Chapter 17 #2
“You say obsessed, I say you keep getting under my feet.” Summer tells him with a playful kiss to his jaw.
“Same thing, baby.”
“You’re just lucky I love you.”
“I’m totally blessed,” he replies with a kiss to her forehead.
“You are, because I made Finley an offer for the assistant position you keep nagging me about, and she’s agreed to mockup a mural for the nursery.”
“Oh, here we go…” Christina groans under her breath as he lifts Summer into his arms firefighter style and covers her face in a quick slew of kisses.
“Parker Hawthorne, put me down!” Summer squeals loud enough that Elijah turns to us.
There’s a sharpness to his face that is wild. Then he finds me, and he’s instantly stalking to me before I wave.
“Mrs. Hawthorne, I’m not putting you down, I’m taking you home,” Parker says, holding onto Summer tighter when she attempts to get down.
“Let me finish, and then you can go all out caveman on me.”
“Well, I can’t say no when you smile at me like that,” he’s saying as Elijah approaches.
My heart doesn’t know what to do with itself when he takes my hand and pulls me into his side.
“Beautiful,” he greets with a lingering kiss to my hair.
It’s become a noticeable habit when we’ve been apart for longer than usual that Elijah is tactile in his greeting.
He hugs me tighter. Kisses me harder. On my hair, my cheek, my temple…
never my lips. After he lets me go, we’re back to moving around each other.
Me waiting for him to touch me, and him… avoiding it.
For now, though, I refuse to let him pull away from me. I wrap my arms around his waist the same way Summer has hers around Parker’s shoulders. Snug.
“Fuck me,” Christina grouses, stepping backwards, away from us. “You loved up fools make me… ugh…” She shudders.
“Get yourself loved up, then,” Summer retorts as Parker sets her on her feet, only to coil his arm around her.
“Eww, no thanks.” Christina shivers exaggeratedly. “Anyway, I have work tonight, so we have to go.”
Above our heads, Parker introduces himself to Elijah and vice versa. All the while, Summer gives me one last pleading speech to consider her job offer on both counts.
It’s only when we’re heading out of the hotel that Elijah asks, “You got a job offer?”
“Yes, she did,” Christina answers as I open my mouth to respond. With a sideways smack to his chest, she tells him, “Be happy for your girl.”
“I’m happy if she’s happy,” he grumbles back at her before focusing on me again. “Are you?”
“I haven’t accepted it.”
“Do you want to?” He’s giving me a tender, encouraging smile, but...
“I don’t know... I have no clue about interior design and then Summer was talking about me running errands and picking up samples from suppliers…”
“Fin,” he whispers, his arm tightening around my shoulders. “You’re super smart, you pick things up so fast, and—”
“I can’t drive, Elijah.”
“He can teach you,” Christina offers instantly. “Right, Blondie?”
His brow hitches with his grin. “I’ll teach you to drive.”
“You will?” My heart is beating so hard that the words come out garbled.
“I told you; I’ll do anything for—”
A blur.
Black. I think.
Everything is black.
Everything is pounding.
“Fuck!” Christina screams.
The air is hot and earthy, and I can’t move.
Then there’s a screech. It drills all the way through to my brain. So loud. Too loud.
“Fin? Fuck… are you okay?” Elijah’s arms are hard. Wrapped around me.
“I’m fine...” I think.
“Piece of shit,” Christina is still yelling when he pulls back and looks me over. “Bastards.”
Elijah’s hand grips mine as he turns to check out the road. The black SUV is stationary. Engine running. Lights on. The blacked-out driver’s window rolls down before the vehicle speeds away.
“Elijah…”
“What the fuck is this?” Christina asks, holding up a photo of the two of us walking into the hotel earlier.
We knew something was going to happen. Sooner or later, The Fellowship would come for me. To take me back.
“The fuck is all this?” Christina hastily picks up the other photos scattered on the floor around us.
Photos of Elijah. Of me. Of us. With Jayden… Christina…
“Elijah,” I choke as he crouches to pick up the one at our feet.
He’s silent for the longest while. Staring at a photo of us at the mall. I’m walking alongside Jayden and Elijah. Jayden’s hand hangs next to mine while he’s looking at Elijah as he stares at me.
When he turns it over, a low growl vibrates in the back of his throat.
Thou shalt not steal from the Lord.
“What is happening right now?” Christina flips the photos in her hand over. “A thief must make restitution?”
“Let’s go home,” Elijah says, scrunching the photo in his hand before he snatches the others out of Christina’s hold and leads me to his G-Wagon on the other side of the road.
“This is insane. Are they stalking you? Us?” Christina sounds as shaky as I feel.
My mouth is dry, and my chest is strangling my lungs.
“Hey,” Elijah pinches my chin between his thumb and forefinger, lifting my face to his as he assures me, “Nobody’s gonna hurt you. Nobody’s gonna take you away. You trust me?”
“Yes.” I nod and he envelopes me in a firm embrace.
It doesn’t last long. Before I’m ready for him to let me go, he bundles me into the passenger seat of his SUV and buckles me in. Then he’s speeding away, like he’s racing away from hell itself.