Page 31 of Hideaway Whirlwind
“Elliott,” I breathe out, slipping my fingers through his hair when he kisses my stomach and hugs my hips. I grip his strands tight and tug his head back, locking eyes with a man I never once could have imagined beingswept upwith just a week ago. “None of that is real.”
“You’re still lying to yourself.” Elliott surges up with me in his arms and carries me into the cabin. “But I’ll prove it.”
I shake my head furiously when he locks his bedroom door, then sets me down in the middle of his bed. “There’s no such thing as fate.”
“Then tell me why I showed up to your apartment right when you needed me,” he says, tugging my blanket away and pulling my topoff.
“That was just…good timing,” I answer, my heart racing.
Elliott kisses down my neck after he lays me back, his beard tickling me in such a way that my toes curl as he lightly drags his face down my torso. He takes a nipple into his mouth, plumping my breast in his palm until I’m pulling at his hair, begging him to suck it harder, distracted from our conversation as my fever for him burns hotter.
“Tell me why the freak-freeze forced me to bring you home when that’s exactly what I wanted,” he says around my nipple, and I moan.
“Climate change,” I throw out when he peels my sweatpants and socks off and releases the barest of chuckles. I hike my knees up and out as soon as my legs are free, welcoming him between my thighs when he shucks off his jacket and pushes his pants down to his knees to free his hard cock.
I’m almost frantic in my desire to have him inside of me, fisting his shaft and lining him up with my entrance. “Oh fuck, Daddy,” I moan involuntarily when he sits on his heels and lifts my hips to pull me onto his cock. Elliott hums when I moan forDaddyagain, his rumbly voice vibrating through me.
“Tell me why we fit so perfectly together when it should be impossible,” he says gruffly, staring down at where we’re joined and licking his lips.
I have no good answer for that, my eyes rolling back in my head when Elliott lifts my ankles over his shoulders and pumps in and out of me.
“Tell me you want me, Birdie,” Elliott pleads with a whimper, stroking his hands up and down my hips and thighs.
“I want you to make me cum.” I close my eyes against the disappointment reflected in his blues.
“Is that all you want?”
“Yes!”
“Then you’re still lying,” he says, pulling one leg off his shoulder and pushing my knee up and out so he has room to massage my clit with his thumb. He doesn’t speak again until he cums after he brings me to an orgasm that is only physically satisfying, nothing more. “Tell me why all of my tattoos are black and gray except for the raven’s eyes,” he finally says when he slowly pulls out of me, then finishes kicking off his pants and sits on the edge of the bed. He turns on the nightstand lamp and peers over his shoulder at where I’ve curled up on my side. His voice is deeper when he says, “Tell me why they’re the same color as yours.”
I sit up on my knees, pressing them together to contain our mess, and circle the raven’s eyes with my bandaged fingertips. “There’s no way that’s true.” I lean closer to study the colored ink, my stomach fluttering wildly. He’s right.
Elliott stands, then clutches my hand, bringing it to his heart. “And this?”
The year I was born. I hadn’t noticed the small script in the middle of so much dark ink.
My eyes fly wide, colliding with his. “Why did you get this tattoo?”
Elliott’s jaw falls open twice, fear ofsomethingflashing behind his eyes. “Don’t be scared. You never have to be scared of me.”
I’m already shaking, though I don’t try to pull away, wanting—no,needing—to know the truth.
“It’s the year my parole ended when I was legally allowed to leave the state. I could have come to you whenever you needed me.”
This time, I do snatch my hand away, climbing over theopposite side of the bed to put it between us. “You’ve been to prison?”
He nods, rubbing his chest, circling the bed, and backing me into the corner.
Elliott
“Why were you in prison?” Birdie asks, her eyes as wide as saucers, losing the blush that had colored her cheeks with her orgasm.
I knew I’d have to come clean eventually, but I was hoping for a little more time. “Thirty years ago, I killed a man.”
Birdie gasps, shrinking away from me. “Why?”
I kneel so as not to tower over her and scare her further, since the story I have to share will do the job well enough. “My wife…” I clear my throat, my chest burning as I think of her. “I met her during her senior year of college while I was in the academy to become a deputy, and we—” I have to stop, fighting to gather myself as I think about the past I’ve been running away from for over half my life. “We couldn’t wait. We married right before her graduation and were going to start trying for a family.” My stomach clenches as I remember the day she told me she had stopped taking her birth control. “We were going out for one last drink before we got serious about our health.” I drop my hand down to pat my stomach. Meredith would have lovingly chided me about my weight, then encouraged me to run a few more miles with her.
