Page 30 of Breaking Him

I always thought it was so beautiful, but I hadn’t been out here in years.

Elijah dismounted, walked over to me, lifted me off Bess, then led her and Gus away. I stood there watching as he removed their gear, went to the small shed by the cottage, and came back with some hay.

Leaving them to graze, he returned to me and held out his hand. I took it without question. I could tell this pleased him.

When he pushed open the cabin door, my jaw dropped. The rough-sawed walls were cobweb-free, and there was a large striped mat on the floor. The old couch had a gray woolen blanket over it, and the two small steel-framed cots that had always been there had been replaced with a full-size bed. The frame was rustic and chunky, and I could smell new linen and wildflowers. My mouth went dry. “Did you make the bed?”

“Yes.”

My heart fluttered, squeezed. The quilt covering it was yellow, my favorite color, with a delicate floral print, frills around the edge, similar to my own. “And the quilt…”

“I know you like flowers.”

There was a chipped crystal vase there as well, filled with straggly wildflowers, looking a little worse for wear. I swallowed the lump in my throat. God, to me they were the most beautiful flowers in the world.

He was standing behind me now. I turned to him, and he was studying me, a flush of color darkening his cheeks.

I pulled off my hat and flung it on the couch. “This is where you come? Those nights that you’re away?”

He dipped his chin. “Sometimes.”

“When did you do all this?”

“Last time I came out.” He was looking at me from under his thick lashes. “Wanted to bring you out here…have for a long time.” His eyes turned midnight. Fathomless pools that went deep, so damn deep. “Thought a lot about what it’d be like to bring you here. Ever since the day I first saw it after I showed up at the ranch and your father took a chance on me, gave me a job.”

My limbs were suddenly weak, his words, everything he’d done to this place, hitting me square in the chest.

“I got out of my truck that afternoon, and the first thing I saw was you. You were on your horse, coming in, skin glistening, golden hair shining in the sun. I’d always thought you were the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen, but that day, I looked at you and my mouth went dry. My heart pounded in my chest. It was like I was seeing you for the first time.” He took a step closer. “I went back to the grubby little shack I’d been calling home and stroked my cock with your face in my head, imagining it was your hands on me. You’re the only face I see anymore, Abigail. The only woman I’ve ever wanted.”

“Eli…”

“What you said to Kyle today, it scared me, darlin’. I just got you, and I’m afraid you’re going to let them tear us apart.”

My heart was pounding in my chest as well. He didn’t need to say who “they” were. I knew exactly who he meant. The people in this town who weren’t happy unless they were sticking their noses in other people’s business.

“I won’t let them tear us apart. I won’t.” How had we gotten to this place, come this far? How was it that I craved this man, his touch, more than cool water on a scorching-hot day?

The way he was looking at me, like he was waiting for me to move just so he could pounce, had me heating up, squirming, excited. “Why did you bring me here? What did you want to show me?”

“When I come out here, I allow myself to go there in my head, that place I always thought was bad. I allow myself to think about all the things I thought were wrong or sick and twisted.” His nostrils flared. “I used to imagine us here on a winter’s night, snowed in. Just us and a bed. What I’d do to you, the way you’d look, the way the firelight would make your bare, sweat-slicked skin glisten.” He took another step closer. “How you’d look on that bed while I held you down, made you beg. The way you’d strain under me…” He dragged in a rough breath. “I didn’t want to show you anything, Abigail. But I do want to do things to you. Does that scare you?” He took the last step, and we were so close my chest brushed his abs. “Or does it make you wet, like I used to imagine it would?”

“It…” I had to clear my throat; it was too tight to speak. “It…makes me wet.” I lifted my chin, looking up at his strong features, the way he watched me, the way the muscle in his jaw jumped, the way every muscle bulged and strained, his control barely leashed. “God, Elijah. It makes me so wet.”

His chest expanded, breath releasing on a deep rumble. “You earned a punishment today, didn’t you, darlin’?”

My knees started to shake. “Yes.”

“What did I say you’d get for teasin’ me?”

The ghost of that slap to my behind still lingered. There was no pain, but I’d been aware of it all day. “You said you’d spank my ass for making your cock hard when you couldn’t do anything about it.”

“And what else?” He said it so deep, it set off a little quiver that traveled all the way down to my toes.

“Then you’d…you’d fuck it.”

He brushed his thumb over the swell of my cheek, down under my bottom lip. “Did you think about that all day, Abigail?”

“Yes.” I had. God, I’d been a mixture of worry over what had happened between us and throbbing arousal.