"Gah!" The small exclamation escaped my mouth, loud enough to wake only myself. As my eyes adjusted to the dim, early morning light, I thought back to the dream that woke me up, or rather, the nightmare. Asher had me locked in his car, only this time I wasn't lucky enough to get away. Let's just say, I'd be missing a certain ring on my finger if I hadn't woken up when I did.

Laying terrified in my bed, I realized I needed a distraction, I fumbled for my phone on my nightstand. I scrolled through my contacts list until I reached who I was looking for: Eli Goldsworthy. I pressed call.

"Ms. Edwards? Might I ask why you're calling at," He paused, presumably to check his clock, "5:07 in the morning?"

Smiling at the sound of Eli's boyish morning voice, I asked, "Um, I had a bad dream, would you mind...coming over?"

I could almost hear the sound of him smirking, "I would not, I'll be over in twenty with breakfast." Then the line went dead.

In those twenty minutes, I had done a rather nice job of taming the rat's nest on my head and putting on a presentable outfit. I was just adding a touch of lip gloss when a knock at the window made me jump halfway out of my skin, smearing gloss across my cheek in the process.

After taking a second to clean off the peach-colored line, I padded over to the window, quietly unlocking it and pulling it open.

"M'lady" Eli smiled, planting a kiss on my forehead.

"Hi," I mumbled, twisting a cinnamon curl around my finger.

He grabbed my hand, sensing that my smile was fake, and transferred a takeout bag from The Dot into the other, then lead me over toward my bed.

After sitting me down, he asked, "Would you like to talk about it, Clare?" I had to think about this. I wanted to talk about my dream, but not with him. Not with anybody, actually, except maybe Darcy. That wasn't going to happen, though, for all I knew, Darcy had been eaten by a Lion over in Africa by now.

Once I was done with my internal debate, I looked up into his beautiful eyes, filled with pity. For me. "No," I actually smiled, "I just want to be with you." Eli's real smile crept across his face at this, and he laid down next to me, handing me a muffin from the bag.

Laying there with him really did make me feel better, I was content not thinking about police or court dates until Eli nudged me. I looked over at him questioningly. "It's 6:00, should I go?" he asked. I thought about this a second, I didn't want him to leave, but my other options were to be walked in on by my mother, Glen, or Jake, so I nodded.

"Unless we want Helen in here," I chuckled. Eli squeezed my hand, pecked me on the lips, and headed back over to the window. I was raising my hand to wave goodbye when he turned back around.

"Wait, wait, wait," he began, I raised my eyebrows, wondering what he was going to say next, "Ms. Edwards, I got up at 5:05 in the morning, bought you breakfast, and then snuck in through your second-floor window. You owe me."

I laughed, "Oh, that's how it is? What, exactly, do I owe you?"

"You did mention something about naked pictures at the premiere..." He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Narrowing my eyes playfully, I stood firm, "Eli, no."

He started in on the puppy dog eyes, very Campbell Saunders-esque, and whined, "Oh, Clare! At least give me a hint!" I shook my head, enjoying his groveling.

"I know!" he exclaimed, "I'll pose, and if it's ow you posed, you have to tell me."

"What? Eli, that's-" But he was already taking his shirt off.

"No, no, just tell me!" He smirked, putting both hands behind his neck in a very awkward-yet sexy-position.

I was laughing too hard to notice that Helen had walked in on this very suggestive-looking exchange. Well, so much for that.