#probing interviews

Probing Interviews

-1-

No matter the questions they asked her, Furia held onto Eli’s hand. She preferred when there was a sofa on the set, or so she told him. When he asked her why, she’d said, “I’d prefer to sit close to you. It makes it easier to play footsie.”

Sitting on an orange couch, one of her hands in his, while the fingers of the other traced over the peacock on his forearm. He saw more than felt the light movements of her fingers, catching glimpses of them in the monitor across the sound stage. His smile went crooked upon noticing her foot shifting against his shin.

“The two of you look so cozy,” the host noted.

“Of course, we do,” Eli noted. “Aren’t newlyweds supposed to be sweet enough to give you a toothache?”

Jane chuckled. “I suppose they are. Congratulations, again, to you both.” Her gaze shifted to Furia. “And are you happy?”

“Supremely,” his new bride, but longtime lover replied with a grin that should shred all doubt.

The reporter’s brown eyes returned to Eli as he lifted Furia’s hand and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “The world was rather shocked when photos of the ceremony and word of your marriage broke. Everyone assumed Eli Mitchell was the consummate bachelor. Your reputation is almost as legendary as your rise to fame.”

“Shocking people is far easier when they don’t really know you, Jane.”

Another nod. “Many of our viewers are wondering if this wasn’t just a publicity stunt.”

“Fuck your viewers,” Eli replied.

“I understand your irritation,” Jane said, holding up her hand in a placating gesture. “Let’s clear up any confusion, shall we? How long have the two of you known one another?”

“Since the beginning, what? About ten years?” he said, looking over at Furia for clarification.

“Give or take a few months,” she agreed.

“How’d you meet?” Jane inquired.

Furia squeezed Eli’s hand, an attempt to keep him from being compulsively honest about the exact circumstances of their first meeting. “At a show. Pirate Hole played my club a few times early on.”

Eli leaned toward Jane, his voice taking on a conspiratorial tone. “She was skulking about backstage being irresistible.” With a coy shake of her head, Furia’s giggle and her blush were camouflaged by the ebony curtain of her hair. He leaned over and pressed a kiss to her temple. “I mean look at her, who could resist?”

“Eli.” Her quiet voice carried a note of warning.

“What, love? It’s the truth. You’re a bewitching beauty,” he assured her.

“And you’re a charmer.” Furia’s fingers grazed his jaw as he stole a kiss to a loud “awwww” from the audience.

After pecking the tip of her nose, he turned his attention back to Jane Valderamma, and the interview continued. “Seems like the audience approves. But I must wonder, if the two have been together so long, how do you feel about Eli’s reputation?”

Furia smiled. “Eli is Eli. And I love him—faults and flaws be damned.”

“Glad to hear it, love.”

She pressed her shoulder into his. He knew she loved him; she was excellent at reminding him.

The reporter’s grin looked almost predatory, like she’d latched onto something juicy. “So, you don’t mind when he cheats on you?”

“Eli doesn’t cheat,” Furia replied before he could. Her voice held a dose of stoicism he admired.

“Jane, we’ve discussed this in the past, love,” Eli crooned, giving her a disapproving look. “For some, sex is a basic biological need. Loving someone,” his other hand clasped over their entwined fingers, “that is an altogether different phenomenon.”

Jane nodded at Eli, then shifted, obviously trading his attention to focus on Furia again.

“So, you have no feelings about the countless women, and men, that your husband has slept with?”

“Jane, really,” Eli started, venom seeped into his voice.

“No, it’s fine,” Furia replied, her hand patting his forearm. “I knew who Eli was when I met him. And it is who he is that I love, not some idealized version of who he could be if he didn’t leave his clothes on the floor or did the grocery shopping.”

“That’s hardly the same thing.”

“For us, it is.”

Eli took a breath with the intention of laying into her, but his words were cut off by his music playing them into commercial. As the studio quieted, Pierce’s voice rang through the sound stage. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“I’m asking the questions people really want to know the answers to,” Jane replied, standing to stretch her legs.

“Well, those aren’t the questions we agreed upon.”

“Those questions were trite and uninteresting.”

“These are intrusive and have been answered dozens of times over.”

“Not by his wife,” Valderamma yelled, pointing in the direction of the sofa.

Both turned to find neither of the interviewees listening to their conversation. Eli had pulled Furia’s legs into his lap; their innocent cheek nuzzling had led to a full on make out session. The audience was all over it. Cell phone camera flashed snapped and others stood on their seats to catch the amorous pair canoodling without consideration of the locale.

When the show went live again, Eli’s arm lay across her shoulders and Furia’s arm had snaked around him. The two were more snuggly than they had been before that break.

“What do you want to hear, Jane?” Eli asked, twirling a lock of Furia’s hair around one of his fingers. “That my behavior shocks her?”

“All the time,” Furia chimed with a grin and a giggle.

Eli laughed as well before continuing. “Or do you think she’s just trying to catch a ride on my coattails?”

“Mmm. That would have a great view.” She looked at the crowd and mouthed, such a nice ass, earning a roar of laughter from the live audience.

“Would you prefer to find that she’s some prude that lives under a rock and has no idea what I do on the road? That she’s never read any of the stories?”

“Or seen the countless videos?’ she asked the audience with a wink. “He looks good, doesn’t he?”

Several in the crowd stood and howled their agreement.

-2-

Furia slipped past Eli, pushing through the door before him. Before the door even closed, she draped her coat over a chair and headed for the bedroom of their hotel suite.

“You handled the crowd quite well,” Eli said, latching the door. “Had them eating out of the palm of your hand.”

“Guess I’ve picked up a few things from you over the years,” she replied, stepping out of her shoes. “Thank you for suggesting that.”

“She wanted to trip you up.”

He followed, leaning in the doorway of the bathroom as the water splashed into the tub. Furia turned her skirt and downed the zipper before shimmying out of it. “I noticed.”

Eli cocked his head, a grin playing over his lips as he watched the blouse drift off her shoulders to the floor. “Does that mean you might want to join me for more?”

She turned, the softness in her gaze going hard as she stared him in the eye. Her hands toyed behind her back for a moment before the barely pink bra dropped onto the counter. “Join you? For anything, mi amor. Though I’d prefer not to ever do that again.”

The gesture, the subtle change in the way she looked at him were just the invitation he needed. His shirt came off as he crossed the room. Eli let his hands drift over the curve of her hips as his skin brushed hers. Looming over her, he kept his lips inches from hers as his fingers teased over her bare flesh. “You’ve done it before.”

“That was different. That was just waving and maybe saying hello. Today was … nerve wracking,” she admitted, lacing her fingers behind his neck.

Eli could feel the tension in her back. He rubbed at the knots in the muscles trying to help.

“How do you do that?” she asked, leaning her head against his chest.

“Comes with the territory.” He pressed a kiss to the crown of her head. She moaned softly as his fingers pressed into a tight spot between her shoulders.

Furia’s hands skimmed down his chest and she hooked her fingers in the belt loops of his jeans, giving a tug. With a deep inhale and exhale, she looked up at him. “If you want me to, I’ll do more.”

“I’ll make you a deal.” Eli knew he had her attention when she grinned at him. “You deal with this,” he said, pulling her hand over the bulge in his jeans, “and I’ll handle the public.”

Her smile grew wider; the tip of her tongue traced over one of her incisors. “We both know I know just how to deal with this,” she agreed. Her hand repeated the action he prompted a moment earlier.

Having her so close all afternoon, without being able to do anything and everything he wanted, had his libido in a twist. Her soft body against his, the tease of silk and lace. Eli lifted Furia onto the counter before she even got his jeans unbuttoned.

He licked at her top lip, and she tipped her head back another inch allowing him to kiss her as deeply as he liked. Eli nibbled down the column of her neck as her smooth hands stroked his cock; the tip of him grazed the silk of her panties. With a soft growl, Eli popped the garters of her stockings and tried to get her out of the lingerie without either of them moving enough to interfere with her attentions.

One of her hands moved toward his throat, as her grip tightened Eli gave her a crooked grin. He knew she’d be extra careful since he was standing; Furia always took great care with him—never abused his trust. Of course, she also knew just how to get him off. And after that day, he came before he even managed to even get her panties off, let alone get her riled.

Her legs wrapped around his hips and the hand around his neck pulled his lips to hers. “Will you wash my hair?”

Eli smiled against her mouth. “If you wash mine.”

She nipped his bottom lip, sucking at it as she pulled back. “I’ll do more than that,” she assured him as she hopped off the counter.

When she went to pour bubble bath into the half-full tub, he unsnapped the back of her garters. Furia straightened back against his chest, turning her head toward him.

“Climb in.”

Eli was reluctant at first, but complied. His grin went crooked when she set her foot on the edge of the tub. She took great care in removing her stockings and her panties. More than watching strip, he wanted her in that bath with him. Thankfully, that happened soon enough.

Her body draped over his fulfilled that desire. “So, do we have a deal?” she asked.

“Of course, we do. Even if you didn’t have magical hands I wouldn’t have agreed to another couple interview.”

“Our life isn’t all ours, I know. But I kind of want to keep a little bit that’s just for us. Is that okay? Or too selfish?” she asked, her hands skating up his neck and delving into his hair.

“Just selfish enough, I think.”

Eli knew how much she gave up for their relationship, to be with him. She wanted him to be happy, and made sacrifices to ensure he could follow his dreams. Staring into her hazel eyes, he wondered about hers. A silky black curl looped around his finger as he considered it. Surely, she wanted more than this.

“Are you happy?” he blurted out, as his other hand traced her spine.

Her head tilted as she looked at him. “Why would you ask that?” She sounded scandalized.

“Because I love you, and I want you to be happy, too.”

“Yes, Eli. I’m happy.” She squeezed him tight, her nose brushing against his. “Like I told Jane today. I know who I married.” She kissed him softly. “Now, would I like to have you in my bed every night? Oh, God, yes,” she crooned, not quite with the same fervor as he planned to make her repeat that phrase later, but it was effective. “But you wouldn’t be happy stuck in Stilwater as the house husband of a club owner. You were born to be a star, isn’t that what you told me?”

He grinned. She’d remembered.

“I’m perfectly happy to be your anchor, to kind of keep your feet close-ish to the ground,” she teased with a gentle laugh. “I love you, Eli. It’s not an easy lot. But I wouldn’t trade us for anything—even some domestic cliché.”

His arm tightened around her, the hand toying with her hair slipping behind her neck to get her lips back in his range. He traded their positions and rested her head against the solid pillow on the side of the spa tub. Then he reached past her and turned the knob to start the jets. The interview made her tense, and while she knew his body, he knew all the best ways to relax her as well.

She was right. They each had their lives, separately and together. She had the family business, he had show business, but the two of them carved out their own space for their life together. Things could have been easier, but neither of them gave up when it got hard. They fought for one another, sacrificed for one another. And he wouldn’t trade a second of their lives for something easier.