COMING HOME

Chapter Eight

Elijah

"Hey Elijah!! Have you met my friend?" Lexie points at Jax.

"Umm..what's your name again?" She brings her fingers up to her lips and starts tapping them.

"Anywho! Doesn’t matter your new name is hottie." She's smiling at him, wiggling her eyebrows, and the asshole is smirking back at her. I step in front of him before he gets any crazy ideas. He's my best friend and all, but that's my woman. I'm the only one she needs to be calling 'hottie'.

"I know who he is Lexie, and his name is not 'hottie' it’s Jackson." She shouldn’t be checking him out.

"But you can call me Jax, beautiful!" I hear the bastard behind me interrupt. He stretches his hand out as if to shake hers, but I smack it away and he starts to laugh.

"I'm f*****g with you man! I recognized her from last time, and I figured you would appreciate me watching her for you."

"Stop flirting with my woman, and don’t f*****g touch her again, Jax."

"Well then, you better go catch her cause she's leaving." He smiles as he watches Lexie walk away. She’s making her way towards the bar. I start pushing thru people trying to catch up to her, when suddenly she stops and looks lost. I catch up to her, grab her by the hips, and whisper in her ear.

"Where you going?" I pull her hair out of the way, giving me better access to her neck.

"I can't find Bri and I'm outta Vodka." She turns towards me and pouts. Then holds out her empty cup for me to see. When she stumbles a few times, I realize she's drunk. She's still pouting, but now she's also shaking her upside-down cup as if something is supposed to fall out of it, yeah she's definitely drunk.

"Come on, I'll help you find her." I walk with her in front of me holding her close so she doesn’t fall. Also, I want everyone to see she's with me, having her this close to me is the easiest way to deliver the message. She's not putting up much of a fight and I'm glad because I really don’t want to let her go. I spot who I think is Brianna by the bar and walk in that direction.

"BRI!! Look who I found. Can I take him home?" Lexie giggles. Brianna looks up at me, starts shaking her head, and begins to make her way over to us.

"No honey, you can't take this dog home." She takes Lexie's empty cup and puts it on the bar. Ouch!

"Nice to see you too Brianna." I guess I deserved that.

"Go away asshole, I'm not letting you take advantage of her while she's drunk." Lexie can be mean, but she doesn't hold a candle to Brianna Thomas. That girl can make people want to curl up and cry with just her words. Probably because she hits you right where she knows it'll hurt the most. She's always been very protective of Lexie and I can see that hasn’t changed.

"I wouldn’t do that Brianna. She couldn’t find you, so I brought her to you." When Lexie begins to wiggle out of my hold, I let go.

"That's my song!" Lexie screams when Rude Boy by Rhianna comes on. She starts swinging her hips side to side and I swear I'm getting hard just watching her move. She grabs Brianna's hand, pulls her towards the bar, and then starts climbing it.

"Bri lets dance!" She stands up on the bar, kicks off her heels, and those hips start gyrating again. She's bringing attention to herself but doesn’t seem to mind one bit. She bends over to the front and shakes her ass in the air. s**t, I almost punch the guy next to me when he tries to grab her ankle. Instead, I shove him off and warn him not to try again. The bartender looks horrified when Brianna and Dannie, one of the bartenders who works here, hop up next to Lexie and start dancing alongside her. I have to stand in front of Lexie like some f*****g bodyguard, so none of the other guys get any funny ideas. When the actual bouncers show up I tell them it’s okay and when they recognize who I am, they nod and back off. Jax comes up next to me laughing his ass off.

"What's funny? She's going to fall and bust her ass."

"I doubt that. You'll be here to catch her." I look up and see she's looking down at me with those f**k me eyes. She's being the best type of seductress; I want to hop up there and just f**k her right here and now. Too many people are watching though, and I don’t think she'd be ok with an audience. Looking over at Jax I see his sight has landed on someone, Brianna to be exact, and he looks mesmerized. Bri looks down at him and gives him a smile that could only mean he might be getting lucky tonight. I turn my eyes back to my woman and when the song ends, she jumps from the bar and lands in my arms. I put her down and we start dancing to some slow song, my front to her back. We sway as one to the music. Bri climbs down and walks off with Jax towards the dance floor.

When she stops dancing and turns to face me, I realize the same look she was giving me earlier is still there. Her want is all over her face, radiation off of her body and I'm sure mine is as well. If my face doesn't give it away, I bet the semi hard on she's been grinding on does. I hesitantly put my lips on hers and hope she doesn’t slap the s**t out of me. When our lips meet it's like I can breathe again. I was head over heels for this woman six years ago and that hasn’t changed.

"Take me home Elijah." She didn’t have to ask twice. I start pulling her towards the door, and when she trips I stop to pick her up. I don’t get very far when Brianna side steps in front of me.

"She wants to go home." I tell her. Brianna's arms are crossed over her chest, and she is not moving.

"Then I'll take her." When I say Brianna looks pissed I'm putting it mildly.

"You've been drinking, you can't drive."

"I'll call a cab. Drop her Kingswood!" She takes one step closer to me when an arm goes around her waist and keeps her from taking more. I know it's Jax because I can see part of the tattoo that runs from his shoulder down to his wrist. He whispers something into her ear and she sags into him. When he's done she steps out of my way.

"Fine! Lets go." She turns around and starts walking towards the exit with Jax at her heels. I don’t ask any questions I just follow them out of the bar. When we get to my car, I let Jax drive and Brianna sits in the front seat so I can hold Lexie in the back seat. I look down at her and her eyes are closed, her chest rising and falling as her breathing slows and I know she's sleep. She looks so peaceful like this, in arms.

Twenty minutes later, we pull up to a one-story house. Jax parks on the curb and I ask Brianna who lives here.

"Lexie does, her parents helped her buy it when she graduated college." Can't really see much in the dark, but I can make out a few windows, the door, and a garage door to the far left. We get out and walk to the front of the house. Bri pulls a key out of her bra and opens the door. What is it with girls and always putting stuff in their boobs? She tells us to wait while she turns on the lights. We step inside, Jax closes the door, and we wait until Brianna tells us to come in the rest of the way.

"What did you tell her?" I whisper.

"Told her I wouldn't let you do anything Lexie wouldn’t approve of if she was sober." I nod in agreement.

"Don’t make me out to be a liar." Brianna walks back over to us and motions for us to come in. There's a small hallway from the front door to the living room. The wall separating the two has a few pictures of her and her parents and some of her and Brianna. We step into the living room and it's a descent size room. She has two black couches some lamps on end tables and a big ass flat screen mounted on her wall. It looks nice in here not too fancy, but not too dull either. When I look around, I notice a fire place to my right and further right there is a small hallway with two doors facing each other. On the left side there is the dining room connected to the kitchen, and behind us is another door.

"Her room is behind you, the guestroom is the door on the same side as the chimney." Brianna points at what she's showing us.

"Elijah."

"I know. I promise I won't do anything, just put her to bed." I turn and walk towards her room. Before I close the door I hear Jax asking Bri to show him the guestroom. I see him grab her hand and lead her towards the room. When we walk in the room I try to wake Lexie up and put her down but she won’t wake. I head towards the bed and lay down with her on top of me. Her room doesn’t have much. There's a bed, dresser with a mirror, and a nightstand. Her laptop is on the nightstand along with a candle. Her scrubs are on the floor and that's about it. There are two doors in front of her bed which I'm guessing one is her closet and the other a bathroom. I kick my shoes off and start getting comfortable when she wakes up, jumps off the bed and runs straight into the restroom. I hear throwing up and I follow her to make sure she's okay. She's on her knees emptying her stomach into the toilet that she's holding onto for dear life. I walk over, hold her hair out of the way, and rub her back. When she's finished she stands and walks over to the sink to wash her mouth out.

"What are you doing here?" She asks when we step out of the bathroom.

"You asked me to bring you home, and Brianna's been drinking too much to drive." She's going through some of her drawers pulling out shorts and a t-shirt then heads back into the restroom and closes the door. I hear moving around and then a loud thump. I rush over and open the door to find her on the floor with one leg in her shorts and her laughing.

"I tried to put on my shorts, but couldn't." She starts laughing again, and I make my way further into the restroom to help her up. I bend over to help put her shorts on the rest of the way and tell her to use my back as her balance. I can't help but admire her legs, as I make my way up with her shorts. I'm still pulling them up when the warden bursts in. Her face goes from worried to angry in half a second. All I hear is Lexie say uh oh before Brianna starts yelling.

"What the f**k Elijah! You said you wouldn't try anything!" I finish helping Lexie with her shorts before I reply.

"She was changing and fell, when I came in here, I found her on the floor laughing. I picked her up and helped her finish." She didn’t look like she believed a word I was saying. Then she looks over at Lexie and it's like they're having some kind of mental conversation because Brianna nods her head and walks out with Jax. When the door closes, I lead her back to the room but she stops me, pulls her shirt off followed by her bra and looks straight up at me. She's making it difficult for me to keep my promise to Brianna. I want her, and she knows it. That’s why she's teasing me. Before I do something stupid, I walk into the restroom grab her t-shirt and come back to put it over her head. I lead her to the bed and pull the covers so we can get in. I take off my pants, and shirt, leaving me in my boxers and socks. Then I get in after her and she quickly cuddles with me.

"You know you really hurt me when you left." She's not asking, she's telling me what I'd done.

"I know and I'm sorry." I pull her tighter to me, I know she's talking about when I left for college. She knew I had to go to football camp, but my parents didn't let me come back at the end of summer like I was supposed to. They tricked me to stay away, changed my phone number and promised they would tell Lexie why I wouldn't be coming back. I should’ve known they were so full of s**t. I hear her sniffle and when I look at her she's crying. She tries to hide her face from me, but I won't let her. I grab her chin and lift her face up to mine.

"You know I would never hurt you on purpose. Baby, I'll spend the rest of my days proving it to you if it means you'll forgive me." I hear her hiccup and I feel like the worst man in the world. I get closer still and whisper to her that I'll never leave her again or hurt her in any way. Then I kiss her, but it’s mostly for me. I need to taste her, to feel her soft lips against mine. Her arms go around my neck and I wrap mine around her hips. When I pull away, her eyes are hooded and her lips are beautifully swollen from the kiss. I hold her until I know she's asleep in my arms, thinking this feels like home.