She's With Stupid Page 22

  She was dimly aware that this was likely an enormously bad idea. But it felt so good to be in his arms again — was it really wrong to want to be held by him, to savor the way he was looking at her and to bask in how completely right it felt? Just this once, she wanted to know what she had been missing all these years.

  “Emmy,” he said softly as he stared into her eyes for long moments, as if he was trying to decipher some secret message.

  He must have found what he was looking for because she watched in startled wonder as a single tear unexpectedly fell from his eye onto her nose. And she knew that she was lost.

  Arms tightening around his neck, she clung to him as he pressed another searing kiss to her eager mouth. His arms tensed around her again and then he began to move. She felt her feet leave the ground as he gently kissed every inch of skin along her collarbone before gently licking and nipping a path to her cleavage.

  Oh, this was most definitely a bad idea. It was almost as if she was having an out of body experience, all her typical control vanished into thin air. Normally, she would have taken this as her cue to call a halt to proceedings so that she could properly reassess the situation, but she couldn’t seem to make herself stop. In fact, it was absolutely the last thing she wanted to do.

  Gasping, she managed to cling to her sanity long enough to grab his face before it reached her breasts. “What are we doing?”

  He placed a feathery kiss on her wrist. “What does it feel like we’re doing?”

  “Something very stupid,” she said softly as she drew his lips to hers again.

  Moaning at the feel of his calloused hand dragging her leg up to hook it around his waist, Emilie shoved aside any vaguely formed reservations she may have had and fully gave herself over to the sensations Ethan seemed able to evoke from her with little effort. This felt far too wonderful for her to allow her brain to get in the way of it.

  “God, I love you,” he muttered in her ear as his hips moved suggestively against her.

  Emilie felt a jolt zing through her entire body at his declaration. Ethan, of course, noticed.

  “I love you,” he said again.

  Another shudder wracked her body as she felt a tear slip down her own cheek. She brushed it away, but another quickly followed and she couldn’t seem to stem the tide.

  Ethan suddenly stilled, staring down at her with concern. “Hey.” He brushed at her tears with his thumb. “Do you want me to stop?”

  Once again fixing her dark gaze on his, Emilie saw what she thought might be love there. And with painful, almost blinding clarity, she realized that she loved him, too. It had never really gone away, despite her best efforts to convince herself otherwise, and she was dangerously afraid that it had, in fact, only grown deeper with time. “No,” she gasped. “I don’t want you to ever stop.”

  Emilie pulled him into another kiss before he could see how vulnerable she suddenly felt. Okay, so she loved him. There was no reason to clue him in on that fact right at this moment.

  Ethan, bless him, seemed to like her sudden fervor, deepening their kiss and doing some really fantastic things with his tongue. Relieved, she made a little whimpering sound in the back of her throat as she clutched his shoulders and hitched herself up to wrap her legs more firmly around his waist. This earned her another sexy growl from Ethan, and his grip on her bottom tightened as he lightly scraped at her earlobe and neck with his teeth and ground his impressive erection against the cleft of her thighs.

  She reached down to rub him, and felt him twitch against her hand. “Emmy,” he said warningly. Emilie merely grinned and slowly, deliberately lowered his zipper, her eyes never leaving his. A flick of her wrist and a jerk of his hips later and he had closed the distance between them, pushing her panties aside and sliding inside her with a persistent shove.

  When she wriggled against him, Ethan’s hands took firm hold of her hips, forcing her to stay still as he made his way fully inside her. “Feel it, Emmy. Feel how perfect we are together.”

  She heard herself whimper as he remained unmoving for three heartbeats, ensuring that she was fully aware of what was happening. “Ethan,” she said frantically. But no matter how she tried to shimmy he refused to budge. “Ethan, move. Please.”

  A devilish gleam appeared in his eyes a moment before he gave her exactly what she’d been asking for, moving in devastatingly hard, measured strokes. She couldn’t help the strange sounds of surrender that were coming from her throat, and she wasn’t even sure if she wanted to. Never in her entire life had she ever felt this…alive.

  “You’re mine, Emmy,” he growled in her ear, forcing another shudder from her already shaking body. “Mine. Say it.”

  “Yes, yes, yes. I’m yours,” Emilie helplessly agreed as another shiver worked its way up her spine. It was only when she felt his hoarse, muffled shouts of pleasure against her neck as he spilled inside her, that she distantly wondered why no other man had ever been able to make her feel quite as good as Ethan did.

  “They can’t have just disappeared, Kate.” Lana scanned the room again, clearly perplexed as to how they had managed to lose their friends in the relatively small interior of the gym. “This is a middle school dance! There are only so many fights she could break up, and Ethan went outside to look for her ages ago. Where are they?”

  Helping herself to a chocolate chip cookie from the refreshment table, Kate munched thoughtfully. “Maybe Emilie found Leo and Clarissa smooching and needed a minute by herself?” she suggested around her mouthful of cookie.

  “She’s been gone for half an hour!”

  “Well—” Kate’s voice trailed away when she noticed what looked like a shoe lying next to the bleachers, not three feet away.

  Narrowing her eyes, Kate grabbed Lana’s hand and hauled her past the punch bowl and over to the poorly lit area that led under the bleacher seats. Kate bent down and picked up the shoe to examine it. Expensive designer, shiny as a new penny, annoyingly dainty: it was definitely Emilie’s.

  “I have a sneaking suspicion as to where Cinderella has disappeared to,” Kate said with only a hint of snark as she handed the shoe to Lana.

  Lana’s eyes widened and she stared blankly first at the shoe, and then at the shadowy area beneath the bleachers. “She wouldn’t, I mean there’s no way she would…here?” Lana lowered her voice to a whisper. “Emilie’s not the kind of girl who—”

  “You’re not the kind of girl who lets a guy cheat on her with nary a protest,” Kate snapped. “I’m not the kind of girl who would marry a guy I don’t even like most days just to prove a point. It seems none of us have been ourselves lately.”

  Kate jerked her head around to make sure no one had managed to detect any of this funny business, and Lana made a mental note to address the question of what kind of point Kate was hoping to make at a later date. She could only handle one drama at a time.

  The muted sound of a soft, feminine cry followed by a deeper, masculine groan emerged from under the bleachers, causing Lana and Kate to blush. Quickly glancing behind them to make sure no one else was close enough to hear the suspicious noises over the sounds of “That’s All Right, Mama,” they huddled together, blocking the entrance to the bleachers and praying no one suspected what was going on.

  They soon heard more shuffling and whispering, and then the distinct sound of lips enthusiastically smacking together. Kate grinned and Lana covered her mouth, both of them trying not to laugh at the absurdity of the situation.

  “That had better be Ethan with her under there,” Kate muttered under her breath. “Otherwise, I’m handing in my matchmaking license.”

  Lana’s mirth escalated. “You told her she needed to get some closure over Leo. It sounds like she took your advice for once.”

  What felt like several lifetimes –but was probably closer to a few minutes- later, the voices from the shadows became more distinct, letting Lana and Kate know that the dopes were heading towards them.

  “I meant what I said, Emmy. I
love you.”

  These deep words were followed by a distinctly feminine sigh. “I believe you,” they heard Emilie say. “I almost wish I didn’t.”

  “What does that even mean?”

  “It’s just…if I didn’t believe you, then I might be able to stop loving you.”

  “I don’t want you to stop loving me. Not ever.” He was whispering now, and Lana and Kate had to lean into the shadows to hear what Ethan —it had to be Ethan— was saying. “You’re mine, you understand that, right? And you know I’ve always been yours.”

  Lana and Kate thought they heard Emilie sigh again before the talking stopped and they were again treated to the sounds of frenzied kissing and moaning.

  Rolling her eyes, Kate gave Lana a look to make sure she shared in her nausea. “I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit,” she snorted.

  Lana shushed her. Kate smirked and was about to share with Lana her firm opinion that Emilie and Ethan owed her big time for her persistent and selfless efforts to get them together when Emilie scurried out from under the bleachers, frantically trying to smooth the wrinkles in her once immaculate skirt and adjust the black top that was now on backwards. Her sweater must have been sacrificed during her little adventure because it was nowhere to be seen.

  Drawing to an abrupt halt when she saw her friends, Emilie’s face blanched and then turned a mottled shade of crimson that nearly matched her skirt. Her eyes as big as saucers, she shook her head at both of them. “W-what are you guys doing here?”

  Ethan’s face appeared behind Emilie half a second later. Instantly noting the gaping faces of her two nosy friends, he put a bracing hand on her waist. “You okay?” he whispered in her ear.

  Kate and Lana wore identical expressions of astonished glee. Emilie had definitely been doing...whatever it was she had been doing under there…with Ethan, when not two hours ago she had been insisting that she couldn’t stand him and would never ever forgive him for his past stupidity. They eyed their distinctly rumpled appearances with amusement. Evidently, he had managed to change her mind.

  Stoically ignoring Kate’s snickering, Emilie gave Ethan a weak nod. She opened her mouth to assure everyone that she was fine—this sort of thing happened every day to other people so she was obviously fine—but all that came out was a squeak.

  Kate helped Emilie shake off her momentary stupor by grabbing her hand and yanking her out from under the bleachers. This left Ethan holding empty space instead of Emilie. He glared at Kate, but she held up her hand to shush him as they all waited for Emilie to say something.

  Emilie tried twice before she managed to croak a coherent statement. “We’ve, uh, got to be going, so, yeah.” She addressed her comment to Lana’s ankle, and appeared to be trying desperately not to pass out from the enormity of what had just occurred.

  Kate started to protest but got one look at Emilie’s alarmingly pale face and reluctantly shut up. Her friend was clearly in no shape to deal with the repercussions of her actions, which were as simple as they were inevitable. Though Emilie may not fully realize it yet, Ethan was never going to let her run away from him now that he finally had her exactly where he had wanted her for years. Therefore Emilie was, in a word, well and truly caught.

  Forcing herself to stop gawking, Lana dutifully backed Emilie up. “Yep, we have, um, big plans. So…” Her voice trailed away as her gaze shifted from Emilie, who was now staring at her bare foot with mortification, to Ethan, who was staring longingly at Emilie.

  “Um, you should probably stay under there until we’re, you know, gone,” Lana said to Ethan’s left shoulder. She was trying so hard not to laugh at the stricken expressions on both their faces. Apparently the long wait had been well worth it — Emilie and Ethan both looked thoroughly dazed.

  “Uh yeah,” Kate said with a heartily amused grin. “Nice hanging out with you, cuz. Let’s not do this again sometime.”

  Kate gave Ethan one last smirk before hustling Emilie out of the gym as quickly as she could. She had the feeling Emilie’s principal might take issue with one of his teachers getting it on at the school dance. Lana brought up the rear, clutching Emilie’s shoe in one hand and her icy fingers in the other.

  They reached the parking lot and scurried hastily to the car, where Kate opened the passenger door and briskly propelled Emilie into the seat. Lana quietly slipped into the back.

  As Kate got in and turned on the ignition, Emilie slowly exhaled. “I didn’t plan that.”

  There was a pronounced silence in the car for an entire minute. Then, in the back seat, Lana let out a snort, which was quickly followed by a muffled guffaw. Emilie looked back at her, offended and ready to say so, when Kate joined in, her shoulders shaking with barely suppressed delight.

  “Well.” Emilie looked crossly at both of them. “I fail to see what is so funny about my current situation.”

  “Oh, I agree.” Kate was shaking with laughter when she looked up from the steering wheel she had been giggling into. “There is nothing at all funny about your ‘situation.’ However, if you could have seen the guilty yet supremely satisfied look on both of your faces!” She brushed a tear out of her eye and reached over to give her friend a good-natured shove. “It was priceless!”

  Scowling at both of them, Emilie crossed her arms and leaned against the door jam. Lana, who was lying on her side in the back, clutching her stomach and a shoe, nodded in agreement. “Oh, Emmy! Your hair, it’s all mussed, and your lips, they’re all swollen, and I can’t even begin to convey with words how positively ravished you look.”

  Lana continued to laugh so hard that her sides must’ve hurt and Kate, the jerk, gave Emilie’s snarled hair an affectionate tug and joined in.

  Emilie gave them both a reproachful glare. “Since when does anyone use the word ravished?” she asked grumpily.

  “Since you allowed yourself to taken by your long lost love in a gym at a middle school dance,” said Kate.

  “Was it as good as your appearance suggests?” Lana gasped as another bout of giggling overcame her.

  Emilie’s chin rose in the air and she looked out the windshield and away from her lunatic friends. “That is highly personal.”

  That sent Lana and Kate into another gale of laughter and Emilie, after examining herself in the side mirror and discovering to her horror that she did indeed look ravished, slumped even further down into her seat. “Okay, I get it. I’m the biggest tart on the face of the earth and I deserve your ridicule.” Emilie sighed wearily as they continued to laugh. “And yes, it was catastrophically amazing. It didn’t even hurt this time, and, sweet merciful heavens, I didn’t think I’d ever stop shaking. Happy now?”

  “You —wait, it didn’t— oh my gosh!” Kate’s mouth fell open and Lana sat up to give Emilie an astonished stare. “Oh,” Kate cackled. “I knew you were a virgin!”

  Emilie glared daggers at her friends. “I haven’t been a virgin for over a decade, as you both well know,” she hissed.

  Kate merely raised a far-too-knowing eyebrow. “Forgive me, Delilah, for not acknowledging your infinite sexual prowess.” At Emilie’s scowl, Kate grinned. “But, and be honest now, have you ever actually had sex with someone whose name is not Ethan Drake? Hmm?”

  When Emilie squirmed under their scrutiny and refused to answer, Kate and Lana shouted in unison, “I KNEW IT!” and burst into unabashed cackles again.

  “Oh, this is perfect!” Kate proclaimed. “Ethan’s never going to stop puffing his chest out.”

  “Would you hush?” Emilie whispered frantically. “Someone is going to hear.” She winced and managed a weak wave when Rich Patterson and his wife strolled past the car, heading towards the gym. She was almost certain she saw his wife turn back to do a double take of Emilie’s just-had-lots-of-acrobatic-sex hair, and dimly prayed for the earth to open and swallow her whole.

  Kate and Lana noticed the exchange, and Emilie’s pallor, and tried to get their glee under control. “Seriously, Emmy, I think it’s grea
t that you finally gave it up again,” said Kate. “We’re super happy for you crazy kids. But we’re still going to need all the juicy details. There’s no way you’re getting off the hook so easily.”

  Though supremely embarrassed, Emilie wasn’t so far gone that she failed to see the inherent humor in her situation, so she managed to quirk her lips and roll her eyes at both of her friends. “Fine, I’ll share. But not here.” She glanced anxiously around the parking lot, praying no one else she knew was around to see her looking this way. “Can we please get out of this parking lot before anyone else witnesses my shame?”

  Kate reached over and ruffled Emilie’s already tousled hair again. “Sure thing, Em. But I just want to be clear about this — we are never ever going to let you live this down.”

  Lana apologetically nodded her head in agreement.

  Emilie sighed. “Yeah, I know. You guys really suck.”

  Chapter 16

  “You’re going to have to answer the phone eventually, Emmy. I’m not gonna leave you alone until you face this thing between us. Please, baby, just talk to me.” Click.

  Sheets of rain pounded against the windows, the resulting gloom perfectly suiting Emilie’s mood as she huddled on her bed on a chilly Saturday morning, staring forlornly at the phone while she listened to the twenty-fifth message from Ethan in as many days. Every evening, without fail, the infuriating man called to say goodnight and to inform her that she was going to give in to his determined advances soon.

  And every morning, without fail, Emilie listened to the blasted messages at least twenty times before she managed to drag herself out of bed and get on with her day. Leaning forward and hitting the repeat button, she replayed the first message again, closing her eyes as his voice drifted through the room.