no control

• thirty four •

gladys

A pleasant lavender aroma floated around me off the steamy, bubbling surface of the hot pool.

This was exactly what I imagined heaven would be like. Tranquility and peace. I'd never been so relaxed in my entire life.

"I wondered where you'd escaped to."

My eyelids flashed open, a smile automatically populating my lips. Elijah stood before me in his usual black suit, his dark hair combed back and shiny with gel. His black eyes smoldered down at me.

"I wasn't sure when you'd be back," I said, "and I discovered this amazing spa."

He came to the side of the tiled hot pool and I swam over to greet him. "I'm glad you're enjoying yourself," he told me. "I like to see you relaxed."

My insides turned to straight mush. I bit the inside of my cheek to reduce the magnitude of my enormous grin.

Last night felt like eons ago. I couldn't believe all that had unfolded.

Thinking back at how I'd fled the party, I felt like a fool.

I was of course upset by what I witnessed.

I still wasn't completely settled by Elijah's explanation but I knew he wasn't lying about this.

He fired his assistant immediately, so that was my one consolation.

Still, I shouldn't have run like a coward. I should have bitch-slapped that woman into the next universe for laying paws on my man.

My man.

I was so screwed.

I couldn't stop replaying how he'd chased me, caught me, and literally carried me over his shoulder like a caveman last night.

He was absolutely infuriating and unreservedly sexy.

After being used to guys never glancing twice at me, his possessive and demanding edge drove me insane.

When he wanted something, he stopped at nothing until he had it. And he wanted me.

The memory intoxicated me just thinking about it.

"You make it easy," I said, shrugging and nodding at the spa around me. "I could live in this pool. So, how was work?"

After waking up in his arms, we made pancakes and cuddled on the couch for awhile. Then he got a message from work and had to leave.

I spent a few hours lazing about and exploring before I found the gym which connected to this heavenly place.

Hence, why he was now finding me butt ass naked in here, my pajamas in a puddle on the floor.

He brushed a hand along my cheek before bending down to peck my lips. My face heated under his touch.

Staring at me with that piercing gaze, he straightened again and looked me over.

"Work was fine," he said. "Nothing I couldn't handle."

"Did something happen?" I asked.

He never talked about work, as much as it occupied him. I was curious. I never imagined accountants could be so mysterious.

There was also the little club thing he and Aaron were a part of. I still knew nothing about that after he'd brushed off the conversation.

Even though I knew I wasn't in the position to push it, I was bothered by his secrecy.

My stupid ass fell for him, yet we still kept so much from each other.

If he knew the full extent of my past, he'd see me as damaged goods. Because I was.