Walking the Line Read online

  Ellie loved junk food and old action movies and drinking coffee at Circular Quay on a Monday morning. She hated sports and politics and moths. And she adored city life in Sydney.

  She’d been so animated at one point, she’d started spouting facts about the Cross like an encyclopedia and while I hadn’t been particularly interested in learning the El Alamein Fountain’s dandelion design done by a New Zealand architect had been copied around the world, I was riveted to her every word because she’d come alive.

  Who knew the silent, truculent woman of the past week loved to talk, and our six courses flew by. During each and every one, I found myself falling under her spell.

  What made Ellie more alluring was the fact she had no idea how goddamn gorgeous she was. Strip away the black leather and the plain singlet tops, the make-up and the chunky jewelry, and the invisible armor that she wore with pride, and Ellie was beautiful on the inside.

  I wished I could articulate half of what I was feeling as we walked side by side, so I settled for entwining my fingers with hers instead.

  She didn’t pull away. In fact, she sidled closer, her hip bumping mine, making me a little crazy. Because while I’d been enthralled by her chatty side over dinner, it didn’t stop me wanting to take her up against the nearest wall.

  “What are you thinking?” she asked, glancing at me from the corner of her eye.

  “You don’t want to know,” I said, my grip inadvertently tightening on her hand and she yelped.

  “Sorry.” I eased back on the grip and held her hand up, running my thumb over the thick silver band she wore on the middle finger of her left hand. “Did you know this design looks Celtic?”

  “Hmm,” she mumbled and removed her hand quickly, like she didn’t want me studying the ring any closer. Interesting.

  “You always wear it. Sentimental value?”

  She gnawed on her bottom lip and damned if I didn’t get a boner that made me lightheaded, that much blood drained south.

  “Something like that,” she said, looking increasingly uncomfortable.

  “From an old boyfriend?” I persisted, needing to distract myself from the increasing urge to push up against her and let her feel exactly what affect she had on me.

  “To forget an old boyfriend,” she muttered, shaking her head, sadness down-turning her mouth as I inwardly cursed for putting a dampener on this evening when things had been going so well.

  Needing to get us back onto more stable ground, I captured her chin in my hand and raised it, so she had no option but to look at me. “I can think of better ways to help you forget.”

  My implication clear, she stared at me for an eternity, her expression unreadable in the darkness cast by the alley behind me.

  When the silence reached uncomfortable, she did the unthinkable.

  Splayed both palms on my chest.

  Pushed me backwards.

  Slammed her mouth on mine.

  My back hit the wall but the pain ricocheting down my spine was quickly replaced by a fireball of lust so swift, so overpowering, I almost staggered.

  My hands spanned her waist and held her tight as we kissed like two people who hadn’t done this in a long time. Passionate. Desperate. Frantic. Her pelvis grinding against mine. My cock straining. My balls aching for release.

  She hooked a leg around my waist and I slid my hand between us. Wished she didn’t wear leather. Because as I pressed against her clit through the layers, she growled, a purely primitive sound that made me want to fuck her right here, right now.

  Wrenching my mouth from hers was the hardest thing I’d ever done. “Need to get home. Now.”

  As the madness of the moment passed, I expected her to pass off what had just happened as an aberration, something that could never happen again.

  To my immense relief, she nodded. “Let’s go.”

  I didn’t need to be asked twice.

  CHAPTER NINE

  ELLIE

  The taxi ride home should’ve sobered me up.

  Not that I was drunk as such, because we’d been at Maik’s for hours and I’d topped up my earlier beer buzz with a single glass of wine while stuffing my face with the divine food. So technically, I had no excuse for my behavior; first at the restaurant and later in the alley.

  Finn was such good company and so easy to talk to I’d found myself blabbing. Telling him little things about myself. Small talk mostly but enough that we’d connected. And he’d listened, appearing enraptured by every stupid word that babbled out of my mouth. Heady stuff for a loner like me, having a sweet guy actually interested in hearing me out.

  As for the way I’d jumped him in that alley…I had another two minutes to come to my senses. Change my mind. List every logical reason why we shouldn’t have wild, climb-the-walls sex.

  But as I locked the back door behind us and reset the alarm, I couldn’t think of any.

  “Go on. Get it out of your system.” Finn trailed a fingertip down my cheek. “Tell me why we shouldn’t sleep together.”

  Unnerved that he could read me so easily, I aimed for levity. “Who said anything about sleep?”

  He smiled, the dim hall-light illuminating his teeth. “That’s my girl.”

  Three words to rattle my common sense into reawakening.

  I could never be his girl, his or any other guy’s. Relationships built expectations and needs, and if those needs couldn’t be met…I’d end up alone and shattered. Again.

  “I’m not your girl.”

  I squared my shoulders and dragged in a deep breath. “I’m ten years older than you. I have no interest in anything beyond a one-night stand. And I don’t want to discuss this tomorrow. Capish?”

  “You’re bossy.” His fingertip trailed from my cheek to my jawline to the dip between my collarbones. “It’s a big turn on.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Like you need the encouragement. You’re just a walking hormone at your age.”

  Disappointment downturned his mouth as his hand fell away and irrationally I missed his touch. “I’ve had sex with two women in my life. Lost my virginity at nineteen, then had a relationship with the girl next door for three years.”

  He dragged a hand through his mussed hair, frustration lacing every word. “It’d be nice if for one second you’d believe I’m not some bullshitting guy out to score while I’m in town. That I think you’re incredible. The most incredible woman I’ve ever met. And that you’d forget about the age difference because it’s not relevant when two people share the connection we do.”

  I stared at him in open-mouthed shock. No guy I’d been with had ever been so blunt, so articulate. It made me flounder even more.

  “Dammit, Ellie, I care about you. Why can’t you accept that?” He cupped my cheek and despite the urge to run, I finally gave in and rested against his hand.

  “I’ll try,” I whispered, the admission wrenched from deep within, from a deliberately sheltered soul who had given up believing anything that came out of a guy’s mouth a long time ago.

  He studied me, nerve-rackingly somber. What seemed like an eternity later, he said, “Your place or mine?”

  I laughed. At last, a question I could answer unequivocally. “Yours.”

  I may be willing to let Finn into my heart a tad tonight, but no way was he seeing the real me by entering my apartment.

  “Then what are we waiting for?”

  Ignoring my inner self-preservation cynic screaming that I was doing the wrong thing, I walked upstairs with Finn, hand in hand. Pausing to kiss on the middle step. On the landing. Outside his door. Until all I could think about was getting naked and sweaty and forgetting every logical reason why I shouldn’t do this.

  He opened the door to his room and we practically fell inside. Staggered to the bed. I tore his button down shirt open, enjoying the ping of plastic against the floorboards. Unfortunately, leather wasn’t conducive to tearing and after several fumbled attempts at the zipper on my pants I stilled his hands.

  “Let me
.”

  To my amazement he blushed and sank onto the bed. Propped on his outstretched arms, he watched me with an intensity that made my skin pebble.

  I shrugged out of my jacket and let it fall to the floor, enjoying his hungry gaze on my braless breasts. I peeled my cotton singlet overhead and flung it away, as he made a half-strangled sound. I unzipped and wriggled out of my pants, he murmured, “Fuck me…”

  “I intend to,” I said, unashamed to be standing before him in my black panties. Because I could handle the lust in his eyes, the burning need for sex. What I couldn’t handle was the way he’d looked at me a few minutes ago, with tenderness, as he told me he cared.

  I hooked my thumbs into the elastic of my panties. “Should I do the honors or you?”

  “Come here.” His command was gruff, hoarse, the deepening of his voice and his delicious accent sending a tingle down my spine and zeroing in between my legs.

  I stepped forward and he surged toward me, burying his face where I wanted him most.

  “I want to taste you,” he said, easing my panties down my legs and off. “Spread your legs.”

  “You didn’t say please.”

  I liked teasing him at a time like this. It surprised me, how comfortable I felt with Finn.

  “Do it.” He muttered his command through gritted teeth. “Please.”

  Considering how tortured he sounded, I took pity on him and took a step sideways with each leg. “Better?”

  “Hell yeah.” He licked me with a long, sure sweep of his tongue and I bucked against him as he flicked my clit.

  “Oh yeah, just like that,” I murmured, my fingers finding purchase in his hair as he tongued me repeatedly, my orgasm building far too quickly.

  I wanted to prolong it but was powerless as the tip of his tongue circled my clit with just the right pressure, faster and faster until I climbed. Tensed. Shattered. Floated back down to earth as he guided me down onto the bed.

  “You’re so beautiful,” he said, kneeling at my feet, his eyes devouring me, his fingertips skimming my skin. Dipping into the hollows. Tracing the bony bumps. Contouring the curves.

  It felt divine, my skin alight with his leisurely exploration, my nerve endings tingling. But I wanted more.

  “I want you inside me…oooh…” I ended on a moan as he captured a nipple in his mouth, laving it, nipping it, while pinching the other between his thumb and forefinger.

  He raised his head to grin at me. “I do believe you omitted the magic word.”

  “Do me. Now.” As he resumed sucking my nipple, the suction intensifying the throb between my legs, I all but yelled, “Please!”

  “With pleasure.” He pushed into a standing position and it was my turn to enjoy the show as he unbuckled, unzipped and stepped out of his jeans.

  I zeroed in on the bulge in his boxers, my mouth dry as he took them off with an expression akin to bashful pride. And he had every reason to be proud, considering the length and thickness jutting toward me.

  “Impressive,” I said, beckoning him with a crooked finger. “So come impress me.”

  He laughed and I joined in, taken aback again by how good this felt, how right. I never laughed during sex. I never felt this relaxed.

  Very occasional sex took the edge off for me. A quick strip, a quick fuck, a quick exit. None of this…foreplay that extended beyond the physical and was so darn appealing.

  “Seeing as you asked so nicely…” We grinned at each other, a couple of idiots, as he donned a condom from the bedside drawer. Watching him slide the latex on served to ratchet up my excitement and I squirmed with wanting him inside me.

  He sat on the edge of the bed and hauled me onto his lap. Breasts to chest. Face to face. Intimate.

  That’s when it hit me, why this was so different from other sexual encounters.

  The intimacy.

  I didn’t do intimacy. Not anymore. It frightened the crap out of me. Besides, it didn’t make any sense. I’d known Finn a week. How could I feel so at ease with a guy I barely knew?

  “You still with me?” His hands cupped my face, demanding I return to the moment and stay focused on what was important. The two of us slaking this undeniable thirst for each other.

  “Does this answer your question?”

  Bracing my hands on his shoulders, I lowered myself onto him. Inch by exquisite inch. The fullness making me gasp. Until I enclosed him.

  He groaned, his hands sliding from my cheeks toward my breasts, where he kneaded as I started to ride him. I started slow but couldn’t maintain the pace, the delicious friction of him filling me so completely making me crave more.

  Sensing my need, his hands drifted from my breasts to my hips. Anchoring me. Guiding me.

  Then he started to move, upward thrusts that made me cry out.

  “You okay?”

  “Never better,” I ground out, my fingernails digging into his shoulders as he pumped upward. Harder. Faster. Urging me toward another climax.

  He shifted slightly, changed the angle and I screamed as I came, my orgasm slamming into me so fast my head spun.

  For some inexplicable reason, tears stung my eyes. Maybe too much pleasure did that to me, I was that unused to it.

  As Finn yelled my name and I clung to him, I wondered if I’d ever be the same.

  CHAPTER TEN

  FINN

  The view that greeted me when I stepped into the cellar was Ellie’s cute arse in the air as she bent to check hoses.

  After the week we’d had, where we’d spent every spare moment in my bed, my first instinct was to cross the short space between us, rip her panties off and bury myself between her legs.

  She’d feel like heaven: hot, slick, tight. I couldn’t get enough.

  My cock hardened and I was grateful for the empty bar and locked doors

  “Hey beautiful, need help with those kegs?”

  She glanced over her shoulder, a sly grin alerting me to the fact she wouldn’t be averse to me carrying out my lecherous thoughts.

  “The kegs are fine but this?” She wiggled her arse. “May need some of your specialty TLC.”

  There was nothing tender, loving or caring in the way I was on her in a second, flipping her cotton skirt up—thank God she’d taken to wearing them after hours the last week—and unzipping my fly.

  She bent over the stacked kegs further as I rolled a condom on, tore her panties aside and plunged into her, my mind momentarily blanking as it always did when I first slid home.

  Then the sensations started to bombard me. Intense, indescribable pleasure. Being gripped by hot, tight velvet. Being milked. Being driven to the brink far too soon, wanting to hold back, to prolong, but powerless to do so.

  Loud, slapping sounds mingled with her moans as I thrust into her. In and out. Totally consumed. Totally enclosed. Totally lost.

  As her pants intensified, my balls tightened. Holding her hip with one hand, I slid the other around the front. Found her clit. Rubbed.

  She came in an instant, her long, low moan raising the hairs on the back of my neck. I kept rubbing as I pumped into her, fucking so hard my cock felt like it exploded as I came.

  I slumped over her, held her, until I could breathe again.

  “I think I’m officially assigning you to cellar duties,” she said, backing against me a little and I straightened, still holding her tight as I slid out of her and disposed of the condom.

  “If I get to do that daily, you won’t have to pay me.”

  “That sounds gross and tawdry.” She snickered and turned in the circle of my arms, her nose a cute little wrinkle.

  “You know what I mean.” I slapped her arse and she giggled, a lighthearted sound I’d come to hear more often over the last seven days.

  Seven exquisite days when we’d worked and played together. Laughed together. Teased together. We’d grown closer and while I knew it couldn’t last, I was determined to make the most of it.

  “Shall we head upstairs?” She ground her pelvis aga
inst mine. I didn’t need any encouragement.

  “Sure, if we’re all done here.”

  She slipped out of my arms, only to snag my hand. “Honey, we’re just getting started.”

  “Another all-nighter, huh?” I pretended to stagger and clutch my back. “You’re wearing me out.”

  “Bullshit.” She winked. “There has to be some benefits to having a toy boy.”

  Loving how she never brought up our age difference anymore except in jest, I pointed at my groin. “You seem to enjoy the benefits of my toy just fine.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Don’t go getting a big head.”

  “I thought you liked it that way.” I placed her hand on my swelling cock to prove it.

  “God…” She sighed, gave me a gentle squeeze, before half bounding-half sprinting up the stairs, stopping to crook her finger at me. “Hurry up.”

  I didn’t have to be asked twice.

  We’d reached the top step when a pounding sounded at the back door.

  “Who the hell’s that?” Whoever it was, I’d kill them for their lousy timing.

  “Kye’s the only one who’d use the back entrance after hours.” She made a cute exasperated sound akin to a snort. “Think we can ignore it?”

  The pounding increased as Ellie’s mobile started blaring its usual hard rock ringtone.

  “Guess not.” She looked as disappointed as I felt. “I’ll go see what he wants.”

  “Let me go.”

  Because I knew for a fact guys talked less and that meant I could get rid of Kye faster.

  She hesitated, then nodded. “Okay.”

  “Won’t be long.” I captured her face in my hands and kissed her. “Wait for me.”

  Her eyes widened, fear lurking in their indigo depths. Guess that answered any unasked questions I may irrationally contemplate about us being involved in any kind of relationship beyond casual. I’d meant wait for me in the bedroom but the way I’d said it had obviously triggered something for her. Looked like Ellie waited for no man.

  “See you soon,” she murmured, turning away, effectively shutting me down so I couldn’t probe.

  Torn between wanting to go after her and getting rid of Finn as fast as I go, I chose the latter. The mysterious Ellie and her secrets could wait until later.