6. Grey

Grey

L ooking sinfully sexy in that jersey, her tight butt undulating under the cloth, Ellie paced the small motel room. She frowned, her pink tongue protruding from between her lips, and clicked at her cell with her thumbs.

"He still hasn't replied to my texts," she finally said.

"Nor mine." I watched her walk, her long hair swinging, admiring her lithe body. I wanted her. Badly. Thinking a dunk in a cold shower might cool my ardor, I forced myself to try Colton's cell again.

Still, nothing.

"There's no way to know if the towers are down," I said.

"What about the news?" Ellie suggested.

I turned the TV on and scrolled until I found a national news cable program. Ellie stopped beside me as we listened to the talking head speak of politics, sports―the Vipers win last night, though I had vanished before the reporters got a quote from me―and finally the weather.

"Coach will be mad I didn't talk to them," I commented as we listened to every weather report except New England's.

"He'll get over it," Ellie muttered.

"It's part of my job. I have to talk to the press."

She eyed me. "I didn't see any reporters."

"I think they were on the upper level. They usually aren't allowed near the locker rooms. We snuck out the back."

Finally, the weather gal spoke of the tremendously dangerous blizzard that was currently hitting all of New England.

"Power is out for much of the population," she went on, gesturing toward her map, "and crews are working diligently to repair the lines. However, the whiteout conditions are hampering their efforts. Stay indoors at all costs, stay warm, and stay safe."

I clicked the channel to an HBO movie. "Nothing about cell towers."

"If power lines are down, so are towers." Ellie sat on the bed beside me, wriggling until she tucked herself under my arm. "What are we going to eat?"

I shrugged. "Vending machine crap. The clerk said any local restaurants are closed."

"I like junk food."

"That's not healthy."

"I doubt vending machines dispense salads."

"They should."

"I'm hungry."

"You just had two donuts."

"What's that got to do with it?"

I eyed her slender, bare legs. "Maybe we should grab enough stuff to keep us alive if the power goes out here, too."

Ellie bounced to her feet and seized the key cards. "Dope."

Alarmed, I rose from the bed. "Where the hell are you going?"

"To the vending machines."

"Put some damn pants on."

Grinning, Ellie donned her jeans but refused to put on her shoes. I growled as I looked at the icky carpet under her bare feet.

"That's nasty."

"I'll shower when we get back," Ellie said.

Only a handful of other guests prowled the hallways and main lobby. They wore the defeated, worried expressions of people trapped, unable to make their son's birthday party, their grandchild's Christening. None seemed eager to dine on junk food, and left the vending machines to Ellie.

"I think that's enough," I said, eyeing the wealth of candy bars, chocolate cakes, cookies, crackers, sodas, and bottles of water.

"Help me carry it back," she said triumphantly.

Hoping no one noticed, I stuffed candy in my jeans pockets, loaded my hands with cans and bottles. Ellie had her own hands full and pushed the elevator button with her toe. I hoped no one noticed that either.

"Get in the shower," I ordered, dumping my loot on the bed.

"Yeah, yeah."

She bathed, singing under the spray, as I sorted everything out. I put the sodas and water in the tiny fridge, but kept a bottle of water back to drink. Listening to her voice, I stared out the window toward the empty interstate.

The blizzard hadn't slowed at all, as far as I could tell. Only when the wind died a fraction could I see the local buildings, the cars buried in the lot below. Nothing moved out there, not even a snowplow.

"We're stuck here but good," I said.

"What's that?"

I turned. Ellie, garbed again in the team jersey, toweled her hair. My cock twitched at the thought of those bare legs wrapped around me.

In for a penny, in for a pound, a small voice teased me.

"I said we're stuck here." I draped my arm over her shoulders as she joined me at the window.

"Jeez," she murmured, her tone shocked. "It's worse than I thought."

I imagined us stuck in my car, buried, somewhere along the snow-bound Interstate. "We're lucky we got here."

Peering up at me, Ellie frowned, scared. "Colton is all right. Isn't he? Please say he is."

I folded my arms around her. "He's not dumb, honey. He's safe."

"I just want him to be okay."

I braced myself before asking the question that had been on my mind since yesterday. "Do you want him back?"

She shook her head. "No, never. He hurt me too badly. But I still care, you know? Maybe I always will, I don't know."

I squeezed her slender body. "He's an idiot. He never should've let you go. You're a real treasure, Ellie."

"I'm just me." Her arms snaked around my waist.

"You're special."

"Then why did he dump me?" Her face buried in my chest, she started to cry. "Why would he cheat on me with her ? Why wasn't I good enough? Why?"

As she wet my shirt with her tears, I rested my cheek against the top of her head. I had no answers to those questions. True, Colton was young, stupid, arrogant. Thinking he had the world by the balls.

You don't, kid. Believe me, you don't.

***

Her bout of weeping over, her cheeks red and swollen, Ellie huddled in my arms as we both sat on the bed. Though a movie played on the TV, I don't think either of us comprehended anything about it. My thoughts continued to squirrel around and around inside my mind―what the hell was I doing? Why did I let myself make love to my son's ex? What the hell do I do now?

We should have the talk…

But I couldn't. Not yet. Ellie's vulnerability and susceptibility kept my mouth shut. Later, maybe once we hit the road again, I could remind her of our vast age difference. That it's unacceptable for us to be sleeping together. That I didn't love her.

I couldn't love her.

Except that wasn't exactly true.

Colton's mom walked out on us ten years ago. When she did, she broke both of us. I struggled to repair the damage she had done. And Colton? Well, I can't say he ever got past her loss. How she abandoned him as easily as she might abandon a kitten by the side of the road. Colton not only knew that, but blamed himself for her leaving us.

I wondered if that enabled him to treat Ellie the same way. Just…dump her. As though she had never meant anything to him.

"What are you thinking about?" her little voice asked.

I glanced down at Ellie's upturned face. "Colton."

"I'm sure he's all right."

Now she was repeating my own words back to me. "I know. I'm just thinking about my influence as a parent. Or the lack thereof."

Ellie caressed my chest. "I'm sure you're a great dad."

"How do you know? You've only really known me for three days. For all you know, I beat him regularly, and twice on Sundays."

Laughing, Ellie lightly slapped my stomach. "You're kidding, right? Colton wasn't abused, and you're not an abuser."

"What if you're wrong?"

She shook her head. "It's hard to explain. I just know you're a good person."

I wanted to protest, to explain that a true psychopath could conceal their real selves, but decided against it. I hugged her tightly instead. "I'm glad to have your vote of confidence."

Abruptly, the TV blinked out. The lights vanished. The heater ceased its hum.

Ellie clutched me, crying out, "Shit."

"There goes the power."

A niggle of unease crept into my belly.

Ellie got up from the bed and crossed the room to the window. "It's really bad out there."

"The storm won't last forever," I assured.

She turned, her expression in the now shadowy place haunted. "Will we be okay? Will we?"

"Sure." I beckoned her with my fingers. "These buildings are well insulated. We've got blankets, our coats, snuggling together we'll maintain body heat."

As jittery as a deer, Ellie returned to bed. I covered us both with the blanket and cover, holding her against my chest.

"Too bad we don't have a deck of cards," I joked, trying to lighten her worries.

"Let's hope this place doesn't become a second Donner Pass," she muttered.

I couldn't help it. I broke into wild laughter, trying to imagine the hotel guests, including Ellie and I, eating one another. "Good lord, what a thought. Where'd that come from?"

"The blizzard," she replied, her tone dark. "Trapped by it, no food, water. We can't even make a fire."

I wiped my eyes, still chuckling. "The blizzard will be over by morning. The plows will open the highway, and we can leave, power or no power. If we can't leave right away, the power will still come back on eventually."

"It might be out for weeks," she said, stubbornly. "It's happened before. Lines down, people without heat for weeks at a time."

"Your imagination is running wild," I commented. "That's true. But folks come together to help one another, not become cannibals. We'll be fine, I promise. How about a Snickers Bar?"

"I'm not hungry."

"I'm getting us each a candy bar and a soda. Just so you know we're not going to eat each other." Before I stood up, however, I lifted the blankets and studied the region where her slim legs joined. "Though I might have to eat you."

Ellie yanked the covers back, scowling. "Yeah, yeah."

Grinning, I fetched us both a candy bar and a soda, then joined her on the bed to dine. Ellie recovered her sweet good humor, joking about eating a fellow human being if they happen to be tasty enough.

"Too bad we don't have a barbeque grill," she said, taking a swig of her soda.

"We'll start a fire in the lobby and set a grill over that," I replied.

Ellie snickered. "Invite all the neighbors."

"To eat or be eaten."

Laughing like kids, we ate and drank our sweet dinner. Ellie never mentioned it, but the room slowly grew decidedly colder.

How cold might it get in here? Low fifties?

Outside the window, the whiteout continued, the wind howling past the building as darkness dropped with an almost alarming suddenness.

Ellie's giggles were cut off instantly when I rose from the bed. "Where are you going?"

"Just gathering our coats to put over us. An added layer."

"Isn't there an extra blanket on that shelf?"

Sure enough, a nice woolly blanket sat neatly folded on the shelf above the open closet where guests might hang clothes. I put that over the bed, then added the coats. I slid under the mass beside her, appreciating the new heavy weight over us.

"No freezing to death now," I said.

"Grey!"

I chuckled, nuzzling under her chin to kiss her creamy throat. "Let's play caveman and cavewoman. Pretend we're lying by the hearth fire, buried under a mammoth hide."

"Sounds stinky, not romantic."

I slid my hand over her breasts, one after the other. "Caveman does what comes naturally."

Ellie gasped as I pulled the covers back, and her shirt up, enough to lick and suck each nipple, my fingers trailing down her belly to play with her clit.

"Oh, my," she breathed.

"Caveman is hungry," I rumbled, sliding down her body, buried under the blankets.

As I promised, I parted her thighs had my way with her.