Okay, I have seen plenty of girls eat before and I never thought twice about it. But when Ellie ate, my whole world about stopped. Who am I kidding? Everything she did made my whole world stop. She ate all of her sandwich and finished off her chips and the brownie I bought her. Thank God she was not one of those girls who would only eat lettuce and snack on carrots. Jeff came out dressed and ready for his date.

“All right, I’m out of here. You sure you are okay with this, Ellie?” Jeff asked as he bent down to give her a kiss goodbye.

“Yes. I said I was fine. Have fun tonight,” Ellie called out as Jeff slapped me on the back and made his way out the door.

“Did you get enough to eat, Ellie?” I asked her as I cleaned up the mess on the coffee table.

“Oh my gosh, yes! I’m so full and so tired! Thank you so much, Gunner, for getting my favorite! I’m surprised you even knew that,” she said as she looked up at me with those beautiful blue eyes that caught my breath every fucking time she looked at me.

“No problem, sweetheart, it was my pleasure. I heard Jeff say enough times what he was bringing you for lunch, so I put two and two together and figured this must be your favorite place.”

“Do you mind if I watch a movie with you? I mean, I’m tired but I don’t think I could fall asleep this early,” Ellie called over her shoulder to me as I brought all the trash out to the kitchen. Holy hell, just her asking to watch a movie with me and BAM . . . hard dick! I needed to get it together or else it was going to be a long fucking night.

“Of course, I don’t mind! On the table next to the sofa are all of our movies if you want to pick one,” I called back out to her. “You want something else to drink?”

“Um . . . just water please.” She answered me with a smile so sweet my heart about dropped to my stomach. I would give anything to have that smile greet me each and every morning.

“Soooo, you really were planning on just staying home tonight and watching a movie? Seems to me you would have some hot date like Jefferson. A guy as good-looking as you surely has a girlfriend,” Ellie rattled off as I walked up to the sofa and set her bottle of water down along with another beer for me.

“Yes, I was really planning on watching a movie tonight and no, no hot date or girlfriend,” I said back to her with a laugh. “Jefferson would laugh his ass off if he heard you say he was on a hot date!”

I sat down on the sofa and reached around the back and pulled up a blanket for her.

“Do you want me to get you a pillow?” I asked as she looked through the movies.

“Oh, no . . . I can get it. You don’t have to wait on me, Gunner. I’m perfectly fine to get things on my own.”

Good Lord, I could watch her lips move for hours. I tore my eyes away from her mouth and looked up to see her staring back at me. Yep, this was going to be a long night. We sat there for I don’t know how long, just staring at each other, before I jumped up and walked into Jeff’s bedroom to grab a pillow and another blanket. I needed to adjust my growing dick as I walked down the hall.

I walked into my bedroom and quickly changed into some sweatpants. If things kept going the way they were, my dick was going to be squished in my jeans all night if I didn’t change. On the way back into the living room, I stopped in the kitchen to get a bag of ice for Ellie’s hand.

I sat back down on the sofa and handed her the pillow and the other blanket. I also grabbed the small sofa pillows for her to prop up her hand.

“Thank you, Gunner,” she said in the sweetest voice I’ve ever heard. There goes my heart again for like the umpteenth time today.

“Sure, um . . . got to remember to keep this elevated. You find a movie you like?” She looked up at me with the most adorable smile. I couldn’t help but smile back at her. The things this girl’s smile did to me, and in more than one place!

“Yep! I can’t believe you have this! I love this movie,” she said with such childlike excitement.

I looked over to the movie she was holding, and it was Cars. No fucking way!

“You want to watch Cars?” I said with a laugh.

“Hells yeah! This is like my all-time favorite movie! Ari’s little brother and I watch it all the time. You don’t like Cars? I can’t believe it. It’s like . . . the best movie EVER. Why do you even have this movie if you don’t like it?” she rattled off so fast I had to laugh at her.

“No! No! Cars is perfect, Ellie. It actually is my favorite movie, too. I love watching it, and I’m not afraid to admit I bought it. I have a secret love of saying ‘Ka-Chow!’ when no one is listening,” I said as I took the movie from her hand.

“Cars it is!”

I walked over and put the movie in the Blu-ray player. I turned back around, and if I was not mistaken, I would say someone was just checking my ass out. I gave her a smile and a wink and watched that beautiful blush take over her cheeks.

“Are you comfortable, sweetheart? Do you need anything while I’m up?” I looked down at her poor hand. It was still pretty swollen, but didn’t look too bad. She was trying to adjust herself on the sofa with all the pillows and the blanket. I let out a small laugh and she looked up at me.

“Glad to know I’m amusing you. I can’t do this with just one hand. Argh! I feel so useless. Shit!”

She threw her head back against the sofa. Poor thing, I knew she was in pain and was trying to act like she wasn’t.

“Here, Ellie, sweetheart, let me help you.” I reached over and set the pillow on the end of the sofa. “Here, lie down.”

I picked up her legs and the instant I touched her I felt a jolt of electricity go through my entire body. Good Lord, I can’t even help her with the simplest of things without getting a reaction out of my betraying body.

“Really, I’m okay sitting up, Gunner. If I lie down, you won’t have anywhere to sit!” She practically jumped away from me.

“Don’t be silly, Ellie, lay down. Please.”

I smiled when I saw her relax. She lifted her legs onto the sofa, and I adjusted the pillow for her. I took the smaller pillows and put them on the edge of the sofa so she could put her hand up. She took the ice, and I saw that she winced when she put it on her hand.

“Do you need more pain medicine?” I asked her as I moved the coffee table over to where she could at least reach over and grab her water if she needed it.

“No, I just took some not too long ago. Gunner, really, you don’t have to do all of this. I’ll be fine. Besides the fact that I’m just feeling sleepy, I’m okay, really.”

I was now kneeling on the ground in front of the sofa adjusting her blanket.

I looked up at her and was stopped dead in my tracks. Her beautiful light brown hair was just past her shoulders and had a bit of a wave to it. Not curly but not straight either. Her blue eyes looked like the sky, and her smile . . . well, damn, her smile would always be my undoing, I decided at that very moment.

I smiled at her, and for some reason I reached up and pushed her hair behind her ear. Every time I touched her, I felt her heat move through my body. I wanted so badly to reach down and just brush her lips against mine. And then it hit me: I would do anything for her. I would lay down my life for this girl.

“I know you can take care of yourself, sweetheart. I just want to help. Now, let’s watch this movie, shall we?” I said as I stood back up and moved to the other end of the sofa.

I lifted up her legs, sat down and grabbed the last small pillow I purposely kept out to hide my hard-on. I placed her legs on the pillow and hit play. It would take several minutes into Cars before my heart rate finally settled back down.