E L L O R A
“Ellora…”
I hear his voice from somewhere around the mansion.
It's like his voice sweeps over me covering me with a protective shield. I don't feel impure anymore. I don't feel dirty anymore. I don't feel helpless anymore.
Mostly, I get back the urge to fight again.
All because I hear his voice.
With all the force I can gather, I push him.
Not expecting this sudden push, he stumbles back a few steps.
That's all the time I need to rush away from his hold.
“Ellora?” Professor Langdon's voice greets me from the threshold. Tall and dark, he looks slightly confused.
Both my hands wrap around his left hand tightly the moment I reach him.
“I am sorry I tried to run away. Lock me in your room. I won't try to run away again. I promise.” I say slightly breathless.
He assesses the man infront who was all over me a minute ago. His face hardens, his jaw taut.
But the moment his eyes look down at me, his face softens.
He removes a strand of my hair behind my ear, as his eyes bore into mine. “Are you alright?”
My hands clamp down onto his arm, as I swallow the truth. Then I nod at him.
His face doesn't reveal if he believes me or not. His frown deepens, as his voice lowers an octave.
“What happened?”
My eyes nervously flicker towards the man who had cornered me. But the man in front of me is way too captivating for me to look at another man when he is in the same room, no less plastered to me.
I clutch his fingers tightly, calming my nerves a little in his strength and hardness.
“Please professor, can you please take me back to the room? Please?" I don't care about anything at the moment other than going away from the man across the room.
Thankfully, professor Langdon doesn't insist on the answer and takes me back to his room.
We walk silently until we reach the door to his room. I almost rush inside, very contrary to the last time I was here.
After taking a deep breath, I turn around.
Professor Langdon leans against the door, his arms crossed across his chest, a deep frown marring his face.
“What were you doing with Cage, Ellora?”
Cage, I presume, is the name of the slick bastard who tried to touch me.
One look at professor Langdon, and it makes me want to rush in his arms and let all out to him. The Coven, the thousand pairs of hands, Cage just now…how they all think it's that easy to just touch me.
But if I open my mouth right now, I am going to sob. I don't think I'll be able to keep my cool.
So I play nonchalant. “Nothing.” I shrug. “We just happened to be in the same room. Coincidence.”
He raises a brow.
When I don't elaborate, he pushes off the door and walks towards me. More like prowls his way towards me like a hunter.
“Look Ellora. I am a very patient man. But even my patience has a limit. What. Happened. With. Cage just now?”
He walks closer to me, and it takes my all to not step back from him. I need to stand my ground.
I swallow hard as he nears me so much so that I can smell his cologne.
“Ellora, what had happened the first day I took you to the Coven?”
He is now almost breathing down on my skin, as I angle my face to look up at his.
My chest heaves. His proximity is enough to make me breathless. I can't imagine if he touches me-
That. That freaking right there is why I am never able to stand up to this man. I get it he is charming. He's good looking. He's hot. But what he also is, is my God damn professor and the man who kidnapped me and probably destroyed my academic future.
This thought makes me look up at him with a glare. “Why do you care, professor?”
“Answer my question.”
“I can guarantee you, whatever they've done to hurt me, is nowhere even near how much you have hurt me.”
That is such a big freaking lie.
I don't have the time to think over my lies, as he takes a huge step, backing me up against the wall. “So they have hurt you?”
Shit. The man is too precise.
I gasp as his hand forces my jaw to look up at him roughly. “What. Have. They. Done. Ellora? Why were you a shivering, wreck of nerves the day in the Coven?”
Okay shit, he didn't have to spell it out. A flashback of that day erupts in my mind.
Those hands…
All over my body….
Cage's hand over my breasts…
My lips quiver, as I bite them hard at the memory.
Shit.
Shit.
I cannot lose it now. Not when professor Langdon can micro read my every reaction.
A huge frown darkens his face as his eyes assess my expression. His hand slides from my jaw to my cheek as he holds my face in his hand. His one huge hand is enough to cover half my face.
And then he does something so shocking, all thoughts of that night evaporate from my mind completely.
His face dips down, his lips connecting to my forehead. And he plants a soft kiss there, keeping his lips plastered there
I don't move. But a surprising sense of calm washes over me, as I close my eyes. My hands clutches his shirt unconsciously.
My brain forgets that he's a kidnapper and my professor…in fact I think the damn thing shuts down completely.
I just…be.
* * * *
“You're getting distracted again, Ellora. Focus.”
Yeah right. I don't think it's physically possible for me to focus when he's freaking shirtless standing in such close proximity to me.
My eyes lower to his abs, a few drops of sweat drips down his six pack, lower, and lower to the hair leading down to-
“Freaking hell!” I curse out loud as I am literally picked up and thrown down on the ground, my head banging on the grass.
For the second time today.
I don't think I'm going to survive, as I shut my eyes. I don't even try to get up this time. I just lay there and…breath.
“Chop chop Ellora. We don't have much time.”
