READY FOR PAIN?????

TW: very slight not graphic mentions of harassment.

Elijah's POV

It was as if everything that happened over the past few weeks disappeared, and he had tunnel vision just on Carter.

He couldn't stop himself as he walked towards her harshly, cutting off what she was saying as she looked up at him in surprise.

He wrapped his hand around her wrist and tugged her after him ignoring everyone's confused comments and her words of protest.

He dragged her into his bedroom, pushing her in front of him and slamming the door behind them and locking it.

Her eyes were wide and she was staring at him in confusion. He went straight to the point, gesturing to her arm.

"Who did that to you?"

She looked away immediately, her hand subconsciously going to her upper arm to cover it.

"It's none of your business."

He scowled, "like hell it is. Tell me who did that to you."

She looked back up at him fiercely, coming closer to him now that she felt confrontational, "why do you even care? You made it pretty fucking clear that you hate me and want nothing to do with me," her voice broke when she said the word hate.

He swallowed, the tension thick enough between them that he could feel it prickling his skin.

"Carter," he stressed, "It doesn't matter what I said. Tell me what happened," his tone was more gentle now as he begged for an answer. He couldn't stand it anymore. He couldn't stand seeing a mark, a sign of pain on Carter. 

Eli didn't care what he had previously said to her. He didn't even care that she was with someone else. 

He bent down slightly to be at her level, softly placing his hand over hers on her arm, peeling back her fingers and looking at the bruise, seeing it more prominently with the setting sun shining in through his window onto her, making her look like a broken angel.

He felt his mouth turn to a frown, fixing his eyes back onto hers, "please," he implored.

Eli saw it. The moment she broke. Her eyes welled up and her lower lip trembled before she burst into a rant of words jumbled together.

"Ryder won't leave me alone. I tried so hard Eli but he just waits at my apartment, and he tries to talk to me and touch me and grab me and I keep saying no and he says he loves me and I know he's lying but I just-"

He cut off her rambling.

"He is lying Carter. I know it's hard to accept that people love you but people do love you, and love doesn't feel like this. Love isn't hurt. It isn't pain. And you don't deserve a love like this, no one does," he said firmly.

He was so fucking confused, wasn't she dating Ryder?

"And he thinks we're together, even though I have told him multiple times to leave me alone," she explained and Eli almost screamed. 

What the fuck had he done?

He was busy calculating in his head how they weren't on the same page that he hadn't noticed how close she had gotten until he noticed she was full-on crying, little wet tears clinging to her long lashes like sparkly snowflakes and trailing down her cheeks.

She was close enough for him to kiss.

And that's what he wanted to do. He wanted to kiss her and pin her to his bed and show her exactly what love felt like.

But he couldn't. Not like this.

So he didn't. He gently pulled her closer by her forearms, pushing her body into his chest as she finally let all the tears out, crying into him with sniffles that she tried to hold back.

"Please don't cry, baby," his chest hurt.

"I thought you hated me," she cried harder, barely getting the words out.

"I'm so sorry baby. I didn't know," was all he could say. 

His head was swirling with guilt. Carter wasn't even with Ryder, he was fucking stalking and harassing her. What the fuck had Eli done?

He leaned down and kissed her head, pressing his lips into her hairline to whisper that she was okay and that he has got her. He left his lips there for a long time, cherishing the feeling of her with him but wanting to take away all her pain.

The sobs wracking through her rattled him and he wrapped his arms around her fully, enveloping her body and holding her as tight as he could to comfort her.

"You're safe now. I've got you," he whispered into her head, feeling her nod.

She was hugging him so tight and he knew right then and there that he would never let Carter go again.

"I'm not going anywhere," he promised.

Thoughts????

PS - check out my new story "honey" about an assassin falling in love with the man she was sent to kill :)