Billionaires, Bad Boys, and Alpha Males (2 page)

Caelyn walked forward
a few steps.
 
She was far enough
away to make a run for it if need be.
 
She wasn’t sure how far she would get, but she’d try.
 
She took out her non-working cell phone
and pretended to be in the midst of making a call.

The front door of the
car opened and then he stepped out.

Her stomach flipped
and dropped, as the stranger stepped directly into the light from her car’s
headlights.
 
The headlights
illuminated him, briefly outlining a man who was probably around her age,
perhaps a year or two older—standing a little over six feet tall, wearing
dark track pants and a black t-shirt.
 
His face was like one of those teen idols from the vampire films that
all the girls loved.
 
Dark, strong
features, dark hair tousled exactly the right way.

“Car trouble?” he
asked, still at a distance.
 
His
voice was strong, confident and clear.
 
It sent shivers down her spine.

Caelyn gripped her
cell phone tightly, tried to breathe.
 
Why was she scared of him?
 
Was he bad, did he have evil intentions—or was it something else?

“My car’s making a
lot of noise,” she said, finally.
 
Her voice sounded less scared than she felt.
 
But her legs were shaking.

The man walked to the
door of her car, and now he was bathed in shadow, but closer.
 
He moved with an easy, relaxed gait that
indicated a familiarity with women—which made sense, given his good
looks.
 
As traumatized as Caelyn
was, it was impossible not to appreciate how gorgeous he was.
 

“Mind if I check it
out?” the stranger asked.
 

“Sure,” she
said.
 
She liked that he wasn’t
coming closer.
 
He opened the driver
side door all the way and slid inside.
 
A moment later, the engine was revving and the sounds were back in all
their glory.
 
From outside, it was
somehow even worse.
 
She knew that
whatever it was, her car was in very, very bad shape.
 

The stranger got out
a few seconds later, leaving the car running.
 
“I’m just going to have a look under the
hood,” he explained.
 
He had a small
flashlight, she saw, and then the hood was up and he was examining something.

Caelyn was curious,
but hung back, still ready to run.
 
Her senses were on high alert and she didn’t trust this guy with his
eerie, relaxed vibe and charming way.
 
She knew now how little any of that stuff meant.
 

This guy could just
be waiting for her to let down her guard and then he’d pounce.
 
How could she possibly trust him?
 
What reason did he have for being out
here this time of night?

He couldn’t have been
under the hood more than a few minutes before he’d shut it and then gone back
inside the driver’s side.
 
The
engine shut off with a trailing, snarling rattle.
 

When the stranger got
out of the car this time, he did take a step in Caelyn’s direction.
 
She took a step back, tensing her whole
body, ready to flee.

He smiled from the
shadows.
 
“Relax,” he said.
 
“I was just going to give you your keys
back.”
 
He held up his hands,
showing the dangling key chain.
 

Caelyn folded her
arms.
 
“What’s wrong with it?”

“Can’t be sure, but I
think your transmission’s shot,” he said.
 

“Great.
 
I assume that’s pretty bad news.”

“It’s not good.”

“Well, thanks for
trying,” she told him.
 
She
pretended to dial her phone, just to show him that she had the option to call
for help if she chose.

He looked at
her.
 
“I think reception’s pretty
much nonexistent out here.”
 
She
could swear the corners of his lips twitched as if to smile at her silly ruse.
 
His eyes moved up her body, taking in her
skirt, her ruined shirt, the high heels that had seemed a good idea earlier in
the night.
 

She jutted out her
chin, refusing to wilt under his gaze.
 
Surprisingly, it wasn’t making her uncomfortable.
 
Caelyn didn’t get the sense he was
checking her out – at least, not in a sexual way.
 
Instead, he was probably wondering what
the hell she was doing out here, by herself, late at night, on the side of the
road.
 

“Well, my phone’s
getting reception,” she lied.

“Oh, that’s
good.”
 
He put his hands on his
hips.
 
“My name’s Elijah,” he told
her.
 

“Cool.
 
Thanks for taking a look at my car,” she
said.
 
“I appreciate it.
 
Guess I’ll just call for a tow truck.”

“Listen, why don’t
you let me drive you to the next exit, drop you somewhere safe, you can wait
there until they fix up your car?”

Relief started to
flood through her.
 
But then she
caught herself.
 

Once she was in his
car, anything could happen.
 
Anything.

He seemed nice,
though.

So did Jayson.

That brought back the
tremors and the sick feeling.
 
“I
should probably stay with my car,” she said.

Elijah nodded
slowly.
 
He leaned back against her
car, crossed his arms over his broad chest.
 
She couldn’t help but notice the way his
biceps flexed, even under the loose material of his t-shirt.
 
“You know it’s probably going to cost
you a couple thousand dollars to have it fixed, right?”

Caelyn’s jaw dropped.
 
“A couple thousand dollars?”

“I’m sorry, but I
thought you should know.”
 
He
sighed, then turned and placed her keys on the hood of her car.
 
“Anyway, good luck,” he said, and
started to head back to his SUV.

He didn’t slow his
pace, or even look back.

Caelyn abruptly
realized that Elijah was definitely going to leave her there, and that it
seemed as if he didn’t have the intention of trying to kidnap and murder her
after all.

And that’s when she
realized how quiet and dark it still was.
 
With Elijah nearby, the night hadn’t seemed nearly as frightening
somehow.
 
Which made no sense,
because he was clearly not to be trusted.

Just as he was about
to get in his own car, she called out to him.

“Wait!” she
said.
 

He turned and looked
at her.
 
“Yeah?”
 
He sounded a little impatient.

“I think—I
think I might need a ride after all,” she admitted.

***

Caelyn was sitting in
the passenger seat of an exceedingly clean SUV.
 
She had her purse on the seat beside her
and the small travel bag was sitting at her feet.

Elijah was driving
the car, eyes straight ahead, one hand on the wheel, his free hand draped
casually over one leg.
 
He was
chewing gum slowly, purposefully, his jaw tensing and relaxing.

Now that Caelyn was
closer to him, she could see that he was even better looking than she’d first
thought.
 
He was hot—movie
star hot—not that she knew any.
 
But Elijah must be what Channing Tatum or Taylor Lautner had been like
before they were discovered.
 
He had
that effortless intensity—that chiseled body, and the strong masculine
features.
 

She was surprised at
her own curiosity, especially after what she’d been through earlier that
night.
 
But there was something
reassuring about Elijah, something that was slowly allowing her to relax, one
minute at a time.

It helped that he
didn’t seem to have the least interest in her.

In fact, he’d barely
uttered two words to her since she’d taken him up on his offer to drive her to
the next exit and see if they could find a place for her to wait until morning.

“You should probably
call Triple A,” Elijah said, out of nowhere.
 
It had been so long since he’d spoken
that Caelyn was shocked by the sound of his voice breaking the silence of the
drive.
 
“It could take them a few
hours to tow your car at this time of night,” he explained.

She felt her cheeks
turning red.
 
“I don’t have Triple
A.”

He looked at her
briefly.
 
“What are you going to do,
then?”

She sighed.
 
“I’m not really sure.”
 
She glanced at her purse, and saw the
postcard tucked safely away inside.
 
She’d somehow remembered to put it in her bag as she was gathering her
things up to bring with her.

“Well, the exit’s
coming up,” he said, nodding out at the road, and sure enough, the exit loomed
at them out of the darkness.
 
They
got off to the right and slowly rounded a turn, coming out onto a main road
that was still dark, with all the restaurants and gas stations shuttered for
the night.

As they drove down
the road, Elijah shook his head.
 
“I
don’t think anything’s open yet.
 
Want to call around to some hotels and see if you can book a room or
something?”

Caelyn pointed to a
McDonald’s on the right.
 
“Why don’t
you drop me there?
 
It will be open
in the next couple of hours, and then…” her voice trailed off.

Elijah glanced at
her.
 
“And then what?” he
asked.
 
He slowly pulled the car
into the McDonald’s lot and parked.
 
When he turned to her, she instantly withdrew, shrinking back against
the door.
 
She put one hand on the
car door handle, in case she needed to make a quick escape.

His brow crinkled in
confusion.
 
“What’s your damage,
kid?”

She swallowed,
regaining some composure.
 
He wasn’t
going to hurt her.
 
She sat up a bit
straighter.
 
“I don’t have any damage—I’m
just nervous.
 
It’s late at night
and I don’t know you.
 
Sorry.”

He smiled
slightly.
 
His eyes focused on her,
as if seeing her for the first time.
 
She was unnerved by how sharp and perceptive those dark eyes were.
 
It was as if he knew everything in one
instant of gazing at her.
 
She
looked away quickly.

“I didn’t mean to
scare you.
 
The thing is,” he continued,
“I don’t feel right leaving you in the middle of nowhere with no car and no way
home.
 
Where are you headed,
anyway?
 
Can’t you just call someone
to come and get you?”

She thought about
lying and then, for some strange reason, opted to tell the truth.
 
“There’s no one I want to call.”

He nodded as if it
made total sense.
 
“Well where are
you headed, then?”

“Florida.”

“Florida?”

“Yeah, Florida.”
 
She glared at him, as if daring him to
tell her she’d never make it.

He turned away,
seemingly lost in thought.
 
“I’m
guessing you don’t have the money to fix that car we left back there.”

“No, I don’t.”
 
She didn’t go any further than
that—she didn’t tell him that she currently had about a hundred dollars
in cash in her purse, a credit card that had maybe another hundred bucks before
it was maxed out, and less than fifty dollars in her checking account.

Somehow, that money
was supposed to last her all the way to Florida, and then continue to last
while she found work and housing and fed herself.

As if Elijah knew all
of these things, he suddenly put the car in gear and swung out of the
McDonald’s parking lot, heading back the way they came on the main road.

“Where are you
going?” she asked, her hand instinctively clutching her purse to her side.

“Back on the
highway.”