Page 32

Chapter Thirty-One

Ronan

The way that Elias stared at me made me feel like he meant his words, but the fear of being a lie tightened my chest and twisted my gut. I had to believe him. I couldn’t accept anything else. Not now.

I pulled away from the embrace and smiled softly, lifting his chin to me. “Hey. C’mon Mon Pur. Let’s get you cleaned up. Yeah?”

Elias was filthy, covered in come and sweat alike. His hair was a mess, and it looked like he was tugging it while I was showering. I hated the turmoil in his eyes. I wanted to relieve his stress. Tell him he could have both his faith and me…but could he?

I didn’t know the answer. I didn’t think there was one. Were priests ever…married? Happy? In a relationship? Take away the fact that I was a man, adding more sin. I wasn’t sure if there was a history of priest marriages. The idea sounded ridiculous, but I made a mental note to find out if that information could be accessed.

“Yeah…I think that would help. Thank you.”

I don’t know what compelled me to do so, but I scooped him up like my body wasn’t still recovering from an attack just weeks before. I held him like a damn bride and walked him all the way to the shower. He was silent, but a slight smile was pulling at the corners of his delicious lips.

When I sat him on his feet on the damp tile of the shower, we stared at each other for a moment. I was waiting for him to tell me to leave and ask for space from my presence. But he didn’t.

Carefully, I pulled his shirt off, slowly undoing the smooth buttons just like I had done earlier tonight. His breath hitched, and my own was shaky.

This wasn’t about sex. Nakedness. Nothing but caring for him.

His shirt slid off his shoulders and fell to the shower floor. Next was his pants. Slowly and carefully, I repeated the process of unbuttoning each loop and letting them drop down his thighs.

“Is this okay?” I said, leaning forward to lay soft kisses on his tense shoulders.

He didn’t respond, just nodded slowly. So I turned on the water spray and grabbed the bottle of shampoo. His soft curls slid through my fingers as I foamed up the shampoo in his strawberry links and massaged his scalp.

The water felt warm, creating a steam that billowed around us. My towel was soaked, struggling to hold onto my hips, but I wasn’t going to be naked right now. This wasn’t about me. It was about Elias.

“Hold on to me,” I said, grabbing the body wash and squeezing it into my hands. He hesitated for a moment, his bright blue eyes roving up my body and onto my shoulders. I smiled at him, my lazy grin spreading across my face in a relaxed, easy tone.

“I don’t bite, baby,” I said and paused, his beautiful face making me laugh out loud.

His body still had red teeth and marks lining his sides, neck, and thighs. “Okay. I won’t bite. This time. Promise.”

He still hesitated, his hands suspended in the air as he warred with his thoughts.

“I will be on my best behavior. Mon Pur. Let me clean you. Please, I just want to take care of you.”

Finally, he sighed, placed his hands on my shoulders, and closed his eyes. I got to work soaping up his body without waiting for him to move. Despite my best efforts, every line of his body made me hiss, and he groaned in response.

I was quick about it, trying to show my respect for the action and speed. His caged cock was swollen. It looked red from being stuck in the fucking jail of chastity for so long.

“Elias,” I said softly. “Please take that thing off. You don’t have to keep punishing yourself.”

He sighed, and I could hear the weight of the world in that sound. It was like the collars were falling off his shoulders, and the robes disintegrated at our feet. Everything was said in that sigh. Everything he couldn’t voice. Relief .

“Okay…my key is inside the cross. I suppose it is only right for you to have it.”

I smiled and pulled him forward with his arms to my lips. He kissed me back, and before I got breathless and ruined the sweetness in the moment, I left him in the shower, taking off at a sprint to the crucifix in the center of the room.

It took me a while to find the hidden entrance, the wood being splintered and rough to touch. My body and towel were sopping wet, and the river I left in my search felt like parting the seas. Finally, I found my treasure, a small groove embedded into the wood hidden away from peoples’ eyes.

It was his key.

I had the key to his cage, and he had the key to my heart.

When I returned with my prize, Elias was standing in the shower like before. He looked refreshed. His hair was falling in waves around his face, the length much longer than I used to. His stubble was longer, too, and it took away all his boyish look, showing the man hidden behind it all.

“Arghh,” I said, staggering up to him, my back hunched, squinting my eyes like we used to do as kids.

He looked at my ridiculous posture and cracked up. His smile was brighter than every candle’s flame and every sun in the sky. He was radiant. He was mine.

“What are you doing, dork?” he snorted, shaking his head.

“I found the greatest treasure of all. A key, matey! Shall we see what it opens? Perhaps some booty?”

He responded with a full belly roll of laughter, and I loved seeing him so free. His cock bounced with his laughter, and the cage made a soft sound from the droplets of water raining down onto the metal.

“May I have the honors, First Mate?” I said, suddenly serious, as I stepped inside the tiled floor again.

The heat radiated off the walls and his body. He swallowed and took a moment before answering.

“Yes. The honor has always been yours.”

I held back tears at that omission and got to my knees before him. I felt so vulnerable like this, my knees bitched at the pain from the biting hard texture of the shower, but it was a pain I welcomed. Elias watched me with bated breaths.

The key was small, swallowed in the mass of my palm. I stared at it, turning the object in my fingertips before nodding and bringing it toward the metal. Elias was breathing heavily as my hands gripped his cock in my hands, holding it steady as the key entered the lock.

Click.

A soft click sounded in the distance, but to us both, it felt like a gunshot. I exhaled a breath I didn’t realize I was holding. The metal separated, opening to reveal his beautiful swollen length in my hand. I was mesmerized.

The cage made him so cramped in its confinement, but open like this…he was spreading out. His cock hardened with freedom.

He groaned, and I worked carefully, undoing the contraption and slowly pulling the rod free from his urethra. The pain he must have endured. It was confusing why he would subject himself to that.

“You were worse,” he said, and I paused, looking up into his kind eyes. “Refusing you and what you did to me. It was worse than the pain of being bound.”

Understanding clicked into place, and I nodded, leaning down to place a kiss on his soft, uncut flesh. He moaned when my lips connected with his body. The sound vibrated off the walls of the shower, and I lost my breath in another realization.

I want him in my mouth.

I couldn’t ask that of him. I couldn’t press the boundaries of his already fragile state of being. He was still processing everything that happened in the car. I had to behave as I promised. I had to behave. I just needed to let go of his dick and stand up. That was what I needed to do.

Any minute now.

I was frozen in this state, my body refusing to move, not pushing for more, but also not willing to relinquish the hold I had.

Just when I finally decided to get up, respect his space, and be true to my promise, he moved.

One minute his cock was in my hand, just lying thick and hard in my palm. The veins throbbing, vibrating with newfound freedom. The next, he was thrusting his hips forward.

Slamming his dick deep down my throat.