Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Lilly was lost in her thoughts as she drew the soft charcoal lines on the paper in front of her. She loved to draw and get lost in the sweeping strokes, unsure where she was going with the picture. Her head was still fuzzy from being drugged and she wanted to disappear for a while.
She had bought her apartment on sight when she saw the morning room.
It was full of light for most of the day and she immediately wanted to live there when she went to view it.
Drawing and painting had always been a passion for her, but her parents had made a point of telling her it was a waste of time.
She had converted the morning room into a studio but still called it her morning room.
“You shouldn’t be out of bed Lilly,” Elijah called from the other side of the room.
His voice made Lilly jump, she’d forgotten that he’d slept on the sofa since they’d left the hospital a day ago.
Elijah stood in the doorway with two mugs, the steam circling out of the tops.
Elijah appraised the view of Lilly, sitting on a tall wooden stool in what looked like an oversized t-shirt and nothing else.
He could see the curve of her breast and the slight rising of the t-shirt material indicating her nipples were half awake.
If she weren’t in recovery, he would have taken her there and then.
“I couldn’t sleep. Drawing helps me relax. Is that coffee?” Lilly said, looking over hoping to see if they did have coffee in them.
Elijah raised them higher so she couldn’t see, she thought he was teasing her but he just wanted her to stretch up and then her t-shirt would rise. Her legs were glorious, and he wanted the best view without being obvious.
Lilly squinted her eyes slightly and let out a low whistle.
“That’s not a t-shirt you’re wearing is it?
I haven’t got my contacts in, but you look beautiful.
Come closer,” she said, shifting her body off the stool, but she was too slow.
Elijah placed the mugs on the nearby table and disappeared.
He returned with his shirt on. He’d forgotten about wearing a shirt when he made the coffee as he was so comfortable in her home.
As he came back into the room and saw that she had helped herself to one of the mugs he felt relieved that he didn’t have to explain himself.
“Spill, Elijah, why did you become shy all of a sudden, it is only nipples after all,” she asked.
He wasn’t going to get away with it. He desperately didn’t want to talk about it, but not yet. He was thankful that she had poor eyesight.
“I don’t know what you mean Lilly,” he said, trying for vagueness, it was a long shot.
“Yes you do, but I’ll drop it for now. Do you wax your chest? There wasn’t a hair on you,” Lilly asked him.
Damn, he thought her eyesight was bad, apparently not that bad. He cursed himself for not dressing before he brought in the coffee.
“I don’t have a hairy chest,” Elijah said and smoothed his hands down his chest to prove a point.
“Rubbish, your hairy arms and five o’clock shadow at 9am indicates me you are a hairy man. As I said, I’ll drop it but let me just say you have some amazing ink on your chest and I would like to see it.”
She knew he was hiding something, but she wouldn’t push him, if he wanted her to know he would tell her.
Lilly felt comfortable in her t-shirt but thought that it was inappropriate to be wearing so little.
He was a handsome man, and she was attracted to him.
Her skimpy t-shirt was giving away that her breasts were awake and aching to be touched.
She felt betrayed by her body after all that she had gone through over the last few days.
Feeling aroused by the sight of a half-naked Elijah was enough to set a nun on fire with want.
She wasn’t about to sleep with her boss, she already regretted the intimacy that they had already shared and wanted to move away from it. Shuffling off the seat, she placed the coffee cup on the side table next to her pencils and moved away from Elijah.
“I’m going to get showered and changed, I won’t be long.
” She uttered her final words trailing off as she caught the look in Elijah’s eyes as she mentioned the word shower.
They turned predatory, and he licked his lips as his eyes fleetingly looked at her bare legs and back to her face via her breasts.
He was envisioning her naked in the shower, she knew it and he knew. Elijah stalked towards her in three steps and wrapped his arm around her waist. His lips were on hers on a flash and she let out a muffled squeak as he pressed his hips into hers.
“I haven’t had a shower yet either, we could save some water and shower together.” He mumbled in a low voice over her lips. He continued to peck at her lips as Lilly thought this over. Shower sex. She had never indulged and as inviting as it sounded she had to be strong and say no.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea Elijah, you’re going to be my boss, so sex for us is off the menu.
” She declared even though internally she was crying at the missed opportunity to see his naked body and a second look at that ink.
“On the other hand, maybe we should, I want to see that tattoo you have close up,” She said to him, she watched as his playful smile turned thin and he dropped his arm that held her.
“It is probably best if we don’t mix business with pleasure, not the best idea I’ve had,” he muttered and walked back to the sofa he had come from when she mentioned the shower.
“Oh, ok then, no problem,” she said trying not to show her disappointment. “I guess the wedding invitation is rescinded now as well. Not that you have asked me yet,” Lilly asked.
“Well, now, we don’t need to be too hasty. I’d still like you to be my date, but just not get naked,” Elijah said. He couldn’t believe what he was saying to her, he was saying that he didn’t want sex. Slippery wet sex at that, with this goddess of a woman. He needed to get his head checked.
He wasn’t ready for her barrage of questions. No matter how much he trusted her, he wasn’t ready to talk yet.
“Wow, you know how to charm the ladies Elijah, however did you lose your virginity with moves like that?” She joked.
“Well, there was the head girl at my school at the end-of-year dance, she didn’t need persuading, trust me and I was a fumbling idiot.
” He looked at her smirking at him and he groaned.
“That was a rhetorical question wasn’t it?
” He asked and put his head in his hands.
Why did this woman make him into a jabbering fool?
“I’ll leave you with the thoughts of school dances and lost virginity as I jump in the shower.
There is another one next to the kitchen if you wanted to get one at the same time.
Once I am showered, I can make us some breakfast, like a good host,” she said and picked up her coffee mug and walked out of the studio.
Elijah watched as she left, well mainly the hem of the t-shirt to see how much it moved and whether he would get a glimpse of the top of those glorious legs of hers.
He craned his neck as she glided through the doorway and out of sight.
He was attracted to her, and he wanted to take care of her.
He hardly knew her, but he felt such a fierce need to protect Lilly.
He wondered how she felt about him other than curiosity about his chest. No other woman had commented on his smooth chest and incredibly hairy everything else.
That might have to do with the fact that the women he’d been dating he hadn’t fucked.
No other woman had seen his chest for very long and if they did, they didn’t pass comment on it.
He hadn’t dated a woman since he’d had the tattoo done.
It had taken several sessions of hours on end lying in the chair as Zed worked on his chest piece.
It started just under his collarbone and drifted down towards his waist. One side of the tattoo, the devil’s tail wrapped about his ribs and ended on his back.
He was over the moon with the tattoo and hadn’t felt an awful lot of pain. It was now complete and had healed nicely. The itchy, irritating part had recently passed, and he was grateful that he no longer had to take care of the skin.
Zed was glad he had a placid client to work with and talked to Elijah about putting the tattoo in a trade magazine. Elijah was flattered at the offer but politely declined, this was personal and he didn’t want it out in the public eye.
He had sat on the sofa so long that the coffee he just swallowed from the mug was stone cold. As he wasn’t going to be having sex this morning, he made his way to Lilly’s other bathroom and showered.