Page 11 of Forsaken

“You know what, never mind. I’ll have the front desk call you a cab.”

Mav turned to go and I felt a moment of panic that it would be the last time I’d get to talk to him if I didn’t do something. I grabbed his arm and stepped in front of him. “Mav, wait, please.”

He stopped, but he didn’t look happy about it. I tried to search for the right words to say, but I couldn’t figure out how to tell him that the events of my past still shaped everything I did today…that in so many ways, I was still the same fifteen-year-old kid who’d never been kissed but had been fucked more times than he could count and who knew how to suck cock like a pro…because that’s what he’d been.

But I couldn’t tell him that. Because I didn’t want to see the disgust in his eyes that I knew would be there if he knew the truth about me…that or worse, he’d look at me the way all those men had looked at me. Like I was garbage. Theirs to use and throw away when they were done with me.

“Would you like to have dinner with me tonight?” I finally blurted out.

I was as surprised by the offer as Mav seemed to be, but the idea didn’t terrify me like it should have. “Um, I could cook for you…at my place. As a thank you for today.”

Mav was quiet for so long that I began to shift uncomfortably in place. I was on the verge of telling him to forget it when he said, “I’d love to.”

The relief was overwhelming and I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my lips. “Okay,” I managed to get out.

“Did you want to wait down here or come up to my room?” Mav ventured.

I took a deep breath and said, “I’ll come up.”

Mav nodded and I followed him from the gym. We didn’t speak as we got onto the elevator and while my nerves had started to return, the fear wasn’t there like I would have expected. I lost track of what floor we were on because I’d spent most of the elevator ride staring at my shoes, but when the doors slid open, I followed Mav to his room which turned out to be a suite that included a kitchen and living space.

“Make yourself at home,” Mav said. “There’s food and drinks in the fridge. I’ll just be a couple of minutes.”

I nodded and watched him head towards the bedroom which was separated from the rest of the living area by a set of double sliding doors. I assumed the bathroom was attached to the bedroom. I was about to turn to try and find the remote for the TV when I saw Mav reach for the hem of his shirt as he neared the bedroom. I actually had to stifle a moan when the shirt came off and revealed a tattoo of two huge snakes, their heads curled over the backs of Mav’s shoulder muscles and their winding bodies covering the expanse of his back and disappearing beneath his pants. That tattoo on its own stole my breath, but add in the way Mav’s muscles flexed as he moved and I actually had to grab a hold of the kitchen counter to steady myself.

Fuck, the guy was gorgeous.

Instead of watching TV like I planned, I went to the wall of windows and took in the sight before me. Mav’s room was high enough that he had a view of the city and the mountains beyond the water. While I’d spent most of my younger years in Seattle along with my mother and older sister, it wasn’t this Seattle that I’d grown up in. As an illegal immigrant, my mother hadn’t had access to good paying jobs or an education, so most of the places we’d lived had been in run down neighborhoods that were far from the tourist filled city. But as hard as my mother had worked to give my sister Elena and me everything we’d needed, she’d never failed to make us a family first. There’d never been any doubt in her mind that Elena and I would have everything she hadn’t had herself…a stable home environment, college, careers. And we’d been on track until the day INS had shown up at our door and taken her away. One minute we’d been eating dinner, the next our mother was gone and my eighteen-year-old sister had been left to find a way to care for both of us. And then Elena was gone too…

“Hey, you okay?”

I turned to see Mav watching me from the doorway to his bedroom. He was wearing a pair of jeans, black boots and a black T-shirt. His damp hair hung just past his shoulders, the ends curling into loose ringlets that should have looked strange on a man but, in fact, looked sexy as hell.

“Yeah,” I said, my voice sounding rough. I pushed the thoughts of my mother and sister away. “I was just thinking about what to make for dinner.”

I had no doubt Mav could tell I was lying, but fortunately he didn’t call me on it.

“Are you ready to go?” I asked as I began walking towards the door.

“In a second,” Mav said. “I want to talk to you about something first.”

“Okay,” I said, my body going on alert at the reserved tone in his voice.

Mav ran his fingers through his hair and lowered his eyes for a moment as if struggling to find the right words to say. When he finally lifted them, I felt my heart clench because I suspected he was finally going to ask me about what had happened in the garage.

So I was completely unprepared when he said, “Eli, the man who assaulted you…was it Dominic Barretti?”

Chapter 5

Mav

“What?” Eli asked, his voice barely a squeak. I felt my stomach drop out as I realized I was right because there was no other explanation for the pain that filled his eyes.

“Eli, it’s okay,” I said quietly as I began moving towards him. “I can protect you from him.”

“Oh my God,” Eli gasped and then he shook his head violently. “No,” he whispered. “No!” he said more aggressively and then he was coming at me. Tears flooded his eyes as he shoved my chest hard with both his hands. “You have no right!” he screamed and I had to grab his wrists to keep him from lashing out at me again.

“Eli-”

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