“Last time that happened you were adamant it couldn’t happen again. Now you’re changing your mind?”
“What I want and what I think is best for both of us are two different things.”
Chase held out his hand. “Come here.” She came to him, gave him her hand and let him tug her to stand between his legs. “What do you really want, Ella?”
“I want you.”
Damn. Exactly what he wanted to hear but… “I can’t keep doing this, Ella. It’s too hard. I still love you. I want to be with you. But this yes, no, yes, no crap has to stop. If we make love tonight it has to be more than slam, bam then ‘oops that was a mistake’ in the morning. Or worse, immediately after.”
“So you won’t have sex with me unless I forget all my reservations?”
“I didn’t say that. But I won’t make love with you unless you’re willing to try to work it out.” He intended it to be making love, not simply having sex.
“That’s it? No other stipulations? You just want me to promise we can try to work things out?”
“That and that you won’t say it was a mistake right after we make love.”
Ella let go of his hand and put both her arms around his neck, stepping even closer. “I promise. Make love with me, Chase.” She kissed him, slipped her tongue inside his mouth, sought out his in a sweet vow of commitment.
*
Chase smiled, pushedElla’s shirt up and over her breasts, then gently pulled it off over her head. He kissed her lips, her jaw, her neck. Continued down to her bra, nuzzling each breast through the fabric. Then he licked and sucked each breast, again through the fabric. She shifted restlessly, and he knew she wanted his lips on her bare skin. He hushed her, soothed her, then did it again. She finally pulled away and undid her bra, dropping it to the floor.
“Aren’t you going to get undressed?” she asked, sitting beside him and pulling off her boots and socks. Quickly, she stood, undid her jeans and shimmied out of them. For a little while he simply looked at her, enjoying the sight of her nearly naked, when he’d been afraid he’d never see that again.
“Damn, Ella, you are so beautiful.”
She laughed. “I’m not but I’m glad you think so.”
He stood and took her hands, turned her around and backed her up until her knees hit the bed. Then he gently pushed her onto her back. He wanted to make this last, so he kept his jeans on. He lay beside her and traced a hand over her breasts, her belly, down to her panties, slipping his hand between her legs. She arched her back, lifted her hips, begging for more. He slid a gentle finger over her damp core. She groaned and reached for him but he evaded her and began to kiss his way down her body.
When he reached her panties she sucked in a breath but he didn’t take them off. He looked up at her and smiled. He kissed her at the vee of her thighs, over her panties. And kept going. The fabric, already wet, got even wetter. She made moaning sounds, her hips lifting toward him.
Chase slid his finger beneath her sopping-wet panties and stroked her before plunging it inside and caressing her clit. She tightened around his finger, and came with a scream. He rolled off the bed, undid his jeans and pushed them and his boxers down, stepping out of them. Ella lay looking at him with a dazed expression. She still wore her hair in a braid, so he loosened it and spread it out over her breasts.
He lay on his back and said softly, “Ride me, Ella.”
“I thought you’d never ask.” She sat up and swung her leg over his hip, poised above him, but instead of letting him enter her, she slid slowly, sensuously over his shaft.
“You’re driving me crazy,” he said, gathering her breasts in his hands and kissing each one.
“Payback’s a bitch,” she said with a wicked smile. She teased him more, then finally grasped his cock and lowered herself over it. She slid down, inch by torturous inch until he was seated deep inside her, her muscles tightening and releasing around him, riding him until he could hold back no longer.
His hands gripping her hips, he drove up and she thrust herself down and he came in an explosive rush. Ella collapsed on top of him and they lay entwined for a long time. Finally she raised her head and chest so she could look at him.
She kissed him, a sweet, gentle touch of her lips to his. “I love you, Chase. I missed you. So much.”
“I love you,” he said. “I missed you every day, every night, every minute we were apart. I was afraid I’d never convince you to come back to me.”
“I was a fool, thinking it would be better to live without you than with you, no matter what you were doing. It wasn’t the rodeo that came between us. It was my fear that you found it more exciting, more fulfilling than being with me.”
“Nothing in this world is more exciting or fulfilling than being with you, Ella.” He kissed her.
She rolled off of him and went to the bathroom to clean up. They switched places when she returned.
He got into bed with her when he came back. Gathered her close in his arms, spooning her. “The rodeo doesn’t stand a chance next to you.”
“But you love it.”
