Her Ride

by Rachael Orman

  “Just… leave it alone, Ellis.” My voice broke as I tried desperately to calm my rising panic when our eyes met. Breaking eye contact, I tried again to reach my glasses behind him. When his large, calloused hand tenderly brushed my hair away from my face and behind my ear, I leaned into the first gentle contact I’d had in days. My fingers brushed against my glasses from the slight shift in our stances, I grabbed them and quickly slid them back on. Stepping back from Ellis, I wiped a tear from my cheek and grabbed my water bottle just as Jeremiah stalked into the kitchen.

  “There you are.” Jeremiah looked between Ellis and me. “Something going on here?”

  “Not at all. Just asked her how breakfast was.” Ellis folded his arms across his chest, leaning back against the counter as he eyed up Jeremiah.

  “It was fine. Excuse us.” Jeremiah wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me out of the room. I glanced over my shoulder to see Ellis watching us walk away with a look I couldn’t read on his face.

  Later that night, I sat on the foot of my side of the bed watching some show that Jeremiah had picked for us to watch while he played on his laptop. I moved so I was laying on my belly, head at the foot of the bed because I was sore from the unwanted, unlubed anal sex Jeremiah had demanded when we got back to the room earlier.

  “What the fuck do you think you are doing?” Jeremiah snarled at me, looking up from his laptop.

  “I was trying to get more comfortable.” I sighed. It was exhausting trying to figure out what would set him off.

  “No, what you did was put your disgusting feet in my face.” Jeremiah shoved my feet from the bed, which ended up making me fall to the floor. Shocked and surprised, I slowly sat up rubbing my hip, which had taken the brunt of the fall. Just as I was starting to stand, my door crashed open, revealing Ellis in only a pair of black workout shorts. Sweat was running over the hard ridges in his chest and abdomen.

  “What the fuck was that?” Ellis looked between me on the floor and Jeremiah sitting on the bed, laptop still in his lap.

  “She fell off the bed, asshole. Why are you in my room? It was locked to keep you people out.” Jeremiah spared Ellis a glance before turning back to his computer. Ellis walked over to me, holding out a hand to help me up. Keeping my head down, I slid my hand into his and stood on unsteady feet. The pain from my hip was radiating down my leg now that I was vertical.

  “Thanks.” I forced a half smile on my lips while keeping my hair over my face. Pulling my hand from Ellis’, I tried to turn away. A gentle hand on my shoulder stopped me. Ellis lifted my face to his with a finger under my chin. Instantly, his jaw clenched and I knew he could clearly see the bruises that marred my face. Seeing anger in his posture, tears sprung to my eyes, I shook my head silently pleading for him to not say anything, but he wasn’t looking at me anymore.

  “Care to explain these?” Ellis’ voice was deeper than I’d ever heard it. He wasn’t speaking to me. He directed his angry words at Jeremiah. His hand moved from my chin to cup my cheek tenderly. The contrast of the harsh tone and anger that was rolling off him towards Jeremiah compared to the careful way he held my cheek had me placing a hand on his chest to stop him from going anywhere. My eyes didn’t leave his face even though his eyes burned through Jeremiah.

  “She’s clumsy. Got drunk the other night and kept running into shit. She’ll be fine in a few days.” Jeremiah shrugged, completely unfazed by my bruises or that Ellis was upset by them. “What do you care anyway? She’s my woman. I’ll do with her as I please.”

  “Ryan, why don’t you go get an ice pack from the kitchen?” Ellis’ beautiful eyes met mine briefly as his other hand came up to caress my other cheek. Brushing away my tears with his thumbs, he gently turned me towards the door. I took a few slow awkward steps due to the pain in my hip.

  “Dude, what the fuck? You don’t get to tell her where to go.” That got Jeremiah’s attention. He stood from the bed, walking towards Ellis. I was almost to the door when I heard the sound of flesh meeting flesh. I turned to see Jeremiah holding his face and an almost sadistic smile on Ellis’ face as his heavy fist rammed into Jeremiah’s stomach, the muscles in his arm rippling as they flexed with the effort put into the blow. Before Jeremiah could react, Ellis' fist slammed into the side of his face again. This time, it was Jeremiah who had blood pouring through his fingers as he stared wide eyed at Ellis.

  “Now, Ryan. Shut the door too.” Ellis ordered when he saw that I was still there. His voice was calm yet firm. I slammed the door before running down the stairs to my brother’s office, the pain in my hip completely forgotten. Patrick sat behind his desk with his phone pressed to his ear. Looking up from his desk, he immediately threw the phone down and stood, taking in my bruised, panicked state.

  “Hurry… Ellis…and Jeremiah…” I gasped for air. Patrick was already across the room by the time I managed to get the words out. When his heavy hand landed on my shoulder, I met his gaze.

  “Where?” He asked, anger radiating off him. I pointed up, still having difficulty breathing. He was gone before I could say anything else. I knew the reason I couldn’t breathe wasn’t from running; it was a full blown panic attack. It was exactly what I didn’t want to happen. My brother and Ellis must have had a good idea of what had been happening between Jeremiah and I or they were figuring it out based on their reactions.

  I limped over to the couch my brother had in his office and collapsed. Pain radiated through my chest as I continued to gasp for breath. I’m not sure how long I sat there, but I couldn’t bring myself to head back to my room; I didn’t want to know what happened. I didn’t want to deal with any of it. Instead, I sat there long after the panic attack subsided. Eventually, Monk came into the room and sat next to me. He didn’t look surprised to find me there or that I had bruises.

  “Come on little lady. Let’s get out of here for a while.” Monk helped me stand, I blindly went with him. I think I was in a state of shock at that point. I couldn't focus on anything, didn’t want to, so I went with Monk. He helped me into the passenger seat of a sedan I’d never seen before and drove away from the house. The rental car was still in front of the house, along with numerous bikes, as usual.

  Monk drove us around town for who knows how long, even stopping to get ice cream at one point. I refused the offer with a weak smile and a shake of my head. The ride was quiet, but it didn’t bother me and didn’t seem to bother him either. There would be no hospital visit unless there was something seriously wrong, which I didn’t feel like there was. No visit, no paper trail, no questions. When we finally pulled back up to the house, the rental car was no longer there and most of the bikes were gone. I got out of the car and went in the house without waiting for Monk. I found Patrick and Ellis sitting, waiting, in the living room for our return.

  “Where is he?” I looked to Patrick first, then Ellis. I crossed my arms over my chest feeling cold, nervous. Ellis got up from the couch and wrapped me in a hug before leaving a soft kiss on my forehead then pulled back.

  “I’ll let you talk to your brother.” Ellis nodded at Patrick before walking out of the room. I looked towards Patrick and lifted an eyebrow.

  “Well?”

  “He left. Said you weren’t worth getting his ass beat over.” Patrick shrugged. I could tell he was lying, but I wasn’t going to push for the truth. I knew if anyone was going to crack and tell me the truth, it’d be Ellis. I would wait until I got him alone.

  “Whatever. I don’t believe you. I can’t stay here tonight. I need to be away from here after the last few days.” I looked towards the door. I felt weaker than I ever had under Jeremiah’s hand. Knowing the men I cared about most in my life, the ones who thought I was so strong, now knew how pathetic I was.

  “Okay. I’ll have Ellis get you a room at a hotel.” Patrick stood. When he got close to me, he hesitated before pulling me into a tight hug. Whispering in my ear, he said, "For God’s sake, why didn’t you tell us? We could’ve protected you from this. Hell, w
e tried to protect you from this kind of shit. Why do you think you weren’t supposed to come to the party the other night? We had a lot of new guys around and I didn’t trust them to stay the fuck away from you or even know who you were.”

  “I’m sorry, Patrick.” I sighed heavily and hugged him back. Resting my head on his shoulder, I wanted to cry, but I refused to let myself break down. "It’s a long story and I’m just too emotionally exhausted to go through it right now.”

  “I understand. Go get some rest.” Patrick kissed my forehead, much like Ellis had before leaving. Deciding I’d have to get clothes to take with me, I headed up to my room. Each step was harder than the one before it. I didn’t know what I’d find in my room. I doubted it’d be a mess, but I didn’t know if I was ready to enter the room that I had just been abused in for the last few days.

  “Hey, where you going?” Ellis ran up to me, halting my slow progress up the stairs.

  “I was going to get some clothes.” I gestured up the remaining stairs.

  “Nah. Let’s just go. We can pick up whatever you need once we’re there,” Ellis said, scooping me up in his arms. I let out a yelp of pain and grabbed onto his neck.

  “What the hell?” Realizing that he hadn’t meant to hurt me, I felt bad instantly for my reaction. My hip was still killing me, but Ellis adjusted his grip to hold me as tenderly as he could.

  “I’m making it easier for you to get down the stairs.” Ellis smiled as he effortlessly carried me down the rest of the stairs before setting me back on my feet. "We are gonna take my truck. I don’t think you are up to a bike ride.”

  “Okay.” I didn’t feel like arguing because he was right. When he opened the front door and I saw the beautiful black pickup sitting there, I knew it was his without a doubt. It screamed masculine and sexy at the same time. Ellis helped me into the passenger side before climbing into the driver seat. I leaned the seat back and put an arm over my eyes. I almost smiled when he reached across the truck to pull the seat beat over my shoulder and buckle it in. Always thinking of safety. He must’ve already arranged for a room because the only noise in the moving vehicle was the sound of the tires on the road, which relaxed me.

  “Hey.” Ellis’ soft voice and the feeling of his hand rubbing up and down my arm roused me. I didn’t mean to fall asleep, but I guess I had. “We’re here.”

  He got out and ran around the truck to help me out, placing a protective arm around my shoulder. We walked inside to check in. I made sure to keep my head down to hide my face from everyone. After getting us checked in and getting our room key, Ellis led me to the elevator. Once the doors closed on the elevator, he turned to me and lifted my face, looking into my eyes.

  “Do you have any idea how much it hurts me to see you trying to hide your beautiful face from people because of what that asshole did to you?” Ellis brushed his thumb gently over my cheek as I dropped my eyes.

  “I wish you didn’t have to see it.” I spoke softly. It was the only thing I could think to say. It was truth. I wished no one had to see the damage he did. "You can leave once I get to the room. I’ll call a cab to take me home tomorrow or whenever the reservations are over.”

  “Like hell you will,” Ellis said just as the elevator doors opened. Placing his arm around my shoulders again, we exited the elevator before walking down the hall to our room. Turned out we had a suite with two bedrooms, a living room, and a small kitchen. "I rented it out for the entire week so you can rest up here and go down to the spa whenever you’d like. I want you feeling like a million bucks when you leave here. I’ll be staying in the other room… in case you need anything.”

  “The spa, really? That’s ridiculous. I’m not going to the spa. I think you are thinking of the wrong girl. I’ve never been that kind of girl. Just because I have a few bruises and an asshole boyfriend…” I looked at him like he had two heads, but he cut me off.

  “Ex.” Ellis bit out. “Ex-boyfriend.”

  “Right. An asshole ex-boyfriend. It doesn’t change anything. I’m still the same girl, only now you know what an idiot I am.” I shook my head; angry and ashamed at the same time.

  Ellis stepped closer to me running his hands down both of my arms to grasp my hands in his large, calloused ones. “I know exactly who you are, Ryan. Now, quit thinking about yourself like that because it’s not true.”

  I looked into his eyes, standing there like this was more intimate than I could stand and my throat swelled shut making me swallow hard. After taking a moment to gather myself, I nodded and stepped back from him so I could retreat to the bedroom he’d indicated was mine. I talked over my shoulder as I walked away. “I’m going to shower.”

  After relaxing in a long hot shower, I reluctantly got out and wrapped the towel around my body before padding into my room. Since I only had the clothes I’d worn there, I let the towel slip from my body, landing next to the bed as I slipped under the covers naked. I turned on the television and curled up watching some reality show. I jumped from my half asleep state when there was a knock at the door.

  “Come in.” I called out as I sat up, pulling the sheet up to keep my chest covered. Ellis walked in the room, closing the door behind him even though it was just the two of us in the suite, as far as I knew. He had a bag in his hand and a tender smile on his face.

  “I got you some clothes to change into. Well, I guess if you want to. I didn’t realize you were in bed. Uh, sorry.” Ellis actually blushed. I smiled at his unexpected nervousness.

  “Thanks. I’ll get dressed when I get up. I was thinking of taking a nap before we figure out what we are doing for dinner, if that’s okay with you."

  “Yeah. That’s fine. I should probably do the same.” He scratched his cheek nervously as he walked over and set the bag next to the bed. "I’ll just, uh, leave these here for you.”

  I just nodded with a half-smile as he left the room again. Curling up again under all the warm covers, I drifted into a fitful, restless sleep filled with dreams of all the men in my life fist fighting.

  “Shhh. It’s okay.” A soft voice and tender caresses woke me from my nightmare. “It was just a dream. Everything’s okay.”

  Sniffling and wiping at the tears that were freely rolling down my cheeks, I pulled back and locked eyes with Ellis. I couldn’t remember what I’d been dreaming, but obviously it hadn’t been anything good.

  I had barely slept earlier before tossing and turning then finally giving up on a nap. Ellis and I had ordered room service and then sat, eating together while watching a funny movie that Ellis had picked from the Pay Per View selection. I had gone to bed feeling a bit better even though I was still upset about the whole Jeremiah situation. I hadn’t heard from him at all, but I also hadn't tried to call him. I didn’t know if he was on his way back to base, was he beaten so badly that he was in the hospital, or if he was dead. I didn’t know what happened. Maybe in some part of my mind I didn’t want to know. I wanted to be happy that I was now free of the man that had caused me so much pain. Then again, I needed to know. As much as he hurt me, I still cared for him, even though I knew I should hate him.

  Apparently, my dreams had been playing out the myriad of thoughts I’d had as I’d fallen asleep. Although, waking up wrapped in Ellis’ arms as he spoke soft words to me was the most comfortable I’d felt in days. He ran a hand through my hair while the other one held me to his chest. “I’m sorry.” I sniffled, feeling bad that I had bothered him.

  “Day or night, anytime you need me. I’m here.” He whispered into my ear without pulling back from me. That was all it took; I broke down. I couldn't hold back the tears anymore. Everything I’d been through came pouring out in wracking sobs as I clutched Ellis’ back. Even though my tears soaked his shirt, he didn’t say anything. He sat there stroking hair and back while holding me tightly to him, letting me release all my pain.

  When the tears finally started to slow, he moved me so I was laying down. Feeling the bed shift, I reached back and grabbed his arm. My
red rimmed eyes begging as I said, “Stay. Please.”

  He nodded and climbed into bed after removing his wet shirt. He laid on his back and opened his arms so that I could snuggle close, my face in the crook of his neck. I moved until one of my legs was thrown over one of his, one hand resting on the center of his chest. As I breathed in deeply, a sense of calm washed over me.

  “Thank you, Ellis,” I whispered as I fell asleep in his arms.

  When I woke hours later, I had my back to Ellis, but his large arm was wrapped tightly around my waist as he breathed heavily on my neck, one of his legs wedged between mine. I tried to slip out from his hold, but he tightened his arm around me even though his breathing didn’t change from its relaxed rhythm. I ran my hand up and down his arm a few times, trying to wake him up.

  “Ellis, I need to go to the bathroom. You have to let me get up.” I spoke softly, not wanting to wake him fully, just enough to let go of me. I kept rubbing his arm as he grumbled something. He thrust his hips against my ass and I was nudged by a very aroused cock as he murmured again, snuggling his face into my neck. I laughed softly, slapping his arm lightly, “Ellis. Wake up!”

  “Huh?” Ellis pulled back and pushed up onto his arm so he was leaning over me.

  “I have to go pee.” I gave a half smile and jumped from the bed before walking to the bathroom in my sweat pants and baggie shirt that he’d brought me the day before. My hip was still a bit sore but not nearly as bad as it had earlier. Once I relieved myself, I breathed a deep, calming breath as I prepared to return to bed with Ellis. I was so used to seeing him ready to take down anyone that spoke out of line, yet since we’d arrived at the hotel, he had been so attuned to my needs and making me happy. When I opened the bathroom door, Ellis was lying in the center of the bed on his back, an arm thrown over his eyes as he snored softly. Standing in the doorway, I admired the sight of him in only a pair of cotton shorts. His ripped torso was on display and it was seriously hard to not drool. Not to mention the large erection I could clearly see, even from across the room. As I moved closer to the bed, I could see the tip of his penis sticking out the elastic band on the top of his shorts. I glanced up to see if he was aware that I had returned, but he hadn’t moved. His arm still covered his eyes even though he’d stopped snoring.