17. It’s sunrise
17
It’s sunrise
Electra
“Electra,” I hear somewhere in the distance, the noise vague and quiet.
“Electra, wake up.” It gets louder but still out of my reach. “Electra! Wake. Up!” The sound is like a whip, and I jolt awake.
“Agh,” I yelp when I open my swollen, itchy eyes and find the very familiar whiskey ones staring right at me. As in Exton is so close, he’s hoovering over me with our noses a whisper away from each other.
Oh God, why is he so close? “Wh—” I start to ask but he shifts away, pulling me with him.
“Get up. Let’s go,” he says.
“Go? Go where?” I sound as confused as I feel. “Stop pulling on my hands,” I whine, trying to break free of him and go back to that amazing sleep I was having, but apparently Exton is not having it.
“Fine, I can drag you by the legs,” he says, and that gets my attention.
“Where are you trying to drag me to at…” I look around, finally noticing that the room is still bathed in semi-darkness. “Jesus Christ, why did you wake me up in the middle of the night?”
“It’s sunrise, Electra.”
I stop fighting him, stilling on the bed before I lift myself up. “Sunrise?”
“Yeah, they said it will be a clear day. So, I thought you might like that.” Exton rubs the back of his neck sheepishly while all I can do is blink and stare at him.
He remembered…but not only that, he got up and made sure I didn’t miss it either.
“Yeah,” I say past the thick lump in my throat. “Yeah, I’d like that very much.” I start to work my way toward my chair when two strong hands slip underneath me, lifting me up. “Wha—”
“Shhh, it’s too early for the angry elf energy to come out, okay?” He shuts me up and instead of getting me into my chair, he carries me out of the room like it’s the most natural, normal thing.
All of a sudden, I become very aware of my hands on his bare chest and of something poking me against my lower side, right above my hip bone where I can feel things. Oh God, is that…is he…hard?
My eyes frantically scan my own body, checking to see if I’m not flashing him again like I did the other night but when I look down, I see that I’m still in the same long sleeve and leggings that I had on last night.
And just like that the memories come back. From yelling to tears to confessions and hurting.
“Later,” Exton murmurs as if he can hear where my mind went. “We can get back to that later. For now, show me your whole sunrise magic.”
The corners of my lips curl up and I give him a soft, “Okay.”
Exton brings me to the living room, lowering me to the couch, but he doesn’t sit next to me, instead sliding to the floor with his back resting against my legs and a shiver runs through me.
A tiny prickle of something just flashes through there. There , where he is touching me. There as in my legs… No, no that couldn’t be.
“Cold?” he asks, looking over his shoulder and I nod, even though the temperature is more than comfortable. Exton looks around until his eyes catch on the knit blanket that I have laying on the chair and without needing to get up he extends his inhumanly long arm, snatching it up for me. “Here,” he says, and I take it from him, covering not only my legs but a part of his shoulders, because he never did get up from his position there.
“So, we just sit and wait?” he asks.
“Mm-hmm.”
“Riveting,” he mumbles with a yawn, and I chuckle.
“Well, it was you who got up first, so don’t complain now.”
“I saw today’s forecast and knew you wouldn’t want to miss it,” he says through another yawn and my heart skips a beat. Does he mean, he looked it up? Specifically, for me?
“Don’t think too hard over there, angry elf. It’s just a sunrise,” Exton adds, once again sensing my thoughts without me voicing them, but this time my cheeks heat up.
I didn’t mean it like that. I know he’s not interested in me like a man in a woman—although that erection he has going on does confuse me—I meant it more in a friendship way. From his side.
No, we won’t discuss it from my side. Nope.
“Then shut up and enjoy it.” I try to get back into our normal banter and it works because his shoulders shake with a silent chuckle.
And then the magic happens. The first rays of that morning light warm up the cold skies above, painting it in shades of faint yellows and pinks as they shimmer against the frozen, sparkly lake. It’s like watching millions of diamonds wake up and dancing just for us.
It’s beautiful, mesmerizing, enchanting. It’s moments like these when you feel nothing but awe for that ice, and a connection so deep it might as well be a part of your DNA.
“Tell me what you feel?” Exton says softly, stealing my attention for a second before I give it back to the magic in front of us. It doesn’t even surprise me anymore that he somehow knew what I was thinking about once again. No, it doesn’t surprise me at all, not after last night.
So I sink into the cushions of the couch he deemed too uncomfortable to sleep on and inhale the beauty before my eyes. “I feel it calling me.”
Without explanations, Exton knows what I mean. That’s something I can also feel, but don’t say out loud.
“It is,” he tells me. “I can hear it too.”
“Tell me what you feel?” I ask him, avoiding his statement.
Exton takes a deep breath, holds it and on the exhale, he lays his head down against my knees, his sleep-mused brown curls nestling onto the blanket and without thinking my fingers reach for them.
Just a graze against his softer than silk hair yet it ignites the tips of my fingers where I touched him.
“Do it again,” he says, and I freeze.
How…? Did he mean my fingers on his hair? I barely brushed against it. No, it must’ve been something else, but then he says, “My hair, do that with your fingers again.” I still and then I reach over again, this time my touch a little more sure, a little bolder and he seems to like it, almost purring like a big cat every time I run my fingers over his curls.
Somehow, this feels intimate, too intimate but neither one of us stops or pulls away.
“I feel at peace,” he says softly with a touch of vulnerability I’ve never expected him to have. “I feel…free.” My breath shutters at his admission.
“And here I thought you didn’t like my small town.” I try to joke, to break out of this…whatever it is, that is swarming the air around us, but to my surprise, Exton doesn’t seem to be eager to move on.
“I wasn’t talking about the town now, was I?” My fingers halt in his hair, but there are no words leaving my mouth, because I’m not sure what he means, so I let the silence take over as we sit and watch the world light up in color.
“How is your first experience with sunrises?” I try to change the subject again.
“Not half as bad as I thought it would be, although the sun could be a bit more accommodating and wake up later.” I laugh at his grumbling tone.
“Damn you, sun, messing with Exton Quinn’s beauty sleep,” I tease him, and after a few seconds he turns to look at me with narrowed eyes.
“Why aren’t you flinching when I’m pinching you?” he asks and I roll my lips to hide the smile.
“I’m going to assume you pinched me on my legs.” I lift my eyebrows playfully. “You know those two useless sticks that can’t feel anything?” I tease him some more even if it’s at my own expense and I don’t mind it one bit, because with Exton it doesn’t feel like an insult. It doesn’t feel like I should be sad about my situation, and to prove my point I see his eyes narrow further but with a glint of something almost wicked in them, and I’m a second too late to see what he plans to do.
Exton pounces on me and I yelp and shriek as he starts pinching and tickling me all over above my waist and I break out in a fit of unstoppable giggles.
“Oh my gosh, stop, you lunatic.” I mean to sound stern but it’s not half as convincing with all the wheezing and squirming and laughing I’m doing.
“Payback is a bitch, little star, and that’s for teasing me,” he says playfully and keeps torturing me as I try to smack him on his hands to stop, but he doesn’t, and I can’t exactly run away from him.
So, I do the only logical thing, I sneak past his hands and start tickling him back.
Exton jumps off me right then and the shriek that escapes his mouth is so loud I burst out laughing even harder, my stomach cramping from the sudden strain I’m putting it through. But that was the most hilarious sound coming from this six five hulk of a man.
“You little evil elf,” he muses and dives right back, his hands all over me as he finds my most ticklish spots.
“Oh my goodness, s-stop…stop. P-please stop,” I try to get out past my laugher.
“Mm-hmm, I stop so you can sneak your little hands past me again? Don’t think so.”
“No, no…I won’t. I promise. I promise! Exton!” I yell out as he unknowingly to him finds my most sensitive spot. Which happens to be right underneath my breast and I nearly fly off the couch when his bare fingers that somehow slipped underneath my shirt, skim the tender skin there.
In a flash, his hands are gone and when I look up, I find him hoovering over me, supported by his arms as his brown locks fall over his forehead and he’s wearing the most peculiar expression. It’s something along the lines of “Got you” and “I wonder where else are you this sensitive” and the one that traps my breath in my lungs is what I’d called the look of “hunger.”
The laughs and giggles cease as my eyes trace the tip of his tongue that peeks out over his plush bottom lip. Forget my breath, my whole heart is trapped somewhere else in my body—the lower regions—as it heats up and beats wildly.
“Truce?” he asks, his voice husky and low and all I can do is breathe heavily, feeling my chest raising and falling with a strain and nod.
“Y-Yeah, yeah.”
Exton hovers over me for another second, something unspoken lingering in his eyes but then he gets up and hauls me up with him as he carries me back to my room where my wheelchair is waiting.
I look at it as if seeing it for the first time, having completely forgotten about it while we were watching the sunrise and all that followed afterward.
I felt normal, I felt like just a girl, not someone bound to this thing—and not even as the same person who I was before I ended up here—and I almost don’t want to get back in it, but that’s my new reality. One, I’ve made peace with weeks ago.
Then why all of a sudden, am I questioning it? Questioning whether I could possibly get out of it…
“Breakfast is ready,” Exton hollers from the kitchen just as I wheel out of the bathroom. Hot shower and clean clothes does wonders to one’s wandering thoughts.
It puts them back in their rightful place. The actual reality I live in, not what ifs.
“You know you don’t have to cook for me. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself,” I say as I round the corner and see his half naked form flipping something on the stove and I let out an internal sigh.
Stella just had to find an extremely hot babysitter, didn’t she?
“Mm-hmm, I’m sure you mastered the complex recipes of water and air for breakfast, lunch and dinner.” I stall, unblinking, but he keeps going. “Oh, yes, I’m well aware of your scheme,” he says, walking toward the small table with two plates of sweet-smelling pancakes. The scent of melted butter, mixed with true Vermont maple syrup making my stomach growl and I glare at it. Traitor .
“Sorry to break it to you, but your whole ‘I’m going to starve myself to death’ idea won’t work on my watch.” He walks back to the counter, grabbing two steaming mugs of coffee. “Now, move over here, please.”
When I just keep staring at him without making any attempts at wheeling over there, he lets out a loaded sigh, rolls his eyes and strolls up to me.
Before I have the chance to even consider what he intends to do, I’m in the air. Once again being carried in his arms.
“Are you missing your gym practices that much that you keep carrying me?” I finally manage to ask, and he gives me a bored look, but something about it feels weird. Fake.
“Yeah, that’s exactly it.” He dumps me into the chair and walks over to his. “Now, open your mouth like a good girl and eat this delicious pancake.” Exton spears a small piece with his fork, the maple syrup dripping down it as he holds it up and I realize he’s dead serious.
He intends to hand-feed me because he somehow realized I don’t eat much by myself.
“You know, I can always resort to holding your nose long enough that you will open your mouth.” He gives me a raised eyebrow, translating his full intent to do just that, and I narrow my eyes at him but do open my mouth, mumbling, “You are the worst,” as he stuffs it with that piece of pancake.
“Good girl,” he praises me and even though I’m fully aware that he’s mocking me, I can’t help the shiver that spreads over me with those words.
What the heck is going on? When did I acquire a praise kink? Well… that kind of praise kink.
Also, since when do pancakes taste so good? Or maybe I’m that hungry? But I keep eating, bite after bite as he feeds it to me with a satisfied smirk on his handsome face. Gorgeous bastard.
It’s not that I was trying to starve myself, I simply didn’t want to eat because the food tastes foul in my mouth these days. Bitter and acidic as it goes down, but not today. However, I’m not used to it, so after a total of six bites, I start to feel nauseous, and I put my hands up to stop him.
“I can’t. I can’t take anymore.”
Exton eyes me warily, no doubt checking to see if I’m lying but my appearance must satisfy him. “Fine. That’s good progress for today,” he says and tackles his own plate.
The man has an unhealthy appetite, he can eat nonstop.
“Where does it all go?” I ask him, curious, and he looks up.
“Where does what go?”
“The food. You inhale it like water, yet you look like that.” I gesture to his toned, muscular body and a cocky smirk pulls on his face.
“My angry elf, is that a compliment?” I roll my eyes at him.
“Mere statement and wonder.”
“No need to be shy, I know I’m irresistible.”
“More like full of shit, but sure, let’s go with your version.” I always have loved our easy banter and teasing but now, after last night, I wonder how much of it is him hiding from his past…or present?
“Don’t worry, babe, I’ll take off my shirt for you at the gym. I’ll be a special treat.” He winks but I frown.
“A, I’ve already seen you without a shirt.” I point to his bare chest. “And I’m still in one piece.” Lies. I’m a quick melting puddle, but he doesn’t need me to boost his ego even more. “B, I’m not going to a gym with you in the first place.”
“Oh, but you areee ,” he singsongs.
“Exton,” I say with a warning lacing my tone. I don’t like where this is headed. Not one bit.
“Electra.”
“I’m not going to the gym.” I fold my arms across my chest like the angry elf he calls me.
Exton sighs. “We’ve been over this already. What I say goes because you can’t run away from me. Or do you need me to go through all the name calling again?”
I want to dish out another comment his way, something snarky and defiant, but he’s right. It’d be useless.
“And what do you suppose I’m to do there? Watch your pretty self?” Damn it, I realize too late that I paid him yet another unwilling compliment, one he doesn’t miss based on that feline smile.
“Two compliments in one morning? That might as well be declaration of love, coming from you.”
“Keep dreaming, lunatic,” I shoot back, and he grins.
“To answer your question, you can watch my pretty self if you’d like, but we are going there for you. I saw the state of your muscles yesterday when the therapist was here, and I don’t like them. They are getting too weak already and it’s only been what? A month?”
“Seven weeks,” I grumble. “But I don’t see what does it matter.”
“It matters because you need that muscle back for when you ditch that chair.”
“Goodie, we are back to that.” You can hear my snarky sarcasm from a mile away.
“We never left, angry elf.”
“I’m not going to walk,” I tell him through gritted teeth as my hands ball up. How many more times do I have to say that to everyone so they finally realize it? Somehow, it took Erik and Filip only a few days for the knowledge to sink in, but everyone else is still fighting it.
“Is that what you think or what someone made you believe?” His question jars me from my haze, stirring something deep within me.
We haven’t spoken about last night, tactfully pretending it didn’t happen, but it did and I have a gut feeling that Exton is simply waiting it out, allowing his own feelings to settle behind his own wall before he breaches mine again.
“It’s what the truth is, no matter who says what.”
“Well then, I don’t see the harm in going to the gym anyway.” Based on his little smirk, he knows he got me.
“Fine, let’s waste another day.”
“I cannot wait to tell you ‘I told you so’ one day.”
“Me too.” I go to wheel myself out of here only to remember that I’m not in my chair and Exton comes over to my side, scooping me up and carries me to it, his scent wrapping around me just as strong as his arms are. And I like it. I like too much.
I’m not supposed to like it.
I should not like it and never saw this coming, but maybe that’s my mistake. I let him slip past my barriers because I wasn’t protecting them, having believed that that part of me was long dead, yet here we are. And I’m not that eager to fight it off now.
“Okay, we’ll go this afternoon. I have to go run a quick errand, so I’ll be back in about six or seven hours.” The low, husky tone of his sends a vibration straight through me. And it takes a second for me to process what he just said.
“In what world does anyone consider six or seven hours to be a quick errand?” I arch an eyebrow, and a shit-eating grin brightens his face as he sits me down.
“Afraid you’ll miss me too much?”
I snort. “You wish.”
“Hmm, maybe I do.” Can he just stop with saying stuff like that?
“So, what’s this errand you have to run?”
“Nothing important, don’t worry about it.”
“Trust me, I won’t be.” But even to my ears, that doesn’t sound half as convincing as it should.
“Stella is coming over to babysit you while I’m gone.”
“I am perfectly capable of watching myself.”
“Try that again,” he shoots me a look and I answer with a glare. Exton turns toward the bedroom when I swear, I hear him mumble, “It just had to be her, didn’t it…”
A few minutes later he comes back out all dressed and ready.
“Be a good girl while I’m gone.” He boops my nose and I’m way too tempted to bite his finger off, but he’s gone before I can.
For the next hour before Stella gets here, I busy myself with my book, phone, TV and whatever else, just like I used to do before Exton crashed into my life but as I mindlessly flip over the pages I realize my life has never felt so empty.
Damn you, Axe…damn you.
“Electra, your phone is ringing,” Stella hollers from the kitchen, and my eyes slide to my bedside table where my phone is still lying.
“That’s not mine,” I call out but three seconds later Stella is thrusting a black iPhone into my hands.
“I don’t care who’s it is, answer it and tell them to stop calling. They are interrupting my cooking mood.”
“And you couldn’t do the same becauseeee?”
“It’s not my phone.”
I give her my best are you serious right now? face but she’s already walking out, back toward her favorite place in my house. You’d never think that stern woman loves to cook as much as she does, but for Stella it’s a whole religion and whoever this is that’s been blowing up Exton’s phone that he clearly forgot is getting on her shit list.
I stare at the screen, my lips twisting when I see just the number flashing on the screen.
It could be spam or telemarketer or something like that but they have already called at least five times so it must be something important. Or it could be a girl…maybe one he went to see?
Is that what his quick errant was about?
Six or seven hours…that’s one hell of a date…or fuck.
I squeeze the phone in my fist, my irritation growing by a second. But whether it’s with me for feeling irrationally angry or with whoever doesn’t get the memo that Exton is not going to pick up is yet to be determined.
So what if he went to get off with someone? He’s a healthy man, he needs sex. Why should I be angry about it?
No, I’m not jealous. That would be fucking ridiculous. He’s no one to me and it’s not like he could ever have it with me…even if he and I wanted to. And it wouldn’t be polite to answer his calls…
Yet my small pep talk only makes me feel worse. As do the continuous calls. Screw polite, I need to hear the voice of a woman he chose.
With a little too much force, I slide the bar right. “Hello?” I say as soon as I pick up the call but there is a beat of silence on the other end.
Is it just a prank or something?
“Hello?” I repeat, and this time someone on the other end clears his throat, the deep sound taking me by surprise and my irrational thoughts vanish just like that.
Um, so not a woman… you are an idiot, Electra Monroe, and you need help. So much fucking help.
“Oh, hello.” It’s a man and based on his voice he’s older too. “May I speak to Exton Quinn? Or do I have the wrong number?” He sounds professional and my interest spikes.
Come to think of it, I’ve heard his phone ringing a few times over the past week and every time it’s not Sava calling, he frowns at the screen, flipping it over and ignores the call.
Who is this? My eyebrows pull together, but I fix my hostile tone. “This is Exton’s phone. He just left it at home.”
Home… home? Jesus, Electra.
“Oh, I see,” he says as if what I said totally makes sense. “I’m sorry, who am I speaking to?”
“Electra Monroe.” A beat of silence passes.
“Are you his girlfriend, partner?” The blunt question takes me by surprise, and I open my mouth to deny it, only to shut it just as fast.
“I’m…” I trail off, really not knowing how to respond. I am not his girlfriend or his partner unless you consider our bickering a team sport, so why the heck didn’t I just say that?
“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to pry. I’ve just been trying to reach Mr. Quinn for quite some time now and was wondering if maybe you could help me.”
“I’m sorry, who are you ?”
“Ah, yes, apologies, my name is Jeremy Finnegan, and I’m the family lawyer for the Quinn family or more recently, for Cole Quinn.”
I frown, mulling over his words.
Family lawyer, that’s who’s been calling him all this time? And I can only assume that Cole Quinn is Exton’s father but from what I’ve learned last night I don’t blame him for ignoring any and all calls regarding the man.
“I don’t think Exton wants anything to do with your client,” I answer briskly, shocked by the curt tone myself.
“That’s between them, Miss Monroe. I’m simply a messenger and all I need to do is pass it on.”
“Can’t you just mail him whatever it is you have?
“Unfortunately, no. It was one of the stipulations that Mr. Quinn received it in person.” Mr. Finnegan quiets for a moment and then adds, “Please help me get him in here. It won’t take long, and I truly believe that it will be in his best interest to get this over with. It can’t be easy to live with this hanging over your head.”
Damn this lawyer and his speak in code.
“I’m sorry, I don’t make promises I can’t keep, but I’ll see what I can do.” And even saying this is a stretch because I’m no one to Exton to make him do anything.
Especially in regard to something that is so clearly hurting him. But maybe that’s just it. Maybe he needs to deal with his demons the way he’s trying to fight mine for me.
“That’s all I’m asking for. Thank you.”
I nod even though he can’t see me, Mr. Finnegan hangs up.
I’m still mulling over the conversation and what all he meant as the front door creaks open and I hear, “I’m home, angry elf. Miss me?”