Текст книги "Fighting For You"

Автор книги: Sydney Landon

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Текущая страница: 4 (всего у книги 15 страниц)

Chapter Seven

When Declan walked through the doors of Danvers International the next morning, he wanted to do what he had always done when he saw Jason, Gray, and Nick standing around chatting: go the other way. Why was being normal so damn hard? His first inclination was always to be a loner. He did his job and whatever business communication was necessary. His talk with Nick about Ella a few days ago had been a first step. They might all hang out and see each other socially, but he tried to avoid that. He had been forced to on a few occasions and had always felt like the odd man out. These were Ella’s friends though, and if he was going to be involved with her, then he needed to try to fit into her world. He had friends in the military, but it was hard to maintain those friendships when you were once again a civilian and they were back in whatever hellhole Uncle Sam saw fit to send them.

Squaring his shoulders, he walked up to the group. He saw the surprise on each of the men’s faces, before it was quickly hidden.

Jason shifted and clapped him on the shoulder. “Morning, Declan. How’s it going?”

Declan fought the urge to abort this mission and head for the elevators, but stuck it out for Ellie. If he couldn’t manage to make small talk for five minutes, he was really in trouble. “Yeah, good morning.” When everyone continued to look at him, he wondered in a panic if he should start talking about the game last night or something. Hell, was there even a game on? Luckily, Nick could always be counted on to break the ice and this morning was no exception.

“So, Dec, you and Ella, right?”

Looking around the group he wasn’t surprised to see that they all seemed to know it. Were there any secrets around here? “Yeah, I guess you could say so. We, um . . . had our first date last night.”

Gray spoke up, “Hey, that’s great man. I like Ella a lot.” Then with a rueful smile, he added, “I’ll go ahead and apologize in advance for anything that Suzy may put her up to on your dates. I think she has adopted her as another sister, which probably means trouble.”

Declan couldn’t contain the laugh that burst out. “Well, if she was responsible for last night, she has a long way to go on her seduction techniques.” He inwardly groaned as he saw the sudden attention on their faces. He hadn’t meant to mention anything about the previous night. He knew he would never get out of this now, and he sure as hell would never get a guy card without spilling some of it. Fuck! You should have kept right on walking this morning.

Smirking, Nick jabbed him in the side saying, “You’ve got to explain that statement. I’ve never known my sister-in-law to fail at anything before.”

Declan shifted on his feet, wishing he had kept his damn mouth shut. “It’s nothing really. Ella just had a run of bad luck last night. She dumped popcorn on me, fell on the floor when she got up to go to the restroom, and poured a glass of soda in my lap at the end of the evening. I think she was pretty embarrassed about it, but it didn’t bother me.”

Everyone laughed and Jason said, “Oh, man, I feel you. Claire has what we call ‘mishaps’ and they happen often. I swear the woman can mash her finger on something in the kitchen, walk into the next room, and run into the wall. Last night, I was sitting on the deck with Chrissie, and Claire walked into the glass patio door so hard I expected to see it shatter. She blamed it on the glass. She said it was so clean that she thought the door was open. We started going to Sam’s Club to buy our Band-Aids in bulk.”

Grimacing, Declan said, “Damn, that’s rough. It wasn’t that bad last night. I think she was just nervous. It was pretty embarrassing though when I left and walked by her neighbor with a big wet spot on the front of my pants. He’s probably trying to figure out how to ask Ella if I’m potty trained.”

Everyone laughed. Gray joked, “That definitely doesn’t sound like an evening planned by Suzy. You’ll know when you get to that one. There will probably be handcuffs, Cool Whip, and Ben and Jerry’s involved.”

Frowning, Nick said, “That would be way hotter if it didn’t involve my sister-in-law. You two being married has completely sucked the fun out of that for me.”

“I can’t think of any comment that either won’t sound wrong or get my ass kicked so I’ll let it pass. How about you, Dec?” Jason added.

Giving a thumbs-up, Declan said, “I’ve always admired your wife’s thought process. You are one lucky SOB.” Seeing a movement out of the corner of his eye, he saw the woman in question walking toward them wearing some type of leopard skin clothing and black stockings. Yeah, he wasn’t lying, Suzy was freaking hot. He was man enough to admit that she scared him a bit. She might be small, but the woman had some balls. He didn’t think there was a pair of male eyes in the lobby not riveted to her as she made her way to their group.

“Hey, boys! What’s the damage this morning?”

Gray put his arm around her waist and pulled her into his side. “We are working our asses off here.”

With an unladylike snort, Suzy said, “Yeah, more like gossiping like little old ladies. I don’t know why women get a bad rap for that because you guys are just as bad.” Then turning her attention to Declan she asked, “So how did the date go last night? Did you get beyond the ice cream stage or what?”

This is exactly why I don’t hang out with people at work and do the small-talk thing. Damn, this is a nosy bunch. “We had a great time, thanks.” Suzy stared at him as if expecting something more. He was afraid that one of the others would blurt out what he had said about Ella’s accidents from the night before. He was already regretting sharing that. He didn’t want her to think he was making fun of her, because wearing popcorn and Coke was a small price to pay for her digging into his lap with a towel.

When it became apparent that he wasn’t going to elaborate further Suzy shook her head and said, “Wow, it sounds awesome. I never pegged you for a G-rated kind of guy, Declan, but hey whatever works. I’ve gotta get to work, maybe you all should try it sometime.” With that final parting shot, she was gone.

Declan released a breath that he hadn’t even been aware he was holding.

Gray gave him a smile of understanding. “She has that effect on everyone, don’t feel bad. I’m married to her and I still wonder what’s going to come out of her mouth next.”

Everyone drifted off toward their offices and Declan had to wonder why being social was so exhausting. He felt like going home to take a nap. At least it was Friday and he had another date tonight with Ella to look forward to. Although in the interest of taking things slowly, he probably should have waited a few days instead of asking her before he left last night, but he extended the invitation before he could think better of it.

He liked the way he felt with her. He didn’t remember ever enjoying talking to a woman like he did her. He was afraid it would be awkward taking things to a different level, but she was still his sweet Ellie and even if he had sat through Die Hard with a hard-on of his own, it had been worth it. When she had admitted to trying to seduce him, it was all he could do not to throw her down on the couch and take anything and everything she offered. The drink in the crotch was probably pretty well-timed. He had stood in a cold shower for several long minutes when he got home. One thing was certain, his water bill was bound to go through the roof until he finally slept with Ellie.

* * *

“Shut up! No, you did not!” Ella had to laugh at Beth’s dramatic reaction to her klutz fest from the night before.

“Oh, yeah I did. I practically mauled the man before he finally decided to run for his life. He mentioned something about me strangling him with my robe. He doesn’t even know about the container of powder I dropped in the bathroom.”

“What were you doing with powder?”

“Well, after I fell on the floor, I went to the bathroom and noticed that my face was shining. I looked like I had just run a marathon or something. So I took out a small container of powder and accidently opened it from the bottom. It exploded all over my bathroom and me. I was in there for like twenty minutes trying to beat the powder off my clothes. I used my hair dryer on low to blow it out of my hair and the middle of the floor, in case he needed to use the bathroom.”

“Oh my God,” Beth gasped, as she laughed until she looked about to cry. “Were you embarrassed?”

“Actually, it wasn’t too bad. If this had been the first time we had met it would have been worse, but I’m comfortable with Declan. He was a good sport and never made me feel like he was making fun of me.”

“Sooo,” Beth asked, “When are you going out again?”

Ella tried to contain her excitement, but failed. “Tonight! He asked me before he left last night.”

“Oh man, he isn’t playing around. Where are you going this time?”

“I’m not sure, he didn’t say. I think we can pretty much rule out bowling or anything that requires me to throw a heavy object. He will probably also want to skip sitting beside me when I’m drinking anything hot like coffee. That narrows down the field some.”

Beth giggled and nodded her agreement. “Yeah, you’re safe there. He might take you somewhere childproofed, like Chuck E. Cheese’s.”

Ella’s phone rang and cut their conversation short. “Ella dear, your father and I wanted to see if you could come home Saturday?” Without pausing long enough for her to answer, her mother continued on, “You could spend the night and go to church with us on Sunday. I know everyone would love to see you.”

“Oh, um . . . I can’t, Mom. I’m staying with Beth this weekend. Nick is going to be out of town.” Beside her, Beth shook her head and wiggled her finger.

She could hear her mother’s huff loud and clear. “You know I don’t approve of you spending so much time with that unmarried girl. Why won’t the father of her baby marry her, or is he not even the father?”

“Mom . . .” Ella warned. She was sorry that she had mentioned Beth. She had temporarily forgotten how vocal her mother was in her disapproval over her best friend’s marital state. She honestly couldn’t understand why her mother was so judgmental of others. Of course, she didn’t know why she was surprised. All of her mother’s friends were exactly the same way. Her mother’s behavior embarrassed Ella and she hoped she would never be tacky enough to hurt Beth’s feelings. “I’ve got to go, Mom, my break is over now.”

“Your break? I thought you worked in an office,” her mother huffed.

“I do, Mom, but we can’t stay away from our desks all day. I have to get back to work. I’ll call you tonight.” She could still hear her mother’s sputtering protests as she clicked to end the call.

Beth gave her a nod of approval. “Look at you, girl. Lying to your parents and making out with Declan all in the same week. Your training wheels are well and truly off now, aren’t they?”

Ella put her head down on her desk, groaning. “I love her, I really do, but she drives me crazy. She spends all of her time worrying about how other people view her and sadly, she is right to be paranoid because her friends are just as bad as she is. I’m a huge disappointment to her right now because she is being forced to lie about why I’m not at church every Sunday. Even worse, I seriously believe she is debating whether it would sound worse to just tell her friends that I’m gay or a single spinster.”

“Oh honey, you’ve heard the horror stories about my parents, so I’m right there with you. They are trying to behave a lot better right now, but Suzy and I both know that they would gladly trade us in for a couple of Harvard graduates. I think the only reason they are being halfway decent about the baby is because they hope it will be some kind of prodigy child and live up to their impossible standards. I would hate for them to know that their future grandchild moves like a pole dancer when “Baby Got Back” is playing.” At Ella’s smirk, Beth added, “Hey, don’t judge me, my gym plays a variety.”

After Beth left, Ella was surprised when Declan walked up a few moments later. “Hey, Ellie,” he said in that oh-so-sexy voice.

Fighting the urge to melt at his feet, she smiled and said, “Hey, yourself. Are you having a good day?”

“Not bad. I’m looking forward to seeing you tonight.”

The heated look in his eyes made the urge to melt even stronger. “I’m looking forward to it too. What are the plans? I could make us dinner if you like.”

“If you’re feeling brave, I thought I would cook for us. I know it sounds like a guy thing, but I grill a mean steak. You do like steak, right?”

“Oh yeah, I love steak, I’m a huge meat eater! Oh gosh, did I actually just say that? What was wrong with a simple, yes, steak sounds perfect.”

Declan seemed amused by her enthusiasm as he said, “Uh, yeah, good. I’m leaving now for a meeting so how about I pick you up at home around six?”

“I could just come to your place if you give me your address,” Ella offered.

Declan leaned closer and whispered so only she could hear him, “I don’t think so, sweetheart. I have been thinking of another kiss at your door all day. There is no way I would deprive myself of that.”

Before she could do anything—other than stare at him like an idiot– he gave her another smile and was gone.

The rest of her day seemed to drag as she repeatedly thought of Declan’s parting words. By the time she got home that evening, she was counting the minutes until Declan showed up. When he did arrive, she tried not to look like she had been standing at the door for fifteen minutes, after changing into another short dress and her best new Victoria’s Secret underwear set, courtesy of Suzy, Beth, and Claire’s advice.

Chapter Eight

“I like your apartment. It’s so . . . clean.”

Declan chuckled and said, “That’s all you could come up with, huh? I rented it completely furnished. I’ve been meaning to buy a house, but haven’t had the time for the hassle yet. Since I barely do more than sleep here, it hasn’t mattered much to me.”

Ella blushed, wishing she had been a little more complimentary of his home. Everything in it was top of the line and the granite countertops in the kitchen gleamed against the dark wood of the cabinets. The stainless steel appliances were sleek and modern. It was obvious that Declan paid much more in rent than she did on her small apartment. And his was spacious with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. She was a little surprised that he had such a big place for just himself. When she had asked him about it, he simply said that he didn’t like tight spaces.

When she offered to help with dinner, he pointed to the refrigerator and put her in charge of the salad. She had to give him credit, he had only paused for a brief moment before he handed her the sharp knife to cut the vegetables up. She was determined not to draw blood and reward his faith in her. “I like the music you have on, who is the group?”

Declan looked at her in surprise. “It’s Norah Jones. Haven’t you heard of her?”

“No, not really. My parents didn’t believe in any popular music. I rarely ever listened to the radio. I still don’t much now unless I’m with Beth. She is doing everything she can to catch me up on the Bon Jovi years and even though she tries to blame it on her gym, she also likes Justin Timberbake.”

Declan started laughing. “I believe you, Ellie, because it’s actually Justin Timberlake.”

“Oh . . . whoops. Don’t tell Beth, she would be so disappointed in me.”

“Your secret’s safe with me.” As he walked back toward the balcony, he looked over his shoulder. “I picked up a movie for after dinner if you’re interested. My sister recommended it.”

“That sounds good. I brought one as well so we can see which one looks the best.” Ella knew why he had the slightly embarrassed look on his face when she pulled his DVD out. Sleepless in Seattle, really? When he walked back into the kitchen she was trying to hide hers. She was sure that after their movie choice last night, he would know her tastes a little better. Apparently, he was still under the mistaken impression that she was a quiet, chick-flick-watching, girlie girl. Maybe it was better to let him think that. Her movie did have some romance in it though; didn’t she get points for that?

Looking over her shoulder, Declan asked, “So what did you bring?”

“Uh, nothing interesting. Let’s just go with your choice. It looks great.”

“Aw, come on Ellie, no holding out on me.” When she still wouldn’t show him her movie, he suddenly started tickling her. As she shrieked and jumped out of the way, he grabbed the movie and waved it in the air in victory. His expression was almost comical when he finally brought it down to look at it more closely. “Lethal Weapon?”

As she did whenever she got nervous, she started rambling. “It’s okay; we can watch your movie. Lethal Weapon 3 was really the best one anyway. I just loved Rene Russo in it. But I wasn’t sure if you had seen the first two so I didn’t want you to be lost or anything. We can watch mine another time. Maybe we can have a whole Lethal Weapon marathon.” As he continued to look at her without saying anything, the rambling got worse. “How about Jason Statham? You remind me of him, well, without the British accent. I love the Transporter movies or we could do something military for you. There is Black Hawk Down or the Expendables movie.”

Finally, Declan started chuckling and pulled her against his chest. “Oh Ellie, if I could clone you, every man in this world would be in heaven. You and I might not agree on everything, but we damn sure won’t have a problem deciding which movie to watch.” As Ella started to return his embrace, he suddenly pulled back and muttered something about checking the steaks before leaving the kitchen.

What the heck was that? Surely, Declan wasn’t running from her now. Did he think that because she watched action movies, she was going to attack him? Of course, she was still holding a knife so he was probably trying to protect himself from another mauling. Later, she planned to test his resolve. She felt like she had been waiting for Declan, or at least the idea of Declan, for a long time and now that they were sort of together, she wanted it all . . . now.

He, however, seemed to be moving at the pace of a turtle. For years, her mother had been telling her that men only wanted one thing from her and that she should guard against that. Well, when exactly did they want that one thing—because other than some hot kisses where he pulled away before they became too intense, she had seen no sign of him wanting or trying to get in her pants? Maybe she needed to wear different pants.

Dinner was wonderful and Declan looked at her in approval when she ate almost every bite of the mouthwatering steak he had grilled for them. He hadn’t even cringed when she knocked over her full wine glass and drenched the table and the floor beneath it. They cleared the table and loaded the dishwasher like an old married couple. She couldn’t believe that she was so comfortable being alone with a man in his apartment. This was Declan though. They had spent so much time talking at the office that she was almost as comfortable around him as she was with Beth.

They carried their glasses of wine back into the living room and, with a knowing smirk, Declan casually dropped a towel beside her glass. “Okay, did we decide on my award-winning movie selection of Sleepless in Seattle or your action-packed movie Lethal Weapon which is filled with a lot of amusing, gratuitous violence?”

Pursing her lips, Ella said, “Hmmm, well, you make a strong case for both movies. I feel that choosing the first movie would just make me into a stereotypical girlie girl who lives and breathes for a good chick-flick. Therefore, I feel that I must choose the second movie just to break out of the restraints that society has placed upon the female sex.”

As Declan started to applaud, she was proud of herself until he said, “Oh Ellie, I bet that was a fine speech, but I completely shut down when you said restraints and sex in the same sentence!”

Ella started blushing as images of those two things flashed through her head. “Um . . . that could have been a poor choice of words, well, unless you’re into that. Are you . . . into that?” Did I really just ask him if he wants to tie me up during sex?

She was happy to see that she wasn’t the only one completely thrown by that train of thought.

Declan fumbled so much with the movie cases that he was beginning to look like he was practicing his juggling routine. Clearing his throat he said, “Well . . . I’ve tried it before, yes,” then he quickly added, “But you don’t need to worry about that Ellie. I would never ask you to do something that you didn’t want to do.”

Giving it some thought, Ella finally said, “I’ll just have to try it and see if I like it. Do you do the whole spanking thing with it or is that something else?” She was alarmed to see that he had turned white as a ghost and seemed to just be staring at her in a daze. “Are you feeling okay? You’re sweating and you look like you might pass out.” Jumping up, Ella started to the kitchen to get him a glass of water.

“No,” he managed to croak out. “I’m fine. You just . . . distracted me for a minute there with all of the spanking talk. Before you even ask, yes . . . I have tried that as well, and no, I’m not doing that to you. At least, no time soon. Ellie . . . baby, can we please not talk about anything else below the belt tonight? This would be a bad time to figure out that I have a heart condition.”

Ella looked down to find that things below his belt line had gotten a bit more noticeable than they had been. The realization dawned on her that without even trying, she had turned him on in quite a big way. Really big. She couldn’t help but feel proud of herself. She had been wondering how she could get to Declan and apparently just talking about restraints, sex, and spankings did the trick. When he settled beside her on the couch, she curled into his side and after a brief hesitation; he wrapped his arms around her and settled her head under his chin. If it felt this good to be in his arms fully clothed, Ella could only imagine how it would feel to be skin to skin with him.

* * *

Declan pulled back the covers and settled in his king-size bed alone. He found that he longed for the day when Ella would cuddle beside him. It was damn near killing him to take things slow. She made it pure torture to do the right thing. He had almost stroked out tonight when she asked him if he was into spankings or tying her up. WTF! He had been constantly trying to shift his cock around during the movie without her noticing. It was hard enough to be that close to her without ripping her clothes off. It went to almost impossible when she wiggled her little bottom and draped herself all over him to watch her damn movie.

He had never met a woman who was full of so many contradictions. He knew from their conversations at the office that she wasn’t an uptight prude, but truthfully, he wasn’t prepared for who Ella was emerging to be. Come on, who would have thought that the church girl was an action-movie junkie? She wasn’t just pretending to be to impress him either. She had quoted line after line from Lethal Weapon tonight, before it even happened on screen. After that, she had talked with great affection about the next movies in the series and how they tied in with the first one. He had a bad feeling that if Mel Gibson ever visited Myrtle Beach, he would be dumped like yesterday’s news.

It was getting harder and harder, both literally and figuratively to walk away from her door after a goodnight kiss. My God, she was enthusiastic. He was still trying to figure out how she had managed to wrap her legs around his waist tonight without his help. One minute he had been starting to pull away and the next minute her legs were around him and his cock was nestled against her crotch. That had ensured another five minutes of near torture as he tried desperately to talk himself out of ripping her panties off and taking her right there where all her neighbors could see. Clearly what Ella lacked in experience, she more than made up for in enthusiasm. She had tried to urge him inside of her apartment for some privacy, but he knew if he crossed that threshold, there was nothing stopping him from finally taking her.

The lines were getting blurred with her. He had made no promises in the beginning and now after only a few dates, even he was thinking crazy shit. He was a soldier, for God’s sake, where was his control? He had exercised it his whole life, even before the military, so why was it deserting him now? Maybe it had just been too long between women. He could go out now and take care of it. There had been no talk of exclusivity. But he knew in his heart that Ella would be destroyed if she found out that he had slept with another woman and even he wasn’t that big of a bastard. He had lain in a damn wet ditch in Afghanistan for hours without making a move. Surely, he had the willpower to keep his dick in his pants for another few weeks until Ella was ready. With that thought, he resorted to doing something he hadn’t in quite some time . . . he took matters into his own hands while thinking about the woman who was slowly driving him out of his mind.