“What changed?”
“We did.”
“How?”
“Do you really need me to go into detail?”
“I need to know why you’ve changed your mind,” she said.
“We fucked, and that changed everything.”
“It’s just sex.” Her eyes glinted with unshed tears.
“Do you really think this is just about sex right now?” He reached out to cup her face. “I’ve been fucking you without a condom. My sperm is active, baby.”
“I know.”
“You’re going to get pregnant eventually.”
“You want me to get pregnant?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Why, Elijah? You’re not making any sense at all.” She placed her hand over his.
“Because I don’t want to let you go, Cherry. I’m not saying what I feel for you is love. I don’t know what it is. I care about you. I want you to be safe. The very thought of losing you is like a kick to the gut.”
“You care about me?”
“More than you’ll ever realize.” He stroked his thumb across her thick lips. “Don’t you feel anything for me?”
Her eyes went wide as she stared back at him.
Elijah’s heart raced for the first time in years. He’d always been so sure of himself that he didn’t know if he was prepared for what she had to say. Bethan when she was alive had always told him how much she loved him.
Pushing thoughts of his dead wife out of his minds, he watched her nod her head.
“Yes, I feel … things for you.”
He smiled. “Good. Then let’s see where this goes. Mindy knows about us, so there’s no need to hide from her. My daughter wants you to be part of our lives.”
“Are you ready for me to be part of your life?” she asked.
“Yes.” If he wasn’t ready she wouldn’t be living in his home.
“What does this mean?”
“It means all of your stuff is being moved in here tomorrow morning. I get to kiss you whenever I want, and you also come with me when I go out. I’m no longer a single agent.”
“What about your other women?” she asked. “What happens with them?”
“They are gone. I promise. They’re already gone. I’ve not been with any of them since you.” Mindy was going to be so happy.
“You’re not doing this for your daughter?”
“No. I’m doing this because I want to.” It was the truth.
He picked up a curl of her blonde hair. They would make beautiful babies together. He thought about Caleb and Henry. Both men had settled down even within their life. For fifteen years he’d kept Mindy safe, and he could do it for Cherry.
“I want one thing from you,” Cherry said.
“What?”
“I want you to throw that file in the trash. I don’t want you to go hunting for the demons of the past. It’s over.”
Elijah gritted his teeth, thinking about the twins that needed to have a little payback. “No, there’s two more people that I need to see.”
“There isn’t, Elijah. It was over.”
“A compromise, I check and make sure they’re not hurting anyone else. They’re not, I leave them alone. They are, I deal with them?”
She nibbled her lip. “Okay, fine, deal.”
“Good, the night is young, and I want to fuck you again.”
Chapter Eight
Cherry watched Elijah on the phone the following morning. She was moving her clothes through to his room with Mindy’s help. The young girl talked animatedly about how awesome it was for her and Elijah to be sharing a bedroom. Cherry tried to listen to the conversations on the phone. She wanted to make sure there were no other women waiting for him. Jealousy was an ugly thing, and she had a great deal of it.
Last night when he admitted he didn’t love her it had hurt, but she could handle him not loving her. He at least cared about her, which had to mean something.
“Do you think he’ll propose to you?” Mindy asked, drawing her away from the fourth phone call he was making.
Four phone calls, four women. How many more would he have to make?
“No, I don’t think so. This is all new, Mindy.”
Elijah was outside the bedroom, talking. He wasn’t trying to hide what he was saying. Mindy was more focused on her.
“Can I ask you something, Cherry?” Mindy asked.
“Sure.” She placed the last pair of jeans into the walk-in wardrobe.
“Are you really a daughter of a friend?”
Cherry paused, glancing over at her. “Why do you ask?”
“I know my dad, and he’d never bring a friend’s daughter home. I’m not stupid. I know his job is not everything he makes out it is. It’s dangerous. I’ve heard him talking on the phone. Caleb and Henry are part of that life. That Sunday we went to dinner at Caleb’s, that was the first time I’ve ever been allowed near them.”
Tucking some hair behind her ear, Cherry pulled her shirt down over her hips as it had ridden up as she’d been putting away some clothes.
“You don’t need to lie to me.”
“I don’t want to lie to you,” Cherry said. “This is not for me to say.”
“No, she’s not a daughter of a friend,” Elijah said, entering the room. He no longer held his cell phone. Was he done, or had he forgotten to save all the numbers of his women? There goes the jealousy again.
He walked to her side, gripping her hip.
“I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, Mindy.”
“She was a gift to me. Some men I do business with gave me a choice, and I decided to bring her home.”
Mindy gasped, looking toward Cherry.
“I saw something bad, and I didn’t have much of a choice,” Cherry said.
“I’m also not an idiot, Mindy.” Elijah sat on the edge of the bed. “You’ve known I’ve not been a real businessman for a long while. You’ve known since you managed to break into my laptop a year ago.”
Cherry stared at Mindy, seeing the young girl’s cheeks heat. “You know about that?” Mindy asked.
“I know everything there is to know about you. I care about you so much, and I will never let anything happen to you. There are men out there who will not bat an eye about hurting you. Why didn’t you go to the cops?” Elijah asked, pushing some hair off Mindy’s shoulder.
“You’re my dad. I know you wouldn’t hurt anyone that was innocent.” Mindy’s hands rested on her knees. “Do you even want to be here, Cherry?”
Cherry smiled. “Yes, I do.”
“You and Dad, that’s real.”
“Yes, it’s real. The only thing that wasn’t real was me being a friend’s daughter. I don’t have any family of my own. I grew up in foster homes.” Cherry sat the other side of her. Mindy was being very brave, but then, Elijah was her father. Cherry doubted he even punished Mindy for bad behavior. She’d never heard him raise his voice at the young girl.
“I don’t want you to leave. I like you, Cherry.”
“I like you, too, and I don’t want to leave.” The only time she’d be leaving was when Elijah was ready to get rid of her.
“Okay, I can handle that. I’m going to get ready for school.” Mindy hugged her father then turned to Cherry. “Thank you.”
Before she could say anything Mindy was out of the door.
“Why did she thank me?”
“For staying. I never realized she’d been missing something from her life.”
“A mother?”
Elijah nodded, closing the distance between them. “I’ve given her everything apart from that.”
“Is that how she sees me? As a mother figure?”
“I believe so, yes.”
“I can’t be a mother to her.” In truth Cherry had never had a mother herself.
“You’re doing a damn good job of taking care of her.” He took her hand. “Is all of your stuff here?”
“Yes.” She looked at his hand in hers. “Do a
ll of your women now know you’re taken?”
“Yes.”
“That was a lot of phone calls. Are you sure I’m worth it?”
“Cherry Morgan, are you jealous?”
She tried to pull her hand away, shaking her head. “No, I’m not jealous. What is there to be jealous of?”
Elijah chuckled. “You can lie all you want to, baby. I know jealousy when I see it. I can also tell you that there is no need to be jealous. Those women meant nothing to me.” He kept hold of her hand, refusing to let go.
“I need to go and get breakfast ready.” She also needed to get ready for school.
“Remember who you belong to when you’re in college. I’m going to be late today.”
She stared at him, knowing where he was going. “You’re going to go look for them.”
“I don’t need to look. I’ve already found them.”
“Remember our deal,” she said. The thought of anything happening to him scared her. Elijah kept her and Mindy safe.
“I promise I won’t forget.” He tugged her down onto his lap when she would have walked away.
“You’re not going anywhere yet.” His arms banded around her, holding her tight against him. “Kiss me.”
“Why?”
“Because you want to.”
She stared down at his lips. Cherry wanted to kiss him. Resting her hands on his shoulders, she gripped him tightly as she closed the small distance between them. Pressing her lips against his, she explored his lips tentatively at first, then increased the pressure. Elijah opened his lips, and she slid her tongue into his mouth, moaning as he met her halfway.
He gripped the back of her head, holding her in place as he took over the kiss, deepening his touch.
“You’re so beautiful,” he said.
Closing her eyes, she gave herself up to the pleasure of his touch. She forgot everything else and held him tightly.
She didn’t know how much time had passed before he released her. “That’s how I want you to kiss me from now on.”
Her lips tingled from his touch. She nodded her head, unable to argue with him.
“Go. I’ll be down in a moment.”
Cherry got to her feet, heading downstairs into the kitchen. Her heart was pounding. Where Elijah said he only cared about her, Cherry knew she was in love with him.
****
Later that morning Elijah stared at the house the twins shared. They were both mechanics and didn’t have a record to their name. Henry sat beside him, and Caleb was in the back.
“You didn’t have to come,” Elijah said, looking into the back. The whole journey Caleb had tried to talk him out of coming here today. These were the final men he needed to see. He had a deal to stick to. The twins were safe so long as their crime ended with Cherry.
Rubbing at his temples, Elijah waited for the anger to come to him. Nothing happened. She’d not even cared about these two men. The door to the house opened, and he saw two men, identical, carrying out bags of trash. They were laughing at something, and he didn’t know what, nor did he care.
“Shall I turn the car around?” Henry asked.
“No.”
Elijah opened the car door, climbing out of the vehicle. Neither man spotted him. Crossing the road he heard Caleb and Henry climbing out behind him. These two men would easily hurt Cherry. She was so small in comparison to them.
It was a long time ago.
Henry had done a thorough background check on them, and it had come up clean.
“Good morning, gentlemen,” Elijah said, stepping in front of the man.
“Hi,” one on the right said.
“Can we help you?” This came from the one on the left.
“Actually, you can. I want to talk to you about a mutual friend, an … acquaintance.”
The left looked him up and down, assessing him. “I doubt we’ve got the same friends in common.”
“Cherry Morgan, she’s our mutual friend.”
Both men knew her, and they remembered her. What surprised Elijah more was the shame on both of their faces.
“I think it’s best if you come inside.”
“I’ve got two friends with me.” Henry and Caleb walked up behind him. “Are they invited in as well?”
“Yes.”
He followed the two men inside. Neither of them showed any signs of being a threat. Henry was the one to close the door. The two men entered a sitting room, both of them taking a seat.
“How is Cherry? Is she well? I’m Bradley, and that’s Daniel.” The one who’d been on the left spoke.
“She’s well.” Elijah took a seat, staring at both men.
Daniel stared at Elijah, the shame so easy to see. “You’re here on her behalf? Does she need anything? Want anything?”
“You want to know if she wants you to hand yourself in for raping her all those years ago?”
Both men’s cheeks went a bright shade of red. If it was left to Elijah he would kill both men.
“It didn’t get that far,” Bradley said.
“It doesn’t matter. We were close, Brad. We fucked up, and she was scared. We were fucking idiots.” Daniel rested his elbows on his arms.
“What do you mean?”
“We were joking around with her. She was beautiful, all that blonde hair, and she had big tits.” Daniel stopped talking, closing his eyes. “Didn’t she tell you all of it?”
“All of what?” Elijah was starting to wonder about Cherry. She’d not said anything against them, not really. She had asked him not to come, but he’d been determined.
“It was a game. We were tormenting her about her breasts and hair. The guys at school wanted her, and I don’t know what happened,” Bradley said.
“We attacked her. I’ll never forget how much she screamed, but it was like something snapped in my head.”
Bradley and Daniel shared a look.
“We didn’t do anything because our dad found us before we could. He protected Cherry by getting her away from us. That day he took her back to the foster home with an apology. When he got home, he took the belt to us. He taught us the hard way that when a woman or girl says no, we were to fucking listen. We’ve never forgotten.” Daniel finished talking. “Is she okay? Does she want us to confess? We’ve been wondering for a long time if we should find her. Dad, he told us not to.”
“You’ve not raped another woman or forced her?” Elijah asked.
“No. Never.”
Tapping his fingers on his leg, Elijah still wanted to hurt the men for scaring Cherry. Boys made mistakes, and their father handled it. Getting to his feet, he started toward the door.
“Please tell her we’re sorry. It was never supposed to happen.”
He shook his head. Climbing into the backseat of the car, he waited for Caleb and Henry to join him. No one spoke as Henry started up the car.
Minutes passed before Caleb spoke up. “Donna’s invited you around for Sunday lunch.”
“I’m not going to make it. I’m spending the day with Mindy and Cherry.” He rubbed at his temples. “Take me straight home.” He should probably stop by Marcel’s place to handle another coke deal, but he wasn’t in the mood for business.
He listened to the two men in the front of the car making plans. Neither of them seemed put out by what just happened. For the first time in his life, Elijah had simply walked away. Cherry asked him not to hurt them, and he hadn’t. The anger he was known for hadn’t risen to take care of them.
Three hours later Henry dropped him off outside of his home. Elijah stopped when he saw Cherry’s car in the driveway. Why was she home?
Entering his home, he walked down the hall only to stop at the dining room. Cherry sat at the table. She held a cup to her chest, and she stared at him.
“What are you doing home?”
“I dropped Mindy off at school. I had no intention of going to college today, especially knowing where you were going.”
“I don’t want to do this, Cherry.”
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“You want to see the twins. Bradley and Daniel.” She didn’t move from her seat, and he watched her take a sip of her drink. “Did you get everything you wanted out of today?”
“Why didn’t you just tell me all of it?”
“You were intent on hurting everyone. There are some men that have already paid the price for what they did. You needed to see that.”
“How did you know they paid?”
“Their father came to visit me before I was moved to another home. He apologized for the way their sons behaved. Not only did he apologize but he also filmed them saying sorry. He taught them a lesson they would never forget. He wanted to take me home with him, but he didn’t want to put me in danger.” Cherry smiled. “He told me that I could call him the next time an asshole thought they could put a hand on me. He’d be there to help.”
“Both men wanted me to tell you that they were sorry.”
Cherry smiled. “I already know they were. Their dad put the belt to them and possibly worse. They were punished when they were younger. They don’t need to be punished anymore.”
Elijah left her side and walked back to his office. He grabbed the file containing all of her information. “Here, that is everything I have on you.”
She took the file from his fingers.
“I won’t go hunting anymore. I promise you. I need a drink.” He left the room, going through to his office again to pour himself a generous shot of whiskey.
Cherry followed behind him. He watched as she knelt before the fire on the floor. Sipping at his whiskey he admired her curves in the skirt she wore. Her full ass was on display, tempting him to touch and play with.
She put each piece of paper into the fire, watching them burn.
“Why were you determined to burn this?” he asked.
“This file is only focused on the past. I’m so sick and tired of living it. I don’t want to think about the past anymore. Wouldn’t you want to destroy everything that reminded you of those final moments with your wife?” She glanced back at him.
“Yes.”
“I’m not just a number or a bunch of papers with facts on. This doesn’t tell you anything about me.”
“It told me you were a survivor.”
“Everyone is a survivor, Elijah. Some people just have to fight a little harder than others. I’ve had to fight a lot, but I don’t have to keep fighting for what I want.”
Elijah: The Boss's Gift Page 8
