Free All I Want is You (Hearts on Fire Book 1) by Ashley Mullins Page B

don’t stop, and the answers are a complicated mess of yeses and nos.  She decides to rest on her first belief— that people can in fact change.  
    As for the devastatingly handsome Jake Harlow—he’s just going to take some work, that's all .

Chapter 12
     
    “You should have danced with me first,” Ellie looks up as Jake nestles up to her, leaning slightly to the side and over the rail.
    “My mistake,” Jake admits, “Tanner caught me a little off-guard, and I don’t enjoy politics around dinnertime.”
    “I don’t enjoy them at all,” Ellie grins.
    “Sort of a necessary evil, aren’t they?”
    “Like dancing?”
    “Really?” Jake asks.
    “I thought you might have figured that out last week… not really my thing,” she looks away.
    “Then we won’t dance at all,” he pauses.  “But, I have to ask, what is your thing?”
    “Writing,” Ellie says, but it comes out as more of a question.
    “That’s a rather solitary endeavor, you know.”
    “I don’t think I’ll ever fully be myself, won’t ever feel complete, until I get it all out,” her eyes lower.  “I guess I can’t really share with anybody, the things I don’t know.”
    Jake lifts her chin.  “God, you’re beautiful,” he runs the tips of his fingers across her forehead, pulling a few strings of her hair to the side, and over her ear.  “Stay with me tonight.”  
    “Is that your idea of slow?”
    “I can’t wait,” Jake leans forward.  “We’re taking a midnight ride, just a few of us.”
    Ellie inhales the scent of his cologne.  One whiff is enough to make her core pulse with excitement, to forget what he even said.
    “I need to taste you again,” he whispers in her ear.
    WHOA.   Ellie’s face warms.  She wraps her arm around the nape of his neck without thinking about it.  
    “If it wasn’t for all these people,” his lips brush down her neck. “I’d take you right here.”
    “They won’t really notice your head between my legs,” Ellie whispers.   
    “You don’t really want me to do that.”
    Ellie nibbles on his ear lobe.  She can feel the wetness in her panties.
    “I’m already about to lose control,” Jake adds.
    She gasps.  “I might like that.”
    “Oh, fuck, Ell, you’re so hot,” he says.  
    But a slightly nervous expression grips his face, and he pulls back.  He looks over at the crowd of folks dancing.  “Not now.”
    Ellie grins, then turns to walk away from him, sliding a finger down his cheek, across his chin.  “Then I’ll see you at midnight.”
     
    ***
     
    The yacht pulls away from the dock just after the last guest steps over the bridge and lands on the dock, eleven-forty-seven pm by Ellie’s watch.  
    Jake, Tanner, Naomi and Ellie are all who remain on board, aside from the Captain, who, upon Jake’s orders, returns to the wheelhouse.  
    “In an hour, we’ll see stars,” Jake says to no one in particular.
    Naomi is seated on Tanner’s lap, facing him, with arms stretched over his shoulders.  “I’d hoped to see them sooner than that,” she whispers in his ear.  But her words are loud enough that Jake and Ellie hear them too.  
    Jake smirks.
    “Did I show you the guest cabin yet?” Tanner motions his head toward the middle of the boat.
    “I don’t believe you did,” Naomi gets up, “but I’ve been dying to see it.”   She winks at Ellie as they walk off together.
    “There’s some place I want to show you as well,” Jake reaches for Ellie’s hand.  
    She sits silent for a moment.  A light sweat covers her palms, despite the cool night air.  
    “Come on,” he grasps her hands and pulls her to her feet.
    They walk under the overhang to a door toward the side of the boat.  Through the door, they go up a flight of stairs, then left up a dozen more steps.  They walk out onto the highest point of the boat, an open sundeck.
    Lights string the perimeter rails, illuminating chaise lounges along the edge.  “Have a seat,” Jake