be avoided.
“Because the traffic right now is horrendous and parking will be nearly impossible. So my driver will let us off in front of the restaurant so that you won’t have to walk several blocks in those very lovely shoes,” he said, looking down at her black, leather boots with the high heel she’d donned this morning under her black, tailored slacks. “And it will also save us time so that we can talk and not have to worry about parking.” He held the door open for her, his eyes daring her. “Get in, Elana.”
She hesitated for only another moment, but in that brief period, she realized that they were gaining the attention of the onlookers. In the end, her fear of being seen with Gaston and people talking, making assumptions or trying to guess at the extent of their relationship, outweighed her fear of being alone with him.
“Fine,” she said with ill grace and ducked into the dark, back seat.
Gaston watched with interest as the material of her slacks was pulled tightly over her bottom, admiring that piece of her anatomy for the few seconds he was privileged to view it. He might not like her personally, but his body certainly agreed with the way her parts all fit together.
The driver already knew their destination because as soon as the door closed behind him, he pulled away from the curb and entered traffic. Unfortunately, the privacy window between the occupants of the back seat and the driver’s area was already closed. She noticed this at the same time that she realized that he was sitting much too close to her.
“Why the sudden desire to have lunch with me?” she asked, switching over to the opposite seat so she wasn’t so close. She might be facing backwards this way, but it was much better on her pulse to have the extra space between them. The farther she was from his long, muscular body, the better.
“Are you really surprised?”
She hated the eyebrow that went up with his response. “Obviously I am or I wouldn’t have asked. I haven’t heard from you for two weeks and all of a sudden you show up and want to have lunch with me? It doesn’t make sense. How about an explanation instead of a sarcastic reply?”
He laughed, impressed with her daring. Not many had the courage to stand up to him. “So you’ve got a bit of spunk in you after all. I was starting to wonder.”
Her eyes flashed with that comment. “What do you mean by that?”
He leaned to the left slightly, closer to her. “When I saw you two weeks ago, you were a bit…tired,” was all he said, choosing the more diplomatic word versus the ‘sad’ adjective that immediately popped into his mind. “I was thinking that you’d lost that edge that had been so interesting the first time we were together.”
She leaned back and crossed her arms. “We weren’t ever really together, were we?”
Again, his eyebrow went up. “What would you call our previous relationship?”
“A lie.”
The anger that had always been simmering just beneath the surface due to her faithlessness roiled to the top and he couldn’t stop his response. “I would have to agree with that assessment.”
“So I ask again, why are we here, now? What’s the point in rehashing old news?”
“Perhaps because there’s something still there, something that might be worth rehashing.”
She shook her head. “Absolutely not. There’s nothing to rehash.”
He laughed softly. “Are you going to try and tell me that you didn’t feel anything when I kissed you two weeks ago?”
She squirmed in the soft leather seat, unable to hold his gaze. “Oh, there was something there. I can’t deny that. But I’m not sure revulsion is what you want to rehash or are you a masochist?”
She wasn’t expecting his reaction. Suddenly, she was no longer sitting across from him but was now in his lap, his hands like steel bands around her upper arms as he held her in place. It didn’t matter though. She was too stunned to react. “Revulsion? I believe you’ve just told me that you want another demonstration of what we feel whenever we’re mere feet away from each other.” With that, he covered her mouth with his in a brutal kiss. She resisted at first, but when she started to struggle, he changed tactics. His lips softened and his hands stopped holding her and slipped under her sweater, finding her skin.
Elana wasn’t ready for that. She couldn’t believe how good his