Devil In The Elevator: A Hartman Romance Read online

  Devil In

  The Elevator

  LAURA CHRISTOPHER

  Copyright © 2020 Laura Christopher

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN-13:9798674459149

  No part of this book may be reproduced In any form or by any electric, mechanical photocopying, recording or any other means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission

  The book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

  All songs on the playlist are the property of the sole copyright owners.

  Cover Designer:

  Laura Christopher

  Original Cover Image Photographer & Owner:

  SJJP via PIXABAY

  This book is dedicated to anyone that has ever had a dream they were too frightened to reach for. This is a public service announcement to tell you to grab it with both hands, you deserve it.

  Prologue

  MISSING PERSON

  Valentina Borroni

  The 28-year-old Italian American female was last seen leaving The Lilac Orchard Wine Bar in Manhattan, New York City on the evening of Wednesday, April 15th, shortly before six pm.

  She is fair-skinned, small frame, 5’ 5” and 95 lbs. She has wavy shoulder-length silver hair with bangs and green eyes. She was last seen wearing black skinny jeans, a Guns ’n’ Roses t-shirt, and white converse sneakers.

  $1,000 reward is being offered for information on the whereabouts of Valentina Borroni, an additional $5,000 reward for her safe return.

  Chapter One

  Valentina

  They say you can’t beat a California sunset and those people may be right, but my favorite thing about living in New York wasn’t the buzz of the city. It wasn’t the culture that poured out of every crevice. No, my favorite thing was the incredible views from the high-rise buildings. Especially when the sun is setting, it just looks so beautiful. The brilliant light would glow, bending around every building, hugging every curve.

  That is why I enjoyed gazing out of the large glass windows of The Lilac Orchard wine bar, watching the orange hues of the skyline while Allie, my best friend, who has been gone on her bathroom break just that little bit too long.

  Sipping the ice-cold beer in front of me, I was surprised when she finally returned to our table. Huffing and puffing away in annoyance?

  “What's up?” feeling my brow crease as she struggled to form any words in response to my question.

  Holding a single finger in the air, she just took several deep and calming breaths, still unable to answer me. Taking a gulp so big from her gin and tonic that it was almost a shot. Well, okay then.

  “Allie, what is it?” Probing again, but she just looked up at me with her big brown eyes. It was like she had just witnessed some kind of accident and was in shock.

  Wait, had she?

  I hadn’t heard anything unusual while she had been gone.

  Suddenly words began to pour from her mouth so fast I struggled to keep up. “The biggest, most arrogant prick I have ever had the displeasure of meeting just hit on me when I walked past the bar. I feel violated,” stifling a laugh, I continued to sip on my beer as she signaled for a refill from a server before proceeding with another huff. “And when I told him exactly that, he smirked at me, trying to be all smoldering and shit, and turned around saying that woman had offered to pay for that service, many times, but he’d do me a favor and do it for free, tonight.”

  Bursting out into a laugh, she grumbled, “Val, it was not funny.”

  “I don’t know, I’m finding it about fifty shades of funny right now” This of course only annoyed her further, her cheeks flamed, not in embarrassment but instead from rage.

  Shaking her head dramatically, she grumbled, “If it had been you, well... you probably would have just shoved your converse in his junk and walked away, not letting him say anything else.”

  She knew me well. “Yup,” I winked as she poked her tongue out in response. My eyes were glancing down at the white chucks I was currently wearing.

  “Can I get you anything else, ladies?” The server asked as he placed her new glass of gin and tonic on the table between us.

  “No, thank you,” I answered for the both of us as Allie proceeded to down the rest of her drink before picking the new one up and going to town on it. He quickly went to the next table, sensing that the blond sat before me was about a fraction of an inch from losing it. Maybe. Okay, knowing Allie the way I did, that was highly likely.

  “Oh god,” she groaned and looked down at her already half empty glass, a look of regret crossed her face. “Don’t look now, but he’s sitting down, at the table by the cheese plant you love,” shaking the half-full glass, making the ice clink against it. “I should have ordered two.”

  “You do realize telling someone not to look makes them instinctively want to look, and I do not love it, Allie, It just made me want to buy one for my own apartment” Was that a crime?

  “It's such a shame he is such an asshole because fuck me, look at him” conflict passed her features as she kept looking over my shoulder to this guy who one minute, she is calling an asshole and the next is saying he is hot. She was giving me whiplash.

  “Allie,” I hissed, “Do I look or not look?” She was seriously driving me mad.

  “Oh shit, sorry,” she laughed “you can look, he can’t see us unless he turns sideways, I don’t think.”

  Craning my head around over my shoulder, I had to ask, “Which one is it?” My eyes scanned over the array of men and women in the bar,

  “Navy suit, blonde hair, tanned, sexy as sin with that stubble on his face.”

  My eyes immediately found him sat in the corner with a very, very big guy. I’m talking about hitting the gym for seven hundred hours a day kind of big. The asshole, as Allie had named him, was indeed one of the hottest out of any of the men sat in this high-rise bar, undoubtedly. The navy, three-piece suit, screamed money. Actually, his whole being screamed money. Skin tanned a golden brown from what I am sure are his many vacations a year. Probably on a yacht in the south of France or something. A face, well the side I could see looked like a models, perfect bone structure and one of those jaws, as sharp as a blade that makes the girls swoon, with a scattering of a darker blond, maybe even a light brown stubble.

  “God,” she grumbled. “Maybe I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did and just let him do bad, bad things to me, Valentina” a sad sigh left her lips as she pouted, holding her chin up one hand.

  “Allie! You’re married.”

  “Oh, yeah,” she casually waved a hand in the air as if that was a normal thing to forget. For the love of God, this girl was hard work at times.

  “You are something else!” Shaking my head at my best friend. I must admit that I was curious about the two guys sat in the corner. There was just something about them, and it was not only because they were very, very good looking. No, there was something else that was in the air around them.

  “You love me.” Sighing, she dropped her now empty glass on the table between us, crunching an ice cube in her teeth.

  Squinting my eyes at her in mock disgust, I told her, “I’m not so sure. Sometimes I think that I must be crazy to put up with you.”

  “Seventeen years deep, baby, you’re stuck with me now, Val,” she snickered. The two of us had met in junior high and instantly became best friends. No matter what has happened over the years. No matter the drama, the relationships, the breakups, or even her marriage to one of the coolest guys I had ever met, Corey
could never change our friendship. She had always been the one constant in my life. Well, her, my parents, and my brother, Eduardo.

  “Talking of my darling husband, I need to get back to the apartment before he does, hide the evidence of our shopping.” Those brown eyes sparkled with the challenge of hiding it from him. I could count the number of times that had been successful on the one hand. What made me laugh more than anything about this was that Corey didn’t care about what Allie bought at all, no matter how much she splashed the cash. He would just roll his eyes to himself and kiss her on the forehead. So why she felt the need to hide it form him always confused me.

  “Your shopping, I don’t have anyone to hide anything from” Living alone these days had its perks. Many perks, actually.

  “One day, a man is going to sweep your little butt off those converse clad feet. I can feel it, Val.” Sighing, I stopped myself from listing the many times that it had gone wrong in the past.

  “Your crazy is showing again,” rolling my green eyes at her, I tapped one finger against the side of the beer bottle clasped between my hands.

  I had reserved myself to the fact that no man was ever going to sweep me off my feet, as Allie had put it. In all honesty, that didn’t bother me. I was very content in my life. I had good friends, a close family and my store. What else did I need? Not another man lying to me, that was for sure.

  “I’m going to pay the tab. Meet you in the lobby,” she kissed me on the forehead which let me know that those gins she had drank in almost a shot were going to her head, just a little. I also knew that meant I would be waiting for a full five to ten minutes, if not longer, because she would also be going to the bathroom, again, to reapply her makeup. This girl was a perfectionist and the complete opposite of me.

  Downing the last of my beer and sliding out of my seat, I cast one last glance over at the assholes table. He really was pretty to look at, and his companion wasn’t an eyesore either. As if he knew I was looking at him, the big guy, with his black hair and dimples, looked up and smiled right at me.

  Oh shit, I just got caught staring.

  Excellent.

  Turning away, my feet moved quickly towards the elevator to leave, escape. A heat was blooming on my face.

  Why did I always have to turn into a walking and talking idiot every damn time I was embarrassed?

  Pressing the button for the elevator, I waited, my left foot nervously tapping. Tap, Tap, Tap.

  A sudden shift in the air made me aware of another presence as someone came to a stop beside me. Instinctively my eyes glanced up and over to see who it was. Trying hard not to groan out loud, I quickly looked away again, the asshole. Brilliant.

  Just my luck that I’d end up being stuck sharing the elevator with him. Maybe I would end up kicking him in his junk as my best friend had predicted if he dared to say anything to me as he had to her. No, Allie was this blond bombshell, and I was the quirky girl who had a different hair color every other month, lived in skinny jeans, vintage band tees, and owned every color of Chuck Taylors ever made. This guy would not look twice at a girl like me.

  A ding signaled the elevator and as the doors opened, a couple holding hands exited with smiles on their faces, as though they had been up to no good before the doors had opened.

  “After you,” the asshole spoke. I needed to stop referring to him like that in my head before I said it out loud. His voice was rough and all man, but it also had a twang of something other than American in his accent. Almost British or Australian, maybe?

  “Thanks” was all I could say as my chucks squeaked on the marble tiles beneath them.

  As he pressed the button for the ground floor, my eyes watched his movements. Unable to move myself to push the button for the lobby, I found myself cringing as we started to descend. I would either have to walk back to the lobby from the underground parking garage or embarrass myself further and press the button when he gets out to go back up, just one lonely floor.

  The guy that he had been sitting with at the bar, the one with the dimples, had not joined him. It was just the two of us, alone in the elevator together, me and the asshole.

  “Hey,” his voice made me almost jump. I looked over, having not expected for him to speak to me. Oh, for the love of God. This was not fair. How could any man be this good looking? He had lips I kind of wanted to destroy and eyes. Jesus, he had these gray eyes that looked like a storm cloud, but with this hint of blue. Like the sky was trying to breakthrough. He was genuinely breathtaking.

  Unable to speak apparently, I just smiled up at him. He was easily over six feet tall and towered over my five-foot five frame.

  “I’m Noah,” he turned his body fully to me and stepped forwards, making me press even closer to the elevator's wall. He was almost caging me in like I was some kind of wild animal.

  “Val,” offering my name to him, I couldn’t make my eyes disconnect from his. It was as though they were in some kind of a trance in the sea of gray and blue.

  “Val?” His nose twitched as his mouth pulled to one side as if he had just tasted something terrible, “Really?”

  “Yeah, as in Valentina,” my voice came out like acid at his apparent distaste of my name. Oh god, Allie was right. This guy really was an asshole. Give me an average Joe any day. A guy with this kind of personality was enough to make me want to put my fist through his face, let alone my foot in his junk.

  “Feisty,” his beauty was outshone by the asshole inside of him, and the more he spoke, the more I wanted to hit him. “I like it,” winking he continued to look at me as if he was undressing me with his eyes.

  “Is there something wrong with my name,” asshole.

  “Meh” was all he said in response, shrugging just one shoulder. "Your name is not really important for this conversation.”

  What.The.Actual.Fuck.

  “You, you’re a fucking dick,” my voice sounded louder than I would have liked as the fists curled at my sides. Do not hit him, Valentina, there are probably cameras in here. The last thing you need right now is a lawsuit. His lawyers would wipe the floor with you. Deep breaths calm down.

  “And you don’t even know me yet,” the blue beneath the gray in his eyes sparkled. Almost like he was challenging me. Who the hell was this guy?

  “I don’t want to know you” again, the confidence in my voice was a lie. He was confusing every fiber of my being. How could someone who looks so good be so ugly when he spoke? I was a mix of being turned on and wanting to commit assault.

  “Now, now. I bet those little sneakers would look great on my floor beside my bed.”

  “They are converses, Chuck Taylors,” the correction only spurred him on, though. The air around us was thickening. Do not hit him, Valentina.

  “Calm down, Sneaks,” Sneaks?

  “Excuse you?” What the hell did he just call me?

  Rage was building up inside of me. I wanted to hit him. No, I needed to hit him, hard.

  Freaking ‘Sneaks’? Absolutely not.

  God, I was leaving a bar, but I think I needed another drink after this altercation. Shots sounded about right. Yes, lots of shots. I wonder if Allie would be up for a tequila and pizza night? We could banish Corey to his PlayStation or whatever it was he was playing these days.

  “What is it, do you think your god’s gift to women or something?” The scoff in my voice made his brow raise, not in annoyance, no this bastard liked it.

  “Oh, Sneaks, I know I am,” oh, please.

  “Fucking hell” My breath almost hitched in my throat as he smoldered, looking down at me. “You are the fucking Devil, Diablo.” Sorry, but I’m renaming him, Allie. He will no longer be known as merely ‘asshole’ but now Diablo, the fucking Devil.

  “Been called worse, to be fair,” why was that not a shock?

  Pressing a hand against the elevator wall right by the side of my head, he dipped his own lower, leaving mere inches between us. Our lips were in touching distance. Even if he was an asshole, I bet h
is kisses could make your toes curl. All I would have to do is move my head less than an inch and I could find out just how good they felt.

  Sexual tension rolled off him in waves and I was falling further into its depths. Until he opened his mouth that is, and the feeling of cold water being poured over me from the words that spilled from between those lips brought me right back to reality, with one hell of a bang.

  “Tell me, Sneaks,” his warm breath fanned my face, the smell of mint and vodka intoxicated me, “On a scale of one to ten, how much do you want me to screw you six ways of Sunday against this elevator wall right now?”

  My face must have been flushing a brighter red than it ever had before “Ze…zer…. zero” my speech was stuttered.