They Can't Protect Me From Loving You

“Are you going to be ok?” Brian asked as they reached her apartment building.

“I’ll be fine, once I’ve explained everything to Joel.” Eloise replied with a weak smile.

“Just remember that I love you.” Brian said, gently pushing a stray piece of hair out of her face and behind her ear as he gazed into her eyes.

“I love you too Bri.” She whispered as he slowly lowered his lips onto hers. “I’ll call you later, once it’s over with.” She added as they slowly parted contact and she made her way up to her flat.

When she got in Joel still wasn’t back from work, so she quickly showered and put on her comfy clothes. She waited nervously for Joel to come home so that she could talk to him. She had been channel hopping for about ten minutes when she heard Joel’s key in the lock.

“Hey, how come you’re late?” she asked casually, not taking her eyes off the TV screen. He didn’t answer so she turned to face him. She immediately realised there was something wrong. Remaining silent, he took out his cell phone and started searching for whatever he was looking for.

“Joel, what’s wrong?” she asked noticing that he had red, puffy eyes and the smell of alcohol on his breath as he got closer to her.

“You tell me” he said angrily passing her the phone, the sound of background noise coming from it. Eloise took it from him confused, her eyes widening as she watched a video clip that was playing. It was a video clip of her and Brian, taken through the window as they sat in The Sugar Shaker earlier that day, kissing.

“Where did you get this?” she asked shakily, swallowing back the lump that had formed in her throat.

“Don’t worry about that, who is he? How long has it been going on?” Joel yelled.

“Joel, let me explain.” She began but before she could continue he had his hand around her throat, holding her up against the wall.

“Who is he?” he demanded, tightening his grip.

“Joel. I can’t, I can’t breathe.” She stammered, gasping for breath. He loosened his grip slightly, but still had a firm hold.

“Tell me who the fuck he is!” he yelled. Eloise closed her eyes instinctively as she felt his breath on his face. She could smell the whisky.

“Please Joel, let me explain, he’s a friend.” She replied, trying to keep as still as possible so not to cause herself any more pain.

“Looks more than a friend if you ask me, you lying, little, SLAG!” he yelled, loosening his grip and brining the back of his hand across her face with a loud slap. She fell to the floor, clutching her right cheek.

“Joel it’s the truth, nothing’s going on, he’s a friend from my past – please just let me explain.” She pleaded as he towered over her. He bent down to her level and roughly placed his hand around her upper arm before pulling her up with force.

“Ok bitch, explain to me about your little boyfriend.” He said hoarsely dragging her over to the sofa and throwing her down into it.

“Ok, a little over four years ago I was placed into the witness protection programme with my family. Before that, I was dating Brian, the guy in the video, we were in love and were both heart broken when I had to leave and break contact with him completely. Now Brian is in Avenged Sevenfold and yesterday he recognised me. It was so nice seeing him and the others again that we arranged to meet up for a catch up, to talk about the past four years.” She stopped for his reaction. He looked at her intently in silence for a moment before speaking.

“Do you still love him?” he said rather calmly. Eloise swallowed hard before replying through a nod.

“So what about us? You going to throw it all away because of him?” he growled. Eloise shuddered away from him in fear that he would hit her again.

“Joel, please, you’ve got to understand. I love you, I really do, but I love Brian too, always have, I tried to forget about him, but seeing him again has brought all my feelings back to the front of my mind, I’m sorry Joel, but I still love him and want to be with him.” as she spoke, she became quieter and failed to keep eye contact with him.

“So what? I’m supposed to just leave, give up on you? Forget all about you?” Joel asked.

“Joel, please, don’t make this anymore difficult that what it has to be. I love you, but I love Brian more, I’m sorry, I don’t want to hurt you, but I’ll end up hurting us all more if I tried to pretend” she stopped not knowing what else to say.

“I can’t believe it’s such an easy decision for you to make. I thought you loved me as much as I love you, but right now I don’t want to see your lying, cheating face.” he said, anger building with every word. He stood up sharply with his fists clenched. Angrily he walked towards their bedroom. Eloise pulled her legs up onto the sofa and hugged them closely to her chest. She could hear him shuffling about angrily on the other side of the door. Tears ran down her face, stinging the newly forming bruise on her cheek. She wished Brian was there with her. He’d hold her and keep her safe. Everything was always ok when she was with Brian.

Joel re-emerged from the bedroom with his large blue holdall on his shoulder. Eloise opened her mouth to speak but words failed her. She just watched him gather a few last items from the living room. He walked over to the front door and she turned to face him, regretting it instantly as he threw his set of keys aggressively towards her. She didn’t get the chance to move out of the way completely and they caught her, full force, on the side of her head.

“Hope the two of you are happy together.” He growled slamming the door behind him. Eloise broke down in tears. She didn’t want it to end like this. She still loved him. She hadn’t wanted to hurt him, but she had to. She couldn’t be happy with him when she could be happier with Brian. Brian. She had to call him. Hopefully he hadn’t left yet and he could come over and make things better. She reached for her cell on the coffee table, scrolled down to Brian’s name and pressed the dial button. It gave three rings before he answered.

“Hey babe, did you tell him?” she heard his voice say on the other side.

“Uh-huh” Eloise replied trying not to give away the fact that she was crying.

“Babe are you ok? How did he take it?”

“Have you left yet?”

“We were just about to – do you want me to come over?”

“No, you’ll be late, I’ll be-“

“I’m coming over; I can catch the guys up if I need to.” He said and hung up the phone before she could argue back.

Fifteen minutes later Eloise jumped at the sound of a text message being delivered to her cell phone. It was a message from Brian asking what flat number she lived in. She text him back and less than a minute later she jumped again at the sound of the door buzzer. She got up off the sofa where she hadn’t moved from since Joel had slammed her into the cushions. She pressed the release button and put the door on the latch before returning to the sofa. She didn’t move when she heard Brian enter the flat, closing the door gently behind him.

“Hey babe, you ok?” he asked as she heard him walk over to her. Not being able to hide her bruised face from him any longer she looked up at him, smiling weakly.

“Babe, what happened? Did he – did he do this?” he asked with a growl of anger at the back of his throat. He had sat down besides her and had placed his hands gently onto her bruised face. She nodded silently trying to hold back more tears.

“I’ll fucking kill him!” he said in a low whisper.

“Babe, no, don’t do anything, I’m ok and he was upset and angry –“

“Angry? I’ll fucking show him angry! I’ll-“

Before he could continue with his rant, Eloise stopped it the only way she could think of – by kissing him, letting her lips linger against his long enough to feel him calm down.

“Four years and you still know the best way to shut me up.” Brian laughed as their lips parted.

“Bri, how long have I known you? There aren’t many things I don’t know about you.” Eloise replied smiling for the first time since Brian had left her two hours ago. Brian smiled back and moved around on the sofa, placing his arm around her shoulder and pulling her into a hug. She felt him place a soft kiss onto her temple as her head fell onto his chest.

“I love you Eloise Benson.” He said proudly.

“I love you too Brian Haner Jr.” She replied smiling. Brian’s finger slowly reached below her chin and raised her head so that she could look at him.

“More than anything.” He whispered as their faces grew closer. Their lips touched and Brian took immediate control, wrapping his arms around her waist and skilfully moving her so that she was led on the sofa with him on top. His lips opened her mouth and he quickly slipped his tongue in and began to massage her mouth. Her hands wound up entangling their fingers in his thick black hair, pulling him closer into her. His lips slowly left hers and made their sensual way down along her jaw line to her neck. She gave out several involuntary moans of pleasure as she was taken back four years with his nibbling seductively on her pulse point. Knowing exactly what she wanted and longed for; she took her hands from his hair and placed them on his belt buckle. She quickly worked it loose and pulled it from out of the loops before starting work on his pants button and zip. His lips moved back to hers and as the kiss kept the same pace she felt him work off her t-shirt. A wide, sexy smirk spread across Brian’s face.

“Still no bra around the house?” Brian chuckled as he instantly moved himself down and began to run his tongue over her breasts. He slowly moved his tongue down her torso until he got to the edge of her jogging bottoms. He sat up and slowly pulled them down, taking her panties with them. He then pulled off his shirt and Eloise stared at his well toned chest.
He moved back down to her and began to kiss her again as she grabbed hold of the waistband of his boxers and pull at them taking his jeans with them. Brian moved and then pushed himself into her making her moan loudly. She’d forgotten how blessed he was as she bucked her hips towards his. He slowly began to thrust continuously into her, hitting her spot each time. She closed her eyes as she moaned with pleasure and remembered the last, and only other time they’d done this.

Moan after moan left both their mouths as Brian steadily began to quicken the pace. Eloise’s eyes rolled into the back of her head as she felt her body tighten around Brian, a burning sensation searing through her body.

“Oh god Brian I love you!” she moaned loudly as she felt her body begin to squirm uncontrollably in pleasure under Brian.

“Fuck I love you too Eloise.” He said through deep gasps of breath as they climaxed together. Brian collapsed onto her naked chest, both breathless and placed a kiss just above her right breast.

The pair lay quietly on the sofa, allowing their breathing to return to normal; just enjoying being close to each other. Eloise could feel herself dozing off to sleep as she felt Brian raise his head off her bare chest.

“Move back to Huntington.” He said staring up at her.

“What?” she questioned through an unsure laugh. He moved so that he was led fully on top her, propped up on his elbows.

“Move back to Huntington. I want us to be together, and that will be a hell of a lot easier if you lived in Huntington.” He said smiling uncontrollably.

“Brian, I can’t, I –“

“Why can’t you?”

“Bri, my life’s still at risk, if the Owen’s find out I moved back to Huntington they could kill me.” She tried to explain.

“But babe, Katie Mitchell won’t be the one moving back to Huntington; Eloise Benson will be moving to somewhere she’s never been before.” He reasoned, not stopping smiling once.

“You’ve been led there thinking this through haven’t you?” Eloise said knowingly and Brian just nodded smiling broadly. Eloise thought for a moment, staring into the eyes of the guy she loved more than anything else in the world. The guy that was the one thing missing from the last four years of her life. Looking into his eyes the decision that she had to make became one of the easiest of her life.

“It may take a few weeks to get everything sorted at this end and find a place in Huntington but I guess I could.” She said as seriously as possible.

“Really?” Brian screeched.

“Yes really!” she replied and instantly his lips were on hers.

“Hang on did you say find a place in Huntington?” Eloise nodded her reply

“But I thought you would live with me?” Brian said sounding disheartened.

“Really?” she asked taken aback by his request.

“Of course, I want to be able to wake up with you every morning, come home to you every night; we’ve got four years to make up for.” Brian said blushing slightly. Eloise leant her head so that she could reach Brian’s lips with hers and kissed him hard.

“Can I take that as a yes?” he whispered and she nodded smiling.