14. Eli
Eli
We get home and eat dinner with a movie playing in the background. Cheap is singing along with the movie sing-along, and he is failing miserably.
Warmth settles low in my chest. Nights like this feel unreal, like I’ve stepped into a life I wasn’t meant to have.
CJ and I talk about the day, easy and unhurried, until he brings up Mason Sterling’s case.
He still hasn’t handed it over. The file sits on his desk, his picture paper-clipped to the top.
When I look at it, something tugs at me.
A faint pressure builds behind my eyes. The familiarity feels wrong, like a memory trying to surface through fog.
There’s something about his eyes that makes me feel like I’ve seen him before. I just can’t place where.
I’m still feeling the lingering echo of our kiss earlier at the office. Heat crawls up my neck, and my chest tightens at the memory, sharp and sweet. I can still feel his skin beneath my hands, and I want it again.
I shift closer, leaning into him. CJ’s arm comes around my shoulders immediately, pulling me in without hesitation. My breath steadies. His touch grounds me in a way nothing else does. I turn into him, and we watch the movie together.
My fingers start moving without thinking, tracing lightly over his stomach, learning the shape of him in slow, absent patterns. His scent surrounds me. A quiet thrill runs through me, and the feel of him under my hand makes my pulse jump.
I feel him react under my touch. A small tightening in his body. His stomach twitches, and he shifts slightly toward me.
I look up at him. “CJ?” My eyes ask the question before my voice does.
He looks down at me under half-lowered lids, his gaze dropping to my mouth. My stomach flips. The air between us thickens, charged and fragile. I wet my lips without thinking, just a small flick of movement.
That’s all it takes. He leans closer.
My breath catches. The moment feels like a held note waiting to break.
I close the gap.
His lips open immediately, and I taste him, savoring him. The feel of his tongue against mine, battling for space. I move until I straddle him, my hips rolling into him. Heat floods my chest. The closeness feels overwhelming, intoxicating.
My cock rubs against his hard length enclosed in his jeans, making my pulse race. The need to feel him is sharp, consuming, impossible to ignore. I pull down his zipper, my hand finding his cock, hot and heavy, already leaking pre-cum.
I pull him free and hold his gaze as I stick my tongue out, licking a long stripe of spit from my palm to my fingertips.
“You fucking tease,” he moans as he watches my tongue wet my hand.
I give him a small smile, keeping my eyes on his as I wrap my fingers around his dick and give him a long, slow stroke. His head drops to the back of the couch, and I feel him start to move beneath me.
I can’t get enough of this man. I want all of him.
CJ’s breath catches, and he grunts. The sound sends a rush through me, my whole body responding before my mind can catch up. I run my thumb over the tip of his cock, flicking my wrist to rub the sensitive spot just below his tip. I feel his reaction under my hand, feeling him let go.
“Baby Boy…” he breathes, “I need to touch you.”
His words send a rush through me. I lift my hips, and his hands pull my zipper down, pulling me free. I watch as he spits on the tip of my dick. His hand is unsteady as he gives me a long tug.
My head drops back as I let out a moan of pleasure.
“More,” I whisper, my hips moving, my dick punching harder and faster into his hand.
He pushes my hand out of the way and grabs both of our cocks together. With pre-cum and spit acting as lube, he strokes us in tandem. The friction is perfect, the grip sending me straight to heaven, and I moan.
This is absolute. A feeling of pure, undeniable need runs through me.
I reach down and kiss him deep. The taste of him feels like something I’ve been starving for. I nip along his jaw, down his neck, then lick my way back to his lips. Our breaths mingle, our hips thrusting, dicks moving against each other in perfect rhythm.
I drop my head back and moan his name. I realize then, with my dick pressed against his and his hand holding me firm, that I want him. I need him.
The truth hits hard: heavy, certain. It scares me how much I mean it.
He feels perfect in my arms. The thought settles deep inside me as I look at him, impossibly perfect, his name leaving my lips like a prayer I was already devoted to.
I watch as CJ cries out, and I follow him right over the edge, moaning his name into the quiet room.
* * *
The morning starts normally. Wake up, flirt, walk to work, grab coffee. Normal.
I know I’m starting to feel safe because I watch my surroundings less. I don’t scan every tall, dark-haired man for Adrian anymore. I just exist in the moment, in CJ. My chest loosens. For the first time in years, safety feels real.
But safety doesn’t stay real. Not for long. It bursts like a balloon, and the bubble I didn’t even realize I was holding collapses around me.
It starts that morning. I hear CJ on the phone as I watch the receptionist walk toward me.
“Morning, Eli.”
“Hey, Jackie.” I smile, glancing at the courier parcel in her hand. “That for me?”
“Sure is. Special delivery. I was told to hand-deliver it straight to you.”
A cold ripple moves through me. My fingers tighten around the parcel before I even open it.
I take it, frowning slightly. “To me? That’s weird.”
“Yeah, I thought so too. Not normal, but I’m just following instructions.” She gives a small shrug and heads back to her desk.
I turn the parcel over. No sender details. Nothing. Strange.
I grab scissors and open it, finding an envelope inside. My stomach tightens before I even touch it. I open it, and everything stops.
Inside is a plastic card. Olympic Medical Center. My old workplace.
I pull it out slowly, already knowing what’s coming before I turn it over: my face, my name, my staff ID, my job title.
My stomach drops violently. The world tilts, sharp and disorienting. My throat locks. Darkness floods in too fast to stop, my knees giving out as my breath disappears. Panic swallows everything, leaving only a crushing pressure.
Voices break through the noise: Deck shouting, Finn somewhere in the distance, and CJ’s voice cutting through everything.
“Wake up, Eli. Wake up.”
I try to respond, but I can’t.
Something touches my face. I push at it instinctively, panic flaring at the confinement. It comes back, firmer this time.
“Eli. Baby Boy, it’s just an oxygen mask.”
My chest constricts. The mask feels like a hand over my face, even though I know it isn’t. I don’t know where CJ is, but I need him. I need something real. My breathing is still tight, but the mask helps slightly.
I feel movement. I’m being lifted, carried. Doors slam somewhere far away, and then nothing makes sense again until I open my eyes.
Hospital. How the hell did I get here?
My throat tightens. The room feels too bright, too loud, too close.
CJ is sitting beside the bed. “Hey, Baby Boy,” he says softly, tears in his eyes. “Welcome back.”
I try to sit up, but his hand is on my chest immediately, steadying me back down.
“Easy,” he murmurs.
“What happened?”
“Jackie brought you the envelope, remember?”
Then it all comes back to me. I see it all: the envelope, the card, Adrian. It hits all at once.
I push at him immediately, panic snapping right back into place. I swing my legs off the bed.
“I have to go.” My breath comes in sharp bursts. Every instinct screams at me to run. I’m already looking for my clothes, already moving. “He’s found me. I have to go. Now.”
CJ stands, grabbing my arm. “You’re not leaving.”
“I can’t stay,” I breathe. “He’s found me. I need to keep you safe. Finn, Deck, everyone.” My hands shake, my thoughts spinning too fast to hold. “I have to run again.”
CJ takes my shoulders, forcing me to still. “No. You’re staying. We’re not letting you go. I can’t let you go, Eli.”
His voice breaks through the panic, but only just. He guides me back onto the bed. I sit there, staring at my hands.
“Baby Boy, look at me.”
I can’t. My chest aches. The name feels too soft, too close, too much. I keep my eyes down.
His fingers tilt my chin up, gently but firmly.
“I’ve got you. You’re safe here. Safe with me, with Deck, with Finn. No one can get to you. Not him.”
I let out a short, broken laugh. “You don’t know him.” I try to look away again, but he holds me steady. “He’ll take me back,” I whisper, my chest feeling like it’s collapsing inward. “I can’t go back. He’ll kill me if I do.”
The words taste like blood. My whole body shakes.
CJ’s voice drops, steadying. “Look at me, Eli. You’re not back there anymore. You’re here with me.” Then softer, “I’m not letting anyone take you away from me.”
He kisses me: Quick, soft, certain. My breath stutters. The kiss feels like a lifeline thrown into deep water.
It’s a small, fragile thing, but I take the chance. For the first time, I don’t immediately follow the fear. I want to stay here, with CJ. The decision feels fragile and trembling, but real.
I nod. “I don’t know how to let someone protect me,” I whisper. “But I think… I trust you enough to try.”
My chest loosens. The words feel terrifying and freeing all at once.
His expression softens immediately. “Perfect.” He stands, then pauses at the door. “When we get home, you’re telling me everything.”
That lands harder than anything else. I’m scared, not of Adrian, but of what CJ might think of me after. Will he still want me? That fear is worse. My stomach twists, settling deeper than anything Adrian ever gave me.
Getting the all-clear is quick. A panic attack, they say: my body shutting itself down to survive, a system overload.
When it’s over, CJ takes my hand. “Let’s go home, Baby Boy”