Buyer’s Market(39)

Ethan draws a hand around my waist and holds me there for a second before he pulls in and kisses me on the neck. His lips on my skin are fire and ice battling for dominance, the heat of arousal and the tingle of pleasure coursing through my veins.

Ethan pulls back and squeezes my hand. “I need to tell you the truth about everything.”

“Ethan, I trust you. But I…I do want to know things,” I say, thinking about how now, when all the thoughts rush in my mind, they can’t bombard me. It isn’t me in an impossible situation; it's us facing difficult things. And together, I know we will figure this out. I’m glad Ethan is going to explain things, and I brace myself for whatever he might tell me. His hand holding mine comforts me, and I put my other hand on top of his and hold him, too. “I’m ready.”

“That girl, I was never involved with her. No one would believe it of course, and she came to my house, and she was obsessive. I understood obsessiveness, but I told myself I’d never be interested in any of my students. Until you, that was true.

“So I ruined you,” I say, with a small laugh.

We share a smile. I’m glad that I can bring something light to the heaviness of this conversation.

“Thank you for telling me the truth,” I say, running my thumb over the top of his hand, stroking the warm skin of his hand that makes mine seem so small.

“You saved me,” Ethan says, inhaling sharply. “That girl…she was leaving my house when she crashed her car, and I feel responsible even though I wasn’t involved with her. I thought that was some kind of omen. Like my passion, my obsession, was going to lead me that way. I should've been able to help that girl, but I was just a hopeless fool myself too. I need to tell you the story of how Joelle actually rejected me, because that’s what I flashed back to you after that incident with Aiden. I drug up all those memories, and now I understand how I’m a different person.” His eyes search mine.

If he’s looking for me to be upset, he’s not going to find it. “Thank you, Ethan.”

“Your mother, I saw someone she was dating decide they wanted more from her. I was being a creep and I hit that guy, too. Joelle wanted me to stop. My intensity has always been dialed up way too high for her. And I can understand that now. I know I get too violent, too passionate, and there’s no fucking excuse,” Ethan says, and his breathing goes ragged. “But I can be myself with you…and the person that I am changes, grows, gets better when I’m with you. I must sound insane right now. I understand with these cards on the table, you don’t want to be in a relationship with me-“

“Ethan!” I interrupt him. “I’m not exactly scoring major points in the healthy relationship column…I’ve avoided them all and I got completely obsessed with you. Of course I want you. I mean, I guess your temper and my timidity…they’re part of why we're together in first place.”

Ethan laughs. “Only you would see it that way. And you are not timid. You were just waiting on me. It's perhaps creepy that I thought I wanted to be with your mother, but she wisely rejected me,” Ethan says.

I can tell that he’s bringing this up because he’s worried about my reaction. “I’m glad my mother rejected you. I don’t think I could see anyone else with you but me. We understand each other,” I say. I’m serious, and maybe I sound overly confident, but I feel Ethan wrap his arm around me and his lips are on my ear.

Ethan kisses there and a shiver blooms from there down my body.

“We do,” Ethan says in my ear. “Now let’s have the valet get my car, and we’ll go understand each other in private.”





Emmaline





“This dinner was amazing,” I say. I hear the breathiness in my voice. I need him inside me. I part my lips and look at him.

Ethan’s eyes are on fire, and they’re bolting me to the spot. His hand is on the small of my back as we walk toward where we wait for the valet, and I need that hand to dip lower.

“I wish you could just finger me right here. That hand is driving me wild,” I say in a whisper that I know only Ethan can hear.

“Fuck, you keep saying things like that, and I will fuck you right here. I have half a mind to have you pretend to drop something and slip my cock between your silky lips, if just for a second to feel your mouth on me,” Ethan says.

Shit. I desperately want Ethan’s cock deep in my mouth now. Sure, I want to sweep my tongue over the tip, but I want more than to just taste him. I want to devour every last inch of him and feel him overtake my body and fill me up, any way that he can. His body belongs to me as much as my heart belongs to him. I care so deeply for Ethan…and want him so fucking bad that if he told me strip naked right now and let him fuck me in the street, I would.