Love Online(44)

Well, fuck. I thought I was already hard, but my dick stiffened even more.

“Lie back,” I said.

Eden positioned herself so she could rub her clit while watching me masturbate. Even though we’d done this before, there was something so desperate about this time. I think we were both at the end of our ropes after being interrupted before I’d left her.

As I tugged at my cock, I said, “You’re so hot, baby. I’ve never wanted to fuck anyone like I want to fuck you. I want you so bad right now. I can hardly think straight.”

There was no bigger turn-on than the sound of her moaning while she touched herself to the sight of me jerking it.

I licked my hand to wet it so I could imagine it was her drenched pussy. I closed my eyes and imagined what her pheromones smelled like. We were both totally lost in the moment.

When I opened my eyes, she was squeezing her tit with one hand while she massaged her clit with the other.

Holy shit, that’s hot.

Her legs started to tremble before she moaned in pleasure. I loved that she didn’t give a fuck whether or not I was ready. She just let herself go.

“Eden…Eden…Eden…” I let out the longest breath, which I hadn’t even realized I was holding, as my cum spurted out in buckets.

She watched every second of it. I kept milking myself to squeeze out the last few drops.

I collapsed against the headboard, momentarily sated but knowing that feeling of satisfaction would be short-lived.

We lay there for a while in silence. Eventually, she got up and put her shirt back on.

“So, Ollie told me you’ve been emailing each other,” she finally said.

“Yeah. He’s so cute.” I wondered if she was mad about that. “I hope that’s okay with you. I told him we could keep in touch.”

“I know what you told him—that you’d be there for him no matter what.”

My tone was insistent. “I’m not trying to overstep my bounds. I just don’t see a reason why he and I couldn’t keep in touch, even if…”

“Even if things don’t work out with us,” she said defensively.

I paused. “Yeah.”

“You do know Ethan told him the same thing, right?”

Fuck Ethan.

“Yes. But I’m not Ethan. I’m not an asshole. I would never do anything to hurt him.”

“Not intentionally. But life happens. Shit happens. He and I, we’re not used to people who stick around. Sadly, that’s the norm for us. Ethan, my father, Ollie’s father—no men in our lives ever stick around. My brother and I have no one but each other, so we’re not exactly conditioned to believe people when they say they’re going to be there.

That hurt to hear. “I know. I get it.” Leaning in, I said, “You’ve never mentioned your father before, only that he was never around.”

“Yeah, well, there’s not much to mention. My mother really knew how to pick them. Both men she got knocked up by were passing through town at the time.”

“Is he alive?”

“My father is a drifter. He never stayed in one place more than a year or two. The last I heard he was somewhere in North Dakota.”

“Were you born in Utah?”

“No. I was born in Montana. My mom was from there. She was a struggling student when she met him. They were around the same age. He took off after he found out she was pregnant. He came around one time when I was five. But at the time, I didn’t know it was him. My mother introduced him as her friend Lane. She only told me years later who it really was.”

Montana.

Lane.

Montana Lane.

Fuck.

“Wow,” I said.

Even though Eden was downplaying her feelings, the fact that she’d chosen her father’s name for her screen name spoke volumes. She was hurt by her dad’s abandonment far more than she was letting on.

Another reason I needed to tread very carefully.

***

A week later, it was Friday afternoon when the China itinerary landed in my inbox. My father had scheduled two full weeks of meetings there for me. I’d be leaving in a month.

I hadn’t booked a ticket back to St. George yet. Even though I wanted to see Eden badly, work had been so freaking busy. Maybe she was right. Maybe this couldn’t work, no matter how much I wanted it to.

As I stared at my inbox, a new message came in. It was from Ollie.



A message from Ollie Shortsleeve using VoiceText300:



Ryder,



Last night I heard crickets outside. I thought maybe you came back. But when I went to the window, I called your name and you weren’t there. It was just crickets.



Ollie



P.S. Are you coming back?



That squeezed at my heart. My fingers lingered at the keyboard for a while, but I didn’t know what to tell him. So I held off on responding, vowing to send him a message later.

It was 5:30, and I decided I’d had it for the day, so I got in my car and took off.

My original plan was to head home and catch up on the sleep I hadn’t been getting.

When I got to my exit, though, I passed right by, staying on the freeway.

I told myself I might have accidentally missed the exit, but I knew damn well it was intentional.