by Laura Sutton
Eli took a drink of the coffee, enjoying the deep and just-teetering-on-bitter flavor. “So, are you excited about today?” Eli took a bite of his own breakfast. She was right, it was delicious.
“Oh, yes! This excursion is why I picked this resort.”
Eli couldn’t stop his smile if he wanted to; her enthusiasm was contagious. It also made her even more beautiful to him. Her gray eyes seemed to shine, and her smile was radiant.
“Rick hated the idea,” she continued, “but I signed us up for the excursion, anyway. This trip was my celebration.”
Eli’s mind was caught on the name. “So you didn’t plan this trip with Roxy?” He kept his voice light, but jealousy was burning through him. Who was this Rick to her? Someone still in her life? He had no right to the feeling, but all he could think of was that she was his, and no one else’s.
“No, I started planning this, gosh, like eight months ago to celebrate graduating. I was still with my ex, Rick, at the time. The original plan was for him to come with me.” She shrugged a little and this time her smile didn’t reach her eyes. Eli reached across the table, took her hand and kissed her fingers.
“But we broke up – no, I broke up with him, and thankfully Roxy was willing to come with me. I would’ve hated to have to cancel this,” Sam finished, her eyes looking at the table, not at him.
Eli stood, and Sam’s face tilted up as he leaned across the table and kissed her startled lips and then sat back down, smiling at her wide eyes and light blush.
“I’m glad you broke up with him and still came. I would’ve hated to have to steal you away from him, if you had still been together,” he said and took another bit of his food.
“I’m sorry?” she said, coughing, and he grinned.
“Bimba, if I had seen you on the beach, and you had been with some douchebag boyfriend instead of Roxy… our day yesterday would still have ended the same way, I promise you.”
She blinked at him like a confused owl. Then realization set in and she blushed even brighter.
“Good,” she whispered and bit her lip, her teeth sinking into the plush flesh like Eli wanted to do.
He nodded in response. “Finish eating, Bimba, we’ve got a full day in front of us.”
She merely smiled and took a bite of her waffle. Yes, a full day… and hopefully night, Eli thought.
Soon it was time to go and after stopping to buy bottles of water, they and a group of about twenty followed a very lively resort employee onto a comfortable air-conditioned bus. Eli led Sam by the hand to some seats toward the back of the bus and let her take the window seat while he stowed their backpacks in the overhead storage area. The seats were comfortable, and he was glad there was so much leg room. As a tall man, he didn’t relish a long bus ride with his knees in his chest.
The resort employee introduced herself as Arianna and explained to them that the hike was not on resort property and they would be going to a national park the resort partners with. She said the hike itself was safe as long as they followed the guide and used a buddy system.
“Will you be my buddy?” Eli whispered in Sam’s ear and kissed the side of her neck.
“I don’t know, I feel you might lead me down a path that’s not on the map.”
Eli pressed a quick kiss to her smiling lips. “Oh, definitely, I’m notorious for that.”
Her smile grew, her eyes darkening. “Well, I’m in,” she whispered, and it took all his strength not to pull her into his lap and feel her lush curves against his body again, but it was a packed bus and not the right place for his hands to explore her body. No, that would come later.
She was so pretty. She wasn’t what would be considered beautiful by normal standards, if Eli looked at her objectively. Her face was a little too round, her chin not pronounced enough, but her lips were something the devil himself would sin for, plump and pink and, Eli knew first-hand, very kissable. She was the kind of pretty you marry and have a few kids with and live that domestic bliss everyone craved… and that was usually the kind of woman Eli ran from.
He liked his women more like himself, beautiful and cynical and a little on the dangerous side. Amazing in bed, and terrible for the long-term. Sam was made for long-term, made to be loved and return that love, and part of Eli was heartbroken that he would not be that long-term love for her.
What would it be like, to soak up her goodness and light forever? Would all that goodness and light permeate the darkness of his soul, make him a better man? Could she help him learn how to be good? Because that was something he had never learned from the people who had raised him. He swallowed down a lump in his throat and steered himself to a neutral subject.
Taking her hand in his, he laced their fingers together. “Are you from New Orleans originally?”
“Nope,” she answered, relaxing back into her own seat. “No, I’m from Virginia originally. I’ve only been living in New Orleans for school.”
“Are you staying in New Orleans, now that you’ve graduated?” He wasn’t sure why he was trying to find out her future plans. They had no future. Eli would not allow her to be destroyed by knowing him. All he could bring to her was destruction.
“Oh, no, I’m moving back to Virginia. I got a job clerking for a state judge while I study for the bar.” She flashed him that sweet smile Eli was growing so fond of. “What about you? Where are you from? I know you’re moving to Florida but that’s really all I know about you.”
His conscience winced at how he’d lied about living in Florida, but it had been a necessary evil. She couldn’t know his job was also in Virginia. She would want to keep in touch and he couldn’t allow that, no matter how much he might want to. He was no good for her.
“Well, I’m from Dallas, born and raised. I did my undergraduate work at the University of Houston, and then went to law school at Texas Tech.”
“Ohhhh, a Texas boy,” she teased and punched his arm playfully.
He grinned. “At your service ma’am,” Eli teased back in an exaggerated Texas drawl and tipped an invisible cowboy hat. “What made you pick law school, bimba?”
The easy-going smile faded from her face. “That’s… that’s a long story,” she hedged, and Eli squeezed her hand. He should let her drop it, keep it light and fun, but he couldn’t. He wanted to know everything about her.
“We’ve got time,” he encouraged softly with a smile.
Sam sighed and leaned her head back against her seat and closed her eyes for a while, so long that Eli thought she might just ignore him.
“When I was eight, my father was arrested for murder,” she said, her eyes still closed, and Eli couldn’t help the shock that flowed through him. He hadn’t expected those words to come out of her mouth. She didn’t seem like the type of person who had been raised by a murderer. Eli knew that type… he was that type, his own father sitting on death row in Huntsville for murder, but he’d gotten away with many, many more.
“Wow, Sam,” he breathed.
She opened her eyes and smiled at him sadly. “Not what you were expecting?”
He shook his head and smiled at her. “No, but it doesn’t change what I think about you.” The tension left her shoulders. “Is your dad still in prison?”
She shook her head. “No, he served three years, and thanks to a pro-bono attorney finding some DNA evidence the state didn’t test, we were able to prove his innocence. His experience, it changed me. I wanted to help people like my dad, people who’d experienced injustice, so I became a lawyer.” She shrugged sheepishly and Eli couldn’t help but kiss her. He wouldn’t believe someone could be so good, if he hadn’t met Sam himself.
“What about you? Why law for you?” she asked as he pulled away from the kiss.
Eli instantly smoothed his features to show no emotion. He never talked about his family or himself, but it was his fault for asking about her; naturally, she’d want him to reciprocate.
He smiled, a smile he hoped Sam wouldn’t notice was practiced and faked.
>
“It was expected of me. When I was a kid and showed an advanced aptitude in school, my grandfather told me he would pay for me to go to law school. So when I graduated and got into law school, I held him to that promise,” he answered and she nodded, satisfied.
She didn’t need to know that his grandfather was the don of the very powerful di Ruggiero crime family. It was certainly not something he was proud of. His grandfather had groomed him to be the legal representation of the family, but the murder of his mother had changed all of that for him. Eli refused to be a part of the world that got his mother killed, but the damage had been done; the darkness was in soul whether he actively helped the family or not.
“Hey, you okay?” Sam’s sweet voice interrupted his internal musings, and he forced another smile.
“I am, bimba,” he murmured and kissed her hand to distract himself. His past, his family, couldn’t touch her right now. This was a little slice of heaven and Sam was the sun. He was going to fly as close to the sun as he could.
“Tell me more about you and your family. Do you have any siblings?”
He was rewarded with a smile. She began to fish her phone out of the cute little fanny pack and opened it up to some pictures from what was obviously her graduation day.
“This is my dad, he’s still a mechanic in our hometown. We were lucky; most of the residents believed my dad was innocent, so when he was declared innocent, life went back to mostly-normal. That’s my mom.”
She pointed to a lovely woman who was an older version of Sam, a little plumper, maybe, but with the same soft blonde hair and lovely gray eyes.
“She’s a schoolteacher, has been my whole life, and those two are my younger sisters, twins. They’re eleven. My dad calls them his welcome-home-from-prison gifts.” She gave a little laugh.
Eli quickly did the math and then laughed with her. Her dad must've been very happy to be home. The twins both had the darker hair and eyes of their father, but they all looked happy and like they loved each other. They’d had hardships obviously, extraordinary ones, but it didn’t break them like the life had broken his family. He didn’t even speak to his brothers, anymore; hadn’t in almost five years. He missed them, sometimes, when he forgot how brutal they could be.
“You’re lucky, bimba,” he said softly, handing her back her phone. She looked down at the picture fondly before replacing it in the pack.
“I am,” she agreed wistfully. “I hope one day I can find what my parents share. Not just someone to smile with on the good days, but someone to rely on to weather the bad ones.” She shook her head and gave a sad little sigh. “Ignore me,” she said, giving herself a little shake, and he leaned in and kissed her.
“Never, bimba,” he breathed against her lips and settled back into his seat, pulling her with him. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and they sank into a comfortable silence that Eli was glad for.
He wanted what she did, exactly what she did, but he knew it wasn’t for him, and he was afraid he wasn’t even capable of the kind of love a woman like Sam deserved. He’d seen it between his parents, but it hadn’t kept his mother alive.
She settled against his shoulder; he leaned his head against hers and closed his eyes. He could dream, and in his dream he was in a photo like the one of Sam’s family, but he was with her and they were happy.
It was a wonderful dream, but that was all it would ever be.
Chapter Seven
Samantha
Sam stirred as the bus pulled into a parking lot and its air brakes released. Even groggy, her thoughts flew to Eli, and how she’d shared so much of her life and her past with Eli. What had made her do that? He was practically a stranger; hell, she didn’t even know his last name.
...to be fair, he didn’t know hers either, but she was still sharing a lot more than he was. What was killing her was that she wanted to know. She wanted to know his family and favorite movie and his first kiss, but she didn’t think he would tell her. It was like he feared something, like telling her even the most innocuous details was risky.
Well, she would try to get to the bottom of it. They had two weeks, after all. She was just worried that the more she knew about him, the more she wouldn’t want it to end after just two weeks.
“You awake, bimba?” Eli asked, his hand moving up and down her arm in calming strokes.
She sat up and smiled at him. “Did you nap, too?”
He nodded and stretched. “I did, and I had this dream about this beautiful blonde.” His dark eyes twinkled.
“Oh, yeah? Was she very beautiful?”
He grinned and leaned in for a kiss. “She was incredibly beautiful. It was unfortunate I woke up before I peeled her clothes from her body.” His low voice sent her into a full-body flush. God, he didn’t have to do much to turn her on, did he?
“Well, who knows, maybe you’ll get lucky on the way back,” she whispered.
He seemed to crackle with barely held desire. “Who says I’m waiting until the way back?” He kissed her hard and quick, just enough to make her reach for him before pulling back, leaving her panting for him while he grinned.
Then the guide was directing them off the bus and introducing them to the tour guide for the park. They spent the next while exploring and learning about one of the largest pre-Columbian ruins in Costa Rica. It was a fascinating afternoon, and Sam was happy to see Eli had been just as enthralled about it as she was.
Her confidence in his desire for her made her brave, too. He was reading one of the information signs when she joined him and wrapped her arms around his middle. He squeezed her arms, and she leaned her head against his warm back.
“Can you imagine how bustling this area must’ve been?” he asked. “It says that upwards of 10,000 people lived here at the height of this civilization.” She soaked in his words and tried to see it. People and animals walking and living in this jungle.
“I can. It must’ve been an interesting way to live. Freeing, almost, without the hassle of modern times,” she said, imagining a simpler life than the one that faced them today.
He made an agreeing noise and turned in the circle of her arms until he was facing her.
“Wanna go exploring one of the trails with me? The guide said we had an hour to ourselves, and as long as we stay on the marked paths, we’ll be okay.”
She smiled and agreed; that did sound nice.
“Great, I was hoping you’d be up for a little exploring. The website said a few of the paths lead to a waterfall, but it didn’t say which one.”
They headed, hand-in-hand, down a path that headed into the thick greenery of the jungle. It was beautiful in a dangerous kind of way.
Much like Eli.
They walked for a while, staying on the stone path, stopping occasionally to read the trail markers. Most were in English and Spanish, but a few were in only Spanish and Eli would translate them first. She loved listening to his deep voice, the gravelly, calm tones washing over her, almost hypnotic.
Sam snapped photos of some brightly colored flowers, and the green of the vines that grew around and through the leaves and branches of the tall trees.
“Give me your phone, bimba, I’ll take your picture.”
She handed Eli her phone and stood just off the path in front of a particularly large tree with bright pink flowers clustered around it. She went through a few playful poses while Eli took the photos.
“Come, take a selfie with me,” she said.
He looked at her for a bit, as if trying to decide if he should or shouldn’t, and eventually grinned and shrugged and headed her way. He stepped in behind her, wrapping his arms around her middle and resting his chin on her shoulder. Sam loved how she felt small and protected against his much larger frame.
“Smile!” She held out the phone until both their faces fit the frame and snapped a picture.
“One more,” Eli said. He could ask her to rob in that tone of voice and she would probably agree.
“Okay,” she cro
aked and then cleared her throat, hoping he wouldn’t notice just how much he affected her. This time, though, Eli kissed her cheek and then took the phone from her to look at the photo.
“Much better,” he murmured, and she had to agree: the captured smooch showed a moment of closeness and affection that took Sam’s breath away. She leaned into him, content to just be held by him.
“Do you hear that?”
Sam went still and listened, but couldn’t hear anything but the buzz of insects and the chirping of birds.
“I don’t think so?” she answered, but Eli was already grabbing for her, pulling her through the dense trees off the path.
“Eli? The guide said we shouldn’t wander from the marked paths,” she protested weakly, a little concerned.
“No, I know we won’t go far, I just think I hear…”
He never finished the thought, however, because he pushed out of the way a heavy branch of leaves and vines. She could not only hear what Eli had been talking about, but see it, too: the trees opened up to a beautiful waterfall.
The area was rocky, and the rocks ringing the cascade of water were covered with moss and grass. The cliff face must have been eighty feet tall, with the water gathering in the bottom in a large pool. After a day of tromping through a jungle, the water looked irresistibly inviting.
Eli hopped up on one of the rock outcrops and held out his hand to her. She took it, trusting him yet again, because it was only due to his presence that she’d even consider half of what they had gotten up to so far. Sam was cautious by nature, and she would definitely not normally be roaming the Costa Rican jungle, exploring a beautiful waterfall. Was there anything she wouldn’t trust this man she barely knew? The more time she spent in his presence, the more she knew the answer was probably ‘no’.
Carefully they made their way along the slippery rocks until they were just feet away from the waterfall.