Savior

by Jessica Gadziala

  "Baby, I don't think this is the time or place for this. You've had a rough night. You're tired. Let's just let this go for right now."

  "Tuesday night," Edward said to her, but also to me as well, then turned and left the room. No hug for his daughter. No hoping she felt better soon. No offer to be a call away should she need anything.

  I wondered how Elsie came out of his house as she did. She was warm and sweet and affectionate. Even when she was riled, she didn't pull that holier-than-thou attitude her father wore like a shield. Was it her sister that pulled her through? Those two had definitely seemed like they'd had a strong bond if the way she had spoken about her was anything to go by. If that was the case, she must be especially hurting to have had that bond ripped from her a couple hours ago.

  She still had Roman though.

  As much as I wasn't exactly thrilled about her best friend being a guy who was admittedly in love with her, I understood the situation. I trusted her. I didn't need to trust him. And he was good for her. They had history. He was like family to her. Now, with her sister gone and her and her dad on the outs, she needed that more than ever.

  Granted, I planned on sharing my crazy family with her: my mom, sisters, aunts, grandmother, as well as Breaker, Alex, Shooter, and Amelia. But I knew that wasn't the same, at least not at first. Maybe down the road she could see them that way.

  Christ.

  Was I really thinking things like 'down the road'? With regard to a woman?

  Seemed like I was.

  A couple minutes later, the door slowly opened and into the doorway stepped Roman, as if my musings about him had somehow summoned him. He had on slate gray slacks and a deep blue dress shirt, his hair mussed like he had been raking his hands through it. And, judging by the tightness of concern around his eyes, I imagined that was exactly what had happened.

  "Else..." he exhaled her name as he looked at her.

  Elsie looked up, a strange, humorless smile on her lips. "Let me guess... Dad called you."

  "Else, why didn't you call me?" he asked, looking like he wanted to cross to her, but either my presence or her uncharacteristic coolness was keeping him just inside the door.

  "It's late," she went with, though we all knew what a bullshit excuse that was.

  "Hey, babygirl," I called and she looked over at me and, if I wasn't mistaken, it was almost reluctantly. What the fuck was that about? "I'm gonna go to the hospital pharmacy and fill your scripts. You guys talk. I'll be back in twenty."

  Walking past, I clamped a hand down on Roman's shoulder. His head turned to me and I could see he understood the meaning: figure out what is wrong with our girl.

  With that, I took the scripts and headed toward the pharmacy.

  When I got back the promised twenty minutes later, Rome was on the bed beside Elsie, his hand on her knee. She was curled slightly into herself, but had rested her head on his arm. When she looked up, she seemed almost shocked to see me. Feeling unsure, and not liking it one bit, I held up the bag, shaking it slightly so the pills jiggled in their containers.

  "They discharged her," Roman provided, releasing her knee and moving to stand. "Talk to you for a minute?" he asked, but it was a demand seeing as he moved past me and out the door.

  "Here, baby," I said, handing her the bag before following Roman out.

  "What's up?" I asked as the door clicked closed.

  He moved a couple steps down the hall so, presumably, Elsie wouldn't hear us. "She thinks you're going to dump her."

  "What?" I said, a little too loudly seeing as two nurses across from us at the desk jumped. I gave them an apologetic smile then turned back to Roman. "Say that again."

  "She said you're being weird and she thinks this was too much, too soon for your relationship and she was pretty sure that when you left to go get her meds that you were just saying that and weren't going to come back."

  "Fuck," I sighed, running a hand down my face. That explained it. She was being distant and quiet because she didn't want to lean on someone she thought was going to try to shrug her off. "Did she tell you everything that happened tonight?"

  "Pretty much word-for-word. Can't believe Elana stole from me."

  "Elana stole from you?" I asked, brows drawing together.

  Roman snorted a little. "Guess she hasn't filled you in on all the juicy details yet. I had a shipment of cold medicine go missing a little while..."

  "Got it," I said, nodding. Didn't need more than that. Any idiot could see they were cooking meth in that warehouse. And everyone knew the main ingredient in meth was pseudoephedrine which was what you found in cold medicine. "Christ..."

  "Yeah. So you need to get your ass back in there and make it clear you aren't leaving her. If I get so much as a whiff of you not doing what you should be doing to get her through this, I have no problem stepping back in. She deserves someone who will treat her right."

  "I feel you," I said, nodding. Maybe a lesser man would have been pissed. He had outright just declared that if I slipped up, he planned on stealing my woman out from under me. But, that being said, no woman could be stolen if she was being treated right. So if I ever lost Elsie to Roman or any other man for that matter, it was my own fault. I had no right to be angry that someone else picked up what I had put down.

  "Good. Now go get her home. She won't say it, but she's hurting and she needs sleep."

  "You're a good man, Rome. I'm glad she has you in her life," I said. And I was. I hoped to fuck there were more men like him out there, men my sisters could come across and settle down with, men who would do the right thing even when there was nothing in it for them.

  Rome nodded and turned away and I felt a small stab of regret for being a dick to him that night he admitted he loved Elsie.

  But I didn't have time for that.

  I had to get my woman home and show her that I had no intentions of going anywhere anytime soon.

  Nineteen

  Elsie

  "Really, I can undress myself," I said, wiggling out of his hands.

  Okay.

  I didn't know if it was something Roman said to him or what, but the second he stepped back into my hospital room, whatever tension and distance I had sensed in him was gone. Evaporated. I almost started to question if it had ever been there at all, if it was just a figment of my over-fried brain.

  He'd sat down on the bed beside me, slipping an arm around my lower back, then one under my legs, pulling them gently until they went over his thighs and the good side of my face rested against his chest. His lips pressed down on the top of my head and his arms wrapped me up.

  "They probably want this room emptied," I said a couple of minutes later of us doing nothing but sitting there cuddling in silence.

  "They can wait, baby," he said softly and I felt a shiver run through my insides.

  "My ribs hurt," I said next when I couldn't take the silence.

  To that, I felt him nod as he slowly released me. "Okay. Let's get you home then," he said and then proceeded to do just that.

  Which put us in my bedroom. I had kicked out of my shoes and used the toes of each foot to shimmy off the socks of the other. When I reached for my shirt, though, Paine's hands pushed them away and reached for it himself.

  "I know," he said, then pulled the material gently up, waiting for me to lift my hands so he could get it off me.

  I really could undress myself. While my arms and palms were wrapped, they had left my fingers mostly uncovered so I could do basic things to take care of myself.

  The air of my room made my skin prickle and when Paine's fingers whispered down the center of my belly toward my pants, well, let's just say... my libido didn't get the message that it had been the shittiest day to end all shitty days and I was hurting all over and couldn't have sex. All that horny bitch realized was how good it felt to have Paine's capable hands on me. His eyes went up to mine as he started to pull the material down, eyes light, almost as if he knew
where my mind was going.

  "Breathe babygirl," he said as my pants pooled around my ankles.

  I sucked in a hollow breath and Paine's hand moved to rest gently over the huge purple and blue bruise covering part of my belly and side. "It's okay," I said, reading the darkness that shuttered his eyes.

  "Elsie, it's not."

  "Well it's not okay okay, but I'm alright. And it's not your fault," I added, needing to get it out there, despite standing in the middle of my bedroom in nothing but my bra and panties and feeling way too tired for a relationship conversation.

  "Elsie..."

  "It's my sister's fault. D doesn't work for you. D didn't even know I belonged to you. To him, I was just some random chick. He didn't know El was my sister either. It was just... a bad situation. Maybe if I hadn't hit him..."

  "Tomorrow morning, I'm running out and getting you pepper spray, a tazer, a cat-shaped stabbing weapon for that janitor's key chain of yours and a mini expandable baton. Then as soon as you're all better, I am teaching you some basic self-defense. When you get good at that, I am dragging your ass up to Hailstorm and they are going to give you the royal treatment."

  "Hailstorm?" I asked, brows drawing together. I was pretty sure Hailstorm was the name of that weird storage-container community up on a hill with their guarded gates and dogs and stuff. I was also pretty sure they were just a bunch of survivalist freaks who thought the apocalypse was imminent or something like that.

  "Yeah, Hailstorm. Hard to explain. They're like a lawless military. Most of the people there are ex-military. Those who aren't, have just as good of training. They can teach you the shit you'd learn in basic, but they can also get you up to snuff on things like Krav Maga and street fighting."

  "I really don't think..."

  "Enzo let your sister go, baby. I know you love her and no matter what happened tonight, she's still family to you. But we can't say she's not a threat. We also can't say for absolutely certain Third Street isn't a threat. I'll be taking better care of you from this point on out, but I'll breathe easier knowing you can handle yourself when I'm not around. Besides, it's a good workout. We can spar together."

  Now, as a woman who has dated men who generally showed their feelings with flowers, jewelry, or even nice vacations, I had to say, nothing... no diamond earrings, no three dozen white roses, no trips to Fiji... nothing ever gave me the warm, gushy feeling in my stomach as what Paine just offered me. Maybe because jewelry and flowers and beaches didn't mean anything. It meant something that Paine wanted to keep me safe, to teach me to protect myself, to offer to train with me toward that goal.

  "What?" he asked, watching my face, his lips tipping up and I realized I was doing the goofy smile I usually reserved for looking at his drawings in the morning... alone.

  "I just... I really like you, Paine," I admitted with a small shrug.

  His smile softened and his hand slid up my belly, between my breasts, then landed at the side of my neck. "I like you too, babygirl," he said, leaning down and planting a chaste kiss on my split lip. Then his hand slid back down and around my back, unclasping my bra.

  "Paine!" I yelped as I tried to hold the cups to my chest.

  "Seriously?" he laughed, shaking his head. "You're gonna be shy now? I've seen your tits before, baby. I've had them in my hands and mouth."

  "Oh my God, stop," I begged.

  His smile went a little wicked as he reached out and moved the straps of my bra down my arms, tugging when I didn't release the cups, completely exposing me, my nipples hardening against the cool air. As soon as the material fell to the floor, he reached behind his back, pulling off his shirt and tossing it to the side before reaching to unfasten his jeans. And, well, his near nudity was doing nothing to help the need I felt building low in my stomach.

  "Now we're even," he said, standing in front of me in nothing but black boxer briefs that were doing nothing to disguise the hard-on he was sporting that made my sex clench hard in anticipation.

  "I... ah..." I mumbled, shaking my head and looking away.

  "Hey," he said, putting his thumb and forefinger under my chin to make me face him again. "Baby relax. It's gonna be a while before I can fuck you again and I'm fine with that."

  "Obviously," I said, waving a hand toward his crotch.

  "Looking at you, being close to you, especially when you don't have anything on, baby, that's gonna happen. But nothing will be happening until your ribs at least get a couple days of rest. That being said..." he trailed off, his devilish smile spreading as his hands moved down to cover my breasts. An involuntary moan escaped me as his thumbs stroked over my nipples until they were so hard they were almost painful.

  "Don't," I said, finally finding my voice.

  "Why not?"

  "Because it's uneven," I reasoned.

  "Elsie, look at you. You got beat to hell tonight. Look at me, I'm good. So I think it's pretty much my job to try to help you... feel good too..." he said, his hands moving down my belly and sliding his fingers into the waistband of my panties, pausing for a second before pushing them off my hips.

  "Paine..."

  "Bed baby," he instructed, walking me backward toward it.

  "You don't have to..." I said, sliding carefully up onto my spot on the bed, wincing a little before I settled on my back, Paine's body moving over me, but not touching me at all, supported by his hands and knees.

  "Nope. Want to," he corrected, lifting to balance on one palm as his other hand moved lower, his finger sliding up my slit to stroke over my clit, making my legs fall open in invitation as I struggled to breathe through the mix of pleasure and the pain that prevented me from getting enough air.

  His body shifted lower, kissing down one of my inner thighs before he shifted inward slightly and his lips closed over my clit, sucking it hard and making my whole body shudder. He hummed a "Mmmm," around me and it was almost enough to make me come right then and there. His finger moved downward, slipping inside me and turning to work over my G-spot as his tongue moved out to lavish over my clit.

  It happened fast, faster than I ever usually got off from oral, likely due to an over-tired mind and over-wrought body. His tongue had barely started working me when the tension got tight and snapped, sending a hard pulsating orgasm through me, making me cry out as my inner thighs started to shake. Paine was unrelenting through it, working my clit and G-spot harder and faster, drawing every last drop of pleasure out of me before he removed his finger and took his tongue away. He leaned up, planting a kiss at the triangle above my sex before moving up my body.

  He settled onto his side beside me, reaching down to snag the blankets and cover our bodies. Finished, he settled down with me, one arm draped low on my hips, the other under my pillows. And then he leaned slightly over me and rested his head on my chest above my breast.

  "You can't sleep on your side tonight and I like being close to you when I sleep," he explained as one of my bandaged hands went across his back, the other settled on the side of his neck.

  I liked being close to him when I slept too.

  So even though his weight was making it even harder to breathe, I fell asleep quickly to his warm breath on my chest and my arms around his strong body.

  And as I drifted off, I was all-too aware of a small little feeling that started in my chest, right under my ribcage, and spread outward until it enveloped my entire body. And that feeling was: right. Being with Paine, even after the worst night of my life, it felt right. It felt like it was where I was supposed to be.

  Twenty

  Elsie

  Sunday, I woke up alone like I did every morning. The only difference would be that the past two mornings I woke up alone but only because Paine was downstairs brewing coffee and making me breakfast. I learned this after waking up on Friday morning alone, achy, feeling whiny and pathetic. And when I reached for the bedside table for my sketch, it wasn't there. Now, despite the good ending to the shitty night before, my
mind immediately went to the worse case scenario, making me throw the blanket over my head on a tear-less sob and wallow in my painful self-pity.

  For all of, say, three minutes before I heard something clang down on the nightstand and the blanket got peeled back from my head. "You gonna come out of there to eat or am I going to have to get creative here?" he asked, moving to sit down beside me.

  There was no ignoring the squeezing sensation of my heart in my chest when I looked up into those perfect light green eyes in that perfect chiseled face of his and realized he hadn't left me, that I was being a worrywart for no good reason.

  "Eat?" I asked, my belly doing a painful twisting thing due to not having any dinner the night before and, no doubt, taking the prescribed pain medicine on an empty stomach.

  "French toast," he offered. "And a side of fruit so you don't feel too guilty," he added with a smile as I moved as quickly as my screaming side would allow to sit up against the headboard.

  "Gimme," I said, holding out my hands to him, fingers opening and closing rapidly in excitement.

  Paine chuckled, grabbing the tray and putting it on my lap. Looking down at my tray stacked with four pieces of powder-coated deliciousness, a bowl of cantaloupe, strawberries, and grapes, and a cup of coffee made just how he knew I liked it, I almost felt a little teary-eyed. Almost. Okay, not almost. There was some definite glistening.

  When I looked up at him to thank him, the sexy little smile he had on made the words slip away. "What?" I asked, wanting to be in on whatever was giving him that look.

  "Glad we're over that bullshit shy thing," he observed and it was in that moment that I realized I had sat up in my bed completely freaking shirtless and the blanket was pooled around my waist. What can I say? I almost never went to bed naked. It hadn't even crossed my mind to cover up because I usually just... was covered up in the morning. "Don't," he said, shaking his head like he knew I was going to try to figure out how to move the tray whilst simultaneously try to cover my breasts... all with sore, wrapped hands and arms. "If it's a thing, I'll head back down..."