Chapter 11 #2
Suddenly I understand. Cass doesn’t want Neil picking up on the ghost rumors. Personally I think the ghost stories add charm to the hotel, especially since they’re all just that—stories. But I get the panic in Cass’s eyes. She clearly doesn’t want it getting national attention.
“Eleanor wasn’t nearly as magnetic as Augusta, though,” I say.
“Actually I just learned spirits are very magnetic!” Jude says, obliviously.
Eli punches his brother in the arm.
“Ow!” Jude exclaims, punching Eli back.
But thankfully, my redirection worked, and Neil’s attention is back on the Chef’s Apprentice contestant. “Ahhh, Augusta,” Neil says as if she’s a fine wine.
His frank appreciation is a little odd, but so is Neil.
“My husband isn’t exactly subtle when it comes to his admiration of the opposite sex,” Kelly says, her tone sharp. She may have meant it as a joke, but it didn’t come off that way.
For a moment no one speaks, then Eli smiles at Kelly. “She doesn’t hold a candle to present company.”
Another pang of jealousy hits me, this time too hard to swallow down instantly. Kelly smiles and I have to look away.
What am I doing? He’s just trying to lighten the mood.
But as if he knows, Eli’s hand slides over mine then, his skin warm. Tingles dance up my arm. And when I look up at him, he’s not looking at Kelly. He’s looking at me.
Then he winks.
Actually winks.
A riot of butterflies dances around in my stomach.
For a moment I’m frozen. Then I pull my hand away and wrap it around my beer, taking a sip. This is not real. Not real not real not real.
Neil makes a pouty face and cups Kelly’s face. “Darling,” he reassures her. “I told you she’s hideous.”
Augusta’s anything but. But Kelly’s just as gorgeous. Still, Neil’s words seem to appease her momentarily. That is until Neil tacks on, “But did you see the way she handled that knife this week though? It was downright erotic.”
I want to slap my forehead. But Jude snorts, which makes his beer spurt out his nose. Then we’re all laughing. Even Kelly’s lips turn up slightly, though her smile only lasts a moment before fading.
I wonder what it’s like for her, to have her entire currency seem to rest on being beautiful.
And to be with Neil, who I’m learning has a cringe-worthy lack of discretion and acts like everything is all fun, when life has serious moments too.
From what Eli told me, Neil’s the one who ran with the idea of having the show here, not even consulting her.
It would be shitty, is what. I feel sad for her. That is, until she makes a jab at Eli to take the attention off herself. Jude laughs at that, too, before Nora elbows him.
After that, the next hour is filled with lively conversation, with all of Eli’s siblings and their respective partners including me like I’ve always been there.
Neil and Kelly stay, too, Neil dominating the conversation when it turns to them, while Kelly looks uncharacteristically small.
She only smiles at his jokes, glancing, from time to time, at Eli’s arm slung around my chair.
Her eyes go to me, too, though she quickly glances away when she sees me looking. Does Eli see any of this too?
That this harebrained scheme seems to be working perfectly?
It’s clear he does, because when they finally leave, followed shortly thereafter by Chelsea and Seamus, I feel Eli’s shoulders drop in the seat next to me, like he’s finally able to relax. Jude says he has to relieve the babysitter shortly after, and as he drove her, Nora goes with him.
She gives me a tight squeeze before they head out, then smiles at Eli. “Have fun.”
The tiniest part of me is annoyed by this.
It’s like I want her to be the voice of reason, to tell me it’s insane what we’re doing.
It’s not fair for me to think that way—Nora always has my back.
In fact, it’s completely selfish, and I’m so struck with guilt I don’t notice Cass and Blake are pulling their coats on too.
“Not you too?” I ask a little desperately, because once they’re gone, Eli and I will be alone. I never planned for it to work out this way—I was going to drop by, then feign exhaustion and head out ahead of everyone else, encouraging Eli to stay with a quick peck on the cheek.
Instead, I watch helplessly as Eli’s twin, my boss and friend, too, though we don’t do much on our own together, smiles and hugs me.
As the men exchange goodbyes, she leans close and says, “I should be mad at Eli for not saying anything. But for the record, I always knew you two would be great together. I see the way he looks at you.”
Her eyes dance, while my stomach plunges.
Then they’re gone, and Cass’s words are ringing in my ears.
Eli lets out a breath the minute the last of them disappear outside and angles his chair to face me. I turn in my chair to face him as he drains the last of his beer.
“You okay?” I ask.
“Well, we survived. Another?” he points a chin to the server walking our way. “So I can say thanks?”
I should go. But for whatever stupid reason, I don’t want to. Not yet.
“Okay,” I say, relenting.
He grins and orders for us, then we chat a minute about how the night went.
The server’s back a moment later and I’m glad I have another drink to cool my head, because despite myself, after only a few minutes of being on our own, I find I’m enjoying this part even more than the last. The way we’re so much more relaxed without everyone around.
Like I’ve stepped off the stage and can finally take a breath.
“So, was it horrible?” he asks after we’ve both had a long pull of our beers.
I consider. “Surprisingly, no. Unfortunately, I like your family.”
Eli smiles, resting his elbows on his thighs.
Our knees are almost but not quite touching.
“They like you too.” He looks up at me and smiles, and I hate the way this sends a warm tingling over my skin.
I need to ignore the way that makes me feel.
But how can I ignore the fact that we’ve been touching all night, but now that everyone’s gone, we’ve stopped, and I miss it.
I want him to touch me. I want to touch him. But I can’t. It’s too sad.
“Listen…” I straighten the top of my shirt, tugging it up just slightly. “I don’t think we should hang out with them. Together, I mean. Like this.”
Eli sits up, looking slightly surprised. “But you just said you like them?”
“I do. But Eli, it’s only going to make it worse when…”
I trail off, and after a moment Eli nods. “When this is over.” His voice is low.
“Kelly and Neil already talked about going straight to the Bahamas after the show wraps. So that should be our end date too, don’t you think?”
Eli picks at the label on his bottle of beer before sitting up and taking a sip.
“Yeah,” he says, not meeting my eye as he clunks the bottle back on the table. “That makes sense.”
“Eli—”
“No, you’re right. It’ll be extra awkward if you suddenly stop coming to Sunday dinner with Dad.”
“You have Sunday dinners with your dad?”
“Not every Sunday. Usually only when Seamus is in town, because none of the rest of us can cook. Did you see him talking to Neil, by the way?”
I laugh. “He looked like he met his hero.”
Eli grins, and he looks so handsome for a moment, I can’t look away.
Then I have to. Because it feels sad, talking about the end like this. Which is ridiculous, because this isn’t real.
I run a thumb over my wrist.
Then I feel Eli’s eyes there and I turn my hands over, onto my thighs.
“I’ll drive you home,” he says.
I shake my head. “It’s fine. I’m only a few blocks away.”
“Okay,” he says, a little too quickly. At my expression he looks sheepish. “Now that I say that, I think maybe I shouldn’t drive.”
“Are you drunk?”
“Just a little on the loose side.”
“So, drunk.”
Eli points one fingertip at another, then brings them toward each other. He misses by a mile, his arms crossing.
I laugh, shoving at him. “Stop it.” He’s being ridiculous, but he’s broken the weird tension that had stretched between us. He’s being fun Eli again, the one who makes me laugh.
And I’m grateful for it. Fun Eli is the reason I’m here.
“Should I sing you the alphabet?” he asks, still smiling. When he sees my eyebrows shoot up, he says, “What, you didn’t know I could sing too?”
“No, I didn’t.”
“That’s because I can’t. Doesn’t mean I’m going to stop trying.”
“I’d like to hear you sing someday,” I say, before I realize this implies some kind of future.
But Eli gives me a half-smile. “If you’re lucky.”
My stomach jumps, but I don’t say anything.
Then Eli leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees once more. Except now his legs are wide, while mine are pressed tightly together, and he draws the back of his fingers across my kneecap. Just once. Just briefly. But it’s enough to make me shiver.
And he sees it.
Eli cocks his head slightly. “Reese, have you had too much to drink?”
“No.” Is that the truth?
Just before he left, Neil insisted on ordering whiskey shots for all of us. “Just one,” he insisted, given half of us had to be up at dawn tomorrow for shooting. “But I wanted to thank Reese, specifically, for graciously allowing us into her kitchen.”
How could I say no to that?
I was fine until this last beer. Now, I’m slightly tipsy, with Eli sitting across from me. Having admitted he was feeling similar, I wonder if that was such a good idea.
Because my kneecap still burns with the feeling of Eli’s touch. Even though he’d been touching me there all night, that dance of his fingers just now felt different. Illicit, somehow.
Because there’s no one here to perform to anymore.
I swallow. I should stand up. Tell him good night and walk right out the door, don’t stop until I hit my apartment.
But I don’t. Instead I look at the top of Eli’s head, at his thick mass of dark hair.
I look at his shoulders—so broad and strong.
His hands, dangling between his legs, millimeters from my knees.
Veins pop across the backs of his hands and somehow, it’s what makes heat grow between my legs. The sight of his hands.
God, I’m weak.
“Eli,” I say, the words coming out despite my brain telling them to stop. “Are you hoping I’m going to make a bad decision?”
I think I meant it as a joke, but Eli looks up at me from under his flop of hair.
“Are you?”
My lips part slightly. I don’t know why—to breathe, to tell Eli that’s enough. But his eyes go to my lips and to my shock and dismay, his tongue darts out across his.
He looks very much like he wants to kiss me. But his eyes go down once more. Only this time, his fingers splay across my knees. He keeps them there a moment, like he’s deciding what to do.
I’m frozen, my breath hitched, my whole body inexplicably turned on by this slightest of touches.
Then he slides his fingers lower, around the back of my calves.
I’m so shocked by the sudden fullness of his touch I don’t think to react to what he does next, which is pull me toward him. He pulls me so my ass comes all the way to the edge of my chair.
My knees are now deep between Eli’s legs, nearly brushing his crotch, which I can’t help but notice looks fuller than it did a moment ago.
My pulse throbs in my throat as he draws his eyes up level with mine. His face is only inches away now.
“Yes,” he says. His breath is warm across my lips, and mine part once again, involuntarily.
“Yes what?” I ask, breathless.
He husks something so low I barely catch it.
Then I realize I did hear. It sounded like open for me.
I feel the words, I think. I hope. He didn’t say them, did he?
But the next thing I know I’m tipping forward, and his lips brush against mine, so briefly I might have missed it.
Might have, if an almost painful shock of electricity hadn’t jolted through me where we touched.
“Was that a bad decision?” Eli rasps. His hands still cup the back of my calves, and he pulls them apart, just slightly, nestling my knees against his inner thighs, on either side of what I can see now is definitely a bulge between his legs.
My lower half aches, an outrageously delicious heat spreading through me. I know my panties are soaked. I can feel them. “Definitely a bad decision,” I say. Then I lean forward, pressing my lips to his.
The kiss is soft at first—excruciatingly so. But when the flick of his tongue hits my lips I turn into someone not myself. I reach forward and grasp him under the ears, bringing him close to me, inhaling his scent as I take his tongue in my mouth.
My nipples peak under my shirt, my pussy throbbing. For a moment, I let myself fall into the melting sensation of the kiss. My heart pounds, my whole body reacting to the stroke of his tongue.
Then Eli rests his hands on my hips, and before I know what’s happening he breaks the kiss. “Reese,” he says, his voice rough as gravel. “I think maybe we should call it a night.”
Horrified, I drop my hands. Eli carefully slides me back onto my chair, not meeting my eye.
“Right,” I say. “Of course.”
What the hell did I do? This was not what I came here for.
This was never supposed to happen. I shouldn’t have come to the bar.
I should have stayed at home with Rufus and watched some late-night TV, pretending I didn’t care about Eli Dunham and his stupid sexy face with his stupid sexy eyes that right now, are raking down my front.
My nipples, I know, are clearly at attention, my chest still heaving with the intensity of that touch.
He curses under his breath, looking sideways with the back of his hand up against his mouth, like maybe, just maybe, he wants to kiss me again. Despite my shame, my body responds, that heat surging once more.
I reach for my coat, standing abruptly. “Let’s go,” I say in a choked voice, suddenly needing to be far away from Eli Dunham.
Because we just broke the rules. And for the briefest moment, I didn’t care.