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Emily started to speculate when her dad tolerated Loker's presence next to him at the Christmas party. Her dad, Cal Lightman of the Lightman Group, not only choose the most comfortable seat in the room, but slouched, sprawled, taking up more space than anyone else in the room, just to show he could. Loker had skipped over other available seats and positions in the room to perch on the arm of the sofa right next to her dad. Loker and Lightman didn't look at each other, but in this place of all places, everyone was aware of Loker's careful pushing and Lightman's deliberate stillness. It still wasn't as blatant as Gillian and Ria.
Gillian Foster was curled up on the other end of the sofa, as compact as Cal Lightman was sprawled out--and Ria Torres sat on the floor at her feet, using her plate of holiday goodies on the coffee table as a convenient excuse to stay close. Gillian used it for the same reason, leaning close to Ria every time she reached for a cookie or other sugary bit. Happily, Emily had her own plush, comfy single seat--afar from the curious positioning but with a good view. Key was standing stiffly in range of the door, ready to bolt--he would periodically look to Emily, as if to ask "Am I really seeing this? Also, are these people crazy?" Emily tried to give him a reassuring smile. He didn't look convinced.
Secret Santa presents were exchanged, eggnog was drunk, and someone attempted to sing a carol; all in all a fairly innocuous office party. As it wound down and employees began excusing themselves, Ria and Gillian had become engrossed in some book, heads leaning in together, and her dad, the esteemed Cal Lightman, got Loker a glass of whiskey.
It wasn't just the drink, Emily realized as she puzzled over her dad's actions, it was that Loker hadn't asked. Moreover, her dad didn't just bring it to him, but crowded him into the furniture as he did. He stayed almost too close, until Eli, with a quick look at his boss, began drinking, then Lightman abruptly left again. He wandered, sauntered, even to politely bid well-wishes and goodbyes to other employees, all keeping himself in a position to see Eli, Emily observed.
Eli sips his drink and watches his boss in return, when a prickle warns him someone is watching and turns to see Emily eyeing his every move. She tries to give him a reassuring smile, as she did to Key, but she's pretty sure it came off more like a smirk. Either way, Eli heads her way, snagging a plain folding chair to pull up to her plush easy chair. He sits. They look at each other a moment, but each find they have nothing to add to the obvious, so they turn to watch Cal arguing with Key over taking some cookies home or something.
"In other news, Ria and Gil have been all over each other this evening," Emily makes her announcement just as Eli tires to swallow another mouthful of whiskey. He doesn't spit it out, only just barely chokes, but it's enough to have him look suspiciously at Emily for her timing. She's pretty sure she smirked again.
"You are evil," Eli says flatly. "Also, I'm not sure that all over is the right descrip--" as Eli speaks, Gil puts her arm around Ria to point something out, all but whispering in her ear. Ria turns around, so the two are very nearly nose-to-nose to answer. There is at least one slow smile involved. Eli takes a gulp of whiskey and Emily drains the last of her eggnog.
"You were saying?" Emily asks Eli, trying to raise an eyebrow at Eli (she's doubtful one actually stayed down--doesn't matter, he's too busy gawking to notice her eyebrows.)
"I think I was saying I was jealous," Eli admits, and Emily has to laugh. He looks at her then, smiling himself.
"A little bit of radical honestly, making a return," Emily points out. "But you don't have much to be jealous of right now, I mean, Dad's trying to get you drunk!" Emily admits to herself she really is trying for a spit-take from Eli. But Eli recovers in time again, and bravely finishes his whiskey, with only the smallest narrowing of eyes at Emily.
"Yeah, I'm not too optimistic about his intentions, Emily," he definitely sounds reluctant. But, they both have to silently agree on that one, so they sit a moment, eyeing Gillian and Ria as they rise and retrieve their coats.
"What are you two talking about, then?" the sudden voice of Cal interrupts their quiet observation and both of them flinch a little as Cal smirks at their reactions.
"You enjoy that too much, Dad," Emily begins, but is immediately side-tracked as she watches her dad neatly exchange Eli's empty whiskey glass for another full one. Eli looks like he might want to protest, but Cal every so slightly leans over him, one hand on the back of his chair, and Eli takes a gulp instead, avoiding his boss's gaze.
Seeing her opportunity, Emily speaks up again, "We were just talking about that time Eli kissed me."
Spit-take success! Eli does catch part of his drink at the mouth with one hand, coughing and sputtering.
"I did not!" He twists his head around frantically, looking for a napkin as he continues to protest. "You kissed me! I didn't! And didn't we already--" he spots a discarded napkin on the coffee table behind Cal and lunges for it. Cal refuses to move as Eli snags the napkin, so they come very close indeed, Eli leaning back with a blush to see Cal's leer and Emily's raised eyebrows.
"Actually, I was just trying to make Eli do a spit-take. We were just talking about how you're getting him drunk." Emily looks very smug indeed.
"Drunk? I'm just getting the bloke a drink. Called being a good host, Em," but as he says it Cal leans forward more on the back of Eli's chair. Both Eli and Emily stare at him as he refuses to back down from his position effectively boxing Eli in. Eli breaks the gaze first and nervously takes another sip, as Emily watches her father watching Eli drinking.
"Trying to sneak off, are you?" Cal calls out suddenly. Ria and Gillian pause guiltily at the door.
"You were busy," Ria says pointedly. Gillian calmly wraps her arm around Ria's shoulders.
"Merry Christmas, Cal, Emily, Eli. Have a good night," and Gil pushes Ria out the door, ignoring Ria's attempts to put up a fuss, and they were gone.
The last remaining three peer at the door as if Gil and Ria would reappear before turning back to glance at each other. Eli takes another sip.
"See! You glare at him until he drinks!" Emily exclaims as she stands up and stretches. Cal continues to stare fixedly at Eli, who nervously looks at his drink before blushing again.
"I guess I'm getting a cab home," Eli says. He shrugs and takes a long gulp, tipping the glass back.
"I'll give you a ride," Cal says, finally turning away.
"Ah-ha!" Emily points triumphantly at her dad, which he ignores.
"You two, help me clean up," he instructs instead.
Cal nudges Eli with his elbow to get him out of the chair in order to fold it up, walking off with it, picking up a discarded cup in his other hand as he goes.
Eli, deprived of his chair, looks to Emily.
"I guess you may as well drink up," she tells him and begins to pick up the few remaining dishes and decorations.
Eli glowers at her, unamused by her unhelpfulness, then tips his head and cup back to finish his whiskey. As he gathers up Christmas decorations, he checks that Cal isn't nearby and sidles up to Emily again.
"This is weird, right?" Eli asks her, quietly.
"Yeah," Emily tells him, just as quietly, as she gathers up and dumps the last of the trash, "but the question is what do you want and are you going to go for it?"
"I'm pretty sure you're the last person I should be talking to about this," Eli says while shoving the couch and coffee table back to their usual spots.
"No, I'm the perfect person, because I'm the only one who's going to tell you--just go for it, don't let him scare you off and just keep turning up," Emily's voice and face are genuine, but Eli still has a problem taking her seriously. "Also, when he said he'd give you a ride, he didn't say where, so I'm telling you I'll see you in the morning. Wear clothes."
Eli stops cleanly and outright gawks at Emily. He can't think of an appropriate, or even inappropriate, response. Emily stares right back at him, dead serious.
Cal walks back into the room.
"What now?" he asks, taking in the weighty scene in front of him, sounding just a little cautious, for once.
"Nothing. While you put exactly two things away, we cleaned up. Let's go," Eli actually sounds sure of himself now, which makes Cal raise his eyebrows and Emily smirk. Eli strides up to the door, pulls it open, then takes Cal by the arm and pulls him out the door with him. "You promised me a ride," he reminds Cal.
"Yeah . . . " Cal is visibly taken by surprise by Eli's initiative and, perhaps, pleased, but Eli isn't sure he's reading that correctly. Emily just grabs her purse and cuts the lights out on her way out, with a private grin.
***
At the car, Cal walks up to the driver's side, as usual, studiously ignoring Emily and Eli as they meet at the front passenger door.
Eli expected Emily to cede her front seat, perhaps because of her support. She doesn't move. Eli tries to motion her with his eyes without getting Cal's attention. He's getting frantic because Cal is seated and waiting.
"Hey," he hisses trying not to move his mouth much because, of course, Cal is watching them through the window.
"Hey," she whispers back, effortlessly angled away from her dad's gaze, "don't pretend you aren't going to creepily stare at him, so get in the back where you can stare all you want."
"Point," he concedes with a tip of his head, and climbs in the back seat. He fumbles with his seat belt a minute, convinced Cal is looking at him, but when he turns forward, Cal is staring at his daughter.
"What?" she asks him, all innocence, fooling no one.
"That's the way it's gonna be, then?" Cal asks her.
"Yup," she answers and turns her gaze fixedly ahead.
Cal swivels to glance at Eli in the back seat. He tries desperately to appear not-creepy. Nothing on Cal's face gives away his impression, leaving Eli even more nervous.
"Alright then," Cal says and starts up the engine, pulling out of the parking lot.
Five minutes of silence.
Cal and Emily seem comfortable enough, but Eli is dying for some sort of conversation, feedback, commentary, anything.
"This isn't the way to my place," he finally says, desperately.
Cal glances up at the rear view mirror to see Eli's face. "Did you really think I was taking you there?" he asks. Eli can practically feel Emily's smug smirk.
"Just checking . . . " Eli trails off his voice, wanting to continue speaking, but having nothing to say. Fortunately, Emily rescues him.
"How about Gillian and Ria, huh?" Emily asks loudly, blatantly providing a safe topic of conversation for Cal and Eli.
And both Cal and Eli answer loudly back, reviewing all their observations, making wild speculations white Emily tries to poke holes in all their theories and speculations.
***
Eli tries to remain calm, or at least look calm, as Cal and Emily lead him in the house.
Before the door is even closed behind them, Emily turns and says, "Good night, Dad, good night, Eli," and runs up the stairs, turning at the last minute to tell Eli, "Don't forget what I said," before disappearing, the sound of her door quickly following.
Eli is still looking up the stairs after Emily, mostly to give his heart a minute to slow down before he looks at Cal again, but when Cal starts to ask, "What did she--" Eli has to take his moment, so he turns, aims, and kisses, not giving himself time to think and talk himself out of it, cutting off the question and he feels his heart beating fast, so fast, wondering if Cal can feel it through their lips. Lips a little too dry, quickly becoming less, as Cal and Eli start to open their mouths and try kissing each other's lips, using a bit of tongue, but Eli wants more so he sets up close, closer and presses his body to Cal's. He's reminded that he's taller than Cal; he always forgets because Cal towers over him all day long.
He wraps one arm around Cal's waist, so warm to be so close to another person, awkwardly puts his other hand on Cal's shoulder, but he doesn't even care that it's awkward because Cal's got both his hands on Eli's face and he gently turns Eli's head to kiss him more deeply, before they finally break, breathing faster. Eli stays close to Cal, looking at him from just a couple inches away,watching his eyes.
"Bed's that way--" Cal gestures with his head and Eli's suddenly glad he ignored feeling awkward putting hands on Cal because he uses them to pull Cal to the bedroom. Cal stumbles a bit from the awkward tugging, but Eli knows Cal's fine from the almost silly grin on his face.
***
He's already got Cal's shirt untucked and belt off when Cal nudges him over to sit on the edge of the bed and starts unbuttoning his shirt.
"Had to wear one of these things," Cal mummers. Cal doesn't actually sound upset and Eli gets the impression Cal is rather enjoying himself from the way his hands keep wandering to Eli's chest, touching.
"Just didn't want to look like a slob tonight," Eli says, admits to himself he likes getting a rise out of Cal, puts his own hands under the hem of Cal's t-shirt to find skin, to touch also.
"Calling me names already?" Cal teases as he slides the shirt down Eli's arms. Eli brings his hands back to Cal's shirt, this time pulling it over Cal's head, with his help. Cal, leaning over him, kisses him again, his hand holding the back of Eli's head as he tips it, tips him back and back, kissing.
Eli's bracing his arms behind him to stay up, Cal's kissing him from above, cradling his head, kissing both gentler and more aggressive all at once, with Cal holding him. Eli tries a little bite on Cal's lip and Cal responds in kind.
Finally, Cal bites down hard on Eli's lip and he's gasping and arching up, surprised by how much he enjoys it. Cal pulls back and grins at him, "Like that, did you?" He sounds smug, so smug, to Eli and he's just too smug, so smug. Eli wants to do that back to him, to make Cal feel good, so he sits up and reaches for Cal's pants, pushing pants and boxers out of the way to get to Cal's cock.
Eli pauses a moment, hands on Cal's thighs, to look at Cal's face. Infuriatingly, he still looks smug, so Eli turns back, determined not to be intimidated, and open his mouth, tongue coming out to lick the head of the erect cock in front of him. Cal doesn't make a sound, but very slightly shifts a little closer, so Eli boldly wraps his mouth around the head ('go for what you want') and it's the smell, taste, texture, warmth all of sudden, over-whelms and he's about to pull back, yet Cal touches his hair with one hand and ever so slightly pushes forward. It's even more overwhelming, but now he doesn't want to stop. Cal tightens his hand and pushes again, Eli realizes he'd moaned before and was doing it again bow, so he pulls back a moment to lick, enjoy playing, teasing the cock right in front of his mouth before wrapping his lips around the cock again, this time wrapping a hand around as well, pumping.
"God, yes," moans Cal. The hand on his hand shifts and tightens and Cal thrusts his hips hard this time. Eli's catching himself with his other hand and trying to keep his head and hand moving, all at the same time. Over him, Cal's getting louder.
"Yes, keep going, yes, oh god," Cal says and Eli's aware of the salty taste of pre-cum and Cal's increased pace and Eli's so hard now, desperate to rub against anything, but there's nothing and Cal's still holding his head. Then Cal is coming and the taste surprises Eli, not completely unpleasant but he's about to pull off and spit, then he looks up and Cal's just so intense and watching Eli as he comes, that Eli keeps the cum in his mouth, tasting, then swallows.
Cal looks fierce then, possessive and pulls out of Eli's mouth. Eli feels almost lost without the contact, but he has little chance to think before Cal's encouraging him up the bed to the head, pushing him back, yanking the fly of his pants open, pulling pants and boxers down. Cal makes a quick swipe of his own palm to his mouth, Eli barely realizes why, before Cal's got his hand on Eli's cock, touching, rubbing, pulling. Now it's Eli's turn to moan again and he reaches up to grab Cal's arms, holding on tight, as finally gets some satisfaction. Cal's looking right at him, deep, dark pupils, but still smug, dammit! Yet Cal doesn't let up and Eli finds himself whimpering, pushing his hips up for more.
He just can't take the smug look, so he leans up and kisses Cal hard, wet lips, taste of cum still in his mouth, and Cal kisses back hard, pressing him back into the mattress. Then Cal's moving to the side, to his cheek, neck, shoulder, back to his neck, kissing, biting, biting again without stopping and it hurts so much its good, the hand on his cock tight, another hand coming down on his hip, pressing him down as Cal pumps on and Eli's coming, gasping. Cal kisses him on the mouth again as he carefully hold, gently pumps through Eli's orgasm.
Eli's not even sure how he feels, wants to check Cal's face, but Cal's busy efficiently removing pants and boxers, pulling the blanket out from under them, gently pushing Eli the way he wants, never straying too far away, always coming back to touch Eli's body. Then he's close to Eli again, tissue in hand cleaning him off, blanket over top before Eli even feels like he's back to himself.
"Alright, then?" Cal murmurs to him, arm coming over him, another nudging it's way under Eli's head, until he's tucked into Cal's side. It just feels too strange, so good, to have Cal's attention and care that Eli doesn't even answer, just stares wide-eyed at Cal. But Cal's not bothered at all, just halfway smiles, watches his face, and says, "that's okay then," and snuggles, snuggles, close.
Eli lets himself hold Cal back, feel his warmth and says, "yeah, yes, okay, awesome," and Cal's smile doesn't look so much smug as sweet and watchful. Eli's smiling back. They kiss again, all soft lips and wetness, and Eli snuggles, snuggles, closer, lets his eyes close. Cal holds him tighter.
***