Chapter 15
Eri leaned against the door frame, drink in hand, as she watched the current game of dominoes turn damn near vicious, but she wasn’t surprised. The four men at the table were competitive, and when money was added to the mix, it was enough to make anyone turn ruthless if they didn’t want to lose.
Elias hadn’t been kidding when he said he was having a small get-together.
Other than the seven who typically hung out, there were only three other people she’d been introduced to.
There was Christa, who worked for Elias.
Jordan was nineteen and had taken Elias on as a mentor while learning to work on motorcycles.
And then there was Cade, a friend from high school he still hung out with when he could.
Mickey had been invited but already had other plans she’d committed to.
“They had to make it worse by betting,” Avian said, stopping beside Eri with a plate of fruit and desserts.
Elias’ dining room table and countertops were covered in food and drinks for the occasion.
They’d moved his coffee table out of the living room, and it sat against the wall in the kitchen, replaced by a folding table.
His dining room chairs had been moved into the living room for extra seating but were now occupied around the table.
“I can’t say I’m surprised,” Eri responded, stealing a grape from Avian’s plate. “The only time they don’t bet on whatever they’re playing is if we’re playing with them.”
“Well, whatever we play next needs to be a lot less competitive,” Avian answered before walking into the living room and taking a seat on the couch closest to where Marco was sitting.
Eri wasn’t sure what they were playing next. There were so many games stacked beside the armchair behind Elias. But she knew their game would end eventually, and having another one ready would keep them from trying to start another round of dominoes.
She pushed off the door frame and headed across the living room. As she bypassed him, Elias reached out and pulled her onto his lap, wrapping his free arm around her waist.
“I was starting to think you forgot where your seat was,” he whispered in her ear.
“I doubt you’d let me forget,” she responded, taking a drink from her cup.
Elias chuckled as he picked his dominoes up from the table. Eri studied them before looking at the ones laid out on the table. She took the blank out of his hand and placed it back down, setting her hand on top of it so he wouldn’t play it.
The play went around a few times, and when Ricardo, who was playing last before it came back around to Elias, put down his second-to-last domino, Eri flipped over the double blank she had under her hand.
“The board is locked. The three of you have twenty points combined in your hands; he wins,” she announced. “No rematches,” she added when Javier opened his mouth. “Pick something else to play.” The room laughed as Ricardo put the dominoes away, and Elias grabbed his winnings.
“Let’s play Bad Decisions,” Jordan suggested.
“You make plenty of those,” Elias told the teenager.
“Yeah, yeah,” he responded, getting up to look through the games to grab the box.
Javier moved his chair to the other side of the table with Ricardo, and Nesiah moved to sit on his lap; Avian moved to sit on Marco’s lap to allow the other three to occupy the couch.
Eri had never played the game, but the rules were straightforward: answer the question on the card you pull.
Cade suggested that if they didn’t want to answer the question, they could opt out of it by taking a shot, which Elias vetoed, reminding the other man that Jordan wasn’t of drinking age.
Instead, Christa suggested they had to pay a certain amount for every question they opted out of, and the person who opted out the least got to take the entire pot after the game.
Eri refrained from sighing because a game that should not have been overly competitive was likely about to turn that way.
They played a few rounds of the game. Everyone took three turns before they all came to the same consensus.
While it would probably have been something their parents enjoyed playing, it wasn’t their cup of tea and was boring.
So when Nesiah told them she had borrowed it from her mom, it made sense.
They moved on to a trivia game, deciding to play men versus women.
“The four of you are outnumbered,” Cade pointed out.
Eri shrugged. “You’ll need an advantage if you want a chance at winning.”
“So confident, Amate.”
“I really am,” she responded. “Christa, you pull first.”
The mentioned woman pulled the top card. “Question for the men. Why do flamingos stand on one leg?”
“To stay cool,” Ricardo answered.
“That’s correct,” Christa stated, placing the card face up to the side. Face-up cards were ones they’d gotten correct; face-down cards meant the answer was wrong. Cade pulled the next card.
“What’s a flock of crows called?”
“A murder,” Eri and Avian answered at the same time. Both did a little happy dance because they knew they were correct.
They both enjoyed watching Animal Planet or any crime show, and Eri knew they’d have the answers to questions like that in the bag. Hands squeezing her waist made her halt her dance as Cade placed the card aside face up.
“Careful, Amate,” Elias whispered in her ear, and she couldn’t help but shift on his lap at the tone of his voice. “Don’t start something we can’t finish.” He placed a kiss on her neck, one of his hands dropping to her thigh, and those small actions shouldn’t have turned her on.
She tried to focus on the rest of the game, but the subtle brush of his thumb against her thigh continuously distracted her, and Eri couldn’t say she was mad about it.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Elias listened to the off-key rendition of a Whitney Houston song and knew the artist was rolling over in her grave.
It was not a duet, but Christa and Nesiah had turned it into one, and neither of them seemed able to find the key.
Christa, because she was tone deaf, and Nesiah, because she got a kick out of annoying people by singing it badly, even though she had a decent voice.
After playing several games, Elias opened his presents, even though he’d told everyone not to get him anything, a request all but one of them had ignored.
Then they’d moved on to karaoke. It was after midnight, and he knew things would wind down soon.
He glanced toward the kitchen, where Eri had headed several minutes ago before getting up to see what she was doing.
He found her throwing away used cups and plates.
“You don’t have to do that,” he said. “I’ll take care of it when everyone leaves.”
“I know I don’t have to, but it’s your birthday. I won’t leave you to clean up.”
“Technically, it’s no longer my birthday.”
“True,” she responded, going over to the backpack she’d come with earlier to help him set up. He watched her pull out three wrapped boxes. “Here you go.”
“And here I thought you’d listened when I told you I had what I wanted.”
Eri raised a brow at him. “You said it yourself. It’s technically no longer your birthday. So these are technically not birthday gifts.” She passed him the boxes.
“Touché,” he chuckled.
He opened the first box, chuckling at the image on the package inside.
“Since you said you like to make your own pizza. I thought you’d like this,” Eri said, gesturing to the motorcycle pizza cutter.
“I’ll have to make you pizza next weekend, and we can break it in.”
She took the box from him, placed it aside, and gestured for him to open the next one. Inside, he found a camera.
“It’s a dashcam for your bike or your car, whichever you want to use it in.”
Elias flipped the box over and knew it would fit his bike perfectly. While she said he could put it in his car, he knew she’d bought it with his bike in mind. His last one had randomly stopped working, and he hadn’t gotten a new one yet. It was perfect.
“Okay, last one,” Eri announced.
The last box was bigger than the other two, but it wasn’t as heavy. Elias shook it playfully. “What is it?”
“You’ll know when you open it, but it’s probably my favorite of the three,” she told him.
That made him curious. He opened the present and found a shirt inside. He took it out, holding it up to find it was a plain black shirt.
“Turn it around,” Eri instructed.
When he did, he couldn’t help but laugh. The back of it read, If you can read this. She fell off in white and red lettering.
“I see why it’s your favorite. I like it,” he told her. “I liked them all. Thank you, Amate.”
“You’re welcome, but I don’t expect anyone to ever read that while we’re riding because you’d better not let me fall off.”
Elias placed the shirt aside and pulled her into his arms. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”
His lips were soon on hers, and he led her in a slow kiss.
He knew vaguely that the singing had stopped and there was movement in the living room, but his focus was on the taste of the woman in front of him.
She tasted sweet, like all the fruit she’d been eating throughout the night, and Elias had to reel his thoughts in when they drifted to how her lower set of lips would taste.
A throat clearing filled the kitchen, and with a final kiss, he pulled away, turning to see his cousin in the doorway.
“We’re moving everything in the living room back. Do you need us to do anything else before we head out?”
“No,” Eri responded. “We can handle the rest.” Marco left them alone, and Elias released Eri. “Go put these away, and I’ll keep cleaning in here,” she instructed, handing him his birthday gifts.
It was a few minutes after one in the morning when everything was finished.
After rearranging the living room, everyone left except for Eri.
Honestly, it wouldn’t have taken them as long to finish if he hadn’t stopped to steal a kiss every few minutes.
Much like he was doing now. He had her caged between him and the counter, her lips pliant under his.
He placed a hand under her shirt, his fingers trailing up her side, thumb brushing her ribcage.
Eri nudged his chest, releasing a shaky breath when he pulled away.
“It’s late,” she said. He heard her, but was distracted by the way her pupils had dilated.
“You can stay,” he responded. In their current position, he realized how that sounded and added. “It wouldn’t be your first time staying in my guest room.”
She studied him for a moment. Searching his eyes. “Yeah, okay.”
“I’ll grab you something to sleep in.”
They exited the kitchen; Elias went into his bedroom, and Eri entered the guest room. He grabbed a T-shirt and a pair of boxers and went to the room.
“Everything is still where it was,” he informed, placing the clothes on the bed. “And you know where I am if you need anything.” He kissed her. “Good night, Amate.”
“Good night.”
Elias walked into his en suite and started the shower.
He undressed and brushed his teeth while the water heated before stepping inside.
The shop was closed tomorrow, and he only had a few finishing touches to put on the bike he was working on, but he planned to spend his Sunday lazing around until he went to his parents’ house for dinner.
He’d see if he could get Eri to spend the day with him until then.
After his shower, he dressed in boxers and slid into bed.
Elias knew it would take him a while to fall asleep.
He was hyperaware of the woman in his guest room, much like he’d been the first time she stayed with him.
The difference now was that their relationship was different, and while he wanted her in bed next to him, under him, he would wait until she was ready.
An hour ticked by, and he’d just thought he would be able to go to sleep when movement at his door caught his attention, and he found Eri standing there.
She was in the T-shirt and boxers he’d left her, and he assumed she was sleepwalking again.
He sat up, getting out of bed so he could take her back to the guest room.
When he stopped in front of her, her hands came up to his abdomen before trailing down to the band of his boxers; when her fingers hooked in it, pulling slightly, Elias caught her wrist in his hand, and those deep doe eyes stared up at him, the same arousal he’d seen in them in the kitchen present.
“Tell me you’re awake,” he demanded.
“I’m awake,” she responded, and no sooner had the words left her lips were his on hers.
He released her wrists, picked her up and pulled a gasp from her, which he swallowed down as he carried her to his bed. Elias had no intention of doing anything she didn’t want him to do, and if she only wanted to be in bed with him, then he was fine with that.
He laid her on the bed, and Eri again reached for his boxers, and again he grabbed her wrist.
“You know I’m awake,” she told him.
“That isn’t…are you sure?” She bit her lip in the soft glow of the dull streetlight shining through a sliver in the curtains. When she said nothing, he moved her hand. “Ask me when you’re sure.”
“I didn’t tell you I wasn’t.”
“You didn’t tell me you were,” he countered.
“I wouldn’t be here if I weren’t. If I didn’t trust you.”
Elias got the feeling that wasn’t all she wanted to say, like she’d trailed off and left something unspoken.
He didn’t comment on it; instead, he leaned in to kiss her.
He’d told himself he would let her dictate how they proceeded, because he knew her well enough to know that she’d never ask him for something she didn’t want.