Tainted (erotic) (#2, 101 Nights)

Chapter Four: Natalie

I can’t stop shaking. I know I shouldn’t be. I know this is nothing like the other day when I was mobbed by the press.

But I can’t help the panic building inside me once again, the memories of being trapped beneath bodies and being kicked. I thought I was going to die that day, and I can’t escape the feeling it might happen again.  

Elijah’s dark eyes steady me, his intensity comforting, like a cocoon around me that I’m clinging to desperately. The pad of his thumb slides across my lips and rests beside my mouth while his index finger beneath my chin keeps me from ducking my head like I want to.

“I am the master of our world,” his velvety whisper is soft. “Do you understand?”

I nod.

“There’s nothing between you and the world but me. No one else who can take care of you like I can. You have to trust me, Natalie. Completely. Starting now.”

I swallow hard. My mouth is dry. I can’t speak, even if I wanted to. This time, there’s no small voice in my head telling me it’s okay to hide myself from him, to hold out as long as I can.

This time, there’s nothing that stands between me and my terror but him, the man who has become the center of my world in the week I’ve spent with him.

“I’m scared,” I tell him, not even trying to hide the raw note in my voice.

“I know.” He rests his forehead against mine.

For a moment, we breathe the same air, and I shake in his arms. His solid, muscular body is my pillar, his heat all that’s keeping the chill off my shoulders.

“No one will hurt you. Trust me,” he says, the tender note in his voice catching me off guard.

“I trust you,” I respond tightly.

“With everything?” He lifts his head to gaze down at me, his penetrating eyes boring through me.

“Yes.”

“Good, farasha, good.” His trace of a smile lasts a split second. “I will take care of you.”

For some reason, his words help me relax. I’m not sure how. No single man stands a chance against a mob, if the press goes crazy like it did last week.

Except this one. I realize it’s more than his insistence that I trust him that’s melted my resistance. It’s also knowing that tonight, I close the door on my own life and fully enter his world – my new world – the one built with his absolute control of my life.

The one I’ll only survive, if I trust him and let him possess me. All of me.

But how do I learn to let go of everything, even if I ache to?

He’s studying me intently. “You’re not quite there yet,” he observes. “Soon, though, you’ll get it.”

I almost forget about the rest of the world and focus on him, convinced yet again that he is somehow reading my mind.

“Easy, isn’t it?” he whispers.

I nod.

“Let’s go.” He takes my hand securely and moves away.

I notice the loss of his body heat and suddenly, the rest of the world is there again. No sooner have I set foot on the red carpet than the blinding flashes of cameras start. It’s overwhelming to the point I start to panic once more, and I wrap both arms around his.

“Breathe. Relax. Smile,” Elijah instructs me, unaffected by the attention.

He pauses on the carpet. Elijah’s arm slides around my body, and I take a look around.