42. Deacon
Chapter 42
Deacon
“ A nother set of ten.” I say to the girl in front of me, performing a pushup with her ass too high in the air, and she doesn’t drop low enough to bend her elbows. My thoughts drift to another time I had a feminine body pushing out a hundred pushups, and calling me sir.
It’s torture. Not the thought of Thea, but of her being back here. There’s no other way to describe how much I hurt for her. I’ve already watched her claw her way back from one trauma. It’s fucked up that she has to do it again.
Based on what Thea’s told us, it’s clear Malcom’s got a vendetta against the Laurent girls, but the reasons we’ve come up with don’t make a whole helluva lot of sense. Whatever the reason is, he’s a danger to her. As a mid-level councilman, and a top ranked legacy family, the only way Thea will ever be safe is to strip him of that power. That means finding evidence about his behavior that’s damning enough to make The League of the Daggered Raven turn their backs on him. That sounds fine. Digging up dirt on Malcom Cox might even be fun, but it won’t be easy.
Moreau has agents around town to protect Thea, but she’ll be on her own when dealing with The League. My heart fractured for her when she called me and told me about the tribunal’s decision. Our plan for them to overturn her status as a deserter worked, but most of the points she accumulated no longer count. She’s basically starting from scratch.
The student yells out fifty, then sinks to her knees, and I say, “Of the fifty, you counted, thirty were shit.” She pouts up at me, and I ignore the hurt look on her face. “Do a set of twenty-five every day. Use a mirror to help you perfect the form and motion.”
Dropping down to demonstrate, I say, “Keep your glutes tight, your core firm, and you want to bend your elbows at least ninety degrees. Don’t let your chest or hips hit the floor or your ass poke up in the air.”
I push out a few reps, then jump to my feet. “Give me ten minutes on the stair climber and we’re done.” I duck under the rope and step into the ring, motioning for Tank to join me.
I grunt as I roll my neck and shoulder. I’ve been teasing Thea about being out of shape, but after today’s session with Tank, I’m not faring much better. I step into the shower, groaning as the hot water beats down on my aching muscles. As I relax under the spray, tension easing, I allow my thoughts to wander away from work and revenge. I connect with my body and feelings.
Thea and I talk on the phone every night. I love knowing exactly where she is and that I can see her whenever I want, but all of that does nothing to help ease the ache in my cock. I’m taking things at a glacier pace, fighting against my urges, and pretending as if we’ve just met. Pretending as if I’m not already intimately familiar with every sound she makes, every hitch of her breath. Every flutter of her pussy.
Neither of us has made a move towards restarting the physical aspect of our relationship since that first night we tried at the compound. Despite what Thea thinks she wants, her body’s not ready, which means I’ve spent a lot of time fucking my fist these last few weeks. Just like I’m about to do now.
The first glide of my hand across my dick has me inhaling. On the second, I exhale, and think of the woman that owns my heart. I think of the way her face looks when she’s aroused and how her sensitive nipples pebble from the slightest touch.
I tighten my grip as I stroke over my dick, imagining it’s her mouth on me. Those lips wrapped around it and sucking me into the back of her throat. With my other hand, I fondle my balls, gently squeezing my swollen sack. I settle into the fantasy and the feeling, my head back as I bite down on my bottom lip, stifling a groan. Then I am groaning, as I imagine it’s her tongue swirling around the head of my shaft. “ Fuck . Your mouth feels so good.”
I tighten my grip, pulling harder on my length. “Take me deeper. I wanna feel myself in the back of your throat.”
My hand jerks free when I hear the unmistakable sound of my front door opening and closing. I leave the water running and ease out of the shower, wrapping a towel around my waist. From behind my bedroom door, I listen as soft footsteps pad across the floor, then I hear another door squeak open.
After tugging on a pair of sweatpants, I slip downstairs to confront the intruder. I step into the kitchen, gun raised and pointing at the intruder. Easing my finger off the trigger, I click the safety on and lower the weapon as I watch Thea rummaging around in my pantry. “Just make yourself at home.”
She startles, dropping the pack of cookies she’s holding in her hand and spins around with her knife out. “Dammit, Wolfe. Don’t sneak up on me like that. I could’ve stabbed you.” She glances over at the gun I’m holding and arches a brow. “Were you gonna shoot me?”
“I was gonna shoot the intruder .” Looking back at the front door, which I know I locked and armed, I ask, “How did you get in, anyway?”
“I picked the lock.”
“And the alarm?”
“Deactivated it.”
My grandfather will have a heart attack when I tell him that. His top of the line alarm system is not supposed to be easy to deactivate. But Thea got inside, which means there’s a vulnerability in the system. “That’s a lot of trouble to go through to steal my cookies. Why didn’t you just ring the bell?”
“Your car wasn’t in the driveway, so I figured you weren’t home.”
“It’s in the garage.” Walking over to her I ask, “Why did you let yourself in, if you thought I wasn’t home?”
She retrieves her dropped cookies and hops up onto the counter before answering. “I didn’t feel like going to my dorm or to my folk’s place, so I figured I’d hide out here for a little while.”
Did she even notice that she called the Hughes’s her folks? I won’t make it weird by pointing it out. She looks so cute with her oversized hoody on. Correction. She looks cute with one of my hoodies on. Her legs look bare underneath it, which means she’s wearing some indecently small shorts. I’m not all that sure that she’s wearing a bra, either.
I lost my erection, thinking I was about to get into a fight, but now it’s back. I distract myself from the urge to step between her thighs by going back upstairs to turn off the water in the shower. When I return to the kitchen, I grab ingredients out of the fridge and pans from the bottom cabinets.
“You hungry?” I ask, as I move to the counter and get to work prepping food for dinner.
“Starving.” She says, her voice sounding a little horse.
I glance up to find her staring at my chest. I clear my throat and she finally looks up at me. I bite back a smile, a groan, and the urge to fuck her where she sits. She’s not ready for that. I know she’s not ready for that. But I also want her to know that when she is, then so am I. “Dinner won’t take long and if there’s anything in this kitchen that you want as an appetizer, all you have to do is ask.”
Thea
Wolfe busted me staring at his chest. I’m a little embarrassed about it, even though I know I have no reason to be. I’m allowed to look. I’m allowed to touch. I wan t to touch and I want to fall into the fun and flirty banter with him. The moment I let myself think about going there, and start imagining his hands on my skin, that feeling of uncertainty creeps in and that sense of helplessness that I felt in that place returns.
There were no soft touches. Each and every one was hard and painful, designed to make me bleed or scream. The moment I think about moving closer to him, my body overrides my brain and I’m left feeling as if I’m in my body and detached from it at the same time.
“LaReaux, you alright?”
I swallow over the dryness in my throat, forcing myself to speak. “Of course. What are you making?” If he’s disappointed in me not picking up on his innuendo about appetizers, he doesn’t show it.
“Steaks, roasted brussel sprouts and squash.”
“It sounds amazing.” I hop down from the counter and head for the living room. “I’m gonna go curl up on the couch. Call me when it’s done?”
Am I running from the sight of my boyfriend cooking in the kitchen wearing nothing but a pair of sweatpants? And I do mean nothing , since I can tell he’s commando underneath. Yes. Yes, I am.
Am I breaking my own heart by doing it? The answer to that is also yes. I don’t know how to work through it. How to get past it. I don’t know why fighting for my survival every day in that hell hole is affecting me differently than it did when I was fighting in Nags Creek. I’ve been through tough shit before and I should be able to move past this, just like I moved past my attack last year.
My attempts to ignore Wolfe faltered during dinner as he sat shirtless next to me. I was transfixed by his torso, as if I’d never seen a pair of pecs and abs before. He didn’t call me out on it, but I know all the extra stretches and flexes of his muscles were because I was shamelessly eye fucking him.
I followed the conversation we were having, so there’s that. Now we’re having dessert on the couch, and I’m telling him about my plan to retrieve my hidden challenge items.
“Do you think they’re still there?” He asks.
“I really don’t know. It’s possible, but it’s also possible that a Skullz looking for a hiding spot for their stash could have found them and kept them or pawned them off. Either way, I’ll have to get them back. I don’t wanna give the council another reason to dock me points.”
His lips close around the spoon filled with chocolate mousse. His eyes are closed as he licks it, swirling the tip of his tongue through the decadent treat the way he swirls it around my clit. There’s a trace amount on his bottom lip.
Operating on instinct, I lean forward, swiping it off with my tongue. I pull away, staring into his eyes, spotting the banked heat in them. He gives a slight shake to his head, but other than that, he doesn’t move.
He’s waiting on me. Giving me the choice to pull away or kiss him again. I choose the kiss, softly pressing my lips against his. I scoot closer, his tongue slips into my mouth, sliding against mine. He tastes like chocolate and wine. I lean backwards to lie on the couch, like the last time, and feel him settle between my legs.
With the weight of his body against mine, comes the dousing of the heat that was building. My hands go slack, my body taunt. He pulls back from the kiss and eases off of me, and asks, “In the mood to watch anything?”
I swallow thickly and nod. “Pick whatever you want.”
He settles into the corner of the couch, placing my feet in his lap. I’m grateful he doesn’t make a big deal about what just happened. My eyes grow heavy halfway through the action movie and I drift off to sleep, forcing myself to ignore the panic I felt when he pressed against me, and choosing to focus on how good it felt kissing him instead.