by J. L. Beck
“I was just letting Ellie know that a car is coming to get her here shortly and taking her to a special location,” Tuck spoke, his words forced.
“Mhm. I’m finally leaving this hell.” I laughed, shifting my eyes to Grayson’s sister. God, I needed to like her. I had too, but every time I saw her acid climbed my throat and burned the goodness right out of me. She made everything he had done for her pointless. To me, she was just as good as dead.
“Awe, we were just getting to know each other. Is she leaving for good? I thought she was being protected too?” she asked innocently as if she had no idea what was taking place. Her innocence might work with Tuck, but I could see straight through the bullshit she spewed.
“No. She’ll be back. Maybe then you guys can pick up right where you left off?” Tuck asked, directing the question at me. I blinked slowly at him, wondering if the way we were truly acting towards one another had fooled him. He was an undercover agent, if he wasn’t on to the fact we didn’t really click then he sucked at his job.
“Yes! I would love that,” Stephanie lied, her voice over the top cheery, and of course, I smiled right back.
We were a fucked up bunch of people.
“Good. Now get ready, Ellie,” Tuck dismissed me like nothing. Like there wasn’t unsaid words between us. Instead, he directed his attention back to Stephanie, wrapping his arms around the back of her. I could see a conniving little plan running rampant in her mind as a smile lingered on her lips. It was as if she had everyone but me fooled to the kind of person she was.
The burden of everything was starting to eat away at me. Grayson knew I was alive. I was angry that he wasn’t here trying to get me, but then again my father was after both of us. He knew better than anyone that us being together would only make it easier for them. Make us any easier target. Get us both together and you could kill two birds with one stone, yet something in both of us refused to stay away from the other.
Scurrying down the hall and into the bedroom Tuck had put me in, I closed the door. I slipped out of my clothes and headed into the bathroom. Maybe a nice hot shower would release some of the tension in my body. Knowing that Grayson knew I was alive now had removed an enormous weight that had mounted inside me.
Still the things that he had said to me before they took me away lingered at the back of my mind. I knew he didn’t mean now, at least I did at this point but I couldn’t make the ache in my heart go away that his words had caused. Was I really that insecure? The truth, if I was being honest with myself, was yes. I was insecure about everything. I didn’t know if his feelings would change or if they had already changed. I didn’t even know if he would be the same person he was now once he found out the truth about his sister.
Romance had never been something I did. I didn’t even know what real love was, but if I could have a chance at it or a chance at experiencing it, I would want it to be with no one other than Grayson.
Turning on the shower, I waited for the water to warm before I stepped into the spray.
Forcing myself to stop thinking about it all, my mind stayed on one thing.
There was no way Grayson had changed his mind about me.
I would know.
I would feel it.
***
“The car is here,” Stephanie yelled from the living room. I could tell just in the tone of her voice that she was far more excited than she should be at the fact that I was leaving.
“Thanks, Mom,” I mocked, shooting her a dirty look. I had slipped into a pair of dark jeans and a black hoodie with a pair of chucks that Tuck had picked up for me.
Waving goodbye to Tuck, I headed out to the blacked-out car that he had sent for me. I didn’t know where I was going, but I trusted Tuck enough to know that he wouldn’t let anything happen to me.
“Good Afternoon, Ms. Goodwin,” the driver spoke softly to me. Confusion settled into my features, which must’ve been really readable because he stared at me for a moment longer than expected.
“Ummm…” I shook my head, getting into the car unsure of what to say. By the time my butt had become acquainted with the luxury leather seat, my door was closing and we were taking off shortly after. The drive was short and somewhat peaceful. We went through the countryside and down some backroads before coming into one of the suburbs that made up New York City. Time continued to fly by during my ride. In a matter of ten minutes of being in the city, we were pulling into an underground parking garage. As soon as the darkness settled in the car, my insides turned to sludge.
“Where are we exactly?” I asked the driver, knowing I probably wouldn’t get a detailed answer. I trusted Tuck, but now I was starting to wonder if I should continue to.
“The Pierre,” he responded as if I knew what it was and where the hell it was located. Still his eyes clashed with mine in the rearview mirror. In them, I could sense some type of hesitation but couldn’t connect it to what could possibly be occurring. My eyes surveyed the parking garage where numerous high-end vehicles were parked. I wanted to see if there was anything odd, anything that would give me a hint as to what was going on.
Pulling into a parking spot, the driver pulled a piece of paper out and jotted down some information before lifting it over the seat and handing it to me.
“What’s this?” I questioned, looking down at the simple writing. The number 3 and then 6 and 601 were the only things written on the paper. Could it be a code of some sort or maybe a hotel number? Or possibly a lockbox? My mind was racing with all the different things it could be.
“This is where my part of the journey ends and yours begins. Go over to that door and up to the sixth floor using the stairwell. Find the room number and knock three times.” The driver didn’t look at me as he spoke but simply gripped the steering wheel tightly in his hands as he looked around uncaring that I was still in the car.
Gripping the door handle as if it could hold me to this very moment, I opened the door and got out of the car. Putting both feet in front of the other, I pushed the feelings that were brewing in my belly away.
Floor six. Room 601. Knock three times.
Slamming the door behind me, I headed straight for the door on the other side of the garage, my feet beating against the pavement loudly. Once I reached the entrance door and opened it, I glanced backward to see if the driver was still there. I shouldn’t have because right where the car was previously parked was nothing but an empty space.
“Asshole,” I muttered under my breath.
He didn’t even have the patience, let alone the audacity, to wait and see that I made it inside okay. With everything going on, I knew that I shouldn’t care, but being that it was someone that Tuck probably paid I did.
So much for protection, I thought as I turned back around and headed towards the man I loved, hoping he was still that man.
I knew I didn’t deserve anything above what I had already been given in my life. I fucked everything up at least once, and if not once then twice for extra measure. The thing with Ellie was more than just a fuck up. I didn’t want to screw it up any more than the circumstances surrounding us had.
Finding out she was alive was the game changer. I would kill for her. I would bleed for her. I would rather them take me instead of her, do anything to keep her alive and the guilt out of my heart.
I had another chance. A chance to end their lives and make them pay. A chance to show Ellie what she really meant to me, and that my words before she was taken were said only to protect her.
That’s why I called Tuck and told him to let me see her, at least once before everything went down. I wanted to make it right with her. No. I had to make it right with her.
That’s why I was doing what I was right now. Sitting in my hotel room on my bed twiddling my thumbs while I waited for three knocks on my room door. Tuck had set everything up; from the car to her clothes, down to how I would know it was her. As soon I as heard the three knocks, I scrambled from the bed and to the door like fire was under my ass. I was
ready to see her, ready to hold her, and tell her how sorry I was for everything that had happened.
Ripping the door open, my eyes caught her blue ones and we stayed staring at one another for what seemed like an eternity. I had so much I wanted to tell her, but at the same time, nothing I could say would ease the pain or change things. I needed more than words to explain what I wanted to say. I needed lips, hands, entangled tongues, and hours upon endless hours inside of her.
Her face lit up as she looked me up and down, doing the same thing to me as I was to her. She’s beautiful, the most beautiful woman I’d ever laid eyes on even wearing simple clothing, and the discoloration from her bruises diminishing from her flesh.
“Seeing you here in the flesh…” I sighed, lifting my hand and tracing the side of her face with it. She leaned into my touch with on a exhale, as if to say she had missed me just as much as I missed her.
“Don’t talk,” she mumbled, pushing me back into the hotel room and following me in. The door slammed behind us, and I wasn’t sure what was going through her head. Was she still angry at me for the words I had spoken that night? Did she just want to ignore the issue we needed to address or just not want to talk at all right now?
“I can’t not talk to you, Ellie. I thought you were dead, and it killed me. It broke something inside of me,” I whispered, grabbing her by the waist and pulling her against my chest. Her scent surrounded me. Vanilla. God, how I missed that fucking smell. I buried my nose against her throat, my nostrils flaring as I took in deep breaths of her scent. I was crazed. A man on a mission to show love.
“I don’t mean it like that, Grayson. I mean I don’t want to talk right now. I want to feel.” Her tongue darted out across her lips, and even though her eyes were melting into mine I could practically feel the heat pooling between her thighs, and I hadn’t even touched her there yet.
Still I wanted her to know that the reason she was here had nothing to do with sex. I just wanted her close, even if it was just for one night.
Pulling away so I could look her straight in the eyes, I peered down at her. “This isn’t why you’re here, Ellie. Sex isn’t what I had Tuck send you here for. I wanted you to know that what happened, everything that I said to you that night wasn’t real. I didn’t mean it.” I gripped her under the chin, making sure she couldn’t miss the words I was saying. She needed to understand that I never meant to hurt her.
With more trust than she should ever give me lingering in her eyes, she spoke almost in a hushed voice, “I already knew that, Grayson. At first, I was so blinded by hurt that I sort of believed it and questioned why you would say such things. But as the days passed and the fog cleared, I said your words for what they really were, and now that hurt I was experiencing is slowly disappearing.” My chest filled with joy, and the black hole that had formed from losing her started to close. No longer was I being pulled apart, now I was being pieced back together.
Ellie was healing me with every word she spoke. Then she did something completely unexpected. She took control, her body, mind, and soul on a crash course with mine.
Her soft lips clashed with my hard ones, her hands skimming across every piece of me as if she was trying to map out the pieces of my body.
“I missed you so fucking much,” I growled, my fingers weaving through her long hair. I had to have her. She was like a drug to me. Her kisses made me high. Her voice soothed me. Her love made me whole again.
“Mmmm…” she purred, pulling at my shirt just as I let go of her to pull her shirt and pants off. Her panties and bra came next as I rivaled in the fact that she was not only naked but that she was all mine for the taking.
Our eyes locked again as she grabbed my hand, pulling me towards the hotel room bed. Again, I almost stopped. I hadn’t ever wanted this to be where we would be. I wanted a good life with Ellie, a future. Yet, here we were in this hotel, sneaking around, hiding from her father, Drake, and the brotherhood, because death was lurking at every corner.
“Stop thinking. Stop analyzing.” Ellie’s soft hand cupped my cheek, turning my face into hers. It was such a soft gesture it almost brought tears to my eyes.
“Thank you,” I managed to get the words out as I pulled my clothing off and softly pushed her against the bed. She smiled up at me, her eyes bright and full of eager will.
My hands slid across her shoulders and over her pink rosy nipples. I tugged on them gently, allowing them to slip between my thumb and forefinger repeatedly. Ellie’s back bowed off the bed, her head turning to the side as she allowed a moan to leave her throat.
I couldn’t help the smile that formed on my face. It didn’t seem real, having her here right now. I continued to tell myself that as I released her nipples and trailed my fingers down between her legs.
“No matter what, this will always belong to me,” I snarled, placing a harsh kiss against her lips as I slipped a finger inside her. Her tightness was almost my undoing. She clenched around me, her lids drifting closed, and I could tell she was on the verge of coming.
“It will always be yours.” I could barely comprehend what it was that she said because of her moans. Every slip of my finger in and out pushed her closer and closer, her body telling me exactly what she needed next with every stroke.
“It better be,” I grunted out, my cock growing hard as steel. I needed relief, and I needed it soon. As soon as her core turned to molten lava and she was ready for me, I flipped her onto her belly. She landed with a soft thump, and a breathy moan escaped her lips. Lifting my hand, I traced over her back, my fingers gliding over soft, supple flesh. Her body was that of a goddess, and I would worship it as so. If I were given the chance to have her for the rest of my life, I would remind her of that every damn day.
“Grayson, I need you,” she begged, looking at me over her shoulder. Her eyes were filled with lust, her teeth sinking into her bottom lip. I slipped a finger down between her folds, only to realize she was wetter than she had been before. My cock jutted between us, leaking pre-cum at the tip.
Grabbing a condom from my wallet, I stroked my cock once, twice, circling the head as I ripped the foil with my mouth. As I slid on the condom, I noticed that her eyes were on me the entire time.
“I need you too,” I moaned as I slid into the hilt, my balls hitting her clit. I could feel every inch of her body as I pressed her firmly into the mattress. I gave her a moment to adjust to me before I started moving again. She slid her hand around, gripping the back of my ass as if to get me moving.
“Fuck me, please…” she said the words face down into the mattress. I could tell she needed and wanted so much more, and I wasn’t complaining. I couldn’t take another moment of stillness.
Pulling out of her slowly, I slammed back into her, scooting her up the mattress with every shove of my body into hers. Her hands reached up and pressed against the headboard for leverage.
“Ahhh….” Ellie mewled. Her pussy gripping my cock like a vice. It had never been this good, never.
“You feel so fucking perfect. So mine.” I nipped at her ear, my teeth sinking into her flesh as I slammed into her fiercely. Our bodies slapped together, coming as one as our souls mingled together. Sweat covered my body as I forced myself to hold off on coming.
“I’m…” she purred, her breaths were coming out as pants, and her nails were digging into the wooden headboard.
“Come, baby, come all over my cock. Mark yourself on me,” I moaned as she clenched around me, a throbbing sensation working its way up my cock.
A tingling sensation filled my belly and went down my groin and then to my toes. I gripped her hips, slipping deeper into the abyss.
They say in the waves of change, we truly find our own direction. I knew that was true with Ellie. She was my compass, and as long as she pointed north I would be okay.
“I love you,” I whispered into her ear as I came, pouring every piece of me into her.
I would never be the same, in death or life.
I used
to believe that God gave you the life he believed you should have. After all, my father was a man of faith.
I wasn’t sure how he could still believe he was going to heaven with all the deaths that were under his belt, but either way, he taught me that. He was wrong, though. We both were.
God didn’t give you the life he believed you should have. You made certain choices along the way that put you on your own path. If you found love, it was because you wanted to. If you were poor, it was simply a circumstance, just another wall to climb. I wasn’t stuck on the path that God or my father put me on. At least not anymore. I was creating my own path. Setting myself free from the destruction called my past.
Looking at Grayson’s sleeping form, I knew I could do anything that I put my mind to. He had proved that to me. I stared at him for a long while, the creases on his face were longer and seemed to be causing wrinkles. His beard had grown fuller, his hair even more unruly, and he looked as if he had lost weight since the last time I’d seen him.
Yet my mouth watered as my vision headed south toward a still very chiseled chest and abs. I never knew how a man like Grayson could be so beautiful. It wasn’t that he couldn’t be beautiful, it was that he was too rugged to be seen as beautiful. He was a hidden, rare gem that I didn’t feel I deserved but was given anyhow.
“Do you always stare at people while they’re sleeping?” His voice was gruff and full of sleep. I clenched my chest, my body heating all over as my cheeks grew pink. And here I was ogling him, unaware that he had been watching me the entire time.
“Sometimes.” I smiled smugly. Grayson stretchered his arms above his head and every muscle on his body seemed to expand and slim out showing all the contours of his body. Butterflies released in my belly, and my hands fisted the sheet.
“You had no clue what you were doing when you agreed to be mine.” He smirked, his words more of a statement than anything.
“You had no clue what you were doing when you came up to me that night in the club looking for a good time,” I shot back, nibbling on my bottom lip.
