With a huff, Scott stepped backward. The sound of crunching in the grass sounded as
Dallas heard the little boots getting closer from behind him.
Scott smirked. “Oh look, here comes your girlfriend.” Raising his voice, he hollered across the lawn to Alex. “I think
Dallas needs a
kiss
—“
In less than a split-second,
Dallas dropped his helmet and gripped two fists full of Scott’s nylon jersey, pulling the older boy nose-to-nose. Looking upward to make eye contact, Dallas’s heart pounded. “You stay away from her! You got
me
?”
Scott tried to shove himself away, pushing hard against
Dallas’s shoulders, but got nowhere. The grip Dallas maintained held steadfast as he glared at his opponent.
“Don’t underestimate me. Leave her alone or—”
“Or what?”
Dallas
could feel she was close by now, and he needed to end the confrontation before she got hurt. “Or I’ll finish you.”
With all his might,
Dallas pushed Scott away, sending him stumbling backward several steps. Without another look, Dallas grabbed his helmet off the ground and turned with his other hand held out. In two long strides, he reached Alex and quickly took her hand in his, pulling her away from Scott as fast as her little legs could go.
“What’s wrong,
Dallas? Are you mad?”
Something about her little voice, the worry, kept a filter on his anger. “Um…kinda.”
“At that big boy?”
“Yep. And Alex”—he bent down, resting his palm on her tiny shoulder—“you stay away from him. Okay?”
She blinked back at him, wide eyed.
Worry had his heart racing again. “Promise me?”
“I promise, Dallas. I promise.”
Standing back up, he glanced over his shoulder just in time to see Scott flip him off.
Dallas didn’t respond, only patted Alex’s back and grasped her hand again to keep her walking. She’d started to tell him a story, and he nodded then looked up toward Eli’s Razor. It was now vacant, and instead both he and Carter were approaching. They’d been out of earshot, but judging by their faces, they’d seen the whole thing. He knew where his mother stood on fighting, and his uncle, both with varying degrees of acceptance. But here at the academy with Carter and especially Eli—his mouth went dry. If it weren’t for the grip Alex had on his hand, now pulling him along, his legs would have probably quit working.
“And Grandma said to bring you up to the house after practice,
Dallas. We have a surprise for you. Come on, hurry, you big slow-pokie,” she teased giggling.
The adrenaline that raged through him before, erasing all fear when Alex was his only thought, was gone. Left in its place was a heavy lump in his stomach. With Alex still tugging on his arm, the talk the two men were ready to give was not apparent to her.
Dallas squeezed her hand and tried to smile. “Okay, I’ll be right there.”
“But you gotta come now,
Dallas. Grandma’s waitin’ on you.”
“Alex, honey, you go on up to the house and tell Grandma that Daddy and Uncle Eli have to talk to him first. Then he’ll be right there.” Carter nodded. “Okay?”
With her face scrunched up, she sized them all up, then put her little fists on her hips. With a tilt of Carter’s head, Dallas watched her think twice about arguing back.
The fight went out of her. “’Kay, Daddy.”
For several long moments, his eyes followed her. Watching his reprieve with long curls disappear through the French doors, Dallas swallowed hard and turned back to her father and Eli.
Blinking several times, the silence between them was louder than the four bikes still on the track. Eli’s face remained unreadable, but the corner of Carter’s mouth tipped.
“Someone’s taught you to fight,” he said with a nod.
It wasn’t a question, but
Dallas pulled in a breath and answered anyway, just in case. “Uh…yes, sir.”
“Your Uncle Mac?” Eli’s mouthed quirked.
With his heart in his throat, Dallas chewed on his lower lip. “Um…”
“So your mom doesn’t know, does she?” Eli grinned, shaking his head.
With that one smile, Dallas’s heart slowed. It was the same look Eli had on his face when he surprised him with the video game a couple of nights ago. Kind of ornery, kind of like a big kid, kind of like maybe…he
wasn’t
in trouble. At least he hoped.
“She doesn’t know that you needed to learn to fight back…does she?” Eli asked.
Somehow Eli just got it. He understood. Slowly, Dallas shook his head, still unclear if he’d made the men angry or not. Understanding was one thing, being okay with it was another. His uncle was clear to define when it was and wasn’t appropriate to stand up for himself, but this was unique situation.
“He said something about Alex. Didn’t he?”
Dallas dragged his eyes back to look up at Carter. Scott’s words replayed instantly through his head. The meanness of his tone and the boy’s laughter had Dallas gritting his teeth. His anger flared up again. He jerked his head in response.
“That’s what I thought.” Carter’s face went serious. “You were ready to walk away—until you felt the need to protect her. Am I right?”
Pulling in a big breath, Dallas fisted his free hand. “Yes, sir.”
“Let me just set this all straight, okay?” Carter tilted his head, waiting.
“’Kay?”
“You think you’re in trouble with us, I can see it all over your face. But let me tell you right now, you will never get in trouble with any of us for defending one of our kids. I can assure you of that. Do you understand what I’m saying?” Carter clasped his shoulder, and
Dallas’s eyes went wide. “I mean it, you did the right thing. You protected my little girl, and you will never get in trouble for that as long as I’m around. And thank you for being there for her.”
Dallas
nodded, still silent, and still in Carter’s grasp, his eyes drifted to Eli’s.
“Me either, son.” Eli’s smile spread wide across his face and the air left
Dallas’s lungs in a huff. Eli pulled him close to his side, roughly but chuckling. He slipped from Carter’s hold as relief flooded through him with Eli’s teasing. “I think he was more scared of us, bro, than he was of getting his ass kicked by Highlends.”
“No shit, E…I think you’re right.” Carter winked down at
Dallas then playfully punched his upper arm.
Eli turned on him, and they both started wrestling him to the ground,
Dallas laughing and squirming the whole way down to the soft grass below. Not wanting to let them figure out how ticklish he was, Dallas tried to roll away, but the two grown men kept after him. “Uncle…uncle.” He squealed in surrender, red faced and breathing hard.
“Daddy, noooo!” Flying down the steps from the back patio, Alex came running as fast as she could.
“Oh shit. We’re in trouble with his woman,” Eli said, backhanding Carter’s upper arm.
Heat flamed across his face as
Dallas stood back up, taking Carter’s outstretched hand for assistance. He couldn’t help it though, he smiled proudly as Alex came to his rescue. And she was pissed. Her ice-blue eyes narrowed on her father and uncle in a very serious, very grown-up manner. Taking a cue from them both, Dallas kept his laughter to himself, although Eli was snickering and about to lose it.
Throwing her arms around him, Alex squeezed him tight, her head pressed up against him. Eli bent down to scoop up his helmet and the gloves that had fallen out of it. Without the helmet to carry,
Dallas grinned.
Loosening her hold, he bent down. “You want a piggyback ride?” Her eyes went wide, and she scrambled up his back, clasping her arms around his neck.
“
My
Dallas.” She giggled as he started jogging up toward the main house.
He was good distance in front of the two adults following them. Eli’s bad back slowed them down, so they hadn’t heard what she’d softly said against his ear.
Alex was about to turn four, and he was eleven, but they had formed a friendship the moment she’d taken him by the hand the first time. She accepted him without question, unlike any other kid had. She liked him and made him laugh, unlike the kids he was used to back home.
With one hand, he held her tight as he reached for the door handle with his other.
“Look Grandma, I bringed him to you.”
Karen grinned. “You
brought
him to me?”
“Yep. I bringed him to you,” Alex said again as he crouched down. Letting her off his back, she grabbed him by the hand, and took him straight to a platter of freshly baked cupcakes on the large island. “Lookie what Grandma and I maked you.”
“We
made
them for him. Didn’t we?”
Karen’s grammar corrections went straight over Alex’s head. Instead, she smiled proudly and, on tiptoes, reached toward the plate, pulling it closer.
“Just one, I know Mommy is making dinner for you, and I’m sure your mom is doing the same. From what I hear from Eli, she’s quite the cook,” Karen said, pulling out two plates.
“Oh my God, is she ever,” Eli bragged, coming through the door they’d left open. “Just like you, huh Mom?” He pulled Karen to his side.
Dallas knew Karen wasn’t Eli’s
real
mom, but everyone here was so loving, he couldn’t help but smile back at them. It was fun to be around them all—the way they joked and laughed all the time. It was way better than being at home. He loved his uncle, but he’d give almost anything if he and his mom could stay there in Pennsylvania—with them forever.
CHAPTER EIGHT
“It’s been a week, Honor. You’ve cooked, cleaned, and cooked some more. You’re making me feel guilty.” Eli hip-checked her on the way through the kitchen with a laundry basket in his hands. “Now, I’m ordering you to sit and relax.”
Another time, another man, and she would have read that kind of attitude in an entirely different light, but he’d spoken with a light teasing voice. She forced herself to remember the two men were nothing alike, and Eli’s sweetness continued to widen that gap, making her see some truths that were even uglier than she’d thought before.
She continued to sprinkle the freshly grated parmesan cheese on top of the lasagna she was making. Honor heard the laundry room door close again, and as he came back around the corner, she raised her eyebrow at him. No words necessary.
His now-empty hands went up in surrender. “Okay, okay. I’m asking you to relax.” He wiggled his eyebrows and grinned.
He ran his fingertips gently over her shoulder as he turned and leaned against the counter. In her space—as usual.
Damn, he was just so easy to be around. There weren’t the eggshells that were there during her marriage, or the silence of their almost always empty bed—and the pain of knowing that her husband was undoubtedly in someone else’s bed.
It had been that way for seven days. Seven long, tortuous days. The goofy smirks, the winks, his damn sexy-as-all-hell grins, and the freaking mornings—they were the worst. He’d come out to the kitchen when she would be minding her own business at the stove or mixing up muffins. He would just saunter out, make his way to the coffee maker, poor himself a cup and lean against the counter smiling at her. Half-naked, as his pajama pants hung just low enough on his waist that the V of his muscles directed her eyes somewhere she shouldn’t be spending so much time wondering about.
Every damn day.
Every damn day she had to look at his six-pack abs—hell, they were an eight-pack. She knew because she’d counted. And then if he turned, it was that freaking beautiful tattoo. The one she had memorized. Every line, swoop, every bit of shading, and each swirl had been etched into her mind forever.
If that wasn’t bad enough, there were the light touches, the kind words…the hope he was setting up. All pieces to the kind of dreams she had kept to herself as a teenage girl, the part of her that was a hopeless romantic—even though her mother would have read her the riot act. She had locked those feelings, dreams, and hopes away, knowing they didn’t exist in real life. But…Eli—he was making it harder and harder to fight what her heart so badly wanted, even though in her head she knew it would never work, not in a million years.
Once again, he looked at her with an innocence she could only shake her head at. She let out a breath. Never going to happen. It couldn’t. She had three weeks left in his house, in his world. Then where would she be? Back in Tennessee, back in her little house, cleaning other people’s homes for barely enough money and doing her damnedest to keep her son racing. Trying to honor James Noland’s one request with nothing more than a few dollars and a whole lot of praying.
“It’s what I do, Eli. I can’t sit here on my ass all day. I have to help, I have to do something to give back. I’m sorry.” Her words weren’t apologetic in the least, it was more of a plea to let her continue to help.
Having memorized his layout, she opened the drawer she knew held the tin foil, and wrapped the pan. He apparently wasn’t moving so she stepped around him to the double ovens. Placing it into the bottom section, she shut the oven door and set the timer, as if she’d always lived in his home. On her way back to the counter, on the other side of him and the waiting French bread, he snaked a hand out and grabbed her. Pulling her into him with a force so strong she collided with thud against his strong chest.
“Ah,” she replied startled, bracing herself against him with her hands flat on his chest.
Honor didn’t know what shocked her more, the strength of the movement, or that he still had her in his arms, and both arms were now wrapped around her back keeping her close to him.
Gazing in his eyes, she tried not to read what was right there on the surface. “Eli?” She asked on a whisper.
“Honor.”
The confidence he exuded might come across as cocky to a stranger, but to her, he was playful. That was all, he was just being silly. Nothing more.
But yet, she was still in his hold. Still pressed tight against him, and of his own doing.
She nodded to the counter space behind him where she had the bread ready to spread with homemade garlic butter and fresh mozzarella cheese.
With a nervous smile she looked up. “You need to let me finish getting dinner made.”
“You need to kiss me.”
Suddenly he wasn’t being silly. He wasn’t laughing, smiling or teasing. She took a long minute looking as hard as she could into the hazel eyes fixated on her. The only thing she could see was desire. With her palms against his chest she could feel the rapid rise and fall of the steel underneath her hands, feel the speed of his heart.
“Eli…”
“Honor.”
She swallowed hard, a chore to do with a mouth so dry it felt like cotton. Desperately trying to figure out what was happening, she wondered how she went from basically a customer staying with a gracious host, to standing in his embrace and her heart pounding out of her chest. She racked her brain for the questions to ask.
Only one word was able to make it to her lips time and time again.
“Eli?” She said a third time, her voice shaking and barely audible.
His mouth turned up, and instantly she felt like ten pounds had lifted off of her.
“I’ve been trying, Honor. Trying to subtly show you how I feel.” He tipped her chin to his with his knuckle, and left it there so she couldn’t break the eye contact. “I really like you, and I’m really attracted to you.” He closed in and kissed the tip of her nose. “You aren’t really responding to my quiet hints, so I have to step it up.”
Honor pulled in a breath and swallowed her heart back down to her chest from the place it had jumped to in her throat. She blinked wildly, not sure of the tricks the universe was playing on her. In her world, gorgeous, sexy, hot men didn’t come on to her. In her world—shit, she couldn’t remember her world at the moment. Not when all she could concentrate on was the mouth inching closer to her in slow motion.
“I have a child,” she rushed out. A warning of sorts.
He winked and closed in more. “I know. His name is Dallas, great kid.”
She could feel his breath on her lips as he answered. The tip of her tongue darted out, preparing her mouth for the inevitable.
“But—”
“I’m going to kiss you now. Please, Honor—don’t stop me,” his plea said almost touching her.
His lips hovered over hers, barely there, but his presence undeniable. At first touch, her eyes slowly closed of their own free will. That must have been the answer he’d been waiting for. Eli pressed on, his mouth firm but gentle. Fire shot through her, every place he touched was scorched, the rest of her pulled under his spell. Honor lost all consciousness of time, the seconds turning into minutes as his lips parted, urging hers to do the same, his tongue seeking hers.
A palm came to her cheek, taking control and tilting her head for more. The sound of her pulse rushed in her ears, a sprinkling of tingles swept across her body from her cheeks, down her arms, clear down her legs. Pulses felt in places she’d long ago forgotten about, needs she’d tucked away years ago came barreling to the surface.
She ran her fingers up his chest and around his neck, pressing herself into him. Lost in all the wants she’d denied, Honor kissed him back, her tongue touching his, his breath combined with hers, a soft moan rumbled, but she wasn’t sure if it came from her or him. His mouth left hers but only to make its way across her jaw and over to the sensitive skin of her neck. A high-pitched sound of approval escaped her, urging him to take more, to make her his.
The shrill ring of her cell lying on the kitchen counter sent her out of her skin.
Both of them breathing hard, Eli broke contact and reached behind him, handing her the cell. Seemingly careful to not let completely go of her.
Dallas
.
Oh…my…God
.
“Shit…shit. What the hell, Eli?” She put a palm against his chest for space, but he didn’t budge.
What had she done?
Staring in pure panic at Eli, she pulled in a breath consciously trying to slow her breathing, trying to sound normal so she could answer the phone.
“Hi, hon,” she answered, the pitch in her voice higher…like guilt does to a person.
“I’m ready to be picked up.”
“Okay, be right there. Bye.”
“Thanks, Mom. Bye.”
With the call ended, Eli took the phone back out of her shaking hand and placed it back on the counter behind him. Before she could make a move, he closed his arms around her again. His grip tightening.
“Eli…” She tilted her head, ashamed, confused, and still breathing hard. Her body betraying her.
“No. Don’t you dare, Honor. Don’t you take that moment back…don’t. You felt it, I know you did.”
“But I can’t. I shouldn’t, I…I don’t know what I did, I’m so sorry.”
“No, no apologizing for that. Like I said, you’ve been seemingly oblivious to my signals so far. Signals that I thought were downright blaring. Now…I’d have to say you aren’t as unaffected as you’d like to be—”
“Eli.”
“No, don’t
Eli
me. Don’t give me a hundred and one excuses. Don’t hide behind Dallas. I can feel it, Honor, and I can see it in your eyes.”
He held a hand to her still rapidly beating heart. The touch sent her pulse back to speeding.
“See, your body shows me the truth, so don’t let your head try to tell me otherwise. I’ll run to Jess’s and pick up Dallas—”
“But—”
His chin came up, halting her argument and daring her to continue.
“When I get back, we’ll enjoy that amazing smelling dinner you have spent the last two hours making. After
Dallas goes to bed, we’ll talk.”
Honor swallowed. She didn’t know when she had done it, but at some point during his speech she had grasped his hand, instead of pulling him away, she had pressed it to her chest even tighter. She looked up to him, feeling more lost and alone than she had when Kolby had died. She licked her lips, ready to say something, anything, but no words came.
“I can see the argument forming in your head. Don’t, Honor. I’ve never felt like this before, so don’t go there. We’ll talk, we will work it out, but please don’t try to talk yourself out of this before you’ve even given me a chance. Give me that.
Please
.”
It was déjà vu. The same grasp of hands, the same uttered plea. He was asking for more this time. Her brow furrowed.
His eyes narrowed in response with a fire in them, and he shook his head.
“I’ll be right back.” Eli leaned in and kissed her forehead.
Leaving her standing rooted to that very spot, she blinked, not entirely sure of what had just happened. She heard the garage door open, heard the engine of his SUV start, then the noise faded as he backed out, off to get her son.
Dallas
.
What the hell was she thinking?
Oh yeah,
I wasn’t
.
She wanted to close her eyes for a minute to escape, but when she did all she could see was Eli’s face, his smile. Pressing her fingers to her mouth, she could still feel the tingle of his lips on hers, she could still smell his cologne—woodsy, masculine, and very, very sexy.
Of course, it was sexy. That was what cologne manufacturers were going for. To drive women like her out of their ever-loving minds with desire for men they couldn’t have. Honor rolled her shoulders and eyed the counter. Two things caught her attention, the bread she needed to get finished up and in the oven so it would be ready in time, and the bottle of red wine that Eli had opened for dinner.
Filling one of the two glasses sitting beside it, she downed it in a handful of impolite gulps. Looking at the door Eli had just left through moments before, she let out a breath and filled it again. Not a drinker by choice, she made the conscious decision she was going to need the liquid courage for her upcoming conversation with the devil himself.
He hadn’t let her get a word in, hadn’t let her even convey her thoughts or worries. Honor took a drink. He hadn’t let her remind him of her son, or had he? The last few minutes of time seemed like a jumbled mess, and she couldn’t make heads or tails of what happened, or what was said.
She took another swallow, this one smaller. Eli had acted almost as if
Dallas wasn’t even a concern. Then he’d immediately volunteered to go pick him up. Almost as if…Honor slathered the bread with the garlic butter, trying to wrap her head around Eli’s words and actions. Not being gentle at all, she ran the knife over it, then dumped cheese over both sections, getting more on the pan than the bread. It was almost as if he wanted a relationship with Dallas, too?