Straddling the Fence (13 page)

“So do you.” She drew one palm down to stop over his heart.
“I love the shirt.” It was rose-colored with faint paisley print and pearl
snaps. In addition to being pretty, it showed off the width of his shoulders,
hugged the muscled curves underneath. She fingered the snap in the center of
his chest. “Can I tell you something?”

“Always.”

“I think I’m developing a fetish for pearl snaps.”

His eyes glittered with mischief. “That so?”

She nodded, biting her lip.

“Any old pearl snaps or just
my
pearl snaps?”

“Just yours.” No question.

They were almost indecently close now, with Eli’s hard thigh
tucked between her legs as they swayed to the music. Arousal simmered in her
blood. Everyone else in the room disappeared.

“Good to know ’cuz I have a closet full of ’em.”

Bellamy smiled, burying her nose in the shirt, breathing his
scent deep. One of his hands cupped the back of her neck while the other rested
at the top of her ass, keeping their lower halves pressed together. Making her
panties wet and her heart thump with anticipation.

He brushed his mouth across her temple. “I’ve missed you
this week.”

She drew back to peer up at him. “Yeah?”

“Like crazy.”

“Same here,” she confessed.

“I’ll make it up to you later tonight,” he said, those gray
eyes darkening with heat and promise.

“How about sooner rather than later?”

Without a moment’s hesitation, he took her hand and they
left the dance floor, waving goodbye to everyone as they headed for the door.
Eli helped her up into his truck then circled around to climb in. As soon as
his door slammed shut behind him, he was grabbing her thighs and dragging her
across the truck seat. Laughing, she caught his face in her hands to kiss him,
tracing the seam of his lips with her tongue, bypassing flirty and coy
altogether. He groaned into her mouth and let her in before taking control of
the kiss, melting her bones in the process.

They necked like greedy teenagers for a solid ten minutes,
hands roaming everywhere, breathing heavy enough to fog the windows, before she
said, “Not that I have anything against making out in your truck, but I’d
rather you come home with me.”

“No way in hell I’m fucking you in the parking lot of a bar,
either.” He shoved a hand through his hair then grabbed the steering wheel.
“Just need a minute for some blood to return to my brain so I can remember how
to drive.”

Bellamy scooted back to her side of the truck while he
adjusted the impressive bulge in his jeans with a wince.

“All the doors and compartments on your truck locked?” he
asked her.

“Yes. Think it’ll be okay?” She wasn’t totally sloshed, but
she was tipsy enough to know she couldn’t, or wouldn’t, drive herself home.

“Yeah, the streetlights stay on all night and city cops
patrol pretty regularly through here.”

Decision made, Eli cranked the truck, they both buckled up,
and he drove out of the parking lot.

It was chilly inside Bellamy’s house, almost the same
temperature as outside. Immediately her hands went to her arms, trying to rub
away the cold. Eli bit his tongue hard enough to hurt. He hated that she was
staying in a place with no source of heat except a fireplace that was dangerous
to use. The old house probably didn’t have an ounce of insulation in the walls
or ceiling, and drafty windows and doors to boot.

“Did you see about getting the chimney cleaned?”

She shrugged, avoiding his gaze. “I keep forgetting.”

Or was it money? He didn’t dare pose that question, though.
Finances were a deeply personal subject and none of his business. Unless she
asked for his help, which he knew would never happen, he’d have to sit back and
let her figure things out for herself, hard as that was to do.

“Wanna chance it and light a fire?” he asked. It was her
house. Had to be her decision.

Blowing warm breath into her hands, she nodded. “Please.”

“Gather up some scrap paper and your matches while I grab
the wood.”

He stepped out onto the porch and the stack of wood he’d
split, loading his arms down with several pieces of dry oak and a few scraps of
fat lighter to help start the fire. Back inside, she had everything laid out on
the hearth while she huddled there as if the flames were already licking up the
chimney. He dropped into a crouch and got busy. She watched closely, sitting on
the floor next to him Indian-style, arms hugging her body for warmth.

“I know about the horse,” she said.

Eli kept quiet, feeding the growing fire another log.

“It was an incredibly kind and generous thing to do.”

“Tucker’ll take good care of him,” he said.

“Why didn’t you want me to know?”

He finally met her gaze, and sweet Christ, he probably
shouldn’t have. Flames danced in her eyes, turning her irises a golden green,
the soft sheen of tears unmistakable. It killed him that something as simple as
seeing a neglected horse found a better home moved her so much. Or that it
could mean as much when it took little effort on his part. Had no one ever done
something nice for this amazing girl?

Damn, the things she did to his heart.

He meant what he told her earlier as they’d danced—she was
the most beautiful creature he’d ever known, but her beauty went way past the
surface of her skin, right down to the very center of her soul. It hurt to
watch her struggle to find her place in the world when he knew his, mostly. To
sit idle while she tried to make peace with a broken dream, mourn the loss of
her grandmother in her own way and put down roots somewhere.

All along, Eli had thought adding the figurative fertilizer
was the way to help her accomplish those things. Now he wondered if it was a
mistake. If in doing so, he wasn’t confusing her more. Disrupting the natural
progression of her life in some way. What he wanted more than anything was to
be a part of it, but she had to be ready for that too. She had to want him
there with her for it to ever work.

“I figured with everything else I’ve done for you, you might
see it as me trying too hard or pushing you someplace you didn’t want to be.”

She got to her feet, offering her hand. He took it and
straightened to face her, searching her eyes for something that told him she
understood what he meant. Her gaze was steady and intense, all uncertainty
gone.

“At this moment, I’m right where I want to be.”

Grasping her waist, he pulled her to him for a deep kiss
then, with their mouths still locked together, he backed her against the
closest wall. One taste of her and the room became an inferno, chasing the
chill from his skin, sending a jolt of desire through his body. Her tongue
stroked over his before retreating to make a teasing swipe across his bottom
lip.

He drew his mouth down her throat, nipping at the tender
skin above her collarbone, loving the sound of her sigh and the way her hands
clutched at his hair. When she tugged, Eli lifted his head.

“Timeout,” she said, excited breaths heating his neck.

He braced his hands on the wall and levered himself away to
give her some space. “Something wrong?”

“No. It’s just that when you kiss me, I lose my train of
thought, and on the way home I had this
really
dirty fantasy, probably
fueled by Jose Cuervo and our hot make-out session in the bar parking lot.” She
gave him a sheepish grin, scrunching her nose. “Wow, I said that out loud,
didn’t I?”

And just when he thought she couldn’t get any sexier. “Yep.”

“Definitely Jose’s fault.”

It wasn’t Jose’s fault that his dick was currently as hard
as a fencepost. That was all on her. “Wanna tell me about this filthy fantasy?”

She peered up at him, toying with one of the snaps on his
shirt. “I’d rather show you.”

His forehead hit the wall. “Damn, Bell. I might have a heart
attack before we ever get naked.”

“Then you should sit down.”

In a flash, she was out from under him and in the kitchen.
He checked the fire again, but by then it was roaring, spilling heat and gilded
light across the big room, through the archway to where Bellamy stood with her
hands braced on the top of a ladder-back chair. Now would not be the time for a
chimney fire.

Eli sat down facing the farm table, his back to the living
room and the fireplace, and waited for her to make the next move. Her fantasy,
her call. He was just a willing participant.

She stood in front of him, pushed his hair back from his
face and kissed him again. Before he could pull her down onto his lap though,
she was gone. So he sat in the quiet kitchen listening to the burning wood pop
and hiss behind him and the hard rush of blood pulse inside his ears. While he
waited, he tugged off his boots and cracked his toes. No way was he losing the
socks, even if she wanted him to strip. The floor was too fucking cold.

Behind him, he heard her rustling around in the other room,
a door closing down the hall then opening a few minutes later, and the distinct
sound of something metallic. When she reappeared in front of him, she wore a
fluffy white robe that hit her mid-thigh. The belt was tied, concealing what
lay beneath. She’d left on her socks too, and they had cows on them.
Dancing
dairy
cows
, to be more precise, wearing tutus
.

He looked up, cocking an eyebrow.

She shrugged. “I don’t have any sexy socks and my feet are
freezing.”

Everything on her was sexy, even goofy socks. “What’s under
the robe?”

“Be patient. But I promise it doesn’t have farm animals on
it.”

“Thank God for small blessings.”

Reaching into the pocket of the robe, she withdrew a handful
of shiny metal, then untangled the mass to let it dangle from her hand. Twin
chains with big rings on each end. The same kind of chains they’d used to pull
the calf, except maybe a little shorter.

Things just got interesting.

“They’re brand new, before you ask.”

“Good to know.”

“Are you wondering who gets restrained, me or you?”

“I’m the one sittin’ in the chair, darlin’.”

“You could say no.”

He almost laughed aloud. “You do realize who you’re talkin’
to, right?”

Her smile was warmer than the fire. “So it’s a yes, then.”

Without waiting for Eli’s corroboration, she moved behind
him, drawing his hands down to the back legs of the chair. The technique she
used was the same one she’d demonstrated for the calf, with twin loops evenly
bracketing his wrist bones. Then she wound the lengths of chain through the
chair braces and told him to tip it onto its back legs. When he did, she
slipped the rings onto the front legs and pushed him forward, pinning his
restraints in place with the help of his own weight. He tested them, finding
they had very little give. She’d done a damn good job.

“Are they too tight?” she asked, running her hands up his
arms and over his shoulders as she moved to stand in front of him again.
“You’re not uncomfortable, are you?”

“No. Just keep an eye on the fire.”

Her gaze flicked up, narrowed, then landed on him again.
“It’s fine.”

Eli swallowed, finding his throat had gone bone dry. It
wasn’t fear making it that way. More like anticipation. Sort of how he imagined
it might feel right before you leaped out of an airplane at twelve-thousand
feet above the ground. His heart hammered away at his ribs while he waited to
see what she had in mind for him.

When she straddled his lap, Eli looked down, watching the
robe part just far enough to tease him with a glimpse of smooth inner thigh.
Sharp teeth nipped his jaw.

“Such a guy,” she murmured as her tongue swiped away the
sting of pain.

“We’re a rotten bunch.”

He tried to capture her mouth with his, but she drew back
out of his reach, damn her sexy ass. If she’d scoot a little closer, he’d be
able to feel how warm she was, and in turn, she’d know how hard he’d grown from
just thinking about the snug wet heat of her pussy surrounding his dick as she
rode him. If she kept up the teasing, the real thing might blow the top of his
head off once she finally allowed him to have it.

“I think you’re angling for some type of punishment,” she
said.

“Well, my hands are already tied.”

“Did I surprise you with the chains?”

“Yes, but I’m more anxious to see what’s beneath the robe.”

She pulled his hair. “Eli, you’ve seen me naked several
times now.”

“Never gets old, honey.”

“Sweet talker,” she purred, rubbing his bottom lip with her
thumb.

“Gimme that mouth and I’ll show you just how sweet I can
be.”

Ignoring his request, she pushed her thumb past his lips,
grazing his teeth. He sucked on the digit, licked the salt from her skin,
watching as her pupils grew larger with arousal and her breathing went shallow.
“You’re not in charge, remember?”

He shook the chains in answer.

Bellamy smiled and removed her thumb from his mouth. “Good
boy.”

His reward was a kiss that made him press his toes to the
floor as he tried to maintain his equilibrium. She had a way of doing that to
him—knocking him off balance in the best kind of way.

He groaned his disappointment when she pulled away, scooting
farther back on his thighs. And God, her mouth…damp from the kiss, swollen and
red from her teeth and the beard stubble on his chin. It made him lick his own
lips to hold on to her flavor.

Her hands went to the belt on the robe and his gaze zeroed
in on the fabric as it parted, revealing her body and the sexy-as-fuck bra and
panties she wore. Pink satin with black lace trim, and oh so small. They
matched, which he supposed mattered to Bellamy, and to be honest, he totally
got the appeal of lingerie on women. It was the fancy wrapping on the gift that
lay beneath. An adornment, nothing more. Pretty, but not as beautiful as her
naked skin. Something to take off with his teeth. Men worried more about
messing up the delicate fabric with their rough, greedy hands than whether or
not it was color coordinated.

She let the robe slide off her shoulders to catch in the
bend of her elbows. The fire was chasing the chill out of the house, but it was
still cool enough to make gooseflesh rise on her stomach and arms and cause her
nipples to pinch beneath the thin silk of her bra cups. He wanted to feel her
flesh beneath his tongue, let the feverish rush of their blood warm them both
from the inside out.

Eli’s focus shifted when her hands landed on the placket of
his shirt. He watched her fingers graze each snap, from the center of his chest
all the way down to where they disappeared behind his belt buckle. He grinned.
She really did have a thing for them.

One by one, she popped each snap apart, nuzzling, licking
and kissing the skin she exposed. At the first hot sweep of her tongue around
his nipple, Eli full-on shuddered hard enough to make the chair squeak. He had
to force himself to relax his arms because the chains were biting into his
wrists from needing to touch her.

He understood why she wanted to restrain him now. If she
hadn’t, his hands would be all over her, manipulating, taking control. He
couldn’t help it; it was just his nature to be in charge when it came to sex.
In tying him down, she’d taken that control away, leaving him open to her whims
and desires and the pace she wanted to set. It didn’t frustrate him at all. It
had the opposite effect, in fact, making him focus on sensation and his other
senses.

Bellamy moved off his lap to kneel between his feet and his
heart nearly stopped. “Jesus.”

She smirked. “I’m not getting ready to pray.”

“No, but I might be.”