Chapter 17 Elias
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
ELIAS
How did I get myself into this situation? She’s sitting right in front of me, looking so goddamned beautiful, like if Snow White dressed up as an emo schoolgirl, and is waiting for me to talk to her about… sex.
Those guys pissed me off so much. Teaching her about sex by watching porn? I shake my head. Ridiculous.
But I am thankful they haven’t crossed that line with her yet.
After the incident with her and Sly behind the tree, I was positive she was having sex with them.
She sleeps with them every night and cuddles up to them on the couch or in the SUV.
They’d have to be saints not to have had sex with her yet.
It’s been weeks. I’ve only been around her for about eight days, and already I am having more showers than necessary, just to give myself some privacy while I take care of my raging hard-ons. She is just so sexy and beautiful, it’s hard not to get aroused by just looking at her.
Her naivety makes her irresistible, but I also love the stronger version of her, who speaks her mind. Of course, she was coming out of her shell more and more these days, and I only had the guys to thank for that, even if I refused to admit it out loud.
Her big blue eyes stare up at me, and I take a deep breath. “Porn is about extremes,” I begin. “It’s exaggerated for entertainment. Men don’t need to come on your face or breasts just to enjoy themselves. For some men, that isn’t even a turn on.”
“Is it a turn on for you?” She asks the question so innocently, I almost forget what we’re talking about.
“Me? Oh… I—”
“He hasn’t been with a woman before, Wren,” Dex says from where he stands protectively behind the couch. “Go easy on him.” I narrow my eyes at the big brute. I can’t tell if he’s insulting me or if he genuinely believes he’s helping. With him, it could go either way.
I clear my throat, deciding not to answer. “As I was saying, sex—real sex—doesn’t have to be so extreme. It can, and should, be about connection, about just being in the moment with one another. When it’s special, it should be about making love, not mindless fucking just to get off.”
She nods as if actually listening to me. “Making love,” she whispers, seeming to cling to those two words and making my tense shoulders relax a little.
“That’s right, making love. You don’t need some crazy position or toys to enjoy yourself.”
“Does that mean it’s wrong to do those things?”
I feel the tension radiating from Sly to my right, as if ready to step in, so I quickly shake my head. “No. Some people prefer sex to be like that. But you should experience a, uh, variety of it before you decide what you like.”
“There is no right or wrong, little bird,” Sly adds.
“You can like it anyway you want. And you shouldn’t pick something just because the person you’re with likes it.
” His statement surprises me, especially since it’s clear he’s into BDSM and that shit.
Would he really not force her or encourage her to love it?
I’ve watched some porn, what teenage boy hasn’t? But it never really interested me much… before today. The thought of seeing Wren tied up was a little intriguing. Just imagining her squirming under the restraints as she begs for release has me shifting my position to hide my growing erection.
“But what if what I want is to make my partner happy?” she asks, her eyes bouncing between us all.
“Why don’t you take this one?” Sly gestures to me, and I narrow my eyes at him. Way to pass the buck, bro.
Looking at Wren, I try my best to explain it to her. Knowing what she’s been through and how she’s grown up makes her very susceptible to doing things for others rather than herself.
“If it truly pleases you to bring your partner pleasure, then that’s okay.
But only if you enjoy it too. If it’s weird or uncomfortable at all, but you decide to grit your teeth and get through it because you care about them, well, I don’t need Sly’s eyes burning a hole in the side of my head to tell you that’s wrong. ”
She lowers her gaze in thought, and I dip my head to catch her eyes. “Does that make sense, Wren? Do you understand the difference?”
Slowly, she licks her lips and nods. “Yes. I think so. If I do it to make them happy, I also have to enjoy it. If I don’t, I shouldn’t do it, even if it makes them happy.”
“Exactly!” I say, happy she understands the difference.
“That doesn’t just go for sexual situations, Wren,” Sly says, sitting down at her side and grabbing her hand. “That goes for everything: what you eat and drink, what you wear, how you act. Don’t do any of those things just because you think it’ll make us happy.”
“What about when I want to get up at night and pee on my own?”
“No,” Dex replies, crossing his arms and glaring down at her.
“Excuse me?” I ask in mild horror. “You don’t let her go to the bathroom at night? What the hell, Dex?”
She turns to me with those big blue eyes and tells me, “He chains me to him so I can’t leave the bed without him knowing.”
My wide eyes dart to Dex as I slowly push to my feet. My hands clench into fists at my side. “You son of a—”
“I’m sorry! Don’t fight!” Wren surprises me by flinging herself forward, wrapping her arms around me as the side of her head presses into my chest.
“It’s not locked,” Dex says in defense. “If she didn’t like it, she could take it off.”
A little tension leaves me. “Why do you even need something like that?”
“One of our first nights together, I got up to have a drink by myself, and that’s when Robert’s men took me.” My body deflates, and I pull my arms free to hug her back.
“Shit, I’m sorry, I didn’t know. If you hate the leash, I’m sure I can figure out something else.”
“It’s okay, I was just teasing, I find it comforting now.”
“You sure?” I ask, pulling back so I can see her face.
She nods. “Yeah, I’m not sure I could sleep without it anymore.”
Sly grabs her hand from where he’s still sitting on the couch and gently pulls her to stand between his legs. “I think maybe you’ve had a tad too much to drink, hmm?”
“I’m okay.”
“Okay, well, it’s late. Let’s get you some water and brush your teeth. You’re sleeping with Jagger and me tonight.”
I say a quick goodnight as she’s hustled off, and a part of me is jealous that I’m not the one getting to take care of her. A much smaller part is thankful that they are taking such good care of her, that they seem to understand her trauma, even if she hasn’t fully grasped it yet.
Psychological trauma can be complicated to come to terms with.
If Robert had hit her, it obviously would have been really bad, but she would have known that it wasn’t right, that he was hurting her.
The way he’s managed to inflict maximum damage while convincing her he cares is genuinely evil. I can’t wait to kill the bastard.
Dex and Pete help me clean up, throwing away the empty beer bottles and making sure the doors are locked and curtains drawn.
Although this is a safe house, it isn’t like the one I'd led them to before.
There is no secret room full of weapons.
This is primarily used for people entering the witness protection program.
It has a solid alarm system, but nothing else—no cameras or surveillance equipment.
Which is a real shame, because I am having trouble sleeping without my eyes on her.
In the past, I’d have the feed to her bedroom on my phone, so I could watch her sleeping safely in bed as I fell asleep.
While we travel, I’ve been having many sleepless nights, except for the few where I’ve been able to position a chair where I can see into the room she’s sleeping in and catch sight of her.
That is challenging when she’s sandwiched between two large men, though.
And now that we’re in a house, I’m not sure I’ll be able to do that.
They were expecting me to sleep in the smaller bedroom, while they shared the two larger ones.
I found that interesting; there was a fourth bedroom that no one was using.
Pete or Dex could sleep there so they didn’t have to share a bed, even if it was a king-sized one.
Maybe Wren bed hopped during the night?
I pour myself a tall glass of water and lean a hip against the counter as everyone but Dex heads for bed. He gets himself some water and just stands there staring at me.
“What?” I finally ask when he continues to stare.
“You love her, don’t you?”
I turn to gaze into the living room as I tell him, “I’m not sure how that’s any of your business.”
“Because she’s my girlfriend.”
I take a sip of water, not wanting to get into it with him right now. These guys are so goddamned possessive of her, it’s nauseating. Mostly because I feel the same way, and yet I’m on the outside, looking in. Unable to touch, to hold… to claim.
“The others think you’re hiding something.”
I narrow my eyes on him. “I’m not.”
He nods. “I know. That’s why I think you need to tell Wren how you feel.” I frown, unsure what his game is here. “She loves you, too, you know?”
I scoff. “Yeah, like a friend.”
“Elias, were you playing the same game as I was over there?” He points to the living room. “She clearly responded to your answers. And I don’t know what you said to each other in Spanish, but the way she squirmed in my lap is not the reaction she’d have to a friend.”
She had looked like she was responding positively to me, but I thought she might have just been uncomfortable. Red cheeks and squirming could be because she was aroused or embarrassed. I eye Dex carefully, maybe the big guy was more intelligent than I gave him credit for.
“Wren, we can watch TV in bed,” Sly says as the woman in question comes darting into the room and practically leaps onto the middle of the couch, pulling a blanket from the back of it to encircle her.
“I told you, I’m not sleepy,” she says dismissively as she searches for the remote.
“Wren, it’s after midnight,” Sly says with a sigh as he stops at the edge of the living room, frowning down at her.
She shrugs. “I don’t care, I’m not sleepy. You said I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to do.”
He sighs and takes a seat beside her, grabbing her hand between his. “I’m just trying to understand what’s going on. You seemed ready to go to sleep a few minutes ago. There’s a TV in the bedroom, so we can lie down and watch it while you fall asleep.”
“I feel like watching it out here,” she says with a shrug, avoiding his gaze. Jagger comes out, crossing his arms as he frowns down at her, too.
Pete comes out next, stopping beside Dex as his brows furrow at the developing situation. “What’s going on?” he whispers. I can feel a strange tension filling the room. What changed in the past ten minutes?
“Apparently, she refuses to go to bed. She wants to watch TV out here,” Dex replies.
“So,” Pete says with a shrug. “Let her, what’s the harm?”
Jagger turns to us and starts signing. “Something else is going on. She was happy when she climbed into bed, but before Sly could get in, she jumped up like her ass was on fire, claiming she wasn’t tired.”
“She loves bedtime,” Dex mumbles. “She loves cuddling.” I try not to bristle and show my jealousy, and instead focus my energy on the girl currently giving everyone the cold shoulder as she starts channel surfing.
I’ve watched her through the camera for years, although it’s very different from seeing her in person. But I’ve gotten used to seeing her reactions, and this one is one I’ve seen a few times. “Something’s scared her,” I say with realization.
Immediately, I head down the hall and into the bedroom she was using. Standing in the middle, I turn around in a circle, but am unable to figure out what would scare her. I take a seat in the middle of the bed, where she presumably was, as Jagger and Pete watch me curiously from the doorway.
What was she looking at when she freaked out? Looking straight ahead, I can see into the bathroom, the wall-mounted TV, the closed closet door, the window with blinds pulled across it, and the dresser.
I shrug as I glance at the other two. “Everything seems normal here. Maybe she just remembered something that scared her? Maybe she was thinking about how she was taken in the night.”
Pete nods. “Probably best to let her fall asleep out there. We can just carry her in here once she’s asleep.”
I follow them back out and see Dex and Sly have settled on either side of her. She seems relaxed as she leans against Sly, watching TV. She doesn’t look upset anymore. I’m sure she has lots of bad memories that must haunt her from time to time.
Jagger sits in the free chair, and Pete manages to squeeze on the couch with them, lifting Wren and placing her in his lap.
She smiles up at him as he does it, and a pang of jealousy hits me in the chest. With nowhere for me to sit, I head to my bedroom, even though I know sleep will most likely evade me.
I must be more tired than I thought, though, because as soon as my head hits the pillow, I’m out like a light, only waking when Wren’s scream wrenches me from my sleep.