12. Elodie
CHAPTER TWELVE
elodie
After getting back to my room, I shower and lie down to take a quick nap until Jade gets back.
I wake up a couple hours later and go search for her in her room but find nothing.
Of course, she’s not here. She’s probably out living her best life.
I guess I love that for her. I’m just hungry.
I can't wait anymore.
My stomach growls, so I wander out the room. I make my way up to the deck to order and run face-first into Blaise.
Clearly surprised to see me, I try to make the best of it by asking for company.
“Hey, did you eat by chance?” I skip straight to the point, not waiting to make it seem like I’m shy around him anymore.
Not after earlier.
I still feel his finger tips digging into my hips.
He sighs, slightly exasperated. “I’ll be honest, Elodie. We went fishing today after I saw you and I am peopled out. I also smell like fish and need a good shower. I would love to spend time with you, but that’s if you’re game to do room service and relax. I cannot hang out on deck any longer.”
Smelling him, I nod and we take off to his room.
Damn, that really is an awful smell.
Fighting to keep my nose from scrunching, he tells me where the room service menu is and to pick out whatever I want before he heads into the bathroom.
Throwing his dirty clothes into the hallway outside the bathroom, I notice what looks like dried blood on his pants.
Remembering he said he went fishing, I brush the thought away and go to find the menu.
The menu is six pages front and back with an array of different foods to choose from.
It must be nice to be rich...
Looking at a photo of steak covered in sauce and crab meat makes my mouth water; the green asparagus on the side looks grilled to perfection.
“Damn that looks good,” I mutter to myself.
“Personally, I like it with extra béarnaise sauce, it compliments the crab meat really well. But most would say that’s a choice. Especially Knox and my mother.” I whip around to find Blaise in a towel, standing behind me.
“Oh…I uhm...I’m sure it’s good.” My voice wavers with uncertainty, and I pray he doesn’t notice.
“Elodie, my pretty little Storm, would you like to try that for dinner? We need to order anyway.” There’s no judgment in his tone at all and my body relaxes a smidge.
“It looks delicious. I’d love that, honestly.”
He nods, walking away to place the order. Making myself at home, I sit on the couch and stretch out. After I hear him complete the order, he comes and sits with me, placing my feet in his lap. He rubs them gently in slow circles.
The tension leaving my feet causes me to groan.
“Elodie, can I be honest with you? I need to get something off my chest and I might chicken out if I don’t go ahead and do it now.”
Turning to look at me, he puts my feet down. I face him as my heart starts racing out of my chest at all the possible things he could say.
The cruise is back out on the water and we’re going to port and head back to real life tomorrow.
Does that mean this play pretend ends too?
Bracing myself for the worst, his words shock me.
“I’m not ready to stop pursuing you. You have brought light into my life for the first time in a long time, and I can’t let you go.
I don’t expect us to be madly in love or anything like that.
Hell, I wasn’t sure I’d ever fall in love—didn't know if I could. But you make me want to. You make me want to own, cherish, and worship you all at once. It’s new for me, but please don’t make me fully give you up.
Say that we can see where this goes.” The sincerity in his eyes blows me away.
I want to give in and say yes so badly, but something nags at the back of my mind.
I don’t want to be owned.
Today and how I was treated comes to the forefront of my mind and I know I need to be honest too.
“I think you’re great, Blaise. Our time has been eye-opening to know that I can find a spark in life again on my own time.
But I don’t want to be owned in the way you did today.
Yes, that was hot, but I can’t help it if you view someone doing their job as flirting.
I am not a possession to own. I am a person with feelings.
I’d love for us to fall for each other but,” my voice gets softer as I push all the words out before I take them back, “I’m not sure I want your idea of love. ”
He looks like I just shot the family dog and it breaks my heart.
“The only difference between devotion and obsession is whether you call it ruin or love. Owning you is my devotion, not obsession. Tell me, what does love look like to you? A white picket fence…” He slowly trails his fingers from my ankle to inner thigh, rubbing circles. “Gentle kisses, maybe?”
Slowly, he begins to grip my thigh hard, pulling a gasp from my throat. In a defensive move, I try to close my legs, but he grabs my other thigh and pulls them apart. The room gets at least ten degrees hotter, and I feel flush.
His hand slides higher. His fingers skim the lace of my panties.
“See how wet you are? You’re a pretty little Storm, Elodie.
You wreck things, and you ruined me. You like the ideas of obsession and possession; you’re just scared.
You own me. So don’t try to run from the mess you’ve made now.
” Sliding his fingers under the lace, he sinks two fingers into me, rubbing them against my sweet spot.
I moan, and his fingers pick up the pace and he comes closer, angling his body over mine.
“I’m owning you right now, and you’re not scared. You’re dripping. So I want you to cum for me, lose yourself to me. Ruin me with all those fucking delicious sounds you make.”
My eyes roll back as he keeps hitting that sweet spot.
Without a shadow of a doubt, I’m losing the battle against giving us a chance. If this is what possession looks like, what's wrong with that?
What’s wrong with craving to be wanted?
His fingers take me higher and higher and I break. All the oxygen leaves my lungs as my lips part, and stars light up behind my eyes. My legs shake as I come down, and he works me through the orgasm, milking every drop before pulling his fingers out and licking them clean.
If I could see myself, I know I’d be beet red.
Blaise grins at me, unable to stop. “Tell me you’ll give me a chance, baby. Say yes.”
He kisses me gently.
“I’m sure I’ll regret this, but yes. I’m willing to give this a shot, Blaise.”
He helps me sit up and pulls me to his chest, cradling me in his arms. We lie there in silence, soaking up the time before food comes.
Maybe ten minutes later, a knock on the door sounds for food and he gets up to get the trays.
We eat mostly in silence because the food is so delicious I never wanna put it down.
“This was absolutely amazing! I can’t believe I've never had that before. The sauce was just as you said. The more the better. I think your brother and mom are wrong.”
He chuckles and I realize how late it is and Jade is probably worried sick.
“Hey, I have to run, if that’s okay? We can soak up tomorrow before the ship docks if that sounds good? I haven’t seen Jade since we were in Mexico and I’m sure she’s worried sick.”
His face scrunches up as if he smelled something bad at the mention of Jade’s name, but agrees. “Go check in. I’ll be here if you want to come back later or in the morning.”
“Deal!”
We kiss in the doorway a bit longer before I finally head back to my room.
The moment I’m back at my suite, all hell breaks loose.
I’m greeted by the sight of a panicked Jade screaming, “WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN?”
Startled, my hands fly to my chest.
“Babe, calm down, you weren’t here so I went and had dinner with Blaise. It’s no big deal. We’re gonna hang out tomorrow on deck to soak up the last bit of this cruise all together. Margs are calling our names one last time!”
“No, Elodie, you can’t see him again.” She crosses the room, holding my hands with hers.
“Babe, listen to me. He’s dangerous. I think—no, I know —he killed Rafael.
He was jealous. I saw him walking back to the boat with Knox.
He threw away a bloody shirt into the trash and was talking about ‘good riddance,’ right after Knox said ‘good bye fishy boy!’ Plus, the one other person who went missing on this cruise is the guy who flirted with you the first night we were here.
I just know it. He killed them both. You need to steer clear of him and pray he doesn’t get us next! ”
Her eyes dart around the room as if he’s some boogie man.
I don’t know whether to laugh or be frightened for her mental health.
Remembering the blood I saw on his pants, my mind starts to race, but that’s a little wild. People don’t just off people when they’re jealous. I know how he acts and he wasn’t with Rafael, he was with me.
Wait, Rafael is dead?
“Okay, hold on. Let’s start here. Rafael is dead? What happened?”
She’s barely containing the tears when they start to stream down her face. “There was a shark attack. His body washed up on shore just hours after the excursion.”
“Oh my god.” My hands cover my mouth at the mental image she created.
“That’s awful! But honey, how did Blaise kill him if it was a shark attack? That doesn’t make sense.” Trying to reason with her right now is like reasoning with a toddler.
She’s determined to be correct and continues to rattle on about how she’s right.
After realizing she isn’t going to let it go, I take her hand and make my way to the door again.
She’s my best friend, and while I have to trust her, I don’t think he could do that.
Needing to put this to rest, I drag her with me all the way to Blaise's door.
The whole way there Jade pleads for us to turn around and ignore him to be safe, but I can’t let that go, it’s too big of an accusation to ignore.
Slamming my hand on his door, he opens it to find us both and sighs.
“I knew it would come to this but I prayed she’d let it go. Come on in.” He opens the door for us to walk into the living area before closing it.
Without acknowledging me or asking why we’re here, he looks Jade dead in the face. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
She grins like a cat who caught the canary. “You’re going to be exposed, Blaise. I won’t let you kill us.”