Delusive (22 page)

Finally, she placed the receipts and money inside the deposit bag. “Do you need to use the bathroom or something? As much as you’ve been going to the bathroom all day, I swear you have a bladder infection.”

The minute she said it, I was done playing his game. I intended to go in the back and rub myself raw. At least pain would be better than my current state.
 

“Right. I’ll be back.” The speed at which I left, caused me to slip on my heels. I reached out, catching my balance against a shelving unit to keep from falling. My hand was on the bathroom doorknob in the storage room when I heard the front door to the store snap closed.
 

Worried that Penelope somehow forgot about me and locked me inside the store, I turned right back around. The store was dark save for the security lighting. Penelope was nowhere to be found, but I knew I wasn’t alone.
 

I felt the heat of his presence and smelled the faintest scent of his intoxicating cologne. I turned around to the dressing room area and spotted him on the couch.
 

Relaxed and composed, his hand drew across his lips, rubbing at the corner of his mouth as he studied me. One leg tossed over the other as he lolled back on the couch. “Lift your skirt and remove your panties,” he said easily without a hint of affability. It was pure commanding seduction and it made me weak at the knees.

Facing him, I lifted my skirt, slid my panties down my legs and stepped out of them. I kept my hands on the hem, lifting it up to my hips. He slowly rose, walking toward me at an unhurried pace. He touched my face gently and kissed my nose. “Were you a good girl?”

“Yes,” I whispered, my voice weak and trembling. “I was a very good girl.”

Swiftly, he removed the cufflinks from his shirt, letting them drop to the floor, and rolled up the sleeves. Undoing his tie, he released it from around his neck and unbuttoned a few buttons at the top of his shirt. “Are you ready for your reward?”

“Yes. Very.”

His kiss landed gently on my lips and his hands touched my breasts through the material of my blouse, squeezing with just the right amount of pressure. “I need to feel you without anything between us, do you object to that?”

“But…” I became distracted when his fingertips rubbed my nipples, coercing them to be more prominent through the thin material of my silk blouse and my lace bra. My lips parted to release a gasp. A rush of another origin surged through me, making my blinking slow and heating my body with a pleasurable electricity. “I’m on the pill,” I finally managed to say.

“Good. I’m careful. And I’ve never done this with another woman.” He began to stroke the back of my head as he teased me, closing in to kiss me but never allowing our lips to meet. “But I need to do this with you. Believe me, I’m very responsible about being tested and I take this very seriously, as should you.” Preparing to kneel in front of me, his hands slipped down the curves of my body until he was on his knees. He cupped my ass and immediately licked and sucked my clit.

“Elias,” I nearly shouted, responding to his touch instantly. Shaking so severely, I could barely stand, I came right then and there. He didn’t stop until the pleasure waned and I was whimpering his name.
 

As he stood upright, he lifted me until my feet no longer touched the ground. I wrapped my arms and legs around him, kissing him fervently. My kisses bled with gratitude, thankful he finally released me from my self-imposed agony. It was worth foregoing my strong-will to feel what I had seconds earlier. I knew that had I been asked again, I would’ve done it without a second thought.

He carried me back to the cashier’s desk, setting me down on top of it. Receiving my kisses, he reciprocated with an intensity that stole my breath and satisfied my hungry mouth. Leisurely, he pulled down his zipper and paused to gaze into my eyes.

Holding my head steady in both of his hands, he flexed his hips and urged his cock inside me, giving me all of him. My pelvis arced toward him, pulling him in deeper. I held him tighter, trembling with an overwhelming sense of yearning.
 

With our eyes locked on one another, he began to rock, slow and steady. My hips bucked at a hurried pace, guiding him to go faster. I was met with his harsh grip on my hips, pushing me back to remain still. His hands slipped up my body and found their way to my neck. Wrapping his hands tightly around my neck, he restrained my breathing just enough to make me labor for breath.

“I’m fucking you,
minha querida
, not the other way around. Don’t move unless I tell you to.” He fucked me harder, his thrusts making the desk shudder and struggle with his increasingly hard and violent movements. I could barely move, every time I did, his grip on my neck would become tighter.
 

My eyes watered as the feeling overloaded every nerve. His cock slammed into me, hitting something deep inside me that threw me into euphoria. My body went rigid and when the flood released, he covered my mouth with one hand as the other remained wrapped around my throat, tempering my volume. I shivered violently and spread my arousal all over his groin.
 

The climax was unending and like nothing I’d ever felt before. It wrecked me. Completely. I sank against him in exhaustion. The shudders never left my body, nor did the sensation.

He lifted my chin, looking down at me with a mocking smile. He slowed his movement, carefully withdrawing, only to leave his throbbing head at my open and pushing fully back inside me again. He kept up the steady pace, keeping me at an almost intolerable level of ecstasy. “You made a very pretty mess of my cock.” His eyes shifted down for just a moment to watch his erection disappear and reappear inside me. He sucked my bottom lip, letting it pop on release. “Do you see what being obedient gets you?”

I nodded excitedly.

“I want to let you fully into my world. Show me you can handle it.”

I bobbed my head again as much as I could. Fatigue was beginning to take its hold, making it difficult to keep my eyes open.

“Don’t fall asleep on me yet. I need you awake for the next six hours. I plan to reward your obedience and ease your suffering every minute of those six hours in every inch of this store.”

I CLUTCHED THE pillow tightly underneath me while I tried to catch my breath. Drenched with sweat that accented every cut and peak of his beautiful body, he looked down at me in a way that made me giddy. His bed welcomed me, soothing my sore leg muscles and aching back.

“Need a break?” With a grin, he swayed his mouth against my lips.

His reward lasted more than six hours and with the store close to reopening again, he decided to take me to a less public place—his house—to finish what he started.
 

Nodding, I glanced at my phone on the nightstand. My phone lit up and vibrated again; the name “Dad” splayed across the screen. It would be his dozenth unanswered call of the night.

Elias pushed upward, holding himself above me by the strength of his arms. He leaned down, caressing my mouth fully with his soft, warm lips. “You’re with me now. Nothing else matters other than the two people in this room and what they can make each other feel.”

I embraced his head. “He might come over here if I don’t respond soon.”

“Let him. You’ll finally get your wish for us to meet. Stay with me for more than a weekend.”

I blinked as though it would help me to understand. His intermittent kisses succeeded in making it impossible to concentrate. “You mean…live with you?”

He smiled. “Yes, Hanley, I mean live with me.”

Stunned, I wasn’t sure what to say. “I can’t do that.”

“Why? Because you think he can’t function without you? You’re a crutch to a man without a broken limb.”

“Recalling what I saw when I met your mother, aren’t you the blackest kettle?”

He froze for a second and propelled himself off the bed. Standing at the cracked open window, the cool wind rushed in, drying the sweat from his naked body.

I pulled the sheet up over my nudeness and stepped over to the window at his side. I rested my head against his chest, wrapping my arms around the enviable curve of his waist. “I feel like I’m his last hope. I’m all he has. Even if I’m starting to question—”
I have to believe in my memories and know that he would never prey on them or lie to me.

“Good,” he stated with self-satisfaction. “Question him. Our parents aren't indomitable, all-knowing, faultless beings. Most of us understand that when we see them fail. You still look at your father with the eyes of a child.”

“I look at a lot of things with the eyes of a child. My memories. My past.”

“Stop. And yes it’s that simple, Hanley. He’s stunting your growth and preventing you from being the woman you could be by smothering you. His misery is an airborne virus. Once you leave, he will stop making you sick with his sadness—with the memories you want to get past.” He lifted my hands from his waist and kissed my knuckles. “What do
you
want, Hanley?”

“I’ve been so stuck on the things he wants—there are a lot of things he wanted that I didn’t. I’ve done what he asked me to do before, even though I wasn’t comfortable with the outcome and it almost destroyed us. At first, it was what I wanted—to help. But, as time goes by, I’m starting to see I’m missing out on a life I could have—could’ve had if I focused on what I wanted, instead of giving him what he wants.”

“What do you want the most?”

“Being with you makes me happy,” I replied. “I didn’t know how much being with him and inside that house weighed on me. Being with you makes me realize it. That’s my answer. I want to feel weightless.”

“Tomorrow, get your things and bring them here.”

“We don’t have to rush. I really should be out on my own before I think about moving in with you.”

“Now that you’re with me…that’s no longer an option for you.”

I lifted a brow. “Does that mean what I think it does?”

“We’re not going to discuss it, remember?”

“You know by saying that, you’re admitting to what I suspected.”

Holding firmly to his inexpressiveness, he simply blinked at me. “And what did you suspect?” His delivery and lack of emotion alarmed me. It was gone quickly, making room for the man who had a way of making me feel like I was the only one who existed in his grand world.
 

“What about you?” I questioned with a frown. “Will you stop being the scary possessive control freak you’ve become a little too much lately?”
 

His eyes smiled as he held my head. “I won’t promise you something I can’t do. I won’t stop being that way over you.”

“Can you try?”

“Make me believe I can trust you and I’ll try.” He drew me close and kissed me. “The intermission is over.” He scooped me up in his arms and carried me back to the bed.

I CLOSED MY suitcase as it laid on my bed after I finished packing away all the things I needed to sustain me for a few weeks.

My father appeared in the doorway with a bottle of beer. “Where are you going?”

“You’re not supposed to drink with your medication, Dad.”

“You’re going to be with him? You can’t leave. This isn’t a good idea, Hanley. I need you here. You have to help me.”

“I don’t feel like I can live here anymore. But don’t worry. I’ve called a new nurse for you—”

“The nurse isn’t for me!” he nearly screamed at me. “It’s for Frankie. They always are. You can’t leave. I’m your father and I forbid you.”

“Forbid me?” I asked, nearly shrilling. “I’m not a minor anymore. It’s something you seem to keep forgetting.”

He marched toward me, grabbing both sides of my face. The smell of beer was pungent on his breath. “Don’t make a rash decision that turns into a monumental mistake. Living with him will ruin everything.”

“Dad? I have to go. Let me go.”

“Oh, I see.” He dropped his hold on me, backing away as his posture slouched. “This isn’t about our plan. You’ve gone and done what I was scared you would. You care about him and think he cares about you and will eventually love you? You’re wrong. He’s playing with you. When he’s done, he will become bored with you and move on to the next thing he can find. He’s just like his father. He’ll break your heart, Hanley. Then, our plan will go all to hell. What will we do for money? What about Frankie? What about what we promised to each other? Have you thought about any of this? Don’t turn your back on me and this family.”

“I haven’t. I promised you I would help you, and I’m going to do that.”

“Help me? This is about us and what that family did to ours.”

“What Natanael did, Dad. Not the family. I’m going after his father, not his family.”

“That is not what we agreed upon, and even if what you say is true, you won’t. He’ll make you forget everything. Make you forget about me.”

There was no reasoning with him. There never was. Instead of attempting to placate him, I began to walk away.

“When that door closes behind you, it will remain closed. I will continue the plan without you.”

I glanced back at him. “You can’t do anything without me. I love you, Dad. This isn’t goodbye. I’ll be here as much as I can to visit you. It’s just…time to refocus.”