She led me to the closet door and backed inside of her nest drawing me in with her. The closet was small and dark and quite frankly a bit cramped for my large frame. But I would shove myself into a plastic bin if Eloise asked me to.
And the smell. Jesus I thought being around just Eloise was intoxicating as hell but the smell of her nest was on a whole other level. The smell of chocolate and champagne was so strong here I felt my cock stiffen as it assaulted my senses. Dead puppies Gage, I reminded myself, dead puppies.
“It’s small but cozy.” Eloise said standing barefoot in her nest, “Come on let's lay down, my feet are killing me from those heels.”
Eloise dropped onto the blankets, tugging me down with her. I landed with an oomph amongst the plush blankets and pillows and Eloise immediately curled around me like I was her favorite teddy bear. There was no way she didn’t feel my hard-on against her thighs as she snuggled as close as she could but I think we were both choosing to ignore it. Tonight was not about sex it was about comfort.
“Thank you for saving me tonight.” She said after a few minutes of laying in silence.
“You were doing a pretty good job of saving yourself before I came along.” I pointed out, my hands found the long strands of her hair and I began to run my fingers through them, gently untangling the strands as I stroked.
“Yeah. But it was nice not to have to save myself for once.” She sounded tired and I wondered why no one had ever stepped up to protect her.
“Will you tell me about the guy who was supposed to protect you? The one who promised to come back for you?” This was a potentially bad topic to broach with her and I was enjoying her snuggling up to me. But I had to ask while it was just her and I one-on-one. I saw the way that she looked at us—even Dominic and Leon who hadn’t made an effort with her. She fit in with us so easily like a puzzle piece. I couldn’t imagine a childhood promise was stronger than that.
Luckily Eloise didn’t move away from me or tell me to get out of her nest, instead she looked up at me and rested her chin on my chest. Her brown eyes held a pain that nearly took my breath away.
“His name is Link and he’s my person. We grew up together in a trailer park above Sacramento—when his step-daddy wasn’t hitting him my parents were hitting me. That kind of stuff bonds people.”
I growled at the thought of anyone hitting her and she gave me a playful swat, “down boy, it’s in the past.”
“Anyways, when I was eleven my parents took the money the state offered to give up their guardianship of me. I was so scared of leaving everything that I knew but especially Link. It had always been him and I against the world and that was about to get ripped away from me. I ran away from the social workers and Link found me and convinced me to go with them. He told me he’d come and get me when I turned eighteen and we’d be together.” But he didn’t come. Those unspoken words hung in the air between us.
“Do you know where he is?” I asked, surely she’d looked for him herself once she’d turned eighteen and he hadn’t shown up.
“I tried to look for him but even with the internet, in all of its vastness, I couldn’t find him.”
“Do you want me to try and look?” Dammit Gage, I scolded myself silently. Why did I just offer to find her beta for her, it was almost like I was packing her suitcase for her myself.
“Could you do that?” Eloise seemed surprised.
“Of course, I’m the head of security at Russo Enterprises. I’m not just the hired muscle you know.” I teased and was rewarded with a little giggle.
“I know that, I was just surprised you’d do that for me.”
“Eloise, I think you’d be surprised just how much I’d do for you.” I’d always felt that it was better to tell someone how you feel—even if I had neglected to do that for the past five years. It was a confession that I had wanted to make since the moment I’d seen Eloise Taylor in the lobby of the omega academy. I wasn’t sure it was even possible to be so attached and attracted to someone so quickly. But I was letting my instincts guide the way for all of this, they hadn’t led me astray yet.
Eloise was silent for a few minutes, her cheek resting on my chest as I tried to keep my breathing steady and even. Had I fucked this up already? Was it too soon?
“I kissed Owen tonight.” She finally said so quietly that I thought I’d imagined it.
“And did you like it?”
Eloise sighed, “I think you’d be surprised just how much I liked it.” She said mimicking my earlier words. With that she drifted off to sleep, her body becoming deadweight on top of me as she settled deeper and deeper into sleep.
I gathered her in my arms and pulled her on top of my chest and let her legs drape on either side of me as I continued to run my fingers through her hair. Eventually I also dropped off into a dreamless sleep.
17
“I hope you know that I am damn jealous of you.” I said as I stepped into the kitchen the morning after the charity gala from hell. Gage was standing at the stove, dressed in fresh clothes but he very clearly hadn’t showered. Eloise’s scent clung to his skin as he flipped some sausage in the pan.
“Good. Be jealous.” Was all the large man said as he began to crack eggs into a bowl.
I was a bit taken aback by Gage’s response. Normally he ignored my ribs and was generally the bigger person (physicallyandmaturity wise). But now he was basically wagging a finger in my face saying ‘look what I have and you don’t’ like a six-year old keeping a new toy from his siblings. It was, quite frankly, fascinating.
“How is she doing this morning?” I asked, changing the subject, there would be time later to unpack Gage’s new youthfulness.
“Still asleep. Last night was rough on her. She did, however, give me the name of the beta who she made that promise to. Told her I’d look him up.” Gage leaned against the counter with his arms crossed over his chest
