Chapter 18: His Touch

Elliot's hands were soft in mine as we laid on his bed. We were at his house as I was helping him catch up with his homework to which Lillian was delighted that we were back to be friends again. I had casually laughed it over as Elliot made me avoid Emani because of all the questions she would ask.

"Your hands are so soft," I found myself saying without truly thinking about it.

Elliot chuckled, "so are yours," he said as he turned on his side to look at me. I could feel his smouldering gaze burning a hole at the side of my head so I rolled my head to face him. "Feels like they belong to a baby."

I rolled my eyes, "that's not true. My hands are hands from all the sports I do," I answered with a sigh. "But yours on the other hand, are just so soft as if you don't do any type of work which now that I think about it, I've actually never seen you do any type of hard-work. Are you sure you just don't make Lillian do all the work while you stay locked up in your room doing God knows what." I was teasing him, trying to see what his reaction would be.

It happened so fast but I found myself pinned on the bed with Elliot straddling me. "Take that back Luke," he said menacing but all it did was make me laugh because this was such an awkward position to be in and I had to control myself so I didn't make a fool of myself.

"Elliot, get off me before someone finds us like this," I said in between laughs.

"I told you to call me Eli," he said instead. "If you don't feel comfortable calling me that in front of everyone then at least call me Eli when we are just the two of us." He still had my hands pinned against the bed and no matter how much I tried, he was actually stronger than he looked but by now I should have known that he was much more than he looked like.

I tried squirming out of his grip but he only tightened his hold on my wrists. "Elliot- I mean Eli, please let go of me. We are supposed to be studying and not playing around," I tried saying it with a serious face but I could feel a smile betraying me. "We really need to get to work before Lillian or Emani find us in this position."

Elliot sighed as he eased his hold on my wrists. "They won't. Emani only comes here when she knows I'm free but I'm not and Lillian hardly comes into my room because I made it clear to her that I didn't want her snooping in my room whether I'm around or not and as for Austin, he isn't around so you don't have anything to worry about."

That still didn't make me feel at ease. Just because that was how it was didn't mean exceptions didn't happen. What if today of all days Lillian decided to enter and found us like this? She would no doubt think less of me and for some reason, I didn't want to disappoint her or anyone. I wanted to always please everyone and maybe that was my fault and something I truly needed to work on.

"Eli, come on," I said, liking the way the name 'Eli' rolled on my lips. "Besides, I told Daniel I would be back early today since he has work early in the morning tomorrow and I don't want to worry him."

Elliot's face softened and he finally let go of my wrists but he was still straddling me. "Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you." He got up and walked over to his desk where he sat down and turned his laptop on. "What are you waiting for? We have work to finish before you leave."

I sat up on the bed and composed myself before I finally joined him by his desk where my bag was sitting on the floor. I grabbed my laptop and my Math notebook before I sat down on his bean bag chair. "Let's get to work then."

We spent the next three hours going over Calculus and trying to understand how some of the formulae had been derived. I was impressed with how well Elliot knew this that it made me wonder who truly needed the tutoring sessions, me or him? Because from the looks of it, he already knew this while I was just trying to catch up and understand. He even knew how to prove the formulae and the solution at the end of solving the equation.

"Are you sure you are the one who needs the tutoring sessions?" I jokingly asked as I closed up my notebook and packed the worksheet we had completed.

Elliot turned in his chair to face me and there was a smirk tagging at the corners of his lips which made him look really sexy and I had to bite my lip to stop my heart from racing. "Most definitely, I'm learning from the best," he answered with a shrug.

"Oh please, don't flatter me," I said as I stood up, hoisting my bag on my shoulder. "You were the one explaining everything while I sat feeling dumb and sometimes lost. You have a gift."

Elliot rolled his eyes at that as he stood up as well. "Don't be ridiculous," he said as he walked out of the door and I followed him all the way downstairs where we found Lillian and Emani in the kitchen which was a mess. I watched as Elliot shook his head. "Come on you two, I told you I would make supper." He folded his shirt sleeves and moved over to where Emani was covered in flour.

Lillian turned to me with a sheepish smile, "we thought we would leave you to your work and cook something for you," she said. "But as you can see, that wasn't my best idea yet."

I laughed while Emani sat on the island top in front of Elliot. "I'm sure it was a mistake," I said lightly.

Elliot shot me a look. "I do the cooking unless you want to be poisoned," he said flatly then went back to cutting the chicken up into small cubes.

Lillian sighed as she left everything and washed her hands. She walked over to me while she wiped her hands on a towel. "I'd like to say he isn't right but alas, I couldn't cook even if my life depended on it which unfortunately it does," she said with a light-hearted laugh. "You should join us for supper."

I stopped laughing at that and glanced at Elliot who was busy at work. "I would really love that, but I promised Daniel I would be back early so that I could have supper with him," I said with a sigh. Whatever Elliot was cooking was smelling nice and I truly did want to stay but I had promised and I wasn't about to start breaking my promises to my own brother. "Maybe another time."

"Of course, you are always welcome into our home," she said.

"Bye Emani," I waved and she waved back.

"See you again Luke," Emani said and I turned and left after that.