Elias (New Adult Romance) (West Bend Saints Book 1) Read online

  Cade grinned. "See, Junebug?" he asked. "I knew she wasn't going to fall for that bullshit. That was a stupid ass song, too. Shit, the part about the hole in his heart?" He screwed up his face in disgust. "I don't even have words for it."

  "She still needed to see it," June said, smiling. "It was really bad, though. The part where he said he could see into your soul and he knew your soul wanted to be with his?"

  I howled with laughter. "That's embarrassing."

  "For him," June said.

  "For me, too. What was I thinking?" I asked, more to myself than to them. "I was going to actually marry that guy."

  Cade grimaced. "Screwing your sister aside," he said, shaking his head. "Any guy who writes a song that lame should just be taken out and shot."

  "He's a huge star," I said, my voice soft. I felt numb, detached from everything. I shook my head. "I don't know why I didn't see what a douche he was before. Nothing's really changed. He's always been like this."

  "Sometimes it's hard to see what's right in front of your nose," Cade said. He reached over and grabbed June's hand, and she patted it, smiling as she looked at him.

  The sound of a car engine and the crunch of gravel cut through the evening air, and I saw a car pull into the driveway of the bed and breakfast. It might have been early evening, but I could still see whose car it was, plain as day. And who was stepping out of the car.

  I heard June's voice, soft, like it was meant only for Cade. "Speaking of seeing what's under your nose..."

  I walked over to the bed and breakfast. Elias had stood there for a minute on the front porch, probably thinking I was still pissed off at him and just not answering, before he noticed me coming across the lawn.

  "Hey," he called.

  "I didn't expect to see you here," I said. I crossed my arms over my chest. Even if he was looking sexy, standing there in a pair of tattered jeans and this t-shirt that made his blue eyes look even bluer, he'd still been a jackass earlier.

  "I fucked up," he said. "Snapping at you, saying it was none of your business. I was being a shithead."

  "No kidding," I said, but I felt my resolve softening. Especially now that I knew why he'd been so touchy about his past. I could understand that kind of thing. "You want to come inside?"

  "Nope," he said, crossing my arms over my chest.

  "Okay, then," I said, taken aback. I guess he was still being a shithead.

  "Came to see if I could take you out."

  "Like on a date?"

  "Yep," he said.

  "I don't know." I was wary, thinking about the possibility of being noticed out in town. "I don't think it's a good idea. The tabloids, they've got video of you and me at the hotel in Vegas. I'm sure they're tracking me down even as we speak."

  Elias nodded. "I already thought of that," he said. "Come with me. I want to show you something."

  "Are you going to tell me where we're going?" River asked.

  "Nope," I said. "You'll see in just a minute." Up ahead was the turn off, this little indentation on the side of the road that only fit two cars at any given time. It was just us, given the fact that it was early evening. No one else would be out here this late.

  I'd been out here earlier this afternoon.

  I turned off the engine, and River looked at me warily, stepping out of the car. When I popped the trunk, she laughed nervously. "I don't suppose you'd tell me if you had a trunk full of tarp and duct tape and stuff, would you?" she asked.

  "Pulling over here does make me look like a serial killer, doesn't it?" I said.

  "That wasn't really an answer."

  "Yeah," I said. "Me and my fucking bum leg, we're a real good killing team." In my head it sounded like a joke, but it came out more bitter than I intended.

  River narrowed her eyes when she looked at me. "Do people feel sorry for you when you talk like that?" she asked. "Seems like you get by just fine to me with that bum leg of yours." Her back was toward me as she looked around. I watched her draw in a deep breath, her shoulders rising and falling. "Besides, wasn't it Ted Bundy who kept a crowbar in a cast on his arm? Lured his victims with his injury and his good looks."

  "Are you saying I'm good looking?" I picked up a headlamp and handed it to her.

  "It's tacky to fish for compliments you already know are true." She turned the lamp over in her hands.

  "Put it on," I said, sliding the band on mine over my head.

  "Sexy."

  "You want to fall down the trail or what?"

  "You're taking me hiking?" she asked. "I was kind of thinking dinner, a nice glass of wine, but sure."

  "Well, I can't exactly get rid of a body in a restaurant, can I?" I asked. "It has to be the woods."

  River narrowed her eyes and glared at me. "Har-dee har-har."

  I picked up the picnic basket from the trunk.

  "Is that a picnic basket?" she asked. "You own a picnic basket? You don't exactly seem like the type."

  "What type is that?" I asked.

  "A girl." She stuck her tongue out at me. It was a childish gesture, but one that immediately made me smile.

  "Maybe I've got a crowbar in the basket," I said. "Ever think of that?"

  "True," she said. "You want me to carry something here?"

  "Nope. Everything else is set."

  We hiked down the dirt trail, and she clutched my hand a few times when she skidded on pebbles. I wasn't sure if this was something she'd like or not. Someone like her probably didn't do shit like this, I thought.

  "Hiking down here," she said. "It's still all right with your leg?"

  I had her hand in mine, from when she skidded a minute ago, and I hadn't let go. "Yeah," I said. "I'm not an invalid."

  "Didn't think you were," she said. "Just asking if you had one special for working out and stuff."

  "Oh," I said. Christ, I was edgy when it came to her. Or maybe in general, I wasn't sure. "Yeah. I've got a running one. It's in the trunk of the car, actually." I paused for a beat. "With my crowbar, you know."

  She laughed. "Well, I guess if anyone were going to take me out in the woods for a date, I guess I'm glad it's you."

  Christ, as soon as she uttered the words take me, I was hard. I set down the basket, and stopped and pulled her against me, her back pressed into me. I slid my hands down her arms, pinning them at her sides, and I felt her shift against my hardness. Goose bumps dotted her arms, and the fact that she responded to me like that drove me nuts. She made a sound, this cross between a whimper and a moan, and it made me fucking crazy.

  My face was near her neck, and I inhaled her scent, drank her in. She turned her head to the side, and when I grazed her neck with my lips, I felt her knees buckle.

  At least I could be sure she was just as turned on by me as I was by her.

  But I stopped.

  "Why'd you stop?" she asked, her voice breathy.

  "Come on." My hand at the small of her back, I guided her forward. "There's this place up here around the bend. I want to show it to you."

  "Or we could stay right here for a little bit." She pressed her ass against my hardness and moaned a little. It was all I could do to not rip her clothes off right there. But I had other plans for her.

  "Shut your mouth and keep walking," I said.

  River laughed. "I see," she said. "So we're playing kidnapper, then?"

  "Depends," I said. "You into that kind of thing?" I nodded toward the clearing, just around this bend in the path. It was this spot away from the trail, down by a small bubbling creek, the aspen trees providing a canopy over the clearing. Even blanketed by the crisscrossing branches and the leaves, you could still see the evening sky and stars poking through.

  River's back was toward me as she looked around. "You did all this for me?"

  "I didn't figure you'd want to go somewhere public," I said. Plus, I wanted to show you I'm not a total asshole.

  I stood a few feet away from her, behind her. She still hadn't turned around. It was probably too much- she