Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
Elijah’s day was getting worse and worse. He loved running the bar, and it was only now that it irritated him that all of his time was taken up with problem-solving. He wanted to take Lilly to lunch, or better still make lunch for her.
The temptation was to dump all these problems onto Pete but that would be unfair and inappropriate.
He had gotten himself into this mess and he would get himself out of it too.
Elijah offered Elaine the job of the artwork in his bar and he wanted to keep his word.
He hadn’t thought through what he would do when it became awkward.
Remaining friends while she continued to paint the mural on his bar wall may turn out to be too much drama for him. He assumed she liked him enough to remain friendly and professional while she completed her job.
One evening after he and Elaine had already had a few meetings to throw around some ideas, they shared a bottle of wine after the bar had closed.
He hadn’t remembered who had kissed who first, but they ended up in his apartment.
Half undressed on his sofa when Elaine had asked him to wrap his hands around her throat when he was deep inside her.
It had freaked him out. He’d never done that kind of thing before and had no idea what he was doing.
She had a kink that he wasn’t entirely comfortable with.
That night on the sofa ended quite quickly when she revealed what she wanted.
Elijah pretended that the alcohol had made him sleepy and called her a taxi to take her home.
He hadn’t intended to have sex with her that night and when she revealed what she wanted, he knew he never would have sex with her.
Getting a woman to orgasm without having to resort to kink was something he craved.
He desired that type of connection with a woman to read the signs and build her up to a frenzy until she begged for release.
Just the touch of his hand or a thrust of his cock would set her off, that is what he wanted most.
Leaning back in his leather chair he thought about ways he could get out of the arrangement.
She could be difficult and he wanted out.
Searching through the mountain of paperwork he smiled at the conversation he had with Lilly about the state of his office.
It was chaotic, but he knew where everything was, except now, he needed to take a look at the contract before she got there to see if there was something he could do.
Flicking through the papers on the right-hand side of the desk, he lifted out her agreement and read through it again.
It was halfway down on page four that he saw some hope, he had found his get out jail free card and he was going to exploit it.
He no longer wanted to work with her and now he had a chance to end it.
“Elijah, Elaine is here to see you, shall I send her through?” Pete said.
He was filling the door frame and smirking at him. Pete knew exactly how thrilled he would be to see her but knew not let her come back to his office to chat.
“I’ll come out Pete, get her a drink while she waits, I won’t be long.”
“Ok, but don’t keep her waiting too long, she doesn’t look pleased about the fire damage. I couldn’t stop her from seeing it. She’ll probably chew your balls off as soon as she sees you.”
“Fucking marvellous, hopefully after this meeting I won’t have to see her again.” Elijah picked up the contract. “I need to make a quick call and I’ll be out.”
“No problem, I’ll sweet talk her until you come out, your brother is also here but didn’t ask for you.”
Pete left Elijah alone, and once Pete was out of earshot, Elijah picked up his mobile and dialled Doug’s number. Doug used to be in the fire service and would be able to provide the answer Elijah needed. It was Elijah’s chance to thank him for making him put in the sprinkler system.