Nicole Edwards - Entrusted

It didn’t help that he’d spent most of the past weekend in their newly constructed offices in Florida, assisting their director of sales with getting things set up. While he’d been doing that, another weekend had come and gone.

Of course, working twenty-four/seven was his fault entirely. His life now revolved around work. And there was no one to blame but himself.

Rather than head home when his plane had returned him safely back to Texas yesterday afternoon, Elijah had made the mistake of going into the office. After spending several hours on the phone – on a Sunday – Elijah had finally had enough. His overdue bout with frustration had led him to Devotion and ultimately to meeting – although not officially – Samantha McCoy.

Fuck. The memory of what he’d seen last night jolted him, at once reviving his mood.

After the day he’d just had, part of him wanted to head home and call it a night. The other part of him was interested in something else entirely.

Then again, he wasn’t up to being alone at the moment.

Not tonight.

Rather than dwell on going home to a cold, lonely house, he opted to look on the bright side. It wasn’t an easy task for him, but he’d been attempting to do just that for the last few years.

The first positive: he should’ve been on another airplane, several hours into a twenty-hour flight, but luckily, the spur of the moment trip that would’ve taken him out of the country that morning had been cancelled at the last minute.

Being that he was a senior director for the global sales division of Virtual Impact, Inc., an industry leader in storage and server virtualization, Elijah was used to odd hours, impromptu trips out of the country, and yes, plenty of high drama.

For whatever reason, he had been granted a reprieve. At least for today. Which meant tonight, he was looking to go off the grid for a few hours. And yes, he had a place in mind.

Tomorrow would be here soon enough, so tonight, he had plans. Another thing to look forward to.

He was pulling out of the parking garage and onto the dark narrow road that would take him to the highway when his cell phone rang.

His car’s Bluetooth read off the number and he hit the talk button as soon as he recognized it. “Hello,” he greeted.

“I got your message,” Logan McCoy said, forgoing any pleasantries. Elijah was quite used to the American custom of getting right to the point by now, so it didn’t bother him.

“Thanks for calling me back,” Elijah said, his attention on the road in front of him. “Apologizing to your voicemail had seemed inappropriate.”

“Apologize?”

“Yeah. For disappearing on you last night,” Elijah stated bluntly. There was no need to beat around the bush; Elijah knew as well as Logan that his disappearance after that scene had been rude.

“What the fuck happened?” Logan asked, just as brusquely.

He’d lost his nerve, that’s what had happened. He had seen Samantha McCoy for the very first time and he’d been at a loss. It had nothing to do with the fact that she’d been restrained in a swing, being fucked into oblivion by her husband either. It had been what he’d seen in her eyes that had blindsided him.

“I fucked up,” he told Logan now, going for the truth.

“I took your disappearance to mean you weren’t interested.”

“Oh, I’m interested,” Elijah sighed heavily. A little too much.

“Funny way of showing it.”

“Again, I apologize. I just… I hadn’t expected that.”

“What? To find me fucking my wife?”

Elijah laughed, without an ounce of humor. There had been nothing remotely funny about what he’d witnessed last night. It had been intense, but not at all humorous.

“Explain it to me, Penn. The last thing I’m interested in is having my wife hurt. Do you understand me?”

“Loud and clear,” Elijah answered candidly. “I have no excuse. I… panicked. But I’d like to apologize to Samantha. Tonight.”

Logan’s heavy sigh gave Elijah a smidgen of hope. He was the first to admit that second chances were tough to come by.

“Yeah, you mentioned you were going to Devotion tonight,” Logan retorted.

Elijah had mentioned it on the voicemail he’d left Logan early that morning. It was an attempt to make amends for being a coward last night.

“Does this mean that I’ll see you and Samantha tonight?” Elijah asked.

“You will.” Logan’s voice was firm and confident, but Elijah heard something else in the man’s tone.

“But?” he encouraged, waiting patiently for what was to come.

“I’m not putting her through that again. You need to figure out if this is what you want before you show up.” There was a brief pause before Logan continued. “As it was, Sam asked about you. She’d seen us talking earlier in the evening. She’s not stupid, Elijah. She knew I had something planned.”

Elijah had met Logan last week during his first visit to X-hale , an upscale cigar bar owned by Xander Boone. An off the cuff invitation from Trent Ramsey, a man Elijah had known for many years after having met him in a hotel bar of all places, had sparked Elijah’s interest. It went without saying that Elijah had been curious enough to attend.

“Understood. I’d very much like to meet her,” Elijah said through clenched teeth. He could own up to his mistakes and even handle a dressing down when necessary, but it wasn’t easy. He had to remind himself that Logan had a damn good reason for being pissed off.

“We’ll be heading that direction in about an hour and a half,” Logan finally said. “I’ll need to give Sam time to get ready.”

“I’ll find you when I get there,” Elijah informed him casually. “If you’re busy, I’ll wait.”

“I’ll keep my eye out for you. Oh, and Elijah,” Logan lowered his voice, “don’t fuck this up again.”

With that, the call ended.

Although they had never met face to face until last week, Elijah had heard of Logan McCoy. According to Logan, the rumor mill ran both ways, especially in their industry. In fact, XTX was a very loyal customer and Logan’s name was mentioned frequently when it came to their business. However, Elijah had not been privy to the sort of information he had learned about the highly respected man after their first introduction. And the info he had obtained wasn’t just rumor or speculation.

It came straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.

After Xander had called Elijah out about his preference for threesomes that night, Elijah had shared a different sort of conversation with Logan.

After they had left X-hale .

It had been quite interesting and truthfully, it had left Elijah anticipating their next chance encounter. He hadn’t expected to see Logan and Samantha so soon after that conversation, but his change of plans on Sunday had prompted him to contact Logan rather than put it off.

He had been given a chance at something he was certainly interested in and he had failed. Knowing Logan’s reputation, Elijah hadn’t actually expected a second chance after he had disappeared on them last night. When he woke up that morning, he had thought he had some time to think it through before he contacted Logan again.

Then he found out that his next trip had been cancelled.

The moment he learned about his change of plans, Elijah had manned up and placed the call. Unfortunately, he had been greeted by Logan’s voicemail. He wasn’t quite sure what to expect from Logan, or if the man would even call him back, but now that Elijah had apologized, he felt a measure of relief.

When he pulled into his driveway several minutes later, he didn’t bother glancing around at the exterior of his single story brick house. He knew what he would find if he did. The yard was immaculate, the shrubbery and the grass kept trimmed and neat. There were several trees and well-placed lights along the driveway and that was usually all he noticed, if even that. Elijah paid a company to maintain his yard weekly, mainly because he didn’t care enough to deal with it.