She smiled and then stood up, grabbing his hand. “Come in with me.”
When he shook his head and tried to resist the allure of her smile, she taunted, “Well, okay, but I plan to go in a little deeper and I’m not a very good swimmer.”
As all of her recent accidents flashed through his head, he jumped swiftly to his feet. “Alright, baby, you win. If you drown me though, I’ll come back and haunt you for the rest of your life.” She squealed in excitement and Declan thought about how easy it was to get caught up in everything Ella. She was like the sun coming out after months of darkness.
No wonder Brant had acted so out of character around her. He knew firsthand that it was impossible not to. If you were within proximity, you would get caught in her orbit. He might only be thirty-five, but he had felt twice his age for longer than he cared to admit. She made him feel carefree and young again. It seemed her love of life was contagious and he was high on the happiness that sparkled in her eyes. Tomorrow he would look back on this day and wonder how his life could change so drastically in just twenty-four hours.
Chapter Eleven
Ella knew she had a ridiculous “I had sex this morning” smile on her face when she walked in the lobby at Danvers International, but she couldn’t seem to help it. She had spent another night with Declan and he had woken her in the most delicious way. Her body was still tingling from the thrill of that oh-so-heavenly tongue of his. She felt herself blush at the memory of her wanton response. She was pretty sure the neighbors must have heard her screams of pleasure. She’d never really imagined that she would be that . . . vocal, but she found it impossible to control herself and Declan loved it.
“It looks like someone finally got laid.”
Ella whirled around with a guilty look to see a smirking Suzy. “I . . . ugh . . . what?”
“Oh come on Snow White, you don’t have to hide it from me. There is only one thing that has a woman high-stepping that much before nine in the morning. Declan finally tapped it, huh?”
“Tapped?”
“Yeah, sorry. Gray says I’m picking up too much gangster lingo from watching reality shows. You and Declan slept together, no?”
There was no way she could lie to Suzy, who claimed to have a built-in bullshit detector—and Ella had seen it in action before. Besides, she wasn’t like her family. Instead of being horrified, she would be proud. She found herself literally bouncing on her heels as she nodded her head and said, “Yes, yes!”
Suzy threw her arm around her shoulder and pulled her into a hug. “Atta girl, way to go. Since you look so happy, I assume he took care of you?”
She could feel herself starting to turn a darker shade of crimson. “It was wonderful. I never knew . . . wow!”
Suzy laughed, “Wow is right. I’m happy for you kid, you deserve it. Just hang on and enjoy the ride.”
When Beth walked up to them, she took one look at Ella and tears started to fall. “You did it! Oh, I can’t believe this. I want to hear all about it.”
Shaking her head, Suzy handed her sister a tissue. “Oh, don’t start leaking all over the place again. Is there anything you don’t cry over now?”
Beth accepted the tissue with a smile. “I started crying last night when I made Nick take me to McDonald’s. I just wanted a small hamburger and then I saw the sign saying the McRib was back. Nick was horrified. He kept stuffing napkins in my face trying to dry me up while the cashier looked at him like he was denying me food.”
Suzy tried hard to maintain her look of disgust, but Ella could see the smile playing around the edges of her lips. It was obvious even through her tough exterior that she loved her sister. How nice would it have been if she and Crystal had grown up with that type of relationship? They were barely more than polite strangers most of the time. Other than Crystal’s uncharacteristic display of normalcy when she was ogling Declan, she had never been able to understand or relate to her sister.