Tia felt like she could just do this for the rest of her life. Take great, drowning sips from his masculine mouth. His flavor was addictive. Soft and strong. She could taste toothpaste and a faint trace of salt. He smelled like a fresh shower and his skin was warm and slightly dewy, but she couldn’t be sure that wasn’t just the way he was.
She would have expected Eli to command the kiss. To drag her, unerringly, into heated passion that only rose and rose. But it wasn’t like that. Eli was with her, meeting her, matching her, reading her. He was her complete partner in the kiss. And as his hand clamped and unclamped against her knee, she got the impression he was as much a prisoner to this moment as she.
This wasn’t a kiss with a destination. There was no race to the finish line. Both of them simply wanted to keep doing exactly what they were doing. For every moment that the kiss deepened, heightened, tangled, there was a moment of lightening as well. One of them would tear away, breathe, turn back to press a feather light touch against the other’s mouth.
Her lips were smudged and faintly bruised, he realized as he studied her through a cloudy haze. Every few minutes he was pulling away from the kiss to simply look at her. Study that gorgeous, serious face as he rode with her through lust. Desire looked good on her. So good, in fact, it was like a kick straight to the teeth. Her silvery eyes became heavy lidded and lazy. Her color rose, peach in the endless field of golden skin. And as she leaned back to study him as well, her rose-colored tongue licked along her pouty bottom lip.
He realized that as aroused as she obviously was, she was also extremely fatigued. Her breaths were fast and shallow as one of her thumbs traced his pulse point. Her full weight pressed in his lap as her exhausted body started forcing her to relax. The lust warred with the sheer weariness of her last 24 hours, and she started melting in his arms like wax.
He’d never felt so tender and so electric in his entire life. He wanted to spear into her and then lap her up like a bowl of cream. He knew—ribs be damned—that he could take them both on a crackling, earth-shattering ride right now. But he couldn’t bring himself to peel himself back from her. Not even to slide her tank top off. Not when her soft, warm breasts pressed into his chest. When her delicious little tongue was pushed into his mouth.
He was prisoner to this moment, to the confusing, delicious, lazy-hot heat of what they were doing.
When her eyes started to get heavier and heavier, he knew he couldn’t be selfish anymore. He could keep worshipping at the altar of her mouth for hours, but she was extremely tired. And he knew just how fatigued she was when he slid her sideways without protest. Eli wanted nothing more than to follow her down to the couch, to tangle and twist with her.
But her eyes drifted shut the second he placed a pillow under her head. And when he slid out from under her, she merely scooted into the warmth where his body had just been.
Eli slipped her glasses off her face. He grabbed an afghan off the back of the couch and tucked it around her, giving himself just another moment to gaze at her gorgeous, relaxed face. And then he stepped back, tip-toed out of the room, and let her sleep.
CHAPTER SIX
The rich, sumptuous scent of coffee had Tia floating upward out of a soft, wispy dream. Her body was both heavy and light, sleepy but rested. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d slept so—
She sat straight up, blinking around and whirling at the soft chuckle that sounded across the room. She groped around for her glasses and slipped them on.
Wow. Okay. She was in Elijah Bird’s house. Where she’d apparently fallen asleep. And there he was, sitting in an armchair, feet propped on the coffee table and a book in one hand.
And there she was, skimpy little tank top and form fitting pajama pants, a blanket tangled around her legs, and she was certain that her hair must be a royal mess.
The only thing that kept her from pulling the blanket over her head and pretending that none of this was happening was the coffee steaming on the table next to her.
Avoiding Eli’s eyes, Tia leaned forward and took a grateful sip. She risked a glance up at him where he sat, calm as a cucumber and a huge smile on his face.
“You make the cutest little noises when you’re waking up. Like a pouty little kitten.”
A wave of heat rushed through Tia. Okay. “Um. Bathroom?”
Eli, smile still on his face, pointed down a hallway and didn’t even pretend to avert his eyes when she stood and hurried down the hall.
Tia couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw herself in the mirror. Her hair was as wild as she had feared and she quickly unbraided it, dragged her fingers through it until it was relatively calm against her shoulders. But that wasn’t what was stunning her. Her lips were good and kissed. Full and raw and… alluring. She leaned forward and studied the faint pink scrapes along her throat, took in her hectic eyes. She looked like a woman who had been thoroughly, passionately loved. And all they’d done was kiss.
Tia opened the drawers of the small half-bath until she—thank god—found a little travel-sized toothpaste. She furiously finger brushed, splashed a little water on her face and washed her hands. Okay.
She just needed to go out there, thank him for his hospitality, and get the hell home. Once she was in the safety of her own space, she could let her feelings loose. Whatever this was, this pressure in her chest, she could fully explore it in her own house. But right now, in front of Eli, she had to keep it calm, together, and aloof.
She padded back out into the living room and was greeted instantly by his creased grin. Tia bit at her lip, but couldn’t help but grin back, just for a second.
“Thank you for letting me crash here,” she started, about to make her hasty exit.
But once again, she’d underestimated the length of his wingspan. He reached out, quick as a cat, and dragged her onto his lap. For the second time in eight hours, she was straddling Elijah Bird.
“You’re welcome,” he murmured, nuzzling his face into her neck and kissing her just below the ear.
“Oh. I…” She trailed off as one of his hands skated down her spine, rested right above her ass, on that exposed inch of skin under her tank top. “I really should go now.”
“Why?” His teeth tugged at her earlobe and Tia gasped, unwillingly pressing herself into him.
“Because we can’t just keep making out on the couch.”
“Why not?” He switched to the other ear, nuzzling and tugging. “It’s hot as hell.”
One of his thumbs, circling just underneath the edge of her tank top, alighted upon some devilishly ticklish spot on her skin. She yelped and dissolved into a girlish laugh that delighted them both.
“It was very high school,” she admitted of their make out session.
“Yeah, except this time I knew what I was doing, and in high school, not so much,” Eli smiled against her collarbone, where he was currently nibbling.
Tia scoffed. “I’m sure you knew what you were doing in high school.”
Eli pulled back from her, a smile on his face. “What makes you so sure?”
Tia’s mouth opened and closed. “Well. You were so good looking. And had so many girls after you. And…” she trailed off as Eli’s grin just kept getting wider and wider.
“And…” he prompted.
“Oh, I’m sure you can fill in the blanks.” Tia raised an eyebrow.
Eli leaned up and kissed her lips, once, with a good, firm pressure. “I’m flattered by your view of me, but trust me, I had no idea what I was doing with girls on couches. I had plenty of opportunities, but I often steered clear.”
“Really?” Tia cocked her head to one side, skepticism in every letter of the word. “That can’t be true. You had such a rep!”
“Oh, and every reputation granted in high school is based in complete fact.” Now he was the one raising the eyebrow, but it was softened with his usual smile.
“Fair enough. But you really expect me to believe you weren’t getting girls left and right in high
school?” She crossed her arms over her chest and Eli absently uncrossed them and placed them around his own neck. Tia tried hard not to be charmed by the gesture.
“I liked girls, was drawn to them, and really attracted. But girls are also really good at figuring out if you’re sad. And my mom had just died. I felt like every time I tried to get with a girl, we ended up with her asking about why I was so down. And I just… started avoiding it, I guess.”
Tia clasped her fingers around his neck and leaned in for a kiss of his lips. “I’m so sorry, it didn’t even occur to me.”
“That’s okay. It was a long time ago.”
Tia bit her lip. Her mind was reeling a little bit, trying to fit this information in with what her perception had been of him. “So, you really weren’t hooking up with girls in high school?”
Eli grinned, his face creasing. “I’m flattered that you’re so astonished by this information. But seriously. Besides some kissing here and there, I went to college pure as the driven snow. You can call Kara Boswell, if you want. She can vouch for the purity of my snow, and the exact moment in my freshman year of college that she sullied it.”
Now Tia’s mouth fell wide open. “You didn’t lose your virginity until college?”
“You’re gonna give me a complex here, Tia.”
“No,” she waved her hand through the air. “I’m not saying that because it’s late to lose your virginity. I didn’t lose mine until sophomore year of college. I’m just exclaiming because that means you were a virgin at your end of the year senior party after graduation.”
“Right.” Where the hell was she going with this? And why was she suddenly blushing so furiously.
“I just, um, thought you were way more experienced than I was so I didn’t…”
Tia took her hands from around his neck and pressed them over her eyes, but she couldn’t hide the peachy tint to her blushing cheeks.
“What?” Eli demanded, pulling her hands from her face, so curious at whatever the hell she was about to say.
She shook her head.
So Eli pulled out the big guns. Finding that ticklish spot on her side again, he ruthlessly waged war. “Tell me!”
Tia yelped and howled with laughter, wiggling across his lap and across the couch to get away. But, professional athlete that he was, she was thoroughly stuck, pinned between the cushions and his large body.
“Alright! Alright!” she gasped. “I wanted to talk to you, but I thought you’d be irritated if I pulled you away from the party. That you’d think I was a dork and a waste of time because I wouldn’t sleep with you. And I was worried about cockblocking you from Sara Humphrey.”
Eli froze above her and it was the most serious she’d ever seen him look. “I would have never, ever felt that way, Tia. Not just because you are none of those things, but because I didn’t feel that way about anybody. I know I was in the cool crowd. But I felt awkward in my suddenly huge body, and scared of college, and scared of leaving Marcus and Jay, and I had all my baggage. I was definitely not judging other people. And I was certainly not spending time with girls only because I thought they might sleep with me.” Eli picked up one of her hands, traced it down to her elbow and back, planted a quick kiss on her bicep. “And for the record, I would have loved a break from Sara Humphrey. She was like velcro that night. And I wasn’t into it. That girl was bo-ring.”
Tia, flat on her back with Eli halfway laying over her, shook her head and let her eyes blur into the past. “God. I can’t believe that. How was my perspective on the situation so skewed? I let something like that deter me from…” she trailed off again, her cheeks going pinker than before.
“Deter you from what? What was it that you wanted to pull me away to talk about?” Eli asked, his smile returning as he threateningly lifted his hands into perfect tickle claws.
Tia shook her head and covered her eyes. She was a grown woman, for god sakes. This should not be so embarrassing. And wasn’t this what she’d come over here for in the first place? Absolution of her former crush? She’d done the make out part. Now all she needed to do was the telling him part and then she could just move the hell on.
“I…” She cleared her throat and kept her eyes covered. “I wanted to pull you aside and tell you that I had a crush on you.”
“No shit?”
She could hear the grin in his voice without having to look.
“At that party?” he asked.
She nodded.
She felt Eli flop onto his side next to her. “You mean I spent that entire party dodging Sara Humphrey’s many tentacles when I could have been making out on a couch with you?”
Tia’s hand snapped down at that. “Don’t even act like you would have taken me up on the offer. I was such a nerd.”
Eli tried not to take offense at the view she had of him. As some kind of womanizing ladies man who only wanted one thing from the girls he dated. “Well, can I take you up on the offer now?”
Tia crossed her arms over her chest. “There is no offer. I don’t have a crush on you anymore.”
Eli bit back his smile as best as he could. She was just so dang cute, laying there on the couch in that skimpy tank top and huge glasses, her hair tumbling everywhere and her stubborn expression attempting to cover up her mortification.
“That’s a shame,” he muttered, leaning over her and nuzzling into her neck for a moment. “Because I have a crush on you.”
Tia froze. “No, you don’t.”
Eli lifted his head up. “Yes, I do.”
“Grown people don’t get crushes. And you don’t know me well enough to have a crush on me.”
Well, he’d just have to show her then. Eli sat up off the couch and dragged her up as well. His ribs pinched just a little bit, but he barely noticed. “Come on.”
“What are we doing?” she asked, stumbling along after him.
“You just woke up from a seven-hour nap. You’ve gotta be hungry.” They strode into the kitchen and he immediately turned and took her around the waist, lifting her onto the counter top. Luckily she jumped at the same time or else he would really be pushing his ribs to the edge. “I’m gonna make you something to eat real quick.”
“I—” She cut herself off and looked at him with big, confused eyes. She tugged her hair back from her face. “Eli, I can just go home and eat. You don’t need to do all this.”
“I want to,” he insisted, pulling out a pot and a pan and setting them on the stove. He ducked his head into the pantry. “Because I have a crush on you.”
When he came out of the pantry with bread and a can of soup, she was blushing, staring at a spot in front of her and looking thoroughly confused.
And she was thoroughly confused. This whole encounter was going completely off the rails. She was supposed to just kiss him and ditch him. He was supposed to try to shuffle her off to bed as fast as possible. And then she’d remember that he was grown up, playboy Elijah Bird, not high school Elijah Bird, and that she wasn’t interested anymore and she’d leave. Simple as that.
She hadn’t calculated an outcome where he was standing in worn jeans and a soft t-shirt, whistling while he made her soup and a grilled cheese. She definitely hadn’t thought there was ever a world where he had a crush on her. Well, he looked at her like he wanted to swallow her whole. But that was different. That was a man wanting to satisfy his man-sized needs. Not a crush.
But this version of Eli, the one who was content to just make out on a couch, who covered her up when she fell asleep, who, apparently, had been a virgin in high school. Well, she hadn’t counted on this version. And she had absolutely no idea what the hell to do with it.
The kitchen windows were open and Tia shivered as a cool breeze suddenly filtered through the room.
“That feels like rain,” Eli said, lifting his head to the wind. “Maybe we’ll get our first spring thunderstorm of the season. Hope so. I love thunderstorms.”
He turned and his brow furrowed when he saw her clutching her elbo
ws in her palms.
“You’re cold.”
She nodded. “Yeah. And I think I should probably just go—”
“Wait.” He lifted up a hand. “Just give me two seconds. Make sure the sandwiches don’t burn!”
And then he was out of the kitchen like a shot. Tia thought about leaving. She figured it was the wisest course of action. But the high school girl who still lived in her heart refused to get off his kitchen counter.
She knew that she had things to do this evening. She had laundry and some reading to catch up on. And then there was all that insurance paperwork for her parents that she had to do. Not to mention she and Laura were going to the home to visit with them tomorrow. And Tia usually liked to have a game plan in place for that. Laura was always so emotional on those days. She had so much to do. She needed to get up, get in her car, and go back to her life.
She sighed. Well, life wasn’t long. Her parents were prime proof of that. It wasn’t going to kill her to push her laundry a few more days. She could eat soup with Eli.
He strode back into the kitchen, a pair of thick socks in one hand, a sweatshirt in the other, and a huge grin on his face.
He started with the socks. Bending down, he quickly stuffed her feet into one and then the other.
“Your hands are three times the size of my feet,” Tia noted.
Eli grinned up at her and then rose, holding up the gigantic sweatshirt for her inspection. She couldn’t help the blush that immediately swamped her face.
It was a navy blue sweatshirt with white lettering. Bird, it read. With a gigantic number seven below that. The front was emblazoned with the Waterson High logo. His high school football sweatshirt. What the athletes wore on the days before their games to remind the student body to attend. As if anyone needed reminding to come see Elijah Bird, golden child, tear up the field.
“I dug it out of the closet,” he said, grinning and pulling it over her head.
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