Page 102 of Dare To Fall

“There are measuring cups we can get. We can write on them what each measurement is … in words.”

I move to stand behind her and rest my hand over hers as she scoops some of the pancake batter up. She glances at me but doesn’t stop me when I rest my other hand on her hip.

“Now we watch for the edges to dry and bubbles to form. In two or three minutes, we’ll flip it.”

I dip my head and press a kiss against her ear. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“I don’t know. Doing this?” I kiss my way down her throat to her shoulder.

She leans back against me briefly, then pulls away. “Stop that.” She swats my hand, which is creeping up over her waist, with the back of a spoon. “You’re not forgiven yet.”

“It’s not been forty-eight hours yet?” I bury my face in her hair.

“No. Flip the pancake.”

I lean past her to take hold of the frying pan and toss the pancake, then return my attention to kissing her throat.

“Don’t make me punish you, Eli Travers.”

“Hmmm. What kind of punishment are we talking about here?”

She huffs a laugh. “I’ll eat all the pancakes and you can have cereal again … Wait.” She twists to face me. “Is that why you’ve been eating cereal for the past two days?”

I wave a hand toward the microwave. “It’s got an analog dial. I can’t figure it out.”

“Why didn’t you say something?”

I smile, brushing hair away from her face. “You weren’t talking to me, remember?” I loop my arms around her waist. “Look at it this way. If I don’t behave, you can just starve me for the rest of the week.”

Chapter 68

Arabella

We’re back to the playful version of Eli I got to know at Christmas.

Is it a deflection because of what he’s just told me? Admitting to a vulnerability I had no idea he had.

I thought I knew him, and now I’m discovering I don’t. He has layers I hadn’t known were there before. Not just the scary side, but the weaknesses he’s kept hidden. Every day he’s surrounded by numbers, struggling with a disability no one knows he has.

“You shouldn’t give me ideas like that. I might just starve you.” I smile, winding my arms around his neck. “Kiss me.”

Eli doesn’t hesitate to dip his head and press his lips to mine at my command. It’s soft and sweet, not what I’m used to when we’re together. The second I make a small noise of protest in my throat, the nature of the kiss shifts to something darker. It becomes sharper, desperate, and thinly controlled. My tongue plays with his, tasting the heat in his mouth, our teeth clashing. He kisses me like he knows how much I crave it. A drug I’ve been hooked on since the first time his lips found mine months ago. He moves forward an inch, welding the line of our bodies together so I can feel the hardness of his cock swelling in the front of his sweatpants.

We break apart, breathing hard, neither of us saying a word.

I drown in his eyes as he stares down at me, and I don’t know what to say. This isn’t how I planned the day to go. I’m still angry with him, but at the same time, things are shifting.

Tongue darting out, he flicks his lip piercing. “Pancake.”

“Pancake?” I echo dazedly.

The corners of his mouth curve up in a smile. “Ari, the—”

My eyes widen. “Oh! The pancake!”

I twist in his arms to rescue the pan and tip the pancake onto one of the plates. I’m relieved to see it’s not burnt.

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