Page 8 of The One Who Got Away (Murdock Brothers #4)

Gus

We stopped at Church Pizza for a few pies and an order of garlic knots, then at the liquor store for a few bottles of wine.

Her mom was happy to have the company and fluttered around us in the kitchen and dining room. Melody had always been a little intense and nervous, but now she was a step away from a wreck.

Eloise was patient, but I could see a few cracks by the end of dinner.

“Still have that fire pit out back?”

“Oh, that sounds lovely.” Melody started cleaning up the paper plates. She suddenly looked from me to her daughter and swallowed. “You know what? You guys go on out there. I think I’m going to take a bath and watch Dancing with the Stars. I’m behind a few episodes.”

“You sure, Mom?”

“Definitely.” She gave me a brave smile. “Go on. I’ll clean up. Thanks for bringing dinner home.”

I grabbed our glasses and wine. “Go get one of your ridiculous hoodies.”

Eloise laughed. “I can’t help that I’m always cold. I think I still have one of yours.”

“I’ll take it.”

“Okay.”

She hurried to the coat closet down the hall and I went out to get the fire pit going. It looked as if it had gotten an upgrade sometime over the years. The gas flames licked up into the night sky. It was a clear night thick with stars and a fat three-quarter moon.

I dragged over the big, egg-shaped chair suspended on a chain and grinned when El appeared in the doorway with one of her blankets and a hoodie on. “Read my mind.”

She looked around at the cluster of chairs outside then to where I sat.

“C’mere, El.”

She licked her lips. “Okay.”

I took the ancient Indigo Valley High hoodie from her and put it on. Her fingers disappeared into the sleeves of her Eeyore sweatshirt with her blanket crumpled in her arms.

I settled into the seat and opened my legs.

Uncertain, she gripped the top then yelped when I scooped her into my arms. The swing swayed dangerously until she was tucked against me. When her blanket was situated just right, she stopped fussing.

“There we go.” I set the swing to an easy sway with my foot until she relaxed against me.

I slipped my fingers under the band of her sweatshirt and felt her breath catch. I didn’t make any other moves, even if it was killing me. I just drew little circles along the small of her back.

She laid her cheek against my chest. “This is nice.”

“Yeah, it is.”

The fire licked up into the sky between the rocks and fake logs that made it look like a bonfire. It had been a long day of driving. Rochester wasn’t that far, but it was an ass killing two and a half hours each way. It gave me way too much time to think.

But she deserved to know what the hell was going on with me.

I didn’t want to screw this up again.

“You wanted to know what changed…”

She nodded.

“I almost died.”

She stiffened in my arms, then pushed herself up. The firelight glowed around her, leaving her face in shadows which was probably a good thing. “Gus.”

“I haven’t told anyone.”

“What happened?”

“It was your birthday.”

Her breath caught.

“I was missing you.”

“You texted me out of the blue for the first time in forever.” She said softly.

“Yeah, it was the rum talking. I was an idiot. I didn’t check reports like I usually did. Riptides can be pretty intense where I was. I just wanted to dunk my damn head and stop thinking.”

“About me?”

“Yeah.”

She laid a hand on my face. “Since when?”

“Since always, El. I knew you weren’t meant to stick around here. You practically killed yourself to get into Northeastern. I knew you had a plan. I couldn’t hold you back.”

She pushed off me and I caught her before she could struggle out of the chair. “Don’t you think I should have been in on that plan? Why should you be the one to make the decisions?”

I dumped her back on top of me until she straddled me. I gripped her ass with both of my hands to hold her against me. “I had just as much going on. I wanted to see the world. I was a dumb kid.”

She kept struggling and I tried to focus around the fact that the woman I’d dreamed about all my life was sitting astride me.

I grabbed both her hands. “Would you quit it. I need to get this out and if you keep rubbing that perfect ass against me, I’m going to do anything but talk.”

“Who says I want that?”

The proud tilt of her head made me even harder. Was it any wonder she’d always been the one for me?

I snaked a hand under her sweatshirt to cup her breast, yanking the front down until I felt the soft skin and her tight nipple.

I dragged my thumb across the tip until she trembled.

“Because you melted into me like I always dreamed. When I kissed you, I knew.” I craned my neck until I could nip at her chin, then her lips. “I just didn’t want to hold you back.”

“Presumptuous of you, Angus Michael Murdock.”

I smiled against her mouth. “My full government name.” I dipped my tongue between her lips and she sighed into me.

But having her skin to skin was dissolving my resolve.

I gently tugged the tip of her breast once before replacing her bra and sliding my hand back down to cup her delicious ass. “Distracting.”

She sighed and pressed her forehead to mine. “Tell me the rest.”

“I got caught in a bloom of jellyfish. I probably could have swum along the riptide enough to get away from it, but the stings made for a perfect storm. I’d be dead on that damn beach or out to sea if a night surfer hadn’t spotted me.”

Her breath caught. “Gus.”

“I know. The riptide dragged me way down the beach. No phone, no ID and I ended up an unconscious John Doe in the hospital for nearly a week. The poison from the jellyfish was pretty intense and I slammed my head into the ocean floor.” I lifted up a hank of hair to show off my shiny scar.

She leaned to the side to get use of the firelight to see. “Good thing you have a hard head.”

I laughed. “Yeah. But I was thinking about you when I went under. When the water sucked me down.”

“Oh, Gus.”

“And I didn’t want to waste another minute without you.” I drew her down against me and tasted a few tears on her lips as I gently showed her just how much she meant to me.

I rocked the swing slowly as her sweet body echoed each slow sway. I pushed up her hoodie to get to her leggings. I needed to feel her. Just touch her until she broke for me.

At the very least, I needed that.

She hummed against my mouth.

“Let me touch you, El.”

She nodded and gasped as my fingers dipped into her cotton underwear.

“Wet for me,” I said against her mouth. “Can I make you come?”

“My mom’s right inside.”

“Can you be quiet?”

“Yes.”

I nipped at her lower lip as I swirled two fingers around her tight clit. “You sure?”

“I don’t know if I like this cocky side of yours.” But her breath hitched.

“Sure about that?” I grinned and mimicked each swirl around her clit to the deep kiss until she was panting against my mouth. Until she soaked my hand. Until her greedy little pussy sucked my fingers inside of her again and again.

God, I wished it was my cock.

But this was enough.

Right now, I could just be enough for her.

I turned my fingers to tuck inside of her a little deeper and lightly pulsed inside of her.

Her eyes were hidden in the dark. I pushed with my feet until the chain turned us around. Her gold eyes burned before her eyelids slid down and there was nothing but the constellation of freckles across her wet lips. As she trembled around my hand and a strangled cry was trapped in her throat.

“That’s it.”

Her head fell back, my name a sigh.

I’d hear that in my dreams tonight.

The way she said my name like it was a prayer and an oath.

I rode out the orgasm and dragged my bearded chin up her neck to nip at her ear. “Again.”

“I can’t.”

“You can.” I fucked her with my fingers. “Hear how wet you are? If your mom wasn’t upstairs I’d have that all over my beard.”

“Fuck. I thought you were a nice boy.”

I laughed. “What?”

“Never mind. God, do that again.” Her thigh quaked.

I twisted and added a third until she stretched for me.

“Holy -- ” her voice broke off as she smothered a cry with her sleeve.

Near feral, I pushed her back on my thighs enough to drag her sweatshirt up. I pushed up her workout bra and sucked greedily on her nipple as she rode my hand.

The chain above us creaked as I pushed her for more.

Hell, pushed myself to the edge.

She clamped down on my hand and my arm and her cries were muffled in the material of the hoodie. I kept sucking strongly on her skin, my teeth leaving marks on the soft, fragile breast.

Her nipple a matching cinnamon to the freckles that sprinkled her skin.

“Ride me. Take what you need,” I said against her skin.

Her hips worked and the heat of the fire had me sweating, but I didn’t stop. I wouldn’t stop until she came for me one more time.

When the cries turned to a sob, I shoved back down her sweatshirt to cover her mouth. To swallow and own that orgasm.

When she sagged in my arms, I tucked her in close and detangled my hands from her clothes and simply banded my arms around her as we both slowed our breathing.

“We could have been doing that for years.”

I laughed. “My bad.”

She hit me in the arm. “My bad. You jerk.”

I rested my chin on her head. “Maybe we weren’t ready until now. Did you ever think about that?”

“Maybe.” She burrowed her face in my neck. “Maybe.”

I held onto her for a long while, letting the crackle of the fire and night sounds curl around us.