by TN King
CHAPTER TWO
Ellie
Ellie was exhausted. Not just tired, but the kind of bone deep, aching exhaustion that filled your entire body with unease. Getting onto the bus that would take her from South Philadelphia up to the bad part of Philly where she lived had been nightmare inducing with the crowds of people and all of the jostling. Ellie hadn’t even realized that her throat was hurting to the level that it was until she had to try and excuse herself for the umpteenth time to some older lady bustling to try and get on the bus before everyone else. As if just getting on the bus hadn’t been enough of a problem she’d chosen a seat next to a man who felt like his leering at her was perfectly acceptable. As much as she would have liked to have ignored it, he had been doing so in a manner that she just couldn’t, especially in her current state. So she had moved three seats down, thinking that she was going to make her trip somewhat more bearable.
She hadn’t been expecting the smell that came from that side of the bus though, the retching her throat was trying to do aggravating that already sore, aggravated skin. It was a day, and one she hoped to never repeat again. The fire could have at least started after her shift was over. That, at least, would have enabled her to collect her tips and have enough money to spend on groceries to last her through the week. Something she was sorely going to need with the near empty bag of carrots and the half-gallon of milk that decorated her sparse refrigerator. Not that it mattered… her fridge would have been emptied before she could refill it anyways.
Her boss, Joanna, had said that it would be at least a week before the diner was able to open again, very likely even longer because of how the insurance liked to drag those kinds of things out. Which meant that, at least for now, she was effectively out of a job. Her long suffering sigh did nothing to help the smell that she was trying to avoid inhaling, or to help with her throat irritation either. Her body shifted, working to pull the pamphlet that the paramedic had given her out of her pocket to peruse while she waited.
Of course, half of the instructions didn’t even apply to her because she hadn’t seen a doctor, nor was she likely to at all, so those she only skimmed over. She didn’t smoke, so that was apparently a positive, and the cough drops they were recommending actually sounded lovely. The whole rest and relaxation part didn’t sound feasible either though, but at least she could do that much tonight. She certainly felt just as weak and tired as it was promising her that she would. Cough drops she had at the house, as she did the pillows she could prop herself up on to sleep. Other than discolored mucus she might cough up it all seemed fairly straight forward and much less scary than she had been anticipating.
“North Philly,” the bus driver called from the front of the bus, jolting Ellie from the pamphlet and her pre-planning that she had been doing regarding it.
Her head shot up, eyes taking in the scenery outside of the bus, entirely surprised to find herself at her normal bus stop, shoving the pamphlet back into her jeans pocket and extraditing herself from the bus seat and the person that she had been sitting next to carefully. From there it was only turning herself about to make it down the aisle without bumping into anyone, carefully making her way down those bus steps and off the bus entirely.
Her half of a block walk to the tiny, run-down, red-brick apartment complex that she called home didn’t sound nearly as easily as she usually found it. Neither did the three flights of stairs to get to that one bedroom apartment at the end of the hall either. Although, she supposed she should consider herself lucky. Her father had done it the whole time that she was living with him, right up until the very end even when he had gotten really sick. She imagined it had to have been worse for him then than it was for her now. Up until last year, when he died, he had even managed to jog up those stairs some days.
It had amazed her then but now, feeling like she did, it amazed her all the more. She certainly wasn’t jogging up those steps, holding the center of her chest and working her way slowly up them until she could reach the final landing. Her father hadn’t left her much, actually, most of what he had managed to leave her consisted of his unpaid medical bills. Something she knew, that if he were able to be aware of, he would absolutely hate. She couldn’t even blame him, stopping at her door to stoop for the mail that hadn’t quite made it inside of the mail slot. Unpaid medical bills at the very top… It certainly hadn’t been his fault, he’d worked hard himself right up until his final days, frail and withered in that hospital bed…
She couldn’t go there, or think about that right then though. In the state she was in, she was far too likely to delve into the kind of depressed state that she had worked so hard to get out of in the first place following that first, hard month right after his passing.
She needed to focus on other things, like unlocking her water-stained door and getting inside. Doing just that and ignoring the heavy weight of Morgan’s phone in her jeans pocket until she had closed and locked the door back behind her. Morgan. That was a good distraction. A much more welcome one than thinking about her father and the last few months she had been allowed to have with him. She sighed, dropping her mail carelessly on the counter and taking the photo of her father out, placing it in its regular place on the fridge and backing up until her hips hit her countertop.
“Morgan’s phone,” she mused aloud, finally pulling it out and turning it over in her hands speculatively. She still hadn’t come up with a good plan for getting it back to him. Not one that allowed her to see him again like she’d been hoping for anyway.
After a long sobering ride on a bus full of a whole spectrum of personalities, none of which resembled Morgan in the slightest, into her poor and crime ridden urban neighborhood, reality had set in and told her to stop dreaming of any kind of possibility with him. He was a nice guy, at least he had seemed to be. He had certainly come across as brave, and there was no denying how handsome he was. However he was also extremely well off if his possessions and clothing had been anything to judge off of. Which meant that he was probably used to an entirely different class of woman.
Not the kind who lived in North Philly juggling their bills and eating takeout over the sink after a long day. She wasn’t trying to be too far down on herself. She knew that she had her attributes, she knew that she wasn’t necessarily hard to look at, she received enough compliments to know that she was at least cute. She also knew that she brought her own good qualities to the table, however she was unrefined and used to chaos, something she figured was the complete opposite of Morgan and what he was used to. She liked to think that she ate politely but she wouldn’t be able to discern a salad fork from a regular fork.
The best thing she could do was to mail it back to the Hunt Group with an anonymous note detailing where the phone was found. He would get it back that way, she was sure, his last name was the same as the company after all, they were sure to know who he was. And then she could go back to her unimportant, North Philly lifestyle where she juggled her bills and ate her takeout in peace. It had been nice to dream for a little bit though. The thought of going out with a good looking man with all of that charm was the kind of thing that fantasy novels were made of. Her life was far from a fantasy novel though, and the reality was that even if she did see him in person it would probably only be for a few short minutes.
“Well, enough of that,” she told herself, shaking her head and putting her phone down on the counter along with the mail.
Enough daydreaming and worry, she was supposed to be relaxing and getting rest. Not that she had anything to relax with here… at least she could take the next fifteen minutes to have a hot shower and take that ‘vacation’ she’d been joking about with Morgan. It was about all she was going to be able to get before she needed to start looking for another job to tide her over until the diner was in working order again. Then it would be bed. She would consolidate all of it as much as she could to ensure that she at least got a full night’s rest.
Which meant, if she was going to really be able to en
joy her shower free of worry, she needed to start that now. She didn’t even bother taking her clothes with her into the bathroom, stripping out of the diner uniform right in her kitchen and placing it on the hamper over the washer that wasn’t at all hidden in her kitchen closet. Her jeans followed, shoes toed off and left just in front of the machine before she began her half-jog to the bathroom. Somehow, the apartment was colder than it was outside, something she knew couldn’t be due to the air conditioning as she had turned that off before she left to work.
Her bathroom, upon reaching it, may have looked small but she had made it her own. Seashells hung down off of the mirror, decorations from beaches she had visited at one point or decorations she had later bought or made in remembrance hanging up in the small space to try and brighten it. Even the full length mirror that she had hung on the back of the door was lined in seashells, something that almost made her smile as she stopped to stand in front of it. At least it might have had she not caught sight of her reflection so clearly.
She was covered in smoky smudges, even in places that her uniform had been covering, somehow the ash seemed to have worked its way down between the fibers of clothing. Her lips were half-black still, marks under her eyes making the tired bags that had to hide under them look all the worse. Even her dark brown hair looked darker than it usually did due to the soot and debris lining the wavy strands. She hadn’t seen so much as a hint of her reflection since the fire and the result frankly horrified her.
Oh, my god! She was rescued by a sexy billionaire and this was what she looked like? No wonder he was in such a hurry to get to his business meeting. She was only twenty-four but she may as well have been forty hiding behind all the smudges. Like a bag woman or something. She might as well have been pushing a grocery cart and making odd sounds like a dumbass. She looked horrific, something that she felt she had every right to be upset by. Morgan had been smudged here and there with ash but it was mostly from where he had met contact with her, he hadn’t at all prepared her for the horror that she actually looked like. The man must’ve really been a saint.
“Get it together, Ellie,” she lectured herself as she began rubbing smudges off, only to make them bigger. Of course, she wouldn’t be getting rid of them out of the shower, but she couldn’t help but try anyways. He wouldn’t have been interested even if you’d been in full makeup while wearing an evening gown. She rolled her eyes, exasperated with herself. So stupid to be upset about it at all. It was certainly too late to worry about it now.
To be fair, it wasn’t like she could have done anything about her appearance after passing out in a burning building. And if she hadn’t gone in there, she might not have ever met Morgan Hun in the first place. She had to take the good with the bad, like her father had always reminded her. Only she had to remind herself that now. This gave her even more reason to take the phone to him herself. Then he could get a good look at her as she normally looked, without the soot and smudges with her hair sticking out all over the place.
Again, with the dreaming. Who was she kidding? He could have any girl he wanted and probably already did. Why would he even look at her? Then again, why would she want to be one in a long ass line of females he probably went through every day of the week? She batted her hand at her image in the mirror and stepped into the shower. Dumb, that’s what I am. A dreamer, her dad used to say. But if this was her fifteen minute vacation she needed to allow herself to wallow in it, unlikely dreams and all.
The water felt good as it warmed on her body and washed away the smoky smell. It was certainly something that she had always appreciated, how quickly the water heater worked in this apartment. She let the water hit her face so she could rub the smudges off, or at least attempt to. Lord only knew that it would take all of her shower to ensure that they were actually off of her skin. She lathered up slowly, rubbing the soap between her hands until the suds were large and fluffy, running her hands down her throat and over her chest slowly. It had been a long time since any hands but hers had run over the average, firm mounds.
Closing her eyes and tilting her head further back, she pictured Morgan inside of the small shower stall with her. He would look amazing outside of that suit, even more than he had looked in it she bet. All tanned muscle and lean height. He was certainly very sexy, and his attitude had been that of a man that was more than used to getting his way. She would be defenseless against that easy charm of his as well, not that she would even try fighting it. What would he do to her exactly? How would he get his way?
Would he kiss her? Her hand slowly lifted, soap washed off of her fingers easily before she lifted her fingertips up to her lips, running over the shape of them and trying to remember what his lips had felt like against hers when he had resuscitated her. Only she’d been knocked out at the time and could remember nothing. Maybe he had already kissed her… if she was dreaming she might as well go the full yard.
Mmm. Just thinking about him made her weak in the knees, her fingertips pressing more firmly into the line of her lips greedily. He’d looked so handsome in his Italian spun suit this morning. She wondered further just what he looked like underneath. Probably built like a god—ripped and toned all over. She was willing to bet he had the type of six-pack one only saw in movies as well. Her other hand dropped, rolling over the lines of her abdomen and lower until it could fit between her thighs. What would he feel like inside of her? Her thighs tightened in response to the question, fingers working up further into her already slick folds. It had been a long time—no, Ellie, she told herself. Stop this line of thinking. You are dreaming if you think he will ever think of you again.
But dreaming didn’t hurt anyone, and that was exactly what she was supposed to be doing right now.... She relaxed her thighs and imagined him behind her, coaxing her legs further apart. Imagined it was his finger sliding along the length of her, thumb just nudging that sensitive bundle of nerves below her pelvic bone. Mmm. Morgan. He probably liked to have it his way, liked to get rough even. She could just imagine him bending her at an angle and forcing her body to contort for him. It was the kind of thought that made her abdomen clench in anticipation, a little moan working out through her lips. The idea of a man that knew what he wanted and how to get it always turned her on, even if she had yet to actually experience it.
She could just imagine him behind her, twisting her up. She might try to resist, but he would overpower her, and he would be turned on too. He might not be able to help himself, erection digging into the soft skin of her ass like it no doubt would be. Mmm. She would have no choice but to let him have his way, her thighs splitting even further to allow it.
Ellie closed her eyes to better picture the well built Morgan in the shower with her, her finger slowly working its way up inside of her entirely and—the phone rang.
Frustrated Ellie stuck her head out from behind the shower curtain, looking around the bathroom because it didn’t sound like her phone. After the second ring, it became blatantly obvious that it was Morgan’s phone. She quickly turned the water off, disappointedly wrapping a towel around herself hurriedly. Rushing out of the shower and through her apartment was disconcerting though, stopping just short of the counter where the phone sat.
It rang again, trilling that unfamiliar ringtone and she stared at it. Was she supposed to answer it? Was that going too far? Was it helping? She couldn’t spend all day weighing the pros and cons. After the third ring, and without thinking too much about it, she finally picked it up and answered it, “Hello?”
“Hello. This is Loretta with the Hunt Group in New York. I need to confirm Mr. Hunt’s attendance to the New York Governor’s Ball for Wednesday next week.”
Ellie froze, her lips opening and closing for a moment before she finally stuttered out a. “Uhh.”
“Hello?” The voice on the other end of the line, Loretta questioned.
“Yeah. Umm,” Ellie couldn’t think, how did she explain herself? She should have left the phone to ring until voicemail, lord knew tha
t she wasn’t equipped for this sort of stress.
“Could you put Mr. Hunt on?” Loretta finally asked, somewhat impatiently. She probably thought that Ellie was a secretary or assistant of some sort. A very incompetent one by the sounds of it.
“I can’t,” Ellie finally admitted. “He’s not here,” squeaking out the truth despite her fear.
“Well, aren’t you his administrative assistant?” Loretta asked, the sound of tapping just outside of the mouthpiece of whatever phone she was on. Ellie was obviously beginning to really irritate her.
“No,” Ellie replied, feeling bad about all of it. She didn’t blame the woman for being upset, Ellie was providing her with very little information. Something she tried to rectify in a rush of hurried words, “I found his phone. He dropped it when he rescued me this morning from a burning building. I haven’t had a chance to get it back to him.” Over information probably, but she had just wanted it out of the way already, her sentence teetering off with a shaky exhale marking the end of it.
“Oh, my,” Loretta replied, her voice softening and the irritation disappearing entirely. “I’m sure he’s a mess without it. I see on his calendar that he had a meeting with the Yamato Group this morning. You should return it as soon as possible.” She sounded worried then, a series of clicks that sounded like they were coming from a keyboard taking up a flurry in the background.
“Of course,” Ellie agreed. “I intend to.” Or at least she had, she was attempting to get there, she just had gotten distracted.
“Do you need the address to his penthouse?” Loretta questioned politely, even if she sounded half-distracted by that point.
“Well, umm…” This would be her chance to see him again! She needed to control her nervousness, this wasn’t a dream like earlier, this was reality. “Yes, please,” she finally got out, her fingers tightening upon himself to try and contain herself.