Knight In Black Leather by Gail Dayton (people reading books .txt) 📗

said, his expression like stone. Like he obviously wasn't going to leave her alone with her mother. He slouched against the wall by the elevators.

Mom grabbed Marilyn by the coat sleeve and dragged her across the lobby. Not far enough to be out of hearing range, loud as she would be talking. "Please tell me you weren't doing what I think you were doing," she began. "Tell me you weren't kissing that awful boy."

"Eli's a man, Mom, and yes, I was kis--"

"Do you know where he's been? Do you know how many diseases you could catch just by kissing? God forbid you ever have sex with--" Mom broke off, shuddering, the idea apparently too awful to contemplate.

"How did you get here, Mom?" Marilyn asked. "Did Joey bring you? Or Kate or Sue?"

"Not that it matters how I got here, but I took the bus. Marilyn have you been sleeping with that--that--"

"Man, Mom. Eli's a man. And you know there's only one bed in my apartment."

"Watch your smart mouth. Have you had sex with him? That's what I want to know."

"None of your business."

"You have, haven't you? I saw the way he was kissing you with his hand on your butt and his tongue down your throat. This is the absolute last straw, Marilyn. I have tried to be understanding. I know how hard it is rattling around in an empty house when your last chick moves away. Did I say anything when you quit your job?"

"As a matter of fact--" Marilyn may as well have not even tried to speak.

"Did I say anything when you moved out of your perfectly nice house and into this horrible apartment?"

"Yes, Mother, you did." She was going to say it, whether Mom listened or not.

"But I can't stand by any longer and watch you throw your life away. He's trash, Marilyn. Garbage."

At those words, the anger simmering along just under her skin flared into fury, gasoline touched by flame. "You stop right there, Mother. I won't let you talk about Eli like that. He's a good man. Just because he doesn't wear a three-piece suit and go sit behind a desk all day doesn't make him garbage."

"I said garbage and I mean garbage." Mom shook her finger in Marilyn's face. "He's scum and I want him out. You get him out of your apartment and out of your life right now. Or else. I mean it, Marilyn. I am dead serious about this."

"Or else what, Mom? I've been too big for you to spank for a long time."

"Are you going to do it?"

Marilyn looked across the room at Eli, leaning casually against the wall, his expression impassive, as if utterly bored with waiting. How much of that was an act? He saw her looking and lifted his chin, his gaze locked on hers. After a long moment, he nodded once, a tiny, infinitesimal nod, as if telling her he'd go along with whatever she decided, stay or go. It was her choice to make.

It was her choice to make. And really, there was only one possibility. She wasn't about to let her mother blackmail her into giving up the best thing that had happened to her in years. Yes, this--this thing with Eli wouldn't last, couldn't possibly. But damned if she would give up any of it before she had to.

"And if I say no?" Marilyn dragged her gaze from Eli to her mother, who was swelled up like a cartoon bomb ready to explode.

"If you don't get rid of that--that bum right this instant, you're no daughter of mine."

"You're kicking me out of the family? Over Eli?" The idea was borderline ridiculous. "I don't think you can do that. I'm thirty-nine. You can't un-birth me."

"Maybe not. But I can stop treating you like my daughter."

"You mean no more phone calls at all hours? No more tirades about how I've lost my mind? No more nagging to do what you want me to do? And you think this is going to break my heart?"

"You've broken mine, Marilyn." Mom beat on her chest with her fist, demonstrating just how broken she was. "To think that a child of mine would go so far as to forget all the things we taught you and do something like this."

"Oh please." Marilyn rolled her eyes. "If Eli were fifteen years older, without the nipple ring, you'd be falling all over yourself trying to convince him to marry me."

"I would not. His age has nothing to do with it. It's who he is, Marilyn, and who you are. Who I thought you were."

That hit home, struck her to the bone. "You don't know anything about Eli or the kind of person he is. You never made any effort to find out. It's obvious you don't know anything about the person I am either. And that makes me sad, Mom.

"I can't be who you want me to be. I have to be who I am. And if you can't handle that...well, I'm sorry."

"Are you--Are--" Mom sputtered a minute. "Are you telling me you're choosing that--that body-pierced boy over your own family?"

"You're the one who made the ultimatum, Mom. Not me. I won't go in that box you want to lock me in. Eli makes me happy. And as long as he wants to stay, he's staying." She gave her mother a faint smile. "Be grateful he's as young as he is. He'll get tired of me before long and move on, and things will be back to normal."

"If you do this, Marilyn, things won't ever be normal again."

"Then I guess I'll just have to get used to it." She turned and held her hand out to Eli. "Ready? I'm starving."

His smile barely curved his lips as he limped across the lobby to offer his arm--the broken one, since the other had the crutch to deal with.

"Marilyn--" Mom's voice held a threat.

"I have to go, Mom." Marilyn looped her hand into Eli's sling. "I have a date."

"Don't you do this," Mom