CHAPTER EIGHT
SAN FRANCISCO IS ONE of the most romantic cities in the world. There was something special about the city. It was fresh, modern, and enticing, in an old-school kind of way. Lucy still couldn’t quite believe she was really there with Elijah.
Elijah’s new program was launching tonight. He had spent months developing it and tweaking it to perfection, and it was finally ready for the big release.
The venue itself was a dream—an elegant hall that overlooked the city and the bay from the top of a hill. Lights flooded in from outside through the floor-to-ceiling windows and made everything look golden. The biggest names in health and wellness industries were here, all dressed to the nines. Everything glittered and sparkled, including Lucy, herself.
But nothing was as large and as luminous as Elijah himself. He was positively radiant. He looked like he just stepped off of a GQ magazine cover in his dark gray tuxedo. Lucy watched him with admiration. She desperately tried to keep it as professional as possible, but it was hard for her not to reach out and touch him when he looked that good.
Still, she was also there on business. Carey Wayland had assigned her to cover the event for Clean. It was her first big assignment outside of Los Angeles and Lucy was determined not to screw it up. She was excelling at work and was building up a name for herself. She was still blown away when people recognized her.
Their relationship was not a secret—they had decided early on that it would be a lot easier for everyone involved if they didn’t try to hide it. But she wasn’t known for just being Elijah Redford’s girlfriend. She was recognized for her work. Lucy had pretty much taken on Clean’s blog single-handedly, and her posts had become so popular that the editors gave her a regular column in the magazine.
After all the interviews were done for the night and the big event had switched from an elegant, frantic affair to a more subdued and yet always fancy after-party where everyone mingled, conversed, and generally enjoyed themselves, Lucy felt like she could finally let her hair down and relax.
Basking in the glory of the successful product launch, Elijah wanted to spend the rest of the night with Lucy by his side. When he found her, she was helping herself to a glass of champagne from one of the waiters. As a rule, she never drank when she had interviews to do, but this was her reward for wrapping up work.
He smiled widely at her, his blue eyes openly scanning her figure. Lucy was wearing a long elegant black gown with an open back. He pretty much devoured her with his eyes ever since he saw her in the dress. She loved the way he looked at her like that.
But when he walked up to her, she noticed he wasn’t alone. He was accompanied by a woman, who was tall and toned for her age with flowing salt and pepper grey hair and familiar piercing blue eyes.
“Lucy, I’d like you to meet my mother.”
Lucy’s stomach fell to the floor. At this point in her life and career, Lucy had gotten pretty good at juggling whatever curve ball might be tossed her way, but this was totally unexpected.
She flashed a polite smile at the woman and held out her hand. “Very nice to meet you, Mrs. Redford,” she said.
The woman shook her hand with a surprisingly vigorous shake. “Please,” she said, smiling. The dimples on her cheeks were nearly identical to her son’s. “Call me Dorothy.”
“Dorothy,” Lucy said. “It’s very nice to meet you.”
“You too, Lucy. I’m so excited to finally get to meet you. Elijah has told me so much about you. He just can’t stop talking about you.”
Lucy’s eyebrows shot up. She was surprised both by knowing that Elijah was gushing about her to his family and by Dorothy Redford’s candor.
“All good things, I hope,” she said.
Dorothy smiled. “The best. I hope you don’t mind that I crashed the party, but since I was apparently the inspiration for all of this, I thought I might come check it out.”
“Oh, not at all,” Lucy hurried to reassure. “It’s lovely to see you, really. Besides, it’s not my party,” she added with a wink.
“You’re not crashing it, Mom.” Elijah rolled his eyes at his mother. “I invited you.”
“Yes. Well, still,” Dorothy said as if making a point. She tossed her long lustrous mane of hair over her shoulder. “This is not my usual scene.” She looked around as if she still couldn’t believe where she was. Lucy could relate. “Anyway, I’d better walk around for a bit. Your father is going to call me tonight at the hotel begging me for details, so I’d best take in all that I can to give him a decent story. He wanted to be here,” she added for Lucy’s benefit, “but he was swamped with work at the hospital.”
“He’s a neurosurgeon,” Elijah offered. “He operates in Frankfurt.”
“Wow,” Lucy said, impressed. She had learned a lot about Elijah’s family, but for some reason his father’s occupation had never come up.
Dorothy said her goodbyes and disappeared into the crowd. For a woman whose lifestyle didn’t exactly include galas on a regular basis, she seemed incredibly confident and capable at mingling and working the crowd. Lucy envied her grace. Despite the fact that it was her job to interview people and get them to open up to her, she was never really comfortable talking with complete strangers.
As soon as Dorothy had walked away, Lucy turned around and shot Elijah a pointed glance.
“Your mother?” she all but cried, incredulously.
“What?” he said with mock innocence. “She’s cool. You seemed to like her.”
“Of course I like her,” Lucy said, “but that’s not the point. You could’ve warned me!”
He cringed. “Yeah, I know…I suppose I shouldn’t have sprung her on you like that. But I didn’t want you to get worked up over it ahead of time.”
She watched him closely and then found herself relenting. He looked very much like a kid, pretending to appear contrite after being caught doing something he shouldn’t have. She could never stay mad at him he had that look on his face, but then again, she could never stay mad at him, period.
“Well, for future reference, please keep in mind that I’d like some advance notice before meeting any other members of your family. Do you think you can do that?”
“Yes, my dear.” he apologized. He leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. “So, what do you think of the product launch party? Was it a success?”
“I think it’s great,” Lucy said. She was elated that he looked for her professional opinion. “You’ve done an excellent job with both the program and with the launch itself,”
“I think it went well,” he said. He smirked widely and he ran his lips surreptitiously along her neck and whispered in her ear, “Do you think I deserve a reward for all of my hard work?”
Lucy felt a shiver run up her spine. She murmured, “What kind of reward did you have in mind?”
“I want it now and here.” His voice was husky and low as it always got whenever he was aroused.
Lucy turned around and stared at him with a raised eyebrow. “Elijah,” she said in a deep whisper. “Surely you’re not thinking…?” she let the rest of the question hang in the air between them.
His smirk widened. “That’s exactly what I’m thinking.”
* * *
“We really shouldn’t be here,” Lucy giggled. There was a time not so long ago that giggling girls really grated on her nerves. But now she was one of them. It wasn’t until thing really started to work out with Elijah that Lucy found herself giggling, not just a little, but a lot.
“Says who?” Elijah swooped in to suck a love-bite onto the side of her neck.
Lucy gasped. “How am I going to cover that up?”
Elijah chuckled against her throat, the vibration of his lips against her skin sending shivers down the whole length of her spine. “So don’t cover it. Let everyone know you’re mine,” he growled.
Lucy shivered again. Throwing caution and professionalism to the wind, she grabbed him by the front of his jacket and pulled him into an empty stall in the pristine, fancy bathroom. They slammed the door shut but they were too focused on each other than to worry about privacy. Elijah was already pulling up her skirt so that he could get his fingers hooked under the elastic of her panties. He tugged them down impatiently and let them fall to her ankles. Lucy stepped out of them expertly.
Elijah grinned and leaned in to kiss her, his hands splayed on the cool metal of the wall with Lucy underneath him. She met him halfway and she took his mouth in a deep, heated kiss, wrapping one arm around his waist and tugging him close while her other hand fisted the short locks of his hair. The all-consuming craving they felt for each other ignited in an instant.
Lucy’s legs were bare underneath the long skirt of her gown, and Elijah reached down to run a hand along the smooth skin. Lucy balanced herself so that she could lift one leg up and wrap it around his waist.
“So bendy,” Elijah said, marveling at her dexterity, while leaving a trail of kisses against the side of her neck. His teeth nipped at the sensitive skin. “And wet!” he exclaimed with delight when his fingers found their way between her legs.
Lucy laughed and hit his chest with her fist. “Shut up, you beast and fuck me now!”
He looked deep into her eyes as he licked her juices from his fingers. He fumbled with the zipper of his trousers until he freed his cock. Lucy used the wall behind her to push herself further up and guided him inside of her.
Elijah slammed into her with abandon and she bit down hard on her bottom lip to keep from crying out in ecstasy. He thrust inside of her over and over and over again—raw and fast and passionate. Lucy leaned her head back against the wall and she closed her eyes, and she let him take her away to a place where nothing mattered and only the two of them existed. It was as if their bodies were made for each other. He knew exactly how to send her spiraling into a world of consecutive orgasms.
Despite their ever-present hunger for each other, they rarely got so rough and intense. But when they did, it was Lucy’s favorite thing on the whole planet. Elijah leaned in to kiss her neck even as he thrust in and out of her. Lucy’s hips moved in unison with his pelvis, and soon they were finding that familiar, intimate rhythm that only the two of them knew.
It was rough and quick, and she didn’t mind that it was over all too soon. They weren’t doing it to make it last. They were doing it to kill an urge, to tame the hunger. They climaxed in unison, as they so often did. When the explosion of ecstasy began to subside, Lucy wrapped her arms around Elijah and held him through the aftershocks of pleasure. It was oddly intimate considering they were in the stall of a public bathroom—a very fancy public bathroom, admittedly, but still a public bathroom.
“Oh God,” Lucy breathed as her bearings slowly returned—and coherent thought returned with them. “What if your mother walked in here now?”
Elijah made a sound that was halfway between a groan and a laugh. “Way to kill the mood, Lucy.”
She laughed too. “Sorry,” she said, although she really wasn’t.
She carefully unwrapped her leg from his waist and brought her high-heeled foot back to the ground. Just as carefully, he helped her find her balance and then carefully slid out of her. He zipped himself up and then retrieved her panties from the floor, holding them out to her with one forefinger.
“I believe these are yours.”
Lucy couldn’t help but smirk back. “Why thank you, sir”
She said as she leaned in to press a quick but heartfelt kiss to his lips. She slipped her panties back on, adjusted her bra, smoothed her skirt and hair, and prepared herself to walk out of the bathroom stall and back into the elegant hall that was still waiting for them.
“Wait,” Elijah said. He reached for her wrist.
Lucy froze and looked at him with a quizzical expression on her face. She lifted a blonde eyebrow. “Really, Elijah? Again? They’re going to send a search party.”
Elijah laughed. “No,” he said. “I’m not talking about that.”
“Then what? Why are we waiting?”
There was that serious look on his face again. She had an uncomfortable feeling in her stomach when he didn’t say anything for quite some time. Lucy huffed in exasperation.
“Elijah, say something. You’re freaking me out.”
“Give me a moment, okay?” he snapped at her. “I’ve never said this to anyone.”
“Said what?” Lucy was really beginning to worry now. “What is it, Elijah?”
Elijah took a very deep breath—so deep, instead, that it was a wonder he didn’t send himself into full hyperventilation. “Lucy, I love you.”
Lucy blinked and blinked again as she tried to make sense of what she had just heard. “What?”
“I love you,” Elijah said again. “I’m in love with you, Lucy Smith.”
He did that sometimes—call her by her first and last names, whenever he had something important to say to her. It was an odd habit, but Lucy had come to find it endearing.
“Well, that’s very good,” she said, staring deep into his blue eyes. “Because I love you too and I’ve been deeply in love with you for a while now.”
“Lucy Smith, you are my soul mate and I want to marry you.”
Lucy beamed at him. Her heart leapt in her chest. “Oh my God, Elijah!” She cried out. And that’s when the tears started rolling down her cheeks.
“Is that a yes? So you’ll marry me?”
“Yes, yes, yes… of course it is yes, Elijah! How could it be anything else?” Lucy was elated. She smiled so hard that her cheeks hurt, but in was the best possible way ever.
Relief swept over Elijah’s face. He wrapped his arms around Lucy’s waist and pulled her to him, and kissed her until they were both breathless.
* * *
The next night they flew back to Los Angeles. It was a short fight, but they were exhausted from all of the late-night after parties. Lucy looked over at Elijah. His eyes were closed and he slumped awkwardly in his seat against the window. Lucy reached over and gently pulled him to her. Without waking, he willingly let Lucy readjust his position. He settled in against her with his head resting in the crook of her neck. His breath tickled the exposed skin of her throat, but she didn’t mind. Lucy turned her head and looked over his shoulder outside the window. It was dark outside, she couldn’t see anything but the purple-black hue of the sky they were flying through. And yet the world had never seemed brighter to her.
She took her phone out of her pocket—it was set on airplane mode of course—and scrolled through the pictures Michael had sent her of Toby. He and Jeff were looking after the dog while Lucy was away. She couldn’t wait to see Toby, and Michael and Jeff. She couldn’t wait to tell them all about San Francisco. She also couldn’t wait to be back at work on Monday and she couldn’t wait to go back home.
She smiled as the thought entered her mind. It had almost been a year since she had left her hometown in Colorado for Los Angeles. She thought it would take a while for the big city to feel like home, but it didn’t. She had been surprised by life in the best possible way.
Her serenity didn’t come from the places she found herself in, whether by choice or circumstance. It came from the people around her. Her best friend was waiting for her in Los Angeles, the city they both called home now with his boyfriend, with whom he was madly in love with. Toby, her loving, wonderful dog was also waiting for her, probably more impatiently than anyone. And perhaps more importantly, the love of her life, her fiancé, was asleep next to her on the plane. She realized that it wasn’t about Los Angeles either, just like it wasn’t about San Francisco or Ojai. Home really is where the heart is.
The End