So who was he?
Where did he come from and why did he have that huge dragon tattoo on his back? Was he some sort of assassin like the one she had always seen in movies? Or was he just a bored rich kid who wanted to mess around?
What did it matter?
She was there for her final semester and could barely afford to rent her place. She was going to take a part time job and find a way to pay her bills.
Before she had left the house that morning, she had made sure that she put finishing touches to the place and disposed everything that she didn’t want. The place was a clutter but she managed to organize most of it before stepping out the building. She was a neat freak... always wanting everything to be exactly where she left them. This was why she just didn’t ever seem to have a roommate throughout college. Then there were the issues of boyfriends. When she had dated Denis... one of her exes, he loved to come over to her house. The awesome part was that he was a neat freak too which meant that he loved to be tidy. The big problem however was that he just couldn’t help adjusting something. He always had a different opinion as to where things should be and thus even though they were on the same page as far as being clean was concerned, they constantly had problems on the issues of locations and arrangement. It also definitely did not help that they never seemed to get past second base. Even though he never actually voiced this concern; she knew that it bothered him.
“Maybe I was selfish and unyielding!” she muttered to herself.
“Maybe I should have at least let it happen once” she said...
“Maybe...” she was about to launch into a long serial self-condemning routine, but stopped herself just in time.
“You know what... It doesn’t matter. All of that is gone now.
But she knew that she was already coming to that point where she would have to make a decision about getting laid. The mystery man in the next room was a hunk, but she knew that he most likely would not like her type. Men like him always liked girls with rounded figures and beautiful curves. Not girls who were tall and bland like her. They didn’t like girls who liked books and didn’t fall for stupid pick up lines. They didn’t like girls who did not like to be tossed around like garbage and thus... here she was, alone and in a strange town. Wondering if she would die an old maid or finally get laid at some point.
She went through the rest of her day on the campus trying to get her courses settled and meet her professors one after the other. She knew that it would be a long day and she was ready for it. Handsome hunky men could wait. All she had going for her was her books and she knew that she would be smart not to let it suffer for her fantasy with mister handsome hunk.
When she was done with her business on campus for the day, she grabbed a cab home and rushed straight up the stairs to her apartment. She was eager to have another glimpse of the tall dark and handsome man that she had seen the night before. She wanted to watch him move around, watch him walk, watch him do basically whatever he wanted to do in that room.
She opened her door and went into her room. She rushed out of her clothes, into her pajama, and went straight to the hole. She looked through the hole with her heart going
THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP and when she tried to steady herself, she only ended up palpitating even worse than she already was. So instead of wasting time on trying to be calm, she looked through the hole and there he was. Seated on a chair and facing the window of his room with his side to her. His hair was loosely hanging around his shoulders and he seemed to be engrossed in whatever he was doing at that desk. On a closer look she noticed that he had a long katana sword in his hands with his palm facing up, his chin kitted out and his eyes looking into the distance with a faraway look in them. In front of him, on the desk was a glass of what seemed like whiskey. He sipped it from time to time and continued to look into the distance. She swallowed and wondered what was wrong with her these days. She had thrown herself into education and research and it was coming to her as a shock to her that she was suddenly reacting like this towards a man that she didn’t even know. Yes, he was handsome, but then so were a whole lot of other guys that she had seen before and with whom she had remained neutral. What was it about this mystery man that was so different that she had feel like this towards him? What was special about him? Was it his hair? Or was it the way his torso just seemed to be perfect? Was it the way his abs were so well pronounced and carved? Was it the way his legs stood firm and the way his butt seemed to be barely resting on that chair? Was it because of the way the light of his room caught his eyes the other night or the nearly carved beard that protected his chin from all sorts of things that she didn’t even know? She was confused. There was a slight Asian look in his face because of his eyes, but then he seemed like he could be Caribbean or Greek for all she knew. “Maybe he is a mixed race?” she asked herself but then shook her head as of in answer to her own suggestion.
“Well... whatever he is, he is having some tremendous effects on this girl.” She thought. Then, in a moment, she heard something clatter to the floor. The sound shattered the peace and tranquillity of whatever he was doing and he rose out of his chair and started to walk towards her again. He seemed disturbed as he walked towards the wall. She sniffed twice in hopes that she would whiff of his scent or perfume or anything at all. But as he came closer... she became scared that he might know that the hole was there. She lunged away from the wall and scrambled away towards her bed. It was getting late and she was ready to turn in for the night but then she wasn’t quite ready to let go of the beautiful sight of the glorious Greek God’s body. She waited for about ten minutes and then went back to the hole and peeped again.
When she looked through the hole this time, he was sitting at the edge of the bed and looking at something that she couldn’t quite make out. She couldn’t stop staring at his hands and the strong looking muscles of his biceps. She watched as he turned whatever was in his hand over and over again. She wished he was nearby so that she would be able to carry out all the fantasies that had been going through her mind for the past twenty-four hours. He remained there. Silent and seeming to brood over whatever it was that he was holding in his hands. It was almost becoming painful. She backed away from the wall and decided that staring at him like that was a bad idea. Especially since she knew for sure that he was never going to want her the way she wanted him. She dragged herself into the shower and then into bed.
Chapter 3
Amie walked briskly without really looking up. She wasn’t cold. Not really. But she was having a really long day and she was tired and ready to drop. When she had taken the job of a cashier at the grocery store, she had not expected that it would tire her so easily. She had had no idea of how much it would drain her to be constantly on call in a grocery store all the time. She was hungry and ready to bite the next thing that even remotely looked like food in her way.
She remembered how she had walked into the store in response to the “cashier needed” sign she had seen outside. The owner, a shrewd looking man with red face, looked her up and down and asked her why she thought she could be a cashier. It sounded more like she was interviewing for the position of a US senator and she was tempted to walk out of the place and tell him to go eat a ... She shook her head in an attempt to keep the thoughts from her head. She was a very hard-working girl who was willing to work as long as there was someone who was willing to pay. She didn’t steal and was an ardent Christian... she also liked animals and enjoyed ministering to the needs of others! Those were the things with which she has answered him instead and he had stared at her incredulously for what seemed like a thousand years when it was really just a little over a minute.
“What? Why don’t you just apply to be a nurse then?” The man had asked her with his mockery evident in his voice. She really didn’t like the way he was behaving but she needed the job because she needed the money. So she remained quiet and waited for him to make up his mind.
“Well... I suppose I could try you for a week an
d see how you do.” He had said with the tone of a person who was doing her a whole lot of favour. She swallowed hard and tried as much as she could not to grab him and shake him.
“Wow... thank you, sir. When can I start?”
“Right now. Get behind the counter!” he had said and she had been taken aback just a little bit. Then she shrugged. There was no point trying to argue. It wasn’t like she had anything else she would rather be doing. Except of course peeping into the hole in the wall and staring at some strangers firm butt cheeks.
“Okay... When does the night shift come in?”
She asked in a nice voice. He turned around to face her and shook his head.
“No. You are the only cashier I’ll need.” His statement would have been flattering of it done not instantly open her eyes to the fact that she was about to take a job that would use her to the bone and pay her peanuts. She had turned around and faced him instantly.
“I am sorry but I cannot take this job then. You cannot give me a job for at least two people and expect me to be okay with the pay for one.” She said and started to leave. She knew his game. There had been a man in her street back home that used to do the same thing because it would prevent him from hiring permanent staff. She knew the style and she was not going to fall for it.
As she reached the door and started to leave, the man hesitated then said
“Wait...” She had turned around and looked at him with one eyebrow raised as if she didn’t know what he was about to say.
“We don't open all day and all night.” He said. She looked at him askance as if she did not really get what he meant.
“Okay...” She said and made to leave again.
“I’ll pay you for the day time.”
He called after her but she shook her head.
“You either pay me for every hour I’m in here or we don’t have a deal.” She was starting to enjoy the situation. Putting men like this in this sort of position was one that she always wanted to do. Now she was getting her chance and she wasn’t letting it pass her by without doing something about it.
He looked at her with defeat in his eyes and she knew that she had won. Not just for herself, but for every other person that would work for him after her. She had made a difference even though it was small. What she however wasn’t taking into account was the amount of work that would now rest on her shoulders.
As she walked home today, she just wanted to crash into the bed and sleep. She had not really had much time to obsess over the hot man next door. She had left home early every day having signed up for the 6 am classes and was at the store by ten am. The routine had put a lot of strain on her and thus this left her with leaving home early and coming in late. But today was Saturday, and Sunday was her day off. She would soak in a hot bath and stare at the hot man through her secret peephole. It was a well planned arrangement that she had every intention of following.
“I know I might never get a man like that, but there is no rule that says I cannot get off from looking at one.” She said to herself in an effort to quiet the voice in her head that was telling her all about how it was creepy to peep at a man like that. She knew how she would have felt if she was the one who discovered a hole in her wall through which someone had been observing her. She would have been scared and angry and have felt exploited. Maybe she would have even demanded a restraining order. But she knew that men rarely cared much about these things and he would most likely feel more irritated than scared. It didn’t really matter to her, she wanted him. But since she couldn’t have him, she would make do with watching him from the hole.
Suddenly, she slammed into what seemed to her like a wall. The force was so much that she was thrown backwards and would have fallen right back if he had not stretched out his hand just in time and caught her in place. She looked up into the eyes of the person above her and started into stormy green eyes that seemed to her to be the most haunting pair that she had ever looked into in her entire life.
Her voice ceased.
Her heartbeat tripled in speed
And her knees turned to jelly.
“Oh my god... I’m so sorry... I...” She had entered a full panic mode and started to blab some things that she couldn’t even make sense out of. She knew she was repeating the word “sorry” after every other word but she really couldn’t be sure of what other things she was saying. He looked down at her but obviously didn’t recognise her. He let her arm go gently and muttered something that seemed to her like sorry. She wasn’t sure that she heard his voice. Maybe she just watched his lips move and decided that he had said sorry to her. But his face was blank and emotionless. Almost cold. When she came back to her senses, he had walked past her and she was left staring into the distance blankly.
“What was that?” she asked herself. She was confused. He didn’t seem to know her, which led her to believe that he had not been peeping back at her. This discovery made her feel even worse for her attitude. She bit her lower lip and continued on home.
“I am gonna have to call in someone to cover that hole permanently...” She said to herself but she knew that she was just saying it and that she would not be doing any such thing. At least not soon.
As she walked towards her building, confused as to what had just happened to her, someone else bumped into her and she knew instantaneously that he had stolen something from her. She looked down and knew without even looking that her purse was gone and when she turned around, the thief was walking away very fast.
“Stop!! Thief!!!” she screamed at the top of her voice. By now however, he broke into a run and she was left with no choice than to run after him.
“Stop!! Please!!! Give me my purse back!!!” she was screaming as the man brushed past more people and ran towards her mystery man. No one paid her any attention. They looked at her and heard her screams. But no one came to her aid. Everyone seemed to be minding their own businesses at that time and she had to do the chasing alone. She picked up the race and sped after the man. There wasn’t any money in the purse. She has learned very early to keep her money either in her socks or shoes whenever she was in an environment that she wasn’t familiar with. But the purse did contain her house keys and a few make up items. Most importantly though, it also held her passport and identity card. The last thing she wanted to have to deal with at that moment was the loss of her identification. What if she needed to go to the embassy for protection? What if she had to get out of town in a hurry? What if...
She ran after the guy with all of her strength. Maybe she wouldn’t have even run that much if all what the purse held was money. But at the moment, she ran as if her life depended on it, and indeed her life might have depended on it because there was no way she could be more vulnerable in a strange land except if she didn’t have identification.
In spite of her zeal to get the purse back, she could only run and she soon started to grow tired and exhausted. Her breathing became laboured and she slowly dropped off and watched in dismay and distress as the thief appeared like he was getting away.
As he started to run past the tall mystery man, again the man stretched out his hand and caught the runner but this time it was not a gentle catch.
“Hey!” he yelled as he landed a straight punch to the man’s jaw that had him sprawled out on the floor in a single swipe of his hand. The moment the thief landed on the floor, he was back up with surprising agility and brought out a pen knife.
“You will wish you didn’t do that.” he said as he lunged at his attacker. For a minute, Amie’s breath ceased as she feared that the thief now had the upper hand as he had a knife. A few people paused in their walk to look in their direction. To them, it was just another brawl between two men who were contesting for the love of the same woman. People who found such fights amusing hung around and the rest moved on as usual.
The thief rushed at him and brandishing the knife dangerously, he said loudly.
“You will pay for hitting me you shit!” Amie’s mystery man smi
led with one side of his mouth and seemed to brace himself for the attack that was coming unto his person at that moment. But as the thief rushed at him, he grabbed the man's wrist and twisted it out of place in one swift movement. Everyone was left open mouthed as they heard the resounding cracks that signified breaking bones. The mystery man then let go of the screaming thief as his knife clattered to the floor. Amie stood there staring at the man with mouth agape and her eyes popping almost out of their sockets. Perhaps because his adrenaline had been pumped out so much, or perhaps just for show off, the mystery man pulled the thief to his feet and gave him a painful jab before knocking him out flat. As the man crashed to the floor finally, Amie's crush smiled again.
“Poor him!” he muttered under his breath and then picked up the purse from where it had dropped. He handed the purse to a trembling Amie and looking into her eyes with his shocking green eyes, he said
“Hold your purse firm. Try not to lose it next time!” she nodded like a puppet and as if on cue, police sirens suddenly filled the air. The crowd dispersed and in the confusion, she discovered that he was gone. She looked around the place for him but he was nowhere to be seen. It was almost as if he had vanished into thin air. As she looked frantically around, she saw the retreating back of a hooded figure. But she could not be sure as to whom it could be. The height and swagger seemed right, but what did she know? She had been too disoriented and shocked to even be sure of anything anymore. She clutched her purse close to her body as if her life depended on it and walked away from the scene.
Hidden: A Dark Mafia Romance (Forbidden Kiss Book 1) Page 3
