“I’ll have a car pick you up at eight thirty Sunday,” Kingston says as he pulls up to my apartment building. I wasn’t going back to the office, I had already made sure to take the afternoon off the moment I got that text message this morning.
If only I had known who it would have been waiting for me.
“I’m not going.” I tell Kingston, opening the car door.
“You will be.”
“So, is this how it’s going to be?” I pause with one foot out and turn back to him, taking in all of him.
He was tattooed temptation, a man built for sin dressed in leather and denim. His eyes sparkle as he catches me staring at him.
“See you Sunday, Eleanor,” he dismisses me, “and don’t go digging any further, you wouldn’t want to be the next girl to go missing.”
The threat lingers between us and is enough to snap me from my admiration and get out the car. He waits until I’m through the door and sees me staring down at him from my window before he pulls away and disappears around the corner.
A few minutes later my phone buzzes.
Unknown: I’ll know if you do something stupid, Eleanor. See you soon. K.
I turn the thing off and throw it onto the sofa before kicking off my shoes, and throwing myself down next to it as I grab the blanket off the back, and bury myself under it. What the fuck have I done?
The real question though, what the fuck did I do!? My hand still stings from the slap and the evidence of my strike was still on the side of Kingston’s face. It was an instant regret, but I had hardly any time to really react before I was forced into his car.
This was going to end horribly, I could already sense it. I’d already guessed Kingston was dangerous, but my imagination hadn’t gone in this deep. It was so much worse than I could have ever truly known.
Serves me right, I suppose, always wanting to see the good in people.
I shake my head, how could I have been so stupid!? What good can I do to help Tate if I’m dead or kidnapped?
I was sure that was going to happen to me today, I was sure Kingston was going to haul me off somewhere to never see the light of day again.
I don’t care what he says, I’m not going to his stupid party on Sunday. Just because he was forcing us to work together doesn’t mean I have to give him but the bare minimum.
The fact that my body lights up around him, that he brews a heat so damning in my core is more proof that I have to stay far, far away. Who knows what this traitorous body of mine will do in prolonged proximity to the man built for sex and sin?
I was no virgin, but I could bet all the money in my bank that my experiences and his were two entirely different things.
I couldn’t help but wonder what he looked like beneath those clothes, how much of his skin was covered in those dark pictures? Where else was he pierced? He was fit, I know that for sure having felt the hard lines of his muscles as he manhandled me into the car, and I could only imagine what he looked like in the flesh.
I groan as a new wave of heat slams into me.
“Shit,” I hiss, throwing off the blankets to trudge through to the bathroom where I then run a scalding hot bath, complete with bubbles and bath bombs. The smell of jasmine and lavender floats in the steam as it fills the small, tiled room and I strip out of my clothes, dumping them in a pile before I climb into the hot water and hold my breath letting my body get climatized to the heat.
Thoughts of Kingston swim through my head. What would it be like to have a man like that? To have a taste of the dangerous, even just once.
It’s thoughts like that, that will likely kill me. You don’t climb into bed with a man like that knowing what I know. It’ll be like laying down in front of a lion and hoping not to get eaten.
But even knowing that, my hand still travels down the plains of my stomach, following the curve of my hip to dip between my legs, the feel of his hands on my thighs, his fingers grazing my cheek the only thoughts that compel me to continue doing this.
I find my release with the rasp of his voice echoing in my ear.
I go to bed early that night, but sleep doesn’t come easy. I toss and I turn, one hand constantly beneath my pillow, the same knife I had in here previously back under there, and my fingers wrapped around the handle. I’m sure it’s useless, I’m sure if Kingston or even Tobias or Garrett wanted to do me harm, they would be able to do so, far quicker than I would be able to react. I probably wouldn’t even know until I was in the middle of it, being dragged away or murdered in my own bed.
The thoughts drive me from my sheets. A glance at the clock tells me it’s a little past midnight and, in this moment, I’ve never felt quite so alone with Tate missing. Her darkened bedroom, the door open, showing it unused and empty, haunts me as I stand in the kitchen, staring at it.
It feels selfish to be scared of something happening to me like it happened to her. I chew my lip until it hurts, pouring some milk into a saucepan to warm for hot chocolate. My grandmother said hot chocolate fixed everything and I used to believe her, even at my age of twenty-six I still believed it, until now. Hot chocolate wouldn’t help Tate.
My phone buzzes.
Unknown: Why are you awake, Eleanor?
My brows draw down and my heartrate spikes. I turn the heat off the milk and creep towards the window, holding my phone in my hand as I peer around the curtain.
My phone vibrates again, making me jump.
Unknown: You can stop looking out the window, you won’t see anyone unless I want you to.
Me: Why are you watching my apartment?
Unknown: Answer my question and I’ll answer yours, why are you awake?
Me: I couldn’t sleep. I’m making hot chocolate. Now you.
A few minutes pass and I sigh, of course he won’t answer my question. When my phone buzzes and I see the message, I just stare, mouth parted slightly.
Unknown: It isn’t me watching your apartment, Eleanor but one of my men, they report into me when something seems suspicious. I’m watching your apartment to make sure you stay safe. We’re working together, I will always take care of my belongings.
Another message comes in as I stare at the screen.
Unknown: So, you can go on back to bed, love, you’re safe. For now.
I hate him.
I turn my phone off and leave it on the kitchen side, abandoning the milk on the stove, and head back to my room, slamming the door. Just to be sure, I shove my drawers in front of it. It’s not the safest measure with fire hazards and all that, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take. I make sure all my windows are locked and my curtains drawn tight before I climb back into my bed, hand closing around the knife again.
I sleep fitfully and when I wake the next morning, sluggish and exhausted it takes all my strength to haul the drawers out of the way so I can go in search of coffee. My bare feet pad against the wooden flooring and a yawn is stretching my jaw when it gets stuck and I stand with my mouth agape, staring at my kitchen table.
There, sat right in the middle is a large black box, delicately wrapped with a black silk ribbon. The saucepan I had been using the night before, left with the milk still inside was no longer on the hob but washed and turned upside down on my drying board, and a coffee mug sits next to the machine, waiting to be used.
Someone was in my apartment last night.
I check the door, yet find it still locked and secure.
How is this my life?
I skirt around the box as if it has teeth and will bite.
There is a note.
Eleanor, be sure to be ready for when you are collected. It is a black tie after all, and we wouldn’t want you showing up in those tiny shorts. King.
My teeth grit to the point of pain. Coffee first.
I go about my routine, adding a pod to the machine and hitting the button, swapping out the cup that was left out in favor of one from the cupboard. I didn’t trust him. He got into my apartment for heaven’s sake.
Once I have a fresh, steaming cup of coffee I sit at the table, staring at the box.
“Open it,” I whisper to myself, cradling my mug in my palms. “Just open it.”
I gently tug the end of the ribbon, the soft swish of the silky material the only noise in my apartment. It gently falls to the table and with both hands, I lift the lid of the box.
I’m not able to hold in my gasp at what is inside.