Leveling The Field (Gamers #4) (14 page)

He pressed a kiss to her shoulder then ran his tongue along her collarbone to the rounded top of her breast. “I missed this skin right here.”

She gripped his hair and shifted closer, making it clear she wanted more. He smiled up at her then lifted her shirt and tank top over her head, leaving her topless. Her nipples peaked in the cool air, but Ethan didn’t leave her hanging for long. He dipped his head and took a stiff bud into his mouth, sucking and rolling it between his teeth.

She groaned. “Oh shit, I missed this, too. So much.”

He pulled back and cupped her breasts. “We never had a problem when we were doing this.”

She shook her head and bit her lip as he leaned in to press a line of kisses down her neck. “Okay, you need to take me to my room now, because I’m feeling the urge to get a lot more naked.”

He chuckled against her skin then lifted her off the counter. She wrapped her legs around his waist and directed him to her bedroom. They only bumped into a couple of walls on the way.

As he walked through her doorway, she sucked his earlobe and his breath hitched. He tossed her onto the bed and pointed at her sternly. “Get naked.”

She lifted herself up onto her elbows and watched as he proceeded to drop his clothes in seconds. With a stretch, she took a condom from her bedside drawer.

It’d been a while, and they were both hot and aching for it, so Ethan didn’t waste time as he rolled the condom down his length and then settled himself between her legs. His jaw was tight as he gazed down at her, bracing himself on his forearms. “I’m sorry, I’m—”

She gripped his ass and tugged. “No need to talk or apologize, just fuck me already.”

He laughed and mumbled against her lips. “Fuck, I really, really missed you.” And then he thrust into her.

The force of it slammed her eyes shut, and she moaned as he filled her. He panted above her as he began to fuck, and she got a tight grip on his ass, digging her nails into his flesh. His grunt told her he liked it.

She opened her eyes to see him gazing down her body at their connection. He lifted his head, a lock of hair falling into his eyes, and smiled.

She smiled back, thrusting her hips to meet his. A gasp left his lips, and for moments, they moved in sync, like they were made to do this together. Tension began to creep into Ethan’s body and she knew he was close, just as she was. In this position, he hit all her spots, and with another couple of thrusts, she was coming, with Ethan soon following.

For long moments they lay entwined, not speaking, just breathing.

Finally, Ethan kissed her forehead and pulled away to go to the bathroom. He didn’t know where the bathroom was, so he stumbled around until Lissa took pity on him.

When he came back into the bedroom, he climbed into bed, wrapping an arm around her stomach. “The timer beeped. I took out your brownies to cool.”

She smiled as she ran her nails up and down his arm. “My hero.” After a pause, she asked, “So how big is this shot?”

He frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Are we all in? Or—”

He rolled onto his back with a yawn and scratched his chest absentmindedly. “We’re spend-nights-together, meet-the-family kind of all in.”

“Meet the family?” she squeaked.

He glanced at the clock. “We got a couple of hours.”

“A couple of hours?” She surged up with a hand planted on the bed. “What’re you talking about?”

He seemed unaffected by her alarm. “We have dinner with my parents soon.”

She worked on her breathing. “I’m sorry, what?”

Finally, an emotion flickered over his features. Unease. “I, uh, reached out to my parents. This will be the first time I’ll have seen them in years.” He met her gaze. “I’d like you there with me, please. By my side.”

Oh God, how could she say no to that? Even though she wanted to vomit at the thought of meeting his parents already, he wanted her support. “Had you planned on asking me that before you showed up here?”

He shook his head. “No, I kinda just decided that five minutes ago. Because now that I convinced you take me back, I can’t imagine going over there without you. I know it’s a lot to ask but…please?”

She smiled and collapsed back on her side then rested her chin on his chest. “I’m a big girl. I can handle myself. You want me by your side, I’m there.”

He ran a thumb over her lips as he gazed at her with undisguised adoration. It warmed her down to her toes. “What’d I do to deserve you?”

“Had sex with me on a glitter-covered bearskin rug.”

He laughed, which made her head bob where it rested on him. “For the record, I’m still picking glitter out of places glitter shouldn’t be.”

She curled her lips between her teeth.

He narrowed his eyes. “You think it’s funny.”

She shook her head.

He grew still, and she had a second to squeal and try to squirm away before he grabbed her and began tickling her, then he began doing other things with his hands, and she stopped trying to get away from that.

Chapter Eighteen

Ethan hadn’t been to his parents’ house in…well, it’d been a long time. And now he stood at their front door, his clammy hand in Lissa’s, hoping he didn’t throw up.

As for Lissa—his woma
n stood with a straight back, lifted chin, gripping his hand tightly. She might have been faking it, but she looked confident as hell. Today, she wore a simple teal dress, nude heels and a large chunky necklace. She’d clipped back one side of her hair, and everything about her was beautiful and comforting. She turned her head, catching him watching her, and winked.

He smiled and tugged her closer, pressing a kiss to her lips, and that’s when the front door opened.

He broke apart quickly, not because he was embarrassed to kiss his girlfriend—yes, girlfriend—in front of his mother, but because he preferred not to be sucking face when she saw him again for the first time.

There was a small intake of breath, and when Ethan straightened his shirt and looked at his mother, she stood on the doorstep, one hand on her chest, gazing back and forth between Ethan and Lissa, then down to their clasped hands.

She blinked rapidly. And Ethan swallowed. Because what was there to say to his estranged parents? So he said, “Hello, this is Lissa Kingsman. And if you want to give someone credit for me finally calling you, it should be her.”

Lissa turned to him with a frown. “No, that’s not true.”

“Yes, it is.”

She shook her head, let go of his hand so she could place hers on her hips, and faced him. “No, you need to give yourself some credit for picking up the phone. I wasn’t there when you did that. I wasn’t even speaking to you then, actually.”

“But I don’t think I would have called if I hadn’t met you.”

“Okay, maybe I’ll take that tiny bit of credit. She held up her fingers a millimeter apart and raised the tone of her voice. “A teeny tiny bit.”

He threw up his hands. “Are we really arguing about this right now on my parents’ front porch?”

Lissa’s eyes widened and she snapped to attention, facing his mother. “Oh shit, uh, shoot. Sorry Mrs. Talley.” She brushed her hand over her hair. “Wow, what you must think of me.” She smacked Ethan’s stomach lightly with the back of her hand. “Face your mother and hug her or something. We can still salvage this.”

Ethan rolled his eyes and was about to retort when a snuffling noise caught his attention. He turned to his mother, who was now holding a hand over her mouth and she was…laughing.

Really laughing, as in, chest shaking, tear-inducing shaking. She managed to get herself under control enough to hold out her arms, which Ethan stepped into quickly. She hugged tight, pressing a kiss to his cheek. He closed his eyes as he scented her familiar perfume on her skin. “Hi, Mom.”

She pulled back and wiped away the lipstick stain she’d left behind. “Hi, Ethan.” Her voice trembled a little, and she cleared it before turning to Lissa. She, too, received a Talley hug, and smiled at him over his mother’s shoulder.

“Thank you for bringing him to us,” she said, and Lissa only nodded, her eyes a little wet.

Inside, Ethan’s father sat on his recliner, talking to Grant and Chloe. Ethan’s sister whirled around as Ethan walked into the room, and Ethan wanted to cry at the pure joy on her face.

Why hadn’t he given this to her earlier? To his parents? Hell, to himself?

Ethan’s father watched him a little warily. It had been a long time, after all. Then he held out his hand, a brief smile crossing his face as Ethan clasped it and shook.

He sat down on the loveseat in the living room, Lissa beside him.

“Thanks for having us,” Ethan said. “I know it’s been a long time but”—he rolled his jaw—“I needed that time.”

His mother drew her lips between her teeth as his father watched him steadily. “I think we needed the time, too, Ethan. What matters is that we made the first step to all be together again. I have hope we can…find a new normal.”

Lissa’s hand slipped into his, and he squeezed it. “Yes, I think we can.”

During dinner, his parents enjoyed shooting rapid-fire questions at Lissa. About her life and her family and job. They especially had a lot of questions about Rona’s Scars. Ethan worried it was too much, but Lissa seemed to flourish under the attention. She poured on the charm so thick, he knew she was about to take over the coveted favorite spot from Grant.

“Ethan,” his father said, “Chloe showed us you’re back in front of the camera now.”

He nodded. “It was a hard decision, but now that I’ve done it, I certainly don’t regret it.”

“You sounded great,” his mother interjected. “And looked very handsome.”

He laughed softly. “Thanks, Mom.”

“The videos are getting more attention than we even expected,” Grant said. “We have requests for Ethan to demo games and possibly even make a throwback video to the time he was E-Rad.”

“This game is a Top Dawg!” Lissa said in a low voice.

He glared at her. “I did not sound like that.”

She took a sip of her water. “Uh, yeah you did.”

“You did,” Chloe said, giggling.

Ethan sighed. “The women are ganging up on me. We’ll see who I decide to call out on camera next video, hmmm.”

“Bring it,” Lissa said, nudging him with her elbow.

After dinner, Ethan made a quick trip to the bathroom, and on the way back, his father met him in the hallway. “Could I speak to you for a moment?”

Ethan had figured this was coming. He couldn’t use Lissa as a buffer forever. “Yes, of course.”

His father gestured for him to step into an office, which Ethan did, glancing around at the dark oak furniture and dusty books. He shuffled his feet and turned around to face his father, who was watching him intently. “So, why did you decide to call us now?”

Ethan laughed softly. “Don’t beat around the bush, Dad, Christ.”

His dad shrugged, with a smile.

Ethan ran his hands through his hair. “I’ve been punishing myself for years. And seeing you mourn also made me feel even worse.”

His father stared at the floor. “We didn’t know what to say to you. I know we failed, but we’re only human. We were angry and…it was hard.”

He shook his head. “No, I understand. I cut myself off from you, because it was the only way to cauterize the wound.”

His father looked up. “And now?”

“And now…well Lissa has had a loss in her life, too. And her family rallied. They all took some blame for her sister’s death, but they didn’t fracture, they glued themselves together into a different picture. I want that for us.”

His father stepped forward and clasped Ethan in a hug. “I want that, too, son.”

Ethan squeezed his father, then they both stepped back, clearing their throats awkwardly after that display of affection. Ethan’s father nodded toward the door. “So, dessert?”

Ethan grinned. “Yeah, dessert sounds good.”

…

Lissa watched as Ethan swirled his spoon in a lake of whipped cream on his plate then scooped up a berry and slipped it into his mouth. Grant said something funny, and Ethan laughed, his face flushed from wine.

He’d never be the
same man he was when he was E-Rad, just as she wasn’t the same woman she was back then, either. But this Ethan was an improvement over the one she first met in the
Gamers
office. This Ethan laughed and talked more, scowled less, and was…happier.

He told her she was a huge reason for that, but she knew she was just the catalyst, really. He did everything else on his own, from getting in front of the camera again to reconciling with his parents.

He glanced at her. “You need more wine? Another slice of cake?”

She shook her head, still gazing at him with what she knew was undisguised adoration. “No, I’m good.”

He reached out and rested his hand on hers where she held her wineglass. “I told you how beautiful you look today, right?”

She smiled. “Yeah, you did.”

He nodded. “Just checking.”

A soft sigh made Lissa look up, to see Chloe watching them with her hands clasped to her chest.

“You look like you’re an extra in a Disney movie, Chloe,” Grant said. “Maybe tone down the gasping and the staring, huh?”

Chloe glared at him. “I’m observing romance in real time here, Grant. Mind your own business.”

He rolled his eyes then winked at Lissa when Chloe wasn’t looking.

Lissa hadn’t known what to expect at all before she met Ethan’s family, but they had fully accepted her. She assumed it had a lot to do with her encouraging Ethan to come back into their lives, but they had also seemed interested in her life.

She’d been back with Ethan for about a day, but already it seemed as if they had been together much longer.

When they finally said their good-byes to his family, they walked hand-in-hand. Lissa tried to unclasp her hand so she could get in the car, but Ethan wouldn’t let go. “The weather’s nice, right? Want to take a walk?”

She glanced down at her heels. “Let me grab my flats out of the car, okay?”

He motioned to her to wait, and so she did, as he retrieved her shoes from the car. He bent over, taking off her heels and then slipping her flats onto her feet, then he placed her heels gently on the floor of the car. “You ready?”

Chloe had been right. This was romance. “You know I’m a sure thing, right?”

Ethan cocked his head. “What?”

“As in, I already agreed to put up with you. I’ll be getting naked with you tonight, I’m sure, and I’ll probably be the one begging for you to fuck me again in the morning. You don’t have to do all this.” She motioned to her feet.

He didn’t move for a minute, and then he laughed, his voice echoing off the brick wall of the house. Lissa glanced back and saw a curtain in the Talley house move. Well, crap, hopefully no one heard her talking about fucking.

She turned back to Ethan, who was wiping his eyes. “Lissa, you are without a doubt the woman for me.”

“What did I say that was so funny?”

He stepped toward her and gripped her hands between them. “I wanted to romance you because you deserve it. Because I didn’t from the beginning.”

“You don’t have to make up for anyth—”

“I don’t think that. There’s no quota for me to fill. I want to treat you well, romance you, sweep you off your feet, because that’s what feels right. You make me so happy, that all I want to do is make you happy, too.”

Oh, she was going to cry. “Ethan—”

“I do make you happy, right?”

She cradled his jaw with her palm. “Of course you do. I love that I was the one to finally smooth this line on your forehead.” She ran a finger over his scowl line. “And get these to turn up.” She pressed on a corner of his lips and he feigned biting her. She laughed softly. “You make me feel wanted and needed and also really horny.”

He surged forward to kiss her then mumbled against her lips. “Let’s forget that walk and get home and get naked.”

She nodded frantically as she squeezed his ass. “That’s a great plan.”