Page 394 of Tormented Billionaire Romance Series

“My sister Leanna,” I said, “this is Elijah Bennett.”

“Nice to meet you,” said Elijah.

“Oh…oh, my…” she reacted, no doubt thinking my descriptions of Elijah to her had not done him justice.

“Welcome, son,” said my father, holding out his hand.

And I felt the greatest swelling of pride in my heart as Elijah took my father’s hand. “Elijah, this is my father, Pastor Aaron Gordon.”

“It’s a pleasure, Sir,” said Elijah, smiling respectfully at my father.

“I’m sure the pleasure is ours,” said Daddy. “Thanks to you, my daughter has thrived since leaving home. We owe that to you.”

Elijah put an arm around me and said, “We’ve all been thriving since Corinne joined the company.” He looked sweetly at me and added, “I’ve been thriving, too, in other ways.”

Daddy laughed. “Come on in the house, you two. We were just finishing up getting dinner ready when we heard you pull up.”

Together, the four of us walked up the front steps to the house, looking forward to a good meal and to my family getting to know my new…my new…

My new what? Boss? Boyfriend? Fiancé? What was Elijah to me? Who were we to each other? I should know that. Why didn’t I know that? What kind of relationship did we have? Who was it that I had brought home to meet my father and my sister?

Who? Who? Who…

Daddy opened the front door and ushered us all inside. But, past the door were not the front hall and living room that I knew so well, the downstairs of the home where I’d grown up. Beyond that familiar threshold was a vast, deep, dark space; a space of unknowns, a space filled with questions. Questions about Elijah. Questions about myself. Questions, questions…

For the first time in my life, I was unsure about entering my own house. But in the warmth of my father’s smile, with the warmth of Elijah’s hand holding mine, I stepped forward into that dark, empty space where all the questions were. And, the darkness was all I could see and the questions were all I could feel. Darkness and questions…

I jolted awake as if I’d grabbed a live wire at the abrupt, jangling sound of my text tone. For a minute, I lay on the couch, blinking, gasping, disoriented, having been hurled out of my dream and into the reality of my trilling phone. Settling and calming myself, I took the phone from my pocket and looked at the ID.

It was Elijah.

His message said,Doing anything today? Want to meet up?

It made me think the dream was prescient, somehow, as if my unconscious mind knew before I did that I’d be hearing from him.

I’d love to,I texted back.Where?

Could I come over to your place?

The idea of it made me sit upright on the couch, my heart quickening, my eyes widening. My boss — mybillionaireboss — was asking if he could come over to my apartment.What could I say to that?I wondered.

Not your place?I texted back.

I’d like to see where you live. I’ll bet it’s nice.

Reading that, I looked around at my decidedly middle-class surroundings and shook my head with a bemused sort of grin.Nice,he guessed. As a man with a billion dollars to his name, Elijah must have an entirely different scale for the meaning ofnicethan I had.

Wanting anything else to say, I replied,Well, I did just clean it up.

Perfect,he said.Let me come over. We can decide what we want to do.

Having just said I would love to see him, I couldn’t very well take it back now.How would that look?

So, I just said,Okay. You have the address?

Got it in the HR spreadsheet on my computer. See you in a bit.

And with that, it was all set. I lowered the phone, gulped hard, and took both a deep breath and another look around my freshly cleaned but in no way wealthy-looking apartment. My very wealthy boss was coming over.

---