Chapter Eleven
ANSON
While Ellie called the police, I secured Grant with zip ties and texted Ezra for assistance. He showed up a few minutes later, gave me shit for all the bodies I kept dropping on his mountain, and hauled Chamberlain out to the porch for “the last fresh air he’d breathe for a while”.
But the past doesn’t like to stay buried, and he knows that as well as anyone. We helped Stone, another ex-military man who came to this mountain for solitude, just a few weeks back with his mafia problem. When my brothers need my rifle again, they’ll have it. Just as they have my back today.
When the cops arrived, they booked Chamberlain, then spent hours at the cabin, hauling bodies, taking statements, and doing their level best to figure out who the hell I am.
Apparently, my ID and fake background didn’t explain this level of carnage to their satisfaction.
Ezra helped there as well. He took the sheriff aside, and several minutes later, the cops wrapped their investigation and were on their way.
Ezra gives me a nod as their taillights fade. “You good, bro?”
“Yeah.” I glance over my shoulder at Ellie. She’s huddled in my flannel on the couch, fingers wrapped around a mug of tea that’s gone cold. I don’t like how pale she is.
Ezra runs a hand through his auburn hair, fingers brushing the scar on the back of his head. It’s healed, but sometimes he still suffers some side effects from the injury. “Never thought I’d see you settle down. Hell must have frozen over.”
“Surprised I could find a woman?”
He grins. “Aren’t you?”
Fucker. “Yeah.” But when I look at Ellie again, all I want is to pull her into my arms and know she’s safe. Run my hands over her skin, and make sure she’s unharmed. I turn back to Ezra. “Thanks bro. Now, leave.”
He chuckles. “Take care of your woman and check in soon.” He waves to Ellie and leaves.
By the time I lock the door behind him, the cabin is too quiet. Ellie hasn’t moved from the couch, and I know the events of the day have been overwhelming. She came face to face with the man she feared and brained him with baking pan. I’m damn proud of her.
I cross the room and take the mug from her hands, setting it on the coffee table. “They’re gone, sunshine. Chamberlain won’t hurt you ever again.”
She nods, fiddling with a button on the flannel. “Do you buy the zip ties in bulk, or are they standard issue?”
“Standard issue when you’ve pissed off the kind of people I have,” I murmur, crouching in front of her. My hands find her knees, sliding up her thighs until I’m sure she’s not hurt anywhere I can’t see. “And I’m never out.”
“Good.” Her lower lip trembles.
“But I don’t carry pink.” That earns me a slight smile.
“I’m fine,” she says.
Her eyes tell a different story. She’s still shaken.
“You’re mine. That means I take care of you. Always.” I can’t wait any longer. I carefully lift her into my arms, then take her place on the couch and settle her across my lap. Her warmth seeps into me, her vanilla scent grounding me. “I’m never letting you out of my sight again.”
Ellie snuggles closer. “Promise?”
“Promise.” I brush my lips against her temple, then down her cheek to her lips in a feather-light kiss.
She melts against me, running her fingers through my short beard and winding her other arm around my neck. “I thought you were going to kill him… like you killed the others.”
Thankfully, she didn’t see the fourth mercenary at the back door when I shot him. “I didn’t want you to see that side of me. But I would have without hesitation if he hadn’t backed down from his obsession with you. That’s who I am. I won’t let anyone hurt you, Ellie.”
“Is it true? What you told Grant about six hundred forty-seven people?”
Damn. I’d hoped she hadn’t heard that. Ellie has seen deep into my heart now. There are no secrets left. No explanations. “Yeah. I’m not like other men, Ellie. I was trained to be the weapon in the shadows, and I’m damn good at it.” Because of that, I’ll never deserve her.
She shifts until she’s straddling my thighs and searches my face. “Sometimes the monsters are the heroes, Anson.”
Does she really believe that? Maybe to her, I am. From the beginning, she’s never feared me. Never seen me the way others do. I tug her closer, feeling my heart trying to punch out of my chest.
“Stay with me, sunshine. I know it’s over. You can go back to your old life if you want. But I want you to stay. Let me love you.”
She freezes in my arms. “If I stay, will you? Love me?”
I cup her cheek and press a kiss to her lips. “I love you, Ellie.” If she leaves, she’ll take my heart with her.
Her smile is radiant, warming me from the inside out. “I love you too, Anson. Of course, I’ll stay. I have more baked goods and orgasms to give you.”
She giggles when I groan. “I will never get that image of Dottie and Grandpa out of my head. She’s a menace.”
“She brought us together.”
“I will never admit it to her.”
Ellie laughs and starts unbuttoning the flannel. “Let me give you a different image then.”
Fuck yes.
She slides the shirt off her shoulders, dropping it to the floor, then unhooks her bra and discards it too.
My hands are on her hips when she stands and shimmies out of her leggings and underwear leaving her bare. Her skin is silky smooth as I run my hands up and down her thighs, savoring the look and feel of her. She smells like vanilla and pure temptation.
Ellie sinks to her knees between my thighs and unbuttons my cargo pants. “You tasted me yesterday. I want to taste you too.”
I won’t last long with her mouth on me, but I can’t deny her anything. I lift my hips and slide my pants and boxers down, then yank my shirt off. Her lips wrap around my cock before it hits the floor.
“Oh shit.” I grip a handful of her honey-colored hair, drowning in the heat of her mouth.
Ellie licks and sucks me, figuring out what she likes. What I like. Fuck, I like it all. I don’t want her to stop, but when I come, it’s going to be deep inside her.
I tug gently at her hair, and she comes off my dick with a pop. The sound alone almost sets me off. “Need you up here.” I grip her waist and lift her onto my lap, settling her wet core right over the head of my cock. “Ready?”
“Yes.”
Before the word is fully past her lips, I’m surging into her, unable to hold back. I didn’t know I needed anyone. Not until my mail-order bride showed up on my doorstep with her sparkly pink suitcase and bright sunshine smile.
As I bring her to another climax, I vow to protect her with my life, and if necessary, my rifle. “You’re mine, Ellie. I’ll spend every day showing you.”
She kisses me, and with one last thrust, I take us both to heaven.