A Vine Mess (Love on the Vine #4)

18. Liam

The drive from South Dakota to the edge of Grand Teton had been…informative, to say the least. I loved getting to know more about Ella outside of the things I’d observed over the years, and her genuine curiosity about me pleased me deeply.

I was also excited to realize there was no pain in her voice when she spoke about her ex anymore. No darkness flashed across her eyes. That relationship was simply a part of her past now, and while I still had no idea what exactly had led to their downfall, I was just grateful it led her—and us—to the here and now.

For our time in Wyoming, I’d rented a secluded Airbnb in a small town on the southern side of the park. The cabin, which was far more spacious than the one we’d just left, had three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large living area consisting of kitchen, living, and dining area, presided over by vaulted, dark-beamed ceilings and a massive stone fireplace.

Through the entire wall of windows, two of which opened like sliding doors, along the backside was a deck with a few chairs, grill, and picnic table. Beyond was a field that slowly rose up into a mountain range.

There were no other homes for miles around. No one to interrupt us. No one to steal Ella’s attention.

Maybe I was crazy, but I had a good feeling about Wyoming—about this cabin, about what would happen between us here. Now that she’d seemed to fully let go of Alfie, I was holding out hope that maybe, just maybe, she was ready to give us a shot.

“This place is incredible,” Ella breathed when I unlocked the door and we stepped inside. Her bags fell unceremoniously to her feet just inside the entrance as she moved deeper into the space, reaching the center of the cavernous great room and turning in a slow circle. “Although I could do without the mounts.”

I chuckled, my eyes straying up to the deer, elk, and fish mounted on the walls.

“Just pretend they aren’t there,” I told her, walking past her to peek my head into the first of the bedrooms. “See, there aren’t any mounts in here. You want this one?”

“Is it the biggest?”

I rolled my eyes. “I have no idea, Wildflower. It’s literally the only one I’ve seen.”

She gestured for me to move down the short hall, where, from photos, I guessed the master, other bedroom, and second bath were located. “Let’s have a look then.”

All of the rooms were painted a warm, mocha color, the carpets beige and thick beneath our feet, decorated with pops of red and dark blue. Ella walked into the second bedroom and bent over, pressing her hands into the mattress, and I had to force my eyes away, lest I get any ideas about her in that position, both of us wearing a lot less clothing and her screaming my name as I made her come.

I shook my head to dispel the thought, and Ella said, “I’ll take this one.”

“You don’t want to see the master first?”

She sighed heavily, like I was greatly testing her patience. “Haven’t we had this conversation before, Wills? Big boy gets the big room.”

I frowned. “That hardly seems fair to you though.”

“You’re the one that booked and paid for all of this,” she reminded me. “You wouldn’t even let me pay you back! The least you can do for me is take the goddamn master and be happy about it.”

I shot her a grin, which was more teeth than anything, and she laughed. She had tried to pay me back for half by sending it through Venmo, but I’d sent it right back. I didn’t need her money.

I only needed her .

“Fine,” I huffed, turning from the smaller room, her feet padding softly behind me as we moved toward the master.

Before we even entered, Ella gasped.

“Well, I’m regretting my little tirade now,” she said.

I didn’t blame her. The view from here was incredible, the wall of the windows immediately drawing your eye outside. The glass was so crystal clear, it felt as though you were a part of nature. The four-poster, king-sized bed was positioned in a way that you woke up with the perfect view of the gently swaying grasses and snowy mountain peaks every morning, and so they were the last thing you saw at night before falling asleep.

There were things I wanted— needed —to say to her, but the immediate thought was to invite her to share this room with me. And that would’ve been crossing so many fucking lines. If the last four years watching her from afar had taught me anything, it was that I was a patient man, and I could wait for her to come to me.

She pulled me out of my thoughts by saying, “So what’s the plan for today?”

I checked my watch, noting it was barely five p.m. We’d gotten on the road early enough, and with the days steadily growing longer, we’d reached Wyoming in plenty of time to do some sight-seeing this evening if we wanted.

“What do you say we give our sunset hike another shot?”

I half expected her to shoot down my idea instantly, but I should’ve known better because she only grinned, throwing a, “Deal!” over her shoulder as she disappeared to get changed.

We’d opted for a more moderate trail, but one that would provide us with amazing views of the park. The website I’d looked at claimed this was a fairly popular hike, and I believed it considering it brought people up to the observation point for Old Faithful. I was surprised, however, when we didn’t encounter a single other soul on the entire ascent.

Almost like some invisible higher power wanted us to have this moment all to ourselves.

We didn’t reach the summit in time to catch the geyser go off, but we stopped in the middle of the trail on the way up, watching it through the trees.

And when we did reach the top, the sun had just kissed the tops of the hills in the distance, turning everything bright orange, making the flat area around Old Faithful look like some giant had spilled gold in the valley.

“Holy fuck!” Ella squealed as the trail plateaued. “Holy fuck, we did it!”

“You’re stronger than you think you are,” I said, my grin matching hers.

Her smile slipped just a bit, and she looked to her feet, dragging her toe through the dirt in senseless patterns as she said, “Sometimes, I don’t think so.”

I stepped closer to her, tucking my pointer finger under her chin and tilting her head up until she met my eyes once again.

“I promise, you are. The way you carried yourself after the breakup. All those times in the flower shop when someone made a backhanded comment about how they admired you taking a quaint little job instead of working for the family business. Every single holiday where Alfie quietly talked shit about your family and you put him in his place every day. Over the course of the last year, watching your sisters find their happily ever afters when your own relationship was slowly falling apart, and being happy for them despite it all. You’re so fucking strong. More so than you even realize, I think. But if I have to remind you every day, I’ll do so happily.”

Ella blinked slowly, seemingly at a loss for words. Her mouth opened and closed a few times before she swallowed hard and finally spoke .

“You’ve been watching me?” she whispered.

I exhaled slowly, my breath sending the tendrils of hair around her face fluttering. “For years, Wildflower.” I tipped my forehead against hers and closed my eyes. “The real question is, what’re you going to do about it?”

Without warning, she threw herself into my arms and captured my lips with hers.

I was so stunned, my entire body went rigid, my lungs burning as I held my breath. I’d asked the question that led us here, had forced her hand, but my brain had no time to catch up with reality before she was pulling away, slapping a hand over her mouth.

“Oh my god,” she breathed through her fingers. “Fuck, Wills. I’m so sorry. I don’t know what got into me. That was a mist—”

I didn’t give her the chance to finish that word, didn’t allow her to take it back. I simply wrapped her in my arms, my eyes locked on hers to make sure she was okay with this. Her breath hitched slightly, but she didn’t push me away. With one hand anchored at her hip and the other coming up to cup the back of her head, I pulled her to me and slanted my mouth over hers.

My mind was blissfully empty as we sank into the kiss, at first a slow, tentative slide of our lips that became hungrier and hungrier by the second.

Even now that I’d made the first move, I was having difficulty recognizing this as anything other than a fantasy. I’d wanted this for so long, had spent so many hours over the last four years daydreaming about this very moment, that I couldn’t believe it was finally happening.

Her body was soft and warm against all of my hard planes, her hair tickling my forearm as she angled her head a certain way, getting closer, licking her way into my mouth until our tongues tangled.

She tasted like fresh air and freedom.

A drop of moisture hit my cheek, and I jerked back, confused, eyes darting across Ella’s face, searching for any sign that she was, inexplicably, crying.

All I found there was a sated expression, her eyes still closed, mouth open slightly.

“More,” she breathed.

As though we timed it that way, right as I leaned in to give her what she wanted…the fucking sky opened up.

Ella pulled away from me and squealed, throwing her hands up to shield herself, but it was no use. We were soaked in seconds. All we could do was stand there in the downpour and stare at each other.

She tipped her head back and laughed, water sluicing down the delicate column of her neck and turning her white tank sheer so the bright purple sports bra she had on beneath it practically glowed.

I reached for her hand and shouted, “Let’s get out of here!”

We raced back down the trail toward the parking lot at its base, mindful of the mud and rivers forming beneath our feet. We slipped and slid our way, holding onto each other for dear life, both of us cackling the entire way.

Finally, we approached the parking lot and threw ourselves into the van. I immediately turned it over, kicking the heaters up into high gear to hopefully slice through some of the chill settling on our bones .

I glanced down at myself, at the puddles forming on the carpet floor mats beneath my feet, at the moisture seeping into the seat beneath our asses, and grinned at Ella.

“I’m never getting my deposit back.”

Ella, who had barely calmed from her hysterical laughter from before, once again broke into a fit of giggles, swiping at her face as she did so. I couldn’t help laughing alongside her. The last half hour had been surreal, like a fever dream I wasn’t sure I ever wanted to wake up from.

“We’re a mess,” she said when she regained her composure sometime later.

Reaching out, I twirled a damp lock of her hair around my finger. “You’re kinda sexy like this.”

She looked down at herself, at her bra and her nipples pointed against the fabric, then pointedly back up at me. “You would think so.”

I chuckled but didn’t disagree. Beyond the van, the rain had let up from a deluge to a trickle, so I backed out of the space and set off for the cabin.

When we pulled up to hour rental an hour later, the sun had completely set and, despite the heat in the van cranked all the way up, both Ella and I shivered in our wet clothing.

“I d-don’t know about y-you,” she said through chattering teeth, “but I-I’m going to t-take a s-shower to warm up.”

“S-sounds good,” I stuttered in response. “I’ll throw s-some d-dinner in then do the s-same.”

Without a backward glance, Ella power-walked down the hall in the direction of the guest bath, and though my limbs were stiff and shaking, I quickly cobbled together a chicken and broccoli bake thanks to years of experience prepping that particular meal, then I disappeared into the master suite and the massive, glass-enclosed, walk-in shower that had more nozzles and spouts and heads than I knew what to do with.

I found the knob for the rain shower head and turned it on until the water was warm enough to prickle my skin. I was so fucking cold, all the way down to my bones, my balls damn near shriveled up inside my body for protection, that I wanted to fry myself alive in this shower just to get some warmth back into my limbs.

My wet clothes clung to me as I stripped out of them, and I was breathing a little hard—mostly in frustration—by the time I was free and stepping under the spray.

Everything melted away the moment that hot water hit my skin, though, my entire body coming back to life. And then I was frustrated for a whole new reason.

Our first kiss had been cut short, and I wasn’t sure when we’d get the chance again. But god, seeing her soaking wet, those nipples and the little barbells passing through them like beacons attempting to guide me into her body…I was a man with a finite amount of self-control, and this trip had drained ninety-nine percent of it.

I didn’t think twice when my cock stiffened, blood flow returning to my body full force. I took myself in my hand and squeezed almost too tightly, my vision going a little hazy at how fucking good it felt. And once again, I imagined it was her as I worked myself over.

A little gasp from the doorway had my head jerking upright, my hand stalling on my shaft, and I found Ella standing in the doorway in an oversized shirt— my shirt, I realized with no small amount of satisfaction—miles-long legs on full display.

“Hey, Wildflower,” I said, my voice like gravel.

“I’m sorry,” she said, though she made no move to look away or retreat. “You’re just so…everything.”

The final word was a soft exhale, and I choked on a laugh.

“I don’t mind,” I replied hoarsely. “You can look.”

In fact, I loved that she was looking; my cock had grown impossibly harder under those hypnotic green eyes.

Emboldened by the intimacy of the moment, I added, “You could even touch if you wanted.”

After over a week on the road with her constant companionship, I was barely leashed. I wanted her so badly I couldn’t fucking think straight, and that kiss on the trail had done nothing to quell my desire. While she made up her mind, I fought against an onslaught of filthy images, of wondering what her cunt would feel like wrapped around my fingers, my cock. How she’d taste. The sounds she’d make.

Looking was…safe. Touching was dangerous. Touching this girl would be my undoing.

But I was ready to unravel us—if only so we could come together as something better and stronger.

Ella continued to stare, her fingers toying with the frayed hem of my tee.

I braced myself for her rejection, but once again, this girl surprised me.

With a swift movement, she gripped the tee and pulled it off, leaving her standing at the entrance to the bathroom in nothing but a pale pink thong, a barely-there scrap of lace that was sheer enough for me to see the spot where her pussy lips met at her pubic bone.

I felt like one of those cartoon characters whose eyes bugged out of its head when presented with something it liked. Because Ella Delatou, half-naked, her perky, pierced tits and curves on display for me? I liked that a lot .

She toyed with the thin straps at her hips, brazenly staring at me, waiting for my next move.

“What do you want, Wildflower?”

She shook her head. “You first.”

The words flew from my mouth with zero hesitation. “I want to know how good your lips taste.”

A single finger traced along her bottom lip as she said, “You’ve already tasted me.”

“I don’t mean those ones.”

“And what about what I want?” she asked, shuffling a few steps closer, though still not close enough.

“What about it?”

“Ask me again.”

“What do you want, Wildflower?”

“You,” she breathed. “And I think…maybe, I finally deserve you.”

I softened at that. “You’ve always deserved me.”

She shook her head. “I didn’t, not for a long time. But—” She paused, and neither her voice nor her gaze wavered when she continued. “I’m finally ready.”

Fuck yes.

“Lose the panties, Wildflower, and come here.”

Her thong hit the floor and she was in my arms in a flash, the water spraying around us as I backed her against the tile wall and stuck my thigh between her legs.

Fuck, I didn’t even know where to begin.

I smoothed my hands over her hair, still slightly damp from her own shower and becoming soaked once again. She shifted, grinding against my quad, and twin groans escaped us.

“Is this what you want?” I asked, leaning in to place a soft kiss beneath her ear, then nipping at the spot. “You want to use me for a quickie? Or do you want more? I’ll give you anything, Ella. You just have to ask.”

“I want…” She trailed off, reaching up to drag a finger across my collarbone, at the flowers inked there. “I want you to kiss me. And then I want you to fuck me.”

“If I take you right now, there’s no going back for either of us.” I cupped her chin, brushing my rough thumb along her smooth bottom lip. “You’re mine and only mine.”

“Yes,” she whimpered, driving herself harder down onto my thigh. “That’s exactly what I want. As long as you’re mine.”

I pressed a soft, slow kiss to her lips, lingering there, savoring her wildness and strength. “I’ve always been yours.”