Page 5 of Heartbeats Amidst Chaos: Part 3
Rissa’s heart began to thump erratically at the invitation in his expression. “I might have a few,” she said. “How focused of a driver are you?”
Elio was silent for a moment, assessing her sincerity with another quick, sidelong glance. “Very focused.”
Sitting up straight, Rissa left her dress where it was and leaned her left elbow onto the narrow console between them, reaching across with her right hand to brush her fingers lightly across the slight bulge between Elio’s legs. He jumped, his head tilting back as his breath caught. She then crept her fingers up over his abdomen and across his chest, feeling the muscles beneath his shirt. She felt one of his nipples beneath her fingers and flicked it.
“Ow!” Elio exclaimed.
“Still awake?” Rissa asked mischievously. She leaned forward and planted a kiss right over the hawk in his bicep tattoo, kissing her way upward toward Elio’s sinewy neck. Her hand splayed open across his chest as he leaned his head back against the seat, his eyes glued to the road.
“Tell me when it gets to be too much,” she paused to murmur. “I don’t want to die in a wreck or kill anyone else.”
“Me neither,” Elio replied. “I’ll let you know. Or pull over,” he added breathlessly. “We’re in no hurry.”
“Got it,” Rissa said, her hand sliding back down toward where his bulge had begun to grow. “I’ll take it slow.”
Chapter three
Clothes weren’t the only things delivered to Sweetwater Lake Resort. Elio wasn’t sure exactlyhowChauncy got things done, but he sure as hell got them done. He had texted Elio a number for one of the lockers on the resort tennis court.
Leaving Rissa in the car parked in front of the resort office, Elio walked straight around to the lockers, found the key stuck underneath the one bearing the right number, opened it, and carried the packet back to the car.
He settled back into the driver’s seat and opened the bulging envelope, riffling through the papers and handing Rissa her documents—a birth certificate and driver’s license with her picture and the name Laura Presley. She studied them with a mixture of skepticism and awe.
“I can’t believe I have a forged government ID in my hand,” she murmured.
“Come on,” Elio said. “Don’t tell me you never tried to get into a bar or buy a drink with a fake ID before you were twenty-one?”
“Never,” Rissa said. “I was a good girl.” She said it somewhat hollowly, and Elio wasn’t sure if it was because it wasn’t true or because she was mourning the loss of her good-girl status. He had to admit that his influence changed her trajectory in that regard. He wondered how much she regretted it now—and how much she would regret it if all of this didn’t turn out the way he hoped.
The thought brought a pit to his stomach. He didn’t want Rissa to suffer due to helping him.
She won’t have to,he assured himself.You’re going to find out who’s actually to blame for all of this and clear your name—and thus, her name—entirely.
“Well, now you not only have a fake ID,” he said, attempting a jovial tone. “You also have a fake fiancé.” He held up his own ID, which bore the name Brad Vrotsos. Then, his heart beating a bit more quickly for some reason, he pulled out the small velvet box he had asked Chauncy to include.
I hope the guy has good taste in jewelry.
“What’s this?” Rissa asked, hesitantly accepting the box he handed to her.
“We’re newly engaged, remember?” Elio said. “No one is going to believe that without an engagement ring.”
Rissa’s mouth dropped open as her eyes bounced from the box to his face and then back. Then, slowly, she opened the box. Elio watched her, feeling his shoulders relax when her face melted into an expression of utter delight.
“Oh, it’s so pretty,” she breathed. She spun the box around for him to see. The ring was a white gold band with a large, square diamond as the central setting and a sprinkle of smaller diamonds swirling down from both sides of it. Elio was impressed.
“I don’t know,” Rissa said. “I don’t know if I can—”
Not sure he wanted to hear what she had to say next, Elio took the ring box from her, popped the ring out, and grabbed her left hand. Donning a dramatic face to help her relax, he said, “Dear Laura Presley, love of my life, will you do me the great honor of promising to become my wife? Please say yes, please say yes, please say yes. . .”
As he chanted the words pleadingly, he slipped the ring onto her fourth finger. It was only a little loose.
Rissa laughed, as he had hoped she would. She held up her hand to inspect the sparkling band. Once again, Elio felt that strange patter of his heart, and his stomach flipped a little. He had never expected to be in this situation with a woman—seriously or in jest. He always dated casually, never feeling for anyone what hethought people must feel for the partners they asked to marry them.
But there was something about Rissa that made him think that if he was ever to have those feelings, they would be for her. For better or worse. He already felt a sense of loyalty to her, what some might even call a sense of commitment. It was unlike anything he had felt with anyone else.
Commitment to not ruin her life,he reminded himself.To keep her safe because it’s your fault she’s in this situation. It’s nothing more than that.
“Very well, my dear,” Rissa paused to glance again at his fake ID, “My dear, Brad. I give thee my pledge.”
