He tickled the tip of his nose against hers. A move that was so gentle and silly, it seemed out of place after the intensity of what they’d done and totally normal. It wasn’t the Eli everyone else got. This was the Eli who was only for her.
“Is what you’re about to say gonna piss me off?” he asked.
Well… “Maybe.”
“Then don’t say it.” He kissed her again, withdrew, dealt with the condom, and then settled next to her. He rolled her to him, fitting her body against his like it was made only for that purpose.
She didn’t say it.
Perhaps going all Scarlett O’Hara on the situation made the most sense. Gone with the Windand “Tomorrow is another day.” That worked out okay for Scarlett. Mostly. Okay, it hadn’t really worked out at all for her.
Maybe it’d be different for Marlee.
Chapter Twenty
Eli had never been good with words. They’d always eluded him when he needed them most, so last night with Marlee, he’d used every other part of him to show her how he felt. Every sensation he could use to bring out the feelings in her that she did in him. How he was feeling about her. The way she was shifting his perception of the life he thought he wanted and bringing in sunshine when he didn’t even realize he’d been in the dark.
And it scared the shit out of him.
He needed to get to work early for the big gala. That’s why he was going to slip out of bed early that morning to head to his kitchen. The only reason why.
With that plan in mind, he wasn’t entirely sure why he kissed Marlee good morning.
Okay, so he kissed her good morning because she was Marlee and she was in his bed and they’d had sex that spoke volumes.
Marlee’s eyes fluttered open. He recognized the moment the fog of sleep drifted away and she knew he was him, and she was her, and it wasn’t a dream.
And she smiled. She fuckin’ smiled.
“My turn,” she said, voice husky from sleep.
Eli needed to get to work. He had a boatload of food to prepare for the day. He was going to be on a graveyard staff and needed to figure out the logistics of what that meant for the evening.
Marlee rolled him onto his back, her palms pressed against his pecs.
He let her.
He had work to do, sure. He was also many things—an idiot not included. Marlee pressed her lips along the column of his neck, down to his collarbone.
His blood heated, nerves fired, throat went dry. She licked his nipple.
The breath he inhaled was filled with Marlee’s scent.
She reached below the sheet, wrapping her palm around the length of him.
Annnndhe was about yay-far from blowing his load before they’d even truly started. What he needed to do was get his head in the game. Regain control. Be the one handing out orgasms that morning.
Marlee had other ideas.
And if he were being totally honest? They turned out to be exceptional.
* * *
“I found you helpers,”Marlee singsonged, sauntering through the door of the kitchen at the event center where Eli was presently sweating his ass off trying to pull together an impossible evening. Five more of his servers had called in sick.
The kitchen staff was on a skeleton crew and the waitstaff was pretty much Marlee and his head server—who swore she got her flu shot early. Eli needed to pull off a miracle.
He glanced up from plating what felt like his two-hundredth plate of surf ’n’ turf in about thirty minutes.
