“Like I’m breaking your heart.”
I dip my mouth low to meet his, our lips brushing in a way that lights up my entire body. Every nerve sings, every molecule of my being calls out to him.
And he breathes harshly against me, telling me that he feels this too.
“You’re not,” I tell him, and it’s only a half lie. “You’re still here.” With both hands now cupping his jaw, I walk him backward until his back is pressed to the edge of the counter. “Be honest with me, Eli. Did you feel it?”
“Feel what?” he whispers. He knows.
“At your apartment. Did you feel it? How your body remembers mine? How you belong to me? You said you did—but I need to hear it now. I need to hear it when you’re not drunk on pleasure.”
“I…” He doesn’t continue. As if he doesn’t know what to say, or he’s too scared to admit it.
“Tell me, and I’ll agree. Tell me honestly, and we can pretend until you decide what you truly believe.”
Elijah whimpers softly, as if I’m pulling something from him that hurts. I’m a cruel and evil man, and he’s suffering right alongside me.
“I did.” He’s crying again. It’s a soft, quiet sound, but my fingers are growing damp with the falling tears. “Every time you touch me, it feels like I’ve returned home after being away for far too long. It scares me.”
“I’ll protect you, angel. I’d do anything for you. You have no reason to fear me, or this,” I proclaim.
A flash of frustration, of irritation, passes over Elijah’s features. But then they settle back into the pained pleasure they were caught in before.
“Okay,” he breathes. “Okay, Rowan. Just… keep touching me. When you’re touching me—that’s the only time any of this makes sense.”
My hands slide to the back of his neck, where they press heavily on the bandage there. He groans, head tilting back against the pain.
“It’d be an honor,” I say.
I touch him for a long time. So long, in fact, that we don’t resurface into the world around us until the following morning, and Elijah is tearstained and completely exhausted.
Personally, I feel revitalized. As if I’ve drunk several energy drinks, hit the gym, and meditated. But I also haven’t gone to the grocery store in days, and we’re both now starving.
“Let’s go to Tabitha’s Place. I think I’d commit a crime to eat their pancakes right now,” Elijah demands as I wash his hair.His back stays under the stream of hot water, and I’m heavily enjoying the vision of him naked in my shower.
“Absolutely not.” I tilt his head back to rinse the suds away, and his eyes close on instinct. A frown settles over his full lips, and I can’t resist the urge to lean down and kiss them, even as all I can taste is shampoo.
“Why not?” he asks.
“Seriously? Because their top waiter tried to fuck you after making me sound like a fucking creep.” My tone is snappy and forced, but Elijah just chuckles softly.
“Ah, leave him be. He’s just a small-town guy trying to win a war he wasn’t aware was rigged the whole time.”
Now it’s my turn to frown as I ring out the excess water from his curls and his eyes find mine again.
“So it doesn’t bother you at all that he bad-mouthed me? You’re ready to be friends with him again?”I ask.
Elijah stares at me for a moment before grinning widely.
“It does bother me, and if I hear it again, he’ll be hearing from me, I promise you that. I have no intention ofbeing friendswith him. Cordial? Yes. But, Rowan.” He leans into me, one hand snaking around my body to rest on my lower back. “Are youjealous?”
“Yes?” I ask, my tone letting him know I think the question is ridiculous. “You just went on adatewith him!”
Elijah grimaces.“It was a shitty date, there toward the end. Remind me to get rid of Felix.”
“Felix?”
“The stuffed bunny that Bennett won me.”
