Free Owned by Him by Sam Crescent Page A

Elijah
stared down at his phone.
    Amber: Fine!
    Pocketing his cell, Elijah
started to make some plans. There was no way he was sitting through another one
of Amber’s dates. It was not going to happen again.

Chapter Eight
     
    Amber made her way through
the crowds to get to the café where Elijah wanted to meet. Her date last night
had been interesting, but she knew she was never going to date Dale again. He
was fun to be around, but there was no chemistry between them. The kiss they
shared was nice, but again, it was nothing exciting or exhilarating. Every
second she spent with Elijah was exhilarating, frustrating, and annoying.
Together they possessed heaps of emotions and chemistry.
    Even from his text she’d
been aching for him.
    She found Elijah sat,
reading a paper as she walked into the café.
    He put the paper down the
instant she approached the table.
    “You’re right on time ,” he said.
    Taking a seat, she watched
Elijah signal the waitress over. They both made an order for some coffee. She
wasn’t hungry for food and declined the offer.
    “Why did you want to meet
here?” she asked, flicking her hair off her shoulder.
    “This is our first date.”
    He reached across the table
taking her hand.
    “It’s the morning.” She
glanced around at the empty café.
    “In a few hours this place
would be heaving. I wanted to get a good seat and have some time together
before the chaos starts up.”
    Amber laughed. “You call
this a date?”
    “We’re together. I never
thought you wanted to date.”
    She stared at him. “You
didn’t want to date me.”
    “I’ve never really dated
anyone, Amber.”
    The waitress bought their
coffee and left without a word.
    “Have you, erm, have there
been a lot of women after me?” she asked.
    In all the years they’d been
together she’d never once thought to ask him about his other commitments with
other women.
    “No. Since the moment we
were first together there hasn’t been any other woman. You’re the only one I’ve
been with. Erika, the blonde, wasn’t anything. I never spoke to her after that
moment. Please, don’t think about her.”
    Amber nodded, not wanting to
think about the blonde. She was happy with the news about his lack of other
women. For the first time she felt awkward in his company.
    “This is why I don’t like to
date. There is always a lot of pressure to make everything perfect. When we’re
together, I feel the world moving, and I never want that feeling to end.”
    “Then why do you always walk
away?” she asked.
    “Because part of me was
always afraid of losing that feeling with you, and don’t forget, you walked
away as well.”
    “I know. What makes you
think now is different?” His words lifted her world and brought her down again
with a large crash.
    “We’ve been doing this for
over seven years, Amber. If we were going to fall, it would have happened.
Every time feels like the first. My world explodes when I’m with you. Even now,
holding your hand, I feel tingles like electricity shooting up my arm. I’ve
never felt this with anyone. I love you. I want to be with you, and I’ll date
you. I’ll do everything I have to in order to prove to you that I’m not going
away.”
    His grip tightened on her.
    “Oh, I’m also banning sex,”
he said.
    “What?”
    Elijah smiled. “I’ve made
myself a promise. I’m going to prove to you we can be together without
everything else. The sex is the best I’ve ever had, but for a long time, we’re
not going to have it. This is going to be about us getting to be together
without any other pressure.”
    “I’m not sure about that. I
like sex.”
    “Then you’ll love it when we
get back together after a short break. I’m not fucking you. I’m going to seduce
you without all the other crap.”
    She sipped at her coffee and
watched him. There was something different about him that she couldn’t put her
finger on. None of it made any sense to her. Why was Elijah adamant to