The Forever of Ella and Micha (The Secret 2)

My arms start to loosen around her as I decide whether to put her down on the ground or keep her close. “So not only did he let you drive his car, but he drove with you?”

“Micha, stop it.” She constricts her legs around my waist, refusing to let me go. “You’re on the road all the time with Naomi and I let it be. Besides, you’re always telling me to trust you, and you need to do the same.”

Fuck. She has a point, but I’m still jealous. It is a first for me and I’m not a fan of it.

Shaking it off, I walk for the car again, resolving to keep hold of her. Gripping onto my shoulder with one hand, she gets the keys from her skirt pocket and unlocks the car. Without putting her down, I maneuver the driver’s-side door open and set her into the seat.

I rest my hand on the top of the door and stare down at her. “And for the record, I do trust you. It’s guys I don’t trust. They think with their dicks.” She sighs and I slam the door, pretending like it’s not annoying as shit that I’m climbing into some other guy’s car.

She drives the car really slowly to the hotel. When I ask her why she’s driving like an old lady, she blows out a frustrated breath and tells me she promised Blake she’d behave while she drove it. This makes me feel a little better.

“So he’s a p**sy,” I say, not even trying to hold my smile back.

She parks the car in front of the trashy two-story motel littered with beer bottles and cigarette butts, and some rough-looking people are hanging out on the stairway and balcony.

“Micha, what’s your problem? Why is this bugging you so much?” She aims to sound upset, but a hint of laughter escapes in her voice.

I get out of the car and lower my head back into the cab. “I don’t like that this guy gets to hang out with you and lend you his car when it should be me.”

When she climbs out, she accidentally drops her keys on the ground. Bending over to pick them up, I get a glimpse of her black, lacy panties. “I know it’s hard, isn’t it?”

I can’t help myself. “Oh yeah, it’s very, very hard.” My tone insinuates my dirty thoughts and I slide over the hood of the car. Snagging her by the hips, I yank her against me. “Alright, I’m done talking about Blake for a while,” I say and kiss her.

Without another word, I slip my hand into hers and lead her up the stairs, past the vending machine and the two women who are yelling at each other on the balcony. By the time I have the door open to the room, I’m already unbuttoning her shirt. My lips seal against hers as I kick the door shut, continuing to unfasten the buttons.

My knuckles graze across the soft skin of her stomach and I groan, drawing my lips away from her briefly so I can tug her shirt off. I toss it onto the floor and crash my mouth into hers again. Spreading my fingers along her lower back, I request more of her. I can’t get enough.

Her hand runs down my chest until her fingers find the bottom of my shirt and then she pulls it over my head and chucks it onto the floor. With our tongues entwined, I back us toward the bed.

She fiddles with the button on my jeans and a groan escapes my throat as we collapse onto the mattress. “God, I’ve f**king missed this,” I mutter.

She leans away, with a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. “Is that the only reason you’ve missed me? Because you needed to get laid?”

I brush strands of her auburn hair out her face. “No, I miss everything. Your laugh, your smile, the way you pretend to be mad at me when really you think I’m funny.” I kiss her cheek softly. “I miss the way you taste.” I press my lips to her jawline and her neck arches. “The way you smell.” I suck on her neck, rolling my tongue along her skin as my hand glides up her thigh and to the edge of her panties. “The way you feel.” I slip my fingers inside her and a moan falters her lips as her body bows up.

“Micha…” Her eyes get lost as I feel her the way I’ve wanted to for the last month.

“Yeah, I miss that too,” I say and reconnect my lips with hers.

Ella

I didn’t realize how much I missed him until now. His fingers continue to feel me as his tongue strokes the inside of my mouth. I breathe out his name, moaning as I lose control of my body and mind, with my fingertips digging into his shoulder blades.

After I regain myself, I peel off my skirt and lie back on the bed, ready for more. He gets out of his jeans and boxers and reaches for his wallet to get a condom.

I grasp his hand, halting him, and rub my finger along the infinity tattoo on his arm. “You don’t need one.”

He cocks an eyebrow, looking at me like I’m crazy. “Yeah, Ella… I don’t think—”

I cover his mouth with my hand. “No. Not because of that. You don’t need one because I’m on the Pill.”

When I lower my hand from his lips, he doesn’t look happy, which I didn’t expect.

“Why did you go on the Pill?” he wonders. “We barely see each other.”

I pinch his nipple and he flinches, laughing. “Thanks for the accusation, but I think it’s pretty self-explanatory, since the last time we had sex, things got a little too heavy and you almost forgot to put one on.”

“Yeah, good point.” He conceals his body over mine, thinking about something that seems to entertain him.

“Why do you have that look on your face?” I sketch my fingers up and down his back.

He sucks his lip ring between his teeth and then a smile breaks through. “It’s nothing.”

“It’s something. You have this goofy grin on your face, so just tell me.”

“Trust me. You don’t want to know.”

“Fine.” I tighten my legs together, so he can’t get any closer.

“So that’s the way it’s going to be?” He grins wickedly, then pins my arms above my head and dips his lips beside my ear. “I was thinking about how nice it was going to feel inside you without a condom on.”

I shake my head, but let my legs fall open and I collide my lips into his. Keeping my arms trapped, he nips my bottom lip with his teeth as he thrusts inside me and my entire body ignites with ecstasy.

He shuts his eyes and inhales deeply through his nose. “Fuck, Ella…” His eyes open and he rocks in me.

Sweat beads our skin as our bodies conform together. Cupping the back of his head, I pull his lips against mine, take his lip ring into my mouth, and explore it with the tip of my tongue. My legs squeeze around his h*ps as he keeps pumping inside me and I let out a blissful moan. My head tips back as I lose it again and Micha begins to slow down until he finally stills.

We’re panting and heat radiates off our bodies. He brushes my hair away from my damp forehead and looks me in the eyes. It feels like there’s something he wants to say, something meaningful, but instead he just kisses my forehead and grins. “Ten more minutes and I’m back in the game.”

Two hours later, we are fully dressed again and driving to the club to catch up with Lila and the band. It’s after midnight, but the town is alive. Cars line the road, people walk up the sidewalks, and lights shine against the night.

After Micha begged me for five minutes straight to let him drive, I finally surrendered and handed over the keys, but only after he swore not to drive like a crazy person.

He throttles the gas anyway and rips the tires against the asphalt as he floors the car onto the main road.

“You promised.” I stab a finger at him. “Behave.”

“This thing’s weak,” he says, pleased. “What’s it got under the hood?”

“I don’t know.” I shrug. “I didn’t look. I was too busy trying to get here to see you.”

He reaches over the console and places his hand on my thigh, bringing warmth between my legs. “Come on. You know you want to let me see how fast it can go. And then afterward, we can pull over and you can take all that excitement out on me in the backseat.”

“You are ridiculously horny,” I tell him, smiling. “But I’m sure you know that.”

“I do,” he says simply, halting at a stoplight. The red glow illuminates the cab. “I’m on the f**king road, away from you all the time… it’s becoming a real problem.”

Panic strangles me as I think of him being far away in New York surrounded by women who would probably happily take care of his problem. I exhale gradually, so he won’t hear the unsteadiness of my breathing.

“Hey.” He strokes my inner thigh with his thumb as the light turns green. “I know what you’re thinking and you need to relax. I would never do anything to hurt you.”

I smile, but it doesn’t feel real. People never mean to do things that are hurtful, yet sometimes it just happens, through an intense moment, through brief rationalization, or by simply speaking words that only belong inside one’s head.

Or simply by giving up for a second.

People hurt each other all the time.

Micha

Ella has a wandering mind by the time we pull up to the club, but so do I. I’m not sure if her surprise visit was a good thing or a bad thing because it’ll make it harder to leave when morning comes around.

It turns out that only Naomi, Chase, and Lila are at the club. Dylan left with the hostess, but no one really seems to know where to—or they just don’t care.

There’s some really cheesy music playing in the background and a woman wearing red boots and a cowgirl hat is dancing in front of an old guy, trying to seduce him, but she’s drunk and keeps falling down.

An instant tension builds at the table once we sit down. Lila targets Ella with a heavy look and mouths bitch while nodding her head at Naomi.

I raise an eyebrow, glancing between Ella and Lila. While Naomi’s distracted with Chase, Lila leans over the table and shields the side of her face with her hand. “Remind me to tell you a lovely little story later.”

It’s hard not to roll my eyes at the silliness. “Should we order an appetizer or something?”

“We already did,” Naomi snaps, shooting me a dirty look. “And we ordered drinks, but neither has been brought out yet.”

I hold my hands up in front of me and lift my eyebrows. “Okay, sorry for asking.”

She practically snarls at me and I wonder if a catfight broke out between Lila and her. “Well, I’m getting annoyed with the crappy service.”

I drape my arm around Ella’s shoulder and whisper in her ear, “What are you looking at?”

She jumps, startled, and turns her head toward me. “It was nothing. I was just dazing off.”

I track the direction she was looking, to an old couple cuddled up together in a booth. They’re a little bit rough around the edges, like they’ve had one too many road trips across the country on their Harleys.

“Why were you staring at the old couple?” I play with her hair.

She shakes her head promptly. “I wasn’t.”

I stare at her lip as she nibbles on it nervously, but decide to let whatever she’s been weird about go for now, not wanting to ruin the one night we get together for the next month.