Page 24 of Wrecked
She’s spent every night lying next to me since the day she found me in my bathroom. For the last seven weeks, she sneaks out of her house and into mine, letting me hold her in my arms as we fall asleep. Every night, just before sleep claims me, I hear her quiet whisper—her quiet reminder—that I’m needed here.
“Stay.”
As if I could possibly ever leave her.
I love her.
“What cha thinkin’ about?” she asks, extending her neck as she looks up at me. A small smile plays on her lips. “You have this panty-melting smirk on your face, and it’s doing things to me,” she says, giggling. The boldness of that statement is diminished by her shy little laugh.
I look down at her, brushing the hair out of her eyes with my free hand. “I was just thinking about how boring these notes are, and how much I’d rather be kissing you. Panty-melting smirk, huh?” I raise an eyebrow and try to recreate that smirk she’s talking about.
“So, then kiss me,Romeo,” she flirts back, despite the rosycolor staining her cheeks. I love that I can still make her blush, that she displays this shyness with me. Despite seeing all of me, all of my ugly and all of my pain, she is unapologetic in the way she cares for me. She tells me she needs me as much as I need her, but I can’t imagine that’s true. I didn’t know a feeling like this could exist. This sort of all-consuming, overwhelming, irrevocable devotion. She is everything I will ever want. She’s theonlyperson I will ever want.
A dream I didn’t even know I had.
I never imagined I would have someone devoted to me. Someone who wants to know all of me and doesn’t ask for anything in return. She wants to know what my dreams are, what my ambitions are. She—enthusiastically—makes wild plans for our future together, because she plans to have a futurewith me. Backpacking through Europe, white water rafting in the Amazon, sky diving near the Grand Canyon. She’s uninhibited in her passion, and I happen to be someone she’s passionate about. She’s someone who seesallof me and stands by my side, taller and prouder for it. I don’t just love her. I’m in love with her.
Endlessly.
Eternally.
I have never been more sure about anything in my life. I will love this girl until I take my very last breath. When that time comes, I will leave this earth with a smile on my face because I got to love her, because sheletme love her.
I can’t imagine a better ending than that.
I bend over and capture her lips upside down, both laughing at the awkward position. She flips over and crawls up my lap, straddling me, her knees cradling my hips. The position aligns her perfectly, and I can’t help the groan I let out before seizing her lips again. She starts to rock against me, more confident in her movements than she was the first time she felt me against her. It was about two weeks after she’d started spending thenight in my bed. We were having a heavy make-out session, and I was hard as fuck. The way I always seem to be when my hands are on her body. She felt me against her and tentatively pushed her hips more forcefully into mine. It was clumsy, it was awkward, we were misaligned. I watched her move against me, coming hard into her panties, her satisfied smile making it all worth it. Even though I had to relieve myself in the shower later that night, it was the hottest moment of my entire damn life.
Ellie doesn’t have any experience with sex, so I am letting her set the pace. Fuck am I driving myself crazy in the process, though. She’s getting bolder, more curious. Two nights ago, she removed her pajama pants, grinding against me skin to skin.
I didn’t come in the shower that night.
But I did make a mess.
“I want you.”
Just like that, my thoughts are immediately brought back to the present.
I smile gently, trying not to let her see my excitement. I would never want to pressure her into something she’s not ready for. “I want you too, baby.”
“No…Nate…I… Iwantyou. I want to…to do this.”
“Pip, trust me when I tell you I want todo thismore than you can even imagine.” I lift my hips up from under her to prove my point. “I just don’t want you to do something you regret because you think Ineedit.” I won’t risk this girl for anything, especially not my fucking hormones.
“I could never regret you, Nate.Never. I want it to be you. I want it to…onlybe you,” she says, looking down timidly. Her cheeks flame with that admission, as if she thinks I could possibly reject her. Yeah, right. My cock’s been trying to burst out of my pants since she uttered the words, “I want you.”
“Ellie, look at me,” I demand, my voice more serious than it has ever been with her. She raises her eyes to mine, and her expression gives me the confidence to say what I say next. “Icare about you. So fucking much. I will still want you tonight,” I lean in to kiss her cheek, “tomorrow,” nose, “next month,” forehead, “and next year,” lips. “I’ll want you whether you give yourself to me right now, or the night I remove a white gown from this beautiful body. You’re my forever. I don’t care that I’m eighteen. I’m smart enough to know that a connection like this is rare. What we have? It’s Eternal. I already know it will alwaysonlybe you.”
I want to say the three words that will forever change our story. But not yet. The timing has to be perfect.
A torrent of tears fall down Ellie’s cheeks, she swipes at them trying to dry her face. It’s useless, they continue to trickle from her eyes, soaking the sleeves of her shirt she mops them up with. Her reaction has me starting to think I said something wrong, but she finally breaks the silence.
“I care about you too, Nate,” she whispers, quiet but sure. Her voice is muffled from all her tears, but I can hear the honesty as she speaks the words. “I… like, really, really want you now.” She lets out a wet laugh, and I smile at her beautiful, swollen eyes. I lean in and kiss her salty lips in complete disbelief that this girl is mine.
She loves me.
She doesn’t need to say the words for me to hear them. Words I’ve only ever heard from Emmy. It feels like all the stars have permanently aligned and I’m finally on the path I was designed to be on. We are fated. Ellie is my purpose, our souls connected by a destiny we have no control over.
Ellie leans back, putting space between our mouths. She gives me a small smile and reaches down to grab the bottom of her shirt. She glances up, staring directly into my eyes as she lifts her shirt over her head. She doesn’t sever the connection, still looking at me when her face reappears and her shirt is discarded on the floor. I take a deep breath as I get lost in the beauty of her body. She slides out of my lap and stands in frontof my bed. She unbuttons her jeans and slowly glides them down her legs, making a show of it. I lean back against my headboard, giving her my full attention. She walks back over to me, her matching bra and panties barely covering the rest of her body. I suck in a breath when she climbs back into my lap, seating herself directly over my impossibly hard erection. She runs her hands along the straps of her bra and looks up at me with mock innocence. “Think you can help me out with this next part?”
