Page 45 of The Player
I’d always been a light sleeper, but that had gotten worse since we’d ended up here. Having her lying next to me, I had to keep my wits about me. I knew she was here because of me, and it was my job to protect her. I ran in this world. Me and my friends were vigilantes. You live by the sword; you die by it. But I hated that she’d been dragged into this too. She was tough, but she didn’t deserve this.
It was her moans I heard first, anguished and pained, and then she started to flinch on the mattress beside me. I turned to face her, pulling her back to my chest. She was having a nightmare. She’d had a lot of those recently, unsettled nights where she cried out, and my heart broke for her. But this felt different. This felt like a big one.
“No. Please. No,” she cried, rocking in my arms as I held her.
“You’re okay, Bee. I’ve got you,” I whispered, but she couldn’t hear me, not yet. She was still asleep. Fighting the demons in her dreams.
“I don’t want this…” She began to sob, and so I shook her, only gently, but enough to bring her out of her hell and back here to me. Still a hell, but one where I could comfort her.
“You’re safe, Bee. I’m here.” I held her tightly, burying my face in her neck to breathe her in, whisper to her, shush until the devils that danced around her disappeared.
She shivered, wiping her face as she came around.
“I’m sorry.” She sighed. “Did I wake you?”
“I don’t sleep in here.”
She was still as I held her, her breaths coming slower as she calmed down.
“We’re going to die in here, aren’t we?” she stated. “I’m gonna die in this puke-coloured dress in a filthy, shitty concrete cell, and no one’s going to find us, not until we’re just skeletons left on this mattress covered in bad clothing that he made us wear.”
“Speak for yourself,” I replied, trying to make light of our dark predicament. “There’s nothing wrong with my grey sweats.”
But she didn’t laugh. And when I felt her shake as if she were crying, I nuzzled into her and whispered, “We are getting out. I don’t want to hear you talk like that, okay? Just trust me.”
“It’s been days, Will. Maybe weeks. I don’t even know how long it’s been ‘cos I’ve lost track of time. But nothing has happened. No one is coming to save us.”
“Then we’ll find a way out of here by ourselves.”
She hiccupped, her tears subsiding as she began to calm down.
“Please don’t start listing the ridiculous stuff you’re going to use to dig us out of here. I don’t think plastic bottles and paper plates are gonna cut it.”
She was right, I didn’t have a plan. Not yet. But I’d never let on about that. She didn’t need to know that most of the time I felt as hopeless as she did.
“There’s always hope,” I urged, even though I didn’t feel it. “Don’t give up on me.”
I could hear her sobs start up again, and they tore me apart.
I closed my eyes, losing myself in her scent and the feel of her in my arms. My little Bee. And in that moment, I wanted to do whatever I could to stop her crying, make her feel good about herself.
So, I kissed her neck, soft little pecks as my fingers skated over her hips and down to her thighs. Then I lifted the fabric of her dress, brushing my fingers under the skirt, drawing slow circles with the tips of my fingers up her thigh, higher and higher until…
“What are you doing?” she asked breathlessly.
“Making you feel better.”
I pulled her thigh over my hip, opening her up to me. Then I used my fingers to explore, tracing over her delicate skin, teasing her with how close I was to her pussy.
“Will,” she sighed.
“Let me do this for you,” I said, half asking, half begging. I had to touch her.
I let my fingers brush along the inside of her thigh, soft touches that made her pant and open her legs wider for me. She wanted me, and knowing that, feeling her, made my cock strain in my sweatpants. I wanted to fuck her. Take her from behind. But I had to make this about her. She needed this. It wasn’t about me.
“Close your eyes,” I told her. “I want you to focus on me and only me. Feel what I’m doing, that’s all that matters. Let me make you feel good.”
She sighed and moved her hand so it covered mine. Then she coaxed me higher, showing me where she wanted me. I let her, groaning when I felt how wet she was. I traced my finger through her pussy, and her head fell back.
