Eli stills. He stares right into my soul. I have no frigging clue what he’s thinking and now I’m anxious at having shown all my cards.
But then his lips come to mine. He kisses me slowly, and I’m thinking that maybe he feels what I feel. At least a little bit.
He pulls back smiling and brushes strands of hair from my cheek.
“What…?” I ask quietly as he stares softly at my face.
“You’re just gorgeous…”
I lift a brow. “Even in my ratty sweatshirt and falling-apart ponytail?”
He lifts my chin. “All the fucking time, Firefly. All the fucking time.”
Our lips meet and we pour ourselves into the kiss. I’m not sure my body can handle all this happiness I’m feeling.
A little voice tears me back into reality. “Jessa?” Tiny footsteps approach from down the hallway.
At the sound of Callie’s voice, Eli and I jump apart.
The little girl emerges into the kitchen. We both turn to face her, tense at almost getting caught. But Callie doesn’t seem to notice that anything is amiss. Messy hair and bright smile, she addresses us. “Good morning,” she says in her little voice.
Eli greets his daughter with a guilty smile and sweeps her up into his arms. “Hey Cal. Did you sleep well?”
She excitedly begins rambling about the dream she had last night. It sounds like a mashup of some movies we watched on the Disney channel a few weeks ago.
The three of us sit at the table and dive into breakfast. Callie chatters nonstop while Eli sends me flirty glances and plays footsies with me under the table. I’m so giddy with them, so happy when it’s just the three of us. How could Gabby ever choose a life of yoga and tight spandex and lip fillers over this? Her loss. She’s a damn fool.
After breakfast, he gets some crayons and coloring books set up for his daughter in the living room. Then, he returns to help me clean up the kitchen. This entails him spanking my ass and playfully biting my neck every thirty seconds.
I’m loving the attention. Every second of it. I’m totally into the spanking. Lordie. I can’t count how many hours I’ve spent imagining being like this with him. Still, I scold him quietly. “Stop it! Callie could walk in on us.”
“You’re right,” he says earnestly. “Clearly, I’m not thinking straight.” And within thirty seconds, his hand is on my butt again. It’s like he can’t help himself.
“Eli!” I hiss through a laugh.
“Sorry.” He grins sheepishly. “I love your ass. What can I say?”
He loves my ass? Mine? Really?
Feeling aroused and desirable and a little breathless, I giggle. “Don’t you have anything better to do with your day?”
The man shakes his head unapologetically. “Not really. I’m miserably unemployed.”
My brow creases with worry when he says that but I hold my tongue.
He reads my face and I get a feeling he knows exactly what I’m thinking. “What?” he asks challengingly, his defences up.
“Maybe…Maybe you should reconsider Cannon’s offer, take a job at Kingston Realties,” I dare to say. “Or you could go help Walker on the farm.” I add quickly. “Or Mr. Kingston might need a hand with something at the guesthouse. Or Jude is doing physiotherapy and training sessions and he could always use a workout buddy.”
I’m being bossy, I know it. I’m sticking my nose where it doesn’t belong and I fully expect Eli to blow up at me. But he doesn’t get angry like I feared he would. Instead, he kisses me softly on the forehead. “Don’t worry about me. I’ve got other ideas to fill my day.”
He turns out of the room and I finish loading the dishwasher, Eli’s situation on my mind the whole time. He’s been out of jail for almost two months now. He must be going out of his mind with nothing to do all day. I just wish he’d swallow his pride and go back to work.
But about fifteen minutes later, he comes up from the basement, freshly showered and dressed casually in a plain white T-shirt and jeans. He’s settling a baseball cap backward on his head.
Be still, my flooded panties.
Grinning at my appreciative expression, he glances in Callie’s direction before surreptitiously stealing a taste of my lips.
“Where are you going?” I call out after him.
“See you at dinner time.” He grins slyly and instantly, I know something is up.
“Wait!” I yelp, feeling baffled and confused.
He doesn’t listen. Instead, he drops a kiss in his daughter’s hair and heads for the exit.
“Well, at least remember to pick up cookies on the way home,” I call out after the closing door.
42 Eli
You think you’ll manage to get a few nails into that ceiling any time soon? Or you just gonna stand at the top of that ladder grinning at the nail gun all day?”
I swing my attention to where Douglas Robson is on his own ladder beside me. I silently wonder if he’d be smirking so hard if he knew I spent the past week defiling his youngest daughter on every surface of her bedroom. Horizontal, vertical and diagonal. If he knew that I think she’s the most beautiful, troublesome, irresistible woman on the planet. If he knew that I’ve dragged her into my messy, complicated, fucked-up world and that I plan on keeping her there.
I’m supposed to be hard at work, helping him get one step closer to finishing these endless renovations, so he can open up shop. I’m securing sheetrock to the ceiling frame, while Mr. Robson holds it in place above his head. We’ve been at it so long, necks craned upward in the awkward as fuck position that I can’t even feel my arms.
Jessa’s gonna owe me a full-body massage tonight. Back, shoulders, cock, all of it.
Shit—there I go defiling the man’s daughter again.
I haven’t been able to get her off my mind. She consumes me. Even when she’s nowhere in sight, that pixie woman with the sweet, little ass and big, knowing eyes
