Page 39 of Grin and Bear It

“Yeah, there’s a new rom com out…” Her brow creased. “Or we could watch a superhero movie…” The crease got deeper. “Sci-fi? Thriller? What about a weird European movie with subtitles and lots of gratuitous nudity? Help me out here, Ellie. If movies aren’t your thing—”

“No, I like movies.”

Fuck, I’d never been so glad to hear a sentence even though I wasn’t even tied to the idea of going to the cinema.

“What kind of movies?” I prompted gently.

“Not sure about the gratuitous nudity bits, but…” She blinked rapidly again, took a deep breath and let it out, then nodded slowly. “So, the flowers are for me?” she asked, still with an uncertain tone in her voice.

“Um… yeah.”

She took them then with far more care than I’d anticipated, and hope flared bright. She cradled them in her arms with all the care a mother might give a child, and suddenly I was irrationally jealous of the bouquet.

“Thank you,” she said. “Come in. I’ll put them in some water.”

Fuck, I was off the front step at least. Maybe this would actually work.

When I stepped inside this time it wasn’t the house that caught my attention, it was her and her alone. As I followed her down the hall to the kitchen, I couldn’t take my eyes off her curves beneath the oversized jammies she had on, cute unicorns printed all over them. Ellie looked soft, sweet and ready to be mussed and I had to constrain myself from acting on my burning urge to do just that. Instead I made do with watching her move along the hall in front of me. When we got to the kitchen, she walked over to the sink and put the flowers down on the draining board, before turning to the cupboards above the kitchen bench. Opening the one nearest the sink, she held onto the cupboard door with one hand and went up on tiptoe, trying to grab a vase down from the highest shelf, her whole body straining to get it. My eyes traced the way her PJs cradled her rounded arse, then I stepped forward behind her.

“Let me.”

My body was almost pressed against hers as I reached up and grabbed the cut crystal container. Fuck, had I ever been this hard? As I breathed in, though, I found that her honey scent was slightly soured, as though she wasn’t feeling 100%, or she’d had a tough day or something. That reminded me of how she’d looked when she’d opened the front door, so I forced myself to take a half-step back. When she turned around to face me I handed the heavy vase down to her.

“Thank you,” she murmured, her eyes wide before she focused her gaze on the crystal as though the design was incredibly fascinating. She put the vase down on the sink beside the flowers, then she lifted her eyes back to mine and took a deep breath. “So… dating.” She breathed the words out.

I was so close to her. The dinky little kitchen that I’d dismissed as not good enough for my mate was now showing that it had at least one thing to recommend it. Where Ellie was standing, in the space where the bench was at right angle to the sink, she wouldn’t get by me without her body brushing against mine.

“I’m keen if you are,” I said, looking down at her.

Fuck, was I. It took every damn thing I had to stop myself from moving closer, from sinking my hand in her hair to tilt her head back. I imagined what her reaction would be if I held her in place like that: the way her lips would open for me. I thought about how I wouldn’t touch her at first. I’d wait until her eyes were dilated, till she was gasping, waiting for me to move and wondering if I would, before I—

“Um. I…” She let out a breath and dropped her gaze again.

Her hesitation was like a glass of ice cold water splashing in my face.Don’t lose your fucking head now, wanker, I urged myself as I watched her carefully. Her brow creased the cogs inside her head whirring almost audibly for a few moments. When she looked back up at me, she didn’t say anything immediately, just looked searchingly into my eyes. Then a tentative smile crossed her face.

“OK,” she said. “Why not?”

She wasn’t exactly on board with my plan, but anything that wasn’t a flat-out refusal gave me hope that she’d see the possibility of building something with me. I smiled back at her then leaned forward into her space, to rest my hands on the bench.

“So, what do you think? Feel like putting some clothes on and coming out with me tonight, Ms Jennings?”

I thought I was being so fucking smooth, but the minute I said those words, her head dropped forward and her eyes fell closed. She’s tired, I reminded myself. Exhausted from a long week wrangling a whole bunch of kids including my bloody nephews. As I looked closer, I could see the purplish skin under her eyes looked paper thin, as though it was ready to tear.

“Or we could stay here.”

Well, that was obviously a bad fucking suggestion, I realised, as her eyes flicked back open and she raised her head to glare at me, her lips twisting in a sour smile. She cocked out one hip and placed her hand on it while she drummed her fingers on the bench with the other with a strange kind of hostility.

“Lemme guess: Netflix and chill?”

That was code for hanging out at someone’s house and watching TV for the required time, then fucking, right? I had no problems with that, but it wasn’t what I had in mind for Ellie tonight.

“I was thinking more of making you some kind of pillow nest on that couch of yours and then burying you in it. The remote will be in your hand and you’ll watch whatever you want, while I prepare milady the finest popcorn, followed by the beverage of her choice. A little light head massaging, followed by a foot rub.” She blinked at this, then smiled at my words, despite herself. “While keeping my dick in my pants the entire time.” She snorted at that, then looked mildly embarrassed at her reaction.

I placed my hand over hers, needing to make sure she was aware of my sincerity.

“I absolutely want to take you out, go somewhere special with you. But right now you look a little fragile. So let me look after you. When you’re feeling up to doing something more adventurous, then we’ll go out.”

“Oh… OK?”

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