Not.
The.
Time.
Or.
Place.
“You need to eat, get ready for bed, and sleep. Once you’ve done that, you can make those calls. I’ll text Cole tonight let him know you’re safe. That’s enough for now.”
“Don’t tell them I’m still with you.”
He stilled at her words, not even a blink altering his features, like the matrix froze or something.
“Why not?”
“It’ll just cause more questions, I think? Ana will want Cole to bring her here since I doubt he’ll let her out of his sight with everything going on.”
“They will want to know where you are and that you’re safe.”
“I know,” she said, foregoing the food when her stomach rolled at the thought of having to face Ana so soon.
That should tell her everything, shouldn’t it? That she dreaded seeing Ana and talking to her best friend almost as much, maybemore,than she dreaded seeing Rhys. Because once that particular conversation was over, she imagined Rhys would have nothing to do with her from then on, and their lives wouldn’t cross paths again. But Ana? Ana would have to interact with Rhys at least occasionally seeing as how her boutique was in the hotel lobby of Rhys’s latest pet project.
“I’ll handle them,” Elias said softly. “Now eat. Your food is getting cold.”
“I’m not hungry anymore,” she said, feeling kind of sick again because of the rampant bombardment of fear, the future and all things disaster-like.
Elias leaned forward and plucked the fork from her hand, lifting a bite of egg to her mouth.
“You will eat, then sleep,” he said, holding her gaze.
A shock wave rolled through her before she quickly shut it down. She wasnotthat girl. She wasn’t going to leave one man and rebound with another in the same freaking day. Nope, not happening. Nope, nope, nope. Whatever it was she felt could be blamed entirely on the events of the day, her meteoric stress level, lack of food, and the emotional rollercoaster that still held her under water as it chugged along the ocean floor.
This? This was lack of air and nothing else.
But the fork approached, Elias’s gaze holding hers with a determined glint, and she parted her lips.
Good girl.
ChapterSix
She’s stillwithyou?”
Cole’s deep voice carried the sucker-punch of reality Elias knew awaited him if he and Quinley were recognized and seen together. “I couldn’t exactly leave her by the side of the road outside her parents’ gates with the reporters.”
Last night, Quinley had taken the fork from him after he’d fed her a single bite, sliding him a begrudging glare as she’d fed herself from then on. He’d remained in position and watched as she’d finished a little more than half of the plate. Good enough for that battle, he’d mused.
She’d gone to her room then, and other than a few thuds and the sound of water running as she made use of the bathroom, he hadn’t heard from her as he’d finished unloading the last of the groceries he’d brought with him, checked the locks once again, and turned in himself after shooting off a text to Cole.
Now up at his usual crack-of-dawn time, Elias was washing up last night’s dishes when Cole’s call came through.
Elias didn’t like waking to a mess in the sink, but after the day and the drive and witnessing Quinley’s internal battle and physical response, he’d been just as exhausted.
He tried to keep his voice down to give her some much-needed rest, but Cole’s frustration with him raised his own.
“You should’ve left her at Ana’s.”
