Dedicated to @luckystar55555 my amazing, fabulous friend!!! I love you so much, I honestly don't know what I would do without incredible friends like you in my life. This chapter was written for you, gorgeous XXX

43. Friday Week Eighteen

The familiar smell of burning wafted through the apartment and I jolted up in bed as a sense of home washed over me. Then the sleep cleared from my eyes and my eyelids prised open and I realised that I wasn't at home. But that meant that someone who wasn't my Nan was burning something.

Padding into the kitchen, I discovered a shirtless Eli bending over a frying pan. Pushing away my overwhelming attraction towards him, I peeked around his broad shoulders and grimaced at the sight of smoke rising from the blackened contents of the pan.

Without even turning, he knew I was there, "it's fucked, right?"

Unable to contain it, I released a soft chuckle and nodded, "yup." The action made my hair brush against his arm and I heard his soft intake of breath at the caress.

"What are you trying to do?" I asked him as I stepped back and away, leaning against the cold kitchen counter instead.

"I'm trying," he said, lifting the pan and dumping it roughly in the sink, "to make you bacon."

My lips parted in shock and my bewildered eyes tracked his movements as he went about cleaning up his mess, "bacon?" I whispered in disbelief.

His eyes flickered over to me and he cracked a half-smile, "yeah, tigru, bacon."

"But we don't have any bacon, we never have bacon."

Carelessly, he shrugged, "I bought some on my run this morning but, now we don't have any cause I fucked it up."

Inch by inch, a smile crept onto my face as my mind raced with the fact that Eli had done something thoughtful. He had done something thoughtful, for me.

The minute he caught the look on my face, he scowled, "don't make a big deal, Rei, it's just bacon."

I knew that, but it still felt like more, it felt like him trying to prove that he cared. So I kept the goofy smile on my face as I unabashedly stared at him, "of course, it is."

His crystalline gaze narrowed, "your voice couldn't be more sarcastic if you tried."

The goofy smile on my face melted into a cheeky one, "I can always be more sarcastic, Boxer Boy."

He was leaning on the counter opposite me, arms crossed against his shirtless chest and his abs flexed with every movement he made. Desire flashed in his ocean eyes as they tracked my body - sheathed only in one of his old shirts - from head to toe but I made no move to cover myself.

He arched a brow at me and let his toned arms fall to his side as he leisurely pushed off the counter behind him. Inky black strands fell onto his forehead and the stark contrast against his blue eyes that sparkled with excitement made me take in a sharp breath as my grip tightened on the counter behind me.

Nerves zigzagged through my body as Eli took tantalising steps, closer and closer to me until we were stood toe to toe. The scent of pure Eli washed over me and made my body burn with desire. He was so close.

One arm stretched forward to rest on the counter behind me and the other followed, caging me in as if I was his prey; and at that moment, I was fairly certain I wanted to be.

"Is that my shirt, tigru?" He breathed out in his deep husky rumble, the words smoothed over me like satiny chocolate.

Meeting his gaze, I challenged him with both my eyes and my words, "well, seeing as I am the one who's wearing it," I toyed playfully with the hem, "that kind of makes it mine now."

Those bright blue eyes had dropped to my legs which were on perfect display to him and every soft shift of my hands on the end of his shirt revealed a centimetre more of my velvety skin.

He growled, "what do you want, tigru?"

Innocently, I blinked up at him, "what makes you think I want something?"

Another growl as his impossibly tight grip on the counter tautened even more, "you're walking around my house, in nothing but my shirt and you expect me to think you're not after something?"

Unclenching my hands from their grip on his shirt, I lifted them to rest on his torso, delighting in then feel of every indent and crevice of his abdominals clenching beneath my feather-light touch. My hands skated up his body, tracing his tattoos and creating patterns of their own until they rested firmly against his pecs. Slightly, they curled so that my nails delicately grazed his skin.

He was hunched over a little so when I lifted onto my tiptoes and brought my face close to his, I could reach. But I didn't kiss him, instead, I placed my silky lips against his jaw, drawing a groan out of him as he bent further down to allow me better access. My lips travelled along his jaw, down his neck once and then back up it again until every breathe I took out resulted in a caress on his ear.

And then I murmured, "you're right, Eli," he growled again and one of his hands slipped off the counter to coil around my thigh, "maybe I am after something," his clutch on my thigh tightened and I dropped my voice into a low sultry whisper, "maybe I'm after—"

"AH! What the fuck!?"

Fast as lightning, I sprang away from Eli which resulted in me banging my backside against the kitchen counter.

Eli's hands fell away from me and his eyes shuttered closed in frustration before they sprang open and he glared at Cayd, "how the fuck did you get in?"

Still rubbing my probably bruised bum, I span around to face the door and was greeted by the sight of Cayden covering his eyes but peeking through slowly to see if it was okay to look.

When he determined that we were decent, he held his hand out with Raven's key in it, "Raven is waiting downstairs to take Rei to school."

Clearing my throat and willing my rising blush to fall away, I nodded at him before scurrying off to my room to get ready for the day and die of embarrassment.

Cayden just saw my ass. Kill me now.

— — — — —

"How is Eli going to graduate if he is never in school?" I questioned

Raven shrugged in the driver's seat, "he's actually really smart and I think Jasper, Arik and Kiara have been sending him the school work."

I couldn't imagine Eli sitting down to do school work, he just wasn't the type. Even when watching TV he gets antsy because he just can't sit still, the weirdo loves to be active.

"So, Cayd might have phoned me whilst you were getting ready and told me what he saw."

I groaned, my head falling into my hands which made Raven laugh, "he saw my ass, Rave, like my bare bottom."

The laugh carried louder through the car and I might have cracked a miniature smile as well.

"Why was your ass out, man?"

My blush from earlier returned, "um, I was only wearing one of Eli's t-shirts."

Raven smirked knowingly, "so you two are all good now?"

Uncomfortable, I shuffled in my seat before shrugging, "I don't know, I mean, obviously, I still love him but I think I'm still trying to work past all the hurt, you know?" She nodded, "but its better now that he knows what I'm thinking and feeling cause I think it's made him realise he needs to make an effort to fix things. Now he knows that I can't forgive him, just like that," I clicked my fingers to show her what I meant.

"What about the girls? Have you spoken to any of them?"

Sadness crept through my veins, "Kiara said that they ask her for updates on how I am all the time and I am so desperate to fix things with them but I can't until I know that I don't have to lie anymore. They deserve better than being put through shit all the time and having no explanation about why, that's not friendship and I see that now," I took a deep breath in and ran my hands through my hair, "we just have to sort everything out with Mikael and then it will all be okay."

Raven nodded, "yeah, it will all be okay."

"The desire of this man is for this woman, but the desire of the woman is the desire of this man." Madame de Stael

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Btw, I'm not a huge fan of this chapter so I'll probably end up changing the end of it, if I do, I'll mention it on my next update!!

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