Page 36 of Elijah's Hope
Fuck. The profile I filled out and posted on the website. We hadn’t wanted to use real names in case we ran into any freaks. So we’d all created fake names and Facebook pages so anyone curious about us could look up some stuff about us without knowing who we really were. It was a precaution, only now it felt like a lie.
“Shelby, Jones is not my real last name,” I confessed. She pulled herself up on her elbow to look at my face. “We made our last names up for security reasons.”
“But there was a Facebook page. On all of you. I checked them all out before I picked you to write to.”
It was one of the first things I liked about her email when she responded to the ad. Most of the women-and a few men, too- addressed their letters to all of us. Like going on a date with any one of the four us would be okay. Not Shelby. She only wanted to go on a date with me.
“We made those up, too. The pictures and stuff were real. Just trying to keep a layer of separation between us and any crazy stalkers.”
“Hmmm,” she said, her eyes narrowing. “I don’t know how happy I am that you waited all this time to tell me.”
“Truthfully, I forgot until you just said it. My last name is Martinez.”
“Elijah Martinez. That does sound like it fits you better. Well, it’s nice to meet you Mr. Martinez.”
She settled back on my chest and I figured crisis averted. It really was only a small lie. Of course, then it got me thinking.
“Do you have any secrets you’re keeping from me? Real secrets, not like your hair color and stuff.”
There was a brief pause before she said, “A girl always has a few secrets in her back pocket. It’s what makes us alluring and mysterious.”
I laughed. I didn’t want to burst her bubble but there was nothing mysterious about Shelby. She was a complete open book. One that I wanted to keep reading and never stop. Which led me to thinking about our conversation this morning, which led me to thinking about her mouth on me…which was not a good thing.
I needed a clear head for this conversation. “Shelby, about this morning—”
“I know,” she interrupted before I could finish my thought. “I know what you’re going to say. You’re going to say we’re going to be spending the night together in that bed again, all cuddled up. You’re going to say in the morning if you wake up before me, you have every right to do to me what I did to you this morning. Which, now that I think about it, wasn’t quite right. I mean, you were asleep and yes, I woke you and you could have stopped me if you wanted to, but let’s face it, I was sucking on your dick. There are not many men I know in the world who would say ‘Baby, please stop sucking my dick.’ Unless a person was doing it all wrong. Anyway, my point is we have to decide now if we’re going to take it to the next level, because quite frankly, I don’t think either one of us has any more control. So I can talk about my fears all I want, but my desires are telling my fears to sit down and shut up, if you know what I mean. Am I right? Is that what you were going to say?”
“Probably with fewer words.”
“That’s what I figured. Okay, then I’m saying it’s official. I’m not going to overthink it anymore. I say we do this thing. Let’s just take the plunge. Jump in feet-first. No more sitting on the side of the pool, dippin’ a toe in to test out the temperature. I mean, who needs to do that? I know what the temperature is already, and it’s hot.”
I blinked a few times to make sure I was understanding her correctly. “Shelby, are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
“I am,” she sighed. “What do you have to say to that?”
Only one thing. “I’m turning the boat around.”
I got up and did just that. We made it to the rental place in what I knew was record time.
8
Eli
It was crazy. Unlike anything I had ever felt. The anticipation was maddening. We had touched during the whole drive back to the bed and breakfast. Me holding her hand, kissing the back of it. Her running her hand along my thigh, then her fingers gently following my jaw.
There had been no less than a hundred times when I’d wanted to pull the truck over to the side of the dirt road and simply ravage her. The only thing that spared her was the idea of knowing that, as urgent as I was, as desperate as I was, I would never be able to make it as good as I needed to for her. Not with her head and back being banged up against the truck door.
And it was too cold outside to take her over the hood of the car.
So I’d bit the inside of my cheek and had stopped her hands from moving when they got too close to my raging hard-on, which was threatening to break through the zipper of my jeans.
Once we reached the B&B, we barely granted a wave at the owners who were sitting in the living room reading quietly. However, there must have been something about my expression that caught the old man’s notice because I heard him say to his wife that they needed some fresh air and should go for a walk outside.
From one man to another, I thank you.I thought that because I didn’t see how in the hell I was going to keep Shelby quiet. There was nothing about her that suggested she would be anything but loud and talkative in bed, just like she was out of it.
We reached our room and I threw open the door. Nome wasn’t a place where people locked shit. I pushed Shelby inside with barely restrained force and slammed the door behind me.
“Take off your clothes now, baby, because they are the only warm ones you’ve got, and I don’t want to have to rip them off your body.”
