WILD (Naked, Book 3) Read Free Page A

how attracted she was to him, and him telling her that he would wait made her not want to wait another second.
    But then he pulled away, smiling at her. “You seem pretty feisty to me,” he joked.
    Caelyn blushed at how obvious her physical attraction to him was. She walked away from him then, unable to let him see her vulnerability. “So, now the only problem is I have absolutely nothing. No clothes, no toothbrush, no anything.”
    “Come on,” Elijah said, walking past her with a purpose.
    “Where are we going?”
    “There’s a Walmart that’s open twenty-four hours. It’s not far away.”
    “I don’t even have any money,” she told him.
    He turned and stared at her with a half-smile. “I got this one, kid.”
    “Stop calling me kid.”
    “When you have enough money to pay for your own shit, I’ll stop calling you kid.
    Deal?” He held out his hand as if to shake on it.
    Now it was Caelyn’s turn to brush past him, pretending she was angry. In fact, she couldn’t have been any less angry. She felt elated being with him. Elijah was perfect, he was amazing, and he was with here. No more waiting.
    She smiled to herself as they left the apartment and headed for his truck and Walmart. Even going to Walmart was an adventure as long as she was with him. Elijah made everything fun again. The night was crisp and cool and full of possibilities.
    Caelyn felt like she’d finally begun to live, maybe for the first time ever. And maybe she wasn’t who anyone thought she was—not even who she had assumed herself to be.

    ***
    A couple of hours had gone by and they were home again.
    Caelyn had finally finished putting away the clothes and toiletries she’d gotten at Walmart. It had been expensive—she’d bought about a hundred dollars worth of stuff—
    enough to last her a few days. She would have to go and get more stuff from her dorm at some point, but she didn’t want to do it yet.
    She wasn’t ready for that. She wasn’t ready to face Alicia or Nellie anytime soon.
    Of course, she could probably choose to go at a time when they would most likely not be in their room, but there was always a chance one or both of them would be there unexpectedly.
    And before getting into her dorm room, she would first need to go back to her parents’ house and take back her purse and everything that was in—school ID, drivers license, keys, cash, credit cards. Right now she had only her phone and nothing else.
    But going home was even more frightening than going to her dorm room, so for now, she would just put that off as well. It could wait a few days if necessary.
    As she was thinking about those painful future encounters, she heard the bathroom door creaking open. Elijah had taken a shower while she did her unpacking.
    Now he came out of the bathroom with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist. Water droplets ran in rivulets down the firm, smooth skin of his chest and flat stomach as he moved gracefully across the room. His hair was still wet, too, and he ran a hand through it, grinning. “Damn, feels good to have a proper shower in my own apartment again,” he said.
    “Mind if I take one now?” she asked, averting her eyes from him.
    He stood in front of her, his bicep bulging as his arm flexed to grab a shirt from the closet. “Why would I mind?” he said. “It’s your bathroom as much as it is mine.”
    She smiled and shook her head. “Not exactly.”
    “Yes, exactly.”
    “Except I don’t pay rent, my name’s not on any lease—“
    “I don’t pay rent and my name’s not on any lease either,” he said. He grabbed a pair of jeans.
    When he turned around momentarily, she allowed herself to admire the curve of his butt beneath the towel and all that exposed skin he was showing. She imagined herself walking to where he stood, running her hands over his body, then forcing her fingers beneath the towel, and once that dropped to the floor…
    Elijah snapped his fingers a couple of times, as Caelyn