“I never kissed him, went on a date with him, slept with him, and the police at first didn’t believe me when I told them that. Then when he beat me and didn’t rape me, they were all apologetic, but it was too late to try and find him. He evaded capture and will continue to do so. I’ll never be free or safe as long as he’s out there.”
“But, baby, you can’t live like this, fighting an attraction to all of us and being alone out of fear of this guy. We can protect you.” She shook her head.
“It’s my problem and not baggage any of you need.”
“That’s not your decision to make, it’s ours,” he stated firmly.
“Max, you’re all older, more experienced, and why would you want someone who has a crazy stalker hunting her down?”
“Maybe because you need us, we care about you already, and won’t let this dick get close enough to hurt you. Maybe this attraction is stronger than your fears, and maybe we’re meant to be together.”
“It isn’t fair. I haven’t dated anyone. I remain alone because it’s better that way and I can’t get control of these anxiety attacks.”
“We can help you with those. Especially Slayer. He’s had personal experience with something similar.”
She widened her eyes at him. “Is that how he knew what to do to calm me?” He nodded and then stroked her jaw.
“I’m going to tell my brothers and Slayer about this, so they know and understand. Would you be willing to hang out with us? Get to know each of us so we can explore these feelings?” he asked her.
“Didn’t you hear everything I told you? Why would you want a woman with all this baggage and fears? I might not be able to let you that close to me. I could freak out and ruin it all.” She carried on.
He shook his head.
“Sweetie, this type of relationship is special, and all this shit that you’ve gone through isn’t your fault. You didn’t ask for it. This sick fuck chose you, and he’s the one with the problem. You would be safest with us. With all of us.”
“I’m scared, though.”
“Rightfully so, but we want you, and I think you want us, too.” He pressed his lips gently to hers and then she hugged him and he rolled to his back as she lay against his chest and exhaled.
“I’m so relieved that you didn’t run away from me when I told you.”
He chuckled. “What? Why would I have done that?”
“You’re older, can get any woman you guys want. I’m twenty-four, and my experience with men includes a stalker I never even kissed or dated. That’s insane to my own ears.”
“You’re twenty-four, gorgeous, and sexy, and to be honest, it’s us sitting back wondering why someone like you, so perfect and beautiful, would feel an attraction to men like us. Older, washed up, and looking at forty,” he said to her. She chuckled.
“I guess the attraction is just too darn strong,” she said, and he smiled wide. He felt hopeful, and maybe, just maybe, Essie would be their woman in no time.
* * * *
Essie held Max’s hand after they put all the stuff in her car and his things in his car. They walked down the side street, and she started to feel uneasy again. Her chest felt tight, her thoughts all scrambled. She should feel a bit relieved, having explained everything to Max, but she didn’t. She still wanted to keep her distance to protect him, his brothers, and Slayer. Was it silly?
It felt right being with him, just like it felt being with the others. They were men. Older, sexually experienced men, and they would want to have sex with her. Want to possess her, make her their woman. This should be an exciting time, and yet her fears that Blade was looking for her still remained in the back of her mind.
Max stopped and brought her hand to his lips. He kissed her knuckles.
“Talk to me. What are you thinking right now?” He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her close. They stood by a bench as people walked by.
“That I shouldn’t give into these sensations, to this attraction I have for all of you.” He scrunched his eyebrows together and exhaled.
“Baby, you don’t need to hide anymore. We’ll protect you from this guy. We know a lot of people.” He reached up and cupped her cheek.
“You do know that it was us that arranged everything to save Precious and rescue her?”
She didn’t know the details. She just knew that they were resourceful. She wanted to believe him. She wanted to trust in him and his brothers and Slayer. She looked away.
“The police—”
“No, the police, those detectives, they have to do things differently than we do. We don’t play by the same rules, Essie. We play by our own rules, and if someone messes with us, or someone we care about, we do what’s needed. Now I’m only going to tell you this one time. I’m certain my brothers will, too, and Slayer as well. When we make a promise, we keep it. All we ask is for honesty, and for you to put that same trust in us that we put in you. Now, you’re a beautiful, smart woman, and I know you’re young, maybe haven’t had many boyfriends or lovers, but with us, it will be different, and it will be perfect.”
She couldn’t believe that he thought she had boyfriends, lovers. Jesus, when she told them she was a virgin to boot, God only knew what their reaction would be. Probably hysteria. God, she wanted what he said to be true. She could see herself giving them all of her.
He stared down into her eyes.
“Tell me that you’ll put these fears aside and give us the opportunity to prove to you that this is real and not some fling.”
“What are the others going to say when they find out about Blade? About the danger I could be in, my fears, and then my anxiety attacks?” she asked, sort of rambling.
He gave a soft smile. “We’re all different men, but we all want the same thing. To make you our woman, to protect you and keep you safe. They’ll be pissed, and they may even act protective, just like my reaction, but they would never hurt you or force you to do something you weren’t ready for. Understood?”
She smiled. “Understood.” As they started to walk again she was still very nervous, but as she and Max talked about normal things, and even about their childhoods, she couldn’t believe how compatible they were and how much better she felt. So when he walked her to her car and kissed her goodbye, she really believed she could give this shot, and that everything would fall together perfectly.
Chapter Six
“What?” Turbo raised his voice.
“You got this dick’s name and information?” Cobra asked.
“Where is she now? Not alone, right?” Ford asked.
“Calm down and hear me out. It was a hell of a fucking day, okay. Not what I expected. To find out that Essie has a fucking stalker, and he’s Special Forces,” Max told them.
“Fuck. Who is he? Tell me you got a fucking name?” Turbo stated.
“Calm down, Turbo. She isn’t in immediate danger. Let me explain how it happened, and what I know right now.” Max explained, all the while his brothers listened, cursed, and paced the kitchen. Slayer remained straight-faced.
“She should be here with us now. He put her in the fucking hospital for three weeks. How the fuck badly did he beat her? She’s a little thing,” Ford asked then slammed his fist down on the table.
“You all need to calm down. We can’t react like this around her. It will only push her away,” Max told them.
“She needs protection,” Turbo said.
“So, he wasn’t a boyfriend, a guy she slept with, or fooled around with?” Cobra asked.
“No, and because the police thought she was lying or making shit up, it nearly cost Essie her life. Then he broke into her car, her apartment, and left a knife in the pillow. The cops and detectives never found this guy Blade,” Max told them.
“I can call Callalow. He can get everything we need on the down low. Then, Slayer, you work your end with the connection.” Cobra began to formulate a plan. Max knew they would initially want to kill the guy, but then would do their research and find out w
here the guy was, who he was, and how to keep him away from Essie.
“There’s something else. Something that I think really scared her and made her feel so violated, and why she’s so shy and was hesitant in letting us so close,” Max said.
“What else?” Slayer asked through clenched teeth.
Max took a deep breath and then exhaled.
“The guy at some point, maybe when she was in the hospital recovering, got into her apartment and wired it with cameras.”
“Oh no,” Ford said and ran his palm along his beard.
“He was watching her. Shower, dress, undress, and even sleep. I think it all adds to the anxiety attacks and her panicking,” Max told them.
“Motherfucker. We need to find this guy. We need to protect Essie,” Cobra stated firmly as he texted.
Turbo walked out of the room and then returned with his laptop. Cobra was texting on his cell phone. Fifteen minutes later, Turbo was turning the computer toward them. The images taking Max’s breath away. Photographs from the police file of Essie at the hospital. The room went silent.
“I’ll find him and eliminate him,” Slayer said. His voice, his tone, hard and cold.
“There’ll be no killing of anyone yet, Slayer. We need to be careful. We can help find out who this guy is and where he is. The cops can’t find him, so that means he’s hiding out. We put out the feelers, send in trackers, and identify and locate. No going off hunting quite yet,” Cobra said. Slayer stared at the pictures and then stood up, nearly knocking over the chair.
“Where are you going?” Turbo asked him.
He didn’t respond.
“We need to keep her close to us. The only way to do that is to get her to spend time with us as much as possible. To get her here, and to make it so that she isn’t alone too often,” Turbo said to them.
“We can’t take over her life. It will only upset her more and make her keep her distance. We have to be a team,” Ford said.
“Tell that to Slayer. I don’t know what he’s thinking or where he just went, but we have to care for her together, or this isn’t going to work,” Max said to them, and they all agreed.
* * * *
Essie slipped on a pair of light lounge pants and a tank top after her shower and drying her hair. She felt antsy, nervous, and even her heart was racing. It was like she suddenly dreaded being alone. She thought about Max, Slayer, Ford, Turbo, and Cobra. Was she clinging to something, creating a connection, a need out of fear, or was this real? Was she needing their presence to feel safe?
Tears stung her eyes, and her belly ached. Was she losing her mind finally?
She shook the thoughts from her head and the desires, the need burning in her. She had to evaluate this attraction. It couldn’t be this strong so quickly, and it wouldn’t be smart. But then she thought about their bodies, their sizes and capabilities, and Max’s words today. To trust them to protect her, to not hurt her but to make her their woman. Did she want that?
She was heading into the living room, looking around the small, quiet apartment. No sound could be heard from in here, and suddenly it seemed more like a prison than a home. It was behind the gift shop, closed for the night, and in the back of the building. Perhaps this wasn’t such a smart location, but at the time she thought privacy, being hidden from prying eyes would be smartest. Now she wasn’t so sure. She started to feel panicked when she heard a knock at her door. She jumped, her heart felt like it was in her throat, and she froze in place, wondering who it could be? She reached for the bat, then gripped her cell phone. She made her way closer to the door. She jumped at the second knock, then peeked through the peephole and gasped. Slayer?
She put the bat down, and then unlocked the two deadbolts and then the regular lock. She opened the door.
“Slayer?” she asked. He stepped toward her, and she moved to the side. She closed the door, and when she turned around, he just stared at her from head to toe. His eyes were narrowed, looking at her, taking in her body, her facial expression, and she couldn’t move. She needed him. Had he needed her, too? He reached out and caressed her cheek. She closed her eyes and exhaled.
She wore no bra, and she tried moving her arm, but he gripped her hand. “No. Let me look at you,” he said so strong and deeply it made her shiver, and her pussy throbbed. She swallowed hard. She didn’t know what was wrong with him. Why was he acting so strangely?
“You’re scaring me,” she whispered, a tear falling. She was oversensitive, emotional, scared out of her mind tonight and didn’t know why. His eyes widened, and then he pulled her into his arms and hugged her tight.
It was instant. That feeling of being protected with a shield of body armor so big, so solid strong that nothing could penetrate it or get to her, but him and his cousins. She knew it instantly. She wanted, needed them. It just happened, and she didn’t know if she should deny it or accept it, but she squeezed him back needing all his strength and power that he seemed to possess. That they all seemed to possess. It was irrational thinking, and she didn’t care.
“Never be scared of me. I had to see you. To hold you and look at your beautiful face.” She realized that Max told him and the others. She squeezed him tight.
“I feel better knowing that you know my secret. Max helped me so much today,” she said to him.
He pulled back to look at her. “You’re so sweet, so feminine and beautiful. You didn’t deserve what that monster did to you. It isn’t right that you live in fear, that you kept it all inside and let it eat you alive and into these panic attacks.”
Tears spilled from her eyes and his eyes followed them and then her lips then back to her eyes again. He wiped them away with the pad of his thumbs. “I know fear. I know pain, and have had experiences that haunt me every night, too.” She squinted at him.
“You do?” He nodded and stroked her lower lip. “Lately, when I have them, I…”
“Slayer?” She waited for him to finish but instead he pressed his lips to hers and kissed her tenderly, deeply, lifted her in his arms and pressed her up against the wall by the front door. She ran her fingers through his hair, and he rocked his hips against hers. When his hand slid under her shirt and against her breast, she moaned into his mouth and her pussy leaked. The feel of his touch, the way his thick, hard thumb brushed over her nipple back and forth did things to her, made her want without care. Could she let go with him and his cousins? The thought of all five extra-large men in size, personalities, and all aspects scared the heck out of her.
He slid his mouth from her lips to her jaw and her neck, then lower. He lifted her top and exhaled.
“So beautiful. My God, Essie, you’re incredible.” He licked her nipple and then tugged it. She gasped and gripped his wide shoulders and instinctively rocked her hips. Her body knew better than she did what to do, how to react to this man’s moves. She needed to slow things down and be rational here. Jumping into bed with five men may not be the wisest move in her life, but it was a hell of a way to lose her virginity. She realized that if she did, she would want to share all of her, and the one thing not tainted or forcefully taken from her, her virginity to them.
She didn’t think she was ready. Not yet.
“Slayer. Please, Slayer, we need to slow down. It’s too much,” she told him and he released her nipple, swirled his tongue over it and then looked at her. He cupped the breast he had feasted on and once again stroked the nipple with the pad of his thumb arousing her all the way to her cunt. She still held on to his shoulders as he stared down into her eyes.
“I’m not leaving you.”
“I’m not going to have sex with you. I’m not ready, Slayer. It’s…complicated.”
“What isn’t complicated? I want you. My cousins want you. Spending as much time together as possible is the answer.”
“But then I’ll want to give in to all of you. I won’t stand a chance.”
“You’ll want to give in because you feel what we feel. Desire, need, a possessiveness and a protec
tiveness for you.” She realized that she felt it for them, too. She was denying these feelings with thoughts of somehow protecting them from Blade, yet not even thinking how stupid that was when she wouldn’t be able to protect herself from Blade. She was being possessive of them, protective of them, too.
“Two choices. I call my cousins, and we all squeeze into your bed with you, holding you, protecting you, helping to take away the fears, or you come home with me right now and surprise them, letting them know you want them, too, and that this is real.” Her heart started to race again, and her mind thought of all their faces, their personalities, and the moments they all shared thus far.
“I can’t have sex with all of you. Not yet.”
“You can sleep with us. Let us hold you and feel the protection we can provide.”
“For tonight only?”
“For tonight to start.” He pressed his lips to hers and then wrapped her in his arms before lowering her to her feet.
“I need to change,” she said and started to pull away. He looked her over.
“No, you look gorgeous and comfortable. Just grab what you’ll need to wear for tomorrow. Come on,” he said and then remained holding her hand, and they walked to her bedroom.
* * * *
They were all sitting down at the kitchen table. It was eleven and still no sign of Slayer. Cobra finally closed up the laptop and stopped staring at the pictures of Essie’s battered body, and reading and rereading the medical charts. She could have died by the hands of that fucking monster. He looked at his brothers. Turbo was sitting in the chair in the living room just staring off in deep thought. Ford and Max were still talking strategies of finding the guy and taking him out if the cops didn’t do their thing from New York.
When the side door to the kitchen opened, Cobra’s eyes widened, and he immediately stood up. There were Slayer and Essie. Her eyes looked teary, and he went to her, flashes of her battered body filled his head, and he pulled her into his arms and hugged her tight. She hugged him back.
It Takes Special Forces [Love on the Rocks 9] (Siren Publishing LoveXtreme Forever) Page 10
