Page 15 of Feels Like Falling
I shouldn’t be surprised that the only orgasm to knock me on my ass recently is by my own hand to thoughts of being inside my best friend.
That should probably be a red flag, but it has my lips lifting on one side instead. She’d take it as a compliment and undoubtedly razz me about jerking off to her. But honestly, who could blame me?
She’s her own yin and yang. The buttoned-up socialite with the fancy hair and designer clothes and the wild, cutoff-shorts goddess that only I got to see. My dick twitches at the way her hair would fall in loose waves around her shoulder, and I have to slam the water to cold to clear my mind.
Cleaning off the shower wall, I finish washing before tipping my head back under the water and taking a steadying breath. Despite my bravado, Ellison coming home has my belly swooping with nerves rather than butterflies.
Sure we’re stillus,but we’re alsousplus ten years. Talkin’ on the phone and doing video calls and texting since Nan passed isn’t the same as having her here with me. It’s not seein’ her smile when I make a joke or watching the way her eyelids fall closed on a sigh when she takes a bite of birthday cake ice cream because she was never allowed to have it at home.
We’re not kids anymore, and part of me worries that she’s romanticized a version of me that doesn’t exist anymore. Lovin’ her has always been easy, and I know that miles and years have no bearing on that—but what if she doesn’t like the man I’ve become?
I’m not the completely carefree kid that ran headfirst into danger and supported each and every one of her reckless ideas. She needed someone to catch her when she fell or when things went south, and I’d been proud to be that guy.
And for the last however many years she’d given that job to some asshat named Blake, who hadn’t had a single objection to our rekindled relationship. Something about it didn’t sit right with me. He’s lucky they’re over, and chances are I’ll never have to be in the same room as him.
Turning off the water, I dry myself haphazardly before wiping my fist against the mirror to clear the steam.
I need a plan.
And I need a plan before Ellison gets home because I know the moment I see her, every ounce of restraint I possess is gonna fly right out the window, and I can’t let that happen. I need her to see the life I’ve made here.
The life we can make together.
“Montana! Supper!” Celeste’s voice cuts through the musings running through my head, but it’s just as well. All I need is a good meal and some sleep and everything will be right as rain in the morning.
7
MONTANA
My dreams of a quiet night were dashed about ten minutes before I was ready to excuse myself from the kitchen. I’d cleared the table while Celeste put the leftovers away. She’d huffed at me when I’d taken up the spot in front of the sink, pouring soap onto the sponge and scrubbing the dishes before rinsing them and placing them in the drying rack.
I’d had one foot down the hall when an alert came through on my phone. The motion-activated lights had triggered the camera on one of our unoccupied properties, but the culprit had remained out of sight.
If it was any other house I might have let it go and called the sheriff, but it wasn’t just any other house. It’s Ellison’s childhood home and with her coming in tomorrow, I couldn’t let it go. Leaving Grandad at the table, I thanked Celeste for dinner before shoving my feet back in my boots. And thank the Lord I threw on jeans after my shower.
My truck roars to life, “She’s So Mean” by Matchbox Twenty blaring through the speakers. I might smile, because it’s one of Ellison’s favorite songs, if I wasn’t so pissed about having to deal with the disturbance at her house.
Killing the lights on my truck, I slam it into park and climb out, closing the door as quietly as I can.
I hear the splashing before I even round the side of the house. There was a time when I’d be the one jumpin’ into pools that didn’t belong to me for no other reason than I felt like it.
Well, almost no other reason.
I missed those days.
Missed her.
My footsteps are silent as I walk across the grass and unlatch the gate, opening it and my mouth at the same time. “Listen, you gotta get out of here. If you leave willingly, I won’t have to call the sheriff. I don’t want to be a hard-ass, but this is private property and?—”
The burst of feminine laughter has my chest tightening and my dick coming to life as I scan the pool for the source.
Son of a…
“I mean your ass is really hard, but would youreallycall the sheriff on me, Max?”
No. Way.
There’s only one person on the planet who calls me Max.
