Elias (New Adult Romance) (West Bend Saints Book 1) Read online

  “Oh my God.” I was so close.

  “Wait,” he growled, close to my ear. “Wait until I tell you you can come.”

  I could hear myself moaning, from somewhere outside my body, but there was nothing else except him and I. I didn’t want anything else. His touch erased everything in that moment, made it impossible to think about anything except what he was doing to my body. All I could imagine was him - his hands on my breasts, his breath on my ear, his lips on my neck, and his cock, filling me up. It was ecstasy, pure and simple.

  “Now,” he said, and the instant he spoke the word, I let go, crying out as he came into me. The white heat of my orgasm eclipsed everything else.

  Afterward, I stood there, completely motionless as the throbbing between my legs subsided and the fog in my head cleared. I moved my hands and winced. My palms felt raw where I’d clutched at the rough bark of the tree.

  Elias breathed heavy against my neck. “Goddamn,” he said.

  I’ll say, I thought. Goddamn was about the only thing there was to say.

  Afterward, I sat there, my arms wrapped around River, her back pressed up against my chest.

  "Thank you," she whispered.

  "For what?" I felt her chest rise and fall under my arms as she took slow breaths.

  "All of this," she said. "No one's ever done anything like this for me before."

  "No one's ever fucked you like this?" I teased her.

  "Shut up," she said. "You know what I mean. No one's ever done something like this, what you did for me tonight, out here."

  "You mean that none of those boys out in Hollywood haven't done anything like this for you?" I asked. "I find that hard to believe."

  River laughed, but it sounded bitter. "You're joking, right? Boys are exactly what they are. And no, I meant what I said."

  I couldn't help but be pleased with myself, doing something for her that was different from all the other guys who had to be chasing her. Especially that douchebag musician boyfriend of hers.

  Viper. What a fucking name.

  "Well, I also meant what I said earlier, before you distracted me," I said, nudging her up. "I am going to feed you."

  River tucked her knees up to her chest, and wrapped her arms around them, watching me open the picnic basket. "So this is a proper date now?"

  "It always was," I said. "Are you cold?"

  "Chilly."

  I reached for an extra blanket and tossed it to her, then joined her underneath it as I took out the food I'd brought.

  "You went to a lot of trouble," she said.

  I shrugged. "Just went to the store and shit," I said. "Not like I cooked it or anything."

  "It was a compliment," she said. "You should learn how to accept one gracefully."

  "Less talking, more eating," I said, and held up a cracker I'd smeared with some gourmet cheese or some shit I'd gotten at the store - the lady at the grocery said it was imported something or other.

  River laughed and took a bite. "Classy," she said. She leaned in next to me, and as much as I'd never been much for the cuddling bullshit with other girls, with River I decided it was okay. In fact, it felt kind of nice, the same way it had been with her last night.

  "What happened in town yesterday," River began.

  "I really am sorry about snapping at you," I said.

  "Oh, no, I'm not talking about that," she said. "June told me about your father."

  "Oh. That." I tensed automatically at the mention of him.

  "Yeah, that."

  "He died," I said. "I'm not sorry in the least. He wasn't a good person."

  River didn't say anything at first. She just nodded. "I don't know who mine is," she said. "My father, I mean."

  "Fuck family," I said. "The whole blood is thicker than water thing is such horseshit."

  "You have brothers, though?" June asked, her voice soft.

  "Four," I said.

  "I just have a sister," June said. "I mean, obviously. My sister is the one screwing Viper. What are your brothers like?"

  "We used to be close," I said. "Not as much anymore." That was the goddamned understatement of the year.

  "How many of you are there?"

  "Mason was the oldest, died when I was a kid."

  River was silent, and I just continued, this deluge of words, non-stop. I didn't talk about my brothers much, or about my family at all. Even to the guys in my unit. They knew I was going home to West Bend, but not about much more than that. Telling someone about my family felt foreign.

  "My mother married the asshole -" I cleared my throat. "My father, I mean, after that. Had Mason when she was a teenager. The rest of us were from him - Silas, Luke, and Killian. There's four of us."

  "Are they in West Bend?"

  "Silas is," I said. "Works at a bar- bounces, I guess."

  "Are you close?"

  "It's complicated."

  "Seems like a straightforward enough question."

  "You're fucking pushy, aren't you?" I asked. River didn't seem bothered by my language or my irritation. She just shrugged and smiled.

  "Been called worse," she said.

  "We used to be close," I said. I didn't have to talk to her about my fucking family, I reminded myself. I could just tell her to fuck off and mind her own business.

  Except I didn't want to. Not really.

  For whatever the hell reason, I found myself wanting to tell River things I didn't talk about with other people. And that's the part that was scaring the shit out of me.

  "And then what happened?"

  "I don't know," I said. "Life, I guess. People change."

  "You're so full of shit, Elias Saint," River said. But she didn't press me on it. It made me like her more. "June and Cade told me what happened with Mason."

  "What the -?" I pulled away from her, irritated that she'd probed around in my past.

  River put her hand on my chest, calm in the midst of my fury. "I asked them what they knew about Elias Saint. You. After what happened in town, with the sheriff, I wanted to know."

  "Why?"

  River pulled back from me and turned to face me, still under the blanket. I could feel her knees tucked up protectively to her chest. She looked down. "I wanted to know if I was wrong about you."

  "Wrong about what?"

  "Who you are."

  "Who do you think I am?" My chest felt tight, like there was a vise grip on my heart. I didn't fucking want to hear what she'd assumed about me from the beginning - who she assumed I was. I'd gotten enough of that bullshit growing up.

  "I thought you were a good guy," she said. "Protective. Loyal. Principled."

  I laughed. "Principled," I said, shaking my head. "I've never fucking gotten called that before."

  River ignored me. "June told me the town had it in for your family."

  "You know the whole fucking story, then," I said.

  "I know what June told me," River said. "I somehow doubt that's the whole story."

  I shrugged. "Not much more to it than what she told you, probably. Mason had it roughest growing up, out of all of us, not being blood-related to the asshole. I don't remember much of it, not really - Killian and Luke remember more, but that's the way they told it. Got away from our place, worked as a ranch hand on June's dad's ranch. He and June's sister had a thing. Anyway, he killed June's parents drunk driving, died in the accident. June's sister killed herself."

  "It happened a long time ago," River said, more of a question than a statement.

  "I don't even remember it. I was too young," I said. "Just the aftermath. Mom already had a black mark on her from the beginning, showing up in town pregnant and young, running away from her home. Add my father to the mix, the fucking town drunk, a mean sonofabitch, and...then, the accident after that."

  "You were like pariahs, then."

  "Small town bullshit."

  "Growing up an outsider...it sticks with you forever," River said. "Makes it hard to trust people."

  What the fuck would Riv