“Okay, Brown Eyes. What did you want to say earlier?”
Any thought in my head vanished at the way he was looking at me. His blue eyes were so warm and intent, as though he would happily listen to anything I had to say, no matter how inane.
After I stared at him in silence for a few moments, he asked, “Grier?”
I licked my lips, trying to figure out where to start. His gaze dropped briefly to my mouth, then returned to my eyes. “Talk to me.”
“I’m not sure where to start,” I admitted.
“Start wherever you want. I’ll try to keep up.”
“What do you see happening between us?”
A quizzical expression flashed across his face. “Okay, I know I said I’d keep up, and this is your first question, but I’m confused.”
I laughed. “I didn’t word it correctly.” I smoothed a hand down the front of his shirt without thinking, and he laid his fingers over the back of it, holding it to his chest. “When you think about us, what do you imagine? Do we go back to what we were doing? Or do we try something different?”
His eyes heated at my words, but he didn’t say anything suggestive. Instead, his words made my heart drop. “I liked what we were doing before.”
I tried to school my face, but I must have given myself away regardless.
“But that wasn’t fair to you.” He pressed my palm deeper against his chest, and I could feel the steady thump of his heart. “I’m not ashamed of you, Grier. I’m selfish. I like having you to myself. But you deserve more than hanging out at your apartment all the time. I’d still like to do that a lot, but I also want to take you out. Go places with you. See the world with you. Spend time with your friends. I…” He paused, his eyes searching mine. “I know you don’t have any relatives left, but I’d like to become your family.”
God, everything he described was exactly what I wanted. I yearned to dive into those plans headfirst, but I was still hesitant. Elijah lifted my hand from his chest to his mouth, pressing a kiss to my palm before putting it to his cheek.
“I know that I screwed up, Grier. I know that it will take time for you to see that I’m serious, because the only way I can earn back your trust is by showing you every day with my actions. Can we start there?”
I nodded. “Yes, we can start there.”
His shoulders relaxed. I hadn’t noticed the tension in his muscles until he released it. Watching them loosen, I realized that my answer mattered to him a great deal.
I slipped my hand from his cheek to the back of his neck and pulled his face to mine. I kissed him softly, gently. Before it could get out of hand, I pulled back. This restaurant wasn’t the place for a make-out session.
“Thank you, Grier.”
“For what?”
“For giving me another chance when I probably don’t deserve it.”
“Please don’t hurt me again, Eli. Not like that.”
“I can’t promise I won’t be stupid from time to time, but I will never hurt you like that again.”
Natalie arrived with our appetizer. I wasn’t hungry any longer, but I also wasn’t ready to end the night.
It took another glass of red wine and a delicious meal for me to settle. We talked like we had before. The conversation was easy, and we were both laughing by the end of the dinner. Especially when I jokingly poked at his hand with my fork when he tried to sneak a bite of my dessert.
We lingered over cups of coffee until I realized how late it had gotten. We’d been there for nearly three hours.
“I need to get home,” I said, not bothering to hide my disappointment.
Elijah insisted on paying for dinner, refusing to even let me leave the tip, and guided me outside. He held my hand as we walked back to where our cars were parked, his a few spaces down from mine.
An invitation to come back to my apartment hovered on the tip of my tongue. But I hesitated. I’d missed him over the past weeks. Not just the sex but having him in the bed with me at night. Drinking coffee with him in the morning. I wanted that back, but I wasn’t sure if jumping right back into those habits would be the right move.
We stopped next to my car door and Elijah cupped my jaw in both hands, tilting my head back. I rose up on my toes as his head lowered, and our lips met. The kiss was gentle, almost chaste, but the tenderness behind it made my chest tight. I could feel his intentions behind it. His emotions.
By the time he released my lips, I was more than ready to ask him to follow me home, but he didn’t give me a chance to say anything.
