JADE
I was out of the hospital in two days, but it took two weeks for me to be free of the sling on my arm.
I’d gotten it off earlier in the morning, just in time for the gala that Eli’s mom had rescheduled for my charity, SWCF.
I’d been staying at Eli’s waterfront home in San Diego, a sleek, contemporary house with a ton of bedrooms and bathrooms. But what the house lacked in character was made up for by the stunning walls of windows and the water views.
I might hate the traffic and the city, but Eli had an amazing home.
“What in the hell are you doing?” Eli bellowed from the open door of the sitting room that was attached to the bedroom he’d put me in.
I was sitting in an awkward position on one of the small chairs, one leg bent up, and my foot on the edge of the seat. “Painting my toenails,” I informed him without looking up.
We were due to attend the gala tonight, and I was making a special effort to look good. I’d spent most of the day with Skye. She’d come to San Diego for the day, and we went to have lunch, and then went shopping. She’d helped me pick out a new outfit since I had nothing appropriate for a party with a ton of rich people.
“You’re supposed to be watching that shoulder. You’re bending too much,” he said in an annoyed tone.
As usual, Charlie was at Eli’s heels, but he plopped down in the corner and proceeded to close his eyes to get a nap.
Honestly, I was getting used to Eli disapproving of every single physical thing I was doing. “I was cleared to resume normal activities,” I reminded him.
He moved into the room and grabbed an ottoman, plopping it down right in front of me before he sat down. “Give me that,” he ordered as he reached for the polish in my hand.
“Seriously?” I asked, putting the brush back in the bottle. I’d never had a guy offer to polish my toenails.
“Give it,” he said as he pulled the bottle of Blackberry Red polish from my hand.
I watched as he wrapped his big hands around my foot and pulled it onto his lap.
“Oh, my God,” I said with amazement. “You’re really going to do it.”
He shot me a warning look before he went to work polishing my toenails. “I’ve always thought it was kind of an awkward thing for women to do themselves anyway,” he grumbled.
I leaned back in the chair. “It is. I hate it. But I’m wearing sandals, so I really have to paint my toenails.”
There was no way I was going to put up a fight. It was kind of nice to watch Eli with his head bent, his attention focused on getting the polish on straight.
Really, it was one of the sweetest things anybody had ever done for me.
Not that Eli hadn’t been an incredible caretaker during the last two weeks. He’d babied the crap out of me way too much.
I’d been uncomfortable at first when his mom had come over during the day when Eli was in the office. It was awkward in the beginning, and I told both of them over and over that I could take care of myself, but neither one of them was having it.
Over the course of the last two weeks, Elizabeth Stone and I had become friends. She was a woman of incredible business acumen, but she also had a heart of gold. Liz had taken over teaching me everything I needed to know about the business world during the day, so I was learning my way pretty fast. Obviously, it would take years for me to have the same understanding that she did, but I was starting to feel more comfortable with managing stuff myself.
“Shit!” Eli cursed as he got a tiny smear of polish on my skin.
I quietly handed him the nail-polish-remover towelettes. “It happens all the time.”
He put his head back down and wiped the color off my skin, and then resumed what he’d been doing. I had to be honest, from what I could tell, he was doing a better job than I would have. When it came to nails, I got impatient and just slapped the color on without much regard to whether or not I had covered every single tiny portion of the nail.
But not Eli.
He was laser-focused on doing a good job. Maybe that was why he was so successful. He pretty much threw himself into doing everything well.
One thing I’d noticed about him in the last weeks was how he was in the moment, giving something his all, even if it was only a normal task.
The intense fixation that had once made me uncomfortable now fascinated me. The man could multitask, but he never lost sight of his original mission.
“I know you gave me a guest list, but what is the atmosphere going to be like? What do celebrities and billionaires talk about when they’re out for the evening?”
I knew I was going to feel a little intimidated, but I wanted to be prepared.
The event was being held at some swanky country club, and a concert by some of the biggest names in music was going to follow the gala and dinner. I had no idea how Eli had talked those in-demand musicians into donating their time, but he said they had all refused payment.
Eli had convinced every one of them that it was a cause worth supporting.
He finally raised his head and put my painted foot carefully on the floor and lifted the other one. “What does anybody talk about? Their kids, vacations, hobbies, occasionally investments. Whatever comes to mind.”
“I’m a little nervous,” I confessed.
“Don’t be,” he answered. “They’re there to help you.”
“Don’t think I don’t appreciate that,” I said hurriedly, not wanting him to think I wasn’t grateful. “It’s just a little daunting to attend a party that I never would have been invited to when I was poor.”
“I would have invited you,” he countered.
“If I hadn’t come into money, we never would have met,” I said thoughtfully. “We didn’t exactly hang out in the same circles.”
“Maybe,” he confirmed. “But I think you’ll find out that not everyone there is filthy rich. And many of them weren’t born rich. Some are entrepreneurs who busted their asses to become successful, but they aren’t billionaires.”
“It’s amazing that all of those people are supporting my charity. It’s pretty humbling.”
“Your report helped,” he told me. “You have a talent for writing up the facts but making them personal.”
I’d worked hard on getting information together for possible supporters. “Maybe because it’s my passion.”
“It shows,” he said in a serious tone.
“The donations will help SWCF buy out some important corridors. Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me,” he requested. “Now that I’ve seen all the information, I get why preserving those pieces of land and keeping them undeveloped is critical to wildlife. In some cases, you can already see some species being completely surrounded. I’m not sure why it was never thought about before development.”
“It was, actually. But more often than not, big business wins out and the animals lose.”
He lifted his head and looked at me with a grin. “Not anymore. The more backing you get, the more weight you can throw around.”
Eli gently put my foot on the floor, capped the polish, and handed it back to me. “All done.”
“You’re an angel,” I said with a sigh. “Thanks. Not that you needed to do it, but they look so much better than what I would have done.”
I gently flexed my feet and wiggled my toes. Eli had done an expert job.
“I’m definitely not an angel,” he argued. “And how do you know that I didn’t do it just so that I could touch you?”
My heart tripped. Eli hadn’t so much as made any personal comments in the last two weeks. He’d been way too concerned about making sure I did everything the doctor ordered.
But I was cleared now. I had some simple exercises I could do for the next several weeks to build my shoulder back up slowly, but I didn’t even need to go to physical therapy.
“You can touch me now,” I informed him in a tremulous voice. “I’m recovered.”
The sexual tension between me and Eli was always there, always present. As I started to feel better, the intensity had ramped right back up to where it used to be, maybe even more urgent.
Being close to him now without any physical contact was absolutely agonizing.
“I’m not compromising your recovery just to get laid,” he said roughly. “If you get too much activity too soon, it will put you back to where you were two weeks ago.”
I could still see the desire in Eli’s beautiful, stormy eyes, so I knew he was feeling the unbearable chemical attraction, too. “Then just kiss me,” I said, frustrated.
Eli put both of his hands on the chair, pinning me in as he leaned down close. “I think we both know where that would lead,” he said hoarsely. “I can’t touch you without wanting to fuck you until neither one of us can move.”
God, I wanted that, too. So badly that my body physically ached for him. “One kiss,” I requested.
His eyes turned a deeper gray, and they were smoldering with fire. “You know damn well I can’t say no.”
I probably did know it, but if Eli didn’t touch me in some way, I was going to go crazy.
He put his fingers under my chin, tilted my head up, and his mouth captured mine in less than a heartbeat.
The delicious heat and power of his embrace made me sigh against his lips.
I savored the intimacy as he thoroughly explored my mouth, the kiss so blazing hot that I felt like I was going to incinerate.
I desperately wanted to wrap my arms around his neck and grasp his coarse hair, keeping him close to me. But I was afraid it would cut short the closeness between us, and I wanted to relish every stroke of his tongue.
Eli didn’t just kiss; he claimed. His alpha-male tendencies didn’t make me uncomfortable anymore. In fact, sometimes I craved them because I wanted him with the same fierceness, and I got as locked up into the craziness of our desire as he did.
When he finally lifted his head, I bit back a protest. I didn’t want him to move away.
Eli straightened and strode to the door.
“Get ready, Jade,” he said in a hoarse voice. “We have to leave in an hour.”
“I know,” I answered, still trying to catch my breath.
He snapped his fingers for Charlie to follow him. “Let’s go, buddy,” he said to the canine. “If I can’t see her naked, you’re not going to either.”
I laughed because I knew he was teasing in a moment filled with deprivation.
“I never said you couldn’t watch,” I said playfully.
His back was to me as he answered, “If I did, we’d never get to the fund-raiser.”
Man and dog both exited the room without another sound.