Billionaires, Bad Boys, and Alpha Males (4 page)

“Why did he call you
Jake?” she asked.

“What?”
 

“That cop called you
Jake.
 
And your registration says
Jake, too.”

Elijah didn’t answer
for a long moment.
 
Finally, he
glanced at her.
 
“Listen, I’m giving
you a ride to New York City.
 
I’m
not here to explain my life story to you.”

“Who said anything
about your life story?
 
You just
lied to a cop about your name.
 
Either that, or you’re lying to me.
 
Any way you look at it, it’s pretty messed up.”

He shook his head,
then smirked.
 
“Oh, that’s pretty
rich coming from you, Caelyn.”

“What’s that supposed
to mean?”

“Look at you,” he
said, glancing at her again, his eyes raking up and down her body from head to
toe.
 
“You’re a mess.
 
Your freaking skirt is ripped, your
shirt’s all stretched out, makeup’s running down your face.
 
It’s pretty damn obvious you’re running
away from something.
 
But did I try
and demand that you tell me about it?”

Her mouth opened and
closed.
 
She crossed her arms over
her chest and shrank away from him.
 
The way he’d looked at her and spoken to her—it had been so
brutal, so cruel in a way.
 
She
hadn’t expected that.
 
Is that what
he’d been thinking, is that why he hadn’t really looked at her since he’d
picked her up on the highway?

“You’re right,” she
almost whispered.
 
“I’m not going to
ask you anything.
 
Just pull over
and let me out.”

“Caelyn,” he said,
his voice apologetic now.
 
“Look,
I’m sorry, it’s just – ”

“LET ME OUT OF THIS
CAR.”

“I’m not putting you
out on the highway,” he told her.

She pointed to a rest
stop up ahead.
 
“You won’t be
letting me out on the highway.
 
Look, there’s a travel plaza right there.”

“It’s only another
hour to New York and the bus station.”

She looked at him and
met his eyes.
 
“Let me out,
Elijah.
 
I don’t want to go anywhere
with you.
 
Understand?”

His jaw set.
 
“Fine,” he said, in a clipped tone.

A moment later, he
was pulling into the rest stop and parking the SUV.
 
“Let me just explain one thing,” he
started to say.

But Caelyn had
already grabbed her purse and bag, opened the passenger door, and started
getting out of the car.
 
She was so
done talking to him—she was furious, and she could feel the rage flowing
through every crevice of her body.

How dare he look at
her like that, talk to her like that, judge her like that?

She immediately began
walking toward the entrance of the convenience store that was linked to the
rest stop.
 
Caelyn was walking fast,
not looking back, her hands clutching her purse and bag.
 

Once she got inside,
she pretended to look at some snacks, just for something to do while she
regained her composure.

She wouldn’t look up
to watch him drive away, either, she decided.
 
She could already picture his SUV
pulling out and leaving the area.
 
He would be gone and she’d never see him again.
 
For some reason Caelyn couldn’t even
fathom, the idea of him leaving hurt badly.
 
It hit her in the chest and stomach like
a vicious cramp.

Why did she
care?
 
He clearly had a screw loose,
and he was a liar, and he was mean on top of it all.
 

She grabbed a Slim
Jim, even though she didn’t even like them, just so that nobody would think she
was crazy for standing in the aisle and doing nothing but staring at the
snacks.

The door chimed as it
opened, and she didn’t look up to see who was coming in.
 
She didn’t want to be disappointed when
someone else’s face greeted her.
 

But why do you still want to see Elijah?
 
Why did you make him drop you off if you
still want to be with him?

There was no good
answer.
 

She looked down at
the dirty floor of the convenience store as footsteps approached.

“I’m not going to
leave you here,” the familiar voice said from just beside her.
 
His tone was gruff and commanding, and
she almost gave in.
 
Almost.
 
But the wave of relief that flooded her
body was quickly countered by another wave of anger.
 

“Leave me alone,” she
said, walking away from him again, even as a voice inside of her told her to
stop pushing him away.
 
If she kept
it up, he really might listen.

But she couldn’t seem
to stop herself.
 
The door chimed
again as she pushed her way out of the store.

“Caelyn!” Elijah
yelled.
 
She heard him coming after
her, and she quickened her pace, not sure if she wanted him to catch her.

Then, suddenly,
another voice pierced the air.

“Sir, your girlfriend
is walking out of the store with unpaid for merchandise!
 
That’s our Slim Jim!” the voice of the
cashier yelled.

Caelyn spun around
and threw the Slim Jim, hitting Elijah in the chest with it.
 
He fumbled it, but eventually held on.

“I don’t even like
Slim Jims!” she yelled.
 

Elijah turned and gave
the item back to the irate cashier, who said something inaudible to him.
 
And then Elijah followed her outside, to
the curb, where she was now sitting, head in her hands.

She was crying and
shaking.

Everything was
flooding through her -- the memories from the previous night, the things she’d
tried to push away.
 
It was all
coming back.

“Can I sit down?”
Elijah asked softly.

She nodded, not
really able to talk.
 
But she found
that she did in fact want him to sit next to her, and when he did, she enjoyed
his closeness.
 
He didn’t sit too
close, either, just near enough for her to feel his presence.

“Elijah’s my real
name,” he said, after a bit.

She wiped some tears
from her eyes and sniffed.
 
She felt
drained, completely drained, but in a weird way, it didn’t feel horrible.
 
She’d needed to release the anger and
the fear and the upset.
 
The truth
was, she’d been through hell and hadn’t yet really processed any of it.
 

She looked at Elijah,
sitting there next to her, his profile strong as he stared out across the
parking lot.
 
The part of his hair
that flopped over his forehead ruffled slightly in the breeze, and Caelyn
resisted the urge to reach up and push it off his face.
 
“Why do you have another name you give
to the police?” she asked, not really expecting an answer.

But he surprised
her.
 
“It’s a long story, and maybe
someday I’ll have a chance to tell it to you.
 
But let’s just say that you’re not the
only one running away from something.”
 
He turned to her, and their eyes met.
 
And in that moment, Caelyn realized why
it was she’d felt so safe with him.
 
He was running away, too.
 
They were the same, at least on some level.

“You don’t have to
tell me,” she said.
 
“It’s
okay.”
 
And it was.
 
Sure, Elijah just admitted that he’d
lied to the police.
 
It probably
meant that he had done other bad things as well.
 
But in a strange way, what was more
important was, at least at that moment, he was telling her the truth.
 
And he didn’t have to do that.

She could see the
hurt and pain reflected in his eyes, and she wondered what kind of secrets he
was hiding.
 
Whatever they were must
have been painful and dark and raw.
 
It was almost too much to take, staring at him like that, and she had to
look away.

“You’re right, I am a
mess,” she admitted, pulling out her pocket mirror and seeing the mascara
running down her cheeks.
 
She looked
like someone had just taken a flamethrower to a statue in the wax museum.
 
Why hadn’t she thought to at least wash
her face?

“What do you say we
go inside and grab something to eat?” Elijah asked her.
 
He stood up and reached his hand out to
her.
 
She took it, and his grip was
strong and comforting as he pulled her to her feet.

“Shouldn’t we be
getting back on the road?”

“I checked the times
on the busses going to Florida, and we’ve got a couple of hours to spare.”

She smiled a
little.
 
He’d taken the time to
check on the bus schedule, and he’d come after her even though she’d yelled and
screamed and told him to leave her alone.

Whatever else Elijah
might be, he was certainly doing more than he needed to for a girl he’d just
met.

“I am kind of
hungry,” she admitted.

 
“Obviously.
 
The way you took off out of there with
that Slim Jim in hand?”
 
He shook
his head.
 
“You probably could have
won the Olympic gold medal for the fifty-yard dash.”

Caelyn laughed, her
belly loosening, the laughter sounding and feeling more and more
real—natural—like her old self.
  
He was smiling, and she realized
how close they were standing.
 
His
eyes were warm and soft as he looked at her.
 

For a moment, she
almost thought he was going to kiss her, and her heart sped up, but then he
didn’t.
 
She looked past him into
the convenience store and saw the cashier still giving her the evil eye.
 
“Yeah, we should probably avoid going
back in that way.”

“You heard what he
called you, right?” Elijah said, leading her toward the other entrance.

“No, what?”

“He thought you were
my girlfriend,” Elijah said, glancing at her as if to see her reaction.

“Yeah, well, you seem
to be encouraging people to think that about me,” she replied.

“Me?
 
How is this my fault?”
 
He opened the door and held it for her
as she walked past him.

“You told that cop
that I was your girlfriend.
 
Now
people are just assuming it.
 
You
started a rumor,” she chided him.
 
“And now we’ll never live it down.”

“Maybe we should play
it up instead.”
 
His voice was
mischievous and flirty, and she remembered how his hand had felt against her
leg when they’d gotten pulled over.

She didn’t say
anything for a moment as they stood there and surveyed the interior of the rest
stop.
 
There was the convenience
store on the left, and then the restrooms, and then to the right was a decent
sized cafeteria, which was home to a half-dozen fast food restaurants.

“What do you mean
play it up?” Caelyn asked.
 
They
were standing shoulder-to-shoulder, almost touching but not quite.

“Like, if everyone is
going to just assume we’re together…we could pretend to be together.”

“But we’re not,” she
clarified.

“Oh, no, of course
not.”
 
He shook his head.
 
“We’re totally not.”

She glanced at him,
and was surprised to see he was looking at her.
 
His eyes were intense, and one side of
his mouth was pulled up into playful grin, almost like he was daring her to say
yes.

“I wouldn’t mind
pretending,” she said, mostly because she knew he wasn’t expecting her to.
 
“But you have to promise not to do
anything too crazy.”

“Oh, you can trust
me,” he said.
 
“I’m very
trustworthy.”
 
He moved a little
closer, so that their arms were touching.
 
Shivers ran up Caelyn’s arms, and goose bumps broke out on her skin.

She liked the way it
felt, being close to him.

But a second later,
she found herself stepping away.