Is he fucking serious?
Sometimes I wonder if I agree to things, or if he just shocks me and through that shock, I end up agreeing to whatever crazy thing he wants me to do. That’s the only logical explanation for all the things I’ve conceded on since I woke up here and have barely been allowed to leave.
But that’s not my reality. I willingly hand over decisions, even if I do fight them to begin with. Elijah is the only person who has ever been able to sway my choices, and maybe that should make me run in the opposite direction.
But with a man like Elijah, you have no other choice than to run toward him and hope he catches you.
His eyes are feral as he approaches me, and I have nowhere to go. The cool tiles at my back send a shiver down my spine, my need for him evident as wetness grows between my thighs. I shouldn’t want him. I shouldn’t be in the mood after what just happened, but something I’m beginning to understand, I always want Elijah. Even when my head says no, my body says yes.
Before I can think to move, he lifts me from my feet and throws me over his shoulder. The air leaves my lungs as I make contact with it, and by the time I’m capable of speech, he’s lowering the both of us onto the edge of the bathtub.
It’s not until I’m back on solid ground that I’m capable of speaking. “Elijah,” I screech. “You’re injured. You could have hurt yourself even more!”
He chuckles, making quick work of unbuttoning my jeans and shoving them down my legs, closely followed by my underwear and his own pants. “There’s only one part of me hurting, Snowflake, and it wasn’t your brothers that caused it.”
My mouth falls open at his words and a blush spreads across my cheeks like wildfire. This man. Lord.
When his hands curl around the backs of my legs, ready to lift me into place, my mind finally clicks into action and I manage to back away just enough that he can’t get a grip on me. “Wait!” I hold both hands up as if reasoning with a bull in a China shop. Hell, dealing with Elijah when he wants something fits that description to a tee. “I still have my period. I have a tampon in,” I whisper shout as if it’s something to be ashamed of. Elijah has just spent the last two days nursing me back to health, holding me while I cry, carrying me to the bathroom because I haven’t been able to get out of bed, and standing in the shower with me for an hour because the heat gave me some relief, and yet I’m still ashamed of the most natural thing my body does, like breathing and my heart beating.
“Well, take it out and get over here. I need you to nurse me back to health.” He smirks.
“Absolutely not. Nope. Not happening.” I shake my head emphatically. Period sex is at the very bottom of the things I’ve wanted to try in the bedroom, and I don’t intend to move it up the list.
Elijah sighs, frustration flickering in his eyes for the first time since we entered the bathroom. “Snow. Either you remove the tampon and climb up onto my cock, or I’m going to do it for you, and you won’t like that option very much because it doesn’t involve you having any orgasms.”
I huff out a sigh and glare at him. He’s never heard the word no, I’m sure of it. “Turn around,” I snap.
“No.”
“For fuck’s sake, Elijah. I’m already mortified. Can you just give me a second of fucking privacy?” Hot tears pool at the corners of my eyes, and a moment later, they spill against my heated cheeks. All the emotions I’ve been trying to stamp down hit me all at once, and my legs wobble beneath me until I’m sure they’re about to give way.
Except, when they do, strong arms wrap around me and lower us both to the ground. As soon as the cold tiles make contact with my bare legs, I flinch, but Elijah’s warmth soothes me immediately. He carefully positions me in his lap, both of us only dressed from the waist up, and I idly wonder what Mary would think if she walked back through the door right now.
He presses his hand to the side of my head, holding my face to his chest and I take comfort in the beating of his heart. Until now, I haven’t allowed myself to consider what could have happened today. If Wynter hadn’t told me what our brothers and Everett suspected, I wouldn’t have gone to the basement. I would have obliviously planned my wedding while Elijah was turned black and blue, and maybe even killed. I would have been blissfully unaware of my own flesh and blood killing the man I…
The moment the word crosses my mind, all the air leaves my lungs, and panic claws at my throat. Oh no. Oh no, no, no. I can’t feel that for him. I can’t allow myself to feel that emotion for a man like Elijah Russo. No matter what he says, or how many times he promises me he isn’t going to use me as a baby farm and kill me when I’m no longer useful, I can never allow myself to fall for the monster.
A ragged sob tears from my throat as I realize I’m no more capable of controlling my emotions for him than I am controlling the weather. He’s like the perfect storm, and it doesn’t matter how much I fight it, how hard I push back, he’s always going to blow me away.
Elijah holds me against him so tightly, and for so long, that his warmth lulls my tears, and my body stops trembling with the mixture of adrenaline and terror I’ve felt today.
“I’m sorry,” I murmur against his still-covered chest. His white button-down shirt is stained red from the blood dripping from his face, and it matches my own from where he was resting his head.
“You have nothing to be sorry for, my little Snowflake. I pushed too hard.” The admission falls easily from his lips, like the words don’t mean a thing, but they mean everything. Elijah Russo is not a man who admits his shortcomings. He’s a man who takes what he wants, when he wants, and he makes no apologies for who he is. But not with me.
A vibrating sound startles me, and we both look up at where Elijah’s phone is moving around the cabinet. “Ignore it,” I whisper.
He chuckles and reaches for it, quickly bringing it to his ear. “What?” he snaps, immediately moving into work mode. The direct contrast of who he is around others, and the man he allows me to see under the hard exterior is startling.
I listen for the other end of the call, but I can’t make out their hurried words, only the fear lurking behind them. Whoever is on the phone is terrified of Elijah, much like the rest of Chicago, I suppose.
“What do you mean they’re missing?” he growls, pausing as he listens for their response. “David, six dealers don’t just up and disappear in one day. Where the fuck are they?” Another pause and the voice on the other end of the line sounds even more panicked than before. I can’t say I would like to be the one to deliver bad news to Elijah.
He scrubs his hands down his face, anger vibrating off his body, but his hold on me remains firm but gentle, never allowing the rage to touch me. Is he aware he’s doing it? Does he know he’s still drawing soft circles into my back as if he’s trying to calm us both.
“Fuck. Okay. Round up the rest of the dealers and see if they know anything. I want to know if anyone out of the ordinary approached them, if they made any sales that seemed out of place, and I want them all off the street until we get to the bottom of this,” he barks out the order and abruptly ends the call before David can respond.
“We gotta make this quick, Snowflake,” he says, quickly moving me from his lap and onto my hands and knees. I barely have time to take a breath before he’s behind me. “I need your tight cunt.”
My protests die in my throat, and before I’m conscious of my own movements I’ve removed the tampon, a deep blush coating my cheeks as I quickly dispose of it, and before I can think to say anything, he’s seated himself inside me. The stretch burns so much that it steals the air from my lungs. He’s a big man, and without the right preparation, sex can be painful, but I allow him to take what he needs from me.
“Your injuries,” I rasp.
“Your sweet pussy makes it all better, Snowflake.” His hips slam into me at a rapid pace and my knees dig painfully into the hard floors. But the bite of pain mixed with the way his cock hits my G-spot at the perfect angle causes an intense orgasm to tear through my body.
Elijah grunts behind me, his cock pulsing inside my tender pussy. “Fuck, Snow,” he growls a moment before he buries himself deep inside me and his release takes hold. His fingers dig into my hips to the point of pain, but I love it. I love everything Elijah gives me, and perhaps that should terrify me, but it doesn’t. It just makes me want to see what else the terrifying man can throw at me.
Elijah doesn’t withdraw right away, staying deep inside me for long moments after his orgasm subsides. His fingers draw soft lines in my hips, my ass, my lower back, and I start to wonder if he went too hard and hurt himself.
“Are you okay?” I whimper as he slides out of me, the evidence of his release immediately dripping between my thighs.
“Exactly what the doctor ordered.” He chuckles as he lifts me from the ground. “Now, I need you to call your brothers and get them over here.”
“What?”
“It seems more than just a shipment has gone missing, which means we may have a common enemy.”
