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

warned. "Don't you walk out that door with that--"

The lobby door shut on Mom's last words.

"Are you sure?" Eli said quietly, a few feet down the sidewalk toward the tight parking lot. "I don't like coming between you and your family."

"How much don't you like it? Just a feeble itch that goes away when you don't think about it, or a great big bothersome pain that you can't stop thinking about?"

He grinned. "More of a feeble itch, I guess."

She grinned back at him. "And how much do you want to stay and be my boyfriend?"

"Boyfriend?" He laughed out loud. "Is that what I am?"

His laughter made her blush.

"I've never been anybody's boyfriend before," he mused, mood changing instantly.

"So, how much?" she insisted. She wanted to know. "Just a sort of okay--"

Eli stopped and turned so suddenly his crutch slipped. He let it fall. He cupped her face in his good hand, thumb stroking her cheek. "I want to stay. Don't ask me how much, because I can't tell you."

Nor did she want to know. Not anymore. He would stay as long as he stayed, for whatever reason he had, and that would be enough. It had to be.

He leaned down and kissed her, a brief honeysuckle-sweet taste of a kiss. "So, where do you want to eat?"

"I don't know, what are you in the mood for?" Marilyn blocked her mother out of her mind, determined to enjoy this evening out with Eli before the next phase of her assault commenced.

The phone wasn't ringing when they walked back in the door later that evening, but Marilyn didn't hold out much hope that it would remain silent. She wanted to take it off the hook, but was afraid of what steps her mother might take if she couldn't get through. When it finally rang, it came as something of a relief.

She was sitting next to Eli on the bed they'd never managed to fold away, propped up against the sofa back with the television providing background noise for Eli's seduction as the ringing started. Eli reached across her to pick it up, and held it out of her reach without answering for another couple of rings.

"Want me to answer it?" he asked. "Run interference for you?"

Marilyn sighed. "Better not. It wouldn't help." She held her hand out for the phone. "Hello?"

"What in hell did you do to make Mom so crazy?" Joey said. "I was afraid she was going to have a heart attack, the way she was yelling."

"She caught me kissing Eli in the elevator and came unglued."

"That would do it."

"Why? What did she tell you?"

"Honestly, I couldn't make much sense out of it. A lot of stuff about you betraying her and turning your back on the family and not being any daughter of hers." Joey paused. "It got pretty bad, Mare, some of the stuff she said."

Marilyn combed her fingers through Eli's short, thick ruff of hair, lifting her chin to give him better access to her neck as he kissed his way down it. "It got pretty bad here too, before I walked out on her. I could understand her disapproving of Eli, but it's more than that. She downright hates him. Hate, Joey. I don't understand that."

"I don't know." Silence buzzed for a long moment. "Are you sure you want to do this, Marilyn? For a-- a--"

"If you say one nasty word about Eli, I'm hanging up."

"I don't have anything against Eli, Marilyn. He accessorizes a little strange, but he seems all right. But what you're doing--you're screwing up your relationship with Mom over a--a--God, I can't even say it--a fling. A little temporary hot sex. Shit. You're my sister. I feel like I need to be punching him in the nose or something."

Her laugh sounded odd even to herself. "I don't need you to defend my honor, Joey. We had this discussion before, remember? If you don't want me punching your girlfriends in the nose, keep your distance."

"Is it worth it?" Joey said. "That's all I want to know. Mom's going to be your mom the rest of your life. You and I both know this thing with Eli won't last. Are you sure this is what you want to do? You tell me you're sure and I'll shut up. I'll even tell Mom to shut up about it. Not that it'll do any good."

Marilyn put her hand over Eli's mouth to stop his roving kisses. They made it too hard to think straight. He kissed the fingers against his mouth, but that was less distracting. "If it wasn't this, it would be something else. Mom won't be happy unless things go the way she wants and if I give in to her on this, she'll expect me to give in on the next thing, and I can't, Joey. I won't."

"Even though this is a short-term, temporary thing."

"Even though."

"You know she probably won't change her mind when it ends."

"I know."

"And you're still sure."

Her temper flared at Joey's persistence. "Yes, I am sure, damn it! I am so sick and tired of being patronized and pushed around--Eli is the only one who says 'whatever you decide, I'm there.' And you wonder why I won't give him up?"

Eli had stopped trying to kiss her. He lay with his head on her shoulder, holding her. She didn't know what he made of her half of the conversation and at this moment she didn't much care. She was just glad he was there.

"If that's how it is," Joey said slowly, "then, no, I don't wonder. I'll call Mom, try to talk some sense into her."

"Tell her I'm unplugging the phone. We were up all night last ni--"

"Don't tell me, for God's sake. I don't want to hear it. You're my sister."

Marilyn laughed. A real one this time. "We weren't doing that last night. We were out looking for a friend of Eli's."

"Did you find him?"

Just as quickly, tears rose up to choke her. She was an emotional wreck. "The