Page 87 of Stolen Voices

“Are you okay?” I ask.

He clears his throat and nods as he finishes rinsing the conditioner from my hair. He turns off the water and grabs a fluffy towel from the rack. Still maintaining a respectable boundary between us, he places the towel around my shoulders, and covers me from his view. He reaches for a second towel and without instruction, he uses it to dry the ends of my hair.

The tension between us is obvious, and the sense of anticipation is high in the air as he squats down beside me. I’m edgy and needy. I can’t stop from silently begging him to remove the towel and touch me.

“Eli.” His name on my lips is a breathless whimper that says everything and nothing all at once.Touch me.

“Yes, princess?”

“Why haven’t you looked at me?” I blurt. Consequences be damned, I need to know. One second, he’s looking at me like he wants to eat me, and the next, there’s a wall between us.

He fights a smile as he grips the tops of my shoulders. “I’m trying to be a gentleman.”

Biting my lip, I nod in understanding. While his explanation should be enough, I can’t help but push him. “What if I don’t want you to be a gentleman?”

He clenches his jaw and I melt. It’s so hot when he fights the words he wants to use. The moves he wants to make. “You’re hurt, Callie. You need to rest.”

Well, no shit. I want to scream, but I don’t.

A flicker of something I can’t read flickers in his eyes as I stare at him, searching his face for something more than his non-answer to my question.

Does he want me or not? I need to know soon, or I’m going to combust. He has to give me something. I can’t keep living in this in-between phase where it feels like he wants to kiss me one minute and run away the next.

“I’m not tired,” I admit. My body is alive with raw energy and desire pumping through my veins. “Please?” The plea falls from my lips, imploring him to do more than look at me. I want him to look past the shell, down to my heart. My soul.

Eli is the one I want to truly see me for who I am.

When his eyes widen and his nostrils flare in understanding, I know I don’t have to tell him to look deeper.

He knows.

twenty-one

Eli

“Please.”

This woman. What the hell am I going to do with her?

I’m on the precipice, and one wrong move—one wrong word—could fuck everything up with Callie.

The way her pretty eyes are begging me to look at her, to see past her nakedness and really see her, pushes me close to the edge of saying “fuck it”.

Not yet.

“Behave, princess.” The admonishment does what I want as Callie stares at me with shocked, wide doe eyes.

For her sake—and my sanity—I grip the edges of the terry cloth towel gathered at her chest and tug it tight, hiding her body.

Her mouth moves to protest.

I press my index finger against her lips and shake my head. “First, I’m going to get you all dried up and into some warm, clean clothes before you get cold. Then, we are going to have a little chat.”

My cock jerks as her teeth bite into that perfectly plump bottom lip of hers. Fuck, I can’t wait to suck that lip between my teeth and nip it before soothing it with my tongue.

I rip her lip from her mouth before I come in my pants.

“Fine,” Callie mumbles, looking away.