Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 94393 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 472(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94393 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 472(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
“No,” I said firmly. “Not like this.”
Eli’s dead eyes held mine and it wasn’t until I reached up and ran my fingers down his cheek and whispered his name that he finally seemed to snap out of whatever daze he’d been in. Life rushed back into his gaze and he looked down at my cock which was still hanging out of my pants. He let out a startled gasp and took several big steps back from me. I used the time to tuck myself back in, but I was still drawing the zipper up when Eli bolted.
“Eli-” I shouted as I followed him. I reached him just as he was opening his car door and I slammed it closed before he could get in. I pinned his body with mine to keep him from trying to get away.
“I’m sorry!” he cried. “I’m sorry!”
“Eli, it’s okay,” I said as I reached up to grab his arms. He was wearing a short sleeved shirt so I was able to touch his skin which actually felt cold and clammy. He was shaking like crazy and I could hear sobs rattling deep down in his throat. I sensed he was on the verge of a full blown panic attack so I wrapped my arms around him and dropped my mouth to his ear.
“Shhhh, just take deep breaths, okay?”
My words seemed to have little effect on him and he kept repeating over and over that he was sorry. Something inside of me took over as Eli’s distress grew and I began murmuring words that I had learned long ago…before I’d realized that they didn’t apply to me.
I kept repeating them over and over until I felt Eli start sucking in deep breaths. We were leaning heavily against his car door, my body holding his in place, surrounding him. His shaking eased as his breathing slowed, but he was still trembling. The sobs had stopped, but I could feel moisture dropping down onto my forearm which was still braced across his upper chest. I let the words trail off, but instead of releasing Eli, I leaned down to brush my lips across the back of his neck. His skin was soft and much warmer than it had been a few minutes earlier and while he was still taking deep breaths, they weren’t as agonized as they’d been.
We stood there for several long minutes and as the adrenaline in my system began to wane, I realized how good Eli’s body felt pressed up against mine. At some point he’d lifted one of his hands to close over the arm I had around his chest, but he wasn’t trying to get free of me…it was more like he was holding on. Like I’d become his anchor. It wasn’t something I should have encouraged, but I couldn’t force myself to release him.
“I…I need to go,” Eli said shakily, though he didn’t release his hold on me even when I loosened my grip just a little.
“We need to talk about what just happened,” I said, but even before I finished the statement, Eli was shaking his head.
“It was a mistake. I’m sorry.”
“Eli-”
“Please, Mav…please just let me go.”
I hated how frail and uneven his voice sounded. While he wasn’t in a near panic like he’d been before, he was definitely still on the edge. I reluctantly let him go and stepped back. The second I did, he was opening the car door. He whispered yet another apology to me and then he was climbing in his car. It sputtered to life a moment later, but Eli didn’t look at me even once as he pulled out of the space and drove off. I wanted to follow him and demand that he tell me what the hell had just happened, but I knew it wouldn’t get me anywhere. My plans to leave town forgotten, I pulled out my phone and started to dial the number for Daisy, the young woman Ronan had hired to handle the IT side of the underground vigilante organization he ran and that I’d been working for for nearly five years. But as I was about to hit the button to initiate the call, I felt a rush of impatience go through me and I put my phone away and climbed onto my bike. It would take Daisy hours to get the information I wanted and that was assuming she didn’t have any high priority cases she was working on. And it was more than likely that any information she shared with me would be shared with Ronan as well. Since he knew Eli, he’d want an explanation as to why I was digging into the young man’s past.
It was something I wasn’t ready to try to explain…not to Ronan and not to myself.
Chapter Four
Eli
I was tempted to not answer the knock on the door, especially since I had a good guess as to who it was. Humiliation blazed through me as I wiped away the tears that I hadn’t been able to stem from the moment I’d realized that I’d made a terrible mistake after Mav had told me he didn’t want my money.