Wrong by Kelly Favor

WRONG (NAKED, BOOK 4)
    by Kelly Favor
    © WRONG. 2013, all rights reserved.
    Caelyn tried to understand was Elijah had just said to her. His lips had moved, he’d spoken words, but she couldn’t seem to make sense of them.
    “What?” she said, and her voice sounded far away, as if coming from somewhere else.
    “You need to get out of here,” Elijah told her, as he closed the door behind him and immediately began stripping off his bloody clothing.
    Caelyn was still standing beside the kitchen table. In fact, she was still holding her cup of coffee, as if Elijah might decide to sit down and join her at the table for a morning chat. She watched as he stepped out of his pants. He was now wearing only his boxer shorts, standing just inside the doorway of the apartment.
    His legs were muscular and powerful, like a sprinter. His torso and shoulders were perfectly sculpted. Everything about him was like a statue—the body of a god—
    come to life.
    Except for the blood. Splotches of blood were still visible on his forearms, his hands, even his neck, and there was a smear of red on one cheek.
    It suddenly occurred to Caelyn that he’d gone out and murdered someone, and that’s why he was bloody and ordering her to leave the apartment. He’d killed a man—
    maybe more than one man.
    Or perhaps Elijah was hurt. She didn’t see any wounds, but all of that blood…
    The thought of him being injured jolted her out of her strangely unreactive state.
    She sprang into motion, putting her cup down and running towards him. “What happened?” she asked. “Are you hurt?”
    Elijah shook his head. “No.” He held out a hand for her to stop. “I don’t want you getting any blood on you.”
    She stopped and looked at him. “Tell me what’s going on.”
    “I need you to get me a garbage bag from under the sink, and some paper towels,”
    was all he said. His expression was neutral, his voice firm and calm.
    Caelyn felt confused. “What happened, Elijah?”
    “Just get me what I asked for.”
    She turned and went back to the kitchen, returning to the entrance of the apartment, where Elijah was standing beside the pile of bloody clothes. When she got within a couple of feet, he reached out and took the garbage bag and paper towels from her.
    Then he knelt down and scooped the clothes into the trash bag in one quick motion. After that, he cleaned the worst of the blood from his hands and arms using the paper towels.
    Standing up, Elijah finally turned his attention to her once more. “I know you’re scared and I get that you want to know what happened. But there’s no point in telling you any of it. You need to get out of here, Caelyn.”
    “I’m not leaving you,” she said, and only as the words left her mouth did she realize how much she meant them.
    Elijah smiled a little at that. “I wish it was as simple as us wanting to be together,” he told her.
    “It is that simple.”
    “No,” he said, shaking his head, “it’s really not.”
    “Tell me why you’re kicking me out.” She felt the tears starting to burn her eyes and blinked rapidly, frustrated at her own weakness. But she was even more frustrated with Elijah’s heartlessness.
    “I’m not kicking you out.” He picked up the trash bag and tied it.
    “Look at me, Elijah.”
    He looked at her and his eyes were pained, but his expression was determined.
    “This is what needs to happen. If there was any other way—“
    “Of course there’s another way.” Her voice was choked.
    “If you stay here with me, something bad will happen to you. And I’m not going to let anything bad happen to you.”
    “Then we can leave together, go to a motel, somewhere far away from here.”
    He shook his head slowly. “It’s time for you to go now.”
    “Will I see you again?”
    He turned away from her then, walking to the bedroom as she followed behind him, desperate for answers, clinging to the slim hope that she could convince him to change his mind.
    Elijah put