by Amy Gregory
“Dallas’s teacher called me this morning during her planning period.”
Her words were so quiet Eli had to replay them in his head to piece them together.
“And…?” he whispered in return.
“And we’ve been scanning and emailing in his homework from Karen’s computer. Everything she’s helped him with has come back with A’s and B’s. Dallas has never fought me to go to Karen and James’s for his schoolwork. Actually, he loves going over there.” Honor paused for a long while, but Eli waited.
“Mrs. Cavanaugh said his work has never been better, and to keep doing whatever it is we’re doing.”
Eli wanted to jump up and down because that was good news, something to be celebrated with a nice dinner. Honor’s reaction was far from being celebratory. He knew that added weight to her decision. It was becoming harder and harder for her to fight to take him home, especially when her two biggest struggles were going to be wiped away if she let Dallas stay.
“He hasn’t left the property since we arrived from the airport. It’s easy to get lost here, Eli. It’s perfect for him. He has the best trainers in the world and the most cutting edge technology that money can buy in order for him to ride. Which, by the way, I put two-and-two together and figured out that little piece about the bike you provided for him. No one else has a bike provided for them.”
She shook her head slightly. Eli felt it against his chest, but didn’t add details to what she already assumed—correctly.
“And now his grades are improving drastically. You were right, you knew immediately what was wrong. Karen knows how to reach him, and he’s responding unbelievably well. It’s an answer to my prayers. God, you just have no idea how many nights I’ve been just sick about him, worrying about it, fighting through each year just trying to keep his head above water. Maybe you do, with your brother, but… It’s not home.”
Eli heard her take several steeling breaths.
“How do I accept that kind of help and that kind of money? I couldn’t afford to pay what any other child’s parents would have to pay. It’s charity, Eli. I have always made my own way. I’ve always taken care of his needs by myself. I don’t know if I can do this. It’s too much. And he’s—he’s my baby. I just… Oh God, do you know how much I’d miss him?”
Eli understood. He felt the same way about his own life. He appreciated that need to be self-sufficient. If he answered her questions, she would gain strength and a certain battle would begin. So he let it go for now and changed directions. Eli had been waiting for the right moment. He gathered her closer.
He counted to ten before he said the words. “Stay here with me, Honor. I-I need you.”
She stiffened for half a minute, then melted into his hold. Honor gave him no words, but she stayed tucked in his arms and for tonight, that was enough.
****
A wall of heat and muscle lay behind her from head to toe. Honor felt his warm breath on her neck. Her hair was swept out of his way, and he was placing feather soft kisses along the slope. With only a tank top and pajama shorts on, her shoulders, neck, and arms were exposed to him. Blinking her eyes open, she could barely make out the shapes of the furniture in the dark room. The dim green numbers on the clock beside the bed let her know it was almost five in the morning. Her heart started to race for a quick moment when she became conscious enough to know Eli was still in her bed. Then it sped up more as his palm eased down her side, across her cotton shorts to her bare thigh.
Her worlds were colliding. She knew what she needed to do. She knew what she wanted to do. They were nowhere near one and the same. Then she felt the tip of his tongue make a quick sweep across her skin, leaving behind a wake of fire in its place.
“Sweetheart.” He kissed softly again, whispering words in between. “I need to go across the hall before Dallas wakes up.”
Her head relaxed against him, the invitation given by her body that her mind couldn’t fight.
“Oh, Honor. You’re killing me here.”
His ragged words came out on a sigh against her shoulder. His palm stretched out across her abdomen and held her still as he pressed himself against her. He was hard, and on its own accord, her body clenched, her thighs pressed together.
“Kiss me. One kiss, please. Then I have to get out of this bed before it’s too late. Trust me, it’s the last thing I want to do, but when I make love to you for the first time, I damn well want to make it last.”
When?
She knew she didn’t interpret that correctly. There was no way. Against her better judgment, Honor rolled to her back.
His palm crept up the middle of her body, his fingers splayed out, brushing both breasts at the same time. Honor hissed at the contact. It had been more years than she could count since a man had touched her intimately, more years than that since she’d wanted that touch. His hand continued up to her neck and cradled her head, angling her the way he wanted. Her body kicked in and forced her to start breathing again. Funny thing was, she hadn’t even been aware that she’d been holding her breath.
“Good morning,” he said quietly as his lips came closer to her own.
“Morning, Eli.”
Even to her own ears, her voice sounded husky and needy. She was on fire, hurting in all the right places. Honor hadn’t ever had to practice control. She had no idea if she even possessed that trait.
From the time she had uttered the words, I’m pregnant, Kolby had shut her out. It was a marriage made in the world of the wacky. Like every day was spent inside the house of mirrors. Nothing was as it seemed it should be. A handful of times over the years, he’d taken her when he’d wanted, but other than that, nothing. She always felt damaged or not good enough.
But in Eli’s arms, she felt cherished.
This feeling was a slippery slope. If she wanted to keep a level head and make an educated decision for her son’s future, she had to keep her heart out of it. And her body? She needed to keep it way the hell out of the equation.
His lips hovered over hers, and she felt the twinges shoot through her. Honor pressed her thighs together again. His wicked little chuckle let her know he’d caught on to her. He rolled his body partially over her and worked his leg between hers so that his thigh was rubbing against her, stoking the fire higher and higher, like dousing a wood pile in gasoline. His lips on her skin were the match that lit the blaze. There had been no slow burn, the need in her raged into an inferno on contact. Feeling the steel against her hip only fanned the flames.
Educated decisions went right out the window along with their sidekick, rational thinking.
“Oh my God…Eli.” She panted and grabbed his biceps in one hand and a fist full of sheet in the other.
“Trust me, Honor?”
He mumbled his throaty question against her ear, as he continued to torture and possess her. His open-mouthed kisses make their way back along her jaw to her mouth.
“Honor?” He nipped at her bottom lip. “Do you trust me, sweetheart?”
His thigh hit the exact spot of bliss again and almost sent her flying. “Yesssss,” she hissed, “yes, I-I trust you.”
“I’ve told you from the beginning I’d take care of you.” He kissed her lips, and his tongue danced around hers. “I’m not having some quickie, knowing Dallas will be coming upstairs soon. But I won’t leave you hurting. Okay?”
Her breathing was too out of control and the lack of oxygen made words impossible to form. She didn’t know it could feel like this. Hell yes, she did too. She knew it would feel like this with Eli after their first few kisses, but she pretended otherwise. Lied to herself. All self-preservation was about to be destroyed. From this point forward, one look in those sinful hazel eyes, and she’d know the truth.
Honor nodded frantically to answer.
Eli’s mouth took control of hers. As his hand slid back down her body, his fingers slowed, and sneaked under the waistband of her shorts. His thigh moved on top of hers, his leg separating hers even wider t
han they were. Easing his way further down her body, he inserted one finger, then two. She knew now he was using his mouth to contain her—she felt the moans coming from her throat and knew he was swallowing them to help keep their secret.
Without any thought, Honor ran her hand, almost desperately, down his hip and under his own clothing. Finding the heat that had been pressed against her, she clasped her fingers around him. She knew he had been hard, but he seemed to grow even more so in her hand.
Eli must have not expected that, his fingers moved faster, his mouth and tongue punished her own. The faster he moved, the faster she moved, both climbing higher and higher.
A guttural moan, rumbling from the man half-blanketing her made time stop.
Everything in her body tensed, and then she fell, spiraling, as wave after wave took her over. Electricity, and a sense of bliss she’d never felt before, ran through her.
Her hand had stalled momentarily, she quickly picked back up and increased the speed. Three long strokes later, he hissed against her cheek.
Eli’s heart pounded against her shoulder. They were both breathing hard, but neither made any attempt to remove their hands. Her first thought was she couldn’t believe she’d done that, the second was that she should be embarrassed. However, she felt all warm, tingly, and spineless. If he wanted to do that again for her, she'd be a fool not to let him. Any time, any place.
“God. You are amazing, sweetheart,” he said quietly as he nuzzled the side of her face. “But, baby, if you don’t let go of him,” his soft laughter floated over her. “I may not be able to keep my word.”
Honor could tell he wasn’t completely joking. Grinning, she opened her eyes and noticed the room wasn’t quite as dark anymore. They had coasted into that peaceful time right before daybreak. As gently as she possibly could without waking the dragon, she uncurled her fingers and pulled her hand from his boxers and pajama pants. Instantly, she longed for the intimate connection again. Then her brain woke back up and ripped her ass, berating her for what she’d allowed to happen.
Eli’s hand immediately moved back up to cradle her neck, and prevented her from pulling away. She told herself it was his fault she couldn’t move and justified staying snuggled up to him, feeling the warmth from his bare chest against her.
“What do you say you grab your robe, and we’ll go make some coffee and sit out on the back patio together? We can watch the sun come up.”
Her mind wouldn’t shut off, the what-ifs, the you can’ts, the this won’t works were all fighting for the right to be heard first. For once, she wanted to see the other side of the coin. She tuned out the noise in her head and nodded.
Eli stopped her before they left the happiness of the bedroom, before she could see the staircase to the finished basement and think of reality, and pulled her tight to him. She ran her palms over his chest, up his neck, and looked up.
The hazel eyes sparkled in the blue of the moonlit room. The desire and need they burned with moments ago was banked back down, and now they danced with mischief.
She grinned as he grinned, mirroring him without knowing why. Smiling even though she didn’t know the punch-line yet. Hell, she didn’t even know the joke.
Winking, he laid his forehead to hers, “You know I haven’t done that since I was a horny teenager. You see what you do to me, woman?”
Honor wiggled her eyebrows in reply.
Her stomach spun automatically.
Shit.
She didn’t flirt. She didn’t even know how to flirt. But, that was definitely flirting.
What the hell?
Eli’s laughter pulled her back off the ledge. “Oh, sweetheart. You’re surely killing me.”
With that, he let go and turned with her hand in his and pulled her gently behind him, walking out her bedroom door. There it was again. Taunting her. Screaming touch me. That sinfully beautiful tattoo that danced through her mind every time she shut her eyes.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
It might not have been right to spring this on the Highlends boy, but Eli didn’t give a shit. It was the only way to truly prevent any foul play, at least mechanically. He stood with Honor by his side and Dallas in front of him, his hand resting firmly on Dallas’s shoulder as they all listened to James’s speech. Everyone had been called to meet by the gate at the track entrance—every employee, every paying student, and their parents if they were on property.
James was in rare form as he went through the bullet points. Eli hadn’t seen him like this in a very long time. Actually, he’d seen him like that only once before. The normally mild-mannered professional, the consummate gentleman, turned redder and redder with each passing moment. The rein on his anger loosened, allowing it to flare back up to the point it was at yesterday when Emery explained what happened to the bike. James didn’t get angry unless you messed with one of his own. Standing there in the cool morning air, James was past angry and visibly pissed.
The heads in the crowd bobbed and darted around looking at each other for answers. Those involved with the school stood to the side of James, steady, united, and informed. They had all been enraged to think what Scott Highlends did was done right under their noses. Worse yet, the boy didn’t answer or deny the claims when James brought him and his family in to discuss it in person. His obnoxious, entitled to the world attitude only served to inflame James even more.
Under his hand, Dallas was as stiff as a board. His breathing was shallow and quick. He couldn’t see the boy’s face, but given the direction he was looking, Eli knew he was staring Scott down—an older boy, on a bigger bike. Most wouldn’t think it was at all possible, and judging from Scott’s attitude, he certainly felt like he had Dallas beat.
A hush fell over the small crowd when Karen Noland quietly walked up to join the group. She made her stance known when she stopped at Dallas’s side. Eli could see his face as he looked up at her. The smile and the love in Dallas’s eyes was genuine, and it almost appeared as if he was relieved to have her there with him.
That was what Eli loved so much about the older couple. They could wear the finest evening wear one night, wake up and come out with jeans and boots the next day. They worked hard, and then gave everything they could to help with the academy too. They treated everyone with kindness and respect, but for their family it was unconditional love and support.
Eli had seen firsthand what happened when James and Karen thought one of their own was in trouble, and hell hath no fury like an upset parent. Even when it was only love that bonded them and not blood. That had no bearing when it came to their affection or their support. They accepted with open arms—and didn’t let go.
Karen, as well as James for that matter, would occasionally wander out to the track, usually to chat with Molly, Carter, Jesse, Emery, Brody, or himself. The twins and Brody’s little guy, Chance, ran from the main house, to the track, to the shop, to the academy offices, and back around several times a day. Eli, and everyone else in a hundred-mile radius, knew those three grandkids were Karen’s world.
With the utmost grace, the statement she made was clear. Dallas was theirs also.
The rest of the students were great, but Dallas was special, and they could kiss her ass if they were jealous. Her arm slid around his waist, and she tugged him close to her side. Karen looked back at Eli, the wicked twinkle in her eye and the curve of her mouth brought a smile to his own face. Even though he was stressing out, Eli couldn’t help but quietly chuckle. Karen never ceased to surprise and amaze him.
Out of the corner of his eye, Scott’s movement caught his attention. The boy was an absolute idiot. Standing no more than twenty feet away, he was sending non-verbal threats Dallas’s way.
Leaning down, Eli spoke next into Dallas’s ear with his own eyes locked on Scott. “You’ve got this. I’ll be right there the whole time, but if you want to call it quits, I know James and Karen would rather see you walk away. They’ll just make them leave, and it’ll all be over with.”
With
his face turned over his shoulder in Eli’s direction, Dallas spoke back. “I can’t do that, Eli. I just can’t.”
“I know, son. Just wanted to put it out there one more time. Well, you know that track like the back of your hand now. Nothing’s changed since last night, and James surprised them with this so he hasn’t had a chance to screw with anything this morning.” Squeezing his shoulder for support, Eli continued. “I’m proud of you, but I’d be just as proud if you walked away.”
“I know. And Eli…um, thanks for believing in me.”
Putting both hands on the boy’s shoulders Eli squeezed, letting out a deep breath. “I do, son, two hundred percent.” In the short time that he and his mother had been in Eli’s life, he couldn’t believe how very attached he’d grown to both of them.
Attached? Hell, who was he kidding?
Attached was putting it mildly on any scale. He was head over heels in love with Honor, and he adored her son as if he was his own.
Last night and their early morning together only drove home that knowledge. He was shocked as all hell that he ended up sleeping beside her all night. It had definitely not been a premeditated plan when he went after a drink. He really had just been after some scotch. But lying next to her warm, sweet-smelling body all night had been a million times better than any liquor. Eli let out a short, hopefully quiet grunt as his jeans suddenly got uncomfortable. Thinking about it again was going to do nothing but leave him hurting and wanting more.
He released a long breath through his nose and tried to concentrate on the event at hand.
Upon James’s dismissal, Eli turned to Honor. “I’m going to run him up to James’s garage so he can get his bike.”
Honor nodded but didn’t speak. It was obvious she was nervous. Rightfully so, this was no different than an old-fashioned showdown from the wild west, or a drag race down a vacant strip of a back-road, like in the fifties. He let go of Dallas and ran his hand along her neck, drawing her near with his palm. The cascade of dark auburn curls gave him the privacy he needed to tuck his face next to hers and place a kiss by her ear before quietly reassuring her that Dallas would be all right. He lingered for a long minute, drawing on her strength as much as he tried to comfort her.