22 - Elizabeth
Elizabeth
I hadn’t meant to just grab him and drag him around, but the second I saw the blood at the corner of his mouth, something inside me snapped.
“Come with me,” I whispered.
He barely resisted. All he did was blink at me, and it was very clear that he hadn’t expected anyone to take control of him.
That alone was enough to tell me how shaken he really was.
I tugged him down the stairwell. The air was cool, and the empty hall echoed with the sound of our footsteps.
His hand stayed in mine, large, warm, and rough, and suddenly I was acutely aware of how easily he let me lead.
Ethan wasn’t the type who followed anyone.
“What are you doing?” he asked in a strained voice.
“Even though you don’t want me to, I’m going to be fixing your face,” I shot back.
It wasn’t all I was doing. I was getting him away from the overly stressful classroom and the pressure-filled field. Away from the looks people had been giving him for days and whatever storm had been brewing behind his eyes ever since I saw him walk off the field.
We stepped into the hallway of the athletic wing, and I could finally breathe easily.
It was empty at this hour because it was too late for most classes and too early for the evening practice sessions.
It was exactly what we needed, but a thick tension laced the air between us, making the privacy even more intense.
I glanced over at Ethan, and he looked like a complete wreck.
He wasn’t just bruised and bloodied. He had come undone, and that was a hard thing to see in a man as strong and determined as he was.
The sight did something dangerous to my chest. It was as if I couldn’t breathe, but at the same time the air was drowning me.
I pulled Ethan into the cheerleaders’ locker room without hesitation, locked the door behind us, and only then did I realize how dangerous it really was for the two of us to be so alone.
The fluorescent lights flashed annoyingly before stabilizing, and my heart slammed against the wall of my chest. My mind was racing and my body ached, but it was the space that affected me more than anything else.
It felt a lot smaller than I was used to.
Ethan stood just inside the door, watching me as his chest rose and fell ever so slowly.
I could see the calculations happening behind his eyes, and the thought of what they might be had a lump forming in my throat.
Of all the men I had ever met, he was by far the strangest because he was the one who managed to make me go against my instincts.
“Elizabeth,” he said, and there was something raw in the way he said my name.
“Sit,” I told him as I grabbed the first aid kit from the cabinet near the sink.
Once again he obeyed, so I kneeled down between his legs.
We were so close that I just needed to reach out and hold him.
I could rub my fingers across his busted lip and there would be no consequences.
Or maybe if I were lucky, he’d actually open up to me.
The proximity allowed for so many possibilities, and yet it still felt like there was a physical barrier between us.
I leaned back, but Ethan closed his legs a little, allowing his thighs to act like a bracket for me. It was so good and so goddamn thrilling. I could feel his heat radiating from him and smell sweat, grass, and something that was uniquely him. It was intoxicating.
I swallowed hard and pressed the antiseptic against his split skin. He inhaled sharply, causing my heart to fracture.
“I’m sorry,” I mumbled. “Unfortunately, this is going to hurt.”
“It’s okay. It isn’t as bad as it seems. You don’t need to go through all this.”
But even as he tried to convince me that nothing was wrong, his hands curled into the bench and his knuckles went white with the pressure he exerted.
“You don’t need to pretend that you’re fine,” I whispered. “Not with me.”
He let out a breath that almost sounded like a laugh. “You really don’t let me get away with anything at all.”
“No, that’s not in my nature,” I said softly.
I tilted his chin upward so I could study his face, and once again he didn’t resist, but that was the least of my concerns.
There was a lot of swelling, and the shadow beneath his eye was getting darker by the minute.
His ego had all but vanished, and the pride he used to carry had been replaced with complete and utter exhaustion.
Suddenly the anger I felt toward him turned, and things became far more complicated than I could ever have imagined.
He looked vulnerable, and I had absolutely no defense against that.
“Why didn’t you tell me it was this bad?” I asked.
“Because I didn’t want you to see me like this.”
“Like what?”
“Like I’m… not enough.”
The words were so heavy that they just settled between us, an unseen weight that neither of us could overcome. My hand stilled as the severity of the situation actually set in. Ethan was broken.
“You’re more than enough,” I said immediately.
He shook his head slightly. “Not lately.”
That was when I could see it. All his fear and pressure felt welded to his spine, weighing him down. My heart clenched, and I leaned closer without thinking.
“You don’t have to carry it alone,” I whispered.
His gaze dropped to my mouth. The shift was subtle but unmistakable.
It charged the air so much that my pulse skipped.
He moved his hands toward me ever so slowly and carefully until his fingers wrapped around my waist. He wasn’t pushing or pulling.
He was just holding me as if he were begging for more without asking, so I got back up.
He automatically rose with me, and suddenly there were only inches separating us.
The lockers behind me were cold and hard as my back pressed into them. His chest nearly touched mine, and the heat between us felt alive.
“You scare me sometimes,” he breathed.
“Why?” I asked cautiously.
“Because when you look at me like that…” His grip on my hips tightened. “I want to believe you.”
My breath caught in my throat. “And what’s wrong with that?”
He swallowed hard, and his eyes darkened dangerously. They were no longer just bruised. They were burning.
“Nothing,” he said quietly.
Then, without warning, he kissed me. Nothing like the careful tenderness from before. It was filled with need, the kind that had been building under frustration, fear, and adrenaline that had been rising the entire day. I could feel it all the way down to my fingertips.
“You need to learn to trust your team,” I breathed through the kisses. “They’re your family. You need them.”
“I don’t want to talk about them right now.”
“We should.”
“I prefer this a whole lot more.”
My hands fisted in his shirt, pulling him closer.
He pressed his entire body against mine, solid, warm and real, like he never walked out on me the other night.
The lockers rattled behind me with the pressure he used, making the quiet room echo.
Then he broke the kiss, but just long enough for us to catch a breath.
“We’re doing this? Here?” he said roughly.
I nodded, and his mouth quickly found mine again, but this time it was deeper, hungrier. The tension between us wasn’t just about desire. It was everything he had confessed, everything I had seen in him: the fear, the doubt, and the weight of expectation.
“I’m afraid,” he mumbled. “Malik said I’m trying to do everything myself and I’m dragging the team down. What if he’s right?”
He held me as if I were the only place on the planet where he didn’t have to pretend.
“You’re worried that you’ll let go and they’ll fail because you don’t know who would be to blame then. It’s easier to blame yourself and punish yourself than to do it to them.”
He nodded sadly.
“That’s part of the journey. You’ll win and you’ll lose, but you’ll never make something of yourself if you don’t learn to share the responsibility.”
He kissed me deeply, like he had just lost the last of his air and I was the only source. His hands moved along my back, sliding up slowly, fingers groping like he couldn’t get close enough. My pulse raced wildly, wanting more but also afraid of what it would get.
I tilted my head slightly, and his mouth trailed along my jaw, down the curve of my neck. His breath was searing hot, so hot that it sent a sharp, electric shiver down my spine.
“Elizabeth.”
I smiled against his lips and moved my hands further up his body.
My fingers slid into his hair, and the soft sound he made in return nearly unraveled me.
The world narrowed to the space between us.
To the way his heart pounded against my chest and his hands tightened as if there was no other option.
And somewhere between the lockers, the super loud hum of the lights above us and the heat building between us, I realized something that was as thrilling as it was terrifying. I wasn’t just steadying him anymore. I wanted him just as desperately.
“Ethan,” I moaned, pulling his hair. “I want you so damn badly.”
“It sounds like you’re begging,” he groaned. “I could totally get used to that.”