Chapter Fourteen

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Elizabeth

The migraine was a deep throbbing ache behind my eye and in my temple as I slipped into Elian’s massive soaking tub. It was big enough to have an entire orgy in it, for God’s sake, and the luxury of being inside of it wasn’t lost on me, even if my headache was gearing up to be a real banger.

It was the running.

Extreme high-endurance exercise could trigger migraines. I was always careful at the gym to stay in my target heart rate range without going overboard and ending up suffering for the rest of the night.

The crying also didn’t help, I was sure.

But there was only so much you could take before you had to let all those feelings out before they ate you alive from the inside out.

And, God, it had felt good to have a cry like that in the arms of someone who kept assuring you that it was going to be okay, that they were going to take care of you.

I didn’t remember the last time I’d had that.

Yes, I did.

Never.

I’d never had that before.

Which was probably why it was affecting me so strongly as I leaned back against the cool porcelain of the tub, letting my eyes drift closed against the bright light, and waited for my meds to kick in, praying I caught it early enough to avoid a full-blown intractable migraine.

The last thing I expected to feel after such an ordeal was desire starting to flicker, then catch flame as the water teased over my skin, as I listened to Elian walking around the apartment.

But it wasn’t long before it was a full-blown wildfire coursing through me, making me press my legs together, remembering the failed attempt the night before to ease the constant ache inside.

Suddenly, it didn’t feel quite so embarrassing to be caught. If anything, it only managed to fan the flames of need until there was a pressure on my lower stomach, a throbbing sort of need between my thighs, and the sudden urge to climb out of the bath, and walk naked until I found him, then demand we finally ease the tension between us.

Then, as the meds kicked in, chasing away the migraine, like the universe was agreeing with my idea, I heard him knock on the bathroom door.

Before I could think better of it, I was inviting him in, watching as he came in a step before freezing, his back stiffening, his brows lifting.

I watched as he seemed helpless but to let his gaze move from my face, gliding down to where my breasts were just barely hidden by the water, then over the length of me, obscured by the depth of the water, but clearly conjuring up his own images. Because by the time his gaze was on my face again, his lids were heavy, and his golden eyes were scorching into me.

“I thought…” he said, forcing his gaze to the floor. “I thought you said to come in,” he said, reaching out to the side to rest a change of clothes on the sink cabinet.

“I did,” I said, voice smaller than I wanted it to be, but I was trying to prevent him from backing out of the room.

At those words, his gaze lifted again, landing on my face, searching for something.

I guess he found what he was looking for, because he was walking toward me then, dropping down to his knees beside the tub. His arm raised, his fingers moving up to skirt over my temple, then down my cheek and jaw.

“How’s your head?” he asked, voice soft, but thick with his growing desire.

“It’s a lot better,” I admitted, touched by his concern.

“So you don’t need more pain relief?” he asked, and the combination of the heat in his eyes and the sexy little smirk he shot me had my belly flip-flopping.

“It’s not completely gone,” I said, leaning my head back, watching his gaze helplessly move over me again. Then, surprised by my own boldness, I asked, “Do you have a remedy?”

I expected him to tease me, to drag it out.

But as soon as the words were out of my mouth, a rumbling sound moved through him, and then his hand was plunging under the water and pressing between my thighs.

There was no stopping the moan that escaped me as my legs fell shamelessly open, inviting more.

Elian was happy to provide exactly what I needed.

His fingers slid up my cleft, finding my clit, and rubbing the pad of his thumb over it before moving away to tease around, never quite giving me the contact I so desperately needed.

My hips were writhing against his touch as my head fell back, my breathing going fast and shallow.

Elian’s gaze slid from my face, moving over me once again. Then his free hand was moving out, teasing over my breast, making my nipple twist to a hardened point.

With that rumbling sound moving through him again, his thumb and forefinger closed around my nipple and started to do delicious little rolls that had my hips rocking and my moans filling the bathroom.

“Elian, please,” I whimpered, the need a coiled pressure deep in my core.

His fingers shifted, two sliding inside of me just as his thumb glided over my clit. I nearly came apart just like that as Elian made a little approving sound at the back of his throat.

His fingers started to thrust, and I couldn’t help but let myself imagine him settled deep inside me as his weight pressed down on me, as his lips claimed mine.

Inside of me, his fingers turned, crooked, and started to stroke over my top wall, making a surprised groan escape me as my legs squeezed together, wanting to feel the sensation more intensely.

Elian’s palm flattened against my cleft, engaging my clit as his fingers moved inside me, as I writhed against his touch.

My breathing got shorter and more frantic as he drove me closer and closer to the edge.

“Come for me, baby,” he murmured, his voice rough with his own desire.

Like I’d been waiting for the command, I did, crying out as the pleasure shot through me, making my legs shake and my hand shoot out to grab Elian’s wrist, holding on as the waves kept crashing through me.

Elian’s hand slid from between my legs as I was trying to slow my ragged breathing.

Even sated, I wanted him to reach for me, to pull me out of the tub, to carry me to the bed, to strip then surge inside of me.

It was enough to make me need to press my thighs tightly together again to ease the growing ache.

“How about we make something to eat?” he asked, making the haze of desire pull back.

“Hm?” I asked, still a little dazed.

“Food. You’ve got to be hungry,” he said, his voice still rough.

“I, ah, yeah,” I said, though I was feeling nothing but desire right then.

“I brought some clothes. I’ll meet you in the kitchen,” he said.

Then he was standing and walking away. But not before I saw just how impacted he was by what just happened.

Part of me wanted to call out to him, to make him come back, to reach into his pants, free him and take him in my mouth.

But he was gone before I could say anything.

Surprisingly disappointed about that, I hit the drain, then climbed out of the water, drying off and slipping into the clothes Elian had brought me before moving back out of the bathroom.

I’d been a little too distracted on the way in to truly appreciate his bedroom, but now I stopped to take it all in.

The deep merlot color of the walls, the dark wood bed frame, nightstands, and dresser. There were massive walk-in his and hers closets. One was completely empty, despite his being close to overflowing. Like he was keeping it empty for his future wife.

That thought made a strange tightening feeling move across my chest.

Choosing not to let myself spend too much time thinking on that, I made my way back out into the hall, taking a deep breath that wasn’t full of his spicy scent like his bedroom was.

“Heya buddy,” I said, scratching Kevin’s soft head as I passed him in the living room on my way to the kitchen. “So, what are you making?”

“ We are making fettuccini Alfredo with chicken and broccoli,” he told me, making my heart feel all warm that he wanted to include me when it would likely be a lot easier to do it all himself. “I had to order the chicken and broccoli, so that is on its way, but we can get started without it. Oh, I also have to tell you something,” he said, giving me a serious look.

“Okay,” I agreed, spine straightening.

“From now on, there is going to be one of my men either outside in the hall up here, or down on the street. Maybe even both. I don’t want you to panic if you happen to look out and see someone hanging around.”

“Oh, okay,” I said, nodding. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“I did,” he said, going into his pantry to bring out a box of fettuccini.

“What about the sauce?” I asked, then watched as he went from confused to offended to bemused in the span of a blink.

“Do you really think I would be using jarred alfredo sauce?” he asked, shaking his head at me.

“I guess not,” I said, shooting him an upside-down smile.

“Alfredo is a fast and easy sauce. It’s kind of silly to use a jar,” he told me, going into the fridge to pull out a big block of parmesan cheese, garlic cloves, butter, and heavy cream. “This is pretty much all there is to it. Plus some salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning. Once you grate the cheese, the whole process takes something like ten minutes. And that,” he said when there was a knock at the door that had me jumping embarrassingly hard. “Is the chicken and broccoli,” he told me. “But also… why I do need to have a guard around here,” he said, voice soft as he ran a hand over the top of mine on the island before going to open the door.

There was some quiet talking in the hallway before Elian was leaning inside. “Baby, do you want to meet the guard? Just so you feel more comfortable with him?”

“Oh, okay. Sure,” I said, suddenly very aware of my lack of a bra. Which had been an enticing feeling a moment before when it was just the two of us, but now made me feel a little too exposed.

I rolled my shoulders forward a bit so the material wasn’t highlighting the lack of undergarment, then plastered a small smile on my lips as Elian opened the door for the guard.

Which was good.

Because I was pretty sure my mouth would have been catching flies if I hadn’t already been smiling.

I mean, what the hell?

Were all the men in the mafia ridiculously handsome?

“Elizabeth, this is my cousin Serano. Serano, this is Elizabeth,” he said, waving between us as I let my eyes quickly run over the man.

He was tall and fit like Elian, if maybe a little more bulky, like he enjoyed more time at the gym. His hair was dark, but shorn shorter. There was a golden hint to his eyes and an impressive amount of thick lashes around them.

It was the facial structure that was different. Serano had a wide, square jaw that I was pretty sure could cut glass, sunken cheeks, and a broody forehead. There was a nasty gash down his cheek that looked like it was a few days into healing.

There was something a little menacing about him, despite him seeming to be a few years younger than Elian.

“It’s nice to meet you,” I said, offering him my hand, something that was a knee-jerk habit at this point after working in politics for the past year and a half.

His brows furrowed, but he reached out a strong arm and his wide, calloused hand slipped into mine.

“Yeah,” he said, the one syllable spoken in a deep, growly voice that I was pretty sure would have most women swooning. I would have been one of them if he wasn’t a little too young for me, and if I wasn’t completely enamored by his elder cousin.

Elian rolled his eyes at his cousin’s manners.

“We’re making fettuccini alfredo,” I told him. “We’ll save you a plate,” I added. “Don’t worry, Elian is actually doing the cooking. I’m hopeless in the kitchen.”

“You’re learning,” Elian said, defending me against myself.

“Sounds good,” Serano said, giving me a nod. Apparently, a solid home-cooked meal melted even a big, cold guy like Serano. “We good?” he asked, looking at Elian.

“Yeah,” he agreed, shaking his head at his cousin’s retreating form. “Don’t take offense. He’s so fucking reclusive that this little interaction likely filled his social battery for the week. Or month,” he admitted with a little chuckle.

“I don’t remember him in your stories about your family,” I said.

“I have a pretty big extended family,” he admitted. “Some of the other more extroverted people made for better stories. But Serano works for me. So does his younger brother, but you probably won’t be meeting him unless I need someone to fill in,” he told me, taking the items out of the bag that Serano had brought over.

“What can I do?” I asked.

“Grate the cheese or cut the broccoli up,” he said, waving between my options.

“I’ll do both. I’ll leave the ingredients most likely to give us food poisoning to you,” I said, looking at the chicken. “Where’s your cheese grater?” I asked, then watched him produce this thing with a crank that suctioned to the island. It made the grating take all of five minutes. Then I was moving onto the broccoli as Elian started to sear the chicken in a pan.

“I’m just going to pretend I didn’t notice how much butter and heavy cream is in this,” I said a while later, wincing as I whisked the sauce in a pan, the heady scent of garlic wafting up to me and making my stomach let out a grumble.

“Hey, it’s got protein and vegetables too,” Elian reasoned.

“I’ll need to do an extra hour on the stair climber to burn it off, but if this tastes half as good as it smells, it will be totally worth it. Oh,” I said, brows lowering.

“What’s the matter?”

“I can’t go to my gym anymore,” I told him.

“You can go to mine. I have guest passes. You’re not in prison here. You can go out if you need to. But I just want you to be careful. Maybe have at least one of my people with you when you do go anywhere. Just to be sure.”

“Believe me,” I said, sucking in a deep breath, “I don’t want a repeat of today. I think the only thing working in my favor was the fact that I clearly work on my cardio more than that guy does.”

“I didn’t know you were going to be out of the office today, or I might have tried to send someone with you to prevent that.”

“I honestly didn’t know either. I totally forgot until the senator came into the office barking at me about it. And it was too short of notice to say anything. I was barely there like fifteen minutes before the guy snuck up on me,” I admitted.

“No one else saw him?” he asked, flipping the chicken that had little grill marks on it from his fancy pan.

“Everyone was at the meeting. And then when I maybe could have called for help, there was some kind of eruption in the gym.”

“Eruption?” Elian asked.

“I assume that the senator said something stupid or offensive. Or both. The outrage was… loud. So I just ran. And then I didn’t want to waste my breath screaming as I was running. Maybe I should have.”

“Hey, you acted the way that felt right in the moment. And you did get yourself safe.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, exhaling hard. “But what if I didn’t have you to call on?”

“You don’t need to worry about that,” he said, brushing aside my concerns. “Because you do have me.”

But for how long , a needy little voice in my head asked.

Because I was suddenly imagining coming home to this apartment everyday instead of my own, standing barefoot in the kitchen with Elian cooking together, talking to each other over a meal, enjoying a cup of coffee afterward, sitting on the couch with Kevin moving between us to get petted.

The only thing I wanted different from reality was how we went to bed in separate rooms, leaving me lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, and trying to find the nerve to walk across the hall and climb into bed with him.

As it was, though, I reached for my phone instead, finding the courage to face the barrage of angry texts from my boss and the frantic texts from our team, asking me what the hell we could do to fix this.

Despite myself, I sat up in bed, then brought up the town hall meeting, cringing as the senator went painfully off-topic, and all but blamed blue-collar workers for not working hard enough or not getting an education for why they couldn’t get ahead. Instead of the real issues—you know, the ones on the cards I’d written for him—like stagnant wages, out of control rent prices, and corporate greed leading to inflation that was taking more out of their pockets.

If anyone at that press conference had been on the fence about their vote, Michael’s comments all but ensured that they would vote for his competitor.

Unable to stop myself, I shot off a number of texts and emails, explaining that I’d had a ‘medical emergency’ and had to leave.

It wasn’t exactly a lie. I mean, if I hadn’t been quick enough, the medical emergency would have been that I was dead.

Then I explained how we were going to fix this, asking them to work way past a reasonable hour to set up endless interviews the next day. Where Michael would be cool and collected and would clarify what he actually meant. Things like how he wanted to make it easier for blue-collar workers to get further education, about how it didn’t matter how much they worked because there was no getting ahead when the odds were against him thanks to, again, greed.

It would all be bold-faced lies. And anyone who looked into the senator and knew how many big corporations owned him, would know that. But this was the job. Politics were all about spin and promises pretty much no one was ever going to make good on. Because no one politician had as much power as their constituents thought.

I don’t know why I was bothering trying to fix this.

I guess a part of me didn’t want to let the team down. At least not until I got the dirt I needed on the senator.

I’d brought that up over dinner, getting a sigh out of Elian who seemed to think the almost attack would have scared me off my mission.

But it felt even more imperative now that I get the recording. I mean, otherwise, all of this would be for nothing.

And despite what that vlogger, Nathan, claimed, the senator did still have a chance. Polls were either deadlocked, or leaning slightly in his favor just because of familiarity, the fear of the unknown that the other candidate posed.

If I walked away now, he could get reelected. He could go back to the Senate and pass laws that would make it easier for monsters like my attacker’s boss to keep getting away with their exploitation of women and girls.

I couldn’t have that hanging over my head if there was even a slight chance that I could do something about it.

I just… wouldn’t go with the senator anywhere anymore. There were plenty of senior staffers who could go with him to the interviews and feed him his lines. Maybe literally. With a damn earpiece. If he couldn’t stay on brand and topic.

I could claim I needed to be in the office to do damage control. Where I would make sure I was surrounded by as many people as possible.

Just two more days, I promised myself. If, at the end of that, I still couldn’t get it, I could give up. Walk away. Let the chips fall where they may.

Or, I don’t know, go work for the woman running against him, and make sure she won, so he had no power to change laws.

On those thoughts, I drifted off to sleep, sure I would dream of being chased through endless halls by a man who kept gaining on me.

Instead, I dreamed of rolling around in bed with Elian, making me toss and turn, twisting myself up in my sheets, so that I felt like I was being strangled as I tried to kick out of them, then took myself into the hall to take a cold shower before heading into work.