All I Need Is You (25 page)

He’d once been considered a domestic terrorist by the FBI. If she could handle hearing that, what in the world was he worried about?

ELI SWALLOWED, FEELING like a total ass for lying to her. He needed to turn the conversation to something else. Anything else. “Are we ever going to make it to a real bed, I wonder?”

She shrugged, but there was a shadow of hurt in her eyes. “I didn’t mind. Although I’m sure I won’t mind in a bed either.”

“You have something of a dirty mind, angel. I would have never guessed.”

She laughed softly, and the crease in her forehead and the tension lines around her eyes eased a bit. “I’m full of surprises, lately.”

He extended a hand and pulled her to her feet. They gathered up their discarded clothing, and he set the alarm for the night before they walked down the hall and into the guest room. He waited until she switched on the bedside lamp.
 

“I’m not sleepy.” Kay’s eyes fixed on his nude body and he instantly got hard.

Eli leaned down to kiss the flush in her cheeks. It touched him that she was still so bashful about his response to her. “Neither of us will be sleeping for a while yet.”

He walked closer. Kay met him halfway and when their skin met, she gasped.
 

“Just let me take care of you, angel. Lie down on the bed.”
 

She scrambled to obey him. A bottle of lotion on her nightstand gave him an idea. “Turn over. I’m going to give you a massage.”

She rolled to her stomach, resting her head on her bent arms. He reached over and grabbed the bottle of lotion and pumped a small amount in his hands. Starting with her back, he smoothed the lotion on in broad strokes. She let out a little sigh and her eyes fluttered closed.

“That feels wonderful.”

He took his time massaging the dips and curves of her shape. The lotion he’d smoothed on eased the way as he trailed his fingers over the muscles of her back, in the indentation of her spine, and then down, down, down to the enticing curve where her lower back flared out to her hips.

He took his time, tracing gently over the sensitive skin on the sides of her rib cage and on her bottom, then—

Kaylee reared forward, turning to look at him over her shoulder. “Eli, you accidentally… I mean you almost touched…”
 

He stared at her, not speaking, then brushed his thumb between the cheeks of her ass in a deliberately slow, dragging caress. Her breath left her lungs in a sudden whoosh.
“Oh my.”
She collapsed down on her arms, her head hanging loose on her neck.
 

Eli leaned over her, the skin of her back warm against his chest. “You have no idea what you look like. You’re so beautiful, baby, lying there so trusting while I touch you. Every bit of you is open and ready. You’d let me do anything to you, wouldn’t you?”

He grasped her head gently, turning her so he could look into her eyes. “But you’re not ready for that. Not yet.”

She whimpered at his words, her eyes telling him the truth. Their mouths met in a soft brush of lips. Then he threaded his fingers through her hair, holding her still as their tongues dueled.

He pushed his thigh between her legs and gently turned her over. She was completely at his mercy, her legs forced and held open by his wide stance. He’d never hurt her, would rather cut off his arm than cause her even a moment of fear. Still, the knowledge that he could do anything he wanted to her, that she’d
let
him do anything, was heady.
 

“You have no idea what you do to me, do you?”

He slid his middle finger deep and then pulled out to massage around the ring of her opening. Kaylee moaned, a soft, vulnerable sound in the back of her throat as he slid two fingers inside her, teasing her warm, snug flesh until she panted his name.
 

Then she shuddered as a massive orgasm crashed over her, her core clenching around Eli’s busy fingers. He positioned himself at her opening, no longer able to hold back, and thrust inside, holding still to allow her time to adjust.
 

She shrieked, first in surprise and then in pleasure, as he pulled out and then thrust forward again. He groaned. She was so wet, so hot.

Then her back bowed and her inner muscles clamped down around him. Her eyes flew open and he saw it, the moment she lost control of herself. The squeeze and pull of her muscles stole what little control he had left and he followed her over the edge.
 

She let out a soft sigh and wrapped her arms around his neck. He reveled in the feel of holding her so close to him and buried his face in her shoulder, inhaling the warm scent of her skin and letting it drug him into exhaustion. She patted his chest and pushed him over so they lay on their sides with her leg thrown over his hip. She made no move to get up, content to rest there in his arms.
 

The gesture was so trusting, and he had never wanted or needed a woman to trust him this much before.

Normal people didn’t lock their partners out of their bedrooms, so of course she’d find it odd that they never slept in his room. The only reason she’d waited so long to comment on it was because she trusted him. He was glad she did, because he cared for her too much to hurt her. He wanted only to make her every fantasy and dream come true.

He curled around her, tucking her head right below his chin. Right then and there, he decided that he would clean out his closet the next day. He could get rid of a lot of it and put some in storage. He wouldn’t need it anytime soon, if ever. There was no guarantee that Kay would ever be open to that level of experimentation. He needed her more than he needed control.

He hadn’t been in a normal relationship, well,
ever,
so it wasn’t surprising that he was already screwing it up. But after what she’d already been through, she needed stability and normalcy. Plus, after everything else he’d told her, she probably thought being locked out of his room meant he was hiding something else.

And she was right.

THE NEXT MORNING, Kay woke to the annoying sound of her alarm. She slapped it off and then sat up in bed, every muscle protesting the motion. Heat climbed to her face. The tight ache between her legs and behind her thighs reminded her of why she was so exhausted. They’d used muscles last night that hadn’t seen a workout in a long time.
 

She needed coffee. Immediately.

There was still a slight indentation in the pillow on the other side of the bed, so she figured Eli hadn’t been up long. She grabbed her nightshirt from her bag and then her toothbrush before tiptoeing over to the door. There was no sound in the hallway, so she cracked the door slightly and peered out. She ran her hands over her hair and straightened her shirt. Knowing Elliott, he was probably running five miles before breakfast or something equally hardcore. Whereas she just wanted her caffeine injection and something filled with lots of carbohydrates.
 

After cleaning her teeth and washing her face, she finally felt human again. Today was going to be a different day, Kay decided. It was silly to let anything Carly said get under her skin. She already knew the other woman wanted Eli for herself. Plus, it wasn’t as if Eli didn’t already know that she was inexperienced in the bedroom. He’d made her give him a list of her lovers, after all. Clearly, he’d made his choice and she had no doubt that he was up to the task of teaching her anything she wanted to know in the bedroom.
 

She walked down the hallway and as soon as she entered the living room, a blaring siren pierced the air.
 

“Oh no, the alarm!” Kay whirled around and raced back down the hallway. Her heart was pounding so hard it felt like it was in her throat. All she could think was
get to Eli.
Even though she’d been careful to give him his privacy, at that moment she didn’t care. She burst into his room.

Eli was standing near the closet wearing a pair of jeans and nothing else. Dimly, she thought it was a good thing that she’d already seen him naked, otherwise the additional shock would have probably stopped her heart.
 

As it was, she launched herself into his arms without a thought or care. “The alarm!”

“It’s okay, angel. I’ve got it. Just wait here.” He somehow managed to untangle her arms from around his neck and Kay sat on the floor at his feet. He walked out into the hallway, and a few moments later, the shrill sound stopped.
 

Kay let out a sigh of relief. She had completely forgotten about the alarm since he was usually up early and disabled it before she even woke up. Her alarm at home was only on the front door, so she’d never had to worry about it when walking around inside her apartment.

A glint of light caught her eye. Eli’s closet doors were open. There were rows and rows of shiny and colorful objects. There was something hanging near the door that looked like a long belt. She leaned closer to see what it was.
 

“Oh my God.” She almost fell forward when she realized what she was looking at. It looked like some kind of torture device, made from leather with a multitude of long, flowing strips at the end. With a small gasp, she stood and walked closer. One shelf held small metal instruments. Kay couldn’t even begin to imagine what some of them were for, but they looked painful.
 

And scary as hell.
 

The second shelf held things that she could at least identify. Kay blushed all the way down to her toes as she looked at the row of vibrators. Sasha had always kept hers in her bedside drawer and loved to mortify Kaylee by whipping it out. Kay had always been curious about them and wanted to get one, but every time she decided to do it, she chickened out. It was so childish, but she couldn’t help wondering what if her mother ever came over and stumbled across it. She would instantly die from the embarrassment. Plus, she wasn’t entirely sure what to do with it, and that wasn’t the kind of thing you could ask someone.
 

“It’s okay now. I called headquarters so they’d know it was a false alarm.” Eli appeared in the doorway to the room. When he noticed her staring into the closet, he stiffened.
 

Kay backed up a step and looked down at her feet. “Sorry about that. I wasn’t thinking.”

Eli came into the room and shut the closet door. She sneaked a glance in his direction to see him watching her, his eyes guarded.
 

“Well, I should go take a shower.”
 

“Kay, wait.”

Eli took a step in her direction and she couldn’t help but shrink back. His eyes fluttered shut for a moment, and when he opened them, the pain on his face made Kay instantly sorry.

“I would never hurt you, angel.”

“I know. I’m so sorry. I was just shocked by… everything. I didn’t mean to snoop, I swear. It was just the closet was open—”

“You don’t have to explain anything. I just wanted you to know that what’s in there doesn’t change anything between you and me. It doesn’t matter.”

Kay let out a half sigh, half sob. “
It doesn’t matter?
Of course it matters. Eli, I don’t even know what half that stuff
is
.”
 

Eli ran his hands over his bald head. “You don’t need to know what it is because I was never going to show it to you anyway.”

Fantastic, Kay thought. She wasn’t sure what his deal was, with him kissing her, calling her his angel, and teasing her until she was so hot that just the brush of her thighs against each other was enough to set her off. He’d trusted her with so much, telling her things she was pretty sure no one else knew. She’d definitely trusted him with everything she had.
 

Had he been planning to hide this part of himself forever?

“I want you to forget about it. Okay? I know it upset you, but if you could just pretend you never saw it, we can go back to the way things were.” Eli watched her closely, like he was afraid she would break at any minute.

The problem, Kay thought, was he was probably right.