I groaned and rolled over, turning my back to him to hide my face. “It’s three-thirty in the morning.”
“Aye, but if ye don’t drink water, you’ll wake up with a rough hangover.”
My voice came out emotional, and I hated the weak sound. “Could you go sleep on the couch tonight? I really don’t want you to see me like this.”
Eli chuckled, though I couldn’t tell you why. “Ye think I’ve never been shitfaced after a rough day? I’ll see ye as ye are, and thank my lucky stars for the privilege. Turn over, honey. Your old Eli’s come home after a long night, and I want to be kissed.”
“You don’t want to kiss me. I’m unemployed.”
“Boy, do ye know what blokes want in a lady. I was only after ye for your job. Now where’s the attraction? Guess I’ll have to satisfy my hunger with this.”
Out of nowhere, Eli wound up and slapped my butt, making me jump and shriek. “Eli!” I gasped, scandalized.
“Water,” he reminded me, shoving a glass near my face. “I’ve been known to sing louder than a cock’s crow whenever someone has a hangover. I just can’t help myself.”
I sat up with great reluctance, and noticed that I was still wearing my V-neck t-shirt and short skirt. “Ugh. I never drink more than half a beer, at most. I don’t know what got into me.”
“It’s tha boss of yours. Good riddance.”
“Yes, good riddance to a steady paycheck. I don’t know what came over me. I love my job.”
“He was taking advantage of ye.”
I nodded. “I know. It still feels crummy, though.”
It was then I noticed that Eli was staring at my legs. I’d fallen asleep atop the covers, and my skirt was a little indecent. I made to pull it down to cover the bulk of my thick thighs, but Eli stopped me with his hand on mine. “Tha skirt… I mostly see ye in your normal clothes.”
I took a drink of the water he offered me. “Yes, well, don’t get used to it. I won’t be wearing it again. Were you aware that I’m ‘the fat one’?”
Eli’s eyes darkened with deep displeasure. “Did ye dress up for tha sodden lad?”
“No. I dressed up for myself, and for Caty because she made me, and a little for you,” I admitted.
Eli’s hand brushed the naked skin of my knee, a lust burning in him that was almost palpable. “If ye weren’t so buried by your liquor, I’d have this skirt worked clean off you, in a pile on the floor. Tha’s how much I love it.” Eli leaned forward and kissed my lips. “Tha lad got an education today. He’ll be seeing the world through one eye for a while. Hopefully when his left one starts working again, he’ll be able to see what’s obvious to any man with a pulse.”
My intake of breath couldn’t be helped. “I don’t like you fighting.”
“I don’t like my lady insulted. Your body’s exactly right. I want my woman to look and feel like a woman should. I’m a sturdy man, Violet. Do ye think I’d want a twig of a woman?” His hand slid under my thigh and climbed north, squeezing and pinching roughly to drive us both crazy. “Say the word, Mouse. Say the word and I’ll have ye every which way ye can bend.” He tipped the cup to my lips again.
I swallowed, unsure how I landed a great guy like Eli. “I love you. I don’t deserve someone as wonderful as you are to me.”
He laid me back down on my pillow and caressed my belly, stroking the soft flesh under the hem of my shirt with too many emotions on his face. “I love ye, Mrs. O’Sullivan.”
It was the perfect thing to say, and made my whole body fill with elation. He loved me enough to give me his name in our fake married life together. “Then show me, Mr. O’Sullivan.”
He unzipped my skirt with one rough tug, making me jump. He tore it off my hips, and then moved to my feet to bite my insteps. It was when I felt his lips on my knee that I tugged his pillow over my face and moaned into it. Whole sonnets and plays could be written in tribute to Eli’s luscious lips, but they would all come out in a gluttonous moan. When he parted my knees and began kissing a line up the inside of my thighs – alternating from one to the other, and back again – I thought my body might light itself on fire. My hips began rocking on their own, and I couldn’t control the unladylike noises that were only partway muffled by his pillow.
His fingers looped in the band of my underwear, teasing – always teasing. I was his plaything, and he loved to toy with me. “I love watching your body move and twist for me. Oh, the fun I’m going to have with ye when you’re sober.” He kissed my sensitive inner thigh again, and I couldn’t help but open my legs further, my body oh-so-hungry for him. In response, Eli bit down hard on the tender flesh.
“Ow! You bit me!” I wasn’t drunk anymore, but I was still feeling a little buzzed and out of it. “That was mean, Papi.”
Eli buried his nose in my thigh, relishing the feel of my skin, and the heat he always brought out in me. “Say it again. I love your Spanish.”
I couldn’t help the coy note in my voice when I practically purred for him. “You’re playing with fire, vato.”
Eli moved an inch up my leg, paused, and then shot backwards out of the bed, his hands raised and his eyes wide. “Ye can’t use your Spanish if you’ve been drinking. It’s too tempting, Mouse, and I’m wanting ye too much right now. I can’t take ye unless you’re sober.”
I debated reaching up and grabbing his collar, then listing off pizza toppings in Spanish just so I could have my way with him. “Get some pajamas on, and come to bed before some other handsome Irishman offers me water and sucks on my thighs.”
“I’m your only Irishman,” he declared. “Finish tha water, or I’ll be biting harder next time.”
When Eli left, I stumbled around my room and managed to assemble pajamas for myself. With the soft tank top and light shorts, I felt more myself, and less like the fat girl on a bar stool who was trying (unsuccessfully) to be popular. Eli came back in when I had my shorts mostly pulled up. His hands moved over mine to slide them up the rest of the way and graze my hips. It was the most natural thing in the world – bedtime with Eli. He yanked the covers down and carefully laid me in the bed, brushing the side of my sleepy face with his knuckles. When I held up my arms in invitation, he didn’t waste a moment. He slid into the bed next to me, tipping me onto my side so my body could curl around him. “Buenos noches, Papi,” I whispered sleepily, rubbing a line across his belly and tangling my fingers in the short hairs under his navel.
Eli made me jump when he smacked my butt hard. “Ye can’t say tha to me, tease me with your fingers, and expect me not to take ye right now.”
I nuzzled my nose to his cheek. “Thanks for wanting me. It’s been a long day, and it feels good having you in my bed. Never leave my bed.”
Eli kissed my lips, murmuring something I didn’t hear as I drifted off to sleep in his arms.
31
More of You, Not Less
When my alarm rang, I was less than enthused to leave my bed. I was half-tempted to just not go in to work, but I knew my mother would be disappointed in me if I bailed on my patients, who’d done nothing wrong. I did my best not to rouse Eli as I tiptoed around my bedroom, grateful I didn’t seem to have a hangover. His eyes were closed, and his breathing still even, so I took a chance and got dressed for the day in the bedroom, feeling scandalous, even though his eyes were shut.
“Come back to bed,” he whined, rolling over on his side to face me. His eyes, that had been sleeping mere seconds ago, were now wide at my form. I was just missing my shirt, but it was enough of a tease to set us both purring for each other. “What a sight ye are, Mouse. Always let me wake up to tha.”
“Play your cards right, and I’ll let you watch me put on my oh-so-sexy scrubs shirt.” I cast him a humble smile. “I’m sorry. I thought you were sleeping.”
“I was, until ye left me alone in this bed. And don’t ever apologize for showing me yourself. Tha’s all I want – just more of ye to stare at.”
I smiled with my chin tilted downward at th
e compliment. “You look good in my sheets.”
“Aye. Though we should talk about getting a bigger mattress. I don’t fancy my feet hanging off the edge.”
“That’s fine. We can talk about that.” I frowned, looking down at my scrubs after I pulled my work shirt over my head. “I’m only working eight hours today. Fourteen days of employment left before I officially have a mental breakdown. Fair warning.”
He sat up, tugged on my arm and pulled me closer, so I was standing between his knees. “Today’s a new day, yeah? Yesterday was a bust, but today I’ve got a surprise for ye. I was going to tell ye last night, but ye were two sheets to the wind.”
“Sorry about that. I really don’t drink like that very often.”
“I know. Ye forget, I live here. I know who ye are.” Our gazes met with a sudden seriousness, a promise of something tender and permanent blazing between us. Eli was starting to know me, and even more incredibly, I was beginning to understand him.
“What’s my surprise?” I asked, slowly twisting my hips from side to side in a slow dance. “I’ve got to warn you; if it’s not covered in chocolate and shaped like a wombat, I might return it for something that is.”
“My surprise is better than chocolate. It’s me. My boss is finally taking me off nightclub duty. I’ll be on the daytime shift starting later this month. Personal security around his house.” He lifted the hem of my shirt to kiss my stomach, making me melt. This time when he spoke, his words vibrated against my belly, sending shivers through all four of my limbs. “See, as much fun as it’s been waking ye in the wee hours of the morning, I’m wondering if it’ll be even better when we’re on the same schedule. Maybe I can take ye out for an actual date to somewhere other than Mr. Li’s.”
I cupped his chin and tilted his head up, so I could stare at his face. He wore a smile that told me he knew he’d hit the nail on the head. There was nothing I wanted from him, except for more of everything he was to me. “Did you do that for me?”
“Aye. Of course I did. Plus, I can only handle clubbers for so long. They’re loud, and I’m old. I start getting cross, and then before ye know it, I’m punching lads who insult my lady.”
I grimaced. “Was your boss mad about that?”
“Nah. Antonio knows me well enough to understand I’ll last only so long breaking up fights at the club. The night shift was temporary to begin with, just until the cocaine problem was handled. I was always supposed to be on his personal security detail. It’s what I did before we moved here.”
I sank down to sit on his knee, wrapping my arms around his neck, so I could kiss his stubble. “Eli, thank you. That’s above and beyond.”
“I told ye: I only want more of ye, not less. Now kiss me, and go off to work before I take a bite out of your perfect arse. I was going to run the vacuum today. Anything else ye need done around here while you’re at work?”
I looked over my shoulder to see if I was being pranked. When I turned my head back to him, I was astonished that a man so good looking could also be considerate – that a man so unattainable could actually be mine. I didn’t question it, but thanked my lucky Irish stars that somehow I’d landed myself with the best roommate a girl could ask for.
Thirty-Six.
Antonio, and Number 42
I drove up with Caty and Brady at five-thirty in the evening, staring up at the gated community with the same nervous feeling I’d had when I’d been a kid, and my mother had been hired to clean for a few of the families there. I reminded myself that I wasn’t here to clean anyone’s house, and that I’d been invited into the fold as a guest, not a worker. The mid-thirties guard at the tiny hut had eyes like slits that seemed well-suited for scrutinizing threats. He checked my name off on his clipboard and took my license and plate info down. “Eli’s girl, eh? I’ve got to admit, the way he talks about you, I half-expected you to be a runway model with superhero abilities.”
“Who says she’s not?” Caty chimed in from the backseat.
“Nick,” he introduced himself, leaning his muscular forearms on the window’s ledge of his booth. “I’ve known Eli for like, five years. Good guy. Never seen him happy before, but since you?” His tight lips curved up in a smirk. “Caught him whistling the other day.”
I couldn’t help the bashful smile that swept across my face. “It’s nice to meet you, Nick.”
“Word of advice? Ignore Antonio. He’s a bit much when he’s allowed to socialize with new people. He’s been teasing Eli about you for weeks.”
I quirked my eyebrow at the warning. “Duly noted. Thanks, chief.”
Nick handed me my ID and unlocked the gate, letting us through.
“Holy rich people, Batman,” Caty breathed when I pulled my red sedan up to what could only be described as a mansion. There were rounded topiaries, a lawn so perfectly manicured, it looked like green carpet, and a legit fountain. “We’re not in Kansas anymore, I guess. Eli didn’t tell you which bucket list item we were crossing off here tonight?”
“Not even a hint.”
Eli trotted out with a smile, dressed in his black suit that made my mouth water. The material hugged his perfect backside, making it hard not to ogle. It had been three days since he’d traded in the jeans and t-shirts he’d worn to the nightclub for suits, so he could escort the head honcho around to all of his important meetings and such.
“Aren’t ye a sight for sore eyes.” Eli opened my door for me and planted a kiss on my lips, lifting me up a few inches in his elation that I’d come to visit him at work.
“Papi, you’re doing that suit all kinds of favors.”
He chuckled at me and set me back down. “I’m so glad you’re here. Do ye want to meet my boss?”
I grinned up at him, elated that he treated me as if I belonged on his burly arm. “Of course. I feel like I’m not really dressed for this place, though. Are you sure he wants to meet us?”
“Antonio’s not a prig. Sure, he’s my boss, but we’re old friends. I wouldn’t have moved for my job if I’d been working for anyone else. Come on.”
My eyes widened that I wasn’t just meeting Eli’s boss, but also his friend. I tried to stand straighter, smoothing my hair and donning my most chipper and polite language. A sixty-something-year-old butler in a suit met us at the door, bowing slightly and taking our jackets.
Caty eyed me, and Brady straightened his flannel shirt, no doubt feeling underdressed, as I did. I linked my fingers through Eli’s, holding on tight as my sneakers padded on the polished wood floor. I jumped when Eli’s voice boomed out. “Antonio! Get your phone out of your ear, and bring your hairy arse downstairs. My girlfriend’s here.”
I panicked, shooting him a look that told him to tone it down. “You’re going to get in trouble if you talk like that to your boss, Eli.”
A late thirtysomething man dressed in a light brown pressed linen suit with copper skin descended the stairs at a leisurely pace, texting without looking where he was going. He carried his weight to the left, nursing a slight limp. I guessed he’d sustained an injury to his right hip. With each step, I saw further into the diagnoses. The man had limited mobility in his knee, as well, most likely from a meniscal tear not healing correctly. His patella was unstable, making me wish he walked with a cane, so the scarring that had clearly not been dealt with wouldn’t threaten his gait so dramatically. When he paused, he shifted his weight, and I could more clearly tell that it was a years-old injury his body had adapted to over time. He typed into his phone furiously while Eli tapped his shoe with obvious impatience. “I can’t deal with your head always buried in tha phone. Ye carry it around like it’s your blankie.”
“Shut up,” Antonio said as he hit the last button and pocketed his phone with a sigh of relief. “The break-in this morning has everyone on edge, so they need Daddy to calm them down.”
“Break-in?” I inquired quietly to Eli.
“Aye. Someone broke into the club this morning. Raided the register. Looks like someone who knows
the joint, too, since they were able to avoid the security cameras.”
My arms flew around him. “Are you okay?”
I could hear Eli’s smile in his reply as he rubbed my back, his arms slung low around my waist. “I’m grand. I was in bed with ye when it happened – exactly where I was supposed to be. No one was hurt.”
Antonio looked up at us and blinked, donning a dazzling grin when he realized there were people in the room he didn’t know. “And who’s this gorgeous woman?” He locked his eyes on mine, and then ran with his janky gait down the rest of the steps like he was in a romance movie, meeting his love at the airport before she left with another man. “Whoever you are, marry me. I’ve never seen anyone more breathtaking.”
I gaped at the tall, leonine stranger, my mouth falling open when I double checked that he was fawning over me, and not Caty. That never happened. Caty laughed and covered her mouth, bouncing on the balls of her feet at the dramatic display. “I think you’re getting me confused with someone else.”
Antonio’s brown eyes were smoldering with intent as he slid down onto one knee before me. He had sharp, high cheekbones, a wide smile and full lips, with a devilish glint of unending playfulness in his eyes. “After seeing you? There is no one else.”
Eli rolled his eyes and shoved his friend’s shoulder. “Get up, wanker. This is why ye need bodyguards, to keep lads from bashing your face in when ye pull tha on their girlfriends.”
Antonio winced as he stood, putting too much pressure on his bad leg. He recovered, and playfully shoved Eli back until the two started a mild wrestling game. “I’ll fight you for her!” he roared, pretending to be a crazed lover. “Violet, throw this Irish ruffian down and marry me!”
I balked, totally confused. “What?!”
Caty laughed, and Brady placed a fake bet on Eli, but I watched their dynamic with rapt fascination. When Eli lightly kicked at Antonio’s leg, I spoke up. “Careful! Eli, his hip’s bad, and his knee. One wrong kick, and his knee will fall out of socket. It healed incorrectly from a surgery, so you have to go gentle.”
Violet’s Bucket List Page 21