9. Elijah
ELIJAH
“You don’t know how weird it is that he let me bring a date at all,” Elijah murmured to Stephanie. “Do you need another drink, by the way?”
She looked down at the champagne flute in her hand, then back up at him. “I think this one will last me through your father’s speech,” she said.
“You shouldn’t be too eager to assume that. He can talk for a long time.”
She grinned, but there was something distant in that grin, as though she had something else on her mind. Maybe he shouldn’t have brought her to this thing at all. God knew he didn’t want to be here.
“It won’t be that bad,” he assured her. “We’ll wait until he’s done, and then I’ll have to pose for a few pictures. You can go hide in the bathroom during that if you don’t want to be in them. I think he wants you to be, but he’s not in charge of you.”
“I don’t mind being in a couple of pictures,” Stephanie said. “It’s up to you, though. You know when these get out, people are going to say I’m your girlfriend.”
“I think people are already saying that,” he smirked.
They’d talked about the tabloid picture on their last date, a lunch at a soup and salad spot Stephanie had picked out for them.
Not as fancy as the basketball and steakhouse affair, but he liked that she had been willing to choose something. “Are you my girlfriend?”
“You haven’t asked me to be,” she pointed out.
“What would happen if I did ask you?”
She gave him an appraising look. “I don’t know,” she said. “I think it would depend on why you were asking. Context is everything. Should we move a little closer? I don’t want to miss your dad’s speech.”
He watched her walk away from him. She had him going out of his mind, and it was honestly thrilling.
The mere fact that he had to work so hard for her was different, and he liked it.
He was used to women making it easy, women who were enamored of his wealth and status and didn’t feel the need to play hard to get.
What was more, he had the feeling Stephanie wasn’t playing at all—she was hard to get.
It made him want to win her approval all the more.
If she ever actually agreed to make things official between us, it would be the biggest romantic triumph of my life.
Everything that had happened from the moment he had met Stephanie had been a whirlwind of the unexpected.
He still hadn’t quite gotten over the way she had turned down his advances that very first night.
That should have offended him, should have put him off ever talking to her again, but instead, he had found himself wanting to spend even more time with her.
When she had come back into his life at the gym, he had been eager to approach her and ask her out, enthralled by the chase.
When their picture had appeared in the tabloids, he had saved it on his photo reel, despite the fact that it shouldn’t have mattered that much to him.
Despite the fact he’d had his picture taken with dozens of women in the past. This one was different for some reason that he hadn’t been able to put his finger on. This time, it was worth saving.
And now his father had asked him—not just allowed him, actually asked him—to bring her to the launch of the new banking app.
He actually wanted her here. It wasn’t because he believed Stephanie was Elijah’s serious girlfriend—the press might be pushing that narrative, but his father knew better than to assume Elijah was all of a sudden in a committed relationship.
He likes her. That’s what it is—what got him to invite her here. He likes that I’m seeing her. He wants me to keep it up.
It was funny, because ordinarily that sort of thing would have been enough to persuade Elijah to break it off with a woman.
If there was one thing in this world he wasn’t after, it was his father’s approval of his romantic life.
And the fact that he was a fan of Stephanie was enough to make Elijah wonder, just for a moment, if maybe he ought to be looking at her differently.
She turned back to him and beckoned him forward.
Elijah threw back the remainder of the champagne in his hand, set the glass on a table, and made his way to her side.
He heard the sound of people murmuring as he passed them, but he did his best to ignore the voices.
He had always known today was going to be full of expectations, full of people questioning him.
They would want to know whether he was proud of his father’s accomplishments, what hand he might have had in the new app’s development, whether he meant to take over from his father, and if so, when…
Elijah had had enough of those questions to last him a lifetime.
He was deeply grateful for Stephanie’s presence here.
If anyone approached, he would be able to divert the conversation by introducing them to the beautiful woman on his arm.
No one would be able to interrogate him about his plans for his father’s company—they’d be too distracted by Stephanie.
And that was something he would vastly prefer to talk about.
“I think he’s about to start,” she whispered to him. “Hey, thanks for bringing me to this. I’m glad I get the chance to see it all happening—it feels like a once-in-a-lifetime moment.”
“Wish it was,” Elijah murmured. “I’ve been to more of these than I can count. But I’m glad to have you here. It’s definitely less obnoxious with good company by my side.”
She grinned at him and then touched her lips.
She meant to indicate that they ought to be quiet, he thought, that his father was about to start speaking and they should listen.
But also, she had drawn his attention to her lips.
Not for the first time, he wondered what it would be like to kiss her, and whether or not she would allow it.
I don’t know if I can handle one more rejection from this woman… but also, I’m living for the moment when she gives in to me. When she finally lets me in a little bit. A kiss might be that moment. Maybe later, after the event…
Then his father took the stage, stepping up to the mic, and it became impossible to think about kissing anyone.
Oliver Norcross’s speech was the same as it always was, self-congratulatory in the disguise of a pretense of humility.
He couldn’t have done any of the great things he had done in his life, he insisted, without the presence of the little people around him.
He wouldn’t be the wonderful, successful hero he was if he didn’t have good little peons working for him.
The whole thing made Elijah feel tired. He had heard it all far too many times.
But everyone else in the room was either better at putting on a performance than he was or else they were genuinely impressed.
As he listened, Elijah found himself hoping that their responses were real.
That would make them credulous, but at least they wouldn’t be liars.
He was coming to the realization that he really couldn’t stand liars.
That’s what my father wants me to be—someone who pretends to be supportive and compliant for the sake of appearances. And I’m not going to do that. As much as I know he hates it, I’m always going to be true to myself.
The speech concluded. All around him, people broke into applause. Elijah turned to Stephanie. “Do you want to get out of here?”
She raised her eyebrows.
He heard his own words the way she must have heard them. “Not like that,” he amended. “I just meant that I’m not sure I want to stick around for all the glad-handing. We could slip out the back and go do something a little more fun.”
“Don’t you have a speech to give?” she asked him. He had been reviewing his notecards on the way over, and of course she had noticed. “I thought you were going to say something. Congratulate your father on his success.”
“I was,” Elijah said. “But I don’t think he would mind if I skipped that, really.” Listening to his father had driven that home to him. The man spoke for himself. He didn’t need to hear other people say flattering things about him. That wasn’t something that mattered to him.
“I’d like to stay,” she said. “It was nice of your father to invite me. I don’t want to just blow him off.”
“He won’t even notice,” Elijah said. “If there’s one thing about my father, it’s that—he doesn’t notice other people.”
She looked at him. Her face softened slightly.
“All right,” she said. “We can go if you want to.”
But there was disappointment in her voice, and Elijah hesitated. “You really want to stay.”
“There are a lot of important people here,” Stephanie said. “I was hoping to use this as an opportunity to get to know some of them. To get my name out there in a way I haven’t been able to yet. And besides, I was looking forward to hearing your speech, Elijah.”
That was news to him. “You were?”
“Of course,” she said. “I like hearing what you have to say. Your perspectives are interesting, and you’re funny. I think your speech was probably going to be a lot better than your dad’s… although please never tell him I said that.”
A smile threatened. “I won’t tell him,” he assured her.
She bit her lip. “But if it’s making you that uncomfortable, we can go.”
“No, we don’t have to,” he said, and was surprised to find that he wasn’t frustrated with her at all.
He was grateful to her. She had been honest about what she wanted.
And really, it wasn’t such a big ask. The fact that she was here at all was already her doing him a massive favor, something she’d been under no obligation to do. He could offer her this in return.
And the fact that she genuinely wanted to hear his speech… that meant the world to Elijah. It made him realize that he hadn’t expected to feel anything other than tolerated today. If someone actually wanted to hear what he had to say…
“All right,” he said. “We’ll stay here for a while.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Really? You don’t mind?”
“Oh, I all kinds of mind,” he said with a smirk. “But if a little time networking is what you need, I can deal with it. Maybe after I get another drink.”
“I won’t take long,” she promised. “And then we can go out and do something fun. We can go to that bar you were telling me about if you’d like.”
He nodded. “That would be a good way to wrap up the night, if you’re willing.”
“Definitely. Let me just go press a few palms.”
She took his hand for a moment. Elijah wondered again what it would be like to kiss her. What if he tried to do it right here and now? His father definitely wouldn’t approve, but then, his father never approved of anything he did. The more important question was, what would Stephanie say?
She was watching him closely, and for a moment, he could have sworn her gaze flicked to his lips. Was it possible she was thinking about kissing too? That she was also wondering what it would be like, wondering whether she had the courage to do it? Whether she should?
Maybe he ought to pull her out of this conference room and into the hallway, where things would be quiet. Where they would have the peace they needed to figure this out for themselves without all these people watching.
It occurred to him that he hadn’t lived a moment of his life without people watching him.
It was his perennial curse, something he could never escape.
And yet, somehow, Stephanie made him forget all about that.
He had been shocked to be photographed with her at the ball game, even though it shouldn’t have surprised him at all.
He should have been expecting it from the moment he’d sat down in that seat.
He let her hand go.
Part of the fun of all this was getting to let go of the feeling of being scrutinized.
There was nothing scandalous about Stephanie, nothing that would make people raise their eyebrows and murmur about the fact that Elijah Norcross was getting up to no good again.
And the truth was, he liked that about her.
He liked feeling free from people’s judgments and expectations, liked the knowledge that anyone who had anything bad to say this time was just revealing their own ignorance.
Stephanie was good. She was pure, right to the core, and she had still chosen to spend her time with him. He wasn’t going to pollute that by kissing her in front of all these people and getting their tongues wagging.
“Go talk to people,” he said with an encouraging smile. “I’ll wait for you here.”
Stephanie nodded. For a moment, she hesitated, but then she turned and hurried off, and Elijah was left on his own, watching her go.