There was a line between dangerous but sexy and downright psychotic. Elias had successfully teetered on the line, but as of late, he had begun to close in on the second category. I walked backward toward the desk and bumped into it, almost falling over. Turning quickly, I exited through the doors that opened to the hall and went straight out the front doors.
“Ley, you can’t walk to our home,” Elias’s voice shadowed behind me, “it’s twenty miles from here.”
The words “our home” weren’t enough to stop me. I kept walking until he caught up to me at the start of the circular drive. He didn’t give me a choice when he gripped my arm and pulled me to where he parked the car.
I struggled against him and he fought to restrain me. During our scuffle, I fell back on my ass, hard.
Releasing a sigh of annoyance, he drew one hand slowly down his face. “Get up and walk with me to the car, Hanley.”
I held out my hand, hoping to keep him away as I stood, but I couldn’t keep steady on my feet. Swooping in, he picked me up in his arms and brought me to the car.
Two girls waited near the passenger side door—the ones I noticed before who couldn’t help themselves from giving Elias their undivided attention. “Mikaela overindulged in the wine, and I couldn’t find a willing volunteer to give us a ride. Can you give us one?” the brunette asked Elias as she batted her eyelashes at him.
Placing me down on solid ground, he pinned me against the passenger door with his body, preventing any chance of escape. “Mikaela,” he addressed the blonde next to the brunette, “you look able enough to call for a cab service, or better yet, to wait for your boyfriend to return.”
“I can’t wait for Jaco, and I can’t drive his car because my license is suspended,” Mikaela explained with a shrug. With a smile, she staggered toward Elias. “Jaco and I still have an open relationship. Come on, baby. It will be like old times. Don’t you miss them…those old times? You said I was the best at giving head.” Mikaela glanced at me with a scowl.
Elias took his arms down from me and whispered in my ear, “Don’t move.” Stepping away from me, he stalked toward Mikaela. “Apologize to my girlfriend for even daring to flirt with me in front of her, or insinuating you can stand here and disrespect her. If you ever call me by a pet name again…” He leaned forward and whispered something to her that made her mouth gape and her eyes well up in horror.
Mikaela threw her hands up, turning immediately apologetic.
“She’s drunk, Elias,” explained the brunette. “Please don’t hold it against her. We just want a ride. That’s all.”
“So you’ve said, Rory. Don’t make excuses for your friend’s behavior, or you will become lumped in with every bad deed she’s done so far tonight. I’ll give the two of you a ride. Consider it the last time you will ever see my kindness.” Elias shot me glance, warning me to get in the car as he rounded the driver’s side.
I watched the broad back of the man, who’d completely changed the players, the game, and the stakes in a matter of hours, disappear inside the car. I wanted to ignore whatever began to churn in my mind and heart for him and back out like my good sense told me to, and I wanted to back out right now.
Mikaela opened the passenger side door and nodded to her friend. Once Rory was inside, Mikaela nodded to me.
I glared back at her.
“Get in the back, Hanley. Please. I don’t want to throw up in his car. He might kill me if I do.”
I blinked, stunned she used my name when we’d never been formally introduced. Being the car was a coupe, I conceded, for some unknown reason, and got into the back seat.
I sat in the back, watching while Mikaela did everything she could to seduce Elias. She placed her hand on his, helping him shift. Next her hand was on his knee, then his leg. It didn’t matter if he pushed her away, or quietly threatened her with words inaudible to me, she never gave up. She picked a perfect time when Elias’s hands were occupied; she leaned in his ear, halfway kissing it and whispered something to him.
I lurched forward, making her seat jerk from the impact.
She swiveled around and glared at me to mouth, “Watch it, bitch.”
An invisible force siphoned the oxygen from the car, rendering it impossible to breathe. I needed fresh air to get rid of the crushing pressure inside my lungs. At a stoplight, I finally spoke up. “I need to get out. I’m going to be sick.”
Elias looked over his shoulder at me, staring at me as though it wasn’t an option. “I’m only a few blocks from Rory's home. Can’t you wait?”
At a speed in which Elias couldn’t stop her, Mikaela leaned forward, pushing the button to fold her seat and opened the door, giving me a clear path to get out.
I did just that and she slammed the door quickly, almost catching my foot in the door.
I began walking as Elias drove slowly beside me. “Get in the car,” he demanded dourly.
Cars behind him began to protest about his slow speed by honking their horns at him.
“Forget about her,” Mikaela loudly proclaimed. “Let’s just go to your place and have some fun.”
I took a sharp turn down a residential street, but my body couldn’t go much farther. The world was a stream of fast moving lights and I felt like it was floating. The scene I’d endured earlier played on a constant repeat.
I clutched my stomach, feeling sicker than I had before. Doubling forward, I swallowed it back down. I squatted on the sidewalk, caring very little about who I flashed when I spread my legs. I put my head in my hands, holding my head. A stifling heat took over my body, singeing it painfully.
The engine of the Evora revved. The car jumped the short curb, possibly bending the nineteen and twenty inch gloss black rims. It stopped in front of me, cutting off my future path.
Elias got out of the car, slamming the door behind him. Approaching me with his posture stiff and forbidding, he closed in on my position on the sidewalk.
I held up my hand, shaking my head as I walked backward. “Please, stay away from me.”
He held me, his eyes softening and entrancing me. “I can’t stay away from you, Hanley. Don’t you understand that?”
I faltered, and he took advantage of my weakened state. He scooped me up in a fireman hold and carried back to the car.
“Get out!” he barked at Mikaela. “Earl’s house is eight miles back, you shouldn’t have a problem walking there.
“But, Elias—”
“Make me say it again, Mikaela,” he shouted at her, making her cringe.
She slammed out of the car, seemingly not so drunk anymore, and stood on the curb.
ONCE WE’D RETURNED to his house, I swiftly moved to ascend the stairs until he called me. When I turned around, he grabbed me and stole the air from my lungs with the kiss he gave me. I nearly fell until he caught me and settled me down on the third step up.
“Don’t ever leave me like that again. Not now. Not ever. I need you here. I need you here every single day.”
I blinked rapidly, thrown quickly from one emotion to the next.
He kissed me again with a hunger and a breath-stealing desire. He slipped up my skirt and opened my legs. The sound of his zipper made me pause.
His hands encased my neck as his cock rocked against my slit, opening me. Pushing his hips forward, he slid his hardness inside of me, drawing out a gasp from deep inside my throat. I threw my hands up, brushing against the shorter hairs on the back of his head. He kept me locked in his gaze as he rolled his hips slowly, entering me and withdrawing, leaving just enough of him inside me to make me crave more.
His blinking slowed and his strokes became more impassioned. He groaned my name against my lips before kissing me, biting me, sucking me.
My hands moved to grasp the steps, scared I would fall.
“No,” he rasped, pumping harder. “Never let go.”
My eyes shot up to his, startled by the emotion in his voice. I wrapped my arms around his neck, drawing him closer. My hips rolled ag
ainst his movements. Our bodies undulated in a synchronistic mix of motions that brought us to a hard and intense peak.
I whimpered. He growled. Together, we made a mess. He collapsed forward, catching his body from landing fully against me by placing his palms on the stairs. The heat from our breaths played against one another until they moved together. Snaking his arms around my waist, he picked me up, taking me upstairs.
SIXTEEN
IT WAS MY FIRST Saturday off in a long time, and I had every notion to sleep in. Elias’s bed made it very hard to get up. The bedroom represented a splinter in time and space where I could be at peace and forget what I shouldn’t and feel what I never should have.
I slipped my hands underneath my pillow and felt something at my fingertips. When I probed, I pulled out a black box. I sat up, faced with Elias’s sheepish smile as he stood at the end of the bed.
“What is this?” I asked.
“Open it.”
I pushed my thumb at the crease of the box to flip it open. Inside was a pair of heart shaped diamond earrings.
He crawled on the bed and placed my hand on his bare chest to hover over his heart. “I, Elias Cari, promise to never allow you to ride in the back seat. Promise to treat you the way you deserve at all times, and try my hardest not to bring about the return of the look I saw on your face last night.” He kissed my forehead, imploring softly, “Forgive me.”
At first I couldn’t hide my smile, but as I remembered the man he transformed into last night, it became easier. “I don’t feel safe with you.”
Both of his hands held the back of my head, pulling me closer. I sprawled my legs out around him to accommodate his position. “You are safe with me, minha amada. That’s a promise.”
“I’m not safe with you. You’re too psychotic for me to feel any semblance of safety. My…mother had an abusive husband. I’d never want something like that for myself.”
“You…are…safe…with…me.” His piercing stare made it hard to breathe much less look away. “I’m never going to let anyone hurt you.”
“The way you reacted yesterday, to what I said in the car. The way you acted last night, really. I know you say you don’t care about what’s acceptable, but for me, it was too much and definitely not okay.”
Sighing, he closed his eyes and he dropped his hands. Slowly opening them, he took the box from my hands. Gently, he placed the diamond studs in my ears. “Before you, when a woman took things too seriously or things became too complicated and too much work, I’d immediately lose interest and end things. But with you, it’s different.
“I’m going to admit something to you I’ve never had to admit to anyone—something I never would admit to anyone.” He pulled my legs down to drape over the bed and knelt on the floor between my gaped open legs. “Every inch of my life is completely under my control. Easily planned, thought out, and executed. When it comes to you, you throw me. I don’t like feeling that way. Believe me”—he ran his fingertips up my legs—“I’m going to make mistakes. I’m going to say and do things I don’t really mean. But, I’m never going to physically lay a hand on you and hurt you.”
I twirled the diamond studs in my ears, having a hard time believing a word he said. My heart wanted to, but a voice in my head, reminding me of the bigger picture, tried to shut down my gullible belief.
“Ley”—he lifted my chin over his fingers—“I’m sorry you saw that part of me last night.”
“Sorry I saw, but not sorry for the act?”
“No, I’m not, and I’m not going to apologize for my actions.”
“What was the deal with Mikaela and Rory?” I wanted to ask about Skylar, but the timing wasn’t right, nor had I asked the right person. If I wanted to know, Skylar would be the one to tell me…soon.
“I’ve known them both a long time. Mikaela is Jaco’s girlfriend. At one point, we shared. She served a purpose at the time, but she has been and will always be very insignificant to me. Rory was just a woman I saw from time to time. Believe me, it’s completely over with the both of them. I don’t juggle women, Ley. You will never have to share me with anyone.”
Remembering what Skylar had said about Elias’s past when it concerned women, it was easy to find a fault in his words. If what she told me was the truth, he just lied to me while looking me in the eye and made it believable. “Last night, the way you were with Robin—”
“It was business and”—he scanned our general area—“I have a rule to never talk about or conduct business in the bedroom.” He rose to his feet and helped me up to stand. “I have a surprise for you.”
“Which would be?”
“Get decent. I’m taking you out.”
“Where?”
As he quirked a brow, he slipped his hands down my naked back and cupped my ass. “You want a clue?”
“I do.”
“First class seats. Race. Beach. That’s all you’ll get.”
“Should I pack?”
“Why? You’ll only be wearing clothes for one day.”
A FIVE-HOUR flight later, we arrived in Miami to attend a race at Homestead. Immediately upon our arrival, Elias took me to the pit to meet his father.
Mr. Cari was friendly and charming as he spoke to me. “É um prazer conhecê-la finalmente, Hanley. Consigo ver porque razão o meu filho é tão ligado a si. Já não está focado no que costumava estar. Não posso dizer que o culpo. Você é simplesmente lindíssima.” Remembering himself, he smiled brightly and offered me an apology. Taking my hand, he kissed the back of it and looked me over with a warm smile. “I said you were beautiful, as you very much are.”
“Thank you,” I said, giving him a small grin.
“Ah, there it is.” He pointed to my face. “That smile of yours is something you should wear all the time.”
“People might think I’m crazy if I do that.”
He laughed low and hardy, as though he didn’t have a care in the world. “I think they’ll be too distracted to think something like that. My son and I share the same taste in women, so of course, I will compliment him later on choosing you.”
The man disarmed me completely, negating my need to feel cautious and apprehensive. It was easier to hate the man having never met him. But, in the short while we communicated, I moved firmly toward ambivalence rather than pure loathing. It did not, however, change my mind about the revised version of the original plan my father and I had concocted.
There was no mistaking it, Elias’s parents ensured he would win the genetic lottery. Mr. Cari’s presence possessed me, just as Elias’s presence did.
“Follow me. I want to introduce you to a driver friend of mine.” Taking my hand, Natanael led me down the pit with his hand on my lower back, making sure I didn’t wobble too much in my heels.
“How are you liking Ipomoea?” he asked, heightening his voice over the loud roar of an engine.
“It’s quiet and nice.”
“And has one of the lowest crime rates in the state,” he added, shaking a finger at me. “That’s a crucial aspect in property values. It’s a town that’s been in my family for generations. My great-great-great grandfather incorporated it.” Waving the man in the multi-colored jumpsuit over, he proceeded to introduce me to the driver he sponsored.
“The race is going to start. We should get up to the skybox,” Elias said from behind me, returning to my side from wherever he’d disappeared to. He had yet to exchange a word with his father since we met up with him shortly before entering the stadium. When they first saw each other, they exchanged perfunctory nods with one another. It was the coldest and most distant greeting I had ever witnessed between a father and a son.
While Natanael’s coldness dissipated as he spoke with me, the frigid demeanor Elias adopted at the sight of his father never went away.
When Elias returned to my side, the stern expression on his face spread to Natanael, wiping a grin—I once thought was permanent—from his face.
Natanael separated me from Elias
by whispering something to his son that convinced him to speak to an associate in the stands. They disappeared up the stairs together, heading toward the skybox.
“May I?” Mr. Cari extended his arm to me.
Nodding, I linked my forearm underneath his. Despite his charm, my discomfort was palpable. Having him touch me didn’t help my need to hold up a cool and calm demeanor.
He walked at a sedated pace as he surveyed the crowd in the stadium with a prideful smile. “Elias is taken with you. He won’t admit it to me, but I know my son like I know my own flesh.” He paused at the top of the stairs and steadied my trembling hand. “I understand he’s been a little sloppy around you and you might be a little curious about some of the things you may have seen and heard.”
“You don’t have to worry about me, sir,” I assured him, my voice soft and unassuming.
“Of course, because there is nothing to worry about, is there?”
With my eyes down, I shook my head.
He turned, parting from me to stand dead in front of my position. “I’m not a man who likes to worry, Miss Harper. Things that tend to make me worry become problems I have to solve immediately. You make him happy for the moment, but that can change.” He braced my shudders by holding my shoulders firmly. “Despite what he thinks, I want nothing more than for him to succeed in everything he puts an effort toward. My issue is you. You’re new in town, and as with anyone who enters my town, I conduct a little research on them and make sure they are not in my kingdom to dethrone me. I didn’t like what I saw, Hanley. It’s too clean. Too new. It’s as if you bought a new life to hide from a real one. That old life might be of interest to me.”
“I-I promise,” I stuttered. “I’m not here to start trouble.”
“Good.” He leaned in my ear and whispered, “Because I’ll kill whomever sent you here and make you watch, if you are.” With a smile, he walked away, leaving me stunned and shaken.
We made our way to the skybox where his mother briefly greeted me before returning to speak business with a few serious-looking men.
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