Chapter Nine:

After stepping out of the shower and slipping into a satin robe, Lani finds herself staring back at the door, wondering if he had turned around and left, despite the fact that she had given him a hint on her way out of the kitchen on her way toward the bathroom.

A part of her could still feel his touch, not even a shower could wash that away.

Thoughts drifted as she lathered lotion on her legs.

She pushed away from him – moved across the room near the center island.

This wasn't going to be solved that way she kept telling herself as he walked up from behind, wrapping both arms around her waist slowly and stepped in close. "This isn't going to work…" words trailing to basically nothing when she felt his fingertips slide underneath the thin t-shift that was partially tucked into the waistband of her jeans. "I mean it, Eli."

"You're beautiful when you're angry."

He smirked, even though he knew she wasn't falling for it.

Not yet anyway.

Lani was still upset – Eli, on the other hand, was over it.

"You need to trust me."

He removed one hand from her waist, allowing the other to wrap around her body a bit more and step in even closer. "I trust you—" he whispered and then slips the available hand underneath her hair, slowly guiding the strands backward and allowing only a simple touch against her skin. He noticed her turn slightly, just as his head lowered and his lips brushed against her cheek and eventually trailed down to her neck, hitting the exact spot that would make her melt.

It didn't matter that she had crossed her arms in an attempt to hold onto the anger.

Eli wasn't about to let an argument get in the way of showing all the ways he missed her.

No way in hell.

The palm of his hand pressed against her stomach, warm breath and soft kisses sent shivers down her spine, almost convincing her that all the reasons she was angry at him didn't matter in that moment.

That anger was starting to melt away.

His touch was addicting.

And the way his breath felt against her gave her chills.

Squeezing his hand and moving it from her stomach, pausing for a brief second.

This allowed her to finally turn around to him – it was in that second, noticing the way his eyes pierced into hers; the way they moved down to her lips and then back again, maybe because she had done the same with him. Lani then tugged at his sweater in an attempt to bring him closer, despite the fact that she still had the left over emotion of being upset with him, and choosing to let the electricity between speak for itself – it had been building since he found her in the hotel and brought her home – she thought about him every single second she was with Kyle, and here they were, arguing about something that didn't even matter.

They were together.

That mattered.

Eli felt her hands slip under his sweater, bunching it upward until he was able to reach from behind, removing it completely. Their eyes locked, her hands covered his and then she tossed the sweater on the kitchen floor.

Her lips crashed onto his then, leaning forward and reaching for the waistband of his jeans.

The kiss was raw.

Intense.

Her lips broke free, neither saying much as he reached for her own shirt, helping her shred it from her body. And as that very shirt fell to the floor near his sweater, she stepped around him and walked near the opening of the kitchen. He had glanced around his shoulder in confusion, watching and standing frozen.

To get his attention - she reached behind and unclasped her bra and let it drop to the floor.

He watched as she exited the kitchen.

Lani shook off those thoughts – knowing that there was a possibility that he had in fact left, considering he didn't follow her into the bathroom and join her in the shower, reasons she wasn't sure she quite understood.

Setting the bottle of lotion on the bathroom counter, she hung the towel and turned off the lights, exiting the bathroom and walking down the hall toward her bedroom, where she noticed a flicker of light coming from inside the room.

Once she stepped inside, there he was.

Sitting on the edge of her bed, still shirtless.

She tightened the wrap around her robe just slightly, suddenly feeling a twinge of nervousness from the way he was looking at her, and then she stepped further into the room and stood directly in front of him.

"You're still here."

He nodded and answered, "I had no intention of leaving."

Really?

He had no plans to leave – this surprised her.

Eli reached for her fingers, gently pulling her toward him until she reached the edge of the bed and directly stood between his legs, and then lowering her down until she was sitting on his lap, where his hands rested against her upper thigh.

Lani felt it, once his hand moved underneath the smooth fabric covering her.

"Eli, I want you to know—"

He moved his hand from her thigh and cupped her face, wanting to desperately taste her in that moment and forget about everything else as he brought her lips closer to his and whispered, "I don't want to talk…"

And as his words trailed, his lips covered hers.

He turned her slightly, lifting her with a firm grip against her waist and taking her with him as they fell back on the bed, gently lowering her down to him, barely seconds between until she shifted her body upward until her hand was able to reach the back of his neck. He entered her mouth; thrusting his tongue inside with an eager moan from the intensity that continued between the two of them.

She pressed her hands against his chest then, lifting herself upward, against his hips.

Eli let out a breath, staring up at her.

Lani stared down at him, caught in his gaze.

Moving both hands from her thighs, Eli reached up and loosened the tie from the robe, watching with anticipation as his hand dropped down to her upper thigh, opening the robe enough to see that she was completely naked.

She inhaled deeply at his touch; the gaze between them intense in that moment.

Biting down on his lip, the anticipation increased as her hands reached for the robe and slowly slid it off her shoulders, glancing down at him and feeling as though the anger she felt at the way he was behaving around this case and the way he didn't seem to trust her, there just wasn't a person in the entire world that she would rather fight with.

She loved him.

It had consumed her entire body in that moment.

He licked his lips and bit down on his bottom lip again as she removed the robe completely, tossing it over the bed and turning back to meet his gaze, one that had not left her for one second, and she reached for the button on his jeans and then zipper, gasping in that moment as he pulled her down to him and rolled over, taking her with him.

Lani tugged at the waistband of his jeans as he hovered over her.

He shed the jeans from his body.

She smiled, feel a tinge of heat once his lips covered hers.

Eli moved lower, kissing her stomach slowly and then gazing up toward her until his mouth had reached hers and he was drinking in her fevered kisses, and she then reached for the waistband of his boxers and tugged them down from his body.

Settling his mouth on hers, he heard a soft moan as he kissed her deeply.

Lani gasped against him as he thrust into her. Arching into the kisses between them, she let go of any of the thoughts that had been in her mind earlier, giving into the to pleasure that was occurring between the two of them in that very moment.

He gave himself over to her completely – deep, smooth strokes of his body against hers.

The intensity between them reached new heights, and it almost scared them.

Eli eased away from her body slowly, not wanting to leave her warmth but feeling as though the oxygen in his lungs needed a slight breather, and he knew this probably wasn't the only time they were going to make love that night.

Once he fell back on the pillow next to her, exhaling deeply, he glanced over at her.

"Where did that come from?" he asked, breathless.

Lani pressed her lips together, moving toward him and rested her head against his chest. "I could ask you the same thing," she returned, just as breathless.

She had branded him – that was a given.

He shifted a bit closer to her, just as her leg slowly draped over his and she glanced up and met his gaze, which all he could think about was the way she felt as she moved against his skin and the way it felt to be inside her, and knowing that her being there with him was a gift that he knew he should be grateful.

Lani met his eyes – tracing her thumb against his bottom lip.

"I thought about you every second – about us; about this."

She reached up, covering her mouth with his and melted into the way it felt to be back in his arms, to have him back in her bed, and no longer needing to think about the way she ached for him because he was there, with her where he should be.

"I thought about us, too—" she whispered back, breaking her lips from his.

Eli's hands caressed her forearm gently – he had practically driven himself crazy when she had been missing, replaying over and over the events that led up to it in his mind and trying to think of what he could have done differently, knowing that he loved her so much that the thought of being without her had driven a bit crazy.

He would have done anything to get her back.

"I'm glad you stayed."

He was, too.

More than she probably even realized.

"We'll figure all this out," Eli whispered, placing a soft kiss against her forehead. "I'll be damned if I let him hurt you again – I'm not going to just sit back and let that happen." He removed his lips from her forehead. "I love you."

It was those words – the way he said them.

The way he looked at her as he did.

She knew she didn't exactly need to return those words, as he knew the way she felt about him, just as she knew the way he felt about her. Still – it meant a lot and felt good to hear them when it mattered. "I love you, too."

...