Saved By Your Hot Book Boyfriend

18. Stuck in an Elevator With the Hot Guy

18

Stuck in an Elevator With the Hot Guy

You

This was just supposed to be a fun shopping trip. You were gonna get some clothes, eat some food, buy groceries. And maybe see the hot guy—Ziros—try on a few things.

But now you’re stuck in an elevator.

At least you’re alone with a hot dude, instead of crammed in with a dozen other people, all fighting for an inch of breathing room. So that’s a plus.

Maybe this isn’t so bad, after all.

“Don’t worry, human,” he says, cracking his neck and then his knuckles. “I’ll bust us outta here.”

“Wait!” you cry, lunging as he reaches for the doors. “We should press the emergency and alarm buttons before you do anything crazy that will probably involve me having to pay for property damage.”

Ziros grumbles something under his breath as he steps back, folding his arms as he frowns at the doors like he’s about one second from ignoring you and prying them open anyway.

“Fine. If you insist. But I’ve got a bad feeling, human, and I don’t like this. I say we bust outta this death trap ASAP.”

Maybe it’s something about how irritated he is, but you actually feel a strange and surprising sense of calm. After all, someone’s got to be the sane one in a situation like this.

You step in front of him and scan the control panel. This one happens to have a red button with an icon of a phone on it, so you press that.

After a moment, a gruff voice answers.

“ Security ,” says the voice. “Lemme guess. Damn thing got stuck again?”

Again?! You glance at Ziros, who’s looking at the lit elevator call button with an unreadable mix of emotions. He looks…amused? No, that’s not it. Annoyed? It’s hard to say.

Maybe uneasy .

“Uh, yes,” you say to the call operator. “It seems we’re trapped. There’s two of us, and the elevator just sorta stopped.”

“Do me a favor?” The security guy on the other end asks. “Hit that door open/close button for me. Sometimes the damn doors get stuck and jam up the whole works.”

You dutifully tap that button, and the doors make a whirring sound, then a terrible crunch like something inside has just broken even more.

You wince.

Meanwhile, Ziros mutters another swear under his breath as he stands there grumpily glaring at the jammed doors like he still wants to force them open.

But you could be between floors. And everything you’ve learned about elevator safety explicitly says not to try climbing out when between floors.

Not because you could fall—more because if the elevator starts again while you’re trying to exit, you’ll be smashed. Or other unpleasant things.

“Yeah, that didn’t seem to help,” you say to the security guy on the call.

He grumbles a few more choice words you’re pretty sure his boss probably wouldn’t be cool with him saying in front of a guest.

“Alright,” he says, and something opens and closes in the background. Maybe a locker? “Lemme grab a few tools.”

Wait, shouldn’t they have a professional come out, not just the security guy?! Maybe that’s why this elevator keeps breaking.

“You just hang tight,” the security guy says as the line goes dead.

Hang tight . Ironically, just after he hangs up, the elevator lurches.

You gasp as the floor drops out from under your feet.

Is this it? Are you going to die?

“ Anzelika ,” Ziros growls, grabbing you around the waist.

But the elevator comes to a stop a few feet below where it originally was.

You’re fine.

You didn’t plummet to your death.

And…Ziros is holding your back against his chest, pinning you against him as you levitate a few inches above the floor.

Yeah. Levitate.

Air rushes around the elevator, energy sizzling from his skin.

“You good?” He asks, slowly setting you back down.

Hopefully there’s no security cameras in here. And if there are, hopefully the security guy is too busy coming to fix the thing to notice. Otherwise he’s gonna have some serious questions about what he just witnessed.

“I’m fine,” you manage, though your voice is slightly breathy and your heart hammers in your chest.

Yikes.

Nothing like a little free-fall to wake you up.

Just when you’re starting to relax again, the car jolts a second time.

This time it doesn’t fall more than an inch or two, but your heart is already racing so fast, blood pounds behind your ears.

You lean your elbows on one of the mirrored walls, forehead against the glass, sucking in rapid breaths one after another. Just trying to stop the dizzy panic from rising.

“You don’t seem fine,” Ziros says, watching you with folded arms.

You were calm enough at first, but every second that you’re in here just makes you more terrified. Maybe you should have let Ziros bust you out. Maybe you never should have taken the elevator.

What if the security guy doesn’t know what he’s doing, and he just makes things worse? What if you plummet all the way to the ground?

Are you high enough up that it could kill you?

“I’m fine,” you insist, but your voice comes out high and embarrassingly squeaky.

Ziros frowns. “Your hands are shaking.”

“ Okay ,” you admit. “You’re right.” You ball your hands into fists, holding them against your sides to stop them from trembling, but it hardly makes a difference. “I’m not fine. I’m not fine at all. I’m currently trapped in an elevator, and I don’t know how long we’ll be in here, and I have work in a few hours and might be late, or we might just plummet to our death at any moment and it won’t matter.”

“So you are scared,” he says, and there’s a strangely triumphant smirk to his voice. “And here I thought you didn’t want me to bust us out.”

“I just don’t want to have to pay for damages. But I also don’t want to die.”

“You won’t die, human,” he says, his voice growing low as he leans in, tilting your chin up with one hand. “Not while I’m here.”

Gulp . He has such captivating steel-blue eyes, and he’s staring right into yours as he pushes you back against the wall and growls in your ear…

“If you’re so scared, how about I make you forget?”

Wait, what?

Before you can process that, he kisses you hard, one hand still holding your jaw, the other sliding behind your back, drawing you against him.

You lean into the kiss as he pins you against the mirrored wall, the heat of his body flaming against yours.

You break away a moment later, panting, heart still hammering. But now it’s hammering for a different reason. Not from fear.

“ Well ?” He asks with that slightly evil smirk, “Did it work?”

“Did…what?” You ask, still dazed.

“Did I distract you, human?”

As you come back to your senses, you glance up, searching for a camera. There’s probably one in here somewhere.

“ We can’t be making out in an elevator ,” you hiss as quietly as you can, just in case the security guy is already on the other side of the door.

Ziros steps back, hands linked behind his head. “Why not?”

“Because! Because there could be cameras.”

“So?” He takes a step toward you. “Then let’s give them something to see.”

You’re about to protest, but the elevator lurches again, dropping another few feet. Instead of protesting, you scream.

Ziros grabs you, holding you against his chest until your breathing returns to normal.

“I meant it,” he growls in your ear. “ I’m not letting anything happen to you, human . Do you not believe me?”

Your heart thunders. “I believe you.”

Of course you do. He’s made it clear that if you die, so does he. And he’s been very clear that he does not want to die.

Yet you can’t help the automatic terror at being trapped in a malfunctioning elevator.

There’s obviously only one solution here.

Only one way to get your mind off it while you wait to be freed. Sure, you could let Ziros pry open the doors, but then you’d be damaging the property— and putting yourselves in danger trying to climb out when the elevator might plunge again at any moment. A moment that could be deadly if you were mid climbing out.

Looks like you’ve got no choice.

As the elevator jerks upward, then down another few feet, you cling to Ziros, pulling him closer as you whisper, “ Kiss me .”

He smirks. “I thought you’d never ask.”

He slides one hand behind your head, the other behind your back, lifting you against the wall as he kisses you again, his tongue parting your lips as his fingers twine into your hair.

Wait—that’s not the wall at your back. Those are the elevator doors.

But you can’t sweat a detail like that. Not while your hot book boyfriend is kissing you like this.

Except, well—

Suddenly, the doors stutter open and the both of you tumble backwards out into the bright department store lobby as a small group of shoppers turn and stare in shock.

“ Oh, my ,” exclaims an elderly woman, covering her mouth as if she’s just been scandalized. Someone else whips out their phone.

You land on top of Ziros with a groan.

Behind you, the security guard-turned-elevator-maintenance-guy clears his throat.

“It should be all fixed now,” he says. “So feel free to hop back in if you’re going up.”

“Thank you,” you say on reflex as you haul yourself shakily to your feet. “But I think this time we’ll take the stairs.”

Ziros stands beside you, smirking as if he’s enjoying the attention of everyone staring.

It’s probably not every day you see a guy as hot as him tumble out of an elevator mid make out.

* * *

You stand in front of the dressing room half an hour later as Ziros emerges in the last outfit you picked out. It’s all been normal, everyday stuff. Mostly jeans and T-shirts, plus a baseball cap, which he seems to have instinctively known to put on backward.

You know, for added Hot Book Boyfriend Effect.

“Hang on,” you say as he stands just outside the dressing room. “Can you do me a favor? Just grab the top of the doorframe and, you know, lean .”

He narrows his eyes at you. “What?”

Ha, well it was worth a try.

You could totally win all the likes online by posting a video of someone as hot as him doing the ‘doorframe lean’.

Especially if that video ended in him grabbing your jaw and passionately kissing you.

Well. There’s always next time.

“Hey,” he says. “So I had to try on all this stuff you picked out. Does that mean now it’s my turn?”

Uh, oh.

“What do you mean?”

He grins.

“I mean, now I get to pick stuff out for you to try, right?”