Desolation (New Rochelle Mafia #1)

25. CHAPTER 25

CHAPTER 25

DRAKE

L ighting the last candle, I look around at El’s bathroom. There are candles on almost every available surface. Anthony called up here a short time ago to tell me they were almost finished with El and that we needed to stay out of the way for a bit. That means that whatever she told them was indeed very bad news.

Reba went to her suite and Evan and Gwen left a short time ago too. Gwen pulled me to the side to tell me what Elodie looked like yet again, but also that I needed to make sure Elodie knew what my feelings were. She said Elodie is struggling to come to terms with how I feel, and her own feelings too.

So I’m going to spend tonight making sure she knows.

I hear the suite door open. El calls my name. “In here!” I yell.

She steps into the bathroom and her eyes get wide.

“What is all this?” she asks, warily.

“Just a little welcome home gift. I know how much you love this tub so I figured I’d create the spa experience you didn’t get to have today,” I say. Holding out my hand to her I pulled her into the room all the way.

She looks up at me, biting her lip. I missed her so much. I can’t help myself. I pull her into my body and just hold her close. She’s stiff at first, like she isn’t really sure what’s going on, but finally relaxes.

Tipping her head up, she looks me in the eyes, searching for something. I just look back at her, pouring out my love, my despair, the hurt when I realized she was gone, the terror I felt when we couldn’t find her, and the anger when we found out what had been done to her.

She swallows and then very slowly leans up on her tiptoes and presses a kiss to my lips. She tastes like honey. So sweet. I have waited so long for this and I don’t want to scare her but I growl and lift her up, wrapping her legs around my waist. Walking to the bathroom counter I sit her down on it, keeping her legs around my waist.

This is heaven, it’s everything I have been wanting and waiting for. But I don’t want to push too fast so I try to let her lead as much as I can. Releasing her lips, I tilt her head to the side and pepper kisses down her neck and along her collar bone. She shivers and moans my name. Tilting her head back, I look into her eyes.

They are blown out. Well, at least she is into this as much as I am.

“Don’t think I don’t want to do this, because I definitely do, but I have a plan, and I don’t want the first time we do things to be on the counter in your bathroom,” I say with a groan.

She laughs and it’s husky with desire and my dick gets even harder than it already is.

Her eyes move down to where it’s straining against my jeans. Her eyebrows shoot up. Oh she thinks she’s surprised now, wait till she sees the piercings.

“So what’s the plan you had?” she asks.

“Well first, a bath, in your own products, not whatever he happened to get you there. And I was thinking maybe you might let me join you? No pressure, and we don’t have to do anything. I just want to be close to you, Bug,” I say, voice hoarse.

She smiles and nods. “We can try that.”

I lean down and grab the hem of her sweater and look at her, she nods. Lifting it, I gently pull it off. No bra. Her breasts are small and pert.

Perfect.

The way I’ve always envisioned they would look.

She has scars and bruises everywhere. Gwen tried to prepare me for it, but seeing it in person is a whole different story, and it’s so much worse than when her parents did it. These are layered on top of each other, as if he didn’t let them heal in between sessions. She has cigar burn marks in many places as well. Tilting her chin, she looks at me like she thinks this will be the moment I change my mind, or decide it’s too much.

I lay my forehead against hers and say, “You are the bravest person I know Elodie Matthews, and I will spend every single day showing you how special you are. There will never be a day that goes by where you don’t feel my love for you. There won’t ever be a day when you have to doubt me. No matter what I have to do—walk over coals, broken glass, a hot desert for a thousand miles—you will know my love for you. I will never hurt you in a million years because you are too precious to me.”

Tears softly flow down her cheeks and drip down onto our clasped hands.

“Please don’t ever let me go again?” she asks.

“Never. Never, ever again,” I say.

Pulling her from the counter, I continue undressing her, trying to keep my anger in check. It’s more of the same. I kiss each scar I see. I don’t ever want her to think I don’t love her in spite of them. She is still beautiful to me.

Sliding her panties off I stare at her pussy and my mouth waters. Get it together Drake. You’re supposed to just be bathing her. I can’t help reaching out with a finger and touching the soft curls there.

She gasps a little and then clamps her legs together, as if trying to get some friction. But we aren’t doing that just yet.

I stand and lead her to the tub helping her into the warm water. There are lots of bubbles and she sinks down under them with a sigh. I grab the neck of my t-shirt in the back and pull it over my head. Elodie’s eyes track every movement I make.

Next go my jeans and socks, until I’m standing there in my boxers. She raises her eyebrows as if to say, and those? Here we go, moment of truth. I slowly slip off my boxers, dick popping out to stand freely at attention. Hardware and all.

I think El’s eyes may bug out of her head as she points and says, “What the hell?”

Definitely not the first thing you want to hear the girl you love say when she sees your dick for the first time.

“Listen. I went a little crazy after you left. I wanted to do something to punish myself but also make me feel something. So I got one for every month you were gone,” I say quietly rubbing my hand on the back of my neck.

I can’t tell what she’s thinking. A mask has come over her face and I realize she doesn’t want me to know. I point to the water, asking if I can still come in without having to speak. I don’t trust myself not to ramble like a lunatic right now. I think she just needs a few minutes to process what she just saw.

She nods and I slip in, facing her for now. The last thing she needs while trying to figure out how she feels about the piercings is to have them brushing up against her ass. She leans her head back and closes her eyes.

“You know you are not doing anything with me until at least half of those come out right?” she says suddenly.

Wait, what?

She laughs. In fact she starts to laugh so hard that the water is sloshing around everywhere. Before I know it, she’s gasping for air. “I cannot believe you mutilated your dick like that because I made a choice to turn myself over to save Reba. You had nothing to do with that, Drake, and there wasn’t any way you could’ve gotten me back without a lot of people dying. Who even did that anyway? Was it a woman?” she asks, eyes narrowed.

That’s what she’s worried about? Wait, is she jealous? Why the sudden change? “And what if it was? We’re the ones naked in the tub together. And speaking of that, I honestly didn’t think you would even do this. So why the change?” I ask.

“It was something Gwen said to me. It made me realize that I don’t want to wait anymore. We lost our chance a year ago. Things are going to get crazy again. I don’t want to go into a war without being able to be at your side. Fully. I guess I’m just as crazy as you. So, like you said, we can be crazy together. My crazy and your crazy, sharing a straightjacket,” she says with a laugh.

Standing, I start taking out some of my hoops. I leave five of the six I had for a Jacob’s ladder and toss the rest somewhere in the room, settling myself behind Elodie, finally getting the chance I have been waiting almost ten years for.