crave | 16+

V

JOSIE

I PULL THE COVERS over me in a hurry and scurry up against the headboard. I think I screamed. I honestly can't hear anything. I doubt I can remember what happened too. For what seems like forever, I just sit with my covers drawn over me, staring at my boss in my room.

"Cat got your tongue?" he asks. He looks around and then walks toward the chair I have next to my vanity. He sits himself spreading his legs a bit while leaning back. My purse in his hand doesn't go unnoticed.

"Get the hell out," I say under my breath, staring at him. That's all I can do. Mutter under my breath and stare. He seems to be amused by whatever just happened. "This is trespassing, are you aware of that? Who do you think you are? What makes you think you can just waltz into my goddamned apartment? How did you even get up?" I yell at him which only causes him to laugh.

"You forgot your purse," he says matter-of-factly.

"You could've given it to me on Monday!" I continue.

He sighs. "Love, that was my plan, but then your phone kept ringing. Someone named Devina really wants to talk to you," he explains as if walking into my apartment with no notice is okay.

"She's an old school friend," I say without thinking. Then I blow raspberries at myself. "I don't owe you an explanation. Just get out!"

He makes a tsk sound and drops my purse to the floor. Then he leans forward onto his thighs. When his eyes meet mine again, there's something different in them. I detect lust too, but this is something else. This is something much more intense. So intense it almost feels as if danger will follow soon.

Like a cloud before the rain, his eyes turn dark.

"So?" he questions. There's a strain to his voice. As if he's letting me know, without letting me know, that the safest place for him to be sitting right now is in that chair, to make sure he contains himself.

"So what?" I ask. My voice comes out much smaller than I'd wanted to, which doesn't go unnoticed by Elijah. He gives me one of his smiles. The unique kind, where he allows his dimple to the surface.

"So, continue."

I gape at him. Then I laugh leaning back against my headboard. He's a funny one. "Continue?" I laugh.

"Yes, your show," he retorts back, which causes my laughter to cut short. What an ass.

"What show?" My voice is ice.

"Your strip show, love."

I gasp. Loud. He leans more forward and for a minute I hope he trips on his kneecap and falls from the chair making himself look like an absolute fool. But he doesn't. He makes the entire movement seem so effortless. I'm sure it's the most attractive thing I've seen in a long time. It makes his muscles bulge out of his suit. Seeing it as I just came with his name leaving my tongue I doubt that should be what's on my mind.

But, two can play his perverted game.

"You couldn't afford me," I tell him, flashing my pearly whites.

He makes a sound that sounds like a scoff but also as if he's choking on a laugh. He puts one arm inside his suit and rummages for something in his pocket I'm guessing. When he draws his hand back I detect the card in his hand. He throws it at me making it land right in front of me. I look down and see a black AMEX.

"I bet you I could."

I ready myself to throw so many profanities his way, I'm sure the next thing that will leave his mouth will be when I can come to the office and pack my stuff, but my phone beats me to it and starts ringing. My purse is still on the floor, between Elijah's legs. 

He lets an annoyed grunt out, before opening my purse and answering my phone.

"It's after midnight, what the hell could possibly be this important, Miss Devina?" he seethes into my phone. I bring my hand up to my mouth trying to hide the laugh that just slipped out of me. I can hear Dev's voice due to the increased volume, which doesn't seem to bother Elijah for the record.

"Who are you?" my only friend asks into my phone.

"Her boss. Who are you?" Elijah asks back.

Devina explains how she's a friend from high school and it's frank to say Elijah looks merely bored. He actually yawns and then decides to cut mid-way through Devina's speech about if he puts a hair out of line she'll find him and murder him.

"She'll call you back," is all he says with fake enthusiasm before hanging up my phone. He makes an over dramatic sigh before placing my phone back into my purse. Then to my surprise he rises from the chair and walks toward my door. I don't know why I stop him, especially when I screamed for him to get out less than 10 minutes ago.

"Where are you going?" I ask.

He stops in his tracks and turns around a smile on his lips. He tilts his head a bit making him look kind of adorable, which only makes me hate him so much more than I already do.

"Home, darling. Why, you afraid of the dark?"

I simply nod my head not knowing what to say. Heavy footsteps walk toward me and I pull the covers over me once again making sure no part of my intimate places can be seen. Then he leans down over me, wraps his hand around my jaw and forces our eyes to meet. For a second I think he's going to force his lips down on mine, but when I feel his lips collide with my forehead I swoon inside.

He retreats without saying much, walking back toward the door. I look down at my hands and notice his black AMEX still on my bed.

"Wait!" I call out. I grab his card and stretch my arm.

"Keep it," he says. My jaw drops.

"What? Are you insane, it's your bank information all over this thing," I let out.

"I'm aware. Keep it."

"I don't need it," I say, my eyes meeting the back of my head. Elijah's jaw ticks when he sees it.

"Neither do I," he says, his accent coming on thick.

"It's your credit card," I answer him, annoyed now.

"One of many. The amount of money there's on it, is the same amount I make in an hour. Keep it, Josephine."

With that he leaves my room. It doesn't take long before I hear the door to my apartment smack behind him.

. . .
im so tired omg