Traded(69)

I had so much more planned for the day: hiking, lunch in a fabulous restaurant not far from the park, then a quick plane ride back for the baseball game. I decided against taking her to the box; too many bad memories. They were things she might have to face eventually, but she didn’t have to deal with it yet. Not on our date, anyway. To avoid this, I’d bought seats behind the dugout, on the first base line. If she really wanted to watch the game, there were no better seats.

Thinking about the box, and everything it signified, brought my mood low. At some point I needed to decide if this was something I could keep doing for my dad. Did I want to continue to be the loan shark, or simply be the restaurateur and chef? Was it possible to do both?

The sun had fully risen in the sky. Elena turned her head to face me. “Thank you,” she said softly, placing a brief kiss on my lips.

“You’re so very welcome.”

She turned to gaze back over the summit. “Do we have to leave yet?”

“Nope.” I stood and reached my hand down to her and helped her to her feet. “I thought we might do a little hiking first.”

I produced a water bottle each and the smile on her lips was brighter than the newly emerged sun.

“Are you ready?” I asked, watching her take in her surroundings.

“I’ve never been more ready for anything in my life.”

For the next few hours we hiked different trails, sticking to the easier ones. Elena hadn’t hiked before and I was afraid one of the harder trails might be too much. About an hour in, we stopped for a drink of water and to rest our legs for a moment.

Seated on the rock below mine, she looked up at me. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Of course.”

She gestured to my face with the water bottle. “The glasses.”

“What about them?”

“Well, I noticed on the plane you weren’t wearing them while you were reading. You had them on top of your head.”

“Oh.” I chuckled. “I don’t need them for seeing things up close, only things in the distance. It’s just easier to wear them all of the time than only when I need to see far away.”

“Well, that makes sense.” She lifted her bottle to her lips again, taking a sip of the water and I was glad that she was no longer speaking because all I could think about was how much I wanted those lips wrapped around my dick.

Later, Ashton. Be patient.

“What about contacts?”

I snapped myself out of my fantasies. “Never had much luck with them. I own a set, but after a few hours they’re not very comfortable.” I wouldn’t mention my slightly narcissistic side. I knew many women had a thing for men with glasses—stylish glasses at least.

“Shall we finish up and head back to the car? I have more surprises planned.”

Her gaze snapped to mine. “More?”

“Yep. The first is a special place for lunch but you’ll see when we get there.”

“Okay.” Her smile was infectious and I found myself grinning inanely, something I didn’t do a lot.

It took us about a half an hour to reach the car. I loaded the bag into the back seat and climbed in the driver side. Elena had already climbed in the car before I had the chance to open her door.

“What did you think?” I asked as I drove down to the restaurant.

“It was perfect. I can’t think of a better reason to get up at three in the morning.” She paused and smirked. “Well, maybe one other reason . . .”

“Elena,” I groaned. “If you keep up with those comments, I’m going to pull the car over.”

When her hand landed on my thigh, I stopped the car on the side of the road, looking over at her and trying to remember all the reasons I shouldn’t push her.

But goddamn . . .

She’d removed the sweatshirt during the hike. The T-shirt she wore only defined her breasts even more, right down to the hard nipples, visible through the thin fabric.

The blood raced to my cock and reason flew out the window. Putting the car in drive I turned down a deserted side street and pulled over as far into the trees as possible. Without a word, I got out of the car and jogged around to her side, yanking open the door and popping her belt, hauling her out of the car. Her eyes flashed as I spun her around and pushed her torso down on the seat.

“I warned you,” I whispered, my hand snaking between us to unbutton and unzip her jeans.

“Please,” she begged.

Dipping my hand past the waistband of her panties, I sunk my fingers into her. I nipped her earlobe. “You’re already dripping wet for me.”

My fingers continued to slip through her body’s juices. I locked her wrists in one of my hands, thoughts of dropping her pants right then and fucking her senseless crossing my mind. Instead, I plunged two fingers inside, rocking them in and out of her body, creating a delicious friction that I wished was on my dick and not my fingers.