Scandalous Desires

Chapter 27

The two watched as their friend sat in the corner. Her facial expression was unforgiving as he spoke.

"He's gonna get those panties tonight. But not sure what'll happen in the morning," Russell said bluntly.

"Oh my god! Remind me not to let you drink rum anymore."

"Remind me to remind you that you're amazing…" he winked with the signature Elliot look. "And… lucky."

"Lucky?" Micah glanced back over to Melissa and her hottie. She was no longer in her standoffish pose but more neutral and she seemed very into the conversation.

"That they detained Rick until the story went to print."

That got Micah's attention back.

"They did what!?"

"Yeah… you didn't know? His dad hired security to keep him in his apartment since he threatened to leak that The Daily Times was going to print a fake conspiracy theory with a fake whistleblower's testimony."

Maybe that's why his father had to leave her and Hearte so abruptly earlier that morning. He did mention something about his son.

"Wow… that's crazy." Hearte was right about him. She was right about her too. She exposed too much of her plans too soon. She just wasn't the cutthroat type of person that her co workers seemed to be.

She had to learn to be like them.

"Your sister was right."

"About what? She is banging Dickson senior by the way…"

"Oh my goodness!" Micah looked around the room to see if anyone heard. People were slowly coming in, it wasn't as empty as it was earlier.

"Elliot! Give me that flask of rum in your pocket," she grinned and reached for his jacket. He pulled back.

"She is… or at least she was!"

As intrigued she was to hear more, she said, "Let's talk about it later… alone."

"Alone…?" Elliot smiled, a drunk smile.

"Yeah, where no one can hear or see you."

"Except you…?" She reached for his jacket again as he asked the question.

"Except me!" She almost got it, but he was too fast for her. He laughed at her mistake. She could easily just stand up if she wanted to and walk to his side of the table and grab it, but she let him keep it. The game between them seemed to be enough of a distraction for him not to drink anything else.

"Check out Will and Jada over there…" he nodded in Melissa's direction. Micah could see that her poker face was totally dissolved. They were laughing. Her hand was on the table touching his. It was intimate but not overtly so.

"What was my sister right about? And whatever it is don't tell her that, it'll go to her head."

"She said I shouldn't have exposed my story details to Rick. That Rick is predictable and would probably try and undermine my work. Based on what you're saying he attempted to do just that. I'm glad they stopped him."

"Cheers to that!"

"Cheers… but no more drinks."

"It's water. But, yes ma'am." Elliot gulped down the cold water. He stood up and grabbed her hand. "Let's get out of here."

"But it's not even five o'clock yet!" She was quickly being pulled to the exit. Both of them waved to Melissa who was still laughing with her friend.

"Haven't you done enough today? I'm officially clocking you out. Your mentor has already texted a thumbs up."

"You told her I was leaving…with you?"

"Something like that.

"Elliot…"

"I like the way you say that. But I need to hear you say it in a different room!"

They were in the lobby of Dickson Publishing now. "Sylvia please clock this woman out, we don't have her badge on hand. Thanks, babe."

"Are you coming back?" Staring at her watch Sylvia looked a mixture of confused and concerned. Elliot was pulling Micah so fast it seemed like an emergency.

"Yes!"

"Maybe!"

Micah and Elliot yelled at the same time.

Once they exited the glass doors and got to the curb there was already a car with a driver waiting for them. The driver tipped his hat to Micah, "afternoon ma'am," and gave Elliot a harty hand slap, as if they were good friends.

"Zack, you know the spot…." Elliot said once they were seated at the back of the car.

"You got it." Zack pulled off from the curb.

Micah looked at Elliot. The guy never ceased to amaze her. Did he plan all of this? When did he even have time?

"You're staring at me…" he said while scrolling on his phone screen.

"Yes."

"It makes me nervous,"

"That's funny. When you look at me I feel very comfortable."

"Amazing."

"Your sarcasm is so thick you can cut it with a knife." Micah laughed and grabbed his hand away from the phone. "Where are we going?"

"Now that I finally get you to go somewhere with me I don't want to tell you. It's a secret." He held her hand back.

"I don't like secrets…. It's literally my job to expose secrets."

"Not this one.'' Elliot laced his fingers between hers and pulled her closer to him.

"Well I hope you know this counts as date one of our two dates." She was playing with him and smiled to let him know.

"Will it really be just two?" His face was inches close to hers.

"That depends. Are you really not gonna tell me where we're going?" She laid her head on his shoulder. Micah noted that they were heading out of the city. She turned on her phone's GPS and messaged her friend to let them know she was on a "surprise date."

The girls commented by text on how full of surprises she was that day and to spill the tea when she got back.

It was twenty minutes later when the car pulled up to a large Black iron gate with the word, "Hearte," in cast iron intricately spelled out on it.

No one was at the gate. Zack dialed a pin on a keypad and the gate opened up. The road behind it was paved with a forest filled with trees with bright flowers in bloom on either side. It was beautiful.

As they drove along further there was a stream that flowed alongside the road, which went up and down a few hills. Micah expected to see an estate house not far from the gate, but they continued for at least half a mile and no house was in view.

"Does all this land belong to your family?"

Elliot nodded in response. When they got to a fork in the road Zack went left and they continued onto a dirt road. In less than two minutes they stopped.

Elliot opened the car door and then came around to open Micah's door. When she got out of the car the first thing that hit her was the scent of plants. The clean scent of green lush plants around her and the trees with their flowers was refreshing.

"Come on…," Elliot grabbed her by the hand, and gave a salute to Zack with the other hand.

The two made their way along a dirt path. Micah didn't even ask where they were going. She was too preoccupied with the sight of the river water ahead.

"This is breathtakingly beautiful…" she said, when they finally made it to the water's edge. They sat on a dock with their feet dangling in the water.

"I knew you would like it."

"You should have told me though, I would have been prepared with better shoes. Heels aren't exactly the best way to travel through a forest, even though the pathway to get here is pretty smooth." Micah punched Elliot in the arm.

Elliot pulled out a mini digital camera and snapped a picture of her.

"Elliot…" she covered her face. "This is really cool."

"It's my favorite place to be." He said with a smile. "I used to come here a lot as a kid. In fact the whole family, especially in the summer we would be here almost everyday."

"What did you guys do out here, fish?"

"Everything. Fishing, swim races, picnics, you name it. We had girls against boys relay races from there to there," Elliot pointed out.

"Oh really? And who won? The girls, I bet!" Micah laughed when she saw his facial expression.

"Kathleen seems too super competitive to let anyone else win,"

"You know how she is. But Gabby and Zoe are equally as competitive as she is."

"How many of you are there?"

"There are six of us in total, me, Win, Lee, Gab, Jen, and Kath. But Kath is my parents' only biological daughter, who gladly shared her parents with us."

"Were you with them when you were a baby?"

"I was five. And we're all a year apart, Kath being the oldest, eight years old."

"That's awesome that they adopted all of you. I'm sure all six of you were a handful."

"Yup. It was definitely unique since…each of us comes from a different cultural background. Mom and dad wanted to make sure we knew about each other's background. We even had to learn each other's languages."

"Wait, so you know how to speak five other languages?"

Click. Elliot snapped another picture.

"Elliot!"

"Sí," he answered.

Click.

"Can I get a warning first," she scooped up some water and tossed it at him.

"You're lucky this camera's waterproof!"

Elliot grabbed Micah and tossed her in the water.

"I can't swim!" Micah yelled as she went below the surface.

Elliot jumped in after her. He pulled her to the surface. Micah coughed out water. "Are you ok?" Elliot said, full of concern.

"I will be after this…" she dunked Elliot's head beneath the surface and began swimming towards the dock.

"I thought you said you couldn't swim!" He yelled after her, spitting water out of his mouth.

"I lied. Teach you to throw me in the water. Ha ha!" She laughed until she felt his hold on her waist pulling her back towards him.

"And where'd you think you're going?" He turned her so that she was facing him.

Faces inches apart, Micah could see flecks of brown in Elliot's eyes from the light of a soon to set sun shining on them from the horizon.

"Beautiful…" he said inching closer. He cupped his hands around her face and pulled her lips to his.