Free Never Close Enough by Anie Michaels, Krysta Drechsler, Brook Hryciw Shaded Tree Photography Page A

kissing her there all through dinner sent a new wave of courage through her.  She found his mouth again and this time she wanted to explore.  She kissed him with force, running her fingers through his hair.  It felt smooth and soft between her fingers, but gave her satisfaction when she pulled on it to bring him closer.  She felt his hands move past her shoulders, down her spine and settle on the small of her back.  She gave a little moan to indicate her need for more and he moved his hands over her ass.  She could feel him pull her towards him, even though there was nowhere left for her to go.  They were as close as two people could be fully clothed in a parking lot, but she needed to be closer.
       She pulled away, breathing heavily and leaned her forehead against his, “Porter?”
       “Ella?” he breathed.
       “Can we still go back to your place?” 
       Porter exhaled loudly.  “Definitely.  Let’s go.”

 
    Chapter Nine
    Ella
     
       On the drive to his house, Porter kept her hand securely in his.  It felt as if once he’d gotten ahold of it, he wasn’t going to let it go and that was definitely ok with her.  She wasn’t sure when she’d decided to lose herself in Porter, but somewhere between the dress, and the door, and the dinner, she’d decided to let herself have one night.  She felt entitled to a rebound.  That’s what most twenty or thirty-somethings did after a break-up; they made rash decisions and spent one night with someone to ease the heartache.  But this felt different.  It didn’t feel like heartache and it didn’t feel like one night was going to be enough of Porter.
       The way his hands had captured her face, and how his arms seemed to mold around her body, and the way all h er nerves seemed frazzled after one small kiss.  Not to mention how the one small kiss morphed into many deep interlaced kisses.  Ella caught herself blushing at the memory of the kisses they shared only a few moments ago.  She exhaled loudly, trying to shake the butterflies from her stomach.  She stole a glance at Porter and saw that he was wearing a small grin as well.  She felt him gently rub his thumb along her hand and the butterflies simply multiplied.
       Porter pulled onto a gravel drive that took th em off the main road, and the road seemed to wind along, dodging trees and curving around coastal brush.  After a short drive a small house appeared and seemed to be the only house down the road.
       “Is this you?” Ella asked, pointing ahead at the house as they neared.
       “Yup, this is my house.”
       Ella didn’t know exactly what she was expecting, but she was definitely taken by surprise when she saw his house.  It looked to be at least three stories high, the top half had shingled siding in a medium colored wood, while the bottom half was a warm forest green. The trim around the house was white, as well as the shutters.  There were two elegant wooden columns that held up the roof of the front porch.  The third floor boasted a very large picture window, and Ella thought that being so high up, there was probably a pretty awesome view of the ocean, which was just about a half mile from his road.  The house looked to be the perfect mixture of masculinity and femininity.  The colors were warm, but the angles were sharp.  The lines were clean, but it looked incredibly inviting.  “Porter, this house is amazing,” she said with unmasked sincerity and awe.
       “Thanks, I worked really hard on it.  There are still a few projects I want to complete, but it took quite a bi t of work.”
       “Did you fix it up a lot?”
       “You could say that.  I built it from the ground up.”  Ella shot him a surprised look.
       “You built that house?”  She asked shocked.
       “Yeah.  I used the money I got from my father’s life insurance when I turn ed eighteen and I bought the land.  Then I just spent the next couple years building it as I