Page 28 of Daddy's Christmas Elf
Eli shook his head as, wincing, he pushed himself upright. He might have been white-faced and shaky but determination shone in his eyes.
“I’ve not broken or sprained anything, honest. The only thing I need is to get back and sit in front of the fire with a mug of hot chocolate, with maybe a mince pie or two. And some of those posh looking chocolates you had delivered earlier.”
Eli smiled, but Grey knew it was held up on tight wires of willpower that could snap at any time.
“What you need is to be checked over by a doctor.” Grey ground his teeth together, his jaw so tight the smallest increase in pressure would shatter it. Why wouldn’t Eli concede and let Grey get him the care he needed?
“And spend hours and hours in A&E, only to be told to take some anti-inflammatories?”
Grey huffed, but Eli was probably right.
“The first thing you’re going to do when we get home is have a hot bath with some essential oils. Then you can have the whole bloody box of chocolates.”
“I’m feeling better already. Let’s get the holly and stuff, and go.” Eli nodded to the bags, abandoned further up the hill.
“Forget them. I need to get you home.”
“And I need to see your living room decorated with more than a bunch of ugly twigs with bits of wire hanging from them. Go on, it’s what we came here for. And honestly, I’m okay.”
Grey didn’t believe Eli was okay at all. Eli’s face was bloodless, the tremble in his voice not disguised by his breezy claim that all was well. The near-calamitous accident, only just avoided, had shaken Eli to his core. If he wasn’t going to agree to seeing a doctor, Grey would damn well make sure he was looked after at home. As fast as he could he retrieved the bags, reluctant to leave Eli alone a second longer than necessary.
“Come on, let me help you up.”
“It’s all right, I can—ohh!” Eli collapsed to the ground as his legs, too wobbly to hold him, buckled.
There was only one solution and Grey wasn’t going to take no for an answer.
Pushing the bag handles into one of Eli’s hands, Grey scooped him up in his arms.
“Grey, what—?”
“No arguments. I mean it.”
“But…” Eli’s protest faded to nothing as Grey tightened his arms around him.
Eli rested his head against his chest and closed his eyes as Grey held him tight and made his careful way towards home, hugging his precious cargo to him.
CHAPTERFIFTEEN
Eli snuggled down into the sofa, in front of the crackling fire, as Trevor dozed in his lap. His mind returned to what had happened out on the Heath. Not so much the accident, which had scared the living daylights out of him, and shaken him up more than he’d wanted to admit, but to what had happened after.
Grey, sweeping him up in his arms and holding him tight.
Eli swallowed, his mouth dry as he relived every single moment. He hadn’t argued; there had been no point because Grey wouldn’t have listened to him. But that hadn’t been the only reason. He hadn’t argued because he hadn’t wanted to.
Wrapped in Grey’s arms, Eli had never felt so safe and secure. So cherished. Eli closed his eyes and breathed in deep, just as he’d done when he’d burrowed in close to Grey’s chest, hearing the hard, strong beat of Grey’s heart. The sure and steady rhythm had calmed him, just as Grey’s sure and steady arms around him had.
Wrapped up in Grey’s soft dressing gown, after a soak in a hot bath, Eli lifted the collar of the dressing grown and gave it a sniff, drenching himself in the aroma of orange. But there was more, a base note of something deeper, warmer, and way more masculine and heady: the scent of Grey himself. Eli’s heart twisted. Yes, the underscoring scent was all those things but it was so much more. It was the scent of care and consideration, of strength. It was a scent of a man who would keep him safe and warm, of a man who would pick him up when he fell.
And don’t I feel like I’ve been falling, far too deep and for far too long?
On his lap, Trevor shifted and snuggled closer, and Eli slowly ran a hand over the little dog. Life, beyond the safety of Grey’s four walls, was little more than a hard, never ending grind. He was a hamster on a wheel, always moving but never getting anywhere.
“Do you think I’m a fraud, Trev? Because when I feel brave enough to take a really close look at myself, that’s what I think.”
Trevor snored softly.
Eli stared at the fire. Fraud. That was what he was, to himself more than anybody. He hid behind a breezy approach to life, his confidence nothing more than a façade that threatened to crumble and fall if prodded and poked too hard. His home wouldn’t be his home for much longer and his job might not be there in the New Year. What money he’d scrimped and saved would have to be spent on surviving before going towards realising his ambitions to be his own boss.
