leaves her feeling alone, and if there is a small part of her that still wants to embrace their identity simply for the sake of removing the label of the family blemish.”
I felt her chest expand into mine and for a moment, felt guilty that I was even broaching the subject. It was something that caused her obvious anxiety, and I felt like I was pushing her into a decision that I wasn’t sure that she would ever be ready to make. On the other hand, however, I wanted her. I wouldn’t ever have her unless she came into her own. It was hard not to push when I was ready to selfishly claim her as mine and mine alone.
“I won’t lie to you and say that I completely understand,” I told her. “But, I am beginning to get why it’s so difficult for you. This is who you’ve been your entire life, so it’s like you’re in a hundred mile long comfort zone. But, what I can say is that laws were made to protect us from ourselves and others. Policies were made to run corporations and organizations. Rules were made so we could all understand how to play the game. Your father says that skirts without stockings is lunacy, but how isn’t it equally as crazy to impose further sanctions on ourselves from what we already deal with in our everyday lives? Order has never changed the world. You and I here together wouldn’t be possible without someone challenging the status quo.”
The fire transformed the brown in her eyes into a sensual orange which, set against her lashes, was as spellbinding as an aphrodisiac.
“My entire life, I’ve walked around with this grey cloud hanging over my head that, no matter what I did, made everything appear dismal and gloomy,” she said, tracing a circle on my chest. “But ever since that first conversation you and I had in the hallway, the world has felt a bit different every single day. It’s lighter. Freer. And, the more I get to know you, Ethan, the more I realize that there is nothing about me that you expect me to change. There’s no one else that you expect me to be. I get the feeling that my flaws could be staring you in the face and you’d simply side-step them to get back to me.”
I rolled over and pinned her beneath my body. “I wish you could see the look in your eyes as you said that.”
“Does it look like happiness?”
“Should it?”
“Yes, Ethan. You make me happy.”
I circled her nipple with my finger. “What else do I make you?”
“You make me laugh.” Her lids fluttered. “You make me curse. You make me sing old songs in the shower. Do you know what I was singing at Gia’s the other day? REO Speedwagon’s Can’t Fight This Feeling. She said that you were ‘fucking me so good’ that you had my ass singing white boy songs, and the next thing you know, I’ll be playing the electric guitar.”
I laughed even harder and absent-mindedly reached for her hand to link our fingers. “I really like your sister.”
“So do I,” she added. “That comfort that I have with her, the thing that makes me love her so much, I have that with you.”
I did my best to avoid letting it show just how fast my heart was racing. “And, what does that mean for us?”
She hesitated, and I could tell that I’d left her feeling vulnerable. I’d never clearly outlined what I’d expected from our “relationship.” While I’d shared my gripes about her relationship with Roderick, I always tied it back to my desire to see her free herself from his unyielding thumb. In actuality, she had absolutely no idea how much I wanted her.
“I want you, Alle,” I decided to clarify. “To me, you’re already mine. I was just waiting for you to get to a place where you were ready to accept that.”
Tears collected in her eyes. “I’m all yours, E.”
I leaned down to kiss her, sensually filling myself with her essence while draining mine in the process. There wasn’t a nook in her mouth that my tongue didn’t explore, or an ounce of skin on her body that my hands failed to traverse. My head was light, my senses heightened. My nerve endings turned to cinder. The sounds of her moans enchanted me like the Sirens, floating me towards her, inside of her until our bodies were joined at the hilt. What