Loving Carter

33

Elijah's POV

Eli opened his mouth to comfort Carter but she kept going.

"That's what happened that day, when you turned off the lights and I-yeah," she said with a strained voice as if she was embarrassed mentioning what happened.

Eli realized something then. With a sinking feeling in his chest, he realized that she must have felt abandoned by Eli. He felt something similar to a punch in his gut as she kept speaking.

"When you didn't come back and said you hated me, I felt so-"

He cut her off before she could even finish the thought.

"I came back, Carter."

She paused and propped her head up, looking at him with a face of confusion, eyebrows turned down and her mouth in a frown.

"The morning after. I came back to see you and tell you that I lo-" he stuttered and changed what he was going to say, "To tell you that I wasn't going anywhere."

She sat up higher, facing him head-on. "What? You came back?"

He sat up with her, cupping both of his hands on her cheeks and pulling her closer to him, hugging her into him so she could feel his sincerity.

"Of course, I fucking came back. You thought I'd leave you for that reason?"

She sniffed into his chest. "Yeah. I thought that's why you said you hated me."

He pushed her back to look into her eyes again.

"I was a fucking idiot. Please forget I said that Carter. I'm a walking piece of shit for making you think that."

Her lips turned down at his self-deprecating remarks. "Don't say that. You don't hate me?"

"No, baby. I was lying to you and being an asshole to push you away. I don't hate you," he reassured her.

She shook her head, "I don't understand, then what happened that night to make you act so harsh and mean towards me?"

"It wasn't what happened that night," he said. "It's what happened the next morning."

"I came back and it was fucking shirtless Ryder at your door. That's why I left," he clarified.

Carter looked down, her head spinning as she made the connections. "That was you? Who knocked on my door that day?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I came back to make sure you were okay."

Her gaze softened and she launched herself into him once again, hugging him closer to her body.

He held her closer before she pulled back again, "Wait so why did you leave?"

Fuck.

"Oh uh, no reason," he shrugged, feeling heat rise up his neck.

Her eyebrows stayed scrunched together before they shot up with realization.

"Oh," Carter's lips turned up to a smirk then. "Oh."

"Shut up," he said right away knowing where her mind went.

"You were jealous," she stated with confidence.

"No, I wasn't."

"You were."

"I wasn't."

"Yes, you were," she teased him again and he snapped.

"Of course I fucking was," he said roughly. He grabbed her shoulders and drew her near, slotting his hand onto the back of her head, his fingers in her hair. 

He pulled her scrunchie off of her hair, letting her hair loose. He kept the scrunchie on his wrist as he held her hair up with his hand.

"Of course I was. The thought of someone else touching you made me sick. You're mine, Carter. All of you."

"I'm yours?" She questioned. "Since when?"

He pulled her hair back exposing her throat to him and went in to gently kiss the side of her throat, murmuring against her soft skin.

"You were mine since the second I laid my eyes on you."

She gasped at his soft lips against her.

She straddled him then, her knees on both sides of his body.

Eli was practicing a lot of self-control right now, not wanting to cross a boundary when she was crying literally 20 minutes ago.

"Well, you're mine too," she said back.

"I am. I'll be whatever you want me to be."

She smiled then, leaning her forehead down to settle onto his gently.

Her smile dimmed as she looked at his throat.

"Who gave this to you?" she traced her fingers across the faded hickey on his throat.

He sighed. "After I saw Ryder and made that stupid assumption, I fucked up and hooked up with a girl. I didn't even realize she gave that to me until I was pushing her away. All I was thinking about was you," he told her the truth.

She nodded, leaning forward and sucking on his skin erotically, letting it go with a smile as she replaced Karen's mark with her own.

"Much better," she said.

He wrapped his hands around her back and pulled her into him, an intimate hug between them as she lay on his chest.

"I'm sorry for everything, baby," he whispered into the top of her hair. "I didn't know."

She nodded against him, "It's okay. I understand now. Don't do it again."

"I won't. I'm never letting you go," he tightened his arms around her.

They stayed like that for a while relishing each other's presence and the conversations they just had.

hope you enjoyed reading!

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