Page 51 of Life

Eli must understand I need some time because he doesn’t push, doesn’t ask to talk about what just happened, and more importantly, doesn’t joke about it. My emotions and feelings are as raw as an exposed nerve ending. One touch will bring me to my knees in total and complete self-deprecation.

“You thirsty?” Eli eventually asks against my hairline.

I nod, preferring the silence.

“Let me clean you up and get us something to eat and drink. Yeah?”

Again I nod. I’d pretty much agree to anything right now.

He lifts me up off his body and gently places me back on the bed. He pulls the sheet over me and I snuggle into it. Right now, I don’t know what to think or how to feel. I just had sex with my dead boyfriend’s brother, and it was the best sexual experience of my life. I’ve never been that open and free. Eli encourages the sexual demon in me to come out and play. It’s definitely a side I suspected was there, and I’m curiously interested to experience again.

Eli comes back into the room naked, unashamed of his body—not that he should be. He pulls the sheet back and wipes the mess between my thighs. “Don’t want you to have to sleep in the wet spot. I hear girls hate that.” He winks.

“I wouldn’t know,” I mumble.

He tosses the cloth into the hamper near the closet and turns around with his hands on his hips. “Surely a sexual creature like you has experienced a little blowout in the bedroom.” He smirks.

I yawn and shake my head. “No. This was my first time without a condom.”

Eli frowns and rubs at his scruffy chin. The sound alone reminds me of how good that scruff feels against the tender skin of my inner thigh. My clit throbs and tingles as if it also remembers. I cross my legs, staving off the ridiculous desire that spears into my groin. Jesus, the man had me repeatedly, and I’m already thinking about more.

Apparently, I’m not the only one with those thoughts, because right before my eyes, Eli’s sated cock swells and hardens, the bulbous crown stretching into full size.

“You mean to tell me I’m the only man who has taken you bare?” His voice is low, a sexy rumble that speaks of more intense rounds of mind-numbing sex, and soon.

I nod and watch as he licks his lips.

“Antonio?” he asks softly.

I groan and push a hand through the tangles in my knotted hair. “Was obsessed with not getting me pregnant. He didn’t want to ruin his career by having a child to watch over. Plus, he liked to say he was protecting his cock from whatever man I was fucking when he wasn’t around. As if he was ever not around.”

Eli paces from one side of the bed around to the other. He interlaces his fingers behind his neck. His cock bobbing with every step is amusing, so I watch while he wraps his head around this new information.

“Thomas?”

I sit up and tuck the sheet under my arms so it stays in place. “No. I insisted with him.”

He furrows his brow. “Why? You were with him for nine months. That’s a long time to earn someone’s trust.”

My hair falls into my face and I play with my fingers in my lap. “I don’t know. It’s a very personal thing.”

He stops at the edge of the bed. “And yet, you let me take you bare.”

I glance away, not wanting him to dig into my soul. “Can you let it go?”

He prowls along the bed until I lean back flat on my back with him hovering over me. He tugs the sheet in a flourish until I’m exposed to him in all my naked glory. He locks a knee on either side of my hips and plants one hand by my head, the other he uses to caress my face.

“This changes everything.” His words are a benediction.

I giggle and bite at his finger tracing my lips, wanting to play it off as no big deal. “It changes nothing.” I smile and bat my eyelashes.

“Oh, I beg to differ. You trusting me like that, giving me your body completely, in a way no man has ever had. Babe, I’m honored.”

Just when I think he’s going to hunt and peck at me until I spill out all my secrets, he surprises me by taking the fun and flirty route.

“And now I’m going to show you just how much.”

“By taking me again?” I lift one brow into a questioning point.

---