Chapter 16

Chapter

Sixteen

February 28th

11:53 P.M.

Panther hated this part of the night the most.

The waiting.

Waiting for the terrified screams of his girls to echo through the house.

Eleven days had passed since he and the rest of Bravo Team had crept into Elle's home and he'd opened that bedroom door to find her naked on the bed and seconds away from being raped. A lot had changed over that time. Elle and Ruthie had both put some lost weight back on and looked healthier. The four of them had grown close and felt like a family even if nothing was official yet. Andy and Ruthie had quickly become more than siblings, they were best friends, and Elle's daughter was never more at ease than when she played with his son.

Things with Elle were going better, too. She had agreed that she needed help, too, and although he knew it had been hard for her to admit—he knew she blamed herself for the whole ordeal and on some level likely always would—he knew she'd done it for her daughter. Ruthie needed her, and Elle wasn't going to let her down.

Everything felt so perfect. Almost too perfect.

Everyone on the compound was doing so well. Tank and Tillie were busy planning their spring wedding, Rock and Ariel would be following them with a wedding in the summer, and Scorpion was adamant he wanted to marry Jessica before their baby arrived in six months. Trick and Stephanie were still suffering from the ordeal in Liberia, and he completely understood how his friend felt seeing the shadows that haunted the eyes of the woman you would do literally anything for. But Stephanie was strong, a fighter, and with Trick's unwavering support, she was slowly recovering.

If they could just find and take down Leonid Baranov once and for all, then Panther was sure Axe and Beth could find their way back to one another, and then everything truly would be perfect for the people he cared about.

A high pitched scream filled the quiet house, and Panther quickly threw back the covers, closing his laptop and setting it on the nightstand. As much as he would love to have Elle spend the entire night in his bed, he knew she needed to fall asleep holding her daughter.

Andy met him in the hall like he did every night. Didn"t matter how many times Panther told his son that he didn"t have to get up when Ruthie or Elle had nightmares, the little boy had appointed himself Ruthie's protector and he never failed to be there for her.

In the bedroom—a room he hoped one day might become Ruthie's—his girls clung to one another on the bed. They were bathed in the warm light of the fairy lights, and even through their tears they both smiled when he and Andy entered the room.

"Our heroes," Elle said, making Ruthie giggle.

The little girl scrambled off the bed. "I want the Hulk watching over us tonight," she exclaimed.

"How come?" Andy asked, sounding surprised since Supergirl was Ruthie's favorite and she always felt safest when the superhero watched over her at night.

"Cos he's your favorite, silly," Ruthie replied like it was obvious.

Both children were giggling as they scurried off to Andy's room, and Panther turned to Elle, ready for her to break down in tears. These stolen moments in the middle of the night when she knew her daughter was safe and happy with Andy in his room were the only ones she allowed herself the freedom to cry.

Only tonight, no tears brimmed in her big, brown eyes.

"Are you okay?" he asked, startled by the change in their routine.

"I … think I am," Elle answered slowly. "I mean, I"m not. I won"t ever really be okay again because those memories of the month my daughter was gone are always going to be with me. But you keep catching me every time I slip, and … I think … no … I know that I"m going to be okay."

"Always, honey. I will always be there to catch you when you slip. Nothing could ever keep me away from you. From either of my girls."

Elle's face transformed into the most breathtaking smile. "I love it when you call me and Ruthie your girls. It's just been the two of us for so long. My ex never really cared about me, not the way you do. I didn"t want to see it at the time, but now, with you, it's so obvious he never loved me. He didn"t even love his own daughter. But you"re so good with her, and she likes you so much. You make her feel safe, but you also make her feel brave, and you already care about her so much more than her father and that means the world to me."

"She's a special little girl, just like her mommy. That you trust me with the most precious thing in your life means the world to me. I won"t break that trust."

Climbing onto her knees, she crawled toward him. "I know you won"t and that makes me like you even more. You know I would never do anything to hurt Andy either. I love him. He was everything I needed when Ruthie wasn't here. I felt guilty at first, almost like I was using him, but what I feel for him is genuine, real, separate from what I feel for Ruthie. I love him for him, for the amazing, sweet, generous, thoughtful, kind, intelligent, funny boy he is."

"You"re perfect, you know that?" The love Elle shone so brightly on his son was the exact opposite of what the boy's own mother had felt for him. To Marcia, Andy had been a responsibility, one she didn"t want and had abandoned, but Elle just loved him because she wanted to.

"So you keep saying." Elle giggled. "Want to show me?"

"You bet I do." Scooping his woman into his arms, he carried her back to his bed, and like he did every night, he stood her on her feet and kissed the now fading bruises on her face. Then he stripped off her tank top and kissed the still dark bruises littering her chest.

Normally, he liked to take his time, bring her to the edge of orgasm and then pull back before building her up again and pulling back, repeating the process until he knew the orgasm he gave her would consume her mind, body, and soul. But tonight felt different, tonight he felt the need to hurry up and be inside her.

"You up for being on top tonight, honey?" With her cracked ribs they'd been taking things easy. He still made her come several times, but he always made sure he did all the work so she didn"t hurt herself.

Tonight he wanted to watch her take what she needed from him.

"I'm up for any way you want me," she said with a smile that if he wasn't already rock hard would have done the job in an instant.

Stripping her out of her pajama pants, he shed his own and then lay down on the bed, leaving her to do what she wanted. For a moment, Elle just stood there staring at him. Panther wasn't one for fake modesty, he worked hard for the cut body he had, but he loved the way Elle's gaze roamed it, so greedily like she didn"t know what to touch first.

Turned out to be his jaw. A gentle fingertip trailed along it then down his neck, tracing his pecs and every line of his six pack. She circled his erect length without touching it and then climbed onto the bed, straddling his thighs.

Then she touched.

Greedily.

Hungrily.

Her fingers curled around him, settling him in her palm as she ran her hand up and down his length, slowly at first but then faster, and he wondered if she was going to play with him like he played with her. Bringing him right to the edge without letting him tumble over it.

But it seemed his girl didn"t have the same patience he did because when she could feel his length twitch at her touch, she moved so she was positioned above him. When she sank down she took only his tip inside her, rolling her hips a few times before sinking down to take another inch.

So Elle had a little more patience than he'd thought because she took him one inch at a time. She paused after each inch to roll her hips, enjoying the feeling of him and the way he grunted and groaned and had to curl his fingers into fists so he didn"t just grab her hips and slam into her until he filled her up.

Another inch, and then another, and finally he was buried deep. Panther was about a half second away from coming but his woman wasn't quite there yet. Reaching between them, he gathered some of her juices and smeared them over her bundle of nerves. Then as Elle lifted her hips up until just his tip remained inside her, then sank down again to take all of him, he made good use of his fingers on her bud, working her until her breathing grew ragged, her skin flushed, and her internal muscles quivered.

Still, Elle kept the pace slow, steady, torturous.

Since they had been together enough times for him to know exactly what she liked and how to get her to come even when she thought she couldn't because he'd already made her orgasm several times, Panther cheated a little to speed things up. Rolling her bud just the way she liked it, Elle tossed back her head and moaned.

It only took one more tweak of her bundle of nerves between his thumb and forefinger and her orgasm exploded inside her. When her body clamped around him, he allowed himself his own release, exploding inside Elle.

One day soon, when the time was right, he hoped he and Elle would create a baby together, the final piece of their little family, making them and their lives complete. But as he pulled his woman down to rest against his chest, keeping himself inside her, not ready to break that connection yet, he knew that the time wasn't right yet. Now was a time for healing, for exploring this relationship, and growing and building a steady foundation.

Still, he couldn't wait until the day when he pressed his hand to her stomach and felt the life they had created moving inside her. He'd missed out on a lot when Marcia was pregnant with Andy, but he wasn't going to miss a single second when Elle was pregnant with his baby.

Hindsight was definitely twenty twenty because, looking back, he knew he had never loved Marcia the way he ought to have because the feelings he'd had for her didn"t even come close to what he already felt for Elle.

She sighed and snuggled closer against his chest as sleep took her under, and he took the opportunity to say the words when he knew they wouldn't have to discuss them. They were true, but Elle might think it was too soon and he couldn't mean them yet.

But he did.

"I love you, Elle," he whispered against her forehead, then he pressed his lips there in a soft kiss before holding his woman tight and allowing sleep to come now that he had her in his arms.

Right where she belonged.

March 9th

2:37 P.M.

"Mommy, look!"

At her daughter's excited squeal, Elle looked up from the sandwiches she was setting up on the picnic blanket. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, look!" Ruthie squealed again, this time holding out the apple she had been snacking on because to quote, she was dying of hunger. Embedded in the apple was one of Ruthie's front teeth. The tooth had been loose for a week, and although she'd told her daughter to stop fiddling with it, every time she looked at the girl she could see that Ruthie was working that loose tooth with her tongue, dying for it to fall out.

"Oh, wow, your tooth came out," she exclaimed, remembering how much fun that had been as a child. Now watching her daughter tug on the tooth, bending it backward and forward, poking at it with her tongue made her feel a little queasy, even as she remembered doing the exact same things when she was a kid.

"That means you get to leave it out for the tooth fairy tonight," Andy said, dropping to his knees beside Ruthie, his voice just as excited.

For a moment, the smile fell off Ruthie's face and she looked thoughtful. Elle knew she wasn't worried about the tooth fairy, this wasn't the first tooth her daughter had lost, so she wondered what was running through her little girl's head.

She didn"t push though. Over the last couple of weeks she had learned to respect Ruthie's need to process what she wanted to say before she said it. While there was a part of Elle that wished her impulsive, vivacious, bubbly daughter would come back, she also admired Ruthie's strength and bravery, and admitted that even though she didn"t like it, the ordeal had forced her daughter to grow up a lot and much too quickly.

"Mom?"

"Yeah, sweetie?"

"Do you think it would be okay if I went to sleep in Andy's room tonight?"

Elle stilled. She wanted to yell that it wouldn't be okay, that she needed the reassurance of feeling her daughter's small body snuggled against hers, but this was a big milestone for Ruthie and she wasn't going to ruin it or take it away from her. If Ruthie felt safe enough in Rafe and Andy's home—a place that now felt like their home, too—then she was so proud of her for finding the courage to fight her fears.

"If you want to sleep in Andy's room, that's fine with me," she answered.

"Are you …" Ruthie trailed off, hesitating. "Are you going to be okay to sleep without me?"

How perceptive her intelligent little girl was.

But this wasn't about Elle. This was about Ruthie. And if her daughter was ready to go to sleep for the first time since being rescued without her mom by her side, then Elle had no choice but to be ready to take this leap as well.

Reaching over, she grabbed Ruthie's arms and tugged until her daughter was in her lap. "I will be okay, little unicorn girl. I promise. And you know I'll be right down the hall if you change your mind or you need me."

"In Dad's bed," Andy added like he already knew and accepted that she and his dad were together, and if Elle wasn't going to sleep in Mrs. Pfeffer's room with Ruthie then it was a foregone conclusion that she would be sleeping in his father's room.

Ruffling the boy's hair, she smiled at him. "Yeah, in your dad's bed."

They hadn"t sat the kids down and given them a talk about the future, but they also hadn"t tried to hide that they were together. That was probably going to have to change. She and Rafe had jumped right into the deep end, focusing on Ruthie's healing, but they"d done it together as a team, a team she never wanted to break up. So it was time to sit the kids down and make sure they understood what was going on and had a chance to voice any questions or concerns.

"Mom, can I go put the tooth under my pillow now?" Ruthie asked. As well as her daughter was doing, she still hadn"t reached the stage where she could do things without getting permission first.

"Sure can," she replied, even though letting the kids go back to the cabin meant they would be out of her sight for a few minutes at least. "But straight there, straight back."

"Okay, Mom," Ruthie agreed as both kids bounced to their feet and ran off toward the house.

"What are those two up to?" Rafe asked from the grill where he was busy barbecuing.

"Ruthie lost a tooth, she wants to put it under her pillow ready for the tooth fairy. Under the pillow in Andy's room." She sighed and fought back tears, torn between her fears of not having her daughter in her arms, and her pride and awe of her little girl and her strength.

Knowing how hard this was for her, Rafe set down the tongs and came to pull her up and into his arms. "She's healing, honey, you are, too. It's okay to be scared about not having her with you when you go to sleep, but she'll be just in the next room, and you can check on her as many times as you need to. And I'll be right there with you, holding you, making love to you, and keeping you safe in my arms."

Snuggling closer into his embrace, Elle forced herself to let go of the anxiety. She couldn't keep Ruthie glued to her side for the rest of the girl's life, and she didn"t want the ordeal to shape every part of Ruthie's future. She wanted her daughter to learn, to do the things she enjoyed, to graduate high school and go off to college, to fall in love one day and get married and have a family of her own.

She wanted Ruthie to have a normal life, and that meant taking this first step toward her daughter getting her independence back.

"Have I told you today how grateful I am to have you in my life?" she asked, looking up at Rafe.

He smiled down at her. "Nope, but you can show me tonight after we tuck the kids in."

Middle of the woods or not, kids returning at any second, the rest of Bravo Team joining them at any moment, Elle would have thrown all caution to the wind and made love to her man right there if throats hadn"t cleared behind them, and she turned to see all of Bravo Team standing there.

"Everything okay, love birds?" Scorpion teased, his smile so big and wide as he held his woman close to his side.

"Perfect," Elle replied.

"Perfect," Rafe echoed.

"Where were the munchkins off to in such a hurry?" Trick asked.

"Ruthie lost a tooth," she explained. "And apparently couldn't wait to go and get it all ready for the tooth fairy tonight."

"Tooth fairy," Jessica murmured then tears filled her eyes and began to trickle down her cheeks.

Scorpion rolled his eyes, but his gaze was tender as he tugged Jessica in front of him and wrapped his arms around her. "Don't mind her, apparently now that she knows she's pregnant she's being hit by the pregnancy hormones all at once. Cries about everything."

"I do not." Jessica sniffed through her tears, swatting at her boyfriend's shoulder.

"Sure you don't, honey," Scorpion said with just enough mocking in his tone to tease his woman. "Just so you know, guys, the crying gets evened out by the increased sex drive during pregnancy."

"Mason!" Jessica exclaimed. "Don't say that."

Scorpion just laughed. "It's true. We've already had sex three times today," he said, making Jessica groan and bury her face in her hands.

"Huh, didn"t know about that," Tank said thoughtfully, eyeing his fiancée.

"Don't go getting any ideas, mister. I want to focus on the wedding before we add in anything else. The wedding that is only four weeks away," Tillie said, a hint of anxiety in her tone.

"It's just a party," Tank said with a shrug, making his tiny fiancée slug him in the stomach.

"Did you just call our wedding a party?" Tillie demanded.

"All I care about is making you my wife, the rest is just stuff to make you happy," Tank replied, and Tillie softened, grabbing his shoulders and pulling him down for a kiss.

"I'm glad you're getting married first," Ariel piped up. "That way Sebastian and I can just steal all your ideas."

"Doesn't matter to me, I just want the next five months to hurry up and go on by so I can finally make you my wife," Rock told his fiancée.

"I wish the baby was due in the fall instead of late summer." Jessica sighed. "I love when the leaves change color, and I would have loved to get married out here surrounded by nature. But Mason insists we have to be married before the baby comes."

"Damn right I do," Mason muttered.

"Maybe you guys could do a fall wedding," Jessica said hopefully to Trick and Stephanie.

"Hold up there, darlin', I haven't even proposed to her yet," Trick said, obviously amused.

"Yet," Jessica added. "There's time. Tank and Tillie have spring covered. Mason and I will probably join Rock and Ariel for a summer wedding, then you two can have fall, and those two should be ready to get married by winter," she teased, pointing to her and Rafe.

Maybe that should make her nervous, already thinking about marriage, but the thing was it didn"t.

Elle had learned what true fear felt like, and the idea of marrying Rafe didn"t even fill her with a hint of anxiety. Children's giggles told her the kids were coming back, and with Rafe's team all around her it felt like being surrounded by a huge family who teased one another but who had each other's backs no matter what.

She'd never had that before and she liked this.

Liked it enough to have a spark of excitement flicker to life inside her at the thought that one day she might stand in these woods and marry Rafe. Or stand in a church, or on a beach, it didn"t matter because their kids would be there with them, along with this big extended family, and finally Elle would find her place in the world.