Knight In Black Leather by Gail Dayton (ebook reader ink .txt) 📕

"God, Marilyn, what--?" Joey sputtered in her ear.

Eli groaned and shook his head. "Oh, your family's really going to love me now."

"I--Eli didn't have anything to do with it. It was somebody he used to know, that's all." Marilyn held him tight.

"Shit." Joey fell silent another long moment. "And you're really, really sure this is what you want?"

"Yes."

"Okay. It's your life. Just...be careful, okay?"

"Always. Don't forget to tell Mom about the phone."

"I won't forget."

As soon as he hung up, Marilyn went into the kitchen and unplugged the line. She didn't want to have any more conversations. Not on the phone. She wasn't sure she wanted any more conversation at all. And from the way Eli pulled her into his arms and kissed her when she got back in bed, she figured he felt pretty much the same.

Eli woke up before Marilyn the next morning and got himself in and out of the shower in record time. He was getting pretty good at the "plastic trash bags over the cast" bit. She hadn't stirred by the time he emerged and he got back in bed to watch her sleep.

Had it only been yesterday morning that she made love to him for the first time? He smiled, remembering her fierce concentration as she drove him insane. Then his smile faded. Only twenty-four hours and he had already made trouble for her.

Her mother hated him so much she would kick Marilyn out of the family just for hanging around with him. Her brother wanted to punch him in the nose. He was no good for her. And yet...

He couldn't leave. Besides the fact that he didn't want to go, he'd promised. And she wanted him to stay.

That absolutely blew him away.

Eli wasn't used to people wanting him to stick around. Not for positive reasons. But that still didn't mean he was good for Marilyn. He wished he could do something to help, to protect her from the fallout. But since the only thing he could think of that would help was to leave, and he couldn't do that, he was stuck. Which he didn't mind a bit.

He was thinking in circles. Times like this, it was best not to think. Eli slid down into the bed to kiss her awake.

"Again?" Marilyn mumbled.

He might have thought she was complaining except for her hands roving down his chest and stomach.

"You are insatiable." She pulled him over on top of her, meeting every kiss with one of her own.

"Eli's short for insatiable," he said, keeping it light. She wouldn't want to know that he'd never been this eager for anyone before.

He was cooking breakfast, clumsily one-and-a-half-handed, while Marilyn was in the shower, when the dangling phone cord brushed his bare toes. Thinking about bacon rather than phones, he picked it up and plugged it in. Almost immediately, it rang.

Eli hesitated. He always left the phone for Marilyn to answer. He didn't actually live here. But she was in the shower. Probably couldn't hear it ringing. And if it was her mom again--maybe it was better if she yelled at him rather than Marilyn.

By the third ring, he'd made up his mind. "Yeah?" he said into the cordless set.

"I--um--excuse me," a woman's voice stammered over the line. Not Marilyn's mom. "I was trying to--I must have the wrong--I'm calling for Marilyn Ballard. Is this her number?"

"Who wants to know?" He'd learned better phone manners back when he was a kid, but didn't feel like trotting them out now.

"This is Kate. Uh--Sullivan. Her sister?" A pause. "Is this Eli?"

"Yeah. How you doin', Kate? Marilyn can't talk right now."

"She...can't?" Kate's voice squeaked. Like she thought he'd maybe done something to Marilyn and was waiting to dispose of the body.

For a minute, Eli was tempted to play along, let her believe what she wanted. But Marilyn wouldn't appreciate it. "She's in the shower." He switched the phone to his other ear, holding it in place with cast and fingertips so he could turn the rest of the bacon before it burned.

"Oh." The word warbled up and down the scale with relief.

"You want me to have her call you when she gets out?"

"Yes, if you would, please."

"Sure. No problem." He turned the fire off under the bacon.

"Listen, Eli--while I have you on the phone."

What did she want now? "Yeah?"

"I hope you don't mind me asking..." Then she didn't say anything else.

"Kind of hard to tell if I mind, since you haven't asked anything yet."

Kate gave a faint chuckle, as if she wasn't quite sure it was called for. "What do you hope to get out of this--this relationship with my sister? I mean, she's thirty-nine and you're what? Twenty-two?"

"Twenty-five." He began to think he was going to mind Kate's queries very much.

"My, all of twenty-five." Her sarcasm annoyed him even more. "It's obvious the attraction isn't physical. I realize it may seem she's got money, but she doesn't. It's all tied up in--"

"I don't believe you people." Eli couldn't listen any longer. "Have you looked at your sister? She's a beautiful woman, sexy as hell. Who the fuck cares how old she is?"

Kate gasped. "Don't you use that kind of language with me."

"I'll fucking well use any fucking language I fucking want," he retorted. Then wished he hadn't. He sounded like some high school kid mouthing off to his mom.

"Listen here, you--" She broke off and took a deep breath, loud enough Eli heard it over the phone. "That's not the point. I'm trying to appeal to your better nature."

"Hard to do when you don't think I have one, isn't it?" That wasn't much better. He had to find his calm. Something about Marilyn ripped it to shreds.

"Can't you see that you're not good for her?" Kate said. First thing she'd said that made sense. "You're tearing our family apart. If you care about her at all, you should realize that the best thing you can do for her is to leave."

Eli took a