Chapter 9
Bonnie
Cold leather pressed against my bare thighs where my borrowed t-shirt only just covered my backside. Not that I was focused on that. I was too busy staring out the window and trying to ignore the man driving the car like he owned the bloody road.
Maybe he did. Who was I to know how rich men spent their money?
“Elijah Westwood,” I muttered.
He flexed his fingers on the wheel. “Love the way you say my name.”
I didn’t answer.
Because I still didn’t know what the hell to make of him.
He’d followed me into the game, and I had no illusions. It wasn’t a coincidence. He hadn’t just stumbled across predator-prey dating in a Deadwater warehouse. He’d looked me up. And he’d come for me.
Elijah huffed a laugh. “Stop glaring at the windshield. You’ll damage it.”
“I’m not glaring.”
“You’re glowering, then. Ferociously.”
“You hunted me. I mean before the game. You stalked me.”
“I pursued you. There’s a difference.”
“Oh, right. Silly me. Stalking a woman then chasing her through a basement is the respectable version.”
We slowed at a junction, and he turned to glance at me.
“That wasn’t just a chase, beautiful. That was the start of the rest of our lives.”
My skin prickled.
I looked away.
The big car slid through the centre of Deadwater, passing restaurants and clubs on the main strip.
It was late, but the streets were still busy with revellers on the warm evening.
We slowed outside of a sleek and very exclusive hotel, which I knew because I’d once applied for a job there, and Elijah waited for the barrier to rise.
I frowned. “We’re staying here? I thought billionaires lived in penthouses with private lifts and panic rooms.”
His lips twitched. “Would you feel safer with a panic room?”
“With you in it? I’d test the soundproofing with my screams.”
I hadn’t meant that to be dirty, but it came out so all the same. He let out a low laugh and drove through an arch to a hidden courtyard where he backed into a private parking spot. Then he was at my door and offering me a hand.
I didn’t take it, stepping onto the cool paving slabs on bare feet and tugging my t-shirt down as much as I could. No one appeared to be around, but self-consciousness had me huddling in on myself.
Elijah curled an arm around me and swept me up bride-style, keeping the shirt tucked under me, then stalked to a door at the back of the white-sided building.
“I can walk,” I grumbled.
“And I could fuck you again right here in the parking lot where any asshole could see, so try protesting some more and see what that does for you.”
My insides tightened. Elijah smelled good. He felt good holding me. The bastard.
“Oh no, you’re bleeding. Does it hurt?” I traced a finger over his wound. Then pressed on it.
He shoved through a door and to a lift, only a slight pursing of his lips telling me I’d annoyed him.
Elijah pushed the top button, then added a code. “Ten-fourteen, for when you need it. This lift is ours alone for the duration of our stay.”
The fourteenth of October was my birthday. Odd coincidence. “The duration?”
“You’re mine for a month. Did you forget?”
His gaze sank to my mouth. I swallowed.
The lift doors opened onto a wide apartment with a glass wall allowing views over the city. Not that I paid it much attention because for some reason, I was stuck on needing Elijah’s lips on mine again.
“Welcome, sir, madam,” a voice intoned.
I jumped. Elijah swore under his breath.
A uniformed man waited at the edge of the room, his eyes closed.
Elijah sighed. “Thought I said to take the evening off, Alton.”
“Indeed, sir. Please excuse my presence. I brought up refreshments in case you were hungry after your… endeavours. I’d intended to have left before your return, but your PA requested a note be left. He was persistent.”
A covered silver platter waited on the dining table, champagne in a cooler.
“Shit, thanks, man. And don’t call me sir.”
“Of course, sir.”
Elijah snorted, still holding me like I was precious. “This is Bonnie, my future wife. She’ll be living with me.”
Alton opened his eyes, briefly peering at me. “Wonderful to make your acquaintance, miss. Is there anything I can get for you?”
He had a butler. An honest-to-God uniformed manservant. That took me back as much as the wife claim.
I gave him an embarrassed wave. “Nice to meet you, Alton, and no, thanks.”
“Then I shall leave you. Goodnight.”
Elijah nodded. “Night. Sorry about Mitch. I’ll get back to him.”
The butler bowed his head and disappeared into the lift.
The second we were alone, I wriggled from Elijah’s arms and padded away, across the marble floor to the table. Under the cover was burgers. Oh God, was I hungry. Next to it was a folded note on a silver plate. I held it up to show Elijah.
“The letter from your PA, printed on cardstock. Oh, and a butler? You’ve got to be kidding.”
“What were you expecting?”
“Taxidermy of servants who displeased you. Black satin sheets. A mirror on the ceiling. You know, the normal.”
“No staff or satin sheets. Mirror’s in the bedroom. Try not to break it with those loud screams.”
I barked out a laugh then slapped my hand to my mouth to stop it.
Elijah watched me from the entryway. In only his jeans, the man who’d claimed me was a compelling sight, dark ink decorating his arms, his shoulders broad and torso tapering to a narrow waist. At some point, I’d messed up his dark hair with my fingers.
For a heartbeat, I almost forgot what he was. A rich wanker who was just another attendee of the billionaire’s party. A fact he’d confirmed himself.
I turned back to the food. My mouth watered.
“Eat. You’ll need the energy,” Elijah ordered.
“Only if you are.”
He gave up his lean and prowled over. “In case I poisoned it? Alton has more class, even if I don’t.”
Elijah took a seat at the table and snagged a burger. I collected the other and bit into it. Damn, that was tasty. Once I’d cleared my mouthful, I phrased a question.
“So, you live in a hotel?”
“I leased the apartment once I got my place in the game. We have it for as long as we want it.”
“No mansions available in town?”
“Not my style.”
“No overpriced artwork or animal heads?”
“There’s a judgemental urban fox who sometimes watches from behind the wall in the parking lot.”
I peeked at him.
The burger was gone, eaten in a few bites, and he watched me like I was more interesting than his billions.
More dangerous, too.
Elijah lifted his chin. “You’re prejudiced against me. Why?”
“I know your type.”
“You don’t know me. In fact, you don’t know anything about me.”
Mostly, that was true. I finished half my burger, the edge taken off my hunger. I couldn’t ignore a different kind of need that swirled deep inside me.
Something ticked over in Elijah’s gaze as if he recognised my twisted feelings.
He slid the champagne from the ice bucket and dried it with a towel, the movement slow and distractingly sexy.
“Tell you what. We’re in this thing for at least thirty days.
You get to ask me three burning questions now, then for the next week, we’re doing nothing but enjoying each other.
No history and no money talk. Only us, being together. ”
My mind supplied visions of exactly how we could enjoy ourselves. X-rated ones.
He thumbed the cork, and it shot across the room, knocking against the glass wall that looked out over the city lights. “All I know is if I don’t get back inside you soon, I’m going to burn up. So get thinking.”
A small gasp escaped me. He smirked and poured the wine.
I accepted a glass and sipped the cool and fizzy drink, considering his three-questions proposal.
It felt like a game, and I wanted a reason to suspend reality.
Mainly because I wanted him. Hard and fast, then slow and easy.
I needed space to process everything that had happened tonight, but at the same point, I was dying for him.
If I didn’t get those big hands on me again, my powerful surges of need would take me out.
I gripped my glass. “Why did you research me?”
It was a more diplomatic word for the way he’d hunted me down because I’d already shelved the burning question about who he was. I didn’t want to hear an answer that would sour the sweet taste I’d had of him.
“Ah, honey. You’re being polite. I stalked you at first because I was intrigued. I saw you and had to know more. I was attracted, too. Insanely so. Then after, because you’re worth pursuing.”
My cheeks flushed hot. What a nice thing to say. What a great way to excuse red flag behaviour.
And it was working.
Elijah held up three fingers and lowered one to indicate my progress through his game.
“You went into the basement just for me?”
I had no idea why, but I needed him to say. So I knew the extent of his strange obsession. Or maybe for more selfish reasons.
“I have never done anything like that before and never will again. I followed you to the warehouse and discovered the rest myself. Everything after led me to this point.”
He lowered another finger, leaving one.
I swallowed down the rest of my champagne. “Did you have a good time at Douglas Tucker’s party?”
Aaand there went my big mouth, ruining it all.
His dark-eyed gaze didn’t flicker. “I didn’t attend his party. I saw you outside and left immediately after. Not my vibe to hang out somewhere naked women were escaping.”
I closed my mouth with a snap. A world of assumptions rose and fell. What did that mean? He still knew Tucker. The phone call told me that. But he wasn’t guilty of the worst of the crimes I’d pinned on him.
Or, he was an excellent liar.
Elijah’s gaze flared with hunger that weakened my knees. “Your questions are up. Now it’s my go. Want to know what’s driving me insane right now? The fact that you’re naked under my shirt and leaking my cum.”
My heart thumped harder. He was a danger. A threat. One who at any second was going to pounce on me.
Worse, I wanted him to.
I wanted him all over me. Doing filthy things. Bringing that champagne into the mix. The sharp edge of need scared the crap out of me.
Words fell from his lips. “The rules of the game are that we own each other, and we fuck. A lot. Which means I’m going to be in you so much I’ll start paying rent. You get to choose where I fuck you now. After that, it’s my turn.”
I was an idiot for not being afraid of this guy, even as warning alarms blared in my head. “Trying to get a matching stab mark on the other side of your chest?”
He laughed softly. “Don’t think I won’t wear that as a badge. You made me bleed, I’ll make you scream my name.”
Oh God, he was good.
Weakly, I gestured at the piece of paper he’d so far ignored. “Aren’t you going to read that?”
He raised a shoulder. “It can wait.”
“That insistent PA will probably be harassing the hotel staff if you don’t.”
Elijah clenched his jaw then took a heavy breath as if recognising the argument. Maybe he was concerned for the little guy after all. He reached for the note and tore his gaze away to scan it.
I took my chance.
Leaping up, I beat it across the room and to an exit into a hallway, my bare feet slapping on polished wood.
The wall of windows continued down the hall, and I flew past doorways until I reached a huge bedroom at the end.
Dancing inside, I slammed then locked the door, my chest rising and falling hard.
A laugh burst from my lips at the thud of steps after me. “You called me your future wife. You don’t get to do that then demand to fuck me,” I said through the wood. “Not without me putting up a fight.”
Behind the door, Elijah’s voice returned, amused and darker than before.
“A fight is exactly what I want from you. I wanted you from first sight, and that’s only getting stronger.
Now you’re mine for the next thirty days.
Be warned, I plan on doing everything in my power to get you to stay with me after. ”
Dizzy, I shook my head. Not that he could see. “How can you say things like that?”
“With a mouth that’s going to explore your perfect body until my lips bleed. And if you think this door is going to protect you, guess again.”