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

  Hell.

  Obviously, she was someone important, some kind of star or politician's daughter or someone in the limelight. I had no fucking clue who she was.

  She had to think I was such a dumb shit.

  I mentally began to index the movies I've seen, tried to remember the last thing I saw. Was she a movie star? Maybe she was on TV. I couldn’t remember the last time I actually watched a movie.

  I'd been focused on other shit.

  Like my leg. Running again, working out. Getting my shit together.

  I stole a glance in her direction. Her face was forward, her hair messy, the strands blowing back in the wind, nearly vertical. I wondered why she cut it all off.

  I couldn’t stop thinking about the kiss. I was hung over as hell, my mind sluggish, weighed down by the booze from last night. But I couldn’t think about anything except my skin against hers.

  She turned, and I jerked my head away, my eyes on the road, casual like I did this every fucking day, whisked some chick away in my convertible when she was being assaulted by the paparazzi. Whoever she was, she was out of my league.

  League, shit. We weren’t on the same fucking planet, me and her.

  I would drop her off somewhere, probably wherever her limo was going to pick her up, and be done with her. Then I was going to go about my regular fucking business, go home to West Bend, and deal with all of my bullshit.

  She didn’t belong in my car.

  And she sure as hell didn't belong with me.

  We were on a road, a smaller road on the way out of town where the wind wasn’t so bad, when she looked at me. "What?" she yelled, over the white noise of the air blowing past our faces.

  "What?" I repeated her question back. The wind whipped by me, my words probably caught on it.

  “You’re staring,” she said.

  “Sorry.” But I looked at her again anyway, then just as quickly, back at the road. I didn’t say anything else until we were out of town. I had been glancing in my rearview mirror, checking to see if we’d been followed, but it looked like the photographer was the only one interested in her, and I was sure my friends took care of him.

  Not in the sleeps with the fishes kind of way, just in the significantly detoured him kind of way.

  I pulled over in the parking lot of a diner outside of town, and I finally turned toward her. “You want me to take you somewhere else? You have a car back at the hotel?”

  She was silent, looking straight ahead. When she finally spoke, her voice was soft. “I don’t have anything to go back to,” she said. “Not right now, anyway.”

  Why the hell was I so happy to hear that? It practically warmed my fucking heart. I nodded. "Well, I don't know what your story is, but I guess you're running from something."

  She grinned. "You don't know who I am? Like, really?"

  Her eyes were this hazel color with flecks of gold or something in them, almost like a cat. I felt like I should know who she was, this girl with eyes like that, this girl I kissed, who had me so turned on I couldn’t think straight.

  "No idea," I said, and shrugged, the gesture more nonchalant than I actually felt. She had me feeling self-conscious, and I didn’t get self-conscious. Even with my fucking leg. I just wasn’t that kind of guy. But this girl was making me antsy.

  She laughed. "River," she said. Like it was supposed to mean something to me. What the hell kind of name was River, anyway?

  “Sorry,” I said, giving her a blank look. “Doesn’t really ring any bells.”

  I couldn't tell if she was offended or pleased. “I’m an actress.”

  "Yeah?" I said. "I never would have guessed, what with the photographer chasing you."

  "Hey, you're the one who doesn't know who I am."

  "Full of yourself, much?" I asked. "What, are you, like a Kardashian or something? Cause if you are, I'm going to have to kick your ass out of the car right now."

  River shrugged. "No," she said. "But I know them."

  I rolled my eyes. "Close enough. Get out of the car."

  "They're actually pretty nice," she said, grinning.

  "I'm not kidding at all," I said. "You can get out and wait on the side of the road until some nice trucker named Bubba picks you up."

  "I could," she said. "It might be safer than being in here - how do I know you're not really a serial killer or something?"

  "You don't," I said. "Keep telling me about the Kardashians, though, and you might find out."

  "No trunk filled with duct tape and rope and tarp?" she asked.

  "Sounds like a lot of kinky fun," I said. "But sadly, no. Sorry to disappoint. I'm not looking to chop you up into pieces. Of course, if I were, I probably wouldn't tell you."

  "Well." She paused for a long moment, giving me the once over. "So you really don't know who I am, then?"

  “Nope.” She seemed surprised by the fact that I wasn’t that curious, but I guess I didn’t give a shit if she was somebody famous. All right, I was kind of curious. I mean, how often in my life had I been kissed by a movie star?

  The answer would be zero.

  I just wasn't going to let on to her that I was curious. She didn't need to know that. I mean, hell, for all she knew I could be getting kissed by actresses all the time.

  “Okay,” she said. “What’s your name, then?”

  “Elias Saint.” I paused for a beat. "Just so you know, paparazzi follow me all the time too."

  "Oh yeah?" she asked, her tone laced with sarcasm. "You must be totally famous."

  I angled my head down, looked at her over the edge of my sunglasses. "Well, I didn't want to say anything, since you were being all braggy and shit, but I am kind of important."

  "Oh, well, obviously," she said. "I can tell."

  I slid my glasses back up my nose. "It's the devastating good looks, right?"

  "Dead giveaway." She grinned.

  "Chicks dig me," I said, shrugging. "What can I say?"

  "I don't doubt it," she said. The way she said it, I couldn't tell if it she was being serious or still joking. The intensity in her gaze made me think of that kiss. Hell. That kiss. I turned away, looked straight ahead, afraid she'd be able to read the desire for her that had to be etched on my face right now.

  “Elias,” she said.

  "What?"

  “Your name. I like it. It’s kind of old school. Biblical."

  "All right, River with nowhere to go," I said, abruptly changing the subject. The last thing I wanted to do right now was tell a movie star about the convoluted origins of my name. "Where do you want me to take you?"

  "Anywhere you like." I turned to look at her when she said it, her voice husky. Is she hitting on me? Her cheeks reddened, and I realized she was embarrassed.

  I couldn’t help feeling like pushing that button more now that I knew what embarrassed her.

  "I'll save that for later," I said. "Unless you want me to take you right here, right now." I watched as the red flush grew deeper, and she shifted uncomfortably in her seat. I hid a smile, watching her squirm. She didn’t say anything, and I cleared my throat. "I'm heading home."

  When she answered, her voice was hoarse, and the flush was still evident on her face. "Where's home?"

  "West Bend, Colorado," I told her. The last place on earth some actress would be interested in going. The fact that she was still sitting in my car made no fucking sense.

  "Okay," she said.

  "Okay, what?"

  "Okay, I'll go with you." She said it matter-of-fact.

  "To my fucking house?" I asked.

  "Sure."

  "Did I ask you to come home with me?" I said. Was this girl crazy? Bringing someone like her back to West Bend? Bringing her back to my house? There was no way short of hell freezing that I was letting her within a hundred yards of my family.

  "Oh," she said. She sounded disappointed, and I found myself caring.

  Fuck.

  "No, I mean, I just assumed you were offering me a ride or something."