Page 23 of Rough Start

“I’m sorry,” he said with large tears rolling down his face. “Liana, I’m sorry. I don’t want you to get hurt. No one was ever supposed to get hurt.”

“Daddy, what are you talking about? Who got hurt?” she questioned as she rubbed her sore shoulders. He was shaking his head as he turned and stumbled into the kitchen. Grabbing a bottle of brown liquid from the fridge, he stumbled toward her again, and Eliana couldn’t help flinching when he reached for her. “Who got hurt?”

“No one,” he said finally. “No one got hurt, and no one is going to get hurt, least of all you. You can’t disappear like that. I need my Liana. You know I need you. I can’t lose you too.” Even though the smell of sweat and alcohol was rancid on him, Eliana allowed her father to hug her, and to her surprise, she felt him begin to sob.

“Dad, please don’t cry,” she pleaded as she rubbed him on the back. “I won’t disappear again. I’ll call next time, okay.”

“No next time!” he snapped, and she jumped away from him as though he’d burnt her. Again, his eyes were wide, and he looked around rapidly before they settled back on her. “Best leave me, Liana,” he relented as he began dragging himself up the stairs. She could still see his wide shoulders shaking with restrained tears as he vanished down the dark hallway.

Eliana waited until she heard his door close before retrieving her dress. Fortunately, the gown was protected in the garment bag, but she still pulled it out and examined it for damage after getting it to her bedroom. She felt anger at her father for robbing her of the delicious confidence she’d discovered that day. There was a need to retrieve it that welled within her.

With a fleeting whim, Eliana pulled a nightgown out of her bottom drawer. It was a satiny blue with a low neckline and sheer sleeves. Locking her bedroom door in case her father decided to stumble in, she stripped off her clothing and pulled the lacy material over her head. Having once belonged to her mother, it fit her nicely. Eliana resumed her position in front of the full-length mirror on the back of her door and appraised her appearance.

Without the guiding hand of a mother figure, she’d always been petrified of wearing something that was provocative in any way. She’d been almost fifteen and mortified when she’d had to buy her first bra. It had been a traumatizing experience walking into the secondhand store with what little cash she’d saved from babysitting and fumbled her way through the lingerie section. Had it not been for the matronly Mrs. Addlewood who worked the register, Eliana would have been lost to navigate the numbers and letters of cup size. Her fear of her own body had built a resentment toward it.

Now as she stared at her breasts as they hung heavy in the nightgown, she could see them in their beauty. They were round and full, with a light splatter of freckles on her collar area. The dip in her waist was high, making her hips look rounder, and she’d always been told she had long legs. Though never one for sports, Eliana had tried to remain a healthy weight. Not learning to drive yet offered her the chance to walk enough to keep any extra holiday pounds off.

It seemed scandalous to think it, but Eliana found that a generous amount of heat was rising in her belly as she moved around the room. She felt attractive. She felt sensual. It was a remarkable experience, but she felt immensely proud of herself for discovering this sensation all on her own. She was blooming.

As she brushed out her long hair, she found herself caressing her neck and wondering what it would feel like to have a man kiss her there. What would it feel like to have Kye kiss her there? Just the thought made her bite her lip. There was no denying the way he made her feel. The butterflies he gave her seemed amateur compared to her new-found eroticism.

Closing her eyes, Eliana leaned back on her bed, her hands still wandering and exploring her body, and she conjured images of her raven-haired love. How would Kye’s hands feel if they touched her like this? She’d felt the roughness of his mechanic hands in only a few places, but she let her imagination explore the idea of how they’d touch her. How gentle would they be? What parts of his body would she discover first?

Her eyes shot open when she heard the rapping at her window. Feeling waves of embarrassment, she threw on her heavy bathrobe before tossing back the curtains and opening the window. The blast of cold air that hit her made her shiver, but not nearly as much as the sight of her previous fantasy standing in the cold.

“Good Lord, woman, I’ve been throwing rocks for twenty minutes,” he whispered loudly. “Let me in!”

“Kye, I, uh, wait, no!” He was already rushing toward the back door, and Eliana felt panic overtake her. She didn’t have time to redress, so instead, she tied her bathrobe on tighter before moving to the back door. The last thing she needed was her father bursting out of his room at the noise of Kye knocking.

“I nearly froze to death,” Kye complained when she opened the door for him and they ducked into her bedroom. “What?” he asked, looking down at her after she closed and locked the door behind them. A strange expression had crossed her face, and his eyebrows raised as she looked him up and down with a slow and curious glance. “Eli?” he asked in a low tone when she pressed both her palms against his chest.

“You’re cold,” she noted in a voice filled with something he’d never heard from her before. Rising up on her toes, she pushed him against the door and pressed her mouth firmly, and daresay, hungrily over his.

Kye couldn’t quite get his mind to catch up with what was happening. Logically he knew that gentle, soft-spoken, conservative Eliana wasn’t pressing him against her bedroom door in a negligee with her tongue in his mouth, and yet the way his hands dug into her back to pull her closer would suggest otherwise. When he took a handful of her hair and tugged at the roots, her eager moan synchronized his senses to the realization ‘yes, this is happening’.

“Eli,” he croaked out when he had the lucidity to break the kiss, “what are you doing?”

“I’m kissing you,” she replied, slightly out of breath. Before he could ask for elaboration, her lips were on his again, and the question flew from his mind. Taking another firm grip on the roots of her hair, he turned her around to reverse their positions, giving him a slight upper hand. The door rattled in its frame as he pressed her against it, and the way her back arched gave him the chance to wrap his free arm around her. God, she fit against him like the second half of a puzzle piece.

Without fully registering the thought, he couldn’t believe he was finally holding her like this. His body craved her like any addict for a drug. Knowing she was relatively untouched, he’d sworn to himself never to push too far too fast, but with her panting in his arms, fingernails scratching the back of his neck, there was very little room for hesitation. Before he knew it, the back of his knees hit the edge of her bed, and they were toppling down. Rolling to partially lay on top of her, she raked a leg up his side, and he shed his coat to take hold of her smooth calf.

Eliana’s hands, though shaking with uncertainty, snaked under the back of his shirt, and her nails dug into the muscles under his shoulder blades. The cold that had soaked into him from being outside so long was replaced with the heat of her body. His hands, not suffering from her shyness, had no problem dragging down the front of her nightdress and taking a handful of the soft fabric.

Her short breaths were hot in his ear when his lips moved from her mouth to her neck to her chest where her rosy pearls fit between his teeth. There was a rich smell to her, like chocolate and honey and that made him lightheaded. Eliana was moaning as he moved from one breast to the other, and she tugged deliciously at his hair. Her bare foot was stroking his outer thigh through his jeans, and his hips pressed more firmly against hers until his hip bone dug into hers. The sudden gasp she emitted alerted him that she’d felt his hardness tucked between them and like a bucket of water to a lit match, he flew off of her and stumbled into her dresser.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, sitting up just as quickly. Her lips were bright red and swollen, and there were marks on her neck and chest where he’d been kissing her. “Kye?” she asked again with an almost hurt tone of voice as she pulled her top in place.

“Nothing,” he said, shifting his weight at the uncomfortable pressure in his jeans. “Nothing is wrong, just going to stand… over here.”

“Why?” she asked with confusion. She twisted so her legs dangled off the edge of the bed. The hem of her nightgown rode up, and her soft thighs were exposed. Kye turned his back to her and started fiddling with items on the top of her dresser. “Kye?”

“I’m just looking at your stuff,” he said lamely as he mentally demanded that his body cool down before he exploded just from looking at her.

“Right now? I kinda thought we were in the middle of something…” He could still hear the passion in her voice. It dripped from her pouty lips like syrup. Oh, how he wanted to taste her dripping places. He could do it, you know. She was sending all the right signals. He could turn around, go to her, and strip that nightgown off… “Kye!”

“I just think we should slow down,” he stated with a crack in his voice he hadn’t heard since puberty. He was still examining a bottle of nail polish when he heard her stand and cross to him. Eliana’s long arms wrapped around his middle, and her face buried in his back.

“I don’t want to slow down,” she admitted, her voice partially muffled in his shirt. He tensed as her hands ran down his chest toward his hips. Stopping her hands in place with his own, he turned around slowly and lifted her fingers to his lips and kissed them.