Chapter 18 #2
“I didn’t think you would answer,” she said, removing the hood from her head. The jacket she wore was soaked, along with the rest of her. A shiver ran through her body from the chill.
“How long were you out there?” he asked because while he could imagine she would have gotten somewhat wet from her car to his front door, once on the porch she should have been safe from the rain. Eri shrugged.
Elias sighed before leaving her there and going into his bedroom.
He got his phone off the nightstand and slipped it into his pocket.
Then he grabbed a pair of boxers, a T-shirt, and sweatpants from his drawer.
He made a pit stop in the hall bathroom to drop the clothes off before returning to the living room.
“Go shower and get out of those clothes before you get sick.”
He watched her shift from foot to foot before nodding and walking past him. Elias pulled out his phone and sat on the couch. He found he had two missed calls from Eri. Swiping them off the screen, he pulled up the weather. The storm was supposed to persist until seven the next morning.
Elias leaned back on the couch and rubbed his temples.
He could send her home when she got out of the shower, but Avian was right.
His mother raised him better than that, and regardless of how he felt or what happened between them, he’d feel like shit if he sent her away and she got into an accident in the storm.
He knew why she was there, but she should have just gone home.
Took his dismissal at game night for what it was because what she was attempting to do was unfair to him, and while Elias had told his cousin he didn’t have a problem starting over if he needed to, he meant if he was the one at fault, if he fucked it up somehow. This had not been his fault.
Wasn’t it? Because you knew something was wrong, and you still let your dick win.
Elias sighed. Okay, so he was responsible in a way, but he’d done his part. She was the one being stubborn and refusing to talk to him. He closed his eyes as the sound of the driving rain grew louder.
He hadn’t realized how long he’d been like that until he heard the bathroom door open. Elias turned his attention towards the hall, and Eri emerged wearing his clothes.
“It’s going to rain for several hours,” he told her, standing. “You can stay. You know where everything is. Don’t forget to lock the door when you sneak out in the morning,” he finished, walking past her. He didn’t get far before she grabbed his wrist.
“Okay. I deserved that, but can we talk?”
Elias looked back at her. “I told you. I don’t have anything to say.”
“Then you can listen. Please?”
He wanted to tell her no. Should have told her no, but instead he said, “Fine. Talk.” He pulled his wrist from her grasp.
She walked over to the couch and sat. Elias followed a few seconds later, sitting at the other end. It was quiet between them, and he allowed it to hang in the air. She wanted to talk. She’d be the one to break it.
“I’m sorry,” she said after a moment. “I shouldn’t have left like that.
I shouldn’t have ignored your reaching out.
” She paused to look at him. “I was…overwhelmed. It’s been a long time since I’ve been with someone, and it wasn’t…
I didn’t think I would get that emotional, that I would react that way, and I didn’t know how to handle it.
I wasn’t sure how to tell you what I felt because it was sex, and I didn’t want you to think I was…
I don’t know…strange for getting that emotional about it. ”
“Is that it?” Elias asked.
“What do you mean, is that it?”
“Eri, you just sat here and told me a bunch of nothing. We had sex, you got emotional, and you left because you made an assumption. Okay, cool, but why? Why did you get emotional? Why didn’t you do the only thing I’ve ever asked you for?”
“My last experience with sex was horrible. It ruined intimacy for me. I hadn’t expected to feel anything other than trying to cover that memory, and I got so much more than that.
I felt like you opened me up and looked inside and…
I hadn’t expected that. You’re right. I should have talked to you.
I don’t have a reason for why I didn’t, so I won’t make an excuse for it. ”
Elias was quiet for a moment, the start of a headache thrumming softly behind his eyes. This conversation felt like the last one they’d had, like she was keeping something from him, and he was past the point of waiting for her to come to terms.
“What are you not saying? What is it you didn’t trust me enough to tell me?” he asked.
“It’s not that I don’t trust you,” she started, and Elias had to refrain from snorting because if she did, they wouldn’t be having this conversation right now.
“I want to tell you, but I don’t want it to change whatever decision you might make.
I’m asking for forgiveness, and I only want you to decide whether you’re willing to do that based only on the fact that I want to be with you.
That I…have never felt how I do when I’m with you.
That I’ve never felt safer than with you. ”
Elias studied her briefly. “And what if I tell you no? That I forgive you, but that’s it.”
She took a sharp breath and looked at the ceiling, blinking several times before her eyes met his again. “Yeah. Yeah, okay.” Her gaze dropped to her wrists as she exhaled slowly.
He reached out and cupped her chin, bringing syrup eyes to meet his.
“I want you to be here because you want to be. I don’t want to keep chasing you, going through this childish ass back and forth.
I won’t do this again, Eris.” He paused, allowing his words to sink in.
“I need you to trust me and talk to me.”
“I do. I can.”
Elias shook his head. “I’ve heard that before.”
“I can. I will. Elias, I want to be with you. In a relationship with you, not just date you.”
“Relationships thrive or fail because of communication. You want to be with me. You want us to be together, then show me.”
He’d chosen to believe her last time, and he’d laid his cards out there, so he’d do the same this time, too. He wasn’t sure what fucking spell she’d put on him, but the thought of letting her go hurt as bad as finding her gone that morning. He released her chin.
“I’m going to bed.” He stood, and she grabbed his wrist.
“Can I…can I sleep with you?”
“That depends. You plan on being here in the morning?”
“Yes.”
Elias took her hand, turned the lights off, and led the way to his bedroom. He placed his phone on the nightstand, then turned the light off before getting into bed. Minutes ticked by in the dark silence, and regardless of how tired they both were, he knew why they hadn’t fallen asleep.
“If you stay that far away all night, we’ll never fall asleep,” he told her.
Barely a second ticked by before she moved into his side, throwing her leg over his waist and laying her head on his chest. A few minutes later, he heard her steady, even breathing. It didn’t take long for him to be close behind.