Chapter 2 #2
What he hadn’t told Eri was that the first time, he had not only moved her off him but taken her back to the guest room.
He’d barely settled in bed when she returned, attempting to straddle him again.
The second time, Elias rolled her to the side.
It was short-lived, and seconds later, she was back on top of him, head settling on his chest as her soft breathing continued.
At that point, he’d said, fuck it. Waking her up was an option, but he’d heard that unless they were going to harm themselves or someone else, it was easier to lead them back to bed.
It wasn’t like he minded her being on top of him, and it seemed she wanted to be there.
Elias had chosen to let her stay and deal with whatever came in the morning, which turned out not to be as bad as he had assumed.
He was accustomed to the walls she seemed to have up only around him, which was unfair of him to think because he only saw her in specific settings with the rest of the group.
He thought that would be the outcome of the morning.
Her throwing that wall up as high as she could and then giving him some snarky response that he would only find amusing, and she would be irritated about.
That hadn’t happened. If anything, she seemed to be fine with their position after realizing they were in it.
He was sure it was his being awake that startled her more.
She seemed relaxed on top of him, and it wasn’t until he’d pointed out she was still there that she seemed to react to it. If a non-reaction could be one.
For him, it solidified what he already knew.
Eri was just as attracted to him, but she was fighting it.
Maybe she wanted to wait until she finished school.
If that were the case, he could do that.
It was only a few months; he’d already waited.
What was the harm in a bit longer? However, he needed her to communicate that to him.
While he’d been trying not to push or come on too strong, sensing that would be the wrong approach with her, he needed to bring it up soon.
One thing was for sure. He’d have to thank Mickey for her forgetfulness because the time he’d spent with Eri had been easy.
There was comfort and flow between them.
It was also the first time they’d spent together with no one else around.
He would make that happen more often. He needed them to get to know one another on a level that wasn’t superficial, on something more profound than their physical attraction.
Elias finished reviewing the spreadsheet and marked a few things to be reordered when Christa came in on Tuesday.
He could do it himself, but she always chastised him.
In her words: “If you’re going to do everything, why are you paying me?
” That was far from true. The primary things he paid her for were social media advertising and running his motorcycle and tattoo pages.
He preferred her doing it to tackling it himself because he wasn’t the biggest fan of the different platforms.
He brought up the current design he was working on and looked it over. Something was missing. He felt it needed to live up to the standards of all the other bikes he built while still adhering to the client’s wishes.
They wanted speed over anything else, which meant the motorcycle would be lightweight.
He’d gone with an exposed design for the parts that various weather conditions wouldn’t affect.
Still, he wasn’t entirely satisfied with it.
Elias still had a week before he’d need to send the initial design, but he’d hoped the idea would come to him from looking at how far he’d already gotten.
His phone ringing pulled him from his thoughts. He removed it from his pocket and checked the screen before answering it.
“Ehi, Mamma.”
“Ciao, Figlio. Did I catch you at a bad time?”
His mother was notorious for asking if it was a good time to talk when she called him.
He understood why she did it, but to his way of thinking, if he answered the phone, then he had time to speak to her.
On the rare occasions he didn’t answer, he’d text her and let her know he would call her back when he could.
“No, what’s up?”
“I wanted the family to get together on Wednesday night for dinner. Your father and I are hosting.”
Sunday was usually when they would get together for dinner.
But with Marco’s wedding yesterday, their mothers had bypassed this Sunday.
The only reason he could think of for them now wanting to have it on Wednesday was that his Zia Celia probably bitched about not being invited to the last several, or the wedding, which was her and her son’s fault.
His mother was likely trying to keep the peace, and with his older cousin away on his honeymoon, the chances of Vince getting hands put on him went down by sixty percent.
“Okay, Mamma. What time?”
“Seven-thirty.”
“I’ll be there.”
He spoke to his mother for several more minutes, returning to the design before him when they hung up. He had no other plans for the day and decided to work on a few random designs. Maybe that would help spark his creativity and allow him to finish his current one.