The Fighter and His Tiger (Unexpected Love #1)

43. Friday Week Eighteen

Dedicated to @luckystar55555 my amazing, fabulous friend!!! I love you so much, I honestly don't know what I would do without incredible friends like you in my life. This chapter was written for you, gorgeous XXX

43. Friday Week Eighteen

The familiar smell of burning wafted through the apartment and I jolted up in bed as a sense of home washed over me. Then the sleep cleared from my eyes and my eyelids prised open and I realised that I wasn't at home. But that meant that someone who wasn't my Nan was burning something.

Padding into the kitchen, I discovered a shirtless Eli bending over a frying pan. Pushing away my overwhelming attraction towards him, I peeked around his broad shoulders and grimaced at the sight of smoke rising from the blackened contents of the pan.

Without even turning, he knew I was there, "it's fucked, right?"

Unable to contain it, I released a soft chuckle and nodded, "yup." The action made my hair brush against his arm and I heard his soft intake of breath at the caress.

"What are you trying to do?" I asked him as I stepped back and away, leaning against the cold kitchen counter instead.

"I'm trying," he said, lifting the pan and dumping it roughly in the sink, "to make you bacon."

My lips parted in shock and my bewildered eyes tracked his movements as he went about cleaning up his mess, "bacon?" I whispered in disbelief.

His eyes flickered over to me and he cracked a half-smile, "yeah, tigru, bacon."

"But we don't have any bacon, we never have bacon."

Carelessly, he shrugged, "I bought some on my run this morning but, now we don't have any cause I fucked it up."

Inch by inch, a smile crept onto my face as my mind raced with the fact that Eli had done something thoughtful. He had done something thoughtful, for me.

The minute he caught the look on my face, he scowled, "don't make a big deal, Rei, it's just bacon."

I knew that, but it still felt like more, it felt like him trying to prove that he cared. So I kept the goofy smile on my face as I unabashedly stared at him, "of course, it is."

His crystalline gaze narrowed, "your voice couldn't be more sarcastic if you tried."

The goofy smile on my face melted into a cheeky one, "I can always be more sarcastic, Boxer Boy."

He was leaning on the counter opposite me, arms crossed against his shirtless chest and his abs flexed with every movement he made. Desire flashed in his ocean eyes as they tracked my body - sheathed only in one of his old shirts - from head to toe but I made no move to cover myself.

He arched a brow at me and let his toned arms fall to his side as he leisurely pushed off the counter behind him. Inky black strands fell onto his forehead and the stark contrast against his blue eyes that sparkled with excitement made me take in a sharp breath as my grip tightened on the counter behind me.

Nerves zigzagged through my body as Eli took tantalising steps, closer and closer to me until we were stood toe to toe. The scent of pure Eli washed over me and made my body burn with desire. He was so close.

One arm stretched forward to rest on the counter behind me and the other followed, caging me in as if I was his prey; and at that moment, I was fairly certain I wanted to be.

"Is that my shirt, tigru?" He breathed out in his deep husky rumble, the words smoothed over me like satiny chocolate.

Meeting his gaze, I challenged him with both my eyes and my words, "well, seeing as I am the one who's wearing it," I toyed playfully with the hem, "that kind of makes it mine now."