Yours to Protect
1481 Words
“I’m sorry.” Elizabeth kissed him lightly on the cheek and he turned so his lips brushed momentarily against hers. “For what it’s worth, this has helped me a lot. I don’t blame you anymore.”
Sawyer stood up and moved to look out of the window.
“Can I help with your research? It would mean a lot to me if I could help you with something. I think I can really help.”
“Alright. You can help. I can’t say no to someone with supernatural abilities when they could help bring closure to families missing their loved ones. And I might want to spend more time with you.”
“Thank you.”
She could see he wanted to say something else and wished that she could read his mind the way he could have read hers.
He was still facing the window, so she walked over to him and rested her hand on his shoulder.
“What do you need to say?”
“I don’t want to put pressure on you, Elizabeth.”
“But?”
“But I can’t sleep with you again if you don’t feel anything for me. The feelings I have afterwards are way too intense for that. When my pack finally cast me out, it was because I wasn’t interested in anyone else. It meant I wasn’t able to continue my bloodline, and my father took a younger mate. When she gave him a son, I became completely worthless to them.”
“That is a lot to put on someone you met yesterday.”
“I met you seven years ago, Elizabeth. And when I did, it felt like I had known you forever. I understand how difficult this must be for you, but for me you are everything.”
“Are you seriously telling me you didn’t sleep with anyone else for seven years?”
“I pour my heart out and that’s what you focus on? Yes, if you must know that is the truth. I’m 31 and until yesterday I hadn’t been with anyone since I was 24.”
“I find that really hard to believe.”
“Well it’s the truth. I did have plenty of experience before I first saw you, I’m not learning everything for the first time. But when my kind form that bond, we don’t want anyone else.”
At last he turned away from the window and looked at her.
“I just needed you to know. I understand you’ll need time to think about this.”
“No.”
“I understand.”
“I mean no, I don’t need to think about it. I haven’t felt like this about anyone before. I haven’t felt as alive as this - ever. I do feel something for you.”
“You do?”
“I’ll never understand the feeling you had when you first saw me, but I know that if I don’t give you a chance I will regret it.”
He kissed her. It felt almost desperate, and she responded in kind. She found herself underneath him, lying on the couch. His hands were underneath her shirt, pushing the fabric up above her breasts so he could kiss the soft skin of her chest and stomach. A pleasant shiver ran through her body as she pushed down her pants so he could kiss lower.
He froze.
“Is everything OK?” Elizabeth was concerned.
“There’s someone here.”
“In the apartment?”
“No.”
The doorbell rang.
She ignored it and wrapped her legs around him, pulling him back close to her and kissing him again. She hoped she had made it clear to him that she had no intention of answering the door right now. The doorbell rang again. She pulled off his shirt. Her hands ran across the scars on his back and she felt a pang of regret knowing many of them were a result of him being mistreated by the people he had once loved. It made her want him more.
Whoever was at the door was knocking now – it seemed urgent.
“Do you know who it is?”
“It’s a guy, and he’s in his late twenties or early thirties. That’s all I can tell you.”
“f**k it. I’m going to tell them to leave me alone before they knock the damn door down. Get upstairs, I’ll be there as soon as I make it clear to this asshole I’m not in the mood for visitors.”
She opened the door and froze when she saw the familiar face on her doorstep.
“Matt. What the hell are you doing here?”
"Where the hell is it?"
“What are you talking about? Where is what?”
He didn’t answer, he just pushed past her. She hit the wall behind her as he stormed up the stairs towards Elizabeth’s bedroom. The room she had shared with him for four long and boring years.
She ran up the stairs after him, trying to catch him before he got to the bedroom, but before he got there he found his way blocked by Sawyer.
He was taller than Matt, and he hadn’t put his shirt on after Elizabeth removed it minutes earlier. There had been no reason to.
“Who the hell is this guy?” Matt sounded incredulous, and angry.
“That’s none of your business. Get the f**k out of my home. I don’t give a f**k what you think I have, you leave now or you regret it.”
“What are you going to do, set this jock on me? Am I supposed to be intimidated by those scars, pretty boy?”
Elizabeth saw a flash of anger in Sawyer’s eyes and it scared her a little.
“Matt, I suggest you calm the hell down, and get out.”
Sawyer took a step forward. Matt moved backwards. He would never admit it but he was intimidated by the larger man.
“This is your ex-boyfriend?”
He wasn’t an unattractive man, but he was nothing more than plain. He was pale to the point of pasty – Elizabeth was paler but somehow Matt looked sickly where she looked ethereal. He had dull mousey brown hair and his eyes matched.
Sawyer relaxed visibly. Elizabeth didn’t need any special senses to see how obviously threatened Matt was and it obviously helped keep Sawyer calm.
“Matt, I don’t want any trouble. Tell me what you’re looking for.”
He backed down. He was stuck now – Sawyer was blocking him from getting up the stairs, and Elizabeth was two steps below him so he couldn’t get back down.
“My grandmother’s engagement ring.”
“I don’t have it. I never did, and you know that. You can check wherever you think you left it, but it’s you who packed up your things and I never touched it.”
“Let me past.” He directed the command at Sawyer, who didn’t move. He looked instead to Elizabeth.
Just let him past. I’ll give him less than five minutes, if he’s still here then he’s watching me go down on you.
He smiled politely and let Matt pass him to get to the room. Elizabeth climbed the remaining stairs herself.
“You’re not even remotely self-conscious, are you?”
“I have nothing to be self-conscious about. Do I?”
“Definitely not.”
There was a sound of glass smashing in the bedroom.
“The whiskey…”
“Even I can smell that. Can you go get some paper from the kitchen for me?”
He rested his hands on her waist, sliding them down to her hips and stepping towards her so they were only inches apart.
“I’m not leaving you for one second while he is here. You’re mine to protect now.”
Her mind flashed back to that morning, before she knew the truth about him.
“Please, I’m begging you.”
“Tell me you’re mine.”
“I’m yours. I am completely yours. I’ll be yours for as long as you want me to be.”
- Writer
