With a glass of champagne in hand, Anita crossed the ballroom floor to find her seat. She had personally supervised the seating plan to ensure she was sat at a table with people she knew. Brian her co-worker was to be seated to her right, though his wife had just had a baby and was staying at home. On her left would be John, her equivalent from a similar charity in Nepal and they would have a lot to talk about.
Anita took her place. She was the first at the table, and watched the guests as they started to arrive. She loved to people watch. The contrast among the women was amazing. There were mainly two camps: the young, size zero trophy wives, underdressed with their Barbie doll eyes and flashing white smiles, and the older women, overdressed with tight face-lifted skin that made it almost impossible for them to smile. Of course that was an over exaggeration, there were plenty of normal women in the room, too, it’s just that they weren’t as noticeable. A bit like life, Anita shrewdly thought.
She glanced at her watch. It was almost half past seven, and the formalities were due to kick off. All of her table had arrived and were seated except for Brian, and she scanned across the room looking for him. Where on earth was he?
The lights began to lower and she swivelled her chair around so she was facing the stage to hear George’s speech. She had written it and knew every word of what he was about to say. She spotted Brian; he was seated three tables in front of her and gave her a short wave just as Anita felt someone slip into the seat behind her.
If Brian was out there, then who on earth..? Anita turned around to get a glimpse of her new dining partner. Her heart quickly sank, it was James Miller.
How on earth he had managed to switch the seating arrangements she had no idea, but she guessed he had done it purpose – just to irritate her. Well she wasn’t going to let him get under her skin!
Once the formalities were out of the way and the lights restored, Anita turned immediately to her left and engaged in conversation with John, her back turned slightly towards James. If he wanted to play games with her then so be it, she could play harder and faster than most.
As the hors d'oeuvres were being served Anita swivelled back in her seat to face the table. She could feel James looking at her and it made her feel uneasy, this was going to be harder than she had first thought. Now she had deliberately ignored him it would be almost impossible to make small talk, and his presence was a burning coal at her side.
One of the waiting staff passed the table and accidently brushed a linen serviette onto the floor. James immediately bent forward to pick it up.
“I believe this is yours Miss Jackson”, he said. His eyes twinkled with mischief; he was laughing at her. Anita looked away feeling her cheeks start to burn. “Thank you Mr Miller, that is so very kind of you”, she said, a trace of sarcasm revealing he inner thoughts.
James rubbed his chin and took a sip of his water before returning to face her, his eyes narrowing, searching her face, scrutinising.
“I don’t think you like me very much do you Miss Jackson?” Anita reached for her glass of wine. His frankness unnerved her, had thrown her off balance and she could feel her cool start to slip. Honesty was the best policy she guessed.
“Well Mr Miller I can’t say that I know you very well, but from what I have seen of you, then no, I’m afraid I don’t like you very much. I find you rude and arrogant,” she said. Anita drained her glass and picked up another bottle of white wine ready for a refill.
“Wine?” she offered casually.
“Not when I’m on duty.”
She hadn’t thought about him being on duty. He was dressed in black tie like the rest of the guests and it made him look even more handsome, his cropped dark hair and tanned skin showing off the whiteness of his shirt. He looked like James Bond, only better looking. Anita felt her stomach flip.
“Really?” she said. Anita raised an eyebrow wondering if he was making fun of her.
“Really, although I do hope I won’t be needed. You see there is an actual threat to security tonight, although I think we have it under control. We only heard about it yesterday and that’s why the meeting was so out of the blue.”
Anita shuddered at the thought and her heart started to race. She hadn’t given a serious thought about security, even after yesterday’s meeting. She had been too caught up in ensuring the event was a success to think about anything else.
“I tried to apologise yesterday, after the meeting. I’m used to giving orders and people jumping to my command, so you will have to excuse my brusque methods of communication. I have to make tough decisions in my job and I’m afraid this time that included cancelling the fireworks display.”
His tone was much softer now, much gentler, and although he was still mocking her it was in a humorous rather than sarcastic way. As she looked into his deep brown eyes she could feel her resolve weaken. Maybe this was one game she wasn’t planning to win?
“Let’s start again shall we?” James practically purred into her ear. “James Miller; pleased to meet you Miss Jackson.”
Relaxing her shoulders, Anita held out her hand. “You can call me Anita.”
From the first touch she was completely lost to his charms. As well as being devilishly handsome, he was charming, witty and a great conversationalist. As the wine flowed easily her defences weakened, and she started to tell James about her life, about George. It seemed easy talking to him, and he seemed to listen too, bending his head towards her face to catch her words above the music.
“Would you like to dance?”
Anita’s heart skipped a beat. Woozy with alcohol she attempted to stand, swaying slightly on her feet.
“Here, let me help you,” said James. He offered his arm, and Anita clasped her hand around him, feeling the strong muscles in his forearm straining beneath his jacket. On the dance floor his arm circled her waist. The band had just started playing an old-fashioned waltz, and they set off around the ballroom. Anita wasn’t a dancer but James was the perfect partner, twirling her around the other couples like a pro.
“I didn’t know you could dance,” said Anita.
“There are a lot of things you don’t know about me,” James growled in her ear, his low gravelly voice making the hairs on her neck stand on end. She nuzzled her face into his shoulder, breathing deeply a sweet manly smell, a mixture of expensive cologne and something else; something more basic, earthy and musky, almost animal like. She had not felt this happy for a long time. Maybe she had never felt this way. She was bewitched and beguiled and didn’t want the dance to end. She was lost in the moment.
A loud crash ended her reverie and suddenly the atmosphere changed in the room. Two masked men had broken in through the large plate glass doors and were standing in the middle of the dance floor wielding automatic machine guns. The music stopped abruptly and the dancers froze. Anita felt James’s body tighten, a coiled spring ready for action before he released her and moved away.
“James?” she whispered his name under her breath, already sensing that he had moved away. Moving her hand out to the side she reached for him but he had gone.
“You, stay still, stop moving,” he said quietly. Anita looked forward as one of the masked men moved towards her, roughly taking her by the arm. Waving his rifle in the air he fired a warning shot into the ceiling before dragging her towards the centre of the room. A bullet hit the magnificent glass chandelier sending shards of splintered glass onto the crowd. The women screamed and the men tried to shield them from danger. Another shot was fired and the room fell silent.
The man pushed Anita in front of him and she felt something cold, something metal pushed against her temple. She had quickly sobered but now felt sick with alarm, her heart hammering strangely in her breast. This was something that happened on the news, in war zones, not to ordinary people. Her captor reeked of evil, rancid and bitter, the acrid sweat leaching from every pore. He spoke with a thick accent.
“Don’t move, lady, or I shoot you,” he said. His hand moved from across
her middle up to her breast and squeezed the soft flesh hard, causing her to flinch.
Anita looked around the room at the other guests, all wide-eyed with fear, glad at least that they weren’t in her shoes. Where was James? When the going got tough he had disappeared like a coward and abandoned her. Where were all his words of bravado now, all that macho talk and arrogance?
The other raider had started haranguing the other guests, stripping the ladies of their jewels and the men of their expensive watches and cufflinks.
A noise from outside the ballroom caught the attention of the gunman holding Anita, and he cautiously marched her over to a door and listened carefully. Using Anita as a human shield he slowly pushed at the door with the butt of his gun allowing it to slowly open.
There was a soft pitter-patter sound, as something moved across the marble tiles in the darkness. The gunman raised his rifle in readiness.
Out of the doorway sprang an enormous Bengal Tiger leaping through the air with a mighty roar that toppled the masked raider on impact and threw Anita away from his clutch. The gun fired once into the air and the tiger let out a fierce, deep and rippling roar before sinking its teeth and claws into the man now lying prostrate upon the floor. He didn’t have a chance.
All eyes were on the tiger, a magnificent, sleek and muscular creature. The poor animal had been hit by the gun shot and sat licking blood from a wound on its front leg. A man picked up one of the raiders’ guns to shoot it. But as if sensing danger, the cat snarled at the crowd, baring its large fangs before springing out of the damaged glass windows and out into the night. Anita could have sworn that it looked directly at her just before leaving.
The security men arrived to apprehend the raiders. During the commotion, the crowd had turned on the second masked man, who was now pinned to the wall, pathetic and whimpering without his rifle.
The disorientated guests started to move back to their seats, some to gather their coats to go home. Geoff rushed over to Anita concerned that they somehow needed to save the evening. Her whole body was shaking from adrenalin and shock, and she felt as if she was going to faint. Geoff helpfully told her to put her head between her knees for a moment.
“Have you seen James Miller?”
Geoff shook his head; he was more interested in stopping people from leaving than to think about her or indeed James Miller. Anita took a few deep breaths. She was OK, a little bit shaken up but unhurt. A story she could tell her grandchildren about no doubt.
Spotting the celebrity singer Anita had an idea. She walked over to him and had a quick word with the band. The gala dinner would definitely be an evening to remember and even though she couldn’t end on fireworks she could end the evening with a song. She walked out of the doors and into the warm evening air, and as the band started up a cheer rang out from the crowd as the first strains of ‘Eye of the Tiger’ drifted across the room and out into the night.
At least the charity ball had ended on a high note. Once she was alone again back at her bungalow Anita allowed herself a few tears. She was tired, her head hurt and she deserved a little self-pity.
There was no doubting she had just been through a great ordeal, but it wasn’t the fact that she had been held with a gun to her head or that all her months of planning had almost been ruined. It was the fact that James Miller had let her down. She had dropped her guard with a man again, allowed herself to feel close and he had disappointed her in the most despicable and cowardly way. He had abandoned her when she needed him most. What a fool she had been. She never wanted to see or speak to him again.
The next day Anita woke with a throbbing headache. It felt like a hangover but it was mainly due to the fact that she had been crying all night.
At least it was a Saturday and she didn’t have to go in to work. Geoff would be busy no doubt with the aftermath from last night, but she would leave him to it. He hadn’t been the one held up with a gun to his head!
Walking through to the kitchen to get some aspirin she noticed that the red light on the answer phone was flashing. No doubt it would be Geoff panicking over something or other. Pressing the play button, she walked to the sink to run herself a cold glass of water. At first the tape was silent, just some heavy breathing, until finally a male voice spoke. It wasn’t Geoff, it was James Miller.
“Anita, it’s me James. I just wanted to call. It’s about last night. There’s something I want to tell you.”
The tape fell silent for a few more seconds.
“Ring me will you?” and then he hung up.
Anita sat on the edge of the sofa sipping at the water and looking at the phone. How dare, he, how very dare he? She could really start to get angry but it would only make her head feel worse. Something about last night eh? Something he wanted to tell her. Well, she could definitely give him a piece of her mind about last night. She picked up the phone and pressed the number for last call redial.
And how on earth had he got her number? She was sure she didn’t give it out last night.
The phone was answered after two rings and James voice purred down the line.
“Hi Anita.”
She wasn’t ready for his voice again, and struggled to speak.
“Look, about last night. I’m sorry I had to leave. When those two guys burst in like that, look I can’t talk about it down the phone. Why don’t you let me buy you lunch so I can tell you in person?”
Anita croaked into the phone, “Look James, I don’t think I want to see you again. You abandoned me last night to that maniac. I could have been killed!” She could feel her voice start to become thick with emotion and stopped talking.
“I’m sorry Anita,” said James. “Please give me a chance to explain.”
She was a sucker for the sorry word. It got to her every time, well nearly every time. George had been sorry, very sorry but he hadn’t sounded sincere. There was something about the tone of James’s voice that got to her, tugged at her heart. Before she knew it she had agreed to meet him at a small restaurant just out of the city at noon.
The restaurant was small and homely. It served daily specials and cheap wine. James was already there when she arrived. She noticed him as soon as she walked through the door, his eyes lighting up as soon as she entered. He was wearing a white linen jacket that emphasised his dark good looks, but he looked tired and drawn as if he hadn’t slept easily. Standing as she approached, he held out his hand in greeting. She deliberately ignored it, and sat down quickly.
“I ordered a bottle of wine.”
Anita shook her head. “Just water for me, please.”
“On duty eh?” James flashed his most dazzling smile but she wasn’t in the mood. He would have to do a lot better than that.
“Look about last night...”
Anita could feel the anger start to rise up in her throat.
“Where the fuck did you go to?” she snapped. The words were out of her mouth before she had time to think them through.
James sighed. The wine arrived and he poured himself a large glass.
“Listen Anita, there is something you need to know about me.”
“What, that you’re a coward? I already know that.”
“No, there’s something I have to explain to you.”
“So you keep saying.”
“Look I can’t do it here, come back to my place and I can explain properly.”
Anita let out a repressed laugh. “Look if you just want me to come back to your place and have sex then just say. Anyway the answer is no.”
Draining his glass James grabbed hold of her arm, pulling her to him, his face serious, his jaw clenched.
“Listen Anita, I really like you, I mean I really like you. Of course I want to make love to you, what man wouldn’t, but there is something else, something really important I need to tell you. Please come with me.”
James stood and threw a note down on the table to cover the cost of the wine, and held out his hand once again. This time, something made Anita take it,
and they headed out into the afternoon.
They had to cross a small park to reach his apartment. It was a beautiful afternoon and the sun shone through the trees, creating patches of dappled green light along the pathway. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom and their scent filled the air. Anita paused to breathe in the sweetness, it was good to be alive and she smiled despite everything. James looked down at her, the sun reflecting the amber flecks in his dark eyes. She could get lost in eyes like those. He bent forward slowly to kiss her.
“Ouch, what did you do that for?”
Coming to her senses at the last moment Anita had punched him on the arm. The afternoon may be beautiful but she hadn’t forgotten last night, she couldn’t be won over that easily.
James seemed to be in real pain. For a strong, powerful man, not only did he seem to be a coward, but also a wimp at that. Yes she could pack a punch but it couldn’t have hurt him that much.
Holding his arm she tried to remove his jacket to see what was causing the pain. At first he resisted, then looking deep into her eyes he relaxed, allowing her to remove the white linen jacket. The upper arm was heavily bandaged, and spots of blood had started to appear on the white cotton.
She pressed the bandaged area gently and James winced.
“What on earth have you done to yourself?”
James smiled through the pain. “It’s only a flesh wound.”
“But how, when? I mean you seemed OK last night.”
“That’s what I need to explain, about last night.”
Anita shuddered as she thought about the events of the previous night. No-one had been harmed, only the gun man. The other guests had been shocked but apart from that, perfectly OK. James hadn’t even been present. To her knowledge there had only been a couple of gunshots and the only casualty had been that poor tiger, shot in the front leg. She shivered, a cold sensation running along her spine. Something strange was going on and she felt uncomfortable.
Alpha Vampire Romance: Vampire’s Mate (Paranormal Shapeshifter Alpha Demon Vampire Romance) (Coming of Age Werewolf BBW Shifter Women’s Fiction Short Stories) Page 43
