“Why? Most women would?” His voice cracks. “I’ve had these dreams since my father died. He wasn’t…He wasn’t…” He stutters. “He wasn’t exactly what you’d call a kind man.” Something tells me that even though he puts up a hard front on the outside, Elijah is just as broken as I was and still am in some ways on the inside. Something else tells me that we me just be what each other needs to keep each other from falling apart. “My mother died when I was twelve. My father lost it after that. He blamed me for her death. You see, I stepped out in front of a car and my mother pushed me out of the way. The car hit her and she died on impact. That’s part of the reason I became a doctor. I sat there in the middle of the street with her wrapped in my arms. I tried to save her, Adelaide. I tried to give her CPR. I tried to pump the life back into her.” His voice cracks and he plops down on the bed. His chest vibrates and I hold him, trying to stop the shaking. “I couldn’t save her, Adelaide. I couldn’t save her and I’ll never forget it. I relive that moment every night in my dreams and I relive the way my father treated me after.” He clears his throat and his gaze drops to his hands. “He used to lock me in a closet. A small, square storage cubby. He used to tell me it was because I was bad, but I knew better. I knew he locked me in there because I reminded him of her. And because I was a constant reminder of the day she died.”
I squeeze his hand. I’ve waited all this time for him to open and it’s strange because now I wish he wouldn’t have. His past was painful. Almost as painful as mine and him bringing up his past reminds me of mine. I choke down a sob and close my eyes. Then I clear my throat and tell him, “It gets better, Elijah. But I can promise you, if you spend all of your time alone. All of the pain and the misery will eat you alive.” I know this all too well. Sometimes I think that Aurora is one of the reasons that I survived my time at Oakhill. I’m confident that if I wouldn’t have met her, I would have succeeded in committing suicide at some point. Or let Damien keep me in a fucked up reality forever. “I’ve had nightmares too.” I’m sure he remembers because he’s witnessed a few of them. “And what was it that you told me?”
He smiles and my heart skips a beat. “That nothing in your dreams can hurt you.”
I open my mouth to say something, but the moment I do, something unexpected happens. Elijah’s lips are on mine. His hands slide up my collar bone and tangle in my hair. He breathes into my mouth and I taste his cool mint breath as his tongue parts my lips.
A bomb has gone off inside of me.
An explosion of want.
It trickles through my bloodstream to the tips of my nerve endings.
And it’s like all of my senses are heightened.
I’m warm. Warm everywhere. And as Elijah’s body presses mine back onto the bed, I feel the desire burning low in my belly. Pretty soon I know my whole body will be up in flames. “Adelaide.” His lips are against my neck and my name comes out muffled. “I want you. I have for months. I just…I just…”
“Shhh.” My lips are against his. My heart is racing. And as his arm snakes around my waist and he presses into me harder, I know this moment is perfect. It’s perfect because we’re just two vulnerable, people with cracked hearts that need healed and broken pasts that need mended.
Elijah’s hand slides up my bare stomach and a series of tingles washes over my entire body. My fingers glide up his arms over the rocky, ridges of his chiseled biceps. His tongue traces a line from my collar bone to my earlobe. I let out the moan I’ve been holding in my throat and he whispers, “You’re so beautiful. And I’ve thought that since the moment you were tossed into my ER.”
I giggle and his lips silence my giggle.
I know we’re not perfect.
We’re messed up in more way than one.
I know we both have issues.
“Kiss me,” I whisper into his mouth and Elijah responds immediately, twirling his tongue around mine and lacing his fingers through my hair.
He lifts his head, gazing down at me, not an ounce of coldness in his eyes. No. There’s nothing but fire in his warm eyes. His thumbs massage my cheeks. “We can stop,” he says. “We don’t have to—”
My lips reach up and caress his.
Softly.
Sensually.
“I don’t want to stop,” I whisper.
“Me neither,” Elijah whispers into my mouth. “I can’t promise that I’ll be able to give you everything you deserve, Adelaide.” He gazes deep into my eyes and his fingers skim my cheeks, tucking strand of black behind my ears. “But I can promise you that I’ll try.”
Yes. We both have issues.
And I know that if we want to overcome all of our issues the only way we’ll be able to do it, is together.
Chapter Twenty Seven
~Before~
The sound of Aurora’s voice rides the coat-tails of the winds as it whips through my hair.
Run Adelaide, run!
I am running.
Even though I have no idea where I’m going.