Page 55 of Let Me Protect You

Holding it in my hands, I hesitate. If he comes out of the shower and I’m just wearing my bra and panties, is it too forward? My cheeks heat at the memory of him fingering me until I lost all sense of time.

Maybe not.

The bathroom door opens, and steam flows into my hotel room, and I imagine it curling into a finger, beckoning me over. Elias comes out shirtless with only a towel around his waist. My eyes narrow in on the three-inch scar on his side, and I almost reach out as if I can make it disappear. Another jagged scar runs down the front of his arm. Was this from the injury that inevitably made him retire early?

I swallow, my tongue suddenly heavy as I take in the rest of him. I’ve felt his muscles and seen them through his clothes, but this is a whole other level. He has a six pack with a thin dusting of hair leading from his belly button and dipping beneath his towel, and I want to trail my tongue down it.

He stops before me and pulls me in for a hug. I wrap my arms around his waist, and he rests his head on my shoulder, gripping me to him. Neither of us moves a muscle. Nothing about the embrace is sexual but, instead, more … intimate.

“I’m sorry for how abruptly I went to the bathroom.” Elias holds me even closer. “There’s another reason that I visited your mother.”

My heart squeezes—any thoughts of sex gone in an instant. “What is it?”

“Do you remember how I told you that Tía Vicki was in the hospital when you left?” His words are spoken into my hair, soft and vulnerable. “She was also diagnosed with cancer like your mother. Where your mother’s was bone cancer, my aunt’s was her thyroid.” His voice drops even more until it’s almost a whisper. “We caught it early thankfully. So when I found out about your mother, I knew she couldn’t be alone.”

A tear escapes my eye, and I clench my fingers into him. “Oh, Elias. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“At first, I was mad you left me, but now … I didn’t want to bring up your painful memories. Even though my aunt had Kami and me there a lot, she was still lonely and scared. I didn’t want that for Mrs. Worrik.”

My pulse quickens as everything comes crashing down around me. It all makes sense now. Him not answering his phone and not going to New York with me. None of it has to do with us but because of his deep loyalty to his family.

I tighten my arms around him. “If you had told me—”

He shakes his head. “I didn’t want to stop you from achieving all that you were meant to, but now that you’re back, I just wanted you to understand that it’s not that I didn’t love you. It’s because I loved you enough to know what was best for you.”

His first conversation with my sister makes more sense now. My chest tightens as their words come back to me.

Serenity’s angry, “Well, good. You’ll just hold her back.” With his soft, “I know.”

Any man who thinks they know what’s best for someone … I pull away, and glare at him. “You can’t make those decisions for me.”

A soft laugh escapes his lips, and he yanks me back in for a hug. “I know that now. But I also just felt it deep in my bones that you’d find your way back to me.”

At least he knows he was wrong. Butterflies erupt in my stomach, and I rest my head on his chest, listening to his rampaging heart. Elias’s words tear apart my patched heart and piece it back together—correctly this time.

I wrap my arms around him and run my hands up and down his chiseled back. The feel of his bare skin against my hands sends a chill down my spine. If my mother was still here, she would be ecstatic if Elias and I got back together, and just that thought warms me up.

A knock startles me, and Elias pulls away. He marches over to the door and checks the peep hole. “It looks like Victor’s security.”

“Open the door,” I reply, keeping my distance.

Elias motions down at his mostly naked body, and I smother a laugh. He quickly throws on a Metallica T-shirt and black jeans, not bothering with the buckle, and cracks open the door. Two men stand there. Both are bulky, but one towers over the other.

“Is this Harmony Worrik’s room?” the taller one asks.

“Who is asking?”

“We were sent here by Victor Barlowe.” The man sticks his hand out. “I’m the head of his security, Dan.”

Elias presses his lips in a thin line before shaking the man’s hand. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to call Victor.”

Both of the guards nod. Elias looks over at me, and I pull out my phone to call Victor.

“I’m sorry to bother you,” I say when he answers.

“It’s not a bother. Did my men arrive?”

I eye the guards. “Yes, but we’re calling to confirm that you sent them.”