Embracing Ellie: Chapter 20

Hemi's expression didn't change much, but he blinked a few times and stared. It was a natural expression one would make when playful teasing seemed to change gears. When he spoke, his voice was low and his tone was tentative. "Yes," he said, "that would be something."

She laughed it off and sat back, trying to look more relaxed. "Poor Danny," she said. "He'd have a heart attack."

Hemi said, "We wouldn't want that."

"At least he'd get here. When is he getting here?"

Hemi said, "Do you want him here?"

"My husband? Of course I do. Why?" She smiled trying to appear coy.

"Danny said he wanted you to be more like yourself."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm always like myself."

"That's why he's not here yet."

"What does that mean: to be more like yourself?"

Now Hemi shrugged like he didn't know how else to explain it. "I guess he thinks you act different when he's around."

"Oh, okay," she said, nodding, squinting. "That's what he said?"

"You don't believe me?"

"You could be lying." She stared at him for a moment, smiling, looking sly and armed with suspicion. "I can't even be sure you're talking to him."

Hemi laughed. He said, "Then why are you here in a hot tub wearing that little bikini then?"

"Touché," she said. "I guess I trust you."

"I like to hear that."

"Well, it's true. I do trust you. You've been very good to Danny and I. But why would Danny want me to be more like myself? What's wrong with who I am when he's around?"

"That's what I'd like to know."

"Why don't you ask him?"

Hemi said, "What do you think he's going to tell me?"

"I'm afraid to hear it."

Hemi said, "What could he say that would make you afraid?

She felt her cheeks blush a little and she couldn't help a sort of giddy silliness now, shrugging her shoulders and moving her hands around too much. "I don't know. You don't even know what he's like. He's very tricky and manipulative. Not manipulative in a bad way. I don't mean like that. He's just very—”

"Considerate?"

She exhaled. "Well, yeah, considerate. He's very considerate. And maybe you are talking to Danny, giving him all those compliments like you are. In cahoots."

"I like Daniel a lot."

"I probably like him more."

"I wouldn't doubt it."

She chewed her lower lip for a little bit, frowning and staring at Hemi, who gave her nothing in return. She said, "Ask Danny to say something that only Danny would know."

"That's a great idea. You'll believe me then?"

"I believe you now."

Hemi raised his brows. "Then why should I text him?"

Why should he text him? Why should he have to prove Danny was on the other line? That was a crazy consideration.

Because you're on the cusp of doing something so insane? That you might actually take off your bikini for another man to see? And what else might you do with this man who is naked in the hot tub across from you?

"It might put me at ease," she said, after some deliberation.

"Easy. What can I do to make you comfortable?"

"Get Danny to tell you something that only Danny would know."

Hemi studied her for a moment then brought the phone up so he could see it. He started to type and then asked her, "What sort of thing? Like your dog's birthday or something?"

"I don't know if Danny would know that." She shrugged. "I don't know, just ask him to tell you something specific."

But Hemi had already sent it "I just asked him to come up with something good."

"We'll wait," she said.

They both smiled at each other and then Hemi's phone dinged. He read it then read it back to her.

He said, "Danny says he wants you to show me the thing you showed him in the hammock yesterday." Hemi frowned, rereading it, trying to make sense of it and then his stunning blue eyes moved up to hers—caught her like spotlights with her cheeks blazing and her heart thudding in her chest.

She said, "What?"

"He wants you to show me the thing from the hammock yesterday. What did you show him?"

"What I, uh… showed him in the hammock?" Now she pretended to struggle to comprehend

"Shit, maybe I'm not talking to Danny," Hemi said, showing a face of serious concern. "Who the hell have I been talking to?

"Yeah, no, I know, we were in the hammock yesterday. Okay? I'm trying to think what I . . . uh, what I did to Danny in the hammock."

And what did you do to Danny in the hammock? You used your mouth on him. Sucked his penis and told him you were worried that you wouldn't be very good at it if you were to do it with Hemi.

Her cheeks blazed hotter. Wow she said okay all right you're talking to Danny. Then she rubbed her brow with the heel of a hand. "Okay. The hammock…"

"You didn't hurt him, Ellie, did you? I don;t know if you have to show me that." He smirked.

She laughed. "No. It didn't hurt him."

He put the phone aside and put his bulky arms on the hot tub's curved edge, looking sexy and gorgeous. "Well, you going to show me then?"

Uh, she wasn't going to suck Hemi's dick. That was for sure. But now she was frozen. What had she shown Danny in the hammock that she could do right now and convince Hemi? She growled and rubbed her brow harder.

"Whatever it is," she said, shaking her head from side to side eyes far away and lost, "I'm not going to show you."

"You lying? That doesn't seem fair."

"I could tell you anything."

"And he said you would. But I think you're a terrible liar."

I am a terrible liar.

"So what's next then?"

She bit her lips and shivered, thinking how close they'd come to actually doing the thing they'd toyed with. Her and her husband with their dirty talk and their getaway to a New Zealand adventure and then the discovery of excitement in a whole different kind of adventure. One of a sexual nature. And now in a matter of days, she was in a hot tub with a man who wasn't wearing anything and Danny was suggesting she should try something intimate with him.

Now she licked her lower lip and looked at Hemi. She said, "I think I'd like another glass of bubbly."

"You two are up to something."

"Is it obvious?"

"Nah, it took us a long time to get her where we are. Harder to hide it now, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"So what you two got going on?"

"It's pretty obvious. Danny is setting me up for this. Got me here in the hot tub. He's clever. He's fun. I love him. But he likes to rile me. Make me anxious or whatever."

"Send you off a bungee."

"Exactly."

Hemi chuckled. "I really like it. I think it's hilarious."

"I'm glad you're having a good time."

"I hope you are too, Ellie."

"Actually I am."

"We could run one on him."

"What do you mean?"

"He set you up, you could set him up."

She smirked, some vague possibilities beginning to bloom before her. "Explain it."

"He's put you here. You don't have to do anything you don't want. But you and me could have some real fun sending Danny some of the worst things imaginable. Make him crazy."

The whole thing dawned on her. They could do that.

She began to giggle. She began to think of teasing Danny in return. She began to laugh out loud and covered her mouth with both hands, the image of handsome Hemi and his gorgeous muscular arms warbling with the wet mirth clouding her eyes.

"Oh my god," she sighed, drawing her fingers down her cheeks and neck. "We could totally do that."

"Yeah, you're darn right we could totally do that."

"Oh, I love it," she said. "Let's do it."

Hemi laughed, scooted forward and held up his hand for a high-five. She gave him a wet slap and they both laughed.

Hemi said, "Got any ideas?"

The laughter waned and now she was stumped. How would they convince Danny something was going on? She was silent for a while, mind scanning how she could make it look like they were doing things without doing them.

"We can start simple," Hemi said.

"Okay," she said, mind racing.

An odd sense of comfort warmed her. All day she'd feared the embarrassment if Hemi discovered the stupid things they were saying behind his back. But Hemi had been a great choice to show them around New Zealand. He was fun-loving and kind, and apparently quite an honest person. And here, at what should have been the greatest peak of discomfort Danny had ever provoked, she felt the opposite. She felt safe and cared for.

The more the anxiousness waned, the more fun she felt taking its place. There were so many possibilities. And Hemi was a great partner.

She said, "Boy, we could do all kinds of things.

Hemi said, “The bigger the better.”

“We have to start small.”

“What do you reckon?”

Even though she knew it would be all right and that she was in good company, she still felt the need to prepare Hemi.

“You wouldn’t be offended with—I mean—like a little bit of skin?”

“Skin?” Hemi grinned. “I’m a big fan of skin. You just stood up and showed me your bikini.”

“I did,” she said, biting her lower lip. “But I mean…”

She rolled her eyes. What was the point in fearing impropriety? After all that had happened today—all the things she and Danny had joked about and teased each other with—why would she want to be so proper?

She should be embarrassed by the whole thing. Ashamed of herself. Ashamed of Danny, and of these awful things he’d started to put in her head.

But now, with almost no fanfare, Hemi admitted that what she and Danny had been sneaking around and whispering about behind his back wasn’t even really a big deal at all.

Holy shit, when you got right down to it, it seemed like Hemi was into it.

She gulped at the surprising thought. It hadn’t even occurred to her yet. If Danny Torres and his beautiful wife Elena were a couple of California swingers—well, darn it, that was all right with Hemi Armstrong.

Whatever you want, Ellie. You want it on your back, or you want to get on all fours?

It was a funny thought, but somehow she still believed Hemi was a gentleman about all of this.

“All right,” she said. “Here we go…”

An easy thing in theory, but a hard thing to do in practice: Her hands went behind her and untied Danny’s bikini choice—the skimpiest one they had in stock. There was almost no point in wearing it. It was so revealing. So why wear it at all?

She was alone with a friend who was, quite frankly, more naked than she. It was practically an insult to him to be sitting here wearing something. Talk about impropriety—she was practically being rude.

The bikini straps loosened. Hemi waited—not beaming or gushing like a little boy, but just a handsome man enjoying himself with casual amusement and good nature. His features were relaxed, his expression warm, a smile on those gorgeous lips.

The bikini top came off, though she kept her body under the water. She laid the bikini on the hot tub edge behind her and made a quirky expression for Hemi to hold on, because she wasn’t quite done yet.

Thumbing down the bikini bottoms under the water, she slipped them down her legs and off her feet. Even though Hemi couldn’t see her, this sudden new nakedness sent a swirling pleasure cyclone tearing a path from her tummy up to her heart. The thrill was astounding. More astounding than rushing down the slopes today. It tightened her in ways she had never felt before and loosened her in others.

She bit her lower lip again and held up the two barely-there slips of fabric: the bikini top pinched between fingers and thumb in her left hand, the bikini bottom in her right.

Naked under the water, not showing anything, she held both items up for Danny—wherever he was—sitting in the Land Rover, back at the chalet, or perhaps hiding in the bushes with a set of binoculars.

“What do you think?” she asked. “Hemi?”

He held his phone, looking at the screen as he framed her in a photograph. “A little higher, El,” he said. “There we are…”

He snapped a picture. Before he sent it, he looked at her with a serious expression. “You know he’s gonna say you just put something else on under that water.”

“Oh, he’ll absolutely say that. But he won’t think it.”

They both broke into breathy snickers as Hemi sent off the picture of her to her husband.