The Fighter and His Tiger (Unexpected Love #1)

26. Sunday Week Nine (pt1)

26. Sunday Week Nine (pt1)

After telling Eli the truth about everything, I felt as though a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. The ease with which I revealed everything to him made me realise just how deeply I felt for him.

I was falling for him and there was no denying it at this point.

My head tilted on his chest so I could gaze at his sleeping face. When he was asleep, his face looked completely relaxed, it turned his rugged handsomeness into boyish good looks. He had one arm curled around me, holding me close to him and his other was bent to rest beneath his head. Our legs were wrapped together in a tangle beneath the sheets and I had one hand on his chest, by my head, and the other was playing softly with his hair. I had noticed that whenever I moved it Eli released a little grumble of protest meaning my hand had remained wrapped up in his soft waves all night. His bare chest rose and fell beneath my head as I admired him, but then my eyes flickered to my wrist in his hair which had the blue friendship bracelet on it that Noah gave me and my heart cracked open again.

The content smile fell off my face and I rose from Eli's chest. Waking up, he groaned behind me before I felt him stretch beside me, but I didn't want to turn around to face him yet.

"I can't lose him," I confessed, " but I don't know how to fix this."

Eli sat up and placed a kiss on my shoulder, "Noah loves you, Rei, you could never lose him."

A tear broke free as I relived my fight with Noah yesterday, Eli twisted my head around to face him before rubbing away my tears with his thumb. Needing comfort, I clambered onto his lap, wrapping my arms around his neck as his own came around my waist. We sat like that for an hour before Eli mumbled into my neck that he needed to go train and I remembered that my Nan had wanted to spend the day with me.

Checking my phone whilst Eli was in the shower, I noticed that my Nan had sent me multiple messages.

Nan: Reillyn Cole, where the hell are you?

Nan: you better get your little butt home right now!

Nan: Reillyn, if I was with you right now I'd be counting down from three!

Nan: That's it! I'm going to bloody bingo! Screw you and our stupid 'girl' day!

Despite her being clearly angry, I found myself chuckling at the messages, somewhat pleased to be faced with a sense of normality after the nightmare that was yesterday.

"What's funny?"

My head lifted from my phone and oh my fuck he looked good. Eli was wearing nothing but a towel which hung dangerously low on his hips, my mouth went dry and my lips parted at the sight of him. His tattoos were on full display and his chiselled abs practically winked at me as the sun hit them through the open windows. His black waves were still soaking wet and my eyes tracked the movement of a water droplet that slipped all the way down his smooth chest and right beneath his towel, out of my sight.

The sound of a throat being cleared snapped me out of my reverie and my eyes flashed up to meet Eli's which were sparkling with amusement. He smirked at me before dropping the towel.

Surprised, I squealed, covering my eyes with my hands, "Eli!"

His booming laughter carried through the room but I wasn't amused, just highly frustrated. I heard him moving about the room, "you can look now, tigru."

I peeked through my fingers and, once I was certain it was safe, I removed my hands from my face. Eli was now wearing black sweats as he peered over at me with a look that I couldn't place.

"What?" I inquired from my position on his bed. I was currently laying on his bed backwards with my head at the foot of the bed and my feet waving around in the air behind me.

Eli just shook his head as if to say, 'nothing', before tugging a t-shirt on and picking up his gym bag from the floor. Seeing that he was now ready to leave, I hopped off the bed and followed Eli down the stairs.

Just before we got in the car my phone pinged with a message.

The Spanish Bitch: I don't care what you're doing right now. We haven't spoken in ages, puta, so get your ass to mine ASAP!!

Amused, I smiled before looking at Eli over the roof of his car, "can you drop me off at Lana's please?"

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A short one but I thought it was necessary to showcase Eli and Rei's dynamic when things got tough.

pt 2 next

Thank you for reading, lovely people!

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