WILD (Naked, Book 3) (4 page)

Only, Caelyn couldn’t say any of that. Instead she just muttered something about being ready to check out.

“Cool,” Elijah replied, not sounding like he particularly cared one way or the other.

They went back inside and paid for the food, or rather, Elijah paid for it all. She thanked him afterwards and he just shrugged it off.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said.

She could tell Elijah was preoccupied with whatever had gone on between him and his brother, but she didn’t feel comfortable asking him about it.

He drove in relative silence, while Caelyn bit her nails and began worrying that everything was going wrong already.

When they got back to the apartment, Elijah helped her unpack the groceries.

“Where are your frying pans?” she asked him.

He pointed to a lower cabinet beneath the counter.

She went and got a couple of pans and put them on the stovetop, looking cautiously over at Elijah as he placed the items they’d bought on the countertop nearby.

He looked closed off, his eyes far away as he mechanically moved his arms.

“Elijah,” she said.

He glanced over at her, his eyes seeming to clear, like the fog momentarily lifted.

“Yeah?”

“You know, you can talk to me about it. Whatever’s going on…I promise I won’t judge you.”

But could she really promise him that she wouldn’t judge him? What if he told her about something illegal, something horrible, an incident that would change what she thought of him forever?

“It’s no big deal,” he said, but didn’t look at her as the words left his mouth. He crumpled up the plastic bags and tossed them in the trash. “My brother’s kind of a know-it-all. He tries to tell me how things go, and I happen to disagree with him a lot of the time.”

She nodded as if this explained everything, when they both knew it explained absolutely nothing. There was heaviness in the air between them—a tension that held none of the pleasant excitement Caelyn had felt the previous day. Now, it was as though he’d changed into a different person entirely.

Caelyn opened the eggs and cracked a bunch of them into a large bowl, started the burners and put the sausage links and bacon strips into one of the pans so they could begin to cook.

As she worked, chopping onion, melting butter and seasoning it with garlic and other spices for the eggs to cook in with it, some of her inner tension began to release on its own.

She began humming a little bit to herself, enjoying the simple task of cooking a tasty meal for a person she cared about.

“I’ve got to make a call,” Elijah said, pulling out his phone.

“Okay,” she told him, still allowing the smile to stay on her face as she continued cooking. She didn’t want to act like this was bothering her so much. She knew Elijah had a complicated life with a lot of problems—no need to freak out about it.

Especially since she had plenty of her own to worry about.

Elijah walked out of the kitchen and went into the bedroom, closing the door.

Caelyn stirred the eggs, picked up some of the bacon strips that had gotten nice and crisp, and laid them on a plate with a layer of paper towel over it. The smell in the apartment was homey, it reminded her of weekends when her mother and father used to get up as a team and cook breakfast for the kids.

Those days had been long before Deena turned into such a nasty thing.

Caelyn stopped humming when she heard Elijah raising his voice in the other room.

“You can’t do that. Because if you do, it involves me. That’s why.”

There was a space of silence and then his voice, louder than ever.

“If I have to get into it because of something you do, I’ll take care of them first—

and then you. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Another shorter pause.

“Good. So let it go. Just let it go. And don’t bother me with this shit again.”

She waited for him to come out of the bedroom. As she waited, she realized the eggs were starting to burn, and she quickly began scraping them off the pan and into a plate before they became inedible.

As it was, she’d just barely saved them.

Finally, the breakfast was ready, but Elijah was still in the other room. Caelyn ran her hand through her hair. “Elijah?” she called out, rather timidly.

He didn’t answer.

“Elijah, breakfast’s ready!” she yelled. Immediately, she hated the sound of her voice. It was nagging, controlling, needy. Everything she was trying not to be.

At the same time, she really didn’t want the food to get cold. She was already anxious that it wasn’t going to turn out as well as she’d hoped, and if it got cold, it would be terrible and he’d think Caelyn was a lousy cook.

He’s not interested in you for your cooking.

Right now, he doesn’t appear interested in me at all.

Caelyn brought the plates to the small table in the corner of the kitchen. There was barely enough room for two chairs, but it seemed like the appropriate place to eat.

Elijah came out of the bedroom. “Sorry, I just had to deal with some old business,” he said, trying a smile on. It seemed uncomfortable, but at least he was trying again.

Caelyn grinned back at him. “Did the best I could,” she said picking up her fork and spearing an egg. And then she rolled her eyes. “I didn’t even think to ask if you wanted something to drink—coffee…”

“It’s okay,” he said. “I’ll make a pot up for us.”

“No, I want you to eat. Before it gets cold.”

“Caelyn—“

“I’m serious, Elijah. Sit down and eat. I’ll make the coffee.”

As he sat down at the table and picked up his fork, Caelyn could tell that he liked her taking charge of the kitchen like that. She had the suspicion that he probably hadn’t ever been really taken care of before in his life, and it made her happy to think that she might be the first one to treat him the way he deserved.

Elijah dug into his food, immediately moaning. “Oh shit, this is delicious.” He shook his head and started shoveling the food into his mouth as if he hadn’t eaten a proper meal in months.

Caelyn started brewing the coffee and then returned to the table.

“You’re almost done already!” she said, marveling at how fast he was inhaling the food she’d made.

Elijah wiped his mouth with a napkin and took a breath. “It’s just so good.

Caelyn, this seriously might be the best meal I’ve ever had.”

“Stop it.”

“I’m serious.” He looked her in the eyes. “Thank you.”

“Your welcome. I’m glad you like it.”

“I love it.” He picked up his fork and began eating again.

Caelyn brought more eggs and sausage and bacon to the table for Elijah to add to his quickly diminishing plate of food. After he’d piled another portion onto his plate, she went and got him a cup of coffee.

Finally, he’d finished most of his second plate of food, patting his stomach. He seemed satisfied and much happier than he’d been before the meal began. “That was awesome.”

Caelyn took a sip of coffee. “I like being here with you,” she told him.

He grinned at her. “I like you being here too.” Then he got up and brought his plate to the sink. “I’ll clean up,” he said. “You cooked, I’ll do the dishes.”

“You sure?”

“Absolutely.”

Caelyn sat and drank her coffee while Elijah efficiently washed the pots and pans and dishes, setting everything on a rack beside the sink to dry. She watched him work, his muscular body graceful in every movement.

Eventually she got up and went and had a quick shower, dressed in a pair of yoga pants and a t-shirt. When she came out of the bathroom, Elijah was standing there, looking at her with a different kind of hunger in his dark eyes.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey,” he replied, his body appearing tense in a way that Caelyn couldn’t initially understand.

And then she realized what it was and her heart sped up, her legs quivered, and she felt her body suddenly responding to him. He seemed to know it—they both knew it—and then he was coming toward her and kissing her with passion that Caelyn never could have imagined.

His lips and tongue teased her as he pushed her back against the wall. He broke off the kiss for a moment and simply looked at her. She stared back at him, and the electricity she felt was shocking on every level.

I’m losing control.

You never had any to begin with.

She thought back and realized that from the first moment she’d seen him, she’d started to fall in love with him. At first it had been confusing because of the circumstances of their meeting, but it had grown progressively, ever since that very first second when Elijah had stepped into the light streaming from her car’s headlights.

Elijah kissed her again, his lips tenderly pressing into hers, and then his tongue.

She moaned, her body shuddering with desire for his touch. His hand slid up her neck and cupped the back of her head as he kissed her more forcefully.

“I want you,” he whispered.

She looked at him and he seemed to read her expression. He walked her back to the bed, still kissing her. They lay down on the bed together, his body tilted against hers, his full weight not on top of her.

But she wanted him on top. She wanted all of him.

Caelyn grabbed his shirt and pulled it over his head. His body was hard and soft all at once. She ran her hands greedily up and down his chest and stomach. Then Elijah began kissing her neck, and slowly he pulled her shirt up and over her head as well. She moaned softly.

He expertly unsnapped her bra and it fell slowly down her shoulders as his lips kissed down her collarbone, and down further still.

“Oh my God,” she said, her voice hushed by her own wanting.

She reached out and started unbuttoning and unzipping his pants, her desire overcoming the cautious part of her that said to go slow.

Caelyn didn’t want to take it slow anymore—not with Elijah.

As she slid his pants down, he started sliding hers down her hips too.

It’s really about to happen, she thought. We’re going to have sex.

Caelyn was ready. The questioning was over with, and now she was simply desperate for closeness with Elijah. It was as if they’d been waiting years rather than days.

But just when it seemed that it was inevitable, Caelyn heard the sound of the apartment door opening.

“Someone’s here!” she half-whispered, half yelled in his ear.

Elijah sat up on the bed and pulled his pants back on, buttoning them. There was the sound of the front door creaking open and then shutting again.

He paused to listen for a moment and then suddenly pulled his mattress up and dug his arm between the mattress and box spring, emerging with a pistol in his hand.

Caelyn was too scared to scream, but she felt the scream rising in her throat as she shrank away from the sight of the gun in his hand. He raised his finger to his lips and raised the gun up as he crept slowly towards the closed bedroom door.

Caelyn could hear footsteps in the apartment. Someone was really in there—and whatever was going to happen next could only be horrible. What if they had guns too?

Elijah slowly, slowly twisted the knob on the door and opened it ever so quietly.

He peered out, gun still raised, poised to react to whatever he saw.

Then, apparently, he recognized the person in the apartment and his body relaxed and he stuck the gun in the back of his jeans, so that the butt of the gun protruded slightly. Elijah untucked his t-shirt and let it fall over the gun, making it virtually invisible to the eye.

“Who is it?” she asked him.

He looked back at her and shook his head sadly. “I should’ve known this would happen.”

“Elijah? Is that you?” a woman’s voice called out from nearby.

“Yeah, just a second,” he replied. He turned to Caelyn. “I’ll take care of this.”

“Who is it?”

He paused. “It’s just my ex. She shouldn’t be here and she knows it.”

Caelyn stood up pulling her shirt on quickly. “I’m not going to hide from her.”

“Okay,” he shrugged. Then he turned and opened the door. “Hayley,” he called out as he walked into the hallway.

Caelyn rushed out behind him, wanting to confront this ex-girlfriend who thought it was okay to simply break into someone’s apartment and scare people half to death.

Hayley was looking at one of the candles that Caelyn had bought from Walmart.

Hayley was holding it and sniffing it. Her hair was red, fiery, and cut to about shoulder length. She was small, almost elflike, with pale skin and tiny features. She seemed physically harmless, and yet Caelyn’s radar was telling her that Hayley was anything but harmless.

I could probably throw her over my shoulder and put her outside if I wanted
, Caelyn thought.

Hayley glanced up at them, her expression showing no surprise at seeing Elijah or Caelyn there. Somehow that, in and of itself, made Caelyn more nervous than anything else.

“Nice candle,” Hayley said, sniffing it one last time before putting it back on the table. “Kind of reminds me of fall and apple picking.”

Elijah crossed his arms. “Is that why you came here, to talk about candles?”

She looked at him, seemingly hurt. “I came here because I was worried about you,” she said.

“Did Jake tell you I was back?”

“What does it matter? And why did I have to hear it from somebody else?” She twisted a lock of hair around one finger.

“If I’d wanted to tell you where I was, I would have,” Elijah replied.

Hayley sighed but didn’t respond directly to his statement. Her eyes suddenly focused on Caelyn. “I should probably introduce myself since Elijah’s not really the most polite guy when it comes to this stuff.”

Caelyn’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t see why he should be polite. You broke into his apartment and scared us half to death.”

Hayley began laughing at this. She shrieked with laughter, her pale face turning bright red. “I…I broke in…oh…really…really…”

“Yes, really.”

“Is this how I broke in?” Hayley said, reaching in her purse and pulling out a set of keys, holding them in the air. “I broke in with the key Elijah gave me, telling me to use it whenever I felt like it?”