Chapter 12 #2
It’s cute how he’s trying not to overstep.
He doesn’t want to touch me somewhere I don’t feel comfortable being touched.
I grab both of his hands and move them back to their original, knee-jerk placement on my ass.
Eli closes his eyes, letting his forehead fall to mine.
We stay like this in silence for a moment until I decide to push further.
I lift my lips to graze across his forehead.
Then, down across his cheek. My lips trace the sharp edge of his jaw and up across his lips.
I’m not kissing him. I’m exploring him. I’m doing whatever I want, and he’s letting me.
He’s holding me and letting me set the pace.
This is all so new, and it’s empowering.
There’s usually some amount of nerves involved with all of the first touches.
Normally, my mind would be racing with “what if’s”.
What if he expects this to go further? What if he’s ready to get this over with?
There’s none of that with Eli. He’s letting me set the pace, and I trust him to do just that.
“I want you to kiss me.”
I expect him to ask me if I’m sure, but he doesn’t.
Instead, his grip on my ass tightens as he pulls my body flush with his, and his mouth slams down onto mine like he was waiting for this small permission all along.
His tongue is inside my mouth, and I don’t realize we’re moving until my back meets the side of the pool.
My hands are in his hair, and we’re moaning into each other’s mouths.
There’s so much waiting in this kiss. It wasn’t just me who felt the distance.
He’s been waiting for me to allow more. He’s been giving me the space to trust myself and make my own decisions.
A throat clears somewhere, but we keep kissing and pulling one another closer. My hips grind against his stomach without my permission, and he presses me harder into the wall.
“HUNH HUM!”
This time, the throat clearing is almost a yell, and we both look up. Oh shit.
“Hey, Duncan.”
Eli looks to me and then back up to Duncan. He’s wondering how I know Duncan and what Duncan is doing here, but he says nothing.
“Hey, Vaughny. Who’ve ya got there?”
“Oh.” I laugh softly. “Duncan, this is Eli. Eli, this is Duncan.”
“Hmmm. Nice to meet ya, Eli. You Vaughn’s boyfriend?”
“Yes sir, Mr. Duncan. Elijah Washington. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Elijah has one of the hands that was previously squeezing my ass cheek stretched out in offering to Duncan. He’s being incredibly polite and respectful as though the other hand isn’t still squeezing my other ass cheek.
Wait....yes sir? Is Eli my boyfriend? Did I agree to that?
He did say that we’re in a relationship.
I didn’t take much time to think about what that meant at the time, but it apparently meant that we’re a couple.
I thought we were working at my pace here.
Does this mean that we’re not?.......No.
It doesn’t. We are in a relationship. We’ve been together every day for the past month.
Neither of us are seeing anyone else, and he hasn’t forced me into anything.
I could’ve gone on a date or pursued other options at any point if I had chosen to.
I just didn’t want to. I still don’t want to.
The only thing Eli has done is come right out and say it.
He didn’t leave me wondering, trying to internally decide what we are or what I mean to him.
He put it in plain letters and spelled it out. He’s my boyfriend.
“Well then, nice to meet ya, Eli. And it’s just Duncan. Not sir or Mr. Just Duncan.”
Eli gives a single nod. “Duncan.”
“Eli, would you mind making sure that Vaughny there locks up when you two get finished here?”
Oh shit. Busted. Eli looks confused, but it doesn’t last long. He looks to me with an expression that’s nearly audible when it says, ‘you little shit’.
“Yeah, sure, Duncan. We’ll lock up. We were just about to head out.”
“Don’t let me run ya’ll off. I just wanted to come check on ya before I finish my rounds.”
“Thanks, Duncan.”
“No problem, kids. Ya’ll have fun. Not too much fun, though. There’s camera’s.” He narrows his eyes and points a finger at Eli when he says the last part. Eli puts both hands in the air, and I remain locked around his waist as he gives Duncan the ‘hands to myself’ gesture.
Duncan smiles and heads off to finish his rounds as Eli turns his attention back to me. “You little devil. You had a key this whole time.”
I smile with a very unconvincing ‘I’m too innocent to do such a thing’ look on my face.
“Don’t pull that fake innocent shit with me. We both know you’re trying to corrupt me.”
“Corrupt YOU? All I’ve done is take you swimming. You’re the one running around pulling that Chuck Norris shit in nice, family-friendly establishments.” My hands move in what I’m pretty sure is karate-chopping movements.
None of what I have said is true, but I will argue the lie until he runs out of breath.
He smiles, and you know what? It’s the dimples for me. It’s the dimples for me allllllll day long.
“Oh, Little Devil. Didn’t anyone ever tell you; you shouldn’t suffer fools to live?”
He kisses my forehead, and I’m glad that my earlier comments about my non-existent brother haven’t thwarted him from this, but what?
What does that phrase mean? I’ve heard it before, but I thought it meant you should kill idiots.
He didn’t kill Chase. He left him breathless for longer than is expressly safe, but he was alive when he left the club.
We both climb out of the pool, and I produce a beach towel from my bag, handing it to him with a sly smile. He looks down at the towel with obvious surprise. “Your duplicity knows no bounds.”
The towel proves that I planned this trip before he ever picked me up from the service station.
I was tired of the not knowing. I had decided that I want Eli in my life; however, I can get him, but I needed to know if we were friends or something else.
I regret nothing. Rarely do I ever, and this night went so much better than I had imagined.
Eli comes forward, wrapping the towel around my front and drying my back.
He squeezes water from my hair and drops down onto his haunches to dry my legs.
This man is a real-life badass. I know he is.
He took Chase out on a whim and came back with a smile mere seconds later.
It was no big deal to him, yet here he is on the ground in front of me for the second time.
First, an apology. Now, a sweet gesture.
He dries me completely before turning the towel on himself, so I take it from him. This is new for me. I’m the one the moves get made on. I’m not the one going out on the limb and doing the moving. You can do this. It’s Eli. Safe, accepting Eli.
I run the towel through his wet hair with a fair amount of tiptoes and stretching on my part.
Then I dry his upper body before going to my knees to dry his legs.
I look up from my perch on the ground, and his eyes are closed.
His chin is slightly lifted, and he appears to be internally grappling with something.
“Eli?”
He looks at me before quickly clenching his eyes shut again and letting out a harsh breath.
“Vaughn, please. Just hurry.”
“What happened? Did I do something wrong?”
He expels an exasperated sigh. “You can’t get on your knees in front of me and expect me not to have some kind of reaction here, V. I’m hanging on by a thread. Hurry the hell up.”
I fail to stifle the laugh that bubbles up from somewhere inside me. Things have never been as good as they are when I’m with Eli. I would’ve kissed a thousand frog/Chase’s if it all led me here.
I can’t wait to see what happens next.