Elijah is pissed. I’m not sure if it’s at me for not wanting to talk to him about it or about some stranger crashing one of his private events. I’ll never forget the way he looked at the stranger, though, like an angry animal about to pounce on a challenger trying to steal his dinner. Always calm on the outside, I know how much fire rages inside him.
And I kind of like the way he’s holding me, like he’s concerned, though I should probably be running for the exit if what the stranger said about EJ is true.
He motions for Maya to clean up the table full of drawings and photographs while walking with me out of the conference room. His keeps me tucked against his lean frame. I’m too deep in thought to notice our passage through the hallways and out the back of the building to the limo that awaits us in an alley that barely seems wide enough for it.
I can’t get what the stranger said out of my mind. I didn’t expect the mysterious texter to show up here, in the middle of one Elijah’s carefully planned events. How did he get by security? How did he get close enough to grab me?
“Then this is the last time I’ll try to convince you how bad it’ll end for you, if you stay with him,” he’d said. The veiled threat was gone. This time, he was more direct.
Yet this, and claiming Elijah is cheating, seems like the least concerning of my issues. A few things I hadn’t put together click into place. My disappearing birth control pills. The fact Maya – Elijah’s cousin and assistant – allegedly can’t get me more.
The sudden decision for Elijah wanting to keep me around longer.
The stranger’s claim about Elijah’s father telling him he needs an heir was so absurd, I almost laughed, until I started thinking about it more.
The limo door yawns open. I blink out of my stupor and climb in.
Elijah slides in and sits opposite me. I miss the warmth and strength of his body, but right now, I’ve got to figure out if I should be anywhere near him, if the mysterious texter who’s pegged him so well, is actually right.
“Start talking,” Elijah orders me.
“EJ, why did you pick a year for our deal?” I ask, trying to understand what the hell I just heard. “What’s the significance?”
“You didn’t seem interested in negotiating for indefinite.” He leans forward, his elbows on his knees and his sharp gaze on my features.
His anger scares me a little. I know how calculating and thorough he is when calm. I don’t ever want to find out how cunning he can be when he’s upset. I’m trying to think about what to tell him and how, without revealing my secret about the texts I’ve been receiving.
“What did he say to upset you?” he asks again. He hands me a bottle of water.
Aside from threatening my life? I accept it, the cold bottle helping me focus outside my mind again.
“For one, he’s been following us,” I start. “He knows things he shouldn’t. Like it’s almost like he’s been inside our … your apartment.”
Elijah’s gaze turns from angry to sharp, his attention solely on me.
“He brought up the Axis and Allies game and how we’ve never played it.” I flush. It’s so stupid that a silly game means anything to me. It was a gift from Elijah after the gala, one he seemed to want to play with me, before he inexplicably froze me out the next day.
I was actually looking forward to spending the time with him.
The mystery texter used where the game was located in our bedroom to prove his point about having great enough access to me to make sure I leave Elijah, even if it means by force.
“That’s not possible.” Elijah is frowning fiercely.
“It gets weirder,” I say. I lick my lips and hesitate, uncertain how to say this next part. Not only does this stranger’s intimate knowledge scare me, but he also blew my mind with this next tidbit. “Elijah, the cleaning crew tossed my pills the other day and Maya has been stalling me about getting new ones. This guy says things like this are happening, because your father has issued an edict that you need an heir before he’ll give you the throne and you’re going to ...” I can’t even say it.
Apparently, I don’t have to.
Elijah is surprised. Not the kind of alarm I expect from a man who is trying to figure out a horrible falsehood, but the look of a man who knows he’s just had some great secret uncovered.
I search his gaze, and my whole world feels like it’s going to crack.
“Elijah,” I whisper. “Tell me you aren’t the kind of man who would do that. Tell me you didn’t toss my pills or set me up or whatever it is this guy is saying.”
He wipes his mouth and sits back. I assess he’s at a loss for words.
I feel sick. “Is that why you wanted an extension to our deal, to make sure you had time to knock me up?”
“No.”
“Did you do something to sabotage my birth control? Or tell Maya or the pharmacy not to refill it?” My body is shaking, and the tears in my eyes are those of fury and fear.
Of all the things I expected of Elijah, this isn’t one of them. I expected him to fuck me over during the course of our false relationship but also that, when it’s over, I’m free of him. Forever.
That wouldn’t be the case if a kid were involved. I’ve been taking my pills religiously to prevent that possibility.
“I did not,” he says slowly. “Whoever this stranger is, I need to shut him down fast. He’s got to have someone inside our home to know this level of detail.”
“I don’t care about him!” I cry. “Was he right about any of it?”
He’s evaluating me. “Yes and no. My father hasn’t issued an edict. I’m aware that he’s considering putting my cousin on the throne, since my cousin will have an heir by the end of the year. My father made his opinion clear to me, but there are a lot of hurdles between him removing me from being next in line and appointing my cousin the crown prince.”
“But you would consider it, wouldn’t you? You did consider it! You would fuck up my life like that?”
“Calm down, Natalie,” he says softly. “I did nothing to your birth control. If it went missing, then you can go to the pharmacy personally for replacements, if you don’t believe me.”
“I’ve been trying to get refills for a week, Elijah! Maya says they keep losing it. Are you doing this?”
“No, I’m not,” he states. “There are very compelling reasons I will never father an heir.”
“Like what?”
“Nothing I will tell an outsider.”
“Nothing you’ll tell an outsider you considered knocking up?” I’m beyond furious. This … terrifies me. I’m already an emotional mess from my menstrual cycle and the confrontation with the mystery texter, but the idea of raising a child in this situation …
My god. No. Never.
“This is politics. This is how my family operates.”
“What if he does issue an edict?” I challenge. “What then, EJ?”
His jaw tightens and he gazes out the window for a moment. He doesn’t have to tell me his answer. I already know it. Elijah always gets what he wants – no matter what the cost.
You know this about him already, Natty. I struggle to calm down. Have I been trusting the wrong person? Are the veiled threats from the texter a warning to help me avoid getting permanently pulled into EJ’s twisted world?
“I chose not to act on his opinion. That should be enough,” Elijah says.
“It’s not! How can I ever trust you to follow through with the Tenley project if I can’t trust you with my own body? There’s not a hundred million on the line!” I fire back.
“There’s a trillion on the line for an heir,” he replies.
“So you’ll ditch a hundred million like it’s nothing but not a trillion.”
He’s a fucking billionaire prince. He was raised with no capacity for respect or morals or empathy.
He has potential. I’ve seen it. But I just …
“I didn’t do anything to jeopardize your birth control,” he says carefully through clenched teeth. “Yes, I thought about it, but I didn’t act.”
“Yet. You didn’t act yet, EJ.”
He sits back, and I can see by the look on his face that I’m right.
We’re too different. This will never work, no matter what I feel for him.
“You have no respect for anyone,” I whisper, overwhelmed.
“So I take it you won’t agree to an extension.”
Is he even listening? “EJ, the only way I’ll ever spend one more day than I have to with you is if you learn to respect me, which will never happen, because you’re incapable of putting someone else’s needs or wants above yours.”
Elijah is studying me again, as if I asked him something he doesn’t want to give up.
“What exactly does that entail?” he asks cautiously.
Jesus, Elijah! “It means you don’t treat me like a possession,” I say clearly. “You respect my decisions, my privacy, my opinion, my body, everything.”
“Have I not done that?” he asks with some frustration.
“Honestly?”
He waits.
My anger seeps out. “You are selfish, self-absorbed and totally insensitive to anyone else’s feelings. You treat people like they’re servants or they’re only for you to use to get your way. You are, in every way, a complete and total asshole,” I say. “No, Elijah, you don’t respect me.”
“Even after I paid for your father’s surgeries?”
“Outsiders don’t get to take care of my family, EJ,” I say, unable to help throwing that word back in his face after his comment earlier. “That includes you respecting our decisions about an issue that does not concern you.”
He’s staring at me.
“I am grateful for your help. But I’d rather have your respect than your money any day of the week,” I add, calming. “Do you understand that? Can you understand that?”
Fury crosses his features. “It would be easier to replace you!” he retorts.
“Then do that. But it’s about to become a very long two months, with no chance of extension, if you can’t do it.”
He says nothing.
The footman opens the door, revealing the interior of the parking garage beneath the hotel where we are living. I don’t wait for Elijah but get out and go to the elevator.
He doesn’t follow. I’m almost surprised that the man who never backs down from a challenge isn’t arguing or pursuing or threatening me. But at the moment, I’m too upset to care.
I get in the elevator and ride it up to our place. I feel nauseated for more reasons than one. I don’t trust him at all. If I’m late for my period at any point during the next few weeks, I’m going to get tested. God help me, if I end up pregnant, I’m going to ask Alisha to help me disappear in a way that even Elijah can’t find me. Fear is churning in my belly, fear that he’ll toss me out and renege on our original deal and toss my family out on the streets.
That’s what I’d do if I was him. Beautiful women are a dime a dozen in his world.
This thought makes the tears spill down my cheeks. By the time the elevator door opens, I’m sobbing.
What is wrong with me? How can I feel something for someone like him? Or am I just scared about what he’s going to do next?
I hurry to our bedroom and throw myself down across the bed, hating that I couldn’t keep my mouth shut but also hating even more the fact that he’d do something like secretly knock me up to win a stupid prize.
Because, at the end of the day, that’s all the crown is. A trophy. He’s got the money and the title and the prestige he needs. But he wants that shiny trophy to show up his father and to place on his mantle, and he’ll destroy me, his impoverished people and everyone else to get it.
By this time tomorrow, I’ll be back at my apartment trying to pick up the pieces of my life.
I cry until I’m too tired to cry anymore then check my phone. It’s been buzzing with text messages. I’m almost afraid to look.
The first is from the stranger. Nice to meet you.
Fury fills me and I respond quickly. Stay the fuck away from us!!!!
“Don’t cry anymore, Natty,” I tell myself in a choked voice. “EJ’s not worth it.” My eyes blur but I swipe the moisture away then move onto the next text.
Don’t kill me – but something in your fridge smells awful. The superintendent wants it cleaned up, and I’m allergic to everything.
Alisha’s colorful text makes me laugh so hard and fast, it hurts. I’ve missed her off the wall personality so much the past few weeks. My laughter turns to tears. I don’t know why I’m so upset at the idea of being kicked out of EJ’s life. It’s more than the potential impact to my family, though, even if I’m not ready to admit it to myself.