Chapter 48 Adela
He holds up the blindfold, and I look at it.
I could say no.
I said no to the pill, and he listened. So I know the option exists. I know it's available to me right now if I wanted to refuse.
I look at the blindfold.
I don't say no.
He reaches over, slides it over my eyes, and ties it at the back. The world goes dark for the most part. I focus on my own breathing, and I hear his. Mine fades into the background, and what's left is just him.
Cedar.
Warm underneath.
Two years of my body knowing exactly what that smell means and responding before my mind has finished forming an opinion about it.
I hate that.
I can feel his eyes on me, and then he’s buckling me in. And he starts to drive.
I inhale sharply, worried about what’s to come. He doesn't say anything, but his hand finds mine like this is an ordinary outing. I focus on the car's movement, trying to decode where we’re going. Left, right, straight for a long time, the road changing from smooth to potholes.
Eleven minutes. Maybe twelve.
The car stops, and when he opens his door, I smell water.
There’s a quiet moment while he walks to my side and opens my door. The rush of cold air hits me, and I feel his hand at my elbow guiding me out. He's careful and patient.
His hand moves to my back as we walk onto a porch and into somewhere.
Inside is warm.
It’s been heated for a while, I can tell. He must’ve planned this in advance. This morning, maybe while I was at Barnes and Noble with Theo and Gas Works Park with Theo and my dorm room with Beckett — Cody was here, planning this.
I wonder how much he truly knows. I wished I had showered instead of answering Maeve’s call.
“I'm going to change your clothes,” he says.
I don't say anything.
He takes that as permission, which it is. But I’m confused as to why I need to change my clothes.
His hands find the hem of my sweater — the gray one I noticed Theo was looking at a few times. He lifts it slowly, carefully, over my arms and over my head, and the air touches my skin, and then a large shirt that smells like him replaces it.
He changes my jeans next. The same patience. The same care. Something soft replaces them, his sweatpants with a drawstring he ties loosely at my waist, and I am now wearing his clothes.
I am wearing his smell.
I am standing with a blindfold on after I tried to break up with him.
My heart races.
I breathe.
He guides me to the bed.
I know it's a bed from the way the back of my knees find it, the way he helps me sit, and then he guides me back toward the pillows. He fluffs it under my head. I still can’t see a thing.
Should I have said no to the blindfold?
It’s too late now.
His hands close around my wrists.
I feel the soft binding before I fully understand what it is, and then I pull once — not hard, just testing — and I understand.
I'm not getting free.
“Cody?”
“Trust me.”
Two words.
I feel every complicated layer of what those two words mean between us right now. It’s ironic, isn’t it? He’s telling me to trust him, and he’s the one person who destroyed it completely.
He ties my other wrist. I squeeze my legs shut, but he doesn’t let me get away with that either. He grabs my ankles and ties them as well. I try to pull my limbs near my body to find some sort of comfort, but I can’t.
He sits beside me and says, “I need you to listen to me.”
I want to ask him what the fuck else am I supposed to do?
Let him burn down Elm Hall?
I listen.
“You came here thinking you knew what you were walking into. You didn't. You still don't.”
I stare at the darkness inside the blindfold.
“I never thought I did, Cody. I know nothing.”
His hand finds my stomach over the shirt I’m wearing. He rests his hand there, warm and heavy and completely still.
“The people you’ve been trusting cannot be trusted.”
“And I’m supposed to trust you?”
“Yes.”
“Tell me who you’re talking about.”
He’s silent as I hear him move across the room.
“Cody? Are you leaving me here?” I plead, panicking. I can hear it in my voice.
I hear footsteps walking to the bed. “No, baby. I wouldn’t leave you here. What do you think I am?”
I breathe, exhaling. And right at the wrong time, because my stomach burns. I tremble, feeling something burning hot drop on my body. “What’re you doing?” I ask, panting.
He lifts my shirt higher and drips more on my body. The places that were burning are now cool.
“Cody, what is that?”
“Something to remind you who you belong to.”
I lift my head, trying to look down at it, but it’s just black. And then I fall back on the bed.
“I don’t belong to anyone.”
He pours more, and as it drips down my stomach and hardens before completely falling off, I think I know what it is –– candle wax. I wouldn’t have known this if Maeve and I hadn’t played with it a few years ago.
“You’re wrong, babe. You belong to me and only me.” I feel his large size sitting on the bend of my leg, right on my sensitive area. “You think I don’t smell him on you? It makes me sick.”
“Cody,” I mutter as he pours more. I shake. “Shit!”
He leans in and whispers in my ear, “You’re mine, Adela.” He starts to peel off the wax. I’m trembling, and then I feel his wet mouth on my skin.
“Cody,” I breathe.
“Yes, baby?” He starts to move down my body. His mouth lands between my legs over his sweatpants. “Who did you let in, Adela?” He breathes against my pussy, and then he bites me.
I moan, tugging the ropes that have my limbs spread apart, unable to move. He does it again, and I cry out. “Cody, stop.”
He climbs up my body and slides under my shirt. He takes my nipples into his mouth, playing with them roughly.
“Cody,” I cry, hating that it feels so good.
He presses his hard dick against my leg and doesn’t stop. I try my hardest to remove the blindfold by rubbing my head against the pillow.
It gives. Finally.
I look down at him in my shirt, and I thought it felt good before, but now that I see his face working his mouth against me, I moan again.
He looks up at me and grins, and then he grabs the hem of the shirt and puts it over my head.
“What the––” I’m blind again, but I can’t finish my sentence because he kisses me through the cotton shirt.
I pant under him, kissing him back. I roll my body, unable to deny how he makes me feel.
“I missed you,” he says against my mouth.
“You denied me last night, and so it made me dig this morning. What did you think of the video you saw?” He presses himself against me.
“Was it hot? Did it turn you on?” He leans in and whispers, “Were you upset when you thought you’d never be able to touch me again? ”
I breathe, “I’m mad that you cheated.”
He presses his dick against my pussy. “It’s not cheating if there was no emotion in it.”
“That’s worse,” I mutter, and then he shoves his hand down my pants. His fingers dive under the hem of my underwear. “So, you’re just hooking up to hook up, and I’m–– what?”
He pushes a long finger into me. I arch, feeling him slide in.
“You’re my queen, Adela.”
My head falls back as he curls his fingers. With his other hand, he removes the shirt from my head and looks at me. “I love you more than life itself.”
I wince but don’t break eye contact. He pushes further, adding more pressure and speed. “No, you don’t because if you did, you wouldn’t have been put in a coma over someone else.”
He smirks. “Are you finally putting the pieces together, baby?” He leans in.
“Are you finally using that pretty head of yours? But I’ll tell you a secret…
” He works harder and faster, making my body climb.
“You don’t know the full story.” He keeps working his fingers.
“And I promise one of these days you will know every detail, and you’ll forgive me. ”
“I’ll never forgive you.”
He rubs my clit faster, and I try my hardest not to react, but it’s not working. I’m about to come undone. I exhale, and he breathes it in.
“That’s it, babe. Fuck, I wish I fucked you more when I had you all to myself.”
“But you were too busy.”
His hand stops. He pulls it out and smells it. “Smells like you were busy too.” He wipes it on my stomach. “Who are you fucking, Adela? And I won’t ask twice.”
I shake my head. “Too bad I didn’t film it.”
Anger simmers under his breath as he leans in and says, “I’m warning you, Adela.”
“Tell me who you fucked,” I seethe.
He leans up and smiles. “There was Rissa, Hana, Penelope, Serena.”
My mouth gapes open. “Pen?”
He shakes his head. “Not your Penelope.” My stomach acid relieves itself. “God. Fuck no, not her.”
“Serena?”
“You know Serena?”
“I met a Serena at the library.”
Something in his face twitches, and that’s his giveaway.
“Oh, my god. That’s why she was there? She mentioned she knew you, but she didn’t say…” I trail off, trying to remember her face. I thought I made a friend.
Whatever Cody’s thinking, he keeps it to himself.
“So, you have a long list of girls you’ve slept with while you were with me?”
He runs his hand through his hair, watching me. “I occupied myself when I missed you.”
“Is that supposed to make me feel better, Cody Ravenshaw?”
When I say his full name, his eyes dart to mine, and then he’s ripping my pants off. “What’re you doing?” I pant from the fresh air hitting my skin.
“Tell me who you fucked, Adela.”
I shake my head. “No.”
He pulls my underwear down and grabs the candle again. He starts pouring it down my legs on the sensitive skin. I tremble, feeling every single bite of the burn. I breathe hard.
“Why are you protecting him?” Cody whispers. “Just tell me who it is.”
I wince at the pain. “Stop.”
He listens, putting the candle back on the nightstand. Then he starts peeling off the wax.
“Give me his name, babe. I’m done asking.”
“Today was the first time I’ve seen him since you woke up. He was just there.”
“But you like him?”
I can’t answer that, so instead, I say, “Cody, I thought you were going to die.” I well with tears. “It hurt so much when I found out you were unfaithful after I gave you everything.”
“So, you sleep with the first guy who gives you attention? That’s not the Adela I know.”
“I know. I thought you weren’t going to make it. I didn’t think you’d come back to me.”
“I’m here,” he says.
I nod as tears fall down my face.
“And you’re breaking up with me?”
“Because you cheated on me, Cody.”
“No,” he says. “You’re not breaking up with me. I woke up, and the first person I wanted to see was you.”
I shake my head, wishing I could wipe away my tears. My mind flashes to Theo licking them from my face.
“I woke up, and my priorities changed. I’m done with all of it. You come first, Adela, always. I love you. You have me. All of me.”
I cry, listening to his words. I want to believe him, but I don’t.
“Now…you’re going to tell me who had access to your pussy while I was on my deathbed.”
I shake my head.
He pulls out his dick, looking between my legs. He pumps himself a few times.
“Tell me, Adela. I know no one can make you feel like I do.” He strokes himself, crawling over me. “I know you fucking love me, baby, and I want to protect you, so you’re going to tell me…” He presses his dick against my entrance.
I inhale, trying to pull my legs together. The rope doesn’t give.
He slides right into my wet pussy. My clit throbs as he starts thrusting against me.
“Cody,” I breathe, feeling him everywhere at once.
“I know, baby. Fuck, you’re tight.” He grabs my face between his palms. “Now you’re going to tell me who had you.”
“No.”
He slams into me. It’s pleasure and pain mixed together. “What the fuck is his name?”
I don’t answer him. Instead, my body keeps building itself. Between him begging me for my secret and trying to pull it out sexually, seeing the genuine frustration on his face turns me on.
“You’re not going to like what I do next.”
“What are you going to do?” I challenge as if I don’t know how dirty and degrading he can get.
He grabs my face, pushing into me as much as he possibly can, and I feel like he’s stretching me. It starts to hurt.
“Okay,” I mutter, and he releases the pressure but doesn’t stop moving.
He pushes his fingers against my clit and rubs. “Cody,” I moan. I try to touch him. “Untie me. Please.”
He pulls a string, and my wrists fall free. I reach up to his face and pull him down to kiss me. I pull back and mutter, “My legs now.”
He leans back and tugs them free. I wrap my legs around him as he pumps into me. His hand finds my clit again, and he’s forcing my body to lose control. I start shaking, panting, begging, and he doesn’t stop moving his hand.
“You’re going to tell me after you come, baby. Understand?”
I nod, holding onto him. He continues his speed, and I fall to the bed when my orgasm takes over my entire body.
I arch my back, feeling the release of the last two months come undone.
All my fears, all my questions, all my doubts release in this single moment under Cody’s spell.
My body’s still arching when the tears start falling down my face.
He starts to come, and he watches me from above. He glances down between us for a moment and then back at my face. He pulls out and takes a breath. He uses a towel to wipe me, and then his eyes are back on mine, full of questions.
“Who is he?”