by Jill Sanders
She’d attended the masquerade ball at Flamingos. His heart had stopped when he’d seen the silver dress she’d been wearing. That’s when he’d noticed she’d cut her hair shorter. He’d easily gotten close to her with his mask on and she hadn’t even noticed he was standing next to her. He had kept silent, hoping that she wouldn’t notice it was him, but ended up the evening just following her back to her hotel room. It had been so good to see her again. He’d gone to sleep that night dreaming of her.
Upon her empty stare now, he grabbed her hands again and started to pull her towards the cafe and the lights.
“Come on.” He checked over his shoulder as they walked, and when they passed under a bright street light, he noticed that her hair was a mess of wild tangles and she had dirt on her face. Stopping at the corner, he pulled her close and tried to fix her hair with his fingers. She swatted his hands away and took off her backpack and handed it to him. Pulling out a brush, she tried to straighten the tangled mess herself.
He had always admired her dark hair, it seemed to always be shiny in any kind of light. Now he could see a hint of red streaks he knew she’d gained from all her time outdoors. Her skin was glowing with the extra sun she’d taken in, as well. But it had been especially wonderful to hear her voice again; he had missed hearing it for so long. Over the last few months he’d been so focused on watching her that he had almost forgotten what she sounded like.
“Why are you trailing me, as you put it?”
“I’ll tell you everything if we can just get inside.” He pointed to the cafe.
There were over a dozen people crammed in the small place and he knew that they could easily hide in a back, dark corner somewhere.
“Fine, but then you’re going to give me answers to all the questions I have.” She pushed her brush back in her bag and took the bag from him. Then she stormed across the street and walked through the doors, leaving him smiling behind her. That was his old Katie-Kat, doing everything her own way, on her own terms.
Chapter Three
Katie watched Jason scratch his face as they sat in the crowded cafe. He looked at her over his cup of tea and she could see the worry in his eyes.
“When was the last time you shaved?” she asked, trying to break the mood. Leaning forward, she sniffed in his direction. “When was the last time you bathed?” She waved her hand in front of her nose, making fun of him.
He laughed and sipped his tea. “Are these some of the important questions you want me to answer?” She’d always loved that smile. It was quick and heart-stopping. His white teeth flashed, and so did the little dimple on the right side of his mouth.
She smirked at him and nibbled on the scone she’d ordered. The food and tea was doing wonders to help calm her nerves. The place was crowded and loud with chatter. They had found an empty booth near the back hallway and she started to really think about what had happened. Had those two men meant to rape her? She shivered at the thought. She’d been so naive, wandering a foreign country all by herself for the last year; she’d felt safe until tonight.
“You didn’t stop in one place long enough for me to enjoy the scenery, let alone grab a hot shower,” he joked, but she could tell that he instantly wished he hadn’t said anything. The laughter in his eyes stopped, and she watched as his face reflected the dark thoughts she now had.
“Katie…” He reached for her hand but she pulled it away and started to play with the strap of her bag. She knew what was coming next; she had prepared herself for it since setting the meeting with her biological father. The family wanted her back, and no doubt, someone had called him to bring her back. Her family knew her one weakness was Jason. The question now was, who had exploited it, and him?
“Jason, I know why you’re here. You might as well tell me who it is.”
“What are you talking about?” He tried to give her an innocent look. She wasn’t buying it.
“Don’t play stupid with me, just go ahead and rat out whoever it is. I’ll find out sooner or later. Is it Ric?” She leaned forward. “My dad?” She laughed quickly. “My other dad?”
He looked at her and she knew he could see the hurt masked in her eyes.
“Katie…” He started to explain, but just then there were two loud pops and the front glass of the cafe shattered. Glass shards scattered everywhere, raining down over people. The loud noise had caused everyone in the cafe to hit the floor or start running towards the doors. There was a lot of screaming and running, and Jason grabbed her arm and started pulling her towards the back door.
“Wait, my bag!” she screamed as he rushed them down the narrow hallway and out the back door.
“Leave it!” he yelled over his shoulder holding onto her tightly. She tried to pull him to a stop, but he was almost a foot taller and more than fifty pounds heavier than her. She had no choice but be dragged down the dark alley.
They ran down a couple more side streets, and Katie was totally turned around now. It was dark and the streets all started looking alike. For all she knew they could be just around the corner from the cafe. But she trusted him; he had a great sense of direction, always had.
As they ran down the dark streets, she remembered that he’d always been the one to drive anywhere they had gone back in Boston. She’d lived in the city her whole life and still didn’t know how to get downtown. The one time she had driven, they’d ended up in Brighton instead of downtown Boston. She’d argued they were only thirty minutes late that night for the party they’d been going to. It wasn’t as if she’d ended up driving to New York or anything. But for months she hadn’t heard the end of jokes about the whole ordeal. She kept trying to blame him, since he was supposed to be her navigator, but he wasn’t buying it. He’d given her directions and she’d just kept driving on the freeway instead of following what he was saying. He’d just laughed and had sat back to enjoy the drive.
.Her mind snapped back now, and she looked at him. He kept looking over his shoulder like they were still being chased, but every time she looked back all she could see was darkness.
“Who--” she started to ask, only to be hushed by him as he pulled them into an opened door. He quickly closed it and she heard a small click. “Are we--”
“Shh.” He placed his hand over her mouth and pulled her back against the wall. She felt cold bricks at her back and his warm, hard body against the front, pressed tightly up against her. They were both breathing hard and with his larger hand over her face, she was slowly hyperventilating and felt a wave of dizziness come over her. Reaching up, she pulled his hand away from her mouth and glared at him in the dark.
It was all becoming too much for her. She’d had an exhausting day and now they were hiding out in someone else’s… looking around she realized they were in a small storage closet.
With her mouth and nose free, she could smell his musky scent that she’d always enjoyed. He was still pinning her to the brick wall with his other hand, and she instantly felt that familiar flutter that always overtook her when she was around him.
She remembered the first time she’d ever felt that way about him. They’d gone to a party in junior high and had played Twister. She’d been winning, and it was down to just three people left: Katie, Jason, and Maggie Travis. Two moves later Maggie lost her footing on the blue circle. Since Katie had taken gymnastics, the game had been very easy for her. She could easily bend and twist her small body around to fit on any colored circle.
But then Jason had made a move that had put his chest right in her face, and she had made the mistake of inhaling his scent. He’d worn cologne that night, something she knew he had done on purpose because he’d wanted to impress Maggie. Instead, it had turned her knees weak and she’d ended up losing the game, with him hovering over her, smiling down at her.
Ever since that night, every time she got a good whiff of him, her knees turned to Jell-O. She thought how unfair it was that he had that power over her.
Looking up at him, she noticed that his blue eyes w
ere focused on the doorway. He held very still and was breathing slowly. Looking over his shoulder, all she could see was a dim street light coming from under the locked door. She couldn’t hear anything and she was glad he was holding her up against the wall, keeping her from sliding down the cold stones to the colder floor.
There were a million questions running through her mind. First and foremost, had those been gun shots? Were the shooters the same guys that had just tried to kidnap her? Why her? What were they after? She didn’t have any money on her. She remembered leaving her pack. If they wanted anything from her, they had just gotten everything she owned, except her backup credit card.
Wanting to bang her head against the wall, she looked at Jason again. He must have thought that whoever shot at the cafe was after them. Otherwise he wouldn’t be acting like they were being chased. Maybe he knew something she didn’t? Is that why he was here?
More questions ran through her mind. Finally, after what felt like forever, she could feel Jason start to relax. His breathing changed, his stance changed, and even his hand on her shoulder dropped away. She instantly missed its warmth.
She held still, realizing she had gripped his jacket and she was holding him to her. She thought about letting go, but instead just held on to him, looking up into his face. He was beautiful. She’d always loved his smile; it was the second thing she’d noticed about him, after all. Now she looked at his mouth and wished she knew what it would feel like on her skin, on her lips, and she felt a shiver run down her spine. Could she make him want her like she wanted him?
One thing had been clear over the last year and especially now in the face of danger. If she ever got another chance with him, she wouldn’t let it slip by like she had back in Boston. Even if that meant she’d have to seduce him, she knew she had to grab what she wanted, and she would just have to prove to him that she was what he wanted.
Slowly, so he would see, she licked her lips and lowered her eyes to watch his mouth.
“Where are we?” she whispered. In the dim light she could just see his eyes as they heated, then he blinked and pulled away, leaving her breathless.
He started pacing the small room, and then she heard him digging around in his bag. He pulled a small flashlight from one zipper. If he’d allowed her to go back for her bag, she would have her own light, and her hair brush, tooth brush, and toothpaste. She was growing more agitated by the minute, thinking of everything she’d lost.
When the small pen light hit several large brown sacks, Jason walked over and tested them by kicking them with his shoe. She heard him mumble something.
“What?” She walked over to him and stood next to him, wrapping her arms around herself.
“It’s flour,” he said as he turned and looked at her. “We can sleep here tonight.”
“What!” she stared at him in shock. Sleep in a broom closet on bags of flour? No way! Sure, over the last year she’d roughed it in small bed and breakfasts and dingy hotel rooms. She’d even spent one night on the beach, lying under the stars. But it had been almost ninety degrees out that night and the stars and moon had been bright enough that she’d felt safe and warm. Besides, it had been only a few feet away from one of the swankiest resorts on the south of France, just outside of Nice. She’d lain there and watched the airplanes land at the small oceanside airport and wondered where Jason was. It had been one of the best nights she could remember, but with all her travels over the last year, she never once wanted to sleep in a drafty, spider-infested broom closet while two large thugs waited somewhere outside to bag and tag her, so to speak.
“Listen, Katie…” he ran his hands through his hair, causing him to almost drop the small flashlight. “We are not going back out there tonight. Those two men will be looking everywhere, at every hotel, every bed and breakfast, for you. We’re safer staying here for the night. Then early tomorrow, we’ll sneak out of town.”
“So it was them? Who are they anyway? What do they want with me?” She stood there waiting for his answers.
“I think they’re after you, possibly to ransom you off to your father. I heard them talking before they jumped you and they knew your name and mentioned a ransom.” He handed her the flashlight.
“Point it in the corner.” He removed his jacket and as he started to move the large bags of flour around, she watched his t-shirt stretch over the muscles in his back. She longed to know what he would feel like, to run her fingers across every tight cord. Then her eyes roamed downward and she noticed how nice his faded jeans looked stretched over his butt. She had always loved his butt and wondered how it would feel under her hands as well. He had gained a few pounds of muscle since she’d seen him last. He looked leaner, but he was more defined all over, including his backside. How would it feel to grab it and hold on as he…
Realizing where her thoughts were leading her, she shook her head and focused her eyes and the light back on his task, instead of his backside.
She watched as he made a palette of six large bags. She kicked one with her toe and watched as a small plume of smoke rose up from it. Come morning, they would both be covered in white powder.
When she looked back up, Jason had rolled his jacket up and handed it to her.
“Use it as a pillow.” He took the light from her and motioned to her bed for the night.
When she just looked at him, he said, “Listen, Kat, I can see how tired you are. Just lay down and I’ll take the first watch.”
She crossed her arms, still waiting for answers.
“I promise I’ll answer any questions you have in the morning.” She could always tell when he was telling the truth and this time, she knew he meant it.
Trying to get comfortable on a pile of flour bags was no easy task. Every time she moved, white flour would smoke out from the burlap bags. By the time she settled down, she was positive she looked a lot like Casper the Friendly Ghost.
She watched as Jason folded his tall frame and sat with his back to the door, then crossed his arms over his knees.
“You aren’t going to lie down?”
“No, I’ll keep watch. Go ahead, get some sleep. Goodnight, Kat.”
Using his jacket as a pillow, she closed her eyes and smelled his scent and flour. She trusted that he would sit there all night watching over her. Her mind kept racing with a million questions and she didn’t think she would be able to fall asleep.
Then she started thinking of him, and how it had felt with his body up against hers, what it would feel like to run her hands over him, giving him and herself pleasure. Maybe she needed to step up her game and make him see that she was right for him. She wasn’t opposed to stooping to seduction. She’d never tried it before, but how hard could it be? At least she knew it would be easy with him.
Jason had his back to the door and watched Katie tossing, trying to get comfortable. She’d been so soft and her smell was a memory he couldn’t help but feel comfortable with. He’d actually felt aroused when her body had been pressed tight against his. He hadn’t thought about Katie in that way before, at least he’d tried not to. He’d tried for years to think of her as the little sister he’d never had, but to be honest with himself, ever since they’d been roommates he had struggled with it. Watching her walk around their small apartment in nothing but a silk robe or towel, he’d had a hard time keeping the sister thought in his mind.
He had thought she didn’t think about him that way, but that kiss at the party had awakened more desires than he knew what to do with. It had been hard that night, holding still through a kiss, when all he wanted to do was lock the door and take her against it.
Then everything had been taken out of his hands. When they had met at the coffee shop, he was trying to build up enough nerve to tell her how he felt. But she just kept saying it had been a mistake, and he didn’t know what to do. Then her mother had called and, well, everything had changed.
Now as he watched her sleep, something he’d done plenty of times over the years, he couldn’t help
but wonder why he hadn’t done something about it earlier.
He remembered getting upset at several of his buddies when they’d tried to hit on her. He’d made it clear that she was off limits. Now he wondered why he’d done that, if he’d had other reasons than simply protecting her like a sister, like he used to think. Maybe it was his way of keeping her to himself.
He remembered the one boyfriend she’d had in college. The relationship had been short lived, thanks to him. Ken had been a good friend, and when he’d asked Katie out, Jason had been visiting his mother in Maine that weekend. When he’d returned on Monday morning, he’d walked into their apartment to see Ken walking out of the bedroom. Katie was in the shower and Ken had a look on his face like he’d planned the whole thing for while Jason was out of town. Jason had thrown him against the wall and told him to leave and never return.
He told himself all that next month that it was for the best. Katie had been sad and upset that Ken hadn’t called her back, but after a few weeks, she returned to her normal self. Ken was an okay guy, but Jason knew that he was stringing along two other girls at that time. Katie deserved better than that.
