Fighting (56 page)

"I
had it under control," I said.

"Last
time you had it under control, the dude turned out to be a lunatic who tried to
kill all of us."

My
jaw fell slack and I revolved around inside the cage of his arms, pressing my
palms against his pecs.  "What did you just say?"

Did
he just blame me for all of the shit we went through because I rejected
Fletcher?  Now I was mad.

He
leaned his contrite face closer.  "That didn't come out right."

"It
better the hell have not."

"Look,
I already didn't like it when you fake flirted with another guy before we got
together.  I
really
fucking hate it now."

And
now I was indignant.  "I wasn't flirting with him!"

"You
weren't pushing him away, either."

My
palms automatically pushed against his chest the smallest amount and he really
did not like that.  He didn't yield an inch, dipped his chin and warned,
"Babe."

I
changed tactics and grabbed fistfuls of his shirt to yank our bodies together
and flattened my palms against his chest, which wiped the warning away from his
eyes.

"I
could have done without you telling him that I'm going to scream your name
tonight."

"Why?" 
He shrugged.  "You will," he said in a matter of fact tone.

That
got a full body shiver and son of a bitch, he felt it and I knew he did because
a smirk tugged at his lips that I couldn't stop glancing at and his hand swept
down my back and squeezed my ass.  I had a different reaction to that
altogether, one he couldn't feel but I sure as hell could.

"Hands
off my ass," I ordered.

"No,"
he said stubbornly.  He added his other hand so both of his palms were filled
with my ass.  "I like how you look at me when I touch it."

Shit,
that was kind of hot. 

My
hands moved from his chest to his biceps.  "How do I look at you?" I
asked.

"Like
you're about to jump me."  He feathered his lips across mine delicately. 
"Like you want to rip my clothes off," he murmured.

He
was good at reading me.

"I
don't want you touching me like this when we're fighting," I persevered. 
"We're also in public."

He
didn't move his hands.  "We're not fighting.  We're having a
discussion."

"Pfft,"
I scoffed.

"We're
not fighting," he repeated.  "That asshole was in your space so I
came to help you out.  We're a team."  I leveled a look at him and he
tried again.  "It was faster than you saying no and him trying to persuade
the pants off of you anyway.  That's
my
job," he growled.

"You
don't persuade," I said.

He
shook his head and leaned it closer to mine so our noses were almost touching. 
"Don't need to."

I
narrowed my eyes on his and clenched his shirt front, suddenly reminded of
those girls at the country club who would have shed their clothes at the snap
of his fingers.

He
glanced from my eyes to my fists and asked, "What are you thinking about
right now?"

"Everywhere
we go, there are women who check you out, but you don't see me making grand
gestures of possession."

His
eyes darkened.  "They're never aggressive and don't actually hit on
me."

"Except
for those girls at the country club.  They were all over you," I all but
seethed.

He
leaned back an inch.  "We weren't together then."

"No
shit," I clipped.

He
cocked his head to the side.  "Were you jealous?" he asked, as if the
idea were completely foreign to him.

"Fuck
yes."

His
eyes flashed.  Oops, maybe I should have kept that to myself.

He
didn't grin like I thought he might.  He lifted his hands from my ass to fit
under my arms so his thumbs pressed into the sides of my breasts and his
fingers fanned out over my back.  "Next time a woman touches me, feel free
to stake your claim by whipping my dick out and licking it like you own
it."

My
toes curled and I felt a crack of lightening zing through my body as my
breathing increased at the direction of our conversation and my overactive
imagination.  "Sexual assault is not something I aspire to commit." 
I was aiming for a light voice, but it sounded husky with arousal.

He
grinned and curled his hand around the nape of my neck.  "Baby, that
wouldn't be assaulting me, that would be loving me."  He sobered and said,
"I'm sorry if I offended you when I came over, but I can't help it.  I
just want to --"

"Protect
me, yeah I know," I said.

"No. 
I just want to punch that guy in the throat," he rumbled, glaring across
the bar at who I assumed was Chris.

I
remembered how I felt exactly the same way, thinking exactly the same sentiment
when those girls at the country club touched him.  Okay, so maybe I would have
done exactly what he did just now.  What a pair we made.

His
eyes came back to mine and I said, "Next time, touch me how you want to
but don't antagonize the poor guy.  He was just looking for --"

"Pussy,
and he wasn't getting yours," Ethan interrupted me.

Damn,
I was
definitely
wet now.  He was right when he said dirty talk turned
me on, a fact that I didn't realize until I met Ethan.  Fire burned through my
veins and I pressed my thighs together.

"No,
he wasn't getting my pussy," I said in a throaty voice, the irritation
completely erased from my tone.  I don't think I'd ever said that word unless I
was telling someone not to be one.  Saying it out loud to Ethan, referring to a
part of my body, was relatively tame but still extremely arousing.

His
hand pulsed around my neck and his eyes flashed down to my tightly closed
thighs that he felt me close and I knew he knew the effect he was having on my
body, and I knew he liked it.  He looked at me more lasciviously and leaned a
little closer so he was barely an inch from my lips.  "But I am," he
promised darkly.

Said
pussy pulsed with excitement.

I
smelled alcohol on his breath and realized that I had never been around Ethan
before when he was drinking.  He only had a few beers, but obviously it was
enough to loosen his tongue.

I
liked it. 
A lot.

I
slid my hands down to the waistband of his jeans and dipped my fingers inside. 
He groaned and pressed his forehead against mine fleetingly.  "You want
it?" I breathed, a sure sign that I was either turned on or vulnerable. 
Two guesses what I was right then.

He
pressed his hips against mine so I felt how hard he was.  "What do you
think?" he murmured against my lips.

My
breathing hitched and I swear goosebumps spread over my skin in a bar that was
pulsing with body heat.  I ran my nose along the side of his.  "You know
it's yours."

His
gaze turned predatory and he yanked me to him and kissed me aggressively.  I
gasped into his mouth, so turned on I could barely put thoughts together, but I
matched his fervor.

"I
think it's going to be interesting having drunk sex with you tonight," I
said, eyes still closed, drunk on more than alcohol and already picturing us
together.

He
nipped at my bottom lip.  "I'm not drunk," he said.

I
twisted and grabbed the beers that were waiting behind my back.  I handed one
to him and took a sip of mine.  "You're not sober, either."

He
slipped his hand under my shirt to rest against the small of my back. 
"Neither are you, baby."

"Interesting,"
I repeated.

He
drained his beer and I drank half of mine.  He grinned a lazy smile that meant
he definitely wasn't sober and leaned in to press chaste little kisses to my
lips, angling his head different ways so it felt slightly different every time.

"Bathroom?"
he asked between kisses.  "Against the wall?"

Sex
against the wall?  I had never
not
done it in a bed before.  Excitement
trilled through my body and I wrapped my free hand around the nape of his neck,
holding him to me.

"No. 
They have the kind with several stalls and there's a long line of people
waiting to use it."

He
kissed me and I felt his voice vibrate against me and it fanned the flames he
was creating.

We
couldn't have sex here, so I chose the next best thing.  "Dance with
me," I whispered.

He
pulled back and cocked his head to the side to listen to the music.  It was a
little more upbeat but it wasn't pop music so it was okay with me.  I finished
off my beer and set it on the bar right before he tagged my hand and led me to
the dance floor.  He already took away my inhibitions with the first dance, and
the beer made sure that we were both loose enough to not even give it a second
thought.

We
danced a little less innocently and ignored our crew as much as possible
because there were a few times when Ethan's hands wandered places they
shouldn't have in a room full of witnesses.  I had my back pressed to his front
and his hands were
everywhere
, making my body tremble and react on more
than one level, which he loved.  I turned to face him and his hands dipped
under my shirt and gripped my waist, drawing our bodies closer together.

"I
wanna lay you down," he said in a husky voice against my lips.

I
pressed my eyes closed and kissed him deeply because that was the second time
he told me that, and I loved it just as much this time as the first.  I glanced
at our crew and they were talking amongst themselves and glancing at us every
now and then, obviously waiting on us to leave.  August was blatantly, avidly
staring at us and I wasn't sure what to make of that.

"Let's
go," I said.

I
took his hand and we left for the hotel for some drunk, yet sweet lovin'
throughout another blissful night's sleep without the threat of imminent danger
hanging over our heads.

"That's
the last of the luggage!" Spencer shouted from down the hall.

I
looked around my new room, satisfied.  It looked a lot like my room at the
first compound, but this one had more of my personality in it because we had to
replace basically all of our belongings.  I also sold my apartment and half of
the shit I had stored inside of it.  I no longer had one foot in the door and
one out; I was fully committed to my life in the mountains with my people.  I
now had a shelf filled to the brim with books and my old bed and set of
sheets.  I luckily still had a bundle of clothes reserved at my apartment, so I
only had to invest in half a new wardrobe whereas everyone else had to buy all
new clothes.

"Babe!"
Ethan called.

I
walked next door to his room and leaned against the doorframe to watch him
shove his emptied suitcase under his bed.

"You
called?"

He
straightened and walked over to me.  He tugged me inside of his room and shut
the door by pressing me against the back of it.  "I think you should keep
some clothes in here."  He motioned to an empty dresser drawer that was
pulled out.

"Why? 
I'm right next door.  And I sleep in your shirts now, anyway."

"I
know but what if I maul you and you didn't come prepared, so one of us has to
sneak out into the hallway to get you a new set of clothes?"

"Maul
me?" I chuckled. 

"It
happens," he said sagely.

Yeah,
it did.  I loved it.

I
looked back to the drawer and nodded my head.  "Okay."

I
went to my room and grabbed a few different sets of underwear, shorts, shirts,
and one bra.  I slinked back to his room and he watched me put them in the
drawer with a gratified expression on his face.

"I
think it's imperative that we sit down and have a talk with the kids," he
said.

"It
sounds like we're parents," I laughed.

"Hey,
this is serious," he admonished me.

I
sobered.  "Sorry."

"Right. 
So, as I was saying, I think we should have a talk with them."

"About
what?"

"About
interrupting our Naked Time."

I
smiled and walked over to him to push him down by his shoulders and sit on the
edge of the bed so I could straddle his hips.  "That is serious," I
agreed.

He
slid his hands up and down my spine under my shirt.  "I don't want to be
mean about it but I want to be firm.  Say something like, 'Don't bother
knocking on our door after we go to bed, because we won't answer.'"

"Better
yet, don't bother knocking on our door unless you want to see Naked
Ethan."

"Who
you haven't seen in over two weeks," he whispered.  He ran his nose along
mine slowly and I wrapped my arms around his neck.

"I
know.  But you went house scouting with Brooks and I had to stay with the
others at the hotel and when you got back, I had to travel hours away to clear
out and give up my apartment, which took a few days."

"Wish
I could have helped you move but Brooks needed help cleaning up and salvaging
what we could from the rubble of the other house," he said.

"It's
all right.  August and Ollie helped me.  And besides," I said.  I flexed
my biceps.  "I got strong muscles."

He
smiled.  "Yes, you do.  But they're not as strong as mine," he
challenged.

"Normally,
you know I love to debate with you, but on that front . . . "  I leaned
back a foot and ghosted my hands down the defined swells of his arm muscles. 
"Yeah, you have me beat."

He
slid his hands up my back to fuse our fronts together and he leaned in for a
kiss right as someone knocked on his door.  He scowled at it and didn't let me
go.  "I'm serious.  I'm having a talk with the men.  You talk to
August."

"Okay." 
I popped a kiss on his jaw and climbed to my feet.

I
opened the door and Brooks stood there.  He handed me two cell phones.

"Family
plan.  Unlimited minutes and texting."

"How
poetic," I deadpanned.

I
tossed one to Ethan and he caught it while walking over to us. 

"Cool,"
Ethan said.

Brooks
nodded and looked between us.  "Carry on," he said casually.

He
smiled when my eyes flashed and turned on his heel and left.

"Brooks,
that sneaky bastard.  He does that on purpose," I said.

I
grabbed Ethan's hand and tugged him after me to my room.  He sprawled across my
bed with his hands tucked behind his head and watched as I unpacked all of my
clothes and shoved them into drawers and the closet.

"You
might as well go and get some of your clothes for in here, too," I said.

"I
thought you'd never ask," he grinned.

He
smacked my ass on his way out of the room and I cried out indignantly through
his laughter.  He came back and I already had a designated drawer open for him
to use.  He stuffed his clothes inside and then twirled me to face him.  He
didn't even give me time to talk before he thoroughly distracted me by kissing
me deeply.

I
dropped the clothes that were in my hands to the floor and slid my hands down
his face and chest.  He walked us backward and fell onto my bed on his back. 
My hair fell into curtains around our faces, giving us the illusion of total
and complete privacy so we weren't in a house filled with people we loved, but
were totally alone and secluded in the woods.  I put my knees on the bed
outside of his hips and he rolled us so that he was on top.  He kept the pace
slow and sultry and I slipped my hands under the back of his shirt to skate
over the muscles of his back.  I hooked my hands around the back of his
shoulders so that my fingertips pressed above his collarbone and wrapped my leg
around the small of his back.

He
smoothed a hand down my side and around to the small of my back and down over
my ass.  His fingers pulsed and then achingly slowly, he slid his palm up above
the waistband of my jeans and then down inside to cup my bare ass.  I groaned
into his mouth and squeezed him tighter everywhere that I was holding onto him.

"I
missed you," I murmured against his lips.

He
recaptured my lips and rolled so we were on our sides.  He slid a leg between
mine and hooked his hand around the back of my knee to pull it over his thigh
so we were thoroughly intertwined.  His hand cupped my jaw and his thumb
occasionally swept against my cheek affectionately.  He slowed our already lazy
pace and pulled back so we could catch our breath.  I relaxed against the
fluffy pillows and ran my hand over his cheek.

"You
shaved," I noted.

"Yeah,
we already live deep in the woods.  I didn't want someone to come across the
cabin while I was cutting fire wood and scream bloody murder at the sight of
me."

I
grinned and shook my head at him.  "Trust me, people wouldn't scream at
the sight of you.  They might fall to your feet and beg for a night of sweet
lovin', but never scream with outright terror."

The
bed shook with his deep, rich laughter.  "Sweet lovin'?"

"Sweet,
sweet
lovin'," I whispered, loving the sound of his laugh.

"I
missed you, too," he said, still chuckling.  "Love hanging with
Brooks and the others, but they're not you."

"I
would hope not.  If I find out that you had an affair with Brooks to satisfy
your nightly needs, I might lose my mind."

"Will
you please stop bringing parental figures into our sex life?  You're going to
give me a mindfuck," he said solemnly.

I
rolled away from him as I covered my face and shouted with laughter.  His hands
grabbed mine and held them against my chest so he could watch my face.  Once I
calmed down from cackles to chuckles, I twisted my neck to look at him and he
tugged me back to him. 

I
palmed his cheek and said, "Sorry love, I'll try not to do that
anymore."

He
leaned in to kiss my still smiling lips and wrap around me again.  Still
coursing with built up energy, I kept our pace slow but kissed him more deeply,
savoring the taste of him that I had missed for over two weeks.  He tucked my
hair behind my ear and threaded his fingers into my waves to pull me tighter
against him.  And then my phone rang.

I
broke away and twisted at the waist to grab it from my nightstand.  I looked at
it with surprise.  "Brooks must have redirected my old number to this
one."

"Who
is it?" he asked.

"It's
a text from my aunt Sherry confirming our meeting time."  I looked at the
time and sat up straight.  "Shit, we need to go or we're going to be
late."

His
hand squeezed my leg.  "You still want me to go with you?"

I
looked down at him and pocketed my phone.  "Yeah." 

He
looked a tiny bit concerned.  "Are you going to be okay seeing her?  From
what you've told me, you two don't have the best relationship."

"It'll
be fine.  We don't fight anymore, we're just not close."  I pushed him
onto his back and straddled his hips.  I hovered my face an inch over his and
asked, "Can we take your bike?"

He
pushed my hair behind my ears.  "Absolutely."

I
pressed my forehead against his fleetingly and then jumped up from the bed.  I
ran my fingers through my hair and braided it down the side to combat tangles
the wind would cause and we left for the meeting.

*****

I
strolled into the moderately crowded coffee shop with Ethan on my heels and
scanned the tables.  She wasn't there yet, so I went to stand in line for a
coffee.  Ethan kissed my cheek and left to sit at a random table.  I bought
both of us a frozen coffee, handed one off to Ethan and then left him to sit at
a different empty table across the room from him.

She
walked through the door and spotted me almost immediately.  I stood up as she
walked over to give her a hug.  She hesitated before hugging me back and when
we broke apart, she was wearing a mildly shocked expression.  Jeez, I guess it
had
been a while since I hugged her.

"Alex,"
my aunt Sherry recovered.  "How have you been?"

"Great,"
I said truthfully.  "And you?"

"Fine,
fine," she said.

We
both sat down and she took off her purse and settled in her seat comfortably.

"Do
you want something to drink?" I asked.  "I can get you whatever you
want."

"Oh,"
she said.  "A black coffee is fine, thank you."

I
bought her a coffee and a muffin for us to share. 

"I
haven't seen you since the Christmas before last," Sherry said.

"I
know.  I'm sorry about that.  I live a little over an hour from here now. 
Maybe we can catch up more often," I suggested.

She
smiled warmly at me.  "I'd like that.  Why did you move?" she asked.

"I
got a new job.  I get to travel a lot for it and I love the people I work
with.  It's pretty great, actually."

"What
do you do?" she asked.

"I
recover stolen goods," I said, only mildly fibbing.

"Isn't
that dangerous?" she asked, concern bringing her hand to her collar bone.

"It
can be, but I'm pretty good at it, so don't worry.  I have an entire team who
watches my back."  I leaned forward to rest my forearms against the table
and fiddle with my coffee cup.  "I was thinking about going to visit my
parents but I haven't gone since I was little so I've forgotten the name of the
cemetery."

That
took her off guard.  "Oak Bridge," she said.  "It's called Oak
Bridge."

"Mom's
birthday is coming up soon.  I thought I might put some flowers at her grave,"
I said softly.

Tears
pooled in her eyes and she tilted her head at me.  "I think she would like
that," she said.

I
lost my parents, but sometimes I forgot that she also lost her sister and
brother-in-law.

"White
lily.  Right?" I asked.

"Yes,
those were her favorite," she whispered.

Though
I wasn't the same emotionally closed off person I was when I first landed at
the compound, I wasn't a totally different person either.  I was still reserved
around most people and only opened up to those I was closest to, primarily
Ethan.  Even though I knew I loved her, the tears threatening to fall from her
eyes brought back mildly uncomfortable feelings for me.  I swallowed thickly
and snuck a covert glance at Ethan, searching for his comforting presence to
ground me.  I found him watching me closely, wearing his protective face.  I
gave him a little grin and his face relaxed.  I looked back at Sherry and she
was stirring sugar into her coffee.

"I
want to stop by for Christmas, but this year I'm going to be working.  I'd like
to come a few days beforehand and visit with you and Dale, if that's all
right," I said.