Unlucky in Love ( Lucky #1) (12 page)

“Pack a bag and come stay with me. At least until your furniture arrives,” he said between kisses.

There was too much for her to think about, and she doubted she could do it with him around. She needed some time inside her own head, to better understand all the new feelings she was having. She couldn’t explain it, but this relationship was far different than any she’d ever been in before. It mattered more to her that she try to understand why that was.

“I . . .” She couldn’t think of a reason, so instead she just shook her head. “I’d better go. Thanks.”

He jumped out of the car and rushed to the trunk and pulled out her bag. When he handed it to her, she was thankful that he hadn’t argued or demanded a reason. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” He pulled her closer and kissed her until she questioned why she was heading up to her apartment alone instead of going back to his place and having hot monkey sex all night.

When she closed her front door behind her, she rested on the cool wood and closed her eyes. How had she ended up falling for someone like Aiden so quickly?

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The next week was a very busy one for Aiden. Several times during his workday at R&S, he had to take calls or deal with his own business. Once, he had to ride the bus down to his office and spend his entire lunch break in a meeting with one of his own clients. He had really wanted to spend that lunch time with Kristen instead.

Even though he had a car sitting in the garage, he really enjoyed riding the bus back and forth to the office. He supposed he was doing his part to cut down on emissions. But in truth, he really liked people watching. It helped clear his head and gave him something else to focus on other than work, or Kristen.

He had pulled Kristen into his office several times, but since there was a large window in his half wall, he hadn’t been able to touch her. Instead, he’d talked to her and told her exactly what he wanted to do with her. He’d watched her eyes heat and seen her face flush, causing him to become even more aroused.

He had gotten a few minutes of alone time with her when he’d pulled her into Darren’s small office. He knew that the IT guy had been working in the conference room on the projector. He’d held on to her in the dark office and covered her mouth with a hungry kiss as his hands had roamed over every inch of her he could expose. By the time he let her go, she’d cried out his name and he’d had to help her make sure her clothes were back to normal. He’d even had to help her re-pile her hair on the top of her head in a bun. As she’d walked away, he’d tried not to laugh, knowing that if she bumped into anyone in the next five minutes, they would know exactly what she’d been doing.

The rest of the week flew by. He wasn’t complaining, but he’d really hoped to have more time with Kristen. As it was, she’d been out to the Market Place site several days. By Friday, he was jonesing for some more time alone with her.

She’d talked to him on the phone the entire time the guys were delivering her new furniture. He’d wanted to head over there to help her, but he’d been tied up with a few meetings that couldn’t be rescheduled.

She had understood and told him that Amy had helped her set everything up anyway. Then she’d shown him pictures of the place on her phone the next day. Still, he couldn’t wait to see it for himself.

The weather had turned warmer and he could tell spring was in full season. He’d had a long talk with his mother and Eric and had listened to her explain why she’d kept his father’s recent condition from him. How she had tried to save him from knowing that his father was slowly going crazy the last few years. And, more importantly, why his father had decided to focus on his career instead of raising his son.

Even though he’d tried to understand why his mom had tried to shield him, part of him was still very upset that she hadn’t told him earlier. She’d begged him to forgive her and understand, but he still felt there was a rift between them that hadn’t been there before. She’d asked to see him so they could talk it over, but he’d told her his schedule had been booked solid.

His mother even had Amber call him to try to convince him to meet with their mom, which was a very low blow considering he could never deny his sister anything.

By the end of their conversation, he’d agreed to a family lunch that weekend, and even promised, without Kristen’s knowledge, that he’d bring her. Now he just had to convince Kristen to go along with him.

It was Friday evening and he’d arranged to meet Kristen back at the office since she’d had another late appointment at Market Place. They were going to head over to her place to meet Amy for dinner.

He swung by the R&S office after his own appointment to handle a few items. When he entered the building, most of the lights were off since it was a quarter after six.

As he started walking toward the row of elevators, he heard the alarm buzzing in one of them. Looking around and seeing no one, he punched the button several times.

“Hello?” he called out, knowing that it would be almost impossible for anyone stuck in the elevator to hear him. Especially if they were on one of the higher floors.

Two elevators out of the four came down and opened for him. He walked into one of them and picked up the phone.

“Security.” The voice was garbled and hard to hear.

“Yes, this is Aiden Scott with Row and Stein. Someone has set off an alarm in one of the west side elevators.”

“Yes, Mr. Scott. We are aware of the issue. Help is on the way.” The man sounded bored.

“Um, okay. Is someone locked in there?”

“Not that we know. The emergency phone isn’t working in that unit. We’ve called in the repairman and he’ll be there within the hour.”

Spending an hour in a locked elevator was not his idea of a fun way to spend a Friday night. Aiden hung up the phone and punched his floor.

When the doors opened, he could still hear the alarm ringing. He walked into the office and frowned. It was too dark for Kristen to still be here. As he walked by the balcony, he glanced outside, just in case.

Then his heart caught in his chest. He rushed toward her cubicle, and when he noticed it was empty, he rushed back outside to the elevators.

“Kristen?” he called loudly several times. Then he stopped and put his ear to the metal doors and heard the whimper.

Kristen tried to keep it together. But after the first ten minutes, time seemed to slow down. Her watch face blurred as tears formed in her eyes. Her breath hitched as she walked back and forth trying to think of a million things other than the fact that she was locked in a five-by-five space and her air was quickly running out.

Well, okay, maybe she wouldn’t suffocate, but she was definitely going to hyperventilate. What had she done in life to deserve this? Certainly, it couldn’t be just because she’d gone out with a boy on his sister’s birthday. She stomped her foot lightly as she crossed her arms over her chest. When she felt the elevator shake a little, she quickly grabbed hold of the rail and closed her eyes.

“Okay, I won’t be doing that again.” She prayed silently that someone would come soon. The loud alarm was giving her a headache, but since there was no way of turning it off herself, she had to listen to the buzzing until someone rescued her. She’d tried her cell phone, but with zero bars, she doubted it would be any help. She was able, however, to send out a few text messages. The first one was to Amy, telling her quickly of her situation. The second had been to Aiden, asking if he was in the building. She didn’t want to tell him what was going on. It all seemed too embarrassing to admit to him just yet, at least until she could control her panicked state.

She rested her head on the cool, mirrored wall and tried to count the rapid heartbeats pounding in her head to steady herself. When that didn’t help, she let her mind drift to last weekend. How wonderful it had been being with Aiden in Vail. He’d been a perfect dream guy. Was he too perfect?

After everything she’d been through in the past few months, could she really trust someone like him? Did she want to put her heart on the line? Could she afford to?

Just then she heard someone calling her name. Looking up, she heard it again. A cry of relief escaped her lips.

“Here! I’m here!” she called out over and over again. Her knees shook so she gripped the handle harder.

“I’m calling security again.” Aiden’s muffled call was music to her ears. She waited, but the shaking in her knees grew with every passing minute. Her ears were ringing loudly. She couldn’t hear him anymore.

Finally, she heard him yell down, “Kristen, help is on the way. Are you okay?”

“Yes,” she called back. “Just scared out of my mind.” She whispered the last part under her breath as she looked around her mirror-walled prison. Seeing her own scared face staring back at her, she moaned and shook her head clear. “You haven’t done anything to deserve this. Aiden’s right. You make your own luck.” She promised her reflection she’d make better judgments in the future. She’d known this elevator sometimes had issues. She should have waited for the next one instead of hopping on it because she’d been too focused on rushing upstairs.

“Can you tell me how far away you are from our floor?” he called out again.

She closed her eyes, trying to remember how many floors she’d gone up before the digital display had shut off. “I think I’m on six,” she called out.

“Okay, I’m going to run down the stairs toward you. I’ll be right back.”

She leaned against the wall. With every movement she made, the cart jiggled and swayed. She hated elevators.

“Kristen?” Aiden’s voice was much closer now.

“Yes.” She took a deep breath, praying that this would all be over soon.

“I’m here,” he said through the door.

She took a small step toward the mirrored exit.

“I think something’s wrong. I mean, the elevator shakes really bad every time I move. When it stopped”—she took another small step toward the doors—“it jolted and I thought I heard something snap.” She looked down at her hands and knees, thinking about the pain she’d felt when she’d fallen on them as the elevator jolted to a stop the first time. Now, everything was dull since her heartbeat was going nuts.

“Damn.” She heard him moving around. He did something that caused the whole box to shake.

“Aiden! Stop!” she screamed and felt tears sliding down her face. She’d fallen to her knees again. When she opened her eyes, she was looking down at her hands, which were spread out on the floor. “Please,” she said under her breath.

“Kristen?” She could hear him screaming her name over again. “I’m sorry, baby. I’m just trying to get the doors open.” She could hear the strain in his voice. “I need to make a call. Don’t move, okay?”

“I’m not going anywhere.” She added
I hope
in her mind.

She could hear him cussing and yelling at someone, most likely security on another elevator’s phone. This one hadn’t worked. She looked up and glared at the silver box that had a black phone hanging out of it.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you have it out for me.” She blinked and tried to focus on Aiden’s voice. She could hear him arguing with someone else. Then he came back to her and she focused on how great his voice sounded.

“Kristen, the fire department is on their way up here. Just hold on.” She could hear the worry in his voice.

“Kristen?” he called out again.

“Yes, I’m all right.” She kept her eyes closed and continued to pray. Her fingernails dug into her skin as she fisted her hands tightly. Images of a thin wire holding up the elevator car flashed through her mind.

Aiden continued to talk to her until she heard other voices, then there was a bunch of noise and the car bumped around even more. She thought she had screamed, but she couldn’t be sure since all she could hear was the blood pounding in her ears.

She stayed on her hands and knees, she could hear her breath whooshing out quickly, then she heard Aiden’s voice just above her. When she looked up, she could see his face poking through the doors, which were being held open by two large firemen.

“Babe, you have to come to me,” he was saying. “Crawl over to the door and then stand up and reach for my hand.”

“Can’t.” It came out as a whisper.

“Sure you can. They’ve secured the car, it’s not going anywhere.”

Even this knowledge didn’t comfort her. Her mind was too preoccupied with images of it and her speeding down flight after flight and crashing at the bottom.

“Kristen.” He held out his hand. “Come here. You can do it.”

She took a deep breath and then looked back down at her hands. Two of her nails were chipped. The bright pink nail polish she’d let Amy put on her the other night was no longer pretty and perfect. She could just imagine how she’d look after falling almost a dozen floors to the bottom floor in the parking garage.

“I can’t move,” she said softly.

“Hang on! I’m coming down to you,” he said and she could hear him moving around.

“No!” She looked up quickly. She didn’t want him to put himself in danger because of her. “I’ll . . . I’m coming to you.”

She forced herself to move. It was slow going, but she crawled her way toward the doors, braced herself up against the mirrored wall, and pulled herself up until she felt her knees almost give out.

Her hand touched Aiden’s warmer one and she felt her breath whoosh out of her as she was grabbed under her arms and hoisted up into midair. She kept her eyes shut until she felt Aiden’s arms around her, holding her tight.

Instantly she felt safe. All the darkness and fear dissipated as he held her against his chest. She had never felt like this with a man before and wondered if she’d gone a little mad locked in the elevator.