Naked by Kelly Favor Read Free Book Online Page A

put it in your glove compartment.”
    “I’ve got plenty of money,” he told her, “and I’m pretty sure you don’t. You should save it for Florida.”
    “I can’t let you keep paying for me.”
    “What were you studying?” he said, as they left the gas station. He handed her a coffee and stretched, his shirt pulling up and revealing a flat, washboard stomach with six-pack abs.
    She tried to avert her gaze but couldn’t help but stare.
    “Hello?” he asked.
    “Huh?”
    “What were you studying at Cambridge? Were you going to be a doctor or something?”
    “I was studying sociology.”
    “What’s the good for?” he said.
    “What does that mean?”
    “Like, what would you do for a job after college?”
    She shrugged and took a small sip of her coffee. It was hot and good. “I don’t know. Supposedly the FBI likes hiring people from that field. Maybe I’ll track serial killers or something.” She smiled to show she was joking.
    “Well, when you get a job with the FBI someday, you can pay me back. But for now, just think of it as a long-term loan.”
    “I can’t—”
    “Hey,” he said softly, putting a hand on her shoulder. “I know I’m not always the easiest person to get along with. Just let me pay for the trip, okay?”
    She nodded slowly, relishing the way his hand felt on her shoulder, glad that they weren’t fighting anymore. She wanted him to stay that way for just a little while longer—and she’d probably have agreed to anything to make him do so. “Okay.”
    “You can always pay it forward,” he said. “Help somebody else out who needs it sometime.”
    A moment later, he pulled his hand away.
    Once they were back in the SUV, Elijah was about to pull out of the parking lot when his cell began buzzing. He impatiently grabbed it from his pant’s pocket and stared at it. He had a look of concern, or maybe anger, on his face. “Damn it,” he muttered. He started furiously texting.
    “Everything okay?” she asked.
    He didn’t respond. He finished texting and then his phone started ringing.
    Elijah’s expression darkened. Finally, after waiting for a few rings, he answered.
    “Yeah.” His tone of voice was different than what she was used to hearing from him—
    deeper, more aggressive. He listened to whatever the person was saying on the other end of the phone. “You know I can’t do that,” he said. “Because.” Pause. “Because I’m done, that’s why.” Another long pause. He was staring down, his eyes distant as he listened to whatever was being said. His jaw flexed and the muscle twitched, like a pulse. “Listen to me,” he said, his voice an intense whisper. “No, listen to me. If I see you again, it’s not going to be pretty. Understand? Just go on back to the rest of the boys and tell them my message. I’m done. Stop calling me, stop texting me, don’t look for me. If you find me, I can guarantee you’ll wish you didn’t.” And then he took the phone away from his ear and hit the end button.
    As they pulled back onto the highway, Caelyn could feel the tension radiating off of Elijah like heat. His whole body gave off a kind of dark, violent energy—and yet it didn’t scare her for some reason.
    She knew that what he was feeling had nothing at all to do with her. Still. She knew better than to ask him what that call had been about.
    After they’d been driving again for a few minutes, his shoulders visibly relaxed.
    He glanced over at her. “I didn’t want you to have to hear that,” he said.
    “It’s okay, I don’t mind,” she told him.
    He smiled. “I doubt the kind of guys you’re used to hanging around have those kinds of conversations.”
    She thought of Jayson and winced inwardly. That conversation was nothing compared to what she’d had to deal with from the guy she’d been hanging around with.
    “I think you have a strange idea about people that I spend time with. You seem to think that everyone who goes to a preppy school is just