A day that had started out poorly just seemed to get progressively worse. After having a cup of instant coffee that tasted like muddy water, she had decided to get started on cleaning the rooms downstairs while Elias worked on his own bedroom upstairs. She would have helped him, but frankly she wanted to avoid him. Not because she was angry or upset with him, but because she was annoyed at things in general and felt like sulking off by herself. And since Elias didn't make an effort to put himself in her company, she figured he must be feeling the same way. So, they steered clear of each other with a vengeance.

But, that meant she had to clean up the living room on her own. She could have picked an easier room to work on, but it was off the foyer, away from the path that Elias took as he hauled all the rubbish out of his room and into the backyard, so if she timed things right, she could make her own trips to the burn pile without having to bump into him. The downside to that plan was that the living room had been exposed to the elements, via a couple of broken windows that were now covered with makeshift shutters, and half the room was nothing but a moldy mess of rotted furniture and grimy, filth covered knick knacks. So, basically, cleaning was a slow and tedious process.

And it wasn't exactly her best day to begin with, which slowed things down even more.

For whatever reason, everything she picked up, she dropped. Her hands were so clumsy she couldn't keep her grip on a single thing, which made for a lot of broken bits to be swept up. She tripped over anything and everything she could possibly trip over and when there was nothing nearby, she tripped over her own two feet. She stubbed her toe so many times that she started to worry it might be broken. And to cap it all off, she whacked her funny bone on a book shelf and couldn't feel her fingers for a good ten minutes...

Frankly, she felt she was on the verge of raging...but, she sucked it up, kept her head down, and kept on, because having a tantrum would only make things worse.

A lot of the furniture was beyond use so that meant hauling the stuff either out into the backyard to be broken up and burned or down into the basement to be broken up and burned later, and the furniture in this house was not light. She managed to drag two moldy wing-back chairs through the house and into the backyard with ease, but a damp and musty settee gave her more trouble than she'd expected. The blasted thing weighed a ton, even after she removed the soggy cushions, and just getting it over to the living room doorway nearly gave her a hernia.

Once she made it there, she was in such a hurry to get it through the house and outside in an effort to duck Elias, that she didn't stop to think things through and she wound up getting the damned thing wedged halfway through the doorway. She tried everything to get it free. Wiggling, jiggling, pushing, pulling, kicking it, cursing at it, but after half an hour it was still stuck. And then, just when she was considering lighting the thing on fire just so she could be done looking at it, Elias came through the foyer. He paused to survey the scene for a few seconds before walking over, grabbing hold of the thing and giving it a hard jerk forward, which freed it from the doorjamb, allowing him to pull it out of the room and drag it away toward the kitchen as if it weighed nothing.

Gritting her teeth and calling Elias Stone some fairly unflattering names, she decided to tackle the big area rug that was water damaged and covered in mold and mildew. She managed to clear the furniture off it and roll it up without too much trouble, but once it was rolled up, the rug seemed to weigh thousands and thousands of pounds. After straining and struggling and heaving and sweating, and only moving it about six inches, she called Uncle and decided to leave it for later, which brought her around to the task of hauling all the books and magazine and photographs out to the yard to be burned. This was not a strenuous task, but after tripping over the same piece of nothing in the middle of the kitchen floor every time she entered or left the room, she felt like lighting the entire house on fire! And herself with it!

And so her day went. Stumbling around like klutz, breaking things that she could have found a use for, going to toss the sofa cushions into the front yard so they could bake in the sun only to step in a crawdad hole and krill her ankle, winding her up limping around for the rest of the day, without even an aspirin to take. All in all, her day was not a good nor a very productive one, so nearing late evening she decided to admit defeat and call it quits. She hadn't heard Elias making trips to the rubbish pile in a while, so she decided to take a quick shower. She ordinarily would not have wasted toiletries by showering two days in a row, but she'd earned it, so conservation be damned.

However, she quickly discovered that she wasn't strong enough to heft a five gallon bucket of water up onto the wire hook of the shower stall that Elias had rigged up, even if she had been tall enough to reach it. Which she wasn't. Clearly, Elias Stone didn't stop to consider that not everyone was eight feet tall! So, she wound up leaving the bucket of tepid water on the ground and washing up like some sort of cave woman. It wasn't exactly a relaxing or a refreshing endeavor, but it served its purpose and once she was toweled off and dressed in a fresh pair of shorts and a tank top, she exited the shower and limped back into the kitchen, where she found Elias standing by the sink, drinking a cup of coffee, a curiously dark expression on his features that instantly irritated her. What did he have be all sullen about? She hadn't seen him tripping and stumbling around like a fool! In fact, she had barely seen him at all because he'd been hiding upstairs all day, the chicken!

Wordlessly, Elias picked up a coffee mug sitting on the counter next to him and held it out to her. She started to wave the offer away, but then changed her mind. Maybe a shot of caffeine would steady her nerves and boost her spirits.

"Are you hungry?" he asked as she took the mug from him. "I can heat up something."

The thought of food turned her stomach, so she opened her mouth to decline when her coffee cup suddenly slipped from her hand. She gasped and tried to make a grab for it, but it was too late and a split second later it hit the floor and exploded with a loud clatter, sending shards of porcelain and a wave of coffee scattering out over the floor.

"Rainee, are you alright!" Elias asked, thunking his own mug onto the countertop and taking a fast step toward her. "Are you burned? Did you get cut?"

Rainee didn't even bother to answer. She just spun on her heel and walked from the room. She was going to bed and she was staying there until things improved. And if they never improved, then she'd just be locked up in there for the rest of her life. Dragging herself through the house and up the stairway, she trudged into her room, closed the door, and locked it behind her. She was so done with everything it wasn't even funny.

Stepping out of her sneakers, she pulled her shorts off and left them where they lay, reaching under her tank top to work her way out of her bra and tossing it aside it, too. And even though the sun was up and shining, she padded toward the bed. She couldn't do anything else, so she'd just hide under the covers until whatever was wrong with her worked itself out. It was the safest thing she could do for herself. But, as she flopped down onto the bed, a knock on the door sounded out, sending anger flashing through her.

"Rainee, can I come in?" Elias called to her.

"No!" was her resounding response.

"Rainee, I just want to make sure—"

"I'm fine, thank you," she called back to him, burying her face in her pillow and trying to remember to breathe. Just breathe.

There was silence from the other side of the doorway and Rainee thought Elias had gone, so she tried to let her clenched muscles relax. It only lasted about ten seconds.

"Please, open the door," Elias called again and she heard the doorknob begin to wiggle.

Damn. "Go away!" she yelled at him, but her voice got lost in her pillows so she decided to forgo further conversation.

"Rainee, open the door so I can talk to you face to face," Elias beseeched, beginning to sound as irritated as she felt. "Please, unlock this and let me in."

Was the man deaf? Or was he just as dumb as a sack of rocks? Couldn't he tell that she just wanted to be by herself?

There was another brief silence before Elias' voice sounded out again, this time a bit harsher than before. "Rainee, I'm asking you to open the door! Please! I can't help you if you won't let me in!"

Help her? What on earth could he do to help her? "What are you talking about!" she hollered at him, wanting to sound angry, but she just...didn't.

"You know what I'm talking about! Now, open the door!" he demanded and his tone alone should have had her wanting to make him re-think how he was speaking to her, but she suddenly felt drained.

She'd had a very long day, following a very, very long and humiliating day, following a very long month filled with worry and nerves and what if scenarios. She was tired. She was wrought. And quite frankly, she wanted to break down into tears just to relieve some of the pressure that she could feel swirling around inside her.

"Rainee, open the door or I'll open it myself!" Elias warned her and that threat had her bristling just enough to bring her off the bed and up onto her feet.

Clearly, Elias Stone did not understand who he was talking to! She had one father already and she hadn't agreed to call anyone else by that title, so she needed to make the man standing outside her door understand that!

Stomping across the room, she unlocked the door with a vicious click and jerked it open, prepared to tell Elias Stone exactly where he could stick his attitude and his daddy complex, but she didn't get the chance. The moment the door was no longer between them, Elias swept into the room and took her in his arms, crushing his mouth to hers and very effectively stifling her words.

That sudden invasion pushed a startled cry from her lungs and the sudden assault on her senses made her go numb, but she had very little time to think about any of that before she was lifted right off her feet and purposefully whisked back to her bed. As soon as her back was against the mattress, Elias' body was stretched out on top of her, his lower half already hard and pulsating against her thighs so that she could feel it even through his jeans. His hands weren't tangled into her hair or stroking her face this time, though. They were roaming over her body, running along her hips and underneath her to cup her bottom before sliding beneath her tank top to cup her bare breasts.

The deep groan that left Elias was shocking, but more shocking still was the feel of those large hands on her bare flesh and the way they made her breasts seem even smaller than they already were. That thought forced a sharp sound out of her and had her pushing his hands away from her.

"Rainee, I-I'm sorry!" he breathed roughly as he pulled away from her and pushed himself up onto his knees, allowing her to sit up and quickly adjust her top, crossing her arms over her chest before she could stop herself.

"N-no, I-I'm sorry," she choked out, humiliation burning on her face. "I-I...I just wasn't expecting...that."

Elias lifted a hand and reached out toward her, but she shrank away from him and if he hadn't had her legs pinned beneath him, she would have leapt from the bed. Seeing her reaction caused him to go still and brought a stricken look to his features.

"Rainee, you don't have to be afraid of me. I-I won't make you do anything—"

"I-I'm not afraid," she told him, hovering dangerously close to the edge of a sob. "It's just...no one has ever...even seen...me." And she kind of liked it that way, despite the fact that if she never allowed her mate to see her, it would be difficult to produce offspring, but in that moment, she really didn't care.

Elias finished closing the distance between them, carefully taking hold of her wrist and urging her arms away from her chest. "Rainee, I've seen you. And I think you're beautiful," he said and she felt her body go completely stiff.

"Wh-what do you mean! Last night? I-I slept in clothes—"

"Not last night. A while ago, while you were bathing," he responded, making her gasp.

"You...you were watching me!" she demanded, trying to pull her wrist free, but he was holding on too tight.

"I wasn't watching you. I saw you," he specified. "I was walking past my window and my window happens to be looking right down onto the shower and you just happened to be bathing."

Rainee felt her breath coming hard and fast and she kept trying to pull her wrist free, but Elias wouldn't let her go. Oh god. Could this day get any worse?

"Don't be like this, Rainee," Elias said in a soft, soothing tone. "You don't need to be ashamed or embarrassed. You're a beautiful girl. All of you."

Lifting the hand that wasn't holding her wrist, he carefully and slowly reached out to her, letting his fingertips skim over the thin fabric covering the breast she wasn't shielding. She flinched and wanted to swat his hand away, but she refused to do it. Partly because she wanted to seem like a complete child. And partly because the way his fingertips skimmed her breast sent a shiver coursing completely through her, starting in her stomach and landing squarely in a low lying place that had her breath catching.

Elias didn't miss the shiver and as he lifted his brow at her, he again ran his fingertips across the fabric of her tank top, a bit higher this time so that he skimmed over the very tip of her breast, bringing the sensitive bud to a swiftly hardening peak and causing her to pull in a sharp breath.

"You have nothing to be ashamed of," he told her, his deep voice an octave lower and his eyes a shade darker.

He let his fingers trail over the tightened tip of her breast again, moving around in small little circles that halted her breath and caused heat to not only rush up into her cheeks, but out into all the rest of her at the same instant, lifting her temperature by a few very uncomfortable degrees.

"Rainee, I honestly didn't want to do this to you so soon. I swear it," he murmured, moving his hand from her breast and up to her cheek, which was throbbing steadily away. "But, I've been thinking about bedding my new mate for weeks, picturing how I would do it without hurting you, how it would feel to have someone so...untouched. I haven't been able to think about anything else."

She nodded because she understood. She had been thinking about the same thing for the past month. Thinking about how it would feel, what it would be like to give herself to someone she didn't even know, if she would be able to feel it at all or if she'd be too scared to do more than lie there and try not to cry.

"God forgive any sin that I might be committing, but I think we both need this, Rainee," Elias whispered, moving himself off the mattress and onto his feet, pulling her along with him so that once he was standing, she was facing him. 

She couldn't argue with him. If nothing else, at least it would be over with and she could get it all out of her mind. Honestly, she never wanted to think about sex ever again.

Elias, looming over her and wearing an expression that was drawn a bit too tightly, carefully reached his hands down and took hold of the hem of her tank top. "Let's forget about why we're here for a little while," he suggested roughly, slowly sliding the shirt upwards past her stomach and ribcage and she wanted with every ounce of her being to stop him, but she didn't. And she wouldn't. This was why she'd been brought to The Sanctuary. This was her bounden duty. "I'd rather think about giving my new mate what she needs to help her feel better."

Rainee wanted to feel better. But, again, she mostly just wanted it to be over with. And the sooner the better. So, as Elias moved her shirt upwards, she lifted her arms and squeezed her eyes shut, allowing him to pull it over her head, exposing her to him in all her flat chested glory.

If she could have dropped dead right then, she would have. Never in her entire life had she felt so...vulnerable...so defenseless and so...judged. She could feel Elias' eyes on her, boring into her flesh...her tragically curve-free flesh which was draped over a body that should have belonged to a twelve year old boy.

"Rainee, open your eyes," Elias requested as she let her hands fall back to her sides, but she couldn't.

There was no way she could bring herself to look such a beautiful man in the face. Not while she was uncovered and showing herself to him.

"Please, look at me," he entreated as she felt warm hands running down her arms...and she tried not to flinch, but failed. "I can't do this with you if you won't open your eyes."

She couldn't do it. She could not look at him when he was standing there looking at her. It would be so degrading...she would simply never get past it.

"Rainee, I promise, I think you're beautiful.  If that's what you're worried about, you shouldn't be," he declared. "Please, look at me."

She shook her head in answer. She simply could not do what he was asking of her.

"I'm a man, Rainee. If I didn't find you attractive, I wouldn't want you. And I want you," Elias pledged and Rainee felt him take hold of her hand.

She was tugged slightly forward before she felt her palm being pressed against something that had her eyes flying open and her breath rushing out of her. Seeing where Elias had placed her hand, and feeling what was pulsating beneath it, had every single ounce of blood in her entire body instantaneously diverting to her face and the heat that came along with that surge was enough to weaken her knees and make her stomach flip over.

"This is because of you, Rainee," Elias stated coarsely, tightening his hand around hers, which in turn tightened her hand around that piece of him that was swollen and throbbing with blood and he groaned a little in the back of his throat. "You're doing this to me. Trust me, you have nothing to be ashamed of."

Rainee was trying to focus on his words, trying to let them sink in, but she couldn't seem to concentrate on anything but what was happening beneath her palm. She could feel him there, hard as a rock and as big around as her forearm and that knowledge gave her something other than her state of undress and embarrassment to think about. She couldn't see how something that big...how could it possibly fit...

Well, she was done. She wanted out. She believed she had a responsibility to fulfill, but she had not agreed to do something that could feasibly cause her severe physical damage.

Rainee took a step backward, ready to turn and get the hell away from Elias Stone, but he held onto her with a firm grip that kept her from making her escape. And then he tightened her hand around him a fraction more, clenching his jaw tight and groaning again. His sparkling eyes went slightly unfocused as the pressure on his body was increased and out of some form of...sympathy...she felt her belly contract in a way that had an unexpected gush of moisture collecting between her thighs. She'd never experienced such a sensation and it was both startling and intoxicating at the same time.

Elias released her hand, allowing her to quickly let go of him, so that he could take hold of her shoulders and pull her right up against him, catching her mouth beneath his and easily sliding his tongue past her lips, engaging hers in a slow and methodic dance that left her dizzy and out of breath and all the while, his large, warm hands were roaming over her bare back, caressing her in a way that only served to increase the moisture between her legs. And when his hands wended their way down to her hips and slid beneath the waistband of her panties, allowing him to cup her bottom and knead the flesh there, her legs went weak.

He kissed her for a good long while, his hands doing wonderful things to her backside and she took it in, absorbing the feel of it, absorbing the way his large hands felt as they skillfully worked her muscles. It was a heady feeling, being held by such strong arms, her bare breasts being pressed against the soft fabric of his t-shirt, his sure hands roaming over her in a way that left her reeling. She could have stayed in that moment forever. But, just when she began to relax enough for her own hands to reach up and grasp his broad shoulders, she was shaken by Elias abruptly hooking his thumbs into her underwear and tugging the scrap of fabric down over her hips, letting it drop to the floor at her feet. Suddenly naked...completely naked...she again was swept with the deep need to turn and flee the room, but it was too late. Elias' hands were already gripping her backside and he was lifting her up off her feet and in an effortless movement, he had her legs wrapped firmly around his waist, giving her no choice but to put her arms around his neck.

Rainee sucked in a breath, stunned at the sudden change of position, and altitude, but that change served a purpose. She had been shifted in a way that allowed Elias perfect access to her bare breasts and without hesitation or discussion, he captured one small mound in his mouth. A shockwave rolled through Rainee, jarring her insides right down to her bones and forcing a sharp gasp past her throat.

Never had she imagined a moment in her life when she would be permitting a man she didn't know to do such a thing to her. 

 Never had she imagined that having a man, any man, running his tongue over the taught bud of her breast could do such...wonderful and delicious things to her. 

Even after only a few seconds of having him lave her breast, she was covered in gooseflesh and her center was heavy and throbbing with want. It was the most strange and dizzying and heady moment she'd ever experienced, and yet, in the back of her mind, her sense of decency was screaming at her to put a stop to it. But, there was something stronger overriding her modesty and that something had her losing herself in what he was doing to her.

Seeing that she wasn't going to protest, Elias deepened his efforts, taking her entire breast into his mouth. It both astounded and embarrassed her that he could fit the whole of her breast into his mouth, but...he didn't seem to mind how small she was. In fact, as he began to suckle at her, pulling at the sensitive tip until it sent little shards of pleasure skittering through her belly, he groaned deep in his chest, a satisfied and decadent sound that she wasn't sure he would have made if he found her body lacking.

As she started to breath a bit harder, he left that breast and slid over to the other, letting his tongue slide across her chest along the way and when he took the other tip in his mouth, she had to let out another gasp because the bliss dancing through her lower half felt even more pronounced than before. She was swept away as he suckled and tugged at her, as he rolled his tongue over the taut peak in a way that had her throbbing center feeling as if it was weeping moisture. And just when she was beginning to relax enough to let her fingers tangle into Elias' silken hair, he stopped what he was doing and pulled away, gazing up at her with clouded eyes and tight features.

"I want to taste you, Rainee," he said in a rough, breathless voice and Rainee couldn't imagine that he could taste her any more than he already had. "Can I do that, Rainee? Can I taste you?"

She knew he wanted her to say yes, and even though she wasn't exactly sure of what she was agreeing to—though after what he'd just been able to do to her, she couldn't imagine that it would be anything bad—she nodded her answer. A bare second after that, her back was against the mattress, Elias was kissing his way down her chest and stomach, his large hands following behind, leaving a trail of heat in their wake. It wasn't until she realized that he'd dropped down onto his knees and was sliding those large hands beneath her backside that something akin to terror spiked inside her and she sat straight up, putting her hands on his shoulders and trying to shove him away. Only, he refused to be shoved.

"Please, Rainee. I won't do anything to hurt you," he promised, his voice and features harsh, but his eyes soft and reassuring. "This is for you. Just you. Please, let me do this." As he spoke, he tried to gently urge her to lie back down, but she held her ground.

"No, I-I...I can't—"

"Let me do this for you," he cut her off, taking her mouth in a quick kiss while his hands began to caress the length of her thighs.  "Please."

Rainee waffled, torn between what his pleading was doing to her and what her sense of decency was telling her to do. But, as much as she wanted to put an end to this incredibly overwhelming and mortifying situation...she couldn't. This was what she had been asked to do. She couldn't shirk her duty. Well, what Elias was asking her to let him do wasn't exactly part of her civic duty, but it was something her mate wanted, something he was pleading for, and she didn't want to tell him no. He looked so miserably desperate. But, what he was asking of her...she just didn't know if she could go through with it.

Elias gave her another quick kiss as his hands ran up her thighs, stopping dangerously close to a part of her that she wanted to instinctively keep him away from. "Rainee, do you want to have sex with me?"

Oh god. Was this a conversation they really needed to have? Especially right now? She was sitting in front of him stark naked, with her face throbbing with the heat of a hundred suns and he wanted to talk about it? She couldn't dream up a more humiliating circumstance to be in.

"Y-yes," she squeaked out, seeing that he was seriously waiting for an answer.

"Then I want you to trust me. I want this to be as comfortable for you as possible and this will help relax things," he explained to her, increasing the heat in her cheeks to an uncomfortable degree. "And if I can't taste you, I swear it might kill me."

Rainee pulled in a long, uneven breath, but had trouble letting it back out again. She was quickly beginning to realize that the longer she sat there, waffling and wavering, the longer she was drawing out the situation and making it even more awkward and uncomfortable for the both of them. This was what she had come to The Sanctuary for. This was her bounden duty.

Not wanting to postpone what was imminent, she gave Elias the answer he was asking her to give. "I'll-I'll trust you," she whispered to him, which seemed to push even more blood up into her cheeks.

Elias let out a ragged sound and clenched his teeth so hard she could see a muscle in his jaw ticking. "The way you blush, Rainee! You don't know what it makes me want to do to you!"

Well, whatever we wanted to do to her, she wanted him to get on with it. The longer they sat there discussing it, the more she wanted to call the whole ordeal off and truly, at that point, she wasn't sure that Elias was in the right frame of mind to accept that.

"Do whatever you want," she heard herself saying to him and she saw his shoulders go stiff.

She was sitting on the bed, butt naked, with a beautiful man on his knees in front of her, ready to help her carry out her duty. It was time to put on her big girl panties, figuratively speaking, and get down to business.

"I trust you," she told him again, feeling slightly bolder by viewing what was about to happen to her as a business obligation. "You can do whatever you need to do." And to prove how willing she was, she laid back on the mattress and clenched her jaw shut to stifle any further arguments.

There was a moment of silence before Elias uttered another ragged sound and then he was carefully parting her legs. Rainee squeezed her eyes shut, willing her heart to keep beating and her body to lie still. She wanted this. This was her responsibility. She felt Elias' mouth touch her stomach, just below her belly button and then he ran his tongue down the plain of her belly, not even hesitating as he pressed a tender kiss to the thatch of curls concealing her. That alone was enough to shock Rainee into near numbness, but when he slid his hands up her thighs and used his thumbs to tenderly part her flesh, allowing him to dip the tip of his tongue into the valley that held her most secret area, she felt her entire being convulse...and she knew a wild moment of sheer terror that had her entire body going as stiff as a board and her mind instantly screaming at her to start fighting until Elias Stone was away from her.

The sheer disbelief rocketing through her was overpowering, but she remained motionless, forcing her body to accept what was being done...because this was her responsibility.

Elias, as he used the tip of his tongue to stroke her from the top all the way down and back up again, emitted a deep, low groan that rumbled forth and filled the room around them.  "Rainee," he rasped thickly, "you taste just like I thought you would."

She was glad he seemed to be enjoying himself. As for her, she was handling it about like she figured she would. She had gone all but paralyzed and now she was just lying there with her eyes squeezed shut, waiting for the thing to be over so she could move onto something else.  

Honestly and truly, she just wanted this part of things to be over so that she could forget about it and get on with the rest of her life....