Devil In The Elevator: A Hartman Romance

by Laura Christopher

  What were they doing?

  Were they still looking for me?

  Had they given up and thought I was long gone or worse, did they think I was already dead?

  Sometimes I would find myself staring at that burner phone, clutching it in the palm of my hand. Contemplating calling them, but knowing I shouldn’t, couldn’t. Not only would I put Noah and myself in danger, but it could also paint targets on the backs of those I loved the most. The fear of that stopped me every time.

  “You’ll see them again, Sneak’s.” He sounded so confident about it; I just wish I could believe him.

  “I hope you’re right.” Because right now, I felt like the possibility was reducing with every passing day we stayed on the run.

  “I promise.”

  Closing my eyes to hide them rolling, “Don’t make promises you can’t guarantee Noah.”

  “I’ll make it happen.” He sounded so confident, so sure of himself.

  “How?” The more time we spent together, I knew I could trust him to protect me and keep me safe. Promises that we’ll get back home, he couldn’t make ones like that when it felt so far from what our reality was.

  “I just will” was all he said before passing me a toasted marshmallow.

  I wasn’t trusted toasting them after mine caught fire. I mean, it wasn’t really even my fault, but I wasn’t going to complain that he was doing it for me. I mean, I did at first, but…. I enjoyed winding him up. It made me smile, and him groan. Every single time.

  A song was not what I needed right now to stop me from feeling sad though, it was just him, and that was the most frightening thing of all. This guy who I was only involved with because of I had unknowingly gotten myself involved in a kidnapping was making me feel all of these unknown feelings. Feelings that I had never quite felt before him. Not even with Chad, the poor excuse of a man I was going to marry. He had never made me feel a fraction of what I felt about the devil beside me. That was almost the worst part of it all.

  Maybe it was some form of Stockholm syndrome or something. Although I think that only is meant to be about the people who kidnap you? Who knows? It’s not that I could ask google right now. We were in the middle of god. I don’t really even know where we are anymore, somewhere in Montana. Once we drove out of that grocery store lot, I had stopped looking at the road signs. All I wanted was to be as far away from that place, away from them as possible. Every mile made me feel just that little better.

  “Do you think they are still looking?” unable to stop asking the question, I found myself waiting with anticipation for an answer. Even if I knew what that would be.

  “Yeah,” giving me a sad nod, he didn’t look up at me. Keeping those eyes on the flames between us.

  “What about that one who grabbed me, who shot at me?” Sometimes when I closed my eyes, I could see that green hair in small flashes. Like he was on the outskirts of my dreams but unable to enter.

  Thankfully.

  “I hope that the police still have him in custody, but you never know.”

  Silence enveloped us for a few moments, both of us stuck in our own thoughts. A bird squawked in the distance, making me jump slightly, which, of course, made him chuckle.

  “Noah?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I’m really glad that it was you I was kidnapped with.” Because in reality, this whole situation could have been so much worse than it was without him.

  “Even though I’m the devil?” His eyes sparkled, waiting to make some kind of sarcastic, or hell knowing him, it would be some kind of sexual comment.

  “Yeah, even though you are.”

  “Sneaks, are you getting all emo on me over there?”

  “Just take the compliment, for the love of God.”

  Holding both hands up in surrender, he just smirked at me.

  “If It weren’t for you, I would probably still be sat in that bloody room, tied to the chair still, smelling nothing but myself and that bleach.”

  “If it wasn’t for me, you never would have been in that position in the first place, Sneaks. You would never have been kidnapped”.

  Knowing he was right; I held a breath before responding. “It was not your fault” when he refused to look at me again, I sighed, “I mean it, Noah, this is all on your father. You are not to blame for any of this” apart from winding me up, but that was just how he was. It was how we were together.

  “I’m want to kill him for what he has, what he is doing to us.”

  “Noah?” Did he mean his father?

  “It’s the only way this is going to end, Val, no matter where we go or what we do as long as that man is still breathing, our lives are in danger every minute, every second of every single day.”

  I couldn’t believe that, that was the only option. Taking a life?

  “So, what do we do, just kill him Noah?”

  “We hide out here for a little while, and then I go back and end this.”

  “We” correcting him, I ate the last of my toasted marshmallow.

  “What?”

  “We go back, you said I.”

  “You are not getting involved in this fight, Sneaks. This is mine to deal with”.

  “No, he has done this to both of us. We’re in this together. No matter what, I told you back at that gas station when we first escaped them. We do this together, Noah, no arguments.” Plus, there was no way in hell we were separating again after what had happened a few days ago.

  “Sneaks, I don’t even know if I will walk out of this I can’t, I won’t, put you in that position. I promised that you will get you back to your family, and that is what I intend to happen”.

  Unable to say another word, I found myself standing up and walking towards him, dropping down into his lap. Wrapping my arms around his shoulders holding onto him, hugging myself as tightly to him as possible. It took him a second, but he eventually wrapped his strong arms around my body, making me feel safe and content. Well, as content as you can be hiding out in the woods while armed men are looking for you. You know, in this totally normal situation that we were currently living.

  We stayed like this for several minutes, just holding onto one another. “I wanna go to bed,” whispering into his ear in an attempt to sound seductive, which I clearly failed at because he frowned, looking down at the watch on his wrist.

  “It’s only like ten. You tired already?”

  “No, I’m not tired,” looking at him with wide green eyes, waiting for him to clock on to what I was getting at.

  “So why are trying to...” his own eyes suddenly widened in excitement as he broke into one of the biggest dimple giving smiles, “you wanna have sex, don’t you?”

  “That a problem?” Jutting my chin out and disconnecting my green eyes from his gray ones, breaking the connection between us.

  “Absolutely fucking not” he tried to stand up with me attached to him but couldn’t get the momentum to lift us both off the tree trunk we were sat on. Which, of course, only made me laugh as he growled in annoyance.

  “You know you could just stand instead of laughing, Sneaks. You’re the one who’s got the horn”.

  Biting my lip, I responded “Not yet, I haven’t”

  “Fucking hell,” he grumbled and practically dragged me into the tent, leaving the fire burning and all of our stuff on the ground.

  “And yet you call me the devil, Sneaks.”

  Throwing me down onto the sleeping bag with a thud, I watched him breathing harder than necessary. A smirk crossed my lips as I watched him looking down at me. Ripping the hoodie off his body, quickly followed by his t-shirt. My eyes roamed his torso, the tattoos I could just about see with the low light of the lantern hanging above our heads.

  “Like what you see?” He smirked the way he always did when he showed his ink to me. He knew what it did to me. Turning me into nothing but a pile of goo.

  “Just shut up,” I growled, pulling my own hoodie off and throwing it in his direction as he undid the belt
buckle of his jeans.

  “You are not going to be saying that in a minute,” the jeans dropped to the floor with a thud and at that sound, everything in me clenched from anticipation.

  “Not if you don’t hurry up.”

  “You’re an animal, Sneaks, you know that?”

  Lying flat in anticipation, I dropped my head onto the ground with a dull thud as his hands skimmed upwards on my legs, finding the button and zipper on my jeans, removing them far quicker than should have been possible. Once free of the denim, his hand slid slowly upwards, so slowly that my breaths were becoming embarrassingly loud. Being the devil that he is, he was deliberately moving this slow to drive me mad.

  The need to have him right now was consuming me, and when his thumbs hooked into my black cotton panties, I almost combusted and he hadn’t even touched me where I needed him the most yet.

  Warm lips pressed against my left ankle, and then the right one before moving upwards. Planting a kiss above my knee, he flattened his tongue on the skin just above it and slowly began to lick his way upwards stopping at my hip. Knowing I was becoming embarrassingly wet that I could be a human slip ’n’ slide. I closed my eyes tightly in anticipation.

  “Stop taking all damn day, Diablo”

  Laughing, a sudden breath of warm air blew over the most sensitive part of my flesh, making me moan.

  “You get so wet about the devil, sneaks” rubbing his nose an inch above where I needed him the most my fingers were itching to dive into his hair and hold his face right there until I screamed “Might want to see someone about that”

  “I swear to god...” That warm tongue stopped any further words coming from my mouth as he applied so much pressure to my clit with it, I was about to orgasm on the spot. Two fingers pressed into me, sending waves rippling throughout my entire body. Suddenly he changed from applying pressure to sucking hard, and that did it. I was done for, and with a scream loud enough to disturb all the local wildlife, I came harder than possible. Quicker than should have been possible.

  “Jesus.”

  Propping himself up on his elbows, I could see the smirk on his face as I cracked one eye open, trying to catch a breath. If anyone asked me to stand right now, I would not be able too. No way in hell.

  The telltale rustle of him ripping open a condom only made me clench again.

  “I wanna try something” he smiled, pulling my butt towards him and basically throwing my legs up in the air.

  Panic filled me and I almost pulled away “I am not doing anal, Noah”

  Laughing with a snort, he just pressed his tip right at my entrance, “The valedictorian, Sneaks” was all he said before pressing my legs towards me and sinking deep into my heat.

  Fuck.

  My.

  Life.

  He was so deep inside of me, I felt like I couldn’t breathe and when he adjusted me so that I was flush against him, I almost came again. He’d only moved twice, what the hell?

  “You’re going to love this baby” were the last words he said before I think I lost consciousness. Noah pounded into me like nothing I had ever experience.

  Pushing the cups of my bra down his mouth attached to my right breast as my hands wound into his jet-black hair. Pulling on it hard, he groaned before biting me gently on the nipple.

  Another orgasm was in touching distance, I could feel it, and as I tightened around him, Noah knew too. A thick finger began to apply pressure against my clit, making me almost scream out. A pressure like nothing I had ever experience before started to overtake every one of my senses. My nerve endings felt like they were vibrating with electricity. Then when my legs began to shake, I thought I was about to die.

  What the hell?

  “Come on” he growled. Close to his own orgasm, he released his teeth from my nipple. Holding both of my legs down, my eyes connected with his, and I swear that pushed me right over the edge as he groaned out, coming violently inside of me.

  My legs started to visibly shake before the most powerful orgasm I had ever experienced almost killed me, right there on the forest floor.

  It was almost embarrassing what my body was doing. I felt like I was having some kind of seizure as my entire body shook.

  “What the fuck was that?” My chest was heaving, trying to get enough oxygen into my lungs before I passed out.

  “You just squirted” he said with a wink before dropping flat next to me and falling straight asleep.

  Well, I think it’s safe to say, The Valedictorian was my new favorite too.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Valentina

  Five weeks later we had found ourselves in some kind of routine in our forest home. However, we needed to start to think about getting some more supplies and Noah kept insisting I needed to get a gun to protect myself. This was now scarily sounding like a good idea, especially after having a gun pointed at my head. Technically I had already agreed to learn how to shoot, but while being out here, it had not been something required.

  "You can stay here."

  "Absolutely not, you're the one that said we have to stay together after what happened." He has lost his damn mind if he thinks I’m letting him go alone.

  Groaning, he tugged on his beard. It was getting so long now, and he hated it. I, on the other hand absolutely loved it. Especially the feel of it scratching against my skin when he was laid between my legs, but apparently, it was coming off after he got a razor and not a minute later. I must admit that being able to shave my legs, plus other things were an exciting prospect. Currently, I felt like one of those seventies hippies who lived on a commune. It was a look, that was for sure.

  "We pack everything up, we go into town, and then we set up camp somewhere else, here in these woods."

  Although he hated it, I could tell that he was agreeing with me as he started to pick up our camping equipment and throw it, literally, he threw it into the back seat of the car.

  Not daring to say another word I helped him pack everything away and before I knew it, we were driving back through the dense woods towards civilization. This was scarier than the pitch-black nights in the tent. Being around people could destroy the small piece of calm we had been living in recent weeks.

  "What you said before, about hiding in plain sight, you really think that would work?" He shocked me with this. Ever since he shot it down after I had voiced the idea, I hadn't dare bring it up again, but he obviously had been thinking about it.

  "It's worth a shot, isn't it?" And he was so determined to end this with his father, he wanted to kill him, and I wouldn't say I liked it. In fact, I hated that he wanted to do that, but at the same time, I wanted revenge for everything we had been put through. Not just because of the kidnapping and subsequent running. No, I wanted to hurt him for the way he had treated Noah his entire life. This was not a man at all, he was a piece of shit, and I wanted to wipe him off my shoe. He didn't deserve a son like Noah, even though yeah, okay, he was one of the most irritating and sometimes arrogant pains in the ass I had ever met. He still had a heart, somewhere deep down, and he would not have been this way if it wasn't for that poor excuse of a man. He needed to atone for that. He needed to suffer.

  "Maybe in a couple of weeks we could, maybe we should go back, end this." His voice was almost a whisper.

  "In a few weeks?" I asked, sitting up a little straighter in my seat.

  "Yeah, but I want to get you that gun and make sure you know how to use it, we have no idea what we will face when we're out there, Sneaks and I, I just want you to be able to defend yourself."

  "Okay," I nodded as we pulled out onto a road, an actual road, from our dirt path.

  

  "Just aim it and shoot." The irritation in his voice was evident, he was losing patience with me.

  "What do you think I'm trying to do?" I could feel anger bubbling over inside of me. If he wasn't careful, I was going to point this freaking thing at him and see if I could hit a bigger target because no matter what I did, I missed the c
an. Every single time.

  "Don't even think about it." He shouted, waving a finger at me.