“Close your eyes,” he orders, and I do. I obey him like I’ve done so many times before. “Tell me what happened that night.” He pulls me against him, my head resting on his shoulder, and I can smell the spicy scent of his cologne.
“I … I … I broke into his house.” The truth tumbles free from my lips.
“Whose house?”
Sighing, I realize I have to tell him. Tears fall from my lashes, wetting my face, but I don’t swipe them away. I’m once again obeying Elian and allowing the pain to take hold of me. “When I was sixteen, there was a boy I crushed on. He was the quarterback of our school team. Perfect in every way, but I learned that night, perfection didn’t exist.”
Elian goes rigid under me, and I picture his face painted with rage. I’m not sure why, but it pushes me to continue with my story. The same story I’d locked up tight along with my father’s death.
“We went back to his place after the game. I thought I’d be the special girl he took to prom. I wanted to be his high school sweetheart.” A humorless laugh tumbles from my lips. “But he was convinced with a couple of glasses of wine I’d be up for anything.”
“Arabella …”
“I wasn’t like that. Not then anyway. He broke me, tore me open, and I was never the same. I couldn’t tell anyone because my mother would’ve blamed me, and my dad, he would’ve killed the boy. I couldn’t have my dad going to jail. I loved him.”
“So, you stayed silent,” Elian whispers, and I nod against his shoulder. “And the bastard is the one you feel is now stalking you?” Another nod, and more tears fall. Elian’s arms wrap around me gently, pulling me closer as he stops all movement. He doesn’t say anything more. We sit in silence as the day turns to night, but his warmth calms me after a long while. I haven’t broken down like this before, but having him near me, holding me safely, I allow myself to break.
When he finally stands, lifting me along with him, he takes me to the kitchen where he sets me on a stool and heads to the fridge. Elian opens two beers, setting one down for me, and he swigs the other. Silently, we move through the kitchen making dinner. As we sit and eat, Elian seems distracted, angry. Just before eleven, he walks back into the living room from the bathroom dressed in a pair of sweatpants.
“Come here, sweetheart,” he says with his hand reached out to me. When I close the distance, he takes me, and we walk into the bedroom.
I’m nervous. I never once expected to admit the truth of that night to him, but here I am. Elian turns to me, a small, almost sad smile curves his lips.
“Take all your clothes off and lie back on the bed.”
I do as he says. When I’m comfortable, he takes me in like he did the first time we had sex. And then, he moves onto the mattress, kneeling at the foot end as he takes each of my legs, planting gentle kisses on my ankles, trickling them up to my inner thighs.
He mimics his actions on both sides before he reaches my pussy, and his mouth turns me into a trembling mess. His tongue darts inside me while his fingers taunt my entrance. He holds my pussy open for his tongue and teeth to lick and bite at me.
Slowly, he dips two fingers into me, and I almost shoot off the bed when his teeth latch onto the bundle of nerves at my center. His talented kisses send me screaming over the edge. Fragments of bliss spark through me as I scream out his name.
With the agility of a predator, he slides over me, pressing a kiss to my lips, and I taste myself on his tongue when he slides it along mine. His movements are not at all what I’m expecting, it’s … romantic.
Something shifted when he slid inside me seconds ago. It wasn’t rough or angry. There was a gentleness to his kisses and the way his body took mine. I’m lost in the way his hands hold me, in the way his lips steal mine, swallowing every moan and whimper.
As my lashes flutter closed, I attempt to hold back the tears as realization hits me in the chest. I care about him. It can’t be love. Not just yet, but the way he seems to be claiming me tells me that he feels this connection as well.
He is everything I never knew I wanted.
This is everything I never knew I needed.
And I realize in that moment, this would be everything that would haunt me until I admit the truth to him. But in doing so, I might lose him. His body moves over me, his hips slapping against mine as I take him deep. He thickens, stretching my walls, and I welcome the bite of pained pleasure that shoots down my spine.