Devil In The Elevator: A Hartman Romance

by Laura Christopher

  "Are you okay?" He had this shocked expression on his face. It had me worried.

  "I guess…" clearing his throat and scratching his chin as his facial hair was starting to grow out from more than just stubble "I just thought that maybe he would be basking in the media attention, but in reality he has probably, likely, had that footage buried and that, it just, I'm confused about it all"

  "I'm sorry" no one should ever have to deal with anything like this. It was everything wrong in the world.

  "I always knew that he was not my biggest fan, I mean, I look just like mom, Jack is his double. Well, when he was younger anyway, and I always did everything possible to wind him up, make him mad, but this is just…"

  "Did they love each other a lot, your parents?"

  Scoffing, he gave me an odd look that I couldn't name "No Sneaks. They barely spent any time together. There was one night when I heard them arguing, and I thought that maybe she would finally grow the balls to leave him and her unhappy marriage, get us out of there"

  "But she didn't?"

  "No, she didn't get the chance"

  I wanted to ask him what he meant by that, but I knew from the way he was holding himself that we needed to change the topic, and fast.

  “She died before she had the chance” although, it seemed that Noah didn’t want to change the subject of his mom.

  “What happened?” My voice was timid, and I guessed that he may not even answer my question, but to my surprise he did.

  “Car accident, I was shipped off two weeks later”

  Everything in me really hated his father, he didn’t deserve that title.

  "Feed me Noah" my eyes gazed upon the pizza "I am freaking starving"

  Chuckling, he opened the box, and we both sniffed at the delicious smell of the pepperoni and cheese.

  Chapter Eleven

  Valentina

  Things got awkward after our encounter in the shower. Of course, this only worsened after waking up this morning in his arms, after having to share the bed with him. It was too much, way too much. My brain was running a mile a minute, coming up with every reason that having sex with Noah Hartman had been a bad idea. While my heart clenched every time, I looked at him and it wasn’t just my heart.

  Was I just another notch on his already overflowing bedpost? I had a love-hate reaction to that fact. I had loved every second of it and hated myself for letting it happen in the first place. He was the asshole extraordinaire, the devil, and I had just, metaphorically, dropped my panties for him. Not that I had been actually wearing any when he invited himself into the shower with me. It didn’t help that every time I thought about it, I found myself getting turned on and then unable to look at him all over again as if he would be able to tell. Knowing him, though, god, he probably would be able to.

  We were currently on some street in the middle of god knows where. There was not a single thing in sight, just the long road and random bushes on its side.

  Sighing, I turned in the passenger seat, “I’m hungry.”

  “She speaks! Are you done with tormenting yourself after we fucked?” He was being overdramatic, as always.

  “What?” How did he know that is what I was thinking about? He’s the devil, I should have known.

  “Oh please, it was written all over your face.”

  “Shut up, asshole.”

  “You liked it, and If I recall, you begged me to fuck you. And I distinctly remember telling you I would remind you that…”

  “If you don’t shut up right now, It will never happen again.” Wait, again?

  As my words registered with him, he just smiled, a shit-eating grin, “Ahh, so you still want me, excellent.”

  “Are you sure you weren’t hit on the head as a kid? It really would explain a lot to me.” Like, a lot.

  “You can hit me when we bang next time if you want, didn’t take you to be into that kind of shit, but whatever gets you off, baby.”

  “Can we just get some food or what?” Turning this conversation to a more neutral topic was in both of our best interests right now. Before I got even more turned on than I already was and jumped him, causing us to crash the car we desperately needed to get to wherever the hell it was we were going.

  “As soon as we pass somewhere, sure. We need to find some more ATMs anyway. What are you hungry for, other than my dick?”

  Ignoring his comment, well, the last part of it anyway, because yeah, okay, so maybe I had been thinking about that appendage, but I was not about to admit that to him. Asshole.

  “Burger, fries and a milkshake, chocolate, please tell me you are not one of those freaks who get a vanilla milkshake or worse, strawberry?” Shuddering at the thought.

  “Hell yes” he nodded his head enthusiastically before stopping and turning to me, “And what’s wrong with strawberry milkshakes?”

  “Oh god, you are, aren’t you?” I should of know it was pink, almost red. The devil’s color of choice. Freaking typical.

  “No, I am all about chocolate Sneaks, keep those panties out of your ass.”

  “Stop thinking about my ass.”

  Placing a hand on his heart, he turned a little, fluttering his eyelashes “But it’s so nice, how can I not?”

  “Thanks, I guess.”

  “You are welcome, my Sneaks.”

  “I am not yours.” My blood was beginning to boil, I could feel the heat rising in my chest. For a change from embarrassment, this time.

  “Yeah, yeah, look a street sign. We must be almost near people again.”

  “I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not, but I’m too hungry and need to eat. Also, we need to get some more water.” Being around people, well, it put me on edge in our current predicament.

  “So, demanding.”

  Was he serious? “Me? I’m demanding, have you met yourself?”

  Laughing at me, he just said, “I’m a delight.”

  “Whatever helps you sleep at night, Diablo.”

  “Thinking about your little pink puss…”

  Cutting him off before he could finish that sentence, my eyes squinted at him “Just drive and keep that pretty mouth shut, please.”

  Saluting me, he sped the car up, pulling us into a town that looked like one you see in a Netflix film. All it was missing was the singing teenagers, jumping on tables, and somehow all knowing the same dance moves. Magically.

  1

  A diner on the corner was calling my name. Stepping out of the car, I took the opportunity to stretch fully. Sitting in a car for hours at a time was not the one and I needed to move.

  “That was almost a sex moan.” turning towards him, I expected to see a teasing look, but I was faced with a look of pure desire instead. God, now that I’d had him, all I could think about was getting him naked and doing bad, bad things. Over and over again. He had me under some kind of devil sex spell, I’m sure.

  Clearing my throat and attempting to clear my mind, I demanded, “Feed me.”

  “With food or..”

  “Food Noah, food.” Maybe something else when we weren’t in the middle of the street. Yes, definitely.

  “You know, you have been calling me Noah more, and I don’t know, I kind of like Diablo. Maybe I will change my name legally.”

  “You are an idiot. You know that?”

  “But a hot one,” wiggling his eyebrows at me suggestively, he began to bite his bottom lip, trying to tease me further.

  “Food, Noah,” or I was about to climb him the way goats climb trees in those YouTube videos and end up getting the pair of us arrested for indecent exposure and having sex in a public place.

  “Your wish is my command, Sneaks” I don’t know if I was happy about getting food or disappointed that he hadn’t heard what I had thought about climbing him. Despite my better judgment I very much wanted to do just that.

  “I thought you were hungry?” He shouted over his shoulder as I stayed, feet glued in the same spot beside the car. Rolling my eyes and moving forward
s, I followed behind him, unable to keep my eyes off his ass the entire way. Curling my fingers into a fist to stop myself from reaching out and touching or slapping it.

  “What’s that look about?” He asked as we sat at a booth, causing me to visibly swallow the saliva that was pooling in my mouth from my need for him.

  Flicking my eyes over the menu, I ignored him. The blush on my cheeks was heating my face to an almost uncomfortable level. When he laughed, it only intensified.

  “Now I need to know, Sneaks, spill it.”

  “Make me.”

  “Ohh, a challenge. Tell you what, if I can guess I get to decide what we do after we eat, if I don’t by the time we finish, you can,” holding his hand out to me, he added, “Deal?”

  “Fine, why the hell not.” His palm felt warm in mine, and despite how much I didn’t want to, my grip loosened almost instantly, pulling myself away from his touch.

  After ordering our food, we quickly fell into an easy conversation. I told him about the time my brother and I had to break him, literally, out of an empty fish tank in our parent’s back yard when two cops walked into the diner. Both of us froze and just stared at each other with panicked eyes locked together. On instinct, I dropped my hands down into my lap and under the table. My wrists were still sore and itchy as hell, but they were starting to heal and scab over. One look at my bandages, and I did not doubt that we would be facing some questions from the officers.

  I hoped that with my hair scraped back into a bun, they wouldn’t recognize me from the missing person posters, but you never know what could happen. Grabbing the edge of my hoody, I wanted to pull it over my head, but one look at Noah, and I stopped myself. It would only bring more attention to us.

  “Just stay calm and keep talking, Sneaks,” Noah spoke once they passed us and sat down at the counter a few feet away “If you stay quiet, they are going to notice.” He smiled like we were talking about something, anything other than the fact that there were cops in the same room as us.

  “Fine, I know what we can do.”

  “You haven’t won yet, Sneak’s.” Yet, being the optimum word.

  “I wasn’t talking about that. Let’s do twenty questions or something, to keep us talking”

  “What are we in junior high?” He scoffed at me, “Oh god, are you serious?”

  “Well, what do you have in mind instead?”

  “I’d rather be balls deep in you again, preferably without the audience, but I’m game if you are.”

  Groaning, I dropped my head down, almost into my hands, but firmly kept them in my lap “What is wrong with you?”

  “Twenty questions?” Nodding my head, I could help but smile when he groaned, “Fine.”

  “One question at a time we both answer it, that way it’s fair.”

  This is something I had learnt from Allie. When we had been in high school, we soon discovered that people used these games to try and one-up others a lot of the time. So, if you made it one of the rules that everyone had to answer the questions, people tended to be less dickish about it. After all, they had to answer it as well.

  “Fine, I’m going first” of course, he is “Oddest place you have had sex?”

  Hesitating, I was shocked by what he had just asked, out loud in a diner. Where the other people could hear him quite clearly, probably.

  “Sneaks, answer the question, this was your idea.”

  Yeah, it may have been my idea, but I didn’t think he would jump straight into these kinds of questions. Sure, I assumed he would lead up to it, but straight off the bat? Fucking hell.

  Clearing my throat and dropping my voice, making sure he was only one who could hear me, I answered his question, “Chemistry lab in high school, you?”

  “Chemistry lab, really? Didn’t go for the biology one, that would have made much more sense”

  Flipping him off with my middle finger “It was your question, answer it Noah”

  “Yankee Stadium, in the middle of a game”

  “In the stands?”

  Nodding his head, he didn’t answer me with any words.

  “Favorite position?” He said, between drinking his milkshake.

  “Hey, I haven’t asked my question yet.”

  “Sneaks, you asked if anyone noticed”

  Groaning, I waved a fry at him “That was a sub-question and totally allowed.”

  “Fine, but you have got the rules to this game all shades of wrong, Sneaks. I basically grew up in England, and even I know that these are not the proper rules to this game”

  “Okay, have you ever been in a relationship for more than just a quick fuck?”

  “Once” shifting, he kept his eyes on his burger, like it was the most interesting item in the room.

  “Once?” Who was this girl?

  “Yes, I dated this girl, back in London, and she was ninety-nine shades of fucked up, we both were”

  “What happened?” I was not sure what I was feeling right now. A mix between concern and anxiety. Did he still have feelings for her? Was that why he was this way? What if… no.

  “That a follow-up question?”

  “Just answer Diablo.”

  “Jessica, in reality, only wanted to be with me because of the trust fund I would inherit when I turned twenty-one. Your turn, you ever been in a relationship?” Was she the reason he was such a diablo?

  There was definitely a lot more to that story, but I don’t think I was ever going to find out. He had this almost pained expression, and part of me wondered, was she part of the reason for the lack of tattoos over his heart?

  “A couple, yeah.” Admitting that I couldn’t look at him, an uncomfortable sensation in the pit of my stomach.

  Clearing his throat, he asked, “Anything serious?”

  “Once, or so I thought” Admitting this was harder than it should have been, and the reason why confused me because it was him “this guy Chad.”

  “Chad?” The snicker that left his mouth made me almost cringe, but I managed to keep my face neutral. Especially when around this diablo in front of me.

  “Don’t” the warning was clear in my voice “he asked me to marry him.”

  Shock filled his face as memories flashed in my brain. “I found him two months later with his dick inside of his ‘best friend’, I guess he was firmly in the closet and was using me to cover that shit up.”

  “What a fucking dick.”

  “Yup”

  “Want me to beat his ass when we sort this shit out?”

  “No, Eduardo rained down on him like bullets out of a gun.”

  “And now?”

  “If this is you asking me if I’m dating someone after we had sex, then I want to hit you more than ever before”

  Holding both hands up in surrender, he just smiled as our food was placed on the table by the waitress.

  “Jessica and I, we were destructive together” unwilling to say anything I just waited, holding in a breath waiting for him to say more, to say anything. “We cheated on each other all of the time, she only wanted me to shower her with gifts and money. We were only teenagers but being with her and seeing what my parent’s relationship was like I vowed to never do that”

  “Relationships?” he vowed to never be in a relationship because of her and his parents?

  Giving me one short, curt nod “Yeah, us Hartman men, we’re toxic in relationships”

  Everything in me wanted to ask about the blank skin on his chest, but I couldn’t, he looked a little in pain. Which was why when he asked the next question, I didn’t give him hell for it.

  “Favorite position?” He asked with a mouthful of burger, repeating his question and trying to change the subject from relationships.

  “You’ll know” was all I could say because there was no way in hell, I was about to tell him that in the middle of a diner when other people could overhear me.

  “That you admitting you want me again, Sneaks?”

  “Shut up.” As if he didn’t know that. The
way our bodies reacted to one another last night, well, it would be a crime not to do it again, even if he was a pain in the ass. There had to be one positive from this whole situation. Right?

  “Mines the valedictorian, for reference” dipping a fry into some ranch, he added, “You can get so deep when your legs are spread right out instant g spot orgasm, every time.”