Elijah: The Boss's Gift Read Online Free PDF Page A

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