Page 43 of Elijah’s Whim

So I asked, “What else?”

“What do you mean what else? I’m going to have to go to my room and beat off so I can sit down comfortably at dinner tonight. Even that might not work, because I look at you and all I think are really, really filthy things that I want to do to your body. Things I’m almost positive you haven’t done before or even knew were possible.”

I swallowed the knot of anxiety that started gathering in my throat because there was no way I was going to let that old hag ruin this moment. No. Way.

“I meant, what is my other option?” I watched with rapt attention as Elijah thrust his hand into the waistband of his track pants and readjusted himself. There was an unmistakable erection pressing at the soft fabric, and it was alarmingly large.

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

“I want to kiss you. Freely, properly kiss you.”

“Yes.” I rushed out the word. “I want that too.”

“I want to lie with you while I kiss you.”

“Yes,” I said again, more eager than I could remember being about anything. But I should’ve insisted we slow down so I could memorize every single detail of the moment.

First times only happened once, my mom always told us. Savor the moment. Don’t let it rush by without enjoying the whole experience. I knew she was right. After twenty-six years of either hearing her preach the life lesson or hearing her apparition when she wasn’t there in truth, I knew I should’ve slowed down.

But I could not.

I held my open arms out in welcome, and Elijah came to me. My God, this man was beautiful. I really wondered if I was still dreaming, and if I were, I had no interest in waking up.

The mattress dipped toward my handsome housemate as he settled in beside me, and I naturally gathered a little momentum to roll toward him. His devilish smile was replaced by a different one I hadn’t seen before. Equally devastating, similarly breath-robbing, but much more genuine than the other versions he’d bestowed upon me thus far.

“You are painfully handsome, Mr. Banks.” I smiled and touched his smooth skin. “And you shaved. Normally you have a bit of growth here, but I like the smoothness too. I think you could have blue skin like that movie…shoot, what was that called?” I snapped my fingers a couple times, trying to conjure the title out of thin air. “They lived in trees or something?” Snap, snap.

“Avatar?” he asked with a chuckle.

“Yes!” I snapped my fingers and pointed at him. “That’s the one.”

Elijah grabbed my hand out of the air between us and brought it to his mouth. Everything else around me—around us—there on that bed fell away. The universe shrank down to a queen-size mattress in Malibu, California.

“Are you too tired to go to dinner?” he asked and sucked on my little finger while I watched. When I didn’t answer, he bit down into the pad on my fingertip. It felt good at first, but the pain grew to something I couldn’t handle, and I widened my eyes before starting to panic.

He let go seconds before I freaked out. My heart thundered in my chest, and Elijah slid his large hand up my neck until his fingers pressed in on my pulse point there.

“Do you feel that?” he asked, looking into my eyes. His hazel was so much more brown in this light.

“It’s hard not to,” I croaked. “It’s quaking my entire body.”

“You’re so responsive. It’s incredible.”

I just smiled—or tried to, anyway. He quirked a brow my way, and I expected as much. It was the exact behavior he had called me on numerous times before, and if it wasn’t such a habit, I wouldn’t have pulled it again now. Of all times! He and I still needed to have a long talk, and I wasn’t sure he was going to like what I had to tell him.

After I spilled my dirty dishwater into his pristine sink, I prayed he wouldn’t kick me out of his kitchen. Only time would tell. In the meantime, I did not want to destroy this moment with the bullshit from my past. It had already taken over so much of my life, and I refused to keep getting in my own way.

“Can I touch you?” I asked him, not knowing what he preferred.

“I want you to just enjoy me touching you right now. Fair?”

“Mmmm, I’m not su— Oohhh. Wow, that feels good.”

“Turn away from me, beauty. Lie on your side.”

“But I thought we were going to—”

His censuring look made me comply. I just didn’t know how we could kiss if I wasn’t facing him. And I really wanted to kiss him.