Delusive (24 page)

The men moved, doing as they were told. Jaco led Skylar out of the doors leading to another hall that stood behind the executive desk while the others dragged a motionless Robin behind.
 

Elias stepped forward and picked up a handkerchief from off the top of the table situated between two club chairs and wiped his hands with it. His close proximity—only a few feet from me—transformed my breathing into shallow pants.

“You’re not very good at skulking in the shadows unseen,
minha amada
.” His back remained to me as his hand went up in the air to beckon for me.

My first step was an unsteady one, almost causing me to trip. The world moved at a motion in direct opposition with my actions. I stood next to him, keeping my distance. I wanted to avoid gawking at him, but I couldn’t help it. I studied him, hoping somehow I’d be able to figure him out.
 

I knew what he was; there could’ve only been one thing. What bothered me the most was the possibility there could be more to the story of how and why his father was responsible for my mother’s accident. If it was something complicated, my father was right about the sacrifice. The price was becoming one I couldn’t afford. Standing before me was someone far beyond a slightly fucked up man with anger management issues. He was deadly.
 

And Skylar? There was only one thing she could’ve done to warrant life in prison and indenture her to someone like Elias—she had to have murdered someone. The connection between the two of them started to become clearer and clearer.

“Who the hell are you?”

He turned toward me while continuing to wipe his hands on a black cloth. His cold green eyes remained trained on me. Despite his calm, to the point of placid demeanor, he managed a skewed smile. “Elias Cari. We’ve met before, remember?”

“You have jokes at a time like this?”

“I was firing an employee for theft and keeping an errant bitch in line. Two things you weren’t supposed to see.” He glanced at the door to the den. “I guess I have the lady of the house to thank for not following orders.” He sneered in a way that turned my blood cold. “Her husband will pay for that mistake.”

Thoughts about returning home and getting answers out of my father before I got the hell out of town seemed the most logical of my thoughts.
 

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 against 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.”