30. Gavin

30

GAVIN

" G avin!" I hear her shout, rushing through the house, shoving my door open.

She bursts in, the bathroom door slamming against the wall.

She's a mess. She's stunning, still dressed in most of her costume.

"My fiery savior," I drawl, raising my hands to calm her down.

I'm sitting in the tub, completely naked. Her eyes scan the room. Her shoulders sag.

I give her a sheepish look. "Hellena, I'm fine."

"You don't look fine."

"Neither do you," I counter.

"You scared the shit out of me. I thought something had happened."

"Yeah, well, something did and it scared the shit out of me, too. My leg gave out while I was showering and I fell down." I feel like a fucking lame duck.

"That's not what I meant…" In a heartbeat she's at the side of the tub on her knees, brushing the side of my face, fear and pain in her eyes. She's been through it tonight. "I don't know what I would do if?—"

"It's okay. I'm fine, really." I give her my best wet dog grin.

"I'm sorry, Gav."

"Why are you sorry? What's wrong, Lena?"

"I'll tell you soon. The Ball was a disaster."

"That explains a lot. Things have been off all night."

She looks up, searching my gaze. "How so?"

"Well, from what I gathered, both sides of the Block/Ghost conflict are gearing up for something big. Movement all through the hills. There are alarms going off all over Sanctum, like all hell broke loose. I was watching a live feed when the Ghosts set off our perimeter sensors. I think they're holding a grudge for what I did to their guys at the docks."

"Oh, my God. I've put a target on our backs."

"Don't go there. I don't regret it. Those fuckers deserved every broken bone. Our new security fence and a few additions of my own discouraged them from coming closer. For now."

"Oh, Gavin." This is just icing on a rotten cake for her.

We sit there for a minute with our foreheads pressed together before I remember that I'm naked and shivering in the tub.

Hellena notices at the same time. "Um, do you need help?"

"W—uh, no." My cheeks flush. Dammit. How does she do that to me?

But she's already got the water turned back on, checking it with the back of her hand, letting it heat up. She plugs the drain and gazes back over her shoulder, our eyes locking.

"I–I was almost done?—"

I let her shush me. "Let me take care of you. Please ."

Her hands dribble hot water over my skin, lathering as she goes. Up my legs, my arms, carefully avoiding what's left of my stitches. She takes her time on my back, my chest, her eyes trailing every movement of the washcloth clutched in her paint-streaked hand.

I watch her face, her soft, round cheeks, the way her lips purse as she focuses. It helps subdue my embarrassment. No one has ever washed me like this.

The longer I watch her, the more lost in her I become. Until there's not a single bit of self-consciousness left, and all I can do is watch her work, savoring the feeling of her hands all over me. Before long, my eyes close, letting the hot water and her fingers drag away all of the stress that the past few weeks of recovery have piled onto my shoulders.

The waiting, wondering, has been hell.

I here a soft sniff of a laugh, opening my eyes to see the edge of her lip curling. Her smile spreads as she looks down, her eyebrows shooting up slowly.

Right between my legs, where I'm standing straight up, almost painfully erect.

"Your fault," I mumble.

"Guilty." She runs the washcloth up between my legs as she says it, making me flex as she brushes against the underside of my balls. My abs bunch, fire spreading through my whole body.

Her eyes widen at the sight of me swelling to her touch.

She bites her lip and it sets me off. Our lips meet, softly pressing together as she runs the tips of her long nails along the most sensitive skin, racing tingles all through my core.

The sensation intensifies, as does our kiss, when she curls one finger around me, then another. Her strokes are so faint, grazing, making me lift off the floor of the tub with longing for more.

"Mmm, Lena…" When I say her name again, it's in a different timbre, lower and gruff. She drags it out of me like a prayer.

I let my eyes drift, down to where she's holding me, stroking up tentatively, jerking up the skin, then back down. Her fingers barely reach around the entire girth of my cock, a sight that has me gushing clear precum all over the back of her hand.

"Y–you love teasing me, don't you?" We're both panting, the steam in the bathroom compounded by the heat between us.

"No. No more teasing…" She grips me harder, needy and demanding. "How does that feel?"

"Like you have to ask," I growl, my head tilting back.

"I want you to tell me." She scrapes one pointed nail up the bottom curve of me, eliciting a shiver. "Tell me how much you want me."

"I don't just want you. I need you, Lena."

She nods anxiously. "Show me."

I grip the sides of the tub, rising slowly to my feet. She never lets go, tugging on me with long, needy strokes. As soon as I'm on my feet, she adds her other hand, twisting slightly, my slick rod arcing up, harder than I've ever felt. "I need more. Now."

She rises to help me over the edge of the tub. It shouldn't be sexy, needing her help, but she takes my weight, her gaze never leaving mine.

Whipping my towel off the rack, she runs it over me, hasty and rushed. Still, she's always gentle around my wounds. No one has ever been so considerate. Kind.

It riles my desire for her.

Hellena slips the towel around my back, working it down over my ass. Her hands loop over twice as she drops to her knees, holding me hostage with the towel looped around my back for leverage.

Her bottom lip flicks my head, and my ass flexes, thrusting my raging hard-on toward her instinctively. Along with the motion, she lets her lips take the tip, sucking me in just enough to swirl her tongue, pursing into a tight ‘O' as she slips me back out.

I'm gasping. The lightest touch of her hot breath on me sends my hands driving back into the wall to keep from reaching out, grabbing her head, and having my way with her mouth.

Which leaves me utterly unprepared when she swallows my entire shaft, all the way down to the base. I fill her throat, my head pressing all the way back, drawing out the slightest slurping sound from her wet lips.

My fingers slip through her tousled hair, relishing the feel of her around me, in my hands. I could let it go on forever, or at least until I finish, which would be far too soon. The way she touches me…

"Lena." I pull back, reaching for her. "Lena, look at me."

Blue-gray eyes glisten up at me. "Gavin?"

Her mouth is still an inch away from my head, her lips parted. "Are you sure you?—"

"I need you, Gav. So badly." No words have ever sounded sweeter. But she's not done. I hear the doubt in her voice, see the hurt in her eyes. "Tonight… Evan and I?—"

"Whatever you're going to say can wait," I interrupt gently, dragging a thumb along her blushing cheek. "Or you can tell me if you want to, but it won't make a difference. If you need me, I'm yours. No questions."

Tears well at the corners of her lids, slicing through me.

My arms are around her, lifting her, any weakness from my wounds forgotten in the rush of emotion. I settle down on the edge of the bed, easing her down onto me, her legs straddling my lap.

What's left of her red dress is nothing to my hands, flung away, revealing what I've wanted for so long. Hellena's huge breasts spill out into my waiting hand, throwing me into a frenzy, my heart pounding. "I've never seen something so beautiful in my life. You're fucking perfect." I barely get the words out around the taste of her nipples on my tongue, sucking and reveling in her soft moans.

There's nothing delicate about the way I handle her, the way she fists tufts of my hair as I grip her ass cheeks and rock her back and forth over me. The length of me scythes up between us, grinding into the front of her silk underwear, right over her clit.

We sit there holding each other that way, kissing deeply, clutching to one another. Losing ourselves in the contact, the ache building in my heart overflowing.

She sets my soul on fire. She heals my scars.

"Oh… right there…" she breathes, mashing my face to her chest. Cinnamon and soap hypnotize me, consuming my thoughts.

I can't hold out any longer. I won't wait another moment.

"Gavin. I love you."

I've waited so long to hear her say it. It doesn't matter if it's in an act of desperation, a product of whatever horrible things happened earlier.

Tonight, it's enough.

"I love you, Hellena." And I'm lifting her, laying her down in my bed, the bed we've shared so many nights wrapped in each other's arms, lost in peaceful sleep. I wonder if she understands how much more that means to me than anything else she could do.

To give me a single night without the horrors, the faces.

The blood.

She's my altar, and I will worship her with every fiber of my being.

I drag my arms out from under her, never letting my hands leave her for a second as I hook her knees, driving them back gently, spreading her wide for me to see. Spread out under me, I can barely think.

In a blink, her legs are over my shoulders, around my neck, my mouth suctioned to her center, thrusting my tongue in to devour every solitary inch of her. Her thighs tighten around my head, and I clamp my arms around them, tighter. The pressure is exhilarating.

She's silk, salt, and sweet, the juices of her fruit sopping my chin, filling my mouth. I could never eat again if she let me stay here.

Dragging my tongue out and up to her apex, a thought flickers through my mind, that Evan was inside her earlier tonight. It makes everything that much hotter, the thought of him warming her up for me.

I don't give a shit who gives Hellena pleasure. She deserves every ounce of happiness she can get. If I get to be a part of it, even better.

The sharp jerk of her hips tells me she's close.

Two fingers, then three slip inside her soaked core, working in and out, rolling my wrist with the gyration of her body.

"Look at me," she screams, lifting my face as I increase the speed, folding my hand to press against her front, my fingers hooking up inside firmly. "Kiss me!"

She's already coming when our mouths collide.

Her thighs crush together, shuddering her entire frame.

My arm is there to hold her still, pumping my pearl-slicked hand in time with the aftershocks of her eruption. The taste of her sex mingles on our tongues, a surge of excitement shaking me, stirring her from her haze.

I don't let her rest or fall back, instead rising over her, positioning myself against her. Her wide eyes lock with mine as I ease into her, the confines of her inner sanctum hugging me impossibly tight.

Her mouth drops open slightly, her expression flickering from shock to disbelief. I barely fit.

But she takes every inch, my entire length and width tingling, electric. Her walls hug me, squeeze me.

Her legs wrap around my middle as I start to shift in and out, only an inch at a time and back in, each thrust close to my undoing, Hellena's eyes and breath pulsing along with the rhythm.

I'm never going to get enough of this.

The two of us writhe as one for minutes, hours. Every rotation of our hips is another unique experience, an eternity of pleasure.

I plunge deeper, and she yelps, a mix of joy, a hint of pain. "Sorry?—"

Sharp pain stabs my side at the same time, but I ignore it, "Hng. Ow."

"Gavin, your side!" Hellena mutters, resting her palms against my chest.

"I don't care," I rumble back.

"Well, I do. You're still hurt. Lie down." She rolls me onto my back, smiling at my foolish pride.

"Pain is nothing new to me."

"I'll keep that in mind when I want to give you the good kind…" She settles over me, leaning down to bite my chest, my nipple, the sensation curling my toes at the shock. Her teeth marks nearly drew blood. "Like that?"

"Fuck yes!"

"Maybe when you're better." I don't have a chance to protest as she slides two fingers into my mouth, bucking her hips back, guiding my head back into her and all the way in again.

"Fuck," I growl around her fingers, my palms on her hips as she starts into a delicious sway, sawing back and forth over me, the head of my cock grinding sweetly against her innermost wall.

"Deeper. You're going to make me come again, Gavin."

"Not yet. I need to see your ass on me. I need to see how I stretch you to your limit…"

Hellena giggles at the request, arcing one leg up to the side and over me, impossibly flexible.

"Holy shit."

"You haven't seen anything yet. Maybe I'll let you see just how flexible I am sometime!" She spins, never even letting me slip out an inch, bending her legs up and settling back down with her big, round ass resting on my hips.

The skin ripples around my fingers as I take a handful of each cheek, picking her up, sliding out and dropping her back down, the slap ringing so satisfyingly in my ears. She does it again, and again, gaining speed, her ass jiggling, tantalizing.

"Lean forward. I want to watch you come all over me," I order her, pushing one hand against her back.

Hellena groans out a long, drawn out cry as she leans over my legs, clasping my ankles and driving back against me. I watch her envelop me again and again, my shaft disappearing in the creamy mess we've made together, her lips dragging with every thrust. My hands never leave her ass, spreading it wide so I can glimpse every inch of our sex, the taut skin, her star right above it.

I've never been so turned on.

Hellena bends farther forward, bending me almost painfully, increasing the tension and friction of each plunge.

I feel the rush coming.

So fast and intense that there's no turning back.

"Lena, I'm going to?—"

She pushes off my legs, arching back over me, her hair draping onto my chest. Instinctively, I wrap my hand around it, tugging back as she starts to ram herself down onto me, clearly aiming to finish me off hard and strong.

Right as the swell of my release starts, she stops bobbing up and down, revolving her hips into a vicious rotation, grinding and rocking.

"Gavin!" The way she screams it, completely unbridled, shoots into me like a gunshot, my heart aching, my body giving in to our joining.

Her climax clamps her inner walls around me, milking every drop of my essence as I let go, unleashing inside her. Every ounce of love empties into her, given willingly, leaving me drained, yet completely fulfilled.

This is exactly where I want to be. Need to be.

Forever.

She falls back into my arms, curling into me as I turn and lay her down in front of me, our bodies spooned like they were meant to fit together this way. Our heaves of exertion abate, slowing toward deep sleep. I feel myself wanting to drift off.

But I want to cherish this moment, sear it into my brain and relish every second of it.

"Gavin?" she whispers after a time.

I'm half awake, floating somewhere close to a dream.

"I don't know what to do. Tonight… the people who I work for, that Evan works for, the Sinful. They betrayed us. Or maybe he betrayed me to them? I'm so confused." I stay silent, listening to every clue in what she says.

"During the show, we made love, lost in the music. I wanted to tell you before. But…" She sniffs helplessly, a verbal shrug. "You are amazing. I can't even begin to understand how any of this works. Because I still want him. And I still want Tell, even after he hid things from me. They both opened up my world to so many possibilities.

"Tell brings me so much joy, he makes me feel vibrant, he draws things out of me that I need to vent and listens, really listens. Evan showed me who I really am. What I'm capable of. He gave me a purpose and shares that purpose with me. I'm proud when I'm with him. And he is so much more than he thinks he is when he's with me. Tell, too. The weight of his secrets just goes away. Just like your nightmares, my nightmares, whenever we're together."

Her voice is husky, hot tears streaming onto my arm under her. Every drop singes my skin, breaks my heart for her. "But none of that matters. My past, my old life found me out. Marco found me. He knows where I am. Which means none of us are safe."

A sob trembles through her, subsides. I hear and feel her gather her resolve.

"You're my fortress, Gavin. You make me… brave," she mumbles.

I'm losing the battle with sleep, finally, and so is she.

"I promise. I'm going to do everything I can to make it right. For both of them. For you."

Her voice is the last thing I hear before deep, dreamless sleep takes me. Darkness wraps around me for a long time, healing, cleansing darkness.

So different from the taint on my soul from the things I've done.

Sunlight on the mirror wakes me, reflecting from the living room. It's at the wrong angle, later than I'm used to seeing it first thing. Lingering hints of cinnamon mingle as I yawn, stretching out. Her taste on my lips, her scent on my skin, on my sheets, distracts me until I reach out, finding her side of the bed empty.

"Lena?"

I rise gingerly, my side and leg still tender. The house is quiet.

Far too quiet. Normally, I'd assume she was at work.

But my gut tightens. Something's off.

Too many of her things are gone.

And the last words she said to me last night echo through my head.

"I'm going to do everything I can to make it right."

She's gone.

Worry is layering up as I finally make it out of bed, shuffling to peek out the window. Her car is gone. Maybe she went to get breakfast.

Except my gut says differently.