Better the devil you know

“I don’t think this is appropriate,” I said as I tried to pull away, but he had an iron grip on my arm. I was never a nervous person, but when it came to Seth, I became a different version of myself.

“Why? Because your little boyfriend will not like this?” He asked.

I knew he had been staring at me the night we met, and it felt somewhat good to know I had been right. He sounded bitter about the fact that I had a boyfriend.

“Let me go, Mr. Ashford. You’re my client, and you shouldn’t be holding me like this.” I said as I tried to pull away again.

He scoffed and finally let me go. I turned away from him and started making more calls.

“Let me take you home,” he said.

“No, thank you. I’m fine.”

“We both know you’re stranded. And you look cold. Like you said, I am your client and I will not allow you to be left here in the cold.”

I turned and narrowed my eyes at him.

“As far as I know, you don’t like me, and you think I’m a gold digger. Why are you even here? Go home to your fiancé, Mr. Ashford.” I retorted.

He shrugged off his coat and put it around my shoulders.

“Better the devil you know than the angel you don’t know. It doesn’t take much to realize someone stood you up. You’ve been frustrated and angry all night. Let me take you home.”

“Why are you helping me?”

“It’s not about you. In the few hours you have arranged for me to attend an event, you have made people look at me the way they did before my reputation tanked. I am protecting my own interests.”

I didn’t believe him. He saw something in me he liked. I wasn’t sure whether it was because I looked like his first love or it was because I was alluring. Everyone knew he had a girl he loved in high school who died in a bad accident.

Rumors claimed he never got over her, and it was the reason he was cold and closed off. I had brown eyes and brunette hair like she did. It was the reason I wore white even though I hated it.

“Fine,” I agreed, and he led me to his car with his hand on the small of my back. He opened the door for me and ushered me in. I had to say he looked good without his suit jacket. His snake tattoo couldn’t be seen, but I still saw it every time I looked at him.

The car ride was mostly quiet until I broke the ice. I didn’t like tense situations.

“This can never happen again,” I stated.

“What? Taking you home? Is it such a crime?”

“I meant riding in a different car as your fiancé. You should have come together and gone home together.” I stated. “Besides, what makes you think you will ever take me home again?”

“If your boyfriend is unreliable as he is now, I am sure I will be taking you home again,” he said. “As for me and Celeste, focus on how we look in the public eye. Our private issues are complicated.”

I scoffed, and he didn’t address it. There was silence after that. When we arrived at my building complex, I realized I hadn’t given him directions.

“How do you know where I live?” I asked when he stopped in the underground parking lot.

“I like to know everything I can about the people who work for me,” he said.

I had been told he was dangerous. My research on him had turned up interesting things. He was the kind of man who lived in the gray. He did things no person with morals would do to get what he wanted.

I knew he had killed multiple people who crossed him and those who refused to bend to his will. I also knew that he was close friends with a man who was rumored to be part of the Russian mob.

He was as morally gray as they could come. But who was I to judge? I wouldn’t be where I was without bodies in my own backyard.

“I don’t work for you, Seth Ashford. I work with you.” I stated as I opened the passenger door, attempting to step out.

He grabbed my arm for the second time that night.

“Won’t you invite me inside?” He asked, but it didn’t sound like a request.

“You haven’t earned that privilege.”

“Saving you from potential serial killers in the city isn’t something that can earn me the rights to see your place?”

“No.”

“What about buying that painting of yours from the gallery?” He asked, surprising me. “I knew it was you from the moment I saw it. I paid ten million dollars to have it hang over my bed.”

I could tell he was joking, but he wasn’t smiling. It was hard to read him because of that. He could be scared, and he would still have a straight face. Although I wasn’t sure there was much that could scare a man like him.

“Fine. You can come into my house.”

I was slowly realizing that with Seth, the more I pushed him away, the more I pulled him closer to me.

He smirked and said, “Good.”

We walked to the elevator together, and I pressed the button for the penthouse suite.

“How is a young woman like you so successful?” He asked.

“You’ll need more than a drive home and a painting to get me to tell you my life story, Ashford.”

“I already know you dropped out of college before your second year started and dived into the PR industry. You’re brilliant and your IQ makes you a genius.”

“Two sentences are not enough to describe me, and I’m not scared of you if that's what you’re trying to do by showing me you know where I live and telling me what’s on G****e. If I didn’t want you to find me, Seth, you would never have.”

The elevator doors opened, and I input my code to let him into my penthouse. It was dark, so I clapped and the lights came on. I walked to my minibar and poured him a scotch. I knew it was his favorite drink.

Just like he knew some information about me, I knew everything about him—more than he would ever know about me.

“I hear I look like your first love that you lost to a freak accident. Is that why you’re in my penthouse?” I asked and braced myself for the consequences of my question.

I could either get answers or set off a beast. And Seth, let’s just say he was a beast that couldn’t be tamed.