Page 12 of Haven Bound
“Where’s Ethan?” I ask, my brain desperately trying to play catch up and understand why he would think that I’d be spending the night. I know that he texted Ethan and told him to keep an eye on Hailey; I just don’t know if Ethan’s home yet. If he is, then that would mean that Hails is home too and that I don’t need to stay here.
“He texted about twenty minutes ago and said he and Hailey were grabbing something to eat. It’ll probably be another hour or so before he’s home.” He stands up from the couch and holds out his hand, offering to help me up. I don’t want to go home to an empty house, and I don’t think that I can manage to stay awake until it’s safe to go home.
Doing my best to stand on steady feet, I take Austin’s hand and let him pull me toward the room he’s staying in. As a guest bedroom, the decor is kept simple but still suits Ethan’s modern artistic style. The queen-sized bed is covered in dark sheets with a black and white marble comforter, not a single throw pillow in sight. Biting the inside of my lower lip, I find myself wondering what the room would look like if it were truly Austin’s.
I watch as he moves towards the dark wooden dresser and grabs out what appears to be a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. Handing the change of clothes to me, he says, “If you want to shower, you can. Feel free to use whatever’s in there. You can change into these if you’d like.” His gazedrops to the ground as he moves to walk past me, probably to head back to the living room.
“Austin?” I call after him, and he turns around in the doorway, one hand gripping the door handle as his eyes meet mine in question. “Thank you… for tonight. For getting me out of there and for… making me feel safe.” His only answer is a slight dip of his chin before he pulls the door closed behind him.
As tired as I am, drifting off to sleep feels damn near impossible. As soon as I saw his bed, I immediately wanted to climb in and fall asleep wrapped up in his scent. Instead, I’ve been lying here staring up at the ceiling for what feels like hours. After Austin left the room, I stripped down to my underwear and threw on the shirt that he left for me before slipping into the bed and willing my body to relax.
I always have a hard time sleeping in new places. During those years when my mom was married to Dan, I always felt like I had to be hyper aware of my surroundings, especially at night.
There were so many times when I’d wake up in the middle of the night, to grab a drink of water or use the restroom, and I’d find Dan walking around the house completely naked. The first few times it happened, I kept my mouth shut. But after it became part of his nightly routine, I finally spoke up and told my mom how much it bothered me.
He refused to stop. She even bought him a robe, which he refused to wear. He claimed it washishouse and he wouldn’t be told what to do in his own home. After a while, I learned never to step outside the safety of my bedroom at night. Once I had showered and brushed my teeth, I wouldn’t leave my room until it was time to get up for school.
It wasn’t until I was twelve that he started to come into my bedroom. He never… did anything. He would just quietly open my door and stand in the doorway, watching me sleep. As if that wasn’t entirely creepy in and of itself. Add in his lack of clothing, and it always left me feeling… violated.
Now, as an adult, I’ve made it a habit to lock my bedroom door every night, no matter what. Whether I’m home alone or it’s only Hailey and I, my bedroom door is locked if I’m in the room at night. But here in Austin’s room, at Ethan’s house, I didn’t lock it.
For some reason being anywhere in Austin’s orbit brings me a sense of safety.
9
Austin
Attempting to sleep whileshe’s in my bed feels pointless. She’s in there right now, her perfect body wrapped up in my sheets, getting her sweet vanilla scent all over my bed. It’s been at least thirty minutes since I closed the bedroom door behind me, and she has yet to come back out. I was trying to give her time to take a shower first if she wanted to, but she must’ve gone straight to sleep.
She could be wearing my t-shirt right now.
Fuck.The idea of her thick curves wrapped up in my clothing, in my sheets, has my cock thickening against the zipper of my black jeans. I have no doubt that the next time I sleep in that bed, I’ll be surrounded by her scent.
Swinging my legs off the couch, I sit up and run both hands through my hair, tugging at the ends. I need to get my shit together and focus. I’ve yet to even check in with my father regarding this target that wasso importantthat I needed to come home to handle it. I’ve been with The Phoenix Legion for damn near five years now and I haven’t been anywhere near Haven Beach since joining.
The target doesn’t even matter if I lose my concentration. Being back here, surrounded by old friends and family, it makes my job seem so empty. Yes, I’m working to protect as many people as I can andmake sure that the evil doers of the world pay for their crimes, but I’m alone in this. I have my brothers and sisters in arms, those that I would trust with my life if the situation called for it, but true happiness isn’t something I get to experience.
But,fuckjust being around Chelsea makes me want to dream.
Feeling restless thanks to the lust coursing through me for the woman that’s occupying my bed, I resign myself to a sleepless night and decide a shower may be the best way to relax. Sitting here thinking about all of the things that are missing from my life certainly isn’t doing me any good.
In the bathroom across from my bedroom, I turn the shower handle to the hottest setting and wait for the room to fill with steam. Stripping down, I brace my hands against the counter and eye myself in the mirror, whispering, “You’re here to do a job, not to get lost in fantasies of what could have been. Get your shit together.”
Not that any kind of personal pep-talk is going to help me forget about the breathtaking woman in my bed. Chelsea’s always been beautiful, but now she’s downright fucking gorgeous. She deserves someone so much better than me. Not someone who takes lives under the guise of protecting those who can’t protect themselves.
No matter how you spin it, at the end of the day, I’m still a murderer.
Scars are scattered all across my torso, some of them hidden by the smattering of dark hair that runs across my pecs and from my navel down towards the base of my cock, each one telling the tale of various missions, of countless targets that were annihilated.
With the bathroom mirror almost completely fogged up from the steam, I step into the shower and hiss as the scalding water hits my shoulders. Enduring the cleansing heat, I tilt my head back and run myhands through my hair, nails scraping against my scalp. Standing there under the spray of hot water, visions of a soaking-wet Chelsea fill my mind as I imagine her standing before me in the shower.
Her long golden-red hair is hanging loose over her shoulders and covering her peaked nipples…
Fuck, I bet they’re a delicious shade of pink to match the rest of her porcelain complexion.
She sinks to her knees in front of me, her hands reaching up to grasp my hips as she gazes up at me, her lips parted in question…
Unable to stop myself, I pour a small amount of conditioner into my hand and fist my dick with a firm grip, sliding my hand up to the head, coating my shaft. Keeping the pressure firm and my pace steady, I slide my fist up and down along my length from root to tip, lathering it fully in the silky liquid. My hand swirls over and around the head with every other upstroke.
