Page 31

31

ELLIE

The thought of going home has me feeling like I’m standing at the edge of a cliff, looking down at the jagged rocks and the whitecaps on the crashing waves, and still thinking it’s a brilliant idea to plunge to my death.

Flinging myself from the edge of a cliff and onto the jagged rocks below is more appealing than staying in the prison cell they call a hospital one more second.

The cast on my leg feels like it weighs a million pounds as I shuffle out of the cardboard-backed hospital bed and reach for the sterile white and silver crutches, tucking them beneath my arms.

Sean strides into the room as I make my way to the suitcase in the corner. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

I glance at him over my shoulder, tilting to the side as the white rubber foot of the crutch nearly slides out from beneath me. “The doctors said I could leave.”

“Which means that you think you should get out of bed on your own and start to pack?”

He nods to the colorful pile of romance books I’ve gone through in the last three weeks while waiting for the day the doctor finally decided to let me out of this hellhole.

“You were supposed to be working today.”

“And you were supposed to wait for me to come get you.” Sean rolls his eyes and swoops in to pick up the pile of books before I can reach for them. “It’s a good thing I know that you’re always going to do the opposite of what I say.”

“I don’t always do the opposite.”

“I’d like to know one time when it’s not been a life-or-death situation and you’ve actually listened to me,” he says, tone teasing as he takes the books over to the open suitcase and deposits them in the right half.

My stomach twists in butterflies as he reaches for my crutches, fingertips brushing against mine. “You’re the one who made me stay in this damn place. I listened then.”

He pauses for a moment before taking the crutches and looping an arm around my waist to haul me over to the leather chair in the corner.

“Sit down and stay out of my way.”

“And would you look at that, I just listened to you again.” I smirk as I sit, crossing my arms over my chest.

With a snort, he leans the crutches against the wall and gets to work packing the rest of my belongings. “If you’re going to be a smart-ass, I might just let you hobble home.”

“Sounds like it could be a good time.” I twist my leg, looking down at the cast. “I can’t wait until this thing comes off and I can go back to work.”

“You’re not going back to work until your leg is fully healed. I already spoke to your boss about it and everyone is on the same page.”

My eyes narrow as I cross my arms. “Why do you still think you get to dictate my life?”

Sean drags my clothing out of the little white closet near the window and stuffs it into the suitcase before leaning in to kiss me. “Because I love you and I’m not going to have you go back to work too early, only to hurt yourself some more. We’ve been through too much to risk that.”

“There’s still more we’re going to have to worry about.”

He loops a strand of my hair around his finger and gives it a light tug. “I came too close to losing you once, Ellie. I’m not going to be taking any more risks with your life.”

“So, you’re not going to hunt down Noah and kill him, then?”

I fight to keep the corner of my mouth from twitching when he glowers at me.

Even though we’re in a much different place than we were at the start of our marriage, there’s still a lot of growing we need to do.

I love him, though, and he loves me.

Sean zips up the suitcase and puts it on the floor, pulling out the handle. “Ready to go home?”

Grabbing my crutches, I get up and nod.

“Take me home.”

It takes less than an hour for us to get home and for Sean to have me settled in bed, the silk sheets feeling like heaven against my skin after the rough hospital ones I had to endure for the last few weeks.

He moves around the room, dumping my clothing into the laundry basket in the closet before dropping into the bed beside me. “How are you doing?”

“I wish that I didn’t have a massive cast on.” I take his hand, looping my fingers with his as butterflies rapidly beat their wings against the sides of my stomach. “I missed you.”

“Those are words I didn’t think I would ever hear you say.” He pulls me closer to him, his hand tightening around mine.

My gaze drops to the puckered skin of his brand. It’s healing well, but it’s going to be weeks before the skin looks less angry.

“I’m sorry I had to do that.”

“I’m not.” He kisses the back of my hand. “We’re alive right now because you did what you needed to, even if it was hell to get through. I love you more for it.”

“I don’t think anyone has ever said they love someone more after being burned by them.”

Tears leak out of the corners of my eyes, rolling down my cheeks.

Though I’ve had weeks to think about everything that happened, letting it haunt my nightmares and linger in the back of my mind, it feels like we’re still trapped in that warehouse.

At any moment I feel like Noah is going to come striding back through that door, and then he’s going to take Sean away from me forever.

Sean loops an arm around my waist and pulls me into him. “I love you, El. Now, what do you want to do with the rest of the day?”

“I love you too.” I pull my hand from his to wipe away the tears.

His hand skims down the side of my waist, and for a moment, I flinch away from him, heart leaping to my throat.

Sean freezes, not moving the same way he has every time I’ve flinched at his touch. “We’re going to get through this. You know that, right?”

“I know.”

I swallow down the guilt, but it bubbles to the surface again. Turning to him, an idea pops into my head, and though I don’t know if it’s going to work, all I want to do is have my husband close to me, chasing away the monsters that linger in the dark.

“It’s going to be okay.”

“I want you to make me forget about everything. I want to pretend that this is just another normal day and we’re in bed together and we want to be together, and there isn’t this monster looming over our lives.”

His eyebrows knit together. “Ellie, I’ll give you whatever you want, but I don’t want sex to become a coping mechanism for you. It’s not healthy.”

“Sex is just sex, but I do want to forget the feeling of everything Noah put me through. I want to stop flinching when you touch me because you’re not going to hurt me.”

Sean takes my chin in his hand, turning my face to his. “I love you, and you stop flinching when you stop flinching. I don’t think it’s something we immediately need to worry about stopping today.”

My hand drifts over his thigh, and with just the simple touch, his cock is already straining against the zipper of his pants. “It’s not about that. I missed you and by the looks of things, you missed me too.”

Chuckling, he pulls me in for a kiss that sends my heart racing, fingers fisting into his shirt as I try to pull him closer.

Teeth press into my lower lip, drawing a moan out of me and coaxing my mouth open. Sean’s tongue tangles with mine, then he kneels between my legs.

His fingers slip beneath the hem of my shirt. He brushes against my nipples, teasing them with featherlight touches as his lips move down the side of my neck.

I reach for the button on his pants, fumbling to flick it open and shove both the pants and his boxers down his thighs.

Sean gets off the bed long enough to shed his clothing, his cock hard and bobbing.

My tongue darts out to wet my bottom lip as I lean forward and pull off my shirt.

He groans, fisting his cock. “You’re stunning.”

“I’ve got bruises from my bruises that are still healing.”

He hooks his fingers into the sides of my loose shorts, pulling them down my legs, careful of the cast. “You’re beautiful, El. You always have been, and one of the biggest mistakes I’ve made is not telling you that sooner.”

I cup the back of his head as he settles between my legs again, and I pull him in for another addictive kiss.

With a groan, his fingers slide between my legs, gliding through my slick folds to circle my clit. He teases it with firm presses of his fingers, his mouth working down the length of my torso, tongue tracing patterns on my skin.

By the time his tongue finally presses against my clit, I’m writhing on the bed, arousal coating my inner thighs.

His fingers slide into me, pressing against my inner walls harder with each flick of his tongue over my clit.

“You’re so wet for me,” Sean says, his voice raspy as he looks up at me.

When he crooks his fingers, massaging my pussy, fingers going deeper with every thrust, my legs start to shake. A heat builds in the bottom of my belly, warming its way through me as I come.

“You’re so wet for me,” he says, his voice raspy as he looks up at me.

“I need you now.” I rake my fingers through his hair, tugging on the loose strands. “Please. I need you.”

His fingers sink into the thigh of my good leg, hooking it over his hip as the head of his cock slides against my pussy, sending a delicious friction through my body.

I arch up, lips finding his pulse and sucking on it as he sinks into me. My fingers dig into the muscles of his back as they flex.

I moan as his cock stretches me, another curl of heat growing in me as he thrusts into me.

Sean turns his head, capturing my mouth with his. His low growl into the kiss has me aching for him as he drives harder and faster into me.

I roll my hips in time with his thrusts, rocking as much as I can to meet him, though it’s hard with only one usable leg.

He kisses his way down my neck, pulling one of my nipples between his teeth until it’s taut before doing the same to the other.

“Come for me,” he says, his mouth returning to my neck.

His teeth graze against the sensitive spot just below the hollow of my ear, his warm breath fanning out and sending a shiver down my spine.

“I want to feel you come all over my cock.”

My heel digs into his back, urging him to fuck me harder. “More. Don’t stop. Please, don’t stop.”

Sean’s cock throbs as my inner walls pulse around him. He stiffens, burying himself to the hilt. I come hard and fast, riding out the waves of pleasure as his strokes slow, his own orgasm filling me.

With a soft sigh, he pulls out and falls to the bed beside me, looping an arm around me and pulling me as close as he can without disturbing my broken leg too much. His breath fans my sweaty forehead, and he places a kiss to my temple before getting out of bed and heading to the washroom.

When he returns, he has a damp washcloth to clean up between my legs.

He grins and tosses the rag to the side, leaning into me and brushing his lips over mine. “Sun is setting soon. You want to go out to watch?”

“Yes.”

Sean crosses the room and grabs my silk robe from the closet, then helps me into it.

As I reach for my crutches, Sean pulls on a pair of boxers before sweeping me into his arms.

I yelp and loop my arms around his neck, trying to stay steady as he heads for the door. “I could have gotten outside on my own.”

“I know, but I’ve spent weeks without being able to touch you and take care of you.” He sighs and opens the door, lowering me into one of the chairs. “I know we’ve spent a lot of time arguing, but I don’t want that to be the way the rest of our marriage is spent.”

“I think after everything we’ve gone through, bickering is the least of our worries.”

I lean back against the plush cushion of the lounger, glancing up at the orange streaks sweeping against the sky.

He nods and settles down on the chair beside me. “I know, but it’s exhausting. I spend most of my day going back and forth with people. I don’t want to do that at home. We’ve been getting to a really good place.”

“It’s only going to get better.” I lean over and take his hand, kissing the back of it. “And when we have kids running around, it’s only going to get more chaotic, but we love each other and I’m sure we can handle it.”

His eyebrows rise, a lazy smile pulling at his lips. “We’re talking about kids now, are we?”

“Yeah, I guess. If you want them too.”

I roll my bottom lip into my mouth as dusky purple clouds drift across the sky.

“I mean, I’m worried about even thinking about them right now with Noah and his men still on the loose. The Rinaldos could hurt our family if we had one. And is it really fair to bring kids into the middle of it all?”

A thumb drifts over the back of my hand. “We don’t have to worry about it right now. We can take more time to think about having children. I do want them, though. I don’t know how good of a father I’m going to be with Malcolm as a role model, but I’m going to try.”

“You’ll be a great dad.”

The words are effortless, and I mean them. Sean is a better man than his father could have ever hoped to be. He’d loves his family, and he will put them before anything else. He’ll will do whatever he can to protect them.

He loves fiercely, and I know that he’s the man I want to spend the rest of my life with.

Sean squeezes my hand a little tighter. “We’re going to be just fine. You know that, right?”

“I know. I just keep worrying about what happens when Noah comes after us again. I hate this damn war, and it seems like nothing is ever going to change. I should have killed him when I had the chance, and then we would be done with all this shit.”

“We’re hunting him.” Sean gets up and squeezes into the lounger beside me, his muscled frame taking up most of the space as he pulls me closer.

“We’re hunting him.”

“And what if it isn’t enough? He’s going to lie low, and one of these days he’s going to come back. What if we have children by then and he targets them?”

Sean pulls me into a tight hug, his chin resting on the top of my head. “I’ll kill him before he ever gets close enough to put a hand on our kids.”

I nod, listening to the beat of his heart and trying to calm down. “I don’t want to keep talking about the future right now. I just want to enjoy tonight and the fact that we’re both still alive.”

He presses his lips to my temple. “Enjoying right now sounds perfect to me. We’ll have decades to talk about the future.”