Chapter Twenty-Nine
Hadley
“Why are you wearing a dress?” Lucy blinked up at me as I fiddled with the straps of my yellow sundress.
I glanced down at her before checking my reflection again. “Is something wrong with a dress?”
“You never wear one,” she said and mortification set in.
Oh, fudge. If my four-year-old took notice of my change of clothes after getting off work and thought it was weird, would Elijah think so too?
I wanted to look pretty, but I didn’t want it to be obvious.
I was already self-conscious about my breasts.
I couldn’t wear a bra with the dress and since breastfeeding, I’d felt oddly off-balance, considering my breasts were larger than the rest of my body.
“Are we not going to Elijah’s now?” she asked with a frown.
“Yes, we’re still going over to Elijah’s.” I fussed with the hem. “You’re right. It would be silly to wear this when it’s getting dark.”
Lucy bounced up and down with a grin. “No, it’s pretty. You’re pretty, Mommy! I think Elijah will like it. ”
My eyes widened like saucers. Whoa. Where did that come from? My daughter scared me. I wondered if maybe she listened in on a lot more to Olivia and my conversations than I realized.
“Why would Elijah like it?” I asked her cautiously, wanting to know my daughter’s train of thought.
“Mamaw said he likes you.”
“Did she now?”
A firm nod. “Said he likes me and Eli too, that’s why he spends time with us. Is that why we don’t hang out with Daddy anymore because you don’t like him no more?”
My heart fell to the floor as I bent down. “Lucy, you can see your dad anytime you want to. Mommy and Daddy just can’t be together, anymore. It’s too hard, and it makes me sad. I’ll explain this to you when you’re older.”
“Daddy makes you cry a lot. I don’t want you to cry, anymore.” Tears pricked at my eyes, so I wrapped my arms around Lucy and held her. “Mom?”
“Yeah, Lucy?”
“Daddy said Elijah wouldn’t be our friend one day. Why?”
“I hope that never happens,” I murmured.
“Me too. I don’t want him to stop bringing me stuff.”
I chuckled. “Lucy!”
“I want to bring my chocolate milk to share with Elijah.” She pushed away from me, and I smiled.
“Okay. That’s fine.”
“Can I bring my pony coloring book to show him?”
“Yeah.”
“Can I ask him to buy me another car? ”
“No.”
_______
“You’re wearing a dress,” Elijah stated the second he opened his door. He ogled me for a moment before stepping to the side so we could enter. As we walked past him, his hot gaze seared into me.
“Mommy looks pretty, doesn’t she?” Lucy said, carrying the diaper bag. As soon as she crossed the threshold, she dropped it in the hallway with a huff like her work was done. “I should wear one, too!”
“Did you wear that for me?” There was a gruffness to his tone. His question and the way he said it made me tremble.
Turning around with Eli in my arms, I pretended not to know what he was talking about. “Olivia made me buy it…” I glimpsed down at myself. “Does it not suit me? Oh, fudge, it looks awful, doesn’t it? I just don’t look good in dresses.”
“Lucy, your mother is blind,” Elijah told Lucy then turned to me. “You’re absolutely gorgeous.” He leaned forward, grabbing a strand of blonde hair hanging between my breasts, letting it slide between his long fingers. I held my breath until he stepped away.
Lucy trailed through the hallway, peeking her head into the living room. “What happened to all the drawings?”
“I put them upstairs,” Elijah said. “I ordered pizza. Is that okay with you?” He looked at me again. I nodded, grabbing Eli’s hand when he pulled at my dress strap. “Um, I have a box of brownies at my apartment. If you want, I can go back and get them…”
“Yes! I want brownies!” Lucy answered.
“Do you have a mixer?” I asked Elijah.
He scratched his chin. “I think so.”
I walked into his kitchen and checked to make sure he had one before I said, “I’ll be right back. ”
Elijah stopped me as I stepped into the hallway. I gaped at him like he was a stranger when he held out his hands for Eli. My gaze went from his hands to his face.
“I can hold him.”
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“Yeah. You’ll only take a minute. I can watch Eli while Lucy supervises me, right Luce?”
Lucy giggled. “Right.”
“She can tell me what to do,” he went on, putting a smile on Lucy’s face.
“I can do it!”
Grinning at them, I handed Eli over. Elijah placed one hand on Eli’s bottom and wrapped an arm around his back, holding my son against his chest. Eli stared at Elijah and then laughed. “This isn’t so bad,” Elijah admitted.
The two of them together. A giant, tattooed man holding my baby? Said man being Elijah. Ovaries exploded.
_____
“Are you sure you don’t want me to get him?” I asked Elijah as I placed the brownies in the oven. He was propped against the counter watching me with Eli in his arms facing forward so that he could watch me too. Lucy was in the living room drawing.
“He’s fine until he needs a tit,” was Elijah’s crass reply.
“Don’t say it like that.” I laughed, moving toward the sink to clean the dishes.
“He needs to learn to share, hogging them all to himself,” said Elijah.
What ?
I froze. Heat lit up my body. Thankfully, my back was turned, so he couldn’t see my red face. Not seeing his expression, though, was torturous. Was he joking or hinting at something totally different?
The wooden counter creaked as he pushed himself off of it. God bless… Elijah was behind me, and the heat from him seeped through me. Eli’s little fingers grabbed at my hair and pulled. I felt nothing. My attention was focused on how Elijah leaned over me.
“You really are a pretty little thing, Hadley,” his voice was deeper, husky—purely sexual. “Instead of gorgeous, I was thinking more along the lines of how fucking edible you look in that dress.”
Damn, I thought. I meant, fudge!
His words spoke to a spot much lower than my stomach. I was speechless, but were words necessary? Suddenly, I didn’t know what to say or how to react. Scott had been the only man I slept with. The idea of sex with Elijah left me shaky. “Elijah…?”
I didn’t have to worry about doing anything though, now that Eli was touching my hair, it wasn’t enough for my little boy. He cried and jerked me out of the sexual trance Elijah put me in. “I think he wants his momma,” Elijah murmured, his voice still raw.
When I faced them, Elijah was right there .
He had me pressed against the counter. He handed Eli over with barely an inch separating us.
Eli was rooting around for a nipple, and Elijah did something even more brazen.
Hooking his finger underneath one of my dress straps, with a slight tug, Elijah revealed one of my boobs, nipple and all.
I helped Eli find it, and he nursed. Elijah watched him, then he was watching me, and I was breathing hard.
He leaned forward, having to lower himself to reach the side of my face with his own.
“The things I want to do to you…” he rumbled in my ear.
I closed my eyes. I could hear my own panting.
“If you’ll let me… You, Lucy, and Eli stay instead of leaving tonight.
” I gasped silently as a heavy hand slipped up my dress, sliding along my thigh.
He found the edge of my panties and paused.
He leaned away, his dark, sinful gaze staring down at me as he did.
“You’re not making me stop,” he murmured lowly.
“Hadley, are you with me?” He traced the edge of my chin with his index finger.
I couldn’t speak. I didn’t know what to say or do, all I knew was that I’d let him do anything to me the second we were alone.
The doorbell rang, and I jumped. The smallest smile touched Elijah’s lips.
“Pizza’s here.” His hand fell off my thigh but the other remained at my chin.
When my gaze fell to the floor, he grabbed my arm.
“Am I scaring you?” he asked softly. “I’ll stop if I am, but I want this. I want you. ”
Oh, fudge. I was far from afraid. He turned my body into a noodle.
“I’m not afraid of you,” I whispered.
“Is that the pizza?” Lucy’s bare feet padded over the wooden floor as Elijah stepped away from me. I sucked in some much-needed air.
I kept thinking about what he said as we ate and watched the movie Lucy picked out. Stay… As tempting as those words were, I couldn’t. I had no reasonable explanation for Lucy. I had no idea what was going on between Elijah and me, but I wanted…
It wasn’t fear I felt —although I might feel it tomorrow—despite Elijah’s deliberate gaze that stayed with me the entire movie. The only emotion coursing through me was my heady desire for him.
Lucy rubbed her eyes. It was a little after ten, and I knew she would’ve crashed already if we weren’t at Elijah’s. “Tell Elijah goodbye,” I told Lucy as we walked into the hallway and put on our shoes.
Elijah hung his head but remained quiet.
“Will I see you tomorrow?” Lucy asked as he bent down so she could hug him.
He watched me nervously for an answer. I realized he might think he screwed up earlier, but there was no way I could tell him he didn’t so I said, “I want to see him tomorrow so, maybe he’ll come to see us.”
Elijah visibly perked up at my words. That made me feel special like I had power over his emotions because he liked me. “Yeah, you will.”
He walked us to our apartment despite me telling him he didn’t need to.
We said our goodbyes. Elijah was reluctant and made sure I could hear it in his voice.
It took thirty minutes to give Lucy a bath and put her in bed.
Eli was easier, going to sleep after his bath and boob time.
The moment they were asleep, I found my phone and sent Elijah the text I’d been wanting to ever since he had me in his kitchen melting from his touch.
Hadley: Do you want to come up? Lucy and Eli are asleep.
To make sure he knew what I meant, I added:
Hadley: We have to be quiet.