“Men where your from have shit for brains, sweetheart. How they didn’t know they had treasure right in front of them…” His voice drifts off, and when he speaks again, his tone is raspier. “Fucking fools. All of them.”
“I’m not everyone’s type. I’m too curvy and too boring and?—"
“Shh.” His nose grazes against mine, and somehow, that small gesture has me relaxing. My body sways closer to his. “I don’t want to hear you talk about yourself like that,” his voicerumbles against my lips, and I kiss him. Our lips dance for a moment before he pulls away and rests his forehead against mine.
Eli’s calloused hand holds the nape of my neck, and I look up at him. God, his eyes kill me. I see so much I’m afraid to believe what’s there. We just met. How can that much emotion even be possible?
“You feel this, don’t you?” he asks. “This connection.” I nod because I don’t think I can say anything, even if it’s a simple three-letter word. His eyes flare and warm up. “Okay.” He breathes in deeply, and I can tell stepping away from me is difficult for him. But he does. He puts space between us, and my eyes divert to the obvious bulge behind his jeans. He groans. My eyes move up, and I swear his lips twitch in the cutest little almost grin. “You can’t look at me like that, Stella.”
“Like what?”
“Like you want me to teach you everything about pleasure.” I open and shut my mouth. I didn’t know I had that look in me, but the idea doesn’t sound horrible.Does that make me a slut?
He runs his hand through his hair. “Okay,” he exhales roughly. “I am going to pick us up dinner and dessert. I will be right back.” He fishes his keys from his front pocket when something comes over me.
I close the small amount of space he put between us and reach to touch his forearm. I feel as the muscles contract and flex beneath my hand as our gazes connect.
“What if… What if I want you to teach me?” I manage to ask.
“Stel—"
“I feel…” My voice drifts off to nothing, but the way he’s looking at me only makes me feel warm.
All over.
From head to toe. And I know what this is. “I just…”
“Stella, right here and now, you want that, baby, I am going to tell you I’m here for it,” he lays out, leaving me a little speechless.
Does that mean he’s going to strip naked? Would I?
Right here in the living room?
He cracks a smile and kisses the top of my head. “To know what’s going on in your head right now,” he teases as he pulls me in close and strokes my hair. “There is no rush. We’re not rushing anything. I’m a grown-ass man and can control myself.”
“Eli—"
“That means, baby, as long as you know you belong to me, you can trust me to take care of you, I got you. Do you get me?”
“Umm…” I press my lips together and shake my head. Because there is now way he’s saying what I think, right?
“We just met, and I know I’m coming on strong. But I know,” he adds as if sensing I need further explanation.
“You know what?” I ask so quietly I wonder if he’s even able to hear me.
“That you’re mine,” he answers without hesitation. There is something in his voice, his tone that has a part of me believing him. Completely. And if his statement isn’t enough to rock my world, he keeps talking in that same tone. “Now, we can take this as slow or as fast as you want. I have no issues either way.”
“You say that, but?—"
“Babe, don’t mean to cut you off, but I see something in your eyes I don’t like, but I understand,” he says. I chew on my lower lip, my eyes locked on his as he explains, “This is fast. Real fast. But let me be clear here. You tell me you wanna wait till we get married to kiss you again, that’s fine with me. Anything, as long as you let me share space with you and we get to know one another.”
“Wait to kiss me until… that’s a little extreme.”
“Thank fuck you feel that way,”—he chuckles—“because you’re a really amazing kisser.” I soften and lean in a tad closer. “You taste sweet.”
“I do?” I ask on a whisper, and he nods, his eyes gentle and warm yet intense.
“I just want time for you to get to know me and to get to know you. I wanna do that for a lifetime.”
