by TN King
So not some gangster or thug then, just a terrifyingly handsome billionaire.
Morgan turned slowly, giving Ellie plenty of time to see his pressed dove grey suit and white shirt as he did so.
Ellie felt her cheeks heat up as the first thought to cross her mind was that out of everyone there, only she knew what kind of hot, sexy, body he had under that suit and tie. Only due to his state of undress when he’d first answered his door, and not for the reason most might guess. Or even the one that she would prefer. Her eyes widened when they caught his and she was at a loss for words. No, he sure wasn’t anonymous to her. The man had literally haunted her dreams and her waking thoughts since their last meeting.
“Hello, Ellie,” he greeted casually, pulling his hand from his pocket and holding his hand out to her.
“Hi,” she responded shyly, lifting her own hand back to him and taking the handshake he offered. She could feel the resulting tingles all the way up the rest of her arm, her mouth opening, and closing again almost immediately. She needed to act casual, she had so many questions, and yet again, her voice completely deserted her.
Joanna’s eyes cut back and forth between them, her eyebrows lifting slowly, “Do you two know each other?”
Morgan didn’t pause at all, giving Joanna a firm, “Yes,” while Ellie reluctantly answered, “Kind of,” at the same time.
Morgan pierced her with his sharp, grey eyes and gave her a broad grin as if insinuating that there was some secret between the two of them. His gaze was intense, that cocky grin on his face sending butterflies catapulting through her belly.
Ellie felt flustered as she smiled and looked down at her sneakers. Yes, like some dufus. No guts. She just couldn’t find it within herself to raise her head and meet his gaze.
Joanna kept staring at both of them with a slightly confused look on her face.
The awkward silence stretched between the three of them for too long of a moment, Morgan finally breaking it resolutely. “I met Ellie the day of the fire. I believe you weren’t here that day, Joanna,” he said very matter-of-factly, smiling through his explanation in that charming way of his.
Ellie looked up awkwardly, shrugging one shoulder as if to dismiss the heaviness of the day that they had met. “Yeah, that’s what happened,” she tacked on. “Morgan happened to be driving by that day,” she said, wanting to avoid having to explain to Joanna what a huge liability she might have been for her had she died in that fire. Joanna tended to worry about those kinds of things. Actually, Joanna tended to worry period. She wanted to gloss over the almost burned to a crisp part as much as she could.
“Oh,” Joanna said, but kept staring, obviously still confused, but unwilling to push any further. She furrowed her brow and placed a hand under her plump chin before adding, “Well, I’m gonna go put my office back together. Ellie, I’ll let you and Morgan catch up, okay?” She winked at Ellie, having caught on to at least part of the reason for Ellie’s awkwardness, and walked back into the diner.
It was Ellie’s turn for her features to draw in confusion. “What are you doing here?” she asked Morgan, only realizing after that her question came out harsher than she meant it to. “Not that it’s a bad thing,” she added shaking her head. It wasn’t a bad thing, she hadn’t been trying to imply that it was at all. Oh hell, here she went with the nerves again, but she felt stunned to actually find him in the diner at all.
Morgan chuckled, eying her for a moment before he crossed his arm over his chest and raised a finger up to his chin. Overly dramatically tapping against it as he surveyed her. “Checking on the progress of my donated resources,” he said quite assuredly. As if it were the most natural thing for him to be doing here.
“Joanna told me about an anonymous donor, but why? I mean, why did you do that? You didn’t have to. The diner had insurance.” She just couldn’t wrap her mind around it. Any more than she could stop the flow of words leaving her lips, even knowing that they might be coming across rude.
“Yeah, but I made a few calls and realized that going through the insurance company would have meant that it would have taken weeks before the diner could reopen. And as I am the head of a charitable trust that gives money to worthy individuals and businesses all the time... I just made that happen. No big deal.” Again, he sounded self-assured, shrugging one shoulder as if it really were as little of a deal as he were making it out to seem.
“Well, that’s nice of you, but, why do you care?” Ellie asked. “It’s just a diner.” It didn’t make sense, he was a nice guy and all, but what he was talking about near bordered on unreasonably perfect.
Morgan locked eyes with her and shrugged, almost like he was uneasy with her asking. “It’s business. I’m a businessman. That’s what I do.”
This only confused Ellie more, but the look on his face made her feel like maybe she was pressing too hard. Like she was, like she’d feared, being rude and making him regret his decision or something. That hadn’t been her intention at all, it just felt… otherworldly. “Well, thank you. I appreciate it. I know Joanna does.” She finally managed to choke out, smiling at him broadly because she really did.
“Why don’t you thank me later tonight, at dinner?” he asked around a grin of his own.
“Dinner?” she squeaked, wincing and trying to reign in her enthusiasm. She had spent all of that time on the way here trying to rid herself of her fantasies concerning him and here he was bringing them back up again.
“Yeah. I take it you came to help, so why don’t you stay and work, and I’ll send my car by here later to pick you up? Maybe around, eightish?”
Ellie looked down at her t-shirt and jeans, the last of her actual objections, and said, “Umm…” Hedging for time to find a proper response to him.
Something that he apparently missed entirely, taking her concern as more valid than she had meant it and waving it away just as easily with one hand. “Don’t worry about that,” Morgan added as if it were of no consequence. “It will all be taken care of, okay?”
Taken care of how? Would they eat dinner privately? Would it matter? Maybe he was just going to ‘slum’ it for her and take her to some taco truck. Did that matter? How could she say no regardless? He was quite the negotiator. After all, it is what he did as he said before. She nodded slowly, biting her lower lip and eying him sideways. “Okay,” she reluctantly agreed, again, as only he seemed capable of making her do. “See you then.”
Morgan smiled and let his gaze linger, eyes moving over her face with a look smoldering in the back of his eyes that she couldn’t pinpoint.
His intense gaze made Ellie’s stomach feel funny, but in a good way. Like warm butterflies brushing against her skin repeatedly, sparks igniting off of their wingpoints as they landed. Is this the way he would look at her if he kissed her? If he—
“Well, I have some pressing matters to attend to. You have a great day at work, and I’ll see you later,” he finally said, smiling affably and taking a step back.
She couldn’t do anything but nod, lifting her hand weakly in a return of the goodbye wave he gave her.
Ellie watched him walk to the curb and get into his sports car, unable to uproot her feet from where they had stuck to the pavement. As she watched him drive off she realized that she was left standing in the exact same place she was the last time she’d watched him drive off, and she’d felt just as confused then as she did now. It was a total mystery and she would have bet her very last dollar…for real, it would be her last ‒ she rolled her eyes ‒ that she would never see this man again.
Then as if it was a delayed reaction, Ellie blinked her eyes several times. She was going to have dinner with him! It couldn’t be the last time because of that fact alone. He had actually asked her to dinner. She almost squealed again, lifting her fingertips and pressing them into the curve of her lips as if to stifle the noise she wanted to make. She just had to make it through the work day now and she could return to her fantasy Morgan land…
Well�
�� Make it through the work day and break it to Joanna, who she knew would have at least a million questions for her upon her returning inside of the building.
Morgan
He’d left wondering if Ellie saw right through him, she had asked enough questions to make him uncomfortable at least. He had been sure that she was going to call him out, but she had only skirted around it, nodding along with his last-minute explanations as if willing to let them slide. It’s just business. Ha! Way to seal the deal, moron. You can’t ask a girl out by implying that it’s just business. He hadn’t been able to come up with any better on the spot.
But she said yes. Whether she had suspected him or not, she had said yes. He’d make it up to her at dinner. He had it all planned, and had since before he’d even begun his drive back to Philly in the first place. His driver would take her up to his penthouse and instruct her to shower and change into any one of an assortment of beautiful evening gowns he’d had his own personal fashion consultant choose based on his descriptions of her and his taste in alluring gowns. Those that he had selected himself out of that array would be waiting for her to pick from, also giving her the option to choose which one that she liked best. Then she would come out to find him waiting on the balcony for her with the seductive view of the city lit up at night, just as he had bragged to her about.
He’d have a bottle of champagne ready and chilling during their meal so that after a few drinks and provocative conversation he could entice her into some after dinner activities to burn the calories of their meal off- activities that required the both of them to be naked...
For days he had been preoccupied with working out this plan, to the smallest detail. Business that he had enjoyed before seemed to be something that only got in his way now, annoying him with its incessant need and time tables. He’d tried to figure it out, sort through how it had gotten to that point. There were so many different paths that he had considered. He had rescued her, true, which had led him to question if it was possibly obligation that rendered him so enamored. A theory that had been quickly dismissed. He’d gone through multiple before finally deciding that it was just the combination of her unique eyes, petite body, and innocence wrapped within her demure looks that so captivated him.
It was a killer combination, and one that he hadn’t encountered before. So she had the draw of something novelty along with everything else.
For days, he’d been fantasizing about her. Not like the dreams that ended in flame, those he had become accustomed to, if still wary. These were fantasies that gripped him in the middle of the damned day. He imagined her in so many different scenarios, in so many different positions. Always with her in the throes of lust that he had built up so tantalizing, bringing her just to the peak and then holding off until she began begging for him to take her. Which, inevitably, he would succumb to. It always ended in him coming so hard that his eyes damn near crossed and then he would get up- shower them both, and fuck her again. And again, and again, until the both of them were shaky and spent. Then she would dress and his driver would take her home. It always ended in a feeling of intense relief for him.
He didn’t know what it was about this girl, or why he was so hung up on her. He didn’t like that either, not being able to figure it out, not being in control. He was always in control it was something that he prized about himself, and something that he thrived off of. He was always the one in control, always the one directing everything and everyone around him… Yet now, with this girl, he couldn’t even control his fantasies concerning this little girl? He’d been disgusted with that aspect of himself lately. Berating himself, over and over, for this obsession that he had come to have with Ellie.
He’d tried running it off, hours on the treadmill as if he could sweat the very obsession from his body. He tried working it off, immersing himself in paperwork and meetings while he still had to deal with them. None of it seemed to matter, it was all to no avail. It just continued to drive him up the wall. He continued to struggle with the same thing, day after day, hour after hour… soon enough he would be useless in the boardroom simply because he did not have Ellie White in his bedroom.
Yes, disgust was a light word for the state he’d been in. And also a two-dimensional one.
He would definitely have her tonight. He almost felt like he had to, just so that he could get her out of his mind. It was the only way that he could think of. She had already passed beginning to seriously interfere with his life—and all he’d done since meeting her was think about her, fantasize about her, obsess over her... He needed to just bed her and be done with it. The sooner, the better, so he could go back to being himself, the efficient Morgan who didn’t get emotionally attached to women. After tonight…he would be done with Philadelphia and done with Ellie.
CHAPTER SIX
Ellie…
Eight o’clock rolled around sooner than Ellie would have liked, and definitely sooner than she was ready for. She had been anticipating her dinner with Morgan all day, so many different scenarios flashing through her head over the course of the day. It wasn’t like it had been an easy day of work either, setting things back to rights and rearranging things until she felt like her muscles were going to scream from the stress of it all. It wasn’t even the same kind of worry that she had concerning her going to his penthouse that first time, with the phone… What she felt now just felt—different.
Like she kept remembering the look in his eyes before he turned and got into his car. All smoldering gazes and warm feelings. It gave her the hot shivers, like heated gooseflesh that covered all of her skin. He’d asked her out, actually asked her out to dinner. Not just because he’d run into her again, not as a favor to her for her doing one for him… he had asked her out of his own volition, and she couldn’t help but focus on that for the majority of the day.
Something that wasn’t easily dismissed when Joanna had done nothing but probe Ellie for answers about Morgan’s sudden interest in the diner, the minute that she’d gone back inside.
Ellie told her repeatedly that she didn’t know about any of it, that Morgan was a businessman, and this was probably just a business opportunity for him, or a tax write-off, just like she had said earlier. She wasn’t lying, at least not completely. She really didn’t know his reasons behind doing any of it, she didn’t understand what interest it was to him, but she was telling Joanna the same thing that Morgan had told her, just slightly embellished.
Now, as she waited for Morgan to pick her up, Joanna probed some more, “But he’s taking you out to dinner,” she prompted, obviously not buying the whole just met him story. She had a lot of questions to the holes in Ellie’s story.
Ellie really couldn’t blame her. She also couldn’t explain anything to her though, because again, she herself didn’t know. “He’s just a nice guy,” she responded with a shrug. That, at least, was the truth. He was a nice guy. In some ways, she felt that he was too nice.
“A hot, nice guy,” Joanna rebutted, raising one well meaning eyebrow Ellie’s way.
Joanna had her there, but surely, that didn’t have anything to do with it. His attractiveness factor didn’t have anything to do with it. She knew better but Joanna’s probing was making it so much worse. “Well, Joanna, what do you want? Wouldn’t you be just as appreciative if he wasn’t hot?” She threw back, both of her brows raising to combat Joanna’s one.
Joanna feigned being offended, her hand slapping at Ellie’s forearm in irritation. “Well, I most certainly would,” she proclaimed loudly, narrowing her eyes in more faux frustration. She was enjoying it though, that much was clear, her lips constantly pulling in a smile despite her trying to hide it.
Just then, the Hunt Company’s sleek, dark limo pulled up in front of the diner, cutting off whatever Ellie might have been about to return with again.
Ellie turned to Joanna slowly, nerves building in the pit of her belly. Oh. It was time then. Okay. She needed to gather herself, smoothing down the front of her old shirt and looking
to Joanna for fortification. “Well then, try not to worry too much about it, okay? He’s just a nice guy that’s invited me to dinner. That’s all.” A dinner that she was definitely freaking out about.
She bent at the waist to kiss Joanna’s cheek, the only goodbye that she could manage before stepping out of the diner, wishing that she had brought a jacket or something she could wrap herself up in to hide. It didn’t even matter that it wasn’t Morgan that was waiting for her, she suddenly already felt out of place and underdressed as the driver stepped out of the vehicle. She turned to wave to Joanna before she reached the car, trying not to pay attention to her gaping through the diner window. She could do this. She’d ridden in this vehicle before. It was just like riding a bike. Right. Sure.
She smiled, ducking her head slightly as the driver opened the door. She’d tried asking his name last time, but he’d just shaken his head and smiled. She stepped into the car, ducking down and settling herself with a soft ‘hi’ as he closed the door behind her. She supposed it made sense, it wasn’t like he was there to make friends with her, he was providing a service, just the same as she did waiting tables. She tried to think of it that way to save herself any hurt feelings as he got around the driver’s side and got in himself to pull off.
The silence stretched for a long moment, Ellie moved a little uncomfortably within the seat she was in. She didn’t quite know what to think, or how to handle the situation. She was always wordy when she was nervous. “So, where are we going?” Ellie finally asked.
“Back to the Hunt Hotel,” he said without looking back, although his voice sounded like a curious mix between business and amusement.
Ellie pondered that for a moment again looking down at her ratty work wear. It was definitely not Hunt Hotel appropriate. She supposed that meant that the taco truck idea was just that… although she didn’t even know how she’d expected him to slum it in the first place. Her lips turned up into an amused smile, shaking her head and looking out of the window as if there would be some explanation there. “Is there any way I can get you to take me back to my apartment, first? I’d like to change.” Into that same dress as last time very likely, at least he had seemed to like that one… and it was very probably the nicest thing that she owned.
