Elijah: The Boss's Gift (4 page)

“How much?”
Cherry asked. She’d be Mindy’s friend for free, but she had to think of
her life past this.

“I’ll pay you fifteen hundred a week.”

She licked her lips.
“Deal.”
With fifteen hundred a week she could put away a great deal of money for a long
time and she’d be set to do with her life what she wanted.

“You’re not going to negotiate.”

“No. I know a good deal when I see one.”

His gaze ran down her body, and the heat in his gaze
twisted her gut inside. She didn’t like the way he looked at her.

“I have a condition,” she said.

“Which is?” he asked.

“I don’t want to have sex with you.” Even as she said
the words, she wished she hadn’t said anything.

“I’ve not asked for sex.”

“I know that look. You want to have sex.”

Elijah stood and kept a grip on her wrist. He tugged
her close, cupping her cheek. Her pussy was slick with cream.

“Baby, I’ve got women waiting for me to fuck them. I’m
not into force of any kind. I can handle your one condition.” He released her
hand. “I’ll leave you out some sweats, and tomorrow Mindy will take you
shopping.

Elijah left the room before she could say anything
more. Rubbing her hand where he held her, Cherry wondered what the hell she was
doing.

Chapter Three

Three days later Elijah sat in Caleb and Henry’s
office at Ecstasy. The nightclub was the best club within the city and where a
lot of business went down. There were girls toward the back that Henry and
Caleb took care of, making sure none of the clients got brutal with the girls. They
could fuck them but not harm them in anyway.

“This is all you could find?” Elijah asked.

“She’s not done anything wrong. Her mother died at a
young age, and when the doctors realized she was alone, they sent her to a
foster home. Whoever this Cherry was, she didn’t have the best luck in life.
Her mother was a whore, and there are even some social work reports where they
suspected abuse but could never prove it. Cherry left one foster home after she
broke a guy’s nose but wouldn’t say why. Until she was eighteen she went from
one foster home to another until she finally left. She’s been working ever
since and studying. The only thing I could really find that was interesting was
the use of her library card. She likes to read or study.” Caleb tapped his
fingers on the desk.

This was not the kind of stuff he wanted to be
thinking about when it came to Cherry. She lived a hard life. He’d dealt with
crime his whole life, but Mindy lived a good one. Elijah made sure she had
everything her heart desired. She’d asked him once to marry someone, but he’d
refused. It was the only thing he couldn’t give her.

“What’s her address?” Elijah flicked through the file.

“It’s all there. You’ve just got to look for it.”

“Is this anything we’ve got to be worried about?”
Henry asked.

“No. This is personal.”

“Not many men get women as gifts.”

“Not many men are me.” Elijah stood, shaking each
man’s hand. “I’ll see you in a week when the shipment is due.”

“Your excuse for not coming on Sunday was lame,” Caleb
said, sitting back. “Donna has extended her invitation to this Sunday.”

Mindy and Cherry had gone out shopping on Saturday and
both made arrangements to cook the day after. He couldn’t say no to his little
girl and had called Caleb to let him know he wouldn’t make it.

“Fine.”

“You can bring Mindy and your gift,” Caleb said.

Shaking his head, he made his way out of the office.
John was with him today, driving him around. Elijah hired the best men in the
business, and John was loyal.

“Mindy got to school, sir. I’ve just had Tom update
me.”

“Excellent. Cherry?”

“She’s on her way back to your house. There was no
argument or even any look that she was going to disappear,” John said.

Flicking through the file he looked at her address. He
gave John the address and ordered to be taken there.

John turned the car around, heading in the direction
that he’d given.

Glancing through the file he saw she’d had a medical checkup
at eighteen before she left her foster home. She’d been clear of anything.
Caleb and Henry were thorough. Her mother had died of a drug overdose. He felt
sorry for the young girl that Cherry once was. No one even noticed a young girl
walking around the hospital with no one to take care of her. She moved from
foster homes each with a new excuse. He saw that Cherry didn’t stay in all that
long in the homes with boys who were older. There were pictures included from
high school. He looked through them all, realizing Cherry was indeed a
survivor. She’d been through hell and was still determined to live her life.

“We’re here, sir,” John said. He looked up to see they
were in a rundown part of the city. Climbing out of the car, he buttoned up his
jacket as some of the men waiting around on the apartment steps looked him
over. John climbed out of the car putting on some shades.

“I wouldn’t think about it,” Elijah said, showing them
his piece. They were all carrying weapons, but for some reason a man in a suit
always made them keep their distance.

They held their hands up, backing away. Clearly neither
of them wanted to get into shit with him.

Stepping up the apartment doors, he opened the door
without needing permission to do so. There was no security. Anyone could come
and go as they pleased. He saw Cherry’s name was on the fourth floor.

Climbing up the steps, the scent of decay and damp hit
him.

“Damn, boss, there’s fucking shit in the corner,” John
said.

He ignored John as he walked up the steps. There was
arguing on every floor, yells, screams, babies crying. All of it depressed him
as he stood outside of Cherry’s door.

Kicking out, the door opened with ease, and he didn’t
like it. When he entered, he closed the door once John was inside and saw that
she had ten different locks on the inside. She would only be able to lock it
once from the outside. Cherry was more interested in her safety than her stuff.
Turning around, he smelled the damp, but she’d tried to cover it up with
cleaning. Every side was spotless. There was no a hint of damp, but the
building was in need of care. The space was small, and once he stood in the
sitting room he saw the tiny kitchen. Turning in full circle he saw the
bathroom and her bedroom. It was so small. The bedroom Mindy had showed Cherry
was bigger than the whole apartment.

On the floor beside him was a pile of books. Opening
them up, he saw the library sticker inside.

“Pack this up. I’m taking it with me.”

He left the sitting room, going through to her
bedroom. She had a suitcase open on the floor. There was another maid’s
uniform, neatly folded. Beside it were three shirts of the same color along
with two pairs of jeans. There was no sign of other clothing. On the bed lay
two bras and some panties. She didn’t have anything to her name. The bed was a
mattress on the floor. The sight was pitiful.

A survivor.

Cherry was a survivor. She did what she had to do in
order to live. He didn’t like what he saw. In fact, he hated the sight of her
constantly struggling.

Elijah packed away her meager belongings, going back
to the kitchen. He found a cookbook, and when he opened the fridge inside lay a
chicken breast, cheese, milk, and butter. Not anything else. The smells let him
know everything was off.

Packing away the few books on the counter, he left her
apartment. This was her old life, and he wasn’t going to let her come back.
Fifteen hundred a week was riches to her. Elijah was willing to go up to three
thousand, but she’d settled at his first offer.

Heading downstairs, he packed her stuff in the back of
the car.

“Take me home.”

John didn’t argue as Elijah picked up Cherry’s folder.

She was studying to be a nurse. All of her money was
going into her studies. He saw some of her grades had fallen. She didn’t have a
lot of time to study, he imagined. He thought about Bethan. Her sweetness had
been a complete contrast to him. She had needed him in everything. She had been
a virgin when he took her to bed. The love he had for her would never die.

Cherry was nothing like his late wife. She was
independent and had fought for everything she now had. He didn’t know what to
make of her.

Rubbing at his temples, he wondered what to do.

She made him ache to fuck. He’d not been to any of the
women he usually called. None of them were even remotely close to Cherry in
looks.

Blowing out a breath, he slammed the file he had on
her closed. He didn’t like the feelings stirring inside him. Elijah wanted her.
He wanted to fuck her, slam his dick so hard inside her tight pussy that she
begged him to not stop.

When his house came into view, he saw the car he’d
given to Cherry to take his daughter to school. Mindy was looking for a mother,
and she was trying to get Cherry to play the role. It didn’t seem to matter to
Mindy that Cherry was only five years older or that she was not dating him.

Climbing out of the car, he carried her belongings
inside his home. Closing the door, he dismissed John once he put the pile of
books inside the door.

Cherry appeared at the top of the stairs. She wore a
pair of jeans and a red shirt. Her blonde hair was curled and hung around her
body.

“I thought I heard someone,” she said, moving
downstairs.

The jeans put every single one of her curves on
display. She turned him on, and that for Elijah was dangerous.

****

What did he have? Cherry recognized the suitcase in
his arms. Beside him were the library books she’d been studying. In his other
hand, he held a file that wasn’t all that thick. She walked down the last of
the steps, licking her dry lips. Cherry had been cleaning her bathroom when she
heard the car pull up. She’d watched him climb out of his car. When she woke up
that morning, he’d not even been around. Mindy didn’t seem to mind. His
daughter was clearly used to being alone a lot.

He lifted the file. “Your life has been fucking shit.”

She paused on the last step. Looking at the file, she
didn’t bother to reach out for it.

“You checked up on me?”

“Cherry Morgan.
Everything is there in the file for everyone to see.”

“All you had to do was ask if you wanted to know more
about me. I wouldn’t have lied.” She folded her arms over her chest to glare at
him. Her life hadn’t been the best, but it had been her life.

“Your mother died.”

“You read that.”

“She had a pimp, and there was suspected abuse. You
were young. Did she use you to earn money?” Elijah asked.

Cherry tensed. She’d never had anyone be so blunt with
her. No one cared enough to ask her about her past.

“My mother did what she had to in order to earn
money.” She gripped her arms tighter, sinking nails into her skin.

“What did she do?”

He placed the case on the floor and the file on the
counter where he usually stored his keys.

“I don’t see why this is anyone’s business.”

“You’re living in my house. I demand answers.” He
stood waiting. No one told him no, and she saw it as she looked at him.

“Some of the men who came to her for sex, liked to
touch. She gave me to them to get more money. Sometimes it wasn’t so bad. They
just liked to touch my hair. Some liked a hell of a lot more. I dealt with it.”

He cursed, and she flinched from the anger in his
voice.

“What else?”

“Nothing else.”

“The foster
homes.
Why didn’t any of them stick?” he asked.

“I’ve never been a great person with being used as a
sex object. One of the families I was sent to had older boys who didn’t think I
had the right to say no. Not only did I say no, I made sure they paid for
touching me.”

She gripped her arms a little tighter. All of those
memories were in the past.

“Are you a virgin?” Elijah asked.

Cherry burst out laughing, shaking her head. “You’ve
got no chance. I fought a lot of them, but I didn’t always win.”

“You were raped?”

She raised a brow. “I learned how to deal with it.”

“You shouldn’t have to learn how to do anything.”

“There’s no need to get angry. This happened years
ago. No one has touched me in two years.” She didn’t understand why he was angry.
“You should be happy. Mindy doesn’t have to go through any of that shit.”

He shook his head. “No, it doesn’t make me feel
better.”