It made me like her more. "June and Cade told me what happened with Mason."

"What the -?"  I pulled away from her, irritated that she'd probed around in my past.

River put her hand on my chest, calm in the midst of my fury.  "I asked them what they knew about Elias Saint.  You.  After what happened in town, with the sheriff, I wanted to know."

"Why?"

River pulled back from me and turned to face me, still under the blanket.  I could feel her knees tucked up protectively to her chest.  She looked down.  "I wanted to know if I was wrong about you."

"Wrong about what?"

"Who you are."

"Who do you think I am?"  My chest felt tight, like there was a vise grip on my heart.  I didn't fucking want to hear what she'd assumed about me from the beginning - who she assumed I was.  I'd gotten enough of that bullshit growing up.

"I thought you were a good guy," she said.  "Protective.  Loyal.  Principled."

I laughed.  "Principled," I said, shaking my head.  "I've never fucking gotten called that before."

River ignored me.  "June told me the town had it in for your family."

"You know the whole fucking story, then," I said.

"I know what June told me," River said.  "I somehow doubt that's the whole story."

I shrugged.  "Not much more to it than what she told you, probably.  Mason had it roughest growing up, out of all of us, not being blood-related to the asshole.  I don't remember much of it, not really - Killian and Luke remember more, but that's the way they told it.  Got away from our place, worked as a ranch hand on June's dad's ranch.  He and June's sister had a thing.  Anyway, he killed June's parents drunk driving, died in the accident.  June's sister killed herself."

"It happened a long time ago," River said, more of a question than a statement.

"I don't even remember it.  I was too young," I said.  "Just the aftermath.  Mom already had a black mark on her from the beginning, showing up in town pregnant and young, running away from her home.  Add my father to the mix, the fucking town drunk, a mean sonofabitch, and...then, the accident after that."

"You were like pariahs, then."

"Small town bullshit."

"Growing up an outsider...it sticks with you forever," River said.  "Makes it hard to trust people."

What the fuck would River Andrews know about being an outsider?  Millions of adoring fans, a job most people dream of... she acted like she knew something about this kind of family bullshit?  I looked into her eyes, at the sincerity etched into her features.

Yeah, right.  She didn't know about this kind of thing.  She was an actress.

“Why the fuck are we even talking about this?” I asked, pulling her toward me.  “How bout a little less talking and a lot more fucking?”

River bit her bottom lip, but she couldn't hide her grin.  “Show me what you’ve got, then.”

I collapsed against him, my breath still ragged even in the afterglow of sex, and pulled the blanket tighter against us, seeking his warmth but still shivering.

“You’re shivering,” Elias said.  “I guess I’m going to have to fucking warm you up again, huh?”

I laughed him off.  But the truth was, Elias had my body aching for him, even after he’d just been inside me.  I’d never known that with any other man - it had to be some kind of primitive evolutionary thing, the way he set me off.

“Maybe back at the house,” I said.

“You don’t want to stay out here?” Elias asked.

“You’re joking, right?”

“No,” he said.  “I thought it would be romantic, out here under the stars.  There have only been a few sightings of bears in the past few years, I think, and the coyotes don’t generally attack humans.”

“Hilarious,” I said.  “You forget I’m not exactly a complete city slicker.”

“Let’s go back to the house.  I can’t promise I’m going to keep my hands off you on the way back, or that we won’t have to stop for a detour, though.”

His words sent a rush of arousal through me.  “I hope that’s a promise,” I said.

He kept his word.

We weren't a few miles down the road when he reached over and slid his hand between my legs.

I let out an involuntary gasp.

"Unbutton your pants," he said, his voice gruff.

"Why?" I asked, more of a reflexive response than anything else.   No man ordered me around the way Elias did.  I didn't know if I liked it or hated it.

Of course, no man had me instantly wet the way Elias did, either.