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This was far more than Ellen had expected, but the desire she felt had overcome her usual caution. She couldn’t even bring herself to think about the reasons she shouldn’t allow Hendrix to touch her so intimately. What she was experiencing in this moment crowded out everything else.
As the pleasure increased, her breathing grew ragged. She was edging closer and closer to climax and was beginning to worry about the opposite of what she’d been worried about a few minutes earlier—not that he’d touch her but that he’d stop touching her.
Fortunately, he didn’t. As the tension built, she felt her body go taut—then the pleasure broke over her like a tidal wave crashing through a barrier. She jerked and gasped and he lifted his head, wearing a self-satisfied smile as he watched her recover. “Was it good?” he asked.
“One of the best,” she admitted, and his dimples deepened as he tugged her to her feet and led her down the hallway to her bedroom.
This is my chance, she thought. She should say something to stop the madness before it went any further.
But he wouldn’t appreciate her bailing on him at this point, and she wouldn’t blame him. Besides, she’d been careful for so long. Right now, it felt like she’d beentoocareful. Was she any happier not having a love life and doing nothing but work?
No. The years were passing, and she wasn’t taking full advantage of them. If she wasn’t careful, she’d wind up like Talulah’s aunt Phoebe, who passed away a year ago in her eighties never having had a long-term relationship. She’d grown so cautious she shut out all possibility of romantic love for fear of the pain it could cause. Ellen didn’t want to end up dying without feeling as though she’d truly lived.
So she was going to be brave enough to remain open to certain possibilities, even if they felt dangerous and could result in getting hurt.
Right now, with Hendrix lifting her and playfully tossing her onto the bed, the risk certainly seemed to be worth the reward. But it probably wasn’t the best time to make such a judgment call. Her ability to reason was gone—had been lost when she’d opened her robe and other, more pressing needs filled her head.
They could talk later, she told herself, and regain the emotional and physical distance they should’ve kept—then move ahead as friendly acquaintances, just as they’d already agreed.
“Do you have any birth control?” he asked.
She’d gone off the pill before she’d ever moved to Coyote Canyon. “Sorry. I told you it’s been years for me.”
He checked his wallet and seemed relieved to find a lone condom. “It’s been so long for me, too, that I wasn’t sure it’d be there,” he said. “Thank God it is.”
He didn’t seem to be having second thoughts, which surprised her. What he’d done in the living room was one thing. But making love in the traditional sense? They’d been enemies since she moved to town! And not a lot had happened to change that. This was sudden and reckless, but it was also the most exciting thing she’d ever experienced.
She opened her mouth to warn him that they were probably making a terrible mistake. Or, at a minimum, to offer him something more like what he’d done for her in the living room. Surely, he, too, had to be worried about the ramifications of going so far.
But then he pulled off his shirt.
“Oh, wow...” she said.
He gave her a quizzical look. “What?”
He didn’t know? She could’ve said, “You look incredible, that’s what.” But she bit her tongue. As far as she was concerned, she was revealing enough for one night.
“Nothing,” she said and welcomed him into her arms—probably too readily—as soon as he climbed into bed. She might pay a high price for her actions later but...whatever this was, she wasn’t going to miss it.
Ellen woke to the sound of Talulah banging on her door. “Ellen! Ellen, open up! I’m worried about you. Are you okay?”
Too groggy to immediately gather her faculties, she rubbed her face. It was early enough that it was still dark. Talulah must be on her way to the diner. So why had she stopped by? What was going on? They typically didn’t see each other until the workday was over.
She was about to roll out of bed when she felt movement beside her—and the brush of a warm, well-muscled leg. It wasn’t until then that everything that’d happened last night came tumbling back to her in full detail. She and Hendrix, of all people, had made love. When she drifted off to sleep, she’d assumed he’d get up and leave before morning. They couldn’t have his truck discovered at her house. But he was still there.
“What’s going on?” he mumbled, obviously still half asleep himself.
She climbed out of bed as fast as possible and scrambled to find clothing. She’d left her robe in the living room, but, thankfully, there weren’t any underclothes out there. She hadn’t been wearing any when he came over...
“Talulah’s here,” she said. “Because Jordan’s in town, she tried to get me to stay with her and Brant, but I wouldn’t do it, so she’s probably coming to check on me.”
“I’m glad she’s looking out for you, but...why’d you refuse?”
“Because I’m not going to let Jordan scare me out of my own house. And I felt like I needed to stay and protect my equipment and my belongings, keep an eye out so I could call the police if I heard or saw anything unusual.”
“But then I came over...”
She grabbed a sweatshirt and yanked it on, not bothering with a bra. “Yes.”
