His joggers and boxers were gone, and he steered me under the water, tilted my head back, and submerged my hair under the stream. “Let me do this for you.” Ollie grabbed the bottle of shampoo and massaged it into my scalp. “You’ll feel better afterward.”
“I don’t want you to turn yourself in.” It was all I could think about. He would be taken away as well. I couldn’t survive here without him. “You promised me—you and me, remember?”
Ollie grinned and rinsed my hair out under the stream, focusing on getting all the soap out. “I am doing this for you and me.”
“Stay with me, Ollie.”
“I am with you … always.”
No. I wanted to cry, but my body was too weak to do anything. Ollie squeezed soap between into his hands, rubbed them together, then ran his palms over my shoulders, down the length of my arms, and over my back. The warm water beating against my skin loosened my aching muscles, and Ollie’s hands over my bare skin erased the painful memories of Oscar away. He dropped to his knees again, running his soapy hands over my legs and between my thighs, and over my bottom. I held on to his shoulders to keep myself steady.
“Do you remember anything?” he asked me as he gripped the backs of my thighs. “They said they didn’t touch you … Did they touch you?” His hands felt amazing as they came around to my front and up the middle of my thighs. My brain couldn’t think about anything else aside from Ollie’s hands over me. “I’ll fucking kill them.”
“No, I don’t think so.”
Ollie drew in a deep breath and got to his feet. He wrapped a towel around me and propped me against the wall as he finished showering himself. Ollie quickly washed his hair, his body, and rinsed off before turning off the water. He dressed me in a big shirt that hit me mid-thigh.
“I’ll go to your room and get you some knickers,” he said and ripped up my old ones before tossing them in the trash.
We brushed our teeth before walking hand in hand down the hall back to his room. The halls were still empty. Dolor was quiet. He closed the door behind us and stripped his bed completely before I lay back down. He kissed the top of my head. “I’ll be right back.”
My mind was murky—unable to develop a single thought aside from everything Ollie had done for me in the last twenty-nine hours with guilt in his eyes. He’d washed me, the worried look in his eyes the entire time, and I wondered if he was scared to touch me. The last thing I ever wanted to lose was his constant need for me, and I felt it slipping away.
Ollie came back with my blanket and a change of clothes. “We’re borrowing this,” he said through a smile and threw the blanket over the bed beside me. When I didn’t smile, his face fell. “What’s on your mind, Mia?”
“You’re so scared to touch me. Like I’m fragile. I don’t like it.” Ollie took a step closer to the bed and ran his hand through his hair as I continued, “I’ll be fine, and I don’t want you to treat me differently.”
“It’s not that …”
“Then what is it?”
“I’m terrified you’ll leave me.”
“I’m right here, Ollie.”
Ollie shook his head. “No, I’m talking about in here,” he said, pointing to his head.
“Touch me,” I pleaded. It was all I wanted to feel.
Ollie paused over me. His eyes searched my face.
I lifted his shirt I was wearing over my thighs, over my vulnerability, over my stomach.
His lip twitched as his eyes scanned my body.
“Mia …” he whispered in a warning.
“Ollie.”
“Mia.”
“Touch me, Ollie. I need to know you still want me.”
Ollie’s face twisted as he pulled his brows together. “What are you talking about? I always want you.”
“You haven’t touched me since you found out what I did,” I stated as a matter of fact. And it was true. Ollie hadn’t. He’d said whatever had happened wasn’t tainted. But he had yet to touch me, and this engulfed me with insecurity. I needed him to take my insecurity away.
Pulling the shirt back down, I felt like a fool. I rolled onto my side, away from him.
“Nothing has changed.” Ollie rolled me to my back again. “I want you so fucking bad right now, but you were drugged not even two days ago. I’m trying to respect you.”
“Okay,” I muttered and dropped my gaze.
“No.” He lifted my chin, forcing me to see him. “Don’t shut me out.” Then he grabbed my thighs and turned me around in a swift movement, bringing me to the edge of the mattress. “I worship you, Mia.” He lifted my legs and pulled them apart unapologetically. His lust-filled eyes soaked me up like it was a privilege. “What are my limits, love?”
“You have none.”
With sin in his smile, he leaned forward, pulling my shirt up and over my head. I arched my back against him, his body becoming the magnetic pull mine was always drawn to. He withdrew my shirt from over my head and kissed along my jawline before grazing my lips with his tongue. “Just lay here and let me take care of you, then,” he whispered against my lips. My body trembled through each word as he ran a palm over my breast and down my side. “Don’t move, and just feel me.”
Ollie pulled away and stood before grabbing one of my legs. He massaged my foot, to my calf, to my thigh until his thumb brushed my sex. He set my leg down off to the side before grabbing the next leg and repeating the deep massage, giving me everything I didn’t know I needed. He dropped my leg off to the other side before collapsing to his knees. With two handfuls, he grabbed the insides of my thighs while his thumbs massaged around my entrance. “You’re soaking wet. Is that what I do to you?” My hips involuntarily swayed against his movements, and he pinned me down. “Stay still.”
I whimpered as his thumbs continued to tease. Ollie wet his lips, taking one thumb to my knot, making slow unhurried circles, and two fingers of his other hand to keep me spread for him to see all my details. He loved everything about me. And his craving for me drove me to the edge and off the cliff into a land of rapture.
Starting from my entrance, he licked me from bottom to top with pressure, heat, and need before his lips covered my clit, applying forceful flicks against the nerves. Then he went lower to his favorite spot of mine, and the place he knew drove me insane. The spot he did own now, just like the rest of me. But this spot. He showed no mercy as his tongue drove inside, scraping along the walls at my entrance where he branded his name.
Subtle moans escaped him as his fingers caressed and kneaded me around his mouth, stretching me so he could have more—digging me into the mattress, opening me up, feeding on me into climax.
My legs shook uncontrollably as his hands slid up and down both sides of my sex around his mouth until one hand found my knot again. “Ollie,” I whimpered, the sensation mind-blowing, but begging for more. He did it again, and my hips bucked against him. “Hold on a little longer. Don’t let go, baby. I’m not done with you yet,” he said with a smirk and dove back in to do it all over again.
My hands found their way to his hair as I pulled, and pinned him against me in a dire need. Ollie’s moans vibrated deep within me, loving me entirely from the inside out. The feeling of a thousand sparklers lit, pushing me closer, each lick sending me deeper, each suck taking me higher until I finally cried out. But this didn’t stop Ollie. He brought me to the extremity to only to capture it for as long as he can. His eyes stayed on mine as he kept me spread and steady, relishing in my pleasure as I came into his mouth. Each time I pushed his head away because it was too intense, he fought harder against me, driving his tongue deeper, pinning against me harder.
But then he did pull away when he knew he had me reeling in a boundless orgasm. Only he knew how to do this. His pants and boxers were already gone when he stood before me. His lips glistened as he watched me come undone.
“Come her
e,” he breathed, and sat on the edge of the mattress, moving his hands to my hips as he pulled me on top of him. My legs trembled as he wrapped them around his waist. “You don’t have to do anything except hold on to me.”
I wrapped my heavy arms around his neck as I straddled him.
He had complete control of me.
Always.
Ollie pushed my thighs apart as he looked down with hooded eyes. His two thumbs spread me wide as he eased his hard length inside me slowly. Our bodies melted as his eyes screwed shut. “I fucking love that, Mia.” He kissed me. “I literally can’t move for a second … you’re swollen around me, pulsing, thumping. It’s the second-best feeling in the world.”
He grabbed the back of my head, and his mouth claimed mine. Greedy yet gentle, our tongues flowed as I rolled against him. Ollie moaned as his hand ran up my side and grabbed my breast. His other hand grasped my bottom as I circled over him, taking him deeper.
He dropped his head into my neck, and I took advantage of his weakened state and pressed against his chest until he was lying flat on his back. His green eyes scoured my face and body as I slowly rolled my hips against him, taking him deep and sending his head back.
He gripped my thighs. “Dammit, Mia …” he moaned. Ollie tensed as his hands pinned me still, breath held as he pulsed inside me until his body went slack and his eyes clenched shut.
Ollie’s chest reached for air underneath my fingers, and he opened one eye and squinted. “Seven days is too long because that was fucking embarrassing for me.” He chuckled and gripped my wrist, bringing me on top of him. My chest crashed against his, and Ollie moved the hair from my face and looked into my eyes. “I love you, Mia, and I’ll never not want you.”
“What did you mean ‘the second-best feeling in the world’?”
Ollie pressed his brows together as his forehead wrinkled. “I tell you I love you and you’re stuck on that?” I nodded, and he smiled. “The best feeling is the way you look at me.” He shook his head as if nothing he could say would measure up. “The way you look at me makes me feel like I’m someone important, you know? Someone you appreciate, and I’m deserving of you in return. I’m someone you’re in awe of, and that feeling is the best feeling in the world, and I’ll gladly spend forever making sure I’m worthy of that look.”
My flushed cheeks dropped into the curve of his neck. “You read too many books,” I said through a giggle.
He rolled me over to my side and held my waist. “Oh, come on now, love. It wasn’t even a line. It came from my mind.”
“Uh huh … you’re a poet, and you didn’t even know it?”
Ollie laughed. “That was genius … as skilled as my penis …”
“No, you didn’t just say that …”
“Don’t deny it, love, because you can’t get enough.”
“Okay, stop, Slim Shady.”
“Alright, alright, I’m done. That was fun.” He laughed out. “Shit, why can’t I quit?”
Smiling, I pressed my lips to his to help him.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“If reality becomes unbearable, close your eyes.
We were made with an imagination.”
—Oliver Masters
SCHOOL WOULD RESUME from the Christmas holiday in precisely three days. One more day was all I had asked from Ollie before he told Dean Lynch everything. Only one more day. His only plan was telling the truth about what had happened in his room. Truth. Not only would this take away our nightly get-togethers, but this was grounds for punishment for the four of us.
I sound selfish, I know. Our nightly get-togethers didn’t hold a candle to what this could mean for Ollie and his future, but Ollie was very adamant about being an honest man.
“How can I continue to love you if at the end of the day I can’t even love myself?” he had asked me the night before. “And if I don’t do this, Mia, not doing the right thing turns into regret, and regret turns into hate, and the hate will slowly grow into resentment, and I never want hate or resentment to reside in either one of our lives, no matter the outcome.”
And no matter how quickly I could forget what had happened in his room after midnight on New Year’s, I knew this was something he could never forgive himself for if he chose to stay quiet.
It was breakfast time, and Zeke acted strange as he rocked back and forth in his chair. “Ollie will be here soon,” I said to him, trying to ease his nerves, but it didn’t seem to work.
Ollie had gone to visit Bria at the nurse’s station early this morning. Jake and Alicia sat at the old table, and I hadn’t seen Isaac’s face since New Year’s. I couldn’t say I wasn’t relieved.
One good thing about Ollie coming clean: I would never see Isaac or Oscar again.
I couldn’t bring myself to see Bria yet, but there was one thing I never was good at—being there for others when something terrible had happened. Over the last ten years, if someone had a loved one pass away, I’d steered clear of engaging in conversation. Empathy had never been a strong suit of mine, and in my defense, I hadn’t had feelings, so really, I’d been doing them a favor. Though I had feelings now, I’d become socially awkward—never knowing the right things to say. I’d learned words were like swords. Once the words left your mouth, they couldn’t be taken back. They couldn’t be erased. Words, once they were in the air around you, would forever leave marks—imprinting the world.
Sometimes the best things to say was nothing at all.
I lifted my eyes in time to see Ollie turn the corner and enter the mess hall. His boyish grin appeared as his green eyes lit up like they always did when he saw me. Ollie wore his black tee, gray joggers, and Converse. He’d finally had his hair cut at the nurse’s station, so he was able to style it again like he used to.
Ollie took the seat beside me and immediately acknowledged Zeke before pressing his forehead to the side of my head. “Good morning, love.” He kissed my head and squeezed my thigh under the table as I leaned into him. His small gestures were always capable of making my heart flutter inside my chest. “I’m going to get breakfast,” he said before excusing himself.
As soon as Ollie stood, the sight of Dean Lynch walking into the mess hall made the entire room go quiet. Two security guards walked behind Lynch with a police officer to follow. They walked toward us as Ollie followed my gaze and turned around.
“Oliver Masters?” the officer said, and I frantically looked back and forth between Ollie, Lynch, and the officer’s face for any indication of what was happening. My chest tightened, and my flutter turned into a hammer.
“Yes, sir,” Ollie replied, but hesitation clouded his tone.
“This is him,” Lynch confirmed.
“Masters, you are being arrested for the rape of Bria Nielson and possession of an illegal substance. Please turn around and put your hands behind your back,” the officer said, twisting Ollie’s arm and pinning him against the table.
“Dean, I didn’t do this.” Ollie shook his head. “You have to believe me.”
Chaos befell as Zeke broke out into a scream and threw himself out of the chair.
“That wasn’t Ollie! This wasn’t his fault!” I cried out, standing to my feet. One of the guards tried to manhandle Zeke. “Don’t touch him. You can’t touch him!” My brain went haywire. My senses strung out. Zeke’s screams pierced the room, the guard yelled, and the officer threw Ollie into the table.
Lynch averted his eyes from Zeke. “The only thing to help you right now, Oliver, is your cooperation.”
“This is bullshit, and you know it.” Ollie shook his head and looked up at me, the betrayal and shock in his eyes, but he still held on to the tiny bit of strength he had. “Mia, look at me and listen …” My vision fogged as my gaze darted between Zeke and Ollie. “Don’t trust anyone. Keep your head down—”
“No, Ollie …” I said, shaking my head, de
nying this was happening at all.
“Just bloody listen.” He struggled for a bit to give us more time. “Whatever happens, don’t turn it off. You have to stay even when I’m gone, alright?”
“Alright,” I whispered through tears as he flinched under the officer’s applied pressure at his wrist.
Ollie took in a deep breath as he held my gaze. The suffering pricked in his eyes, but it wasn’t the physical kind. This was a suffering I’d seen when he struggled to fight back his emotions. “Close your eyes, Mia.”
I closed my eyes, giving permission for my silent tears to fall. I gripped the table in front of me to keep me steady, and I never wanted to open my eyes again. I knew once I opened them, the reality of all of this would hit, and I would never be ready for it. So, I kept them closed tight, imagining every moment Ollie had created for us. Him and me on a typical Sunday morning. I fought to smell the coffee and feel the sun, the warmth of his body beside mine as he read to me. Us walking a boardwalk hand in hand. The two of us watching the sunrise with our feet in the sand and the salty breeze in my hair. The hot tears spilling down my cheeks was the only constant reminder that if I opened my eyes, none of it was real.
A hand against my back turned me and Jake wrapped his arms around me. I kept my eyes closed as I cried into his chest. “He’ll be okay, Mia.” His hand against my back did nothing to soothe me as he held me tight, attempting to take my pain away, but it was only Ollie who held that power.
And Ollie was gone.
“You need to tell them the truth, Bria. You know damn well Ollie isn’t capable of this.” It was the first time I’d seen Bria since New Year’s, and she lay in the hospital bed, still recovering. Pacing back and forth in front of her bed, I was desperate. She was his only hope.
Bria was as shocked as I was. “Mia … I … I tried telling them. I told them everything I know. One minute I was drinking, the next I’m waking up in the nurse’s station.”
Stay With Me (Stay With Me Series Book 1) Page 31