Billionaires, Bad Boys, and Alpha Males (8 page)

“Maybe not.
 
But you’re not as bad as you seem to
think you are, Elijah.”

“You don’t know me.”

“I’m starting to know
you.”

That quieted
him.
 
He seemed to be thinking
awhile.
 
“I told you I was running
away from something too,” he said.

She nodded.
 
“That person on the phone just
now—is that who you’re running away from?”

“Partly.
 
Let’s just say that I fell in with a bad
crowd.”
 
He laughed, like this
amused him.

“What’s so funny?”

“That’s just total
bullshit.
 
I didn’t fall in with
them.
 
I grew up with them.
 
They were my best friends.
 
One of them is my kid brother.”

She could see the
hurt in his eyes now.
 
It was
obvious that he was struggling with his decision as much as she was struggling
with her own.
 
“Maybe you and me
aren’t as different as you think,” she said.
 

“How so?”

“Everyone you know
thinks you’re being a traitor, right?” she asked him.

He nodded.
 
“Yeah, pretty much.”

“Well, that’s what
everyone’s going to think about me when they realize that I took off, left
college to go to Florida.
 
They’re going
to think I’m crazy, ungrateful, entitled, whatever.”
 
She looked at Elijah.
 
“But I had to go.
 
It was either leave Boston and give
myself a chance to actually live for myself, or stay and just completely lose
myself.”

“Yeah, I suppose
that’s how I felt too,” he said.
 
“You know, I can see why you got into Cambridge,” he said.
 
“That’s pretty damn smart.”

“Thanks,” she smiled.

Over the next couple
of hours, they mostly listened to music.
 
Elijah seemed to prefer stuff like the Foo Fighters and Death Cab for
Cutie, whereas Caelyn was pretty much into Usher and Rihanna and mainstream pop
music.
 
Surprisingly, Elijah wasn’t
jerky about it like some boys had been in the past.

He didn’t make fun of
her for her musical tastes.
 
In
fact, he happily tuned the radio to a hits station for the better part of an
hour.
 

As evening started to
fall, however, and the sky slowly darkened, Elijah was tiring again and this
time, even he couldn’t deny it.

“I’m not going to
make it all the way to Florida,” he said softly, after a long period of
relative silence.

“I didn’t expect you
to,” she replied.
 

“My eyes are burning,
my back is killing me.
 
I need to
get out of this car and stretch my legs and…”

“We need to stop at a
hotel for the night,” Caelyn said.
 
She was looking forward to it, actually.
 
Sure, it would have been nice to get to
Florida in one straight shot, but it wasn’t worth dying to try and make
it.
 
They had continued way past
what she thought was reasonable, and it was time to accept defeat.

Besides, she was
still wearing the same outfit from the previous night, and her same old caked
on makeup and she felt gross.
 
A
bath would be very nice, too.

“All right, let’s
pull off at the next exit,” Elijah said.
 
“Sound good?”

“Sounds amazing.”

“I’m just going to stop
at the first halfway decent place we see,” he said, “since I don’t really know
what’s nearby.”

“I can check my
phone,” she offered.

But minutes later,
they were taking the next off ramp and soon off the exit, they spotted a
Holiday Inn Express that looked like a beautiful oasis after everything she’d
been through recently.

“Hopefully, they have
some rooms open,” Elijah said, as they pulled in.
 
“The lot doesn’t seem too full.”

“Should I come in
with you?” she asked, as he pulled the car over beside the front entrance.

“No, let me just run
in really quick and see what’s available.”

“You sure?”

“Yup.”
 
He hopped out of the SUV, suddenly
energetic, and she watched him go inside.
 
She could see his broad back as he walked, and the wind ruffled his hair
slightly.

The butterflies had
started up again, and she put a hand on her stomach.
 
What was she feeling, exactly?
 
She wasn’t certain.
 
Elijah was absolutely handsome—was
it that simple?
 
Was she physically
attracted to him, or was it something else?

She waited in the
car, hoping they wouldn’t tell him the hotel was booked up.
 
But as the minutes went by, she imagined
he must be getting rooms for them.
 
She wondered how much it would cost, and if he’d try to once again pay
for her.

When he finally
returned to the car and got inside, she looked at him expectantly.
 
“Well?” she asked.

“Well, what?” he
replied, driving away from the curb.

“Did they have any
rooms available?”

“Yeah.”
 
He pulled into a parking spot not far
away.
 

“So…” she waited for
him to explain.
 
“How much do I owe
you, Elijah?”

“Don’t start this
mess again,” he said.
 
“Come on, I’m
freaking beat.
 
Let’s get up to the
room before I collapse and you have to drag me up.”

His words hit her
fully as the got out of the car and started toward the entrance together.
 
“Wait a second,” she said, pulling up
short.

He looked at
her.
 
“What?”

“You said
‘room.’
 
As in, you got just one
room for both of us?”

He started to
smile.
 
“Yeah, I got just one
room.
 
Don’t worry, kid—I’m
not going to put the moves on you or anything like that.
 
I’ll sleep on the floor if it makes you
feel better.”

She felt her cheeks
blushing.
 
“I’m not saying…that….”
she stuttered.
 
“I just figured we’d
get separate rooms.
 
I mean, we hardly
even know each other.”

He put his duffel bag
down and folded his arms across his muscular chest.
 
“Well, let me break the math down for
you, Caelyn.
 
It cost me a hundred
and thirty bucks for that one room.
 
Do you really want to spend that much, just so you don’t have to worry
about me leaving the toilet seat up?”

“No, I guess
not.”
 
She sighed, wiping the hair
from her face.
 
“It’s just kind of
weird, that’s all.
 
And I need to
know that you’ll respect my space and my privacy.”

He repressed a
smile.
 
“Of course I will.”

“I’m serious,
Elijah.
 
I’ve had a rough couple of
days.”
 
Suddenly, out of nowhere,
tears were threatening.

As if he sensed that
she really was serious, Elijah’s smile softened.
 
His eyes were now much warmer than the
previous second.
 
“Hey, I’m serious
too,” he said.
 
“I’m not going to
mess with you.
 
I’ll sleep on the
floor, I really don’t mind.
 
I’ve
slept in worse places, I assure you.”

She nodded.
 
“Thank you.”

“Come on, let’s get
up to the room.
 
I think we’re both
wiped at this point,” he said.

They walked through
the warm, well-lit lobby together.
 
The concierge at the front desk smiled and waved at them.
 
“Enjoy your stay,” he said.

Caelyn waved in
return, wondering if that man assumed the two of them were boyfriend and
girlfriend like everyone else seemed to be doing.
 

Of course he assumes that—it would be strange
to think otherwise.

And what if I
actually wanted something to happened between us tonight? Caelyn wondered.
 
Would Elijah still want to sleep on the
floor?
 
Does he think of me as just
a silly young girl—a kid—or a friend, or something more?

As usual, she had no
answers, only questions and butterflies.

They were on the
second floor of the hotel.
 
He
pulled out the keycard for the door, and the little light on the door handle
went from red to green and flashed.
 
The door clicked and Elijah opened it, revealing a decent-sized room
with two queen beds.
 
“Guess I won’t
have to sleep on the floor after all,” he winked, flipping on the lights as he
went into the room ahead of her.

It was cool inside,
with the air freshened scent common to a new room that had just been cleaned
recently.

The moment she’d
gotten inside, Caelyn dropped her purse and bag to the floor.
 
She felt like she’d just come home from
war.
 
The bed was already calling
her name, but first she needed a nice hot shower.

Elijah turned on the
television and began flipping channels.
 
Now that they were in the hotel room together, alone, it felt suddenly
very intimate and real.

It felt like they
were really together.

She looked at Elijah
as the light from the television illuminated his face.
 
He was focused on the TV screen, not
noticing her for the time being, and she was able to just look at him.
 

Okay, so he’s fucking hot.

She’d known he was
good-looking, clearly, but now that they had stepped out of the car and into a
hotel room, something in her awareness had shifted.
 
Elijah was the type of guy that girls
would fight to make their boyfriend, compete and scratch and claw to sleep
with.
 
He was seriously that hot.

She was alone in a
room with him.
 
And there was a bed
in this room.
 
They could lie on the
bed together and nobody would ever know.
 

Suddenly, she was
imagining them on the bed together—his hard body pushed close to her, his
strong, muscular arms encircling her, as he leaned in and began softly kissing
her.

She forced herself to
break out of the ridiculous fantasy and stop staring.
 

How can you even think about kissing Elijah after
what Jayson did to you last night?
 
Are you insane?

Now, the butterflies
were going and she felt anxious, like her heart was racing.

“I’m taking a
shower,” she announced, her voice a little too loud.

He took his gaze off
the TV and looked at her quizzically.
 
“Okay.
 
Have fun.”

She went into the
bathroom, shut the door behind her and turned the water on full blast in the
tub.
 
Her heart was still beating
too fast and she could hardly catch her breath.

 
Looking at herself in the bathroom
mirror, her face was too pale and she looked like a tired old clown with all
the dried makeup and the mascara that had run down her cheeks when she’d been
crying.

She felt a strong
need to tear off her clothes.
 
They
stink, she thought. She’d been wearing them for a day and a half and she’d gone
over Jayson’s wearing the outfit.
 
She’d been dumb enough to want to dress sexy for him, never realizing
what that might mean.
 
Never
considering that it might lead where it led.
 

Caelyn pulled off her
top and then stepped out of her skirt as the steam started to fill the
room.
 
The heat was good.
 
The heat was cleansing.
 
She wasn’t wearing panties because
Jayson had ripped them off during the struggle.

Now, looking at her
own naked body, she was forced to see the bruises on her upper arm from where
he’d grabbed her, the scratch on her belly, another large yellowing bruise on
her thigh, the rawness on her knee.
 

There were other
bruises and scrapes, too.
 
Some
smaller, some larger.

He beat me up,
she realized.
 
He
beat me up and raped me.