Trouble in Sudden Falls: A Sudden Falls Romance (15 page)

Eli shifted slightly, his mouth slowing against her throat but she wasn’t ready for it to be over. She moved her head so that she could nibble on his ear. He groaned and squeezed a hand over her hip.

“Maddie.”

He was going to do it again. Rejection pounded down around her shoulders.

Her fingers slid out of his hair, right as his hand tightened and tugged almost painfully in her tresses, which shot pleasure all the way through her body.

He licked the rim of her ear. It would seem that Eli was the master of mixed signals.

Was this about to become more? Or stop?

Eli slipped his hand under her blouse then between her sports bra and skin and she realized it
had
to be more. There was no way she could stop, particularly when he rolled the tip of her nipple between his index finger and thumb. His mouth met hers again and she welcomed his tongue in to play along hers. Her arms tightened around his neck and she sighed.

Suddenly, he pulled back and removed his hand from her blouse. “Maddie. We have to stop,” he said in a hoarse groan.

Oh, hell.
Not again.

Chapter Eight

Eli knew he was nuts for stopping this. He wanted this more than anything in the world. “Maddie,” he said tenderly. Her death grip on his neck eased some and he started kicking himself. This is right where he wanted her. Except for the fact that she’d hate him tomorrow and continue to think that he slept around indiscriminately, but now she’d think
she
was his latest conquest.

Plus he had an impressionable teenager right upstairs.

Before he could make love to her, she had to trust him. While Eli’s lovelife was probably not nearly as scandalous as she imagined, he’d known for a while that he needed to make some changes. And he wanted to make certain that Maddie knew he was making them. Unless she came to him, then he wouldn’t know whether she was really here because she wanted to be—because she cared and she trusted him—or because she found herself in a moment of loneliness.

This time, he was playing for keeps.

“You and I both know this isn’t a smart idea.” He tried not to dwell on what he was giving up. If he did, he’d
never
be able to do the right thing. “You’ll hate yourself tomorrow.”

She closed her eyes and ducked her head so he couldn’t see her expression.

He used a bent finger against her chin to tip her face towards his.

Maddie shook her head, dislodging his finger, but not meeting his gaze. “You’re right,” she said in a hoarse voice after a long moment. She wriggled off his lap and pulled her long blouse down over her hips as she stood. The walls came back up and Eli had an intense desire to erase the last minute or so, draw her close again and never let go. Which was a ridiculous proposition. This was wrong in so many ways.

Even if it felt oh-so-right.

“I don’t know what came over me.” She looked around until she spied her shoes and moved across the room to slip them on.

“Hey.” He stood and crossed the room to her.

She shook her head and raised a hand as if to hold him off.

“Maddie—” he began.

“I’m going to go home and go to bed where I belong.”

“Are you mad?”

She hesitated for a too-long moment. “No.” Her voice was barely more than a whisper.

“You sure?”

Maddie nodded slowly. “Can we pretend this never happened?”

Oh, hell.
Not again.

Why had he started something they weren’t ready to finish?

“Like we did last time?” He shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

He wanted, no
needed
to acknowledge that something significant had changed here.

“Sit,” he commanded, pointing to the sofa.

“Eli—”

“Sit down, Maddie. We’re going to talk about this.”

She hesitated a long moment before sliding her shoes back off and folding herself into the corner of the couch with her knees tucked up under her chin. Her defensive posture made it impossible for him to get close to her. Physically or emotionally.

Finally, he settled onto the couch as near as he could without crowding her. “Why do you refuse to talk about what happened three years ago?”

She met his eyes for a second before looking down at her feet. He waited her out.

“This is so embarrassing. Do we have to do this?”

“Why is it embarrassing?”

“You’ve turned me down twice. In what universe is that
not
embarrassing?” She took a shuddering breath. “You, who will sleep with nearly anything in a skirt over the age of eighteen, clearly have no desire to sleep with me at all. That’s kind of a hit in the ego.”

Her voice cracked on the last word and it felt like someone squeezed Eli’s heart with all their might. He swallowed hard.

“No desire? Are you kidding me? You were sitting on my lap two seconds ago. You’re not fifteen. You have to know it wasn’t my car keys poking you in the thigh. Trust me.
Desire
isn’t the problem.”

She closed her eyes and buried her face in her knees.

“That you think I’d sleep with anything in a skirt is the reason you and I aren’t upstairs right now with me buried so deep in you that you don’t know where you end and I begin.”

He heard her indrawn breath and he wondered if he was getting through to her. God knew, the image he’d put in his own mind certainly got through to at least one part of him.

“Three years ago, you were contemplating breaking up with Darren. You were hurting. You were the best friend I ever had. I didn’t want to take advantage of you. Do you have any idea how hard that was?”

“Really?” she asked in a whisper, though she didn’t look up.

She clearly didn’t get it. He’d been fighting off a terminal hard-on for this woman for… well, the better part of twenty years. “Yeah.
Really
.”

“So why did you stop things tonight?” He could tell the effort cost her.

A number of glib answers flitted through his brain, but he had to be honest with her. “I’ll admit my track record hasn’t been stellar, but it isn’t as bad as you think it is. I’m not going to sleep with you and let you think this is some little fling. I really like having you in my life again. If we did sleep together right now, we’d screw it up because you don’t trust me. What happens when it’s over? I’m not exactly good about staying friends with the women I’ve dated.”

She mumbled something.

“What was that?”

Maddie hesitated for a moment. “I said, ‘Maybe because you’re
never
friends with them.’ Before during or after.”

She was right, of course. Maddie’s friendship had always been enough, which should tell him something about himself. However, he wasn’t up for a long round of self-examination tonight.

“What else?” This time her voice was a little louder, but still directed into her knees.

“What do you mean?”

“You said there were a lot of reasons. What else?”

“Well, there’s also Rogan who doesn’t need to run into you half-dressed in the hallway in the morning. And also, you came over here for a shoulder to cry on, not a quick tumble in the sack.”

Her tongue darted out to make a quick path around her lips, and he was nearly undone again. He hadn’t been this… well,
horny
since high school.

He needed to diffuse the situation and fast. “And last but not least, when I win this bet, you’re going to know I won it fair and square. Andy’s car is only a couple of months from being mine.” He winked as he said it.

Finally, she straightened and looked at him, rolling her eyes, the right corner of her mouth pulling up a fraction of an inch. “Yeah, right. Good luck with that, Sparky. Even if this does eventually happen, I’m stubborn enough to wait for three months and a day.”

Eli’s shoulders dropped with relief at her reaction. This could have gone so much worse. She slid her feet into her shoes, stood up and pulled on her coat.

“Want me to walk you back home?”

She gave him a look that clearly telegraphed she thought he was a loon. “I think I can make it the eighteen steps from here to there.” She buttoned a single button on the front of her coat.

Eli followed her to the door.

“Thanks for being here.” She turned back for a second at the bottom of the porch steps.

“Any time, Babe. You know that.”

She didn’t respond as she turned for her own house.

He continued to watch her until she disappeared up the steps and into the door, his only thought,
Please, God. Don’t let tonight do irreparable harm to our friendship.

“Mr. Lafayette.”

Rogan turned. Mrs. Scarpa was waiting outside his third period class, right before lunch. She led him back to her office where he took a seat in front of her desk.

“Have I done something?”

She smiled like she really meant it and shook her head. “Nah. If you were in trouble, you’d be heading for the assistant principal’s office, not mine.”

Relief washed through him. “Oh, good.”

Mrs. Scarpa laughed. “I guess the question I should ask is what was the first thing you were concerned about me finding out?”

Rogan found himself grinning for the first time all day. “Nothing. I’ve been an angel lately.”

“I’m not buying, kid. But I don’t think I have anything to worry about all the same.”

“No ma’am.”

“I called you in here because after talking to a contact of mine in the admissions office at the community college, I found out some further information for you. First, if you have an A or B in everything this grading period, they’ll allow you to attend the program. Is that going to be a problem?”

Depending on his
highly subjective
grade from Mrs. Cannifarm, no. He shook his head.

“Good.” She handed him a letter written on school stationery. “Take this home to your dad. It’s for his information—the same thing I’m telling you.”

Rogan nodded and placed the piece of paper in a folder which he shoved back into his backpack. “Aren’t I cutting it pretty close? The end of the grading quarter here and the start of the Spring quarter there are only about a week apart.”

“True. But two things are working for you. One, the spring quarter is usually the least attended at the college as a lot of people drop out over the course of their first year so they have extra classroom space. And second, my admissions contact has pretty much guaranteed me that she’ll get you into the classes you want.”

“Why?”

“As a personal favor to me.” She said it as if it were obvious.

But that didn’t explain why Mrs. Scarpa was going out of her way.

She explained before he had to ask. “Hey, kid. I like your dad. He was one of my favorite students. Don’t tell anyone that. I’m not supposed to choose favorites.” She mock-punched in him the shoulder. “And I like you, too. I also see a heck of a lot of potential in you and want to see you realize that.”

Rogan’s breath choked in his throat and he coughed to clear it. “Thanks.” His vocal chords were almost too tight for the word to pass.

“No problem. Just don’t disappoint me. Now scoot! I’ve got work to do.”

Rogan picked up his backpack as he stood. “Really. Thanks again.”

She smiled at him and he turned and walked out the door. There was no way in the world he would disappoint her. Or himself. All he had to do was make Cannifarm happy and he was bound for college.

Maddie pried open her eyes with barely enough brain power to note that she hadn’t set her alarm before falling into a coma the night before. “Oh, God. Emma.” She was
late
with a CAPITAL L. She launched her body out of bed with a few choice words and instantly collided with the box of summer clothes she’d yet to unpack.

“Ow!Ow!Ow!” she hollered, leaping over the spilled clothing as she made a beeline for the shower. In five minutes, she washed every body part with actual soap; including all major crevices—giving quick acknowledgment to Macaulay Culkin in
Home Alone
— ran a brush through her hair and haphazardly anchored it with an elastic band at slightly askew on the back of her head.

Clothes flew indiscriminately from the closet to land on her person, and she slid into her shoes as she raced for the door, remembering as she hit the front porch, and subsequently saw Eli’s car pull out of his driveway, what had transpired the night before.