Elias (GRIT Sector 1)

by Rebecca Sherwin

  “Ah, yes, and you prefer to sleep the day away instead of making the most of sunlight hours.”

  “Yes.” I stood up and wrung out my t-shirt. “Some of us were just left in bed while others were trained to wake up early at military school.”

  “No use playing the neglected child, Trixie.” He shrugged. “Doesn’t work on me.”

  “Anyone ever told you you’re impossible?”

  “I believe I’ve heard that opinion from an annoyance once or twice before.”

  “Charming. Get out. I don’t have anything to wear so I’m going back to bed.”

  He bent down to collect something from the floor, out of view to me. When he stood again, he had khaki coloured trousers and a matching vest-top in one hand, and a pair of running trainers in another.

  “No situation left unplanned for, Ashford.”

  Rolling my eyes, I snatched the clothes off him. “Great, now get out.”

  “And risk you crawling back into bed or using those clothes to scale the wall and escape? Not a chance.” He winked, his mouth twitching again. “Besides, it’s not like I haven’t seen it before.”

  “I hate you.”

  “I’ve heard that before, too.” He looked at his watch then back at me. “The longer you take, the harder I’ll make you work.”

  I decided to gather all the confidence I had, and pulled the t-shirt over my head, taking a second to stand in front of him in nothing but white knickers that had turned translucent during his less than chivalrous wake-up call. Elias looked, like I knew he would. He looked at me like he was a man starved, his eyes scraping every inch of me.

  “Anyone would think you were enjoying the view,” I said, slipping out of my underwear and passing him to collect a new pair from the drawer.

  “They’d be sorely mistaken. I’m trained to scope out flaws.”

  “Are you?” I pulled the new pair on and crossed the room to stand in front of him and continue to dress. “How many have you found here?”

  I shouldn’t have asked. I was asking for punishment. I was encouraging him to ruin all shreds of confidence I’d mustered since the last time he made me feel inadequate. Elias took a step and I froze on the spot, with the trousers halfway up my legs. He took a rough hold of my waist and pulled me into him. I gasped and swallowed, holding my breath as he stared down into my eyes and I felt the hardness of his body coaxing mine to react.

  “None. What I’ve found is bewildering, stunning and tempting.”

  My heart stopped and my stomach sank, eliciting a warm feeling in my core and a hot moisture between my legs.

  “Tempting?” I rasped and swallowed.

  Elias’ eyes never left mine, and they intoxicated me. My stomach tensed with want, my fingers tingled with the urge to touch him—to force my lips to his and see if he gave into the temptation he claimed I presented.

  “Yes.” He nodded, never loosening his grip on me, his fingers digging into my waist. “Tempting. Like the forbidden fruit.”

  “I’m not forbidden,” I whispered. “Maybe I find you equally as tempting.”

  He said nothing, staring down into the depths of my soul as his fingers drew delicate circles on my flesh that made me shiver.

  “Time to work out.”

  Releasing me, he stepped back until he got to the door and reached behind him for the handle. We’d been close; he’d almost given in and I would take it as a small victory. Every day we spent together, each new day that brought another lesson and more tension between us, I saw him cave a little more. I felt his walls beginning to crumble and I would persevere. There was so much more to him than the leader of a vigilante gang, and I would dig deeper and find out. I would explore the reasons for my reaction to him. I would discover our destiny, whatever it was.

  “What do you have planned?” I asked, zipping up the loose combat trousers and pulling the vest over my head.

  “Military circuit.”

  I knew I’d exposed my disdain for physical exercise before I cocked a brow and stared at Elias dumbfounded. He was smirking; he was fully aware of my poor physical fitness and I had no doubt that this session would be for his amusement with no benefits to me.

  “What’s military circuit?” I pulled a pair of socks on, and then the trainers. They weren’t new. “Whose trainers are these?”

  “Yours.”

  “They’ve been used before.”

  “By the maid. She was tasked with breaking them in for you so you didn’t suffer the blisters.”

  “Did she get blisters?”

  Elias shrugged. He didn’t care and he hadn’t asked. “Military circuit is what it says it is. It’s circuit training.”

  “And the military part?”

  “You’re dressed in army colours.”

  I shook my head and stood from the bed, placing my hands on my hips to stare at him. Army colours my arse; he wasn’t telling me exactly what we’d be doing because he would feed off my discomfort.

  “Fine, if that’s how you want to play it.” I crossed the room and place my hand over his on the door handle. Twisting it, I pulled on the door, forcing him to move out of the way. “As if I don’t have enough to piece together myself.”

  “I told you the guilt trip doesn’t work with me. You’re wasting your breath and you’re going to need it.”

  We arrived downstairs and stepped out of the house as the sun began to rise in the distance. I rarely saw sunrise and I paused to watch the sky change, deep reds and vivid oranges bleeding into the lingering blackness of night. I knew Elias wanted to hurry me, but he said nothing; instead he stood next to me and watched it with me. I felt his appreciation for the beginning of a new day, although I doubted it was as rare an occasion for him, and I knew he’d seen a hundred of them from outside the walls of the city.

  “Will I ever get out?” I asked, expecting silence to greet me—to feel a rough hand on my arm to pull me back into reality, or a gruff voice to call me stupid.

  “Who knows?” he answered, his hand softly running along my arm before his slipped around my waist. He dipped lower and edged closer, until his mouth was next to my ear. “I’m going to try.”

  “Try what?” My knees felt weak, trembling with the urge to buckle.

  I was being faced with yet another Elias; a side of him I hadn’t seen before. It was one I liked…this one didn’t sound like he enjoyed being held captive and left to die.

  “I’m going to try and show you the world.”

  A clap in the distance broke us out of our bubble and he dropped his arm as we both searched for the sound.

  “Sounds like someone is starting the champagne early.”

  Through the terror and the knowledge of what I’d really heard, I laughed. I covered my mouth with my hand and giggled like a little girl. It was the adrenaline and the excitement of what Elias had just promised, but I laughed anyway, and I didn’t stop.

  “I love that sound,” he said, before taking hold of my elbow and guiding me down the steps. “Time to stretch out.”

  I could do that. I’d done PE at school, when I hadn’t forged a note from Richard explaining that period pains were crippling me and I couldn’t participate. I’d got caught, of course, so I’d resorted to alternate methods. I skipped the class altogether.

  Elias and I stood opposite each other on the driveway and I followed his lead, stretching when he did, watching as he warmed his muscles up and wishing that he wasn’t doing it that way. I glanced up at the house, at the window to my bedroom.

  “Easy,” he chastised, aware of my every thought.

  It was embarrassing and it was unfair, that he could hide things from me but I had no hope of doing the same. But then, I liked it. I didn’t have to tell him I wanted him to take me back upstairs and perform each of those poses while buried inside me. I didn’t have to tell him I wanted him, that I trusted him although I knew I shouldn’t, that I felt a connection to him—and this GRIT thing—because he knew. Every ball was in his court, relying
on him to be honest with me and let me in, and eventually, when all the balls piled up and he had too many to juggle, he’d have to give me something. Anything. I would be grateful and I would embrace whichever little pieces of himself he offered me. I had a feeling he was worth it.

  “I’m not fit,” I confessed when Elias stepped forward to zip up the hoodie he’d given me. “I don’t know if I’ll keep up or die after the first few steps.”

  “I’ll keep you alive.” He winked, but it filled me with dread. “You’ll be fine. We’ll do a light run first.”

  “Awesome,” I said with a wince. I didn’t want to do this.

  “Ready?”

  “If I say no?”

  Shaking his head, he turned me around, smacked my bum and sent me running ahead of him before he caught up.

  “Find a pace you can keep. Slow to a jog, bend your arms and use them to keep momentum,” he instructed, running easily beside me and visibly dropping down a gear when I slowed. “Keep your eyes ahead and take deep breaths. In through your nose, out through your mouth.”

  “Got it,” I replied, panting already.

  “Slow again.”

  “If I slow anymore I’ll be walking.”

  “Very well.” He looked down at his watch. “We’ll do fifteen minutes.”

  “What?” I looked at him in shock, convinced I wouldn’t make it through fifteen seconds, let alone fifteen minutes. I stumbled, one foot tripping over the other, but Elias caught me before I could fall.

  “Eyes ahead.”

  Rolling them, I did as I was told and looked straight ahead, conscious of Elias running next to me. I was positive he hadn’t even broken a sweat, while I could feel it trickling down my spine and soaking into my vest.

  “So what’s the purpose of this?” I asked when we’d stopped in the meadow and I pulled the hoodie off. “What kind of test are you running?”

  He said nothing, only his trademark smirk reacting to my utterance. His breathing was calm and he wasn’t even flushed, while I was sure I’d turned a beet red and was near death’s door.

  “Lay on your stomach,” he said, clicking his fingers.

  I thought he’d been clicking at me, but when a tall man dressed in all black training equipment emerged from the bushes to hand him two bottles of water, I froze and stared at Elias.

  “What?” He shrugged, tossing me a bottle. “I didn’t want to run with it.”

  “You’re insane.”

  “Perhaps. But you’re disobedient and that’s far more taboo on this estate. On your stomach, Ashford.”

  I wanted the water. I wanted to argue and tell him to fu-

  “Now.”

  I fell to the grass on my stomach, my already restricted breaths huffing as I squashed my lungs between my weight and the ground.

  “Good. Now I want press-ups. Three sets of twelve.”

  I laughed nervously. “I assure you, I cannot do one. Those things are impossible.”

  “Contrary to popular belief, a press-up is not an arm exercise. It all begins in the core and…yours is tight.”

  Oh god. He was toying with me. Was there a purpose of this circuit other than to turn me on while he stood there perfectly composed? He disappeared out of view, but I felt him step over me, and he bent to hold onto my waist.

  “Up on your toes, arms in position.” His fingers flexed when I complied. “Good. Now, stomach tight, head straight, and push…”

  I was exhausted. Every muscle in my body screamed for relief. They burned, like a bath of lava that seeped into my bones and brought me to my knees. Elias had been brutal. After the press-ups he’d demanded sit-ups, squats, tricep things and whatever else was included in military circuit training—Blackwood style.

  All I wanted was a bath. I just wanted to tend to my aching limbs, bring my skin back to some sort of normal colour, and grant my lungs a rest. They burned, too. I coughed like I smoked twenty a-day and my throat was bone dry.

  “You did well,” Elias said, as I laid spread-eagle on my back on the grass.

  “I think you killed me.”

  “I told you I’d get you through it.”

  When I felt the sun that had risen fully and brought the heat of July with it disappear from my face, I opened my eyes. Elias was standing over me, his feet either side, his hands on the dips in his waist.

  “What are you doing?”

  “You see,” he started, bending to grab the neck of my vest. He pulled and my back arched up. “I needed to wear you out.”

  My eyes widened, but I’d taken too much time to relax and I couldn’t make my arms move to push him off.

  “What for?”

  “I get a little restless in the morning. Sure, our workout was fun, but it’s not enough. My appetite has not been satisfied.”

  “What appetite?”

  Dropping to his knees, Elias palmed my breasts, firm hands squeezing and rubbing my nipples to harden.

  “I thought about you in the shower,” he said, his hands lulling me into a false sense of security as my heavy arms came up and pushed at his chest. “I thought about you in the dungeon. I imagined fucking you in front of Sam, forcing him to watch as I violated you like he did his wife.”

  I swallowed hard and raised my hips to try and push him off. It was no good. He was too strong and I was too weak. I’d have had no hope before he’d numbed me with endorphins. I couldn’t decide if I wanted him to touch me. My blood was thrumming in my veins, heating and moving south to tell me I did, but my mind was screaming at me to tell him to stop. To ask him for the safe word I’d refused yesterday. To scream, knowing no one could hear me.

  “Do it,” he growled. “Scream for help, beg me to stop. Try and push me off.”

  I shook my head, my bottom lip trembling.

  “Why? I would do this consensually. You don’t need to do it like this.”

  “But that’s the point, Ashford. I do. You can't charm me like this. It expired with your energy and right now you’re mine. Just like you should be. I shouldn’t touch you. I shouldn’t want you. You’re not mine…but I can pretend you are.”

  “Please…”

  “Are you regretting the times you refused to do as you were told yet? Are you wishing you’d been a good girl so you had something to bargain with?”

  I shook my head as his hand slipped between my legs and dipped into the trousers. He sought my clit out immediately, his fingers diving in deep before I had time to adjust. My hips bucked, but I had no strength in my legs to push hard enough to throw him off. Elias laughed.

  “Go on. I love it.” A slow, torturous plunge brought my attention to how slick I was. How hot and wet and desperate I was despite being afraid of the man in control of my body. “Tell me you don’t. You’re soaked, Trixie. Admit it, you like being overpowered. You like the little bit of fear that comes with being beneath me, with no idea what I’m going to do or how I’m going to use you.”

  “Please…”

  “Please what?”

  I shook my head. I didn’t know what I wanted, I just knew I wanted something. Release. Freedom. Anger. Aggression. Passion. Romance. Love. I didn’t know, I just knew that I wanted him to stop—but I wanted him to continue. I wanted…more.

  “I can hear your thoughts like you’re screaming them through a fucking megaphone.” His free hand reached behind him to tug on my trousers and drag them down my legs. He was so strong, so powerful, he dragged the material along the grass with no help from me. The grass tickled and added to the sensation, bringing an acute awareness to where I needed more of this brute.

  “Give it to me.”

  “What?” he asked, cocking a brow as he dragged my trousers to my ankles and then squeezed my chin in one hand. “Give what to you, Trixie?” He shook his head and smacked my cheek, making my eyes water as the skin stung like I’d been branded. “No, don’t tell me. I don’t care what you want.”

  “Really?” I asked, finally finding the strength to dig my feet into the ground and
grind into his hand. “You think I believe you don’t care?”

  “Shut your mouth before I gag you.” I raised an eyebrow. He’d done that before, and backed out of that, too. “Don’t challenge me. You have no say here.”

  He was angry. His words bit into me as my clit throbbed against his thumb and hooked fingers stroked deep inside me where a storm was rolling in. Elias shoved his fingers in my mouth, pressing my tongue flat and ignoring the retches that left me and threatened to choke me.

  “See? No say.”

  I couldn’t breathe and the panic set in. I tried to draw a breath through my nose, but it made me choke. I tried to beg him to stop, but another retch worked its way up instead and coated his fingers with saliva. My chest heaved and my stomach roiled, threatening to cave beneath his control. My eyes streamed, and my saliva trickled back down my throat, making me cough. I was going to be sick. I couldn’t control it. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to relax, but he was everywhere. His mouth bit my breast through the cotton keeping me safe and I tried to cry out. His fingers drove in and out, and I tried to close my legs. My toes curled in the grass and my heels dug deep. My legs twitched and quivered, my back tried to arch and my core tightened until I thought it would implode. Elias laughed, a sick twisted laugh that told me so many things I couldn’t process with a painful orgasm building and creeping into my bones. It surged into me, stealing my soul from wherever it had hidden while Elias owned me. I felt like I was exploding into a million tiny pieces, none of them able to breathe, all of them feeling unconsciousness slip in. My body pulsed, my nerves convulsed and my head became light as another retch rippled up my throat. Elias finally let me free and I turned my head to the side to throw up.

  “See how close pleasure and pain are?” he asked. “How can anyone be sick while they’re coming?”

  I didn’t know. All I could concentrate on was trying to breathe, spluttering and coughing as I tried to take a deep breath before I was reminded that I’d been close to drowning in my own saliva. My eyes and nose streamed, sweat dripped from me in thick droplets and my stomach quivered with pleasure and pain. I couldn’t decide if I was in heaven or hell. I was done. My eyes rolled and my head lolled to one side. I could see through blurred vision as Elias crouched to look at me, slapping my cheek to keep me conscious. Then I heard the sound of his zipper and he turned me over to lie on my stomach, without even raising his body from where it claimed mine. The grass burned my hips, the dirt scratched my legs and my face was pressed into the ground as he slid lower and jerked my hips up. I heard him spit and I felt my body react as he rubbed it into me, dipping his finger in and twisting until my blood stirred from a simmer to a raging boil.