by Lisa Daniels
“It’s not going to be anything good, of course,” Ellie grumbled, when they met up and began to talk about whatever the hell it was that Rickard Grieves intended to do. Today she wore a blue top and a rustling, silken skirt that reached her knees. Her blonde hair was tied back in a simple ponytail, and the application of makeup was light. Somehow, she seemed more beautiful to him than before, and of course, he knew he’d be beating up his own brain later about the fact. And handle any growing frustrations as a result of it.
“What’s not going to be good?” He stepped in time beside her, as they left the confines of the mansion and took a walk in the nearby park that Talia Grieves had recommended.
“Whatever Talia’s dad is up to. He’s going to have to do something equally wrong as Zaimov if this mess is going to be stopped.” Her face darkened further, like a thundercloud, when she checked the news threads on her phone, with reports claiming Zaimov’s army was less than a week away from Lasthearth. Already, people were evacuating. Rickard Grieves and his family didn’t. They were leading the effort to try and stop this inexorable advance. Them, and the Irish necromancer, Morgana Hargraves, and a few others they were roping in from other parts of the globe.
Everyone was working around the clock, leaving little breathing room for any of them to enjoy themselves. The dragon shifter at the precinct kept finding ways to dig at Mason’s caste, and it irritated the ever-living hell out of him, knowing he had to hold his tongue or risk losing the contract. Which was why he suggested a walk like this. He could see Ellie was practically climbing the walls in her frustration and stress, and he wanted to help her, somehow. Since words were not enough.
“I wish I could just swoop in, pick up that guy, and drop him from a very high height.” Mason stepped through a neatly trimmed bush that led to a tree, with three rope swings [JY1]attached to its biggest branch. “That’d solve a lot of problems.”
“Ugh, why did I even bring this up?” Ellie grumbled. “I’ve suddenly decided I don’t want to talk about it.”
He smiled at her sudden frustration. “Of course. What would you like to talk about?”
“Nice things,” Ellie said, her blue eyes narrowed. “Things less about the looming necromancer apocalypse and more about what a great day it is, with the sun shining and all that.”
“Perhaps we can do nice things,” Mason said, before his brain had enough time to screech at him to shut up.
“Oh yeah?” Her lips twitched upwards in a small grin. “Nicer than walking in a park like a couple, you mean?”
“Like a bodyguard and client,” Mason said curtly, wincing internally at how ham-fisted his statement was. Like a bodyguard and client, because incidentally, I, a bodyguard, am in no way interested in my client, because we are walking exactly like a bodyguard and client would do.
He grimaced when her smile widened, though there was a reddening to her cheeks as well. “What did you have in mind, then?”
Oh, right. He needed to think of something. No point coming up with a notion unless he had something concrete behind it, after all. “I, uh, was thinking… a-a movie? That’s a nice thing to do, isn’t it?”
“Movie.” She scrunched up her eyebrows, before resorting to her phone again. “Let’s watch a horror one.” She showed him the image of a rather sinister-looking man with teeth like daggers and metallic eyes. “Talia was going on about this one, and I’ve never been to a cinema before.”
That’s right! Mason’s eyes widened, surprised at the revelation. “Damn, I really thought you would have. You went to school, you stayed with friends, right?”
“I did… but if I watched anything, it was at their places or mine,” Ellie said, looking strangely wistful. “I’m probably not missing anything big, though, right?”
In all honesty, Mason’s experience of movie theaters was disgustingly low. He’d been in his entire lifetime a total of three times, all of them for things his sister wanted to see, and his mother, when she was on a good day, treated them all to. With the advent of streaming platforms after that, none of them felt obliged to visit such a place afterwards. He examined her movie choice with a queasy feeling in his stomach. He didn’t think he’d do well with horror. He barely even functioned with anything that had the slightest hint of darkness in it without somehow teleporting himself into the situation and imagining what it might be like to be in that person’s shoes. Being scared out of their minds.
But it was what she wanted.
And when had he ever been able to resist what she wanted?
“You want to go now?”
“Evening,” Ellie said. “Has to be a perfect atmosphere. Dim lights, dark outside… it’ll be great!” She seemed full of energy now, and he swallowed down the mild panic of watching a horror movie and revealing that he was in actual fact a complete coward, despite dealing with someone who literally summoned the dead. At least Ellie didn’t give him jumpscares.
“I’ll do my best to protect you there,” he said, gulping when Ellie looped her elbow with his in an entirely too familiar way. He was determined to keep his distance, but when she did things like this, it made it much harder to do so. He didn’t have the willpower to shake himself out of the grip, though, because he knew that would create a horrible, awkward atmosphere between them.
Didn’t stop him fretting about it and experiencing his own kind of stress, on top of the whole necromancer situation. Still, he’d done it now. He had no choice but to follow it through, or permanently lose respect from Ellie.
They went together to the movies in the evening, even though a part of Mason knew that this could be a big security liability. What was the point in keeping her so safe that she couldn’t experience life at all, though? He assessed potential threats, found entirely too many for the theater alone, and insisted that they sit near the emergency exit on the side, so that they could get up and leave quickly if anything happened. If someone did come in to inexplicably attack them, they would be more likely to attack from the regular entrance, and the emergency exit was their best chance of escape.
He bought the popcorn and some fizzy drinks, and Ellie happily wedged the popcorn between them to pluck from. She slurped noisily at her drink and wriggled her feet in anticipation of her first ever movie theater visit, getting excited when the red curtains unfolded, revealing the huge screen. The lights dimmed, sending them through a storm of ads, and they crunched popcorn between them, their hands occasionally brushing as they dipped into the container. Mason tried to time his eating for just after Ellie had grabbed herself some kernels, but somehow they always ended up with that close contact anyway.
He gritted his teeth each time it happened, and tried his best to ignore the electric feeling rippling through him. Especially when he considered that this scenario was entirely too close to a date, that she seemed way too happy to encourage that perception, when he had vowed otherwise.
It made him doubt, and he hated doubting. He didn’t want to get the wrong impression, or give off the wrong one. He didn’t want an excuse for that dark, dangerous part of his mind to latch onto.
The movie finally started, and it promised to be every bit as creepy and disturbing as its synopsis originally offered. Silence descended on everyone in the theater as the somber, tense notes of the movie rang out, and the characters on the screen rolled up.
Ellie whispered in his ear about the ones she thought would end up dying. And he nodded and smiled, completely tense, hating how the music built up to it, how every long camera shot and fuzzy mirror angle made him think that things were stirring in the shadows.
Maybe he jumped quite a few times too, and squeezed his eyes shut at the worst moments, so only the shrieks of the onscreen characters tainted his ears and the flashes of light teased at his eyelids.
Ellie roared with laughter at scenes where she really shouldn’t have, and it caused other people to glare. Since they weren’t finding it particularly funny, and neither was Mason. Ellie kept crunching loudly through her popcorn,
too, and it seemed the big container he’d ordered was going to last forever. Dozens and dozens of hand brushes awaited, as well as a few knee bumps from Ellie, and the fact that he could smell her subtle perfume, something lemony and fresh, while he observed how into it she was.
Well, at least the inherent scariness of the movie kept a good leash on his libido. So he had that going for him at least.
After far too many of the main cast had died, and the creepy demonic ritual was prevented (But was it really? Who knows?), he stumbled out of the theater, with Ellie practically skipping by his side.
“That was awesome,” she gushed, clutching onto his elbow once again, causing him to support most of her weight as they went out onto the street and into the night. “I guessed almost everything right except for the fact that douchy mcdoucheface lived. I totally thought he was going to be struck down.”
Mason supposed she was referring to the jock character in the film, and nodded. Though a lot of his experience had been avoiding every jumpscare and creepy thing that occurred.
“Thank you so much, Mason! Thank you!” She stared at him with sparkling eyes, her face alight and completely full of life. “This was great! I hope we can go again. I want to do all that with the popcorn and the guessing and watching the curtains open and close...”
He smiled, though he did feel a little bit green at the fact she probably wanted to watch another horror movie. “Maybe we could try a milder film next time.”
She pouted. “Don’t you like horror movies, Mason?”
“Um… I can’t say I’m a fan of them,” he said, before hastily adding, “but I don’t mind watching them with you.”
He thought his lie awful, but she was convinced anyway. “Yeah! I can’t wait.”
Mason let out a small sigh. He sincerely hoped there wouldn’t be any damn nightmares from what little he had seen and heard. “It seems a shame you haven’t experienced so much about normal life,” he said to her. “I can’t believe you never went to a theater before this.” Except he could, because she treated it like talking at the screen while sitting on the sofa, oblivious to the hapless audience around her also concentrating. He’d have to point that out to her later, but not now, while she brimmed with happiness.
He didn’t want to take that away from her.
The other thing they did, since she seemed so insistent on doing normal things, was visit a take-out place to grab some food, as there were still some that were open.
Stuffed with fries and unidentifiable greasy meats, they walked their way back through the lit city streets, Ellie once more gripping him by the elbow and leaning against him in a way that made his heart pick up in pace.
Mustn’t react, he chanted to himself, even though that scent in her hair was so enticing, and her warmth was… distracting, to say the least.
“I enjoyed all this,” Ellie whispered, forcing him to lean a little closer to hear. “I wish we could do more things like this.”
“We will,” Mason promised her, meaning it. Though he knew that whatever was happening with Zaimov’s peculiar undead army might short-circuit some of the plans that they intended. Didn’t mean they should stop making them all the same.
He turned to look at her, intending to say something to that effect—and she kissed him.
Just like that. Without any warning, and before he had time to realize what was happening, she broke off the kiss, shuffling her feet in a nervous manner. He hadn’t responded to her advance at all.
“I...” Ellie’s face looked flushed and embarrassed under the streetlight. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have...”
You shouldn’t have, Mason wanted to echo, to stop them heading down this path. He had to halt it now, before things turned out to be too complicated.
Instead, the treacherous, dangerous part of his mind threw all of that out the window. His arms reached for her and enveloped her body. His lips pressed against hers, fiercer, more passionate, more fueled with desire than he ever thought possible.
She gasped softly against his lips, before drowning herself in that kiss with him. He closed his eyes, focusing only on the contact between them, on the softness of their lips together, on how their bodies squished tight, and how she took little snatches of breath and shivered when his hands roamed, exploring over her clothes. His senses went haywire, and he wanted more, more, more…
No!
He jerked himself away suddenly, taking a huge inhale for air, slightly dazed from all the contact. No, we can’t do this, he wanted to say, but one look at her shining, beaming face caused all his resistance to collapse.
Oh.
“You never told me you were a good kisser,” she said breathlessly, continuing to wear that silly, beautiful grin.
“I don’t think it ever quite came up in conversation,” Mason pointed out. He wore that same grin, his insides now full of butterflies which refused to go away. Things had turned out so much better than he’d ever anticipated. He fought the little voice protesting against him, saying this was an awful idea, suppressing every last whimper of it until he could relax fully in her presence.
“Well, that’s a damn shame, then. Or I might’ve done this a lot sooner.”
Sooner? “You were thinking about this… for a while?”
At this, Ellie hesitated, a flush creeping over her cheeks. “I… might have a little. Though I didn’t originally have any ideas to do something with it. But then, the way you were acting, I thought… maybe there was something here. Maybe I should just go for it and—here we are.”
Had she really been thinking for that long to do something? How had he not noticed anything?
Except, he had noticed something. He just thought it meant something else.
“We’ve been wasting far too much time, haven’t we?” he said with a hint of admonishment. She nodded rather vigorously, excitement welling into her. But not as much as the excitement that raged through Mason’s soul. Because there were a lot of things he could think of right now that they’d be better off doing. Like another kiss, another close embrace, wrapping her in his arms, gently tasting her lips. She clung to him, desperate for more, and he obliged her.
After all, he always did as his little mistress wanted, sometimes even against her father’s orders. Though he never bothered to mention those moments to her, because he didn’t want to draw attention to what he did, or to give the wrong impression in any sort of way.
How strange now to think that his heart had always been warring between his emotions. He wanted now to keep it chaste, to let them take their time to sort through their feelings. Except Ellie was a little impatient. More than just a little impatient, it seemed. She tugged at his shirt, pouting slightly. He tried to let out a little warning, but their lips pressed together once again, and all thoughts fled from his mind.
Gradually, they made the journey back home, and the closer they got to it, the more and more frenzied Mason’s emotions and heartbeat became. If he just let things flow as they were going now, it might very well end up with them in bed together. Surely he needed to stop that. Surely he had to reject Ellie’s advances, and tell her, well yes, of course he was interested, but this was too fast, too sudden, and he still needed to wrap his head around the whole fact that she actually liked him, when he’d spent so long trying to keep just the right amount of distance between them.
At the mansion, she tugged at his hand insistently, obviously trying to lead him into her bedroom. Since her bedroom was right next to Talia’s, he tugged back, steering her to his, which didn’t have anyone close enough to hear anything, and closed the door behind them.
“We should talk,” he said, which made Ellie growl in frustration.
“No talking.” She planted both her hands on his shirt, forming them into fists. “We’ve done enough talking to last a lifetime. I want to be with you.”
Hearing those words was enough to provoke a powerful reaction out of him. One that involved a rather noticeable flex of arousal, as he stiffened down
below. Gamely, he tried to ignore it, and press on with, “I just think, if we’re going to do something like this, we should make it a little more traditional. Like when we went to the movies together. Maybe we can have a few more dates at least before, uh...” His voice trailed off when her fingers slid down and touched his erection on the outside.
“You were saying?” she said with a wicked grin upon her face.
“That’s not fair,” he admonished her, trying to get away from her questing hand. That proved a little difficult, though, since he didn’t really want to stop this at all. In fact, he wanted to grab her, throw her on the bed, and have his way with her. He wanted to take her with such intensity that the emotions actually frightened him.
“I’m sure,” she said to him, looking straight into his eyes with those glorious blue ones of hers. How perfect she looked. How breathtaking she was. Damn it, why did she have to be so attractive? Why did she have to look like this?
“I still think… we should...”
She let out a little sigh, closing her eyes for a moment, before nodding and stepping away. “Okay. If it’s really bothering you, if you really feel so uncomfortable with the idea, then we can take it slow. You do like me, though, right? You’re not just… going along with it because I’m pushing?”
“Oh, believe me, I like you,” he said, his voice lower, throatier. “I’m just in shock that you like me back. It’s fast. Too fast.” He was starting to regret his words now, however, given how damn eager she’d been. She certainly was capable of making her own decisions, after all.
“Yeah, okay, I get it,” she said, with a slight hint of disappointment in her tone. She did, however, reach for one more kiss, though this time, they kept it more chaste, and he ruffled his fingers through her hair. Unfortunately, his body liked it, and the obvious sign of his arousal refused to go away. “I’m sorry for pushing harder than I should,” she admitted, after their lips had parted ways. “I shouldn’t just ignore you if you try to stop me or say no. That wasn’t nice of me at all, was it?”
