Again my jaw dropped open. I had never heard admit to getting anything wrong.
“You certainly do,” she grinned. “And now that you know better, you can do better.”
He nodded again. “You’ve definitely given me a lot to think about,” he said. “I’m glad our paths finally crossed.”
“Me too,” she said, and I could tell she meant it. “Although next time, try not to hobble my bestie in the process.”
His gaze fell. “Yeah. I hope you know I never meant for that to happen.”
“I know,” she said. “And Carly knows that, too.” Again I shot her a glance, but her look was pointed. “I know neither of you want to make this next year harder than it has to be.”
His eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”
My heart sank. According to the NDA I had accepted the minute I cashed my check, no one could know the terms of our agreement—even my best friend. It was the first time in the whole conversation that both Clem and I stammered. Finally Clem said, “You know… the first year of the relationship. It’s always the toughest, right? Especially when you decide to move in together.”
It was clear, though, that she knew more than she let on. Eli opted not to bust her on it in the moment. “I guess you’re right. I don’t think I’ve had one relationship that lasted a whole year since I started dating.”
She chuckled. “Me neither. Life is much too short to settle.”
He toasted her with his glass. “Hear, hear.”
“Well, I’m not going anywhere for the next six weeks,” I commented, referring to my ankle. “I don’t know how the hell I’m going to move out of Ling’s before they demolish the building.”
“We’ve got you covered,” Clem promised. “I’ve already talked to Antoine, and we have plenty of volunteers from the club. We can have you moved out by next weekend.”
“Great,” I muttered. I wasn’t used to people taking care of my life for me, especially when they were virtually hand-delivering me to my new captor.
“Don’t forget me,” Eli interjected. “I can help. I should help. She’s my girlfriend after all,” he added as his eyes landed on my face, daring me to defy him.
“Of course,” we both said.
Fortunately we were saved by the bell. Clem’s phone rang, and she stepped into the kitchen to take the call. Eli cleared our plates while I took my medication. He said nothing directly to me, even after Clem informed us she had to head to the club.
“Maybe I’ll come by and say hello sometime,” Eli offered with a smile as he gave her a big hug.
“The clientele would love that. They’re all big fans.”
“Sounds like fun,” he said, though whether or not he meant it was anyone’s guess.
I wanted some time alone with her before she left, but we both knew that was a bad idea now that Eli was suspicious that I had broken the terms of my contract. So she gave me a hug and a kiss, and promised she’d be back the next day.
Eli walked her out. I practically held my breath waiting for him to return. For the first time in our relationship, I was the one who screwed up. I was fairly certain he knew this, and I had no idea how he would leverage this newfound knowledge against me.
Our eyes met when he walked back into the room. “I feel like watching some TV. Want to join me?”
I swallowed my immediate denial, which came as natural as breathing. “Sure,” I finally said.
He walked over to where I sat and scooped me effortlessly into his arms.
“I can walk, you know,” I muttered.
“No, you can’t,” he said. “Non-weight bearing, remembering?”
“That’s why I have crutches.”
“The media room is downstairs,” he commented. “Besides, I would think my new loving girlfriend would entertain any excuse to be in my arms.”
I swallowed any retort and allowed him to carry me downstairs into his epic media room, at the end of a long, Kelly green hallway with the same polished wood flooring as in the entryway.
The walls of the media room, however, were flame red, as were the leather sofas that sat in front of an 88” curved TV with every bell and whistle any man in his 20s might require. There were at least three game systems as well as video and audio equipment. On the other side of this windowless room was a fully stocked bar. “You spared no expense,” I commented.
“I’m not afraid to pay for the best,” he replied, tongue planted firmly in cheek.
I said nothing more as he sat me down and propped up my leg. Likewise he said nothing as he went to the bar to pour himself a drink.
When he returned, he reached for a massive remote control unit that controlled everything from the TV, the stereo, the video players and audio settings, as well as the recessed lighting in the ceiling and the temperature around the room. “Any preferences?” he asked.
“Anything but sitcoms from the 1960s,” I retorted, which made him laugh.
“Noted.” He turned on the TV and the cable, which was queued to a local channel. He kept it there as he scanned the guide for something more exciting to watch. While we waited, promos for the news hinted that something might have happened to Eli Blake’s new girlfriend. They cut to a snippet of video of Eli tackling me, and then his carrying me to his car.
“Great,” he said as he watched. “That was fast.”
“Guess we’re still trending,” I said. He used the remote to turn that massive TV into a computer screen. We were, in fact, trending. There were plenty of photos to support the new story, too.
“Eli Blake’s new girlfriend falls hard for her man in a friendly game of football,” the cheeky headlines announced. I laid my head back on the sofa. I couldn’t fart, belch or flick a booger without it becoming front page news these days.
It was the first time since I got there that I was happy to be holed up in Eli’s exclusive fortress. I could just imagine what it would have been like to be at my apartment back at Ling’s, where PING would have camped out, waiting for the first exclusive shot of me post-injury.
Eli turned it back to the TV, to select some dumb comedy movie to get our minds off things, but my mood had already taken a nosedive.
Thanks to my .5mg hydrocodone, I didn’t make it long into the movie. I awoke just long enough to feel Eli jostle me back into his arms to carry me back upstairs to bed. Like before, he set up my leg on the pillow and covered me up so that I wouldn’t get too chilly from the open windows. He refilled the water, brought me my phone and my computer, which he placed on the other side of the bed.
He didn’t say anything, leaving me alone in the bedroom. I thought maybe he’d gone back down to the media room, but instead he brought me a piece of cake and some milk, which he placed on the table beside me. As he straightened, our eyes met. I sucked up all my pride as best I could. “Thank you.”
A hint of a smile tugged at his mouth. “You’re welcome.”
I watched as he walked back around the bed and towards the other end of the bedroom, where his office was. He reached the door before he turned back to face me. “Carly?”
I held my breath. This was it. He was going to bust me cold on breaking the contract and I knew it. Worse, I deserved it. “Yes?”
“I’m really sorry that I hurt you today.”
His apology was softly delivered, with no smirk to be seen. It was everything I had wanted all day, and everything I was sure the likes of Eli Blake could never deliver.
“Thank you,” I said softly, stumbling over my own tongue in my surprise.
He nodded and shut the door behind him.
CHAPTER EIGHT
The pain woke me up way before the sun did. I had been lying stiff and prone most of the evening, knocked unconscious by the heavy narcotic medication. As it wore off, and consciousness crept back in, so did the agony in my foot. I could hear the ocean just beyond the doors, although the windows had been shut to ward off any chilly marine air.
Again, Eli had thought ahead. And I didn’t know what to
make of it. Clearly he was dipping into my pain pills.
I reached for my phone. It was just after five o’clock in the morning, so it was still dark, and I figured that Eli was unconscious himself somewhere.
I was right of course. I was OGWO, after all. I just didn’t realize that the “somewhere” was two feet away from me on the very same bed.
I realized with a start that there was someone in bed with me as I tried to swing out my legs off the side to reach for my crutches. Eli snorted a bit and shifted his weight, which actually turned him toward me. His heavy arm landed around my middle, and I instantly threw it off of me like it was a hot poker.
“What the fuck are you doing?!” I shrieked.
Though I had always been a pretty light sleeper—as a single woman, it’s almost a necessity— I had been so out of it on drugs I never noticed him join me on the bed. Alarm bells now sounded as I shoved him away, and hit him with a pillow to rouse him.
“Get up!”
He pulled himself up into a sitting position, rubbing his eyes. “Jesus. What’s your problem?”
“What’s my problem?” I repeated, aghast. “You’re in bed with me!”
“That’s kind of what couples do,” he quipped.
“We’re not a couple,” I snapped.
He didn’t even look at me. He flopped back on his pillows and flung his arm over his eyes. “According to PING we are.”
My eyes widened as I referred once again to my phone. Sure enough, we were still trending. Some stealthy PING photographer had used a long-range zoom lens and caught Eli putting me to bed the night before.
It was my turn to flop against the pillows.
What the hell had I signed up for? And would a million measly dollars make up for the lack of privacy, and the lack of decency, of being hounded 24/7, where I was now public domain and anything went?
“Shit,” I muttered.
“Welcome to my world,” he sighed. Finally he looked at me. “You’re up early. Pain?”
I didn’t want to admit it but finally I nodded.
Without another word he swung out of bed. He was wearing pajama bottoms, thank God, but I supposed it didn’t matter. It wasn’t like he was going to jump me anyway. He’d made it abundantly clear over the past seven months I’d known him that he wasn’t even remotely interested in such a thing. I was like a newborn lamb lying next to a lion who had just decided to go vegetarian.
He brought back some pillows, a fresh glass of cold water, and a muffin for me to have something on my stomach. I didn’t want to take more pills and pass out again, but the throbbing pain in my foot wasn’t going to be ignored. I ate a bit of muffin before I took my pills, while Eli got me a fresh ice pack for my foot. He tried to reposition me on the bed so I could get more comfortable, but my full bladder made a much more urgent request.
“I have to go to the bathroom,” I muttered.
He reached for me, looping an arm around my waist, but I shook my head. If he carried me to the toilet, I probably would have just flushed my own damn self down the drain. Instead, I reached for my crutches. He shadowed me as I stumbled and toiled to get across the room to the bathroom, where he opened the door like a true gentleman.
It only mortified me more. The guy I despised most getting a front row seat to one of the weakest and most pathetic time in my life. And to make matters worse, so were the handful of Los Angeles shutterbugs just beyond that huge window in the bedroom.
What in the world was wrong with me to agree to this nonsense?
I indulged my minor pity party of one for a good ten minutes before Eli came knocking, to see if I was okay.
“I’m fine,” I called out, though I was lying right through my teeth.
I struggled back to my feet, balancing awkwardly on my crutches as I finished my business and headed for the door.
Just on the other side, Eli rested his head against the wall as he waited. The minute I emerged, he took care of the bathroom light and the door before he shadowed me back to bed, where he took the crutches and eased me down on the mattress, placing my foot on the pillows he’d prepared.
I knew he was playing a part for the cameras. It might have pissed me off, but by then the pills had started to work their magic. I was asleep before I knew it.
Unfortunately for me, hydrocodone took my last thought and ran with it, spawning dreams where Eli Blake really was my loving, doting boyfriend. I dreamed of his being curled up next to me, his arm draped around my waist, singing to me softly just to make me feel better. Then his lips were against my cheek, near my ear, whispering something unintelligible against my skin. I trembled, my body responding to him.
And I smiled.
It was a friggin’ nightmare.
My eyelids pulled themselves apart sometime after ten o’clock the next morning. I glanced immediately at the other side of the bed, but it was vacant. The door to the patio was once again ajar, but I didn’t get a chill until I slid out from under the covers.
Despite being groggy from the medication, my trek to the bathroom was a little less awkward than the day before. I was so emboldened by my progress that I decided to take a shower. Fortunately Eli had a huge walk-in complete with its own bench seating, in case I needed it.
It only occurred to me once or twice how weird it was that I was in Eli Blake’s shower. Millions of women all over the world would have killed for the privilege. Meanwhile I was doing everything I could not to slip and crack my head open on the tile.
All in all it took me about an hour to maneuver myself in and out of the shower, dry off and dress in some of the clothes that Clem had brought for me. It was nearly lunchtime when I finally emerged from the bedroom. By then, my foot was aching something fierce, and I was exhausted from the extra effort it took to get around on the crutches.
Beau Jangles, however, didn’t seem to care. It was lunchtime for him, too, and I was the only one around with opposable thumbs. He slowed my progress considerably as I headed towards the kitchen by weaving in and around my feet, hardly daunted at all by the wayward crutches.
By the time I located his food and got him fed, I was out of gas. It gave me some regrettable insight into how much Eli had taken care of me the day before, and how much I had needed it.
I wasn’t used to people meeting my needs or making my life easier. I had been independent for far too long. I was both grateful for the help, and pissed off I needed it, especially when Eli finally returned from his run on the beach.
He wore athletic shorts that clung to his sweaty body like a second skin, but no shirt across that glistening, sun-kissed torso. He had his earphones in, so he was loud as he asked, “What are you doing out of bed?”
I didn’t bother speaking until he withdrew his ear buds. “If I stay in bed all day, I’ll lose my mind,” I told him, my jaw practically locking from the pain and exertion of my morning thus far.
He walked around the kitchen island to face me. Before I knew what was happening, he swung me back into those powerful arms, crushing me against his body. Despite the perspiration from the run, he still smelled like the entire product line that filled his bathroom. It was a musky smell, exotic and warm, that blended amazingly well with his body chemistry.
I had to shake my head to free myself of such thoughts. Eli Blake has always been and would always be the enemy, even when he was carrying me to one of the leather sofas so that I could rest while he prepared a light lunch. Before he straightened, he put his ear buds into my ears and reached for his phone.
“Tell me what you think of this,” he said before he hit play.
It was an instrumental track, one that was slow, hypnotic and sensual. I listened to it while he puttered around the kitchen, preparing a light salad for the both of us with all the fresh veggies that filled his fridge.
By the time he returned, I had listened to the track a couple of times. I pulled the buds out of my ears. “I like it. It could really be a hit,” I told him.
He nodded with a smil
e. “One of the best pieces of music I’ve ever written. I was up all night.”
My eyes widened. “You just wrote that?”
“Yeah,” he confirmed. “The melody came to me yesterday while you were in getting X-rays. It kind of pestered me all night until there was nothing left to do but head to the studio upstairs and record it.”
“It’s good,” I repeated. “It’ll just depend on the lyrics you choose to add to it.”
He slipped me a glance. “Does the new love of my life not agree with my lyrics?”
“Not really, no,” I said.
He chuckled. “Don’t let PING hear you say that.” He brought me a tall glass of water and my medication. I turned up my nose at the latter.
“I don’t want to take those again. I’ll be out all day.” Then, because the bitch mode was so easy to slip into around him, “But I suppose that works for you.”
He shrugged as he joined me on the sofa. “I get a lot done when you’re asleep, it’s true.” I stabbed the veggies with my fork and said nothing. “Your call, though. You’re the one in pain.”
That wasn’t even the half of it. My foot was still swollen and aching, which made doing anything that much harder. Finally I broke down and took the pills. I was unconscious again by two o’clock.
My internal clock was all off kilter as I woke up again in the darkness of early evening. I struggled to the bathroom, where I found boxes of my stuff, from my apartment, now stacked against the wall. Some of the things had been unpacked and added to the counter, the medicine cabinet and under the sink—most notably, my feminine products.
I was as mad as a wet hornet when I clanked out of the bedroom to find Eli.
Instead I found a living room full of people… my people… instead.
Clem was there, of course, as was Antoine. There was Brandon and Joe, who apparently added to the muscle to move my stuff out of my apartment, which now sat around the huge living room in orderly stacks.
It was done in a day. One little ol’ day.
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