Page 18 of Always Yours

“Pfft,” Ellen says, swatting my chest. “She’s being kinda melodramatic,” she adds. “I mean I know she’s totally crushing on him, but she did nothing but complain when he was here.”

I shrug, leaning in to kiss her lips. “Like I said before, that’s how it works. He drives her crazy with his teasing and then she misses it when he’s gone. In the meantime, he’s smug as shit because he knows she can’t stop thinking about him.”

Ellen laughs now. “Oh, is that so, is it?”

“Yep,” I tell her. “Just like,” I add, kissing a slow trail down her neck to her shoulder, “you’re not going to be able to stop thinking about me when you’re lying all alone in your bed tonight,” I whisper, pulling her hips hard against mine.

“Will,” she murmurs, fingers tightening at my hips as she presses her chest against mine.

“Good night, El,” I whisper, nibbling on her ear lobe. “Sleep well,” I add before turning and walking inside the guest cottage and closing the door.

I’m woken by a noise, what sounds like a door closing. Staring into the darkness of the house, I will my eyes to focus as the sound of a creaking floor board has me sitting up in bed.

“Hello?” I whisper-shout, my eyes on the open door to the bedroom I’m sleeping in.

“Hey,” comes Ellen’s voice as she creeps into the room.

I smile as she walks over to the bed and climbs in beside me. “What are you doing here?” I ask, pulling her against me.

I feel her lips against mine, her hand as it slides around my waist and into my boxers. “You were right,” she whispers against my mouth.

“About what?” I ask, smiling as I slip my hand beneath her tank.

Ellen pushes her body against mine, her fingers digging into my skin. “I couldn’t stop thinking about you,” she murmurs.

I grin now, rolling her beneath me as I say, “I knew it,” before kissing her hard.

7

Ellen

It’s five a.m. as I creep across the yard to my parents’ house, and knowing they will be up any second now, I’m trying to be as discreet as possible. I didn’t intend to stay the night with Will, but after basically living together at school, I find it hard to sleep without him.

I have no idea what my parents’ response would be if they knew I’d snuck over there and I’m not sure I want to find out. But like everything else in life that I’ve tried to keep from my parents, this one is blown to shit too.

As I walk up the back steps to the house, the kitchen light flips on and I stop in my tracks. There’s not a chance either of them will check to see if I’m in my bed; we moved beyond that years ago, but my issue now, is how the hell I’m going to get back in the house?

I rack my brain for ideas and know the only logical option at this point is to hightail it back to the guest cottage and wait until my parents leave for work. That in itself will be a challenge because they work where we live.

Just as I’m tiptoeing down the steps, the backdoor swings open and I hear my dad’s deep voice.

“Ellen? What the hell are you doing out here?” he asks, and despite his attempts to quiet his deep voice, it still resonates loudly.

My eyes are scrunched closed as if this will make this all disappear, and I run a hand over my face as I try to gather my thoughts.

“I…I… was…” I stutter out and almost immediately give up knowing it’s useless to try to lie my way out of this. “I snuck over to the guest cottage and spent the night with Will,” I spit out quickly and suck in a deep breath as I wait for the backlash.

My dad walks over to the table and chairs that take up a portion of the deck and sits down. Setting his bowl of oatmeal and his cup of coffee down, he pulls out a second chair for me and tells me to sit.

I’m fucked.

Will’s fucked.

I do it though, because at this point, there’s no sense in arguing with him. My parents have always been lenient in regards to underage drinking with the whole growing up on a vineyard thing, but I’m not sure sleeping with a boy fits in there as easily.

I am eighteen and they can’t possibly believe I’m a virgin, but it’s probably a similar situation to me not wanting to think about my parents having sex. They definitely don’t want to think about their kid doing it.

“El, we’re not stupid,” my dad starts and I smirk a little because I know they’re not, and I do realize that most of the time they let things go to avoid the conflict. They knew alcohol had been involved in the skunk incident, but they also knew I was safe and in the end that’s what mattered.