"You will never guess who just called me."

Eli's cautious glance met mine over the brim of his coffee mug, a sly smirk plastered on his angular face.

"How many guesses do I get? Or is this one of those 'for every wrong answer you have to take a piece of clothing off' games?"

I snorted so hard I almost choked on my own coffee after taking a sip of the sweet drink, the bitterness chased away by the milk and sugar splashed in such copious amounts it could hardly be described as coffee anymore.

"No, but I doubt you'll be in as good a mood as you are right now when I tell you who it was."

Eli paused in his rakish stares along my body to meet my eyes, their depths sharpening as he tried to interpret my threat level. With everything we'd been through in our lives, you could never be too careful.

"Who?"

"My aunt Kara. She wants to set up a meeting with the lawyers. Apparently, she's trying to say she was in a common law marriage with my father before he died and that she was entitled to half his estate on his death."

"What? But that doesn't beat out the will that he made, does it?"

"It shouldn't, but he changed the will a year before he died to only include me. She's claiming he wasn't of his right mind. Guess who was supposed to get everything before he made this change?"

"Holy shit. He was going to leave you out of his will? I wonder what changed his mind," Eli mused, reaching across our high bar top to clasp my hand within his. The gentle touch sent shockwaves sparking through my system, and I briefly wondered if we'd be able to get away with having some alone time before Elodie came back from her mall trip with her friends.

To say I'd been...insatiable the past few weeks was an understatement, and Eli was all too happy to oblige my every need.

The plus of having a 'kid' so early on in our relationship was that she was mostly completely independent, and almost to driver's license age as well, so there was no strain on the two of us in raising her.

We'd only had her a month, but everything was going as smoothly as either of us could have hoped for...including the time that we were able to have for ourselves.

"V?"

"Huh? Sorry, um, yeah I think so. He must've been upset at me for something. Changing my degree to theater, disagreeing with him on something, it could've been anything. Why he changed it back, though, that's the million dollar question. Guilt, maybe? I wonder if he grew a conscience before he died."

Eli's fingers drew soothing circles across my skin to bring me comfort, but when I thought of my father, I only felt numbness where the pain and anger had once been. Maybe it wasn't all that healthy--having no feelings whatsoever towards the man, but it was the way that helped me cope.

My therapist told me I was handling it exceptionally well for the trauma I'd endured, so gold star for V.

"Well I think that you should just let the lawyers take care of her, and not let her have another penny of your money. I still can't believe that you gave them the house."

I snorted a derisive laugh as bitterness bloomed within me for my 'family'.

"Right, and then lost in in the same year they got it. I still can't believe they blew so much money on that in-home studio for Sara and the matching Bentley's. No wonder they went bankrupt."

"They only have themselves to blame. You were more than fair to them. And to think I thought you hated them."

"I didn't hate them. I didn't care for them, that's for sure, but maybe Sara wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't for her mother. There were moments when she wasn't so terrible, but once her mom started influencing her more, it was all downhill from there."

"They had no idea who they were messing with, did they?"

I quirked a smile up at his words, scooting my chair closer to him so his hand could travel from mine up my arm and encircle my shoulders, rubbing out the tension that had been present for the past few weeks, the exhaustion hitting me hard.

"Oh my god, when did you get so good at this," I groaned out in pleasure, probably reminding Eli of other certain times when he'd elicit the same sounds from me.

"When you begged me to rub your shoulders a few weeks ago because you said something like 'if you don't massage my neck, you're not getting any-'"

"Yeah, yeah, okay I remember that. Sorry. I guess I was kind of grumpy that night."

His breathy laughter stirred the dark strands of hair away from my face and tickled the sensitive skin beside my ears.

Sensitive. Everything had been so sensitive lately, and most times not in a good way.

Eli must have remembered the precise turn our conversation from weeks before had turned after I'd threatened the loss of a certain favorite activity of ours, and where once his adept fingers had kneaded out the knots on my shoulders, his strong hands slipped down my sides and came to rest on my hips, massaging the fleshy love handles that only grew from his love of cooking (and my love of eating said cooking).

Without warning, I was deftly picked up from my spot beside Eli at the table and transported into his lap, my back to his front as his arms snaked around my front and explored the contours and curves of my body.

I squealed as his hand brushed against my chest, a much more sensitive piece of me that sent a shudder of anticipation through the very center of me, desire pooling in my stomach and I clenched my legs together as memories of the night before flooded my mind.

"Eli...remember last night?"

"Mmm. Vividly. Which part was your favorite?"

His mouth was sucking on my neck, trailing open mouthed kisses up and down and up and down and then I was seeing stars and panting and desperate for something I was unable to put into words.

"All...all of it," I answered breathlessly, and in response, Eli stood up and spun me around, placing me on the counter top before him, my legs instinctively wrapping around him and Eli wasted no time in taking advantage of our alone time before Elodie would return from hanging out with her friends.

"Why don't I jog your memory of your favorite part," he teased, dark voice lilting with mirth and barely restrained lust while his hand crept up the front of my shirt and snaked around the column of my neck, his large hand holding me there in place as if keeping me from moving while his other hand began pulling the straps of my thin tank down my arms.

To say we'd been experimenting with different things in the bedroom was an understatement, and last night was probably one of the best nights we'd ever spent together. Ever. Hence the gentle neck-hold.

There was no tight pressure, just his palm against my pulse point as if anchoring himself to my life force, feeling every slight flutter in my heartbeat or barely there change in my breathing letting him know exactly how I felt about what he was doing to my body.

One half me was a withering, boneless mess while the other was an inferno burning brightly for the impatient slow hands twisting around my body like vines, tugging and pulling at all of my vulnerabilities.

"Lay back for me, baby."

I complied as he pushed my body back against the cool granite, a sharp contrast to the delicate flush staining my skin aglow with sprinklings of perspiration for what was to come.

My shorts were slipped from my body and then my hands were tangled in his hair while his mouth danced inside of me, teasing and tasting everything that belonged to him because all of him belonged to me, too.

Before long all that remained of the two of us were breathless, panting messes spent and collapsed together in the kitchen, sprinting to the bedroom as the lock started to turn and Elodie returned home before she could see anything indecent.

We couldn't tear our silly, stupid grins off of our faces for the rest of the night.