Chapter 22
Eri stroked her fingers along Elias’ abdomen as they drove down the interstate.
At first, it had been subconscious, and after realizing it, she pulled her hand from under his shirt.
Not wanting to distract him. Her hand hadn’t gotten far when he grabbed her wrist and pulled it back.
So that was how she’d spent the last hour and a half of the drive as she took in the scenery.
A sign for a farm exit a mile away caught her attention.
Elias grabbed her other hand, which rested on the motorcycle in front of him, and brought it around his waist. Eri took that as her cue and ceased the movement of her fingers as she wrapped her other arm around him.
A minute later, they were pulling off at the exit. Which was an asphalt two-lane road.
They followed it down until it opened up onto a grassy parking area.
They passed several vehicles as they parked close to the entrance.
Elias helped her off the bike before dismounting himself, and Eri removed her helmet, shaking out the back of her ponytail as she removed the scarf she’d tied around her edges.
Thank goodness for it and her edge control, because she had no intention of messing her hair up.
She placed the scarf inside the helmet and handed it to Elias to lock onto the bike.
He took the backpack he’d given her to wear from her before taking her hand and leading her through the gate.
“What are we doing here?” she asked curiously.
“Well, someone said their favorite fruit was strawberries. I thought we’d pick some.”
Eri couldn’t help but smile at him. Yeah, she’d said that, but it was months ago during the Halloween party they’d gone to.
She hadn’t actually expected him to remember that.
Hell, she hadn’t known he was listening since she’d been responding to Nesiah as to why she was only eating one color of jelly beans, and Elias had been talking to Ricardo.
He paid for them to enter and declined when asked if they needed containers. Eri allowed him to lead her through, passing other people in attendance, and going further back until they made it to the strawberries.
When they stopped, she couldn’t help but take in the large strawberries. It was late April, and they already looked to be in full season. He pulled two containers from the backpack, and while Eri had known there was something in it as she’d held it, it wasn’t heavy.
“What are you doing on Monday?” Elias asked after they’d picked a few strawberries.
“Monday?” Eri asked.
“Yes, Amate. Monday. Your birthday.”
“I’ll be on campus.”
“You don’t have classes on Mondays,” Elias countered.
“I don’t, but I agreed to tutor a couple of people in one of my classes since I’ve finished the modules. They have a two-hour window between their classes, and I figured it’ll be best to do it then. With finals coming up, several of them are scrambling.”
“And after that?”
Eri shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“You aren’t doing anything with Avian?” he asked.
“Maybe. Avi likes to surprise me on the day of. So, I don’t know. Why?” she questioned.
“I don’t want you spending your birthday alone. I’m swamped on Monday with tattoos that I couldn’t move around, and it’ll be around nine when I finish.”
Eri nudged him with her shoulder before picking another strawberry. “I’m a big girl. I’ll be fine. Besides, you’re with me today.”
He leaned over and kissed her. “I do have a present for you.”
“Yeah? What is it?”
“You’ll see.”
Eri decided not to push because she knew he wouldn’t tell her. Instead, she changed the subject. “Finals week is the week after next, and then graduation is the third Saturday of May. Do you need an official invitation to come?” she teased.
Elias chuckled. “You tell me where and what time, Amate, and I’m there.”
“You might have to work.”
Elias shrugged. “I’ve got a month. I can push some appointments to later in the day.”
She’d check the exact time when he dropped her off later and let him know, but she knew it would be in the morning.
If it was before the shop opened, he might not have to move anything.
“On another note. My dad is coming for a visit next weekend.” Since she stayed in campus housing, they were going to look for an apartment for her to move into after graduation.
“Are we playing meet the parents?” Elias asked, picking another strawberry.
“If you want to.”
Eri had technically already met his parents at Avian’s wedding. Though at the time she’d been meeting them as Avian’s maid of honor and best friend. Not as Elias’ girlfriend.
“Do you want me to?” he countered.
Eri thought about it. She’d only ever introduced her father to one guy she’d dated, and that was during her senior year of high school.
It had also been her longest relationship.
Lasting until they’d gone their separate ways for college, since he’d been honest with her and told her he was unsure he’d be able to remain faithful if they did long distance.
Anything before or after that had only been a few months and never warranted being brought up to her dad, in her opinion.
Technically, she was in the latter boat with Elias.
They’d only been dating for a few months.
They’d been officially together for even less time, so introducing him to her father might not have been the best idea when things could go down the drain.
However, they’d made it over one hump, and she was determined to always talk to him when she needed to, so maybe it would be alright if she did.
“Yeah, I do.”
“Okay. Dinner with your dad on Saturday. Dinner with my parents on Sunday. Two birds in one weekend.”
“Yeah, that sounds good. I’ll let him know.”
They picked strawberries for an hour, filling five containers. They took them to the front and had them weighed. Elias paid for them, made sure the lids were snug, and packed them into the backpack. When they made it back to his motorcycle, he handed her the bag.
“Is it too heavy?” he asked.
“No, it’s fine.” She tied her scarf around her hair, Elias helped her with her helmet, and they were soon leaving the farm, headed back to Albuquerque.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
“Amate, do you squirm like this when you get all your tattoos?” Elias asked as Eri shifted again against his dick. Squirm was an overexaggeration. What she was doing was more calculated, but he had no one but himself to blame.
“I’ve never straddled my tattoo artist before while getting one. Forgive me for not being able to be a statue,” she responded. “I’ll be sure to practice the next time I get one.”
Elias looked up from the design and raised a brow. “Unless I do the next tattoo you get, you won’t be practicing,” he informed her. “Besides, it’s easier this way.”
Where she was getting it, having her lie on the bed or couch wouldn’t have been a good angle.
Sure, he could have had her sit in a chair, but then he might not have been able to get close enough to make sure the intricacies she wanted were right.
At least, that was what he told her when he’d pulled her to straddle him almost an hour ago.
Elias only had a small section he needed to finish shading, and then he’d be done.
When he finished the tattoo, he let her look at it while he trashed the needle and gloves, putting his extra gun away in the carrier.
“It looks amazing, babe,” she stated when she returned.
“Of course it does,” he started as he sprayed the tattoo. “I did it,” he finished with a smirk, covering it. Eri rolled her eyes playfully at him. “Do you want your gift now?”
She shook her head. “No, bring it to me on Monday.”
“You know it’ll be late when I finish,” he reminded.
“It won’t be that late, and even if it were. I still want to see you.”
“What happened to it being fine because you were with me today?” he teased.
Eri shrugged. “It’s my birthday, so I’m being selfish.” She draped her arms over his shoulders. “I do want something else.”
Elias raised a brow at her, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her closer, careful of the fresh tattoo. “Oh yeah? What’s that?”
“I think we both know, but first, I need to tell you something. In case I have the same reaction as before, you’ll know why.”
Elias released her and led her into the living room. He sat on the couch, pulling her down beside him. It was quiet between them for a moment, and he studied her. He could tell that whatever she wanted to tell him wasn’t easy for her to start.
“You know you can tell me anything, and if you aren’t ready right now, then you don’t have to,” he told her. While he wanted to know, and had all but asked her the last time they sat on his couch like this, he wouldn’t force her to tell him if just starting the conversation was this hard for her.
He ran through the possibilities of what she could want to tell him, and he felt a pit form in his stomach because there were only a few things he could think of, and each one was terrible.
“I know, but I want you to know.” She took a deep breath.
“Two years ago on Valentine’s Day. I went to a party.
It was advertised around campus as a singles party where you could meet people.
Avian was studying, and the couple of other people I hung out with at the time were in relationships, so I went alone.
Everything was fine. I was having fun, and then this guy approached me. He seemed nice enough.”
The pit in Elias’ stomach grew because he had a sinking suspicion of where this was going, but he said nothing. Allowing her to continue.
“We talked for a couple of hours before I got ready to leave. Once we were outside, he asked me to come back to his place with him, and I told him no. He didn’t like that answer and started ranting about how women always led men on.
How he’d brought me all these drinks, and wasted two hours of his life with me flirting with him.
How I was nothing but a tease, and I owed him because I led him on. Which I hadn’t.”
Elias hadn’t thought she had. Some men had the audacity to think that a woman holding a polite conversation with them, or being nice, meant they were flirting with them or showing interest when they weren’t.
However, if the woman was standoffish or shot them down quickly, then she was a bitch, and the man could get violent.
It wasn’t all men, but enough of them for women to be wary in both circumstances.
“He hit me twice. It disoriented me, and he dragged me to the back of the building, where he sexually assaulted me.”
He understood why she’d called Valentine’s Day a useless holiday.
Something so tragic and life-changing had happened to her on a day that was supposed to be celebrated by lovers.
Elias could also understand why she’d been overwhelmed when they’d been intimate.
Why she’d left. She’d said her last experience with intimacy hadn’t been great, and he now knew that it was derived from the pits of hell.
It had been taken from her in a twisted and tainted way.
Every fiber of his being was straining to keep himself under control. Furious didn’t begin to describe the way he felt.
“At some point, a girl came out back to smoke, and she hit him with a nearby two-by-four until he was unconscious, then called 911.” She paused briefly. “That event is what caused my sleepwalking. When I have a nightmare or dream of something strange, I seek out protection and comfort.”
He could understand that. They likely triggered a similar emotional response, but he also understood that she was telling him she felt safe with him even before they started dating, because she sought him out the night she’d first stayed with him.
He had every intention of her always feeling that way.
“What happened to him?” Elias asked.
“He was arrested, and he took a plea deal.” She released a breath. “So, now you know.”
Elias took her hand, kissing the knuckles. “Now, I know. And it doesn’t change anything. It doesn’t make me want you any less. The only thing it does is allow me to see how strong you are. Thank you, baby. For telling me.”
She nodded before leaning in to kiss him.
It was soft, tender, and slow. Elias followed the movement of her lips and then allowed her tongue to coax his into mirroring her movements.
This kiss was different, and he could feel her pouring everything she felt into it.
Like telling him, letting him in was a weight off her shoulders.
When her free hand came to his lap and shifted over his dick, Elias grabbed her wrist, stopping her.
“No, Amate.” He didn’t miss her intake of breath, and he realized he needed to elaborate quickly so she wouldn’t get the wrong idea.
“I can’t give you what you need right now, because I’m pissed that some man had the audacity to do that to you, and I can’t guarantee I won’t inadvertently throw that anger into sex, and I would never do that to you.
I would never hurt you.” He gave her another soft kiss.
“Why don’t you go into my room, choose something comfortable to change into, and I’ll order food and snacks, and we can spend the night watching movies. ”
“Can we watch The Powerpuff Girls Movie?”
“We can watch whatever you want, baby.”
She smiled at him. That smile that always seemed to feel like he’d been taken by surprise, kicked in the gut, before she headed down the hall to his bedroom. Elias pulled out his phone and ordered some of her favorite snacks before ordering food from the truck they’d gone to the first time.
When she returned, it was in one of his T-shirts. Elias would have thought she was tempting him until she sat down, tucking her feet under her, and he found she’d swapped her denim shorts for a pair of his boxers.
“I chose something for you to change into. It’s on the bed,” she told him.
Elias put his phone on the table and went to his bedroom to find she’d laid out a pair of gray sweatpants for him. He chuckled before changing, then grabbed a throw blanket from the hall closet before returning to the living room.
Eri already had the movie ready as she lay on the couch waiting for him.
He joined her. Settling between her legs and laying his head on her chest. Her free hand drifted to his back as she started the movie, and Elias breathed in the scent of her perfume as he continued working to calm himself down.