Page 38 of Dangerous Deviance
“Social club?” she asked. “Women’s Elite sounds familiar, but not the social club part.”
I shrugged. “I guess that’s how they got around the laws. But go on. Tell me about Women’s Elite.”
Ellie touched her chin, her eyes fluttering in front of her.
“Did I start studying there recently?” she asked.
“Looks like you started soon after your parents died.”
She touched her arms, skimming her fingers across them. “So it’s been a few years then.”
“Yes.”
She looked up then, her eyes locked on mine. She scooted across the couch, closer to me, then held my hands. “I need you to hold me.” She straddled me, sitting so close that the curves of her ass rolled against my thighs. Her pussy was warm, even through her jeans and my pants.
After that kiss the other day, it shouldn’t have surprised me, but I still wasn’t used to her being affectionate on her own. Without me pressuring her. My cock bulged, loving it.
“And to what do I owe this pleasure?” I asked.
“It’s the only way I can think clearly,” she said. I opened my mouth to speak, but she moved my hands so that I was touching her back, and I forgot what I was going to say. I rubbed her shoulders, massaging her, squeezing her muscles, letting my hands roam freely, enjoying her softness over the hard muscles.
“When did my parents die?” she asked.
“You were in high school.”
Ellie shook her head back and forth, her voice higher in pitch: “Yes. And I had to take care of Julie. She was in middle school, almost in high school.” Her head didn’t stop moving, as if it was all suddenly coming back to her, and the movement helped it restore. “So it was just us. My neighbor helped me get emancipation, but I had to get a job. Had to prove that I could take care of Julie. Because if no one else was going to take care of us, I had to take care of her. Be her mom and dad. Because if I didn’t—”
She stopped, her eyes falling to her lap. A few seconds passed.
“Then what?” I asked.
“Julie wanted so badly to be free, to learn things the hard way.” Ellie shook her head. “I just hope I didn’t let anything bad happen to her.”
Julie, at the time of her disappearance, was almost nineteen and would be close to twenty by now.
“She’s an adult,” I said. “She’s got to make her own choices.”
“But I—” Her bottom lip quivered. “I couldn’t protect her. It didn’t matter what I did. Shelter her. Let her free. Somewhere in between.” Her eyes filled with tears. “She still disappeared.”
A heavy weight settled in my stomach. I hated seeing Ellie like that. I rubbed a thumb across her cheek. “You can’t be with her all of the time,” I said. “She might be okay. Off with her girlfriends or a boyfriend. You never know.”
“I know the statistics,” Ellie said, her voice squeaking. She stiffened, then shook away the tears. “You said it’s been over a year and a half, right?”
I nodded, not wanting to say the word aloud, knowing how it might hurt her to hear the truth. Ellie shrunk down, all of that strength I had grown used to seeing in her dissipating before my eyes. I couldn’t let her forget that part of herself.
“Hey,” I said. I held her chin, and those blue eyes struck me. “We’ll figure this out,” I said. “You don’t worry. Let me worry about it.”
And for whatever reason, that seemed to let her relax. The tension in her body released, and she snuggled into my chest.
“My contact also found that you had social media pages,” I said, “but, of course, they were taken down after you disappeared.”
“Oh?” she asked.
“But that doesn’t mean they’re gone forever.” I winked, then ran the backs of my fingers down her arm. She shivered at the touch, and I grinned. Should I ruin another perfectly good shirt? It was definitely an option on my mind.
But we had other business to attend to. I pulled out my phone and looked at the email from Kiley and read aloud the first post that came into view: “Classic New Years: The gym is packed, and I no longer have my corner. I’m tempted to ask the yoga pants chick if she wants to fight me for it. On the mat, of course. But I want my window view!”
Ellie laughed. “That sounds about right.”
