by Jill Sanders
When they had been living together, on nights when they were both free they’d end up watching old TV shows or movies in the living room. She would always hear him snoring in the chair if he was too tired to enjoy a full movie. She chuckled at the almost child-like ability he had at shutting himself down, and kind of envied it.
Laying there in the dark, her mind kept running over and over how she was going to finally get what she wanted from him. By the time her eyes closed, she thought she had her plan all laid out.
Katie woke the next morning and blinked a few times before she realized she was in the bed alone. Stretching her hands over her head, she smiled to herself, remembering the night before. She’d never thought something like that was possible, let alone that it would feel so… so… awesome!
Looking around the room, she wondered where he was. Quickly getting up, she went to clean up in the bathroom. As she reached for the door handle, she heard him talking on the other side of the door. She leaned her head against the door, silently wishing for a glass to hold up against the wood so she could hear better.
“No, I told you, I didn’t speak to anyone. It’s like they were waiting for us. – Yeah, I know. – Okay, are you sure? – You know she’s not going to like – yeah – okay.”
She quickly jumped back in the bed when she heard him walking towards the door. Shutting her eyes quickly, she tried to slow her breathing.
The door opened and she wished she’d had the forethought to turn her head away from the bathroom.
“You’re not fooling me, you know.”
She sat up and smiled at him. “I don’t know what you mean.” Getting up quickly, she tried to walk around him to get into the bathroom.
He blocked her easily with his arm. “Katie, we have to maintain phone silence until we get to Rome to meet your dad and brother.”
She looked at him and noticed that he had shaved that morning. She wanted to run her hands over the smooth surface, but instead she asked, “Why?”
“Just a hunch,” he said and when she continued to stare at him, he took a deep breath, “Okay, I think they knew we were heading to the airport. They were waiting there, not at the bus station, not the train station. The airport. Doesn’t that seem a little odd?”
She thought about it, and now that he mentioned it, it was weird. “Well, maybe there were others waiting at the other places.”
“No, I don’t think so. I think someone told them where we were headed and how we were traveling to get there. I think they will be watching all the routes to Rome.”
“Well, then,” tossing up her hands she started pacing the floor, “what are we going to do? Not go?”
“No, we’re just going to have to take less traveled routes.”
“What did you have in mind?”
He walked to her and placed a light kiss on her forehead.
“We’d better be going.”
“Jason, I hate it when you leave me in the dark. I’m not going anywhere until I know exactly what it is you have planned.” She crossed her arms and glared at him.
Four hours later they were sitting on a bus driving south and Katie felt defeated. How did he have such power over her? She glared at him as he sat in the seat across from hers.
“I hate you, you know.”
“That’s nice,” he said, not looking up from the newspaper he was pretending to read. She knew he wasn’t really reading it because it was all in Greek.
“You can’t even read that.” She pushed it down until he was looking at her. “You promised me some answers. Since we’re stuck on this bus for over an hour, now is the perfect time for you to give me some.”
He leaned closer to her and she could smell his musky scent and wanted to lean into him, but held back and kept her arms crossed. She hoped that she had a determined look on her face, fooling him into giving her those answers.
“Fine,” he leaned back. “I was hired to track you down by your family. I’ve been following you since September. There, are you happy?” He lifted the paper again so she grabbed it, wadded it up, and tossed it on the floor.
“I know all that, the question I want answered is… Who?”
“Who, what?”
“We are not playing this game. Who hired you?”
“Does it really matter?”
“Yes! If it was her, I’m getting off this bus right now and you can kiss my…”
“Really?” Instead of looking shocked, he had the most devilish grin on his face. Then she realized what she had been about to say and what he had done to her last night, and her face turned beat red.
It took her almost a full minute for the heat in her body to dissipate.
“Jason, tell me who hired you.”
“No.”
“Then you’ve just confirmed that it was her.” She moved to stand up, and he grabbed her by the arm and pushed her into the seat next to his.
“Stop this, you’re not going anywhere. Why does it matter who’s been fronting my bills? What matters is, I’ve been following you to make sure you’re okay.”
“Fronting your bills? We both know why she hired you. Why she picked you for the job is a mystery to me, but this is just her way of keeping me under her wing. Her viscous, cheating, controlling wing. I don’t care what she has paid you, the fact that you have even been talking to her makes you a traitor in my book.” She was working herself into an emotional state. She was upset that she’d let it go this long. This time when she got up to move, he grabbed his bag and followed her. When she finally convinced the driver to stop, Jason followed her off the bus.
“No! You don’t get to get off the bus now!” She tried to push him back on, but he just laughed at her until she turned and stormed off down the road.
Now she was still stuck with him, the biggest traitor imaginable, and they were in the middle of… looking around, Katie realized there was nothing but hills and grass. Nowhere, again! She could just make out the bus as it disappeared over a hill.
“Aaugh!” She tossed down her bag and rounded on him. “You! How could you do this? First, you embarrass me at the party, then at the coffee shop, then on national television. And now …” She poked him in the chest, but he didn’t even blink. She turned and started pacing; she was on a roll and didn’t want to stop. “Now you’re taking her money, sleeping with the enemy so-to-speak, doing her bidding, stabbing me in the back, selling me down the river, no… worse,” she pointed her finger in his face, “Judas…” she was almost running out of steam, so she turned and started pacing again.
“Are you almost done?” he asked with a tight smile.
“No!” she rounded on him again. The hurt showed on her face and she knew the moment he saw it. “Why her? Why not my brother or my fathers, either one of them?”
He walked forward and took her shoulders in his hands gently. “Katie, she was the only one who asked me. She was frantic those first weeks. She called me almost daily, asking if I knew anything about where you would have gone. Then a few months after your parents’ divorce was final, she asked me to follow your trail and she paid my way. She just wanted to know that you were okay.”
He pulled her close and just held on. “To be honest, I was just about to come after you myself if she hadn’t asked me. I would have done it for free, but she insisted on paying for the travel expenses. You really scared everyone, leaving the way you did, not taking a phone, not contacting anyone to let us know where you were or that you were okay.”
“I know, I just needed this time. I needed to experience life outside of being Katie Derby, daughter of two high-powered men. Being stuck between two major corporations on opposite sides of the globe with the media in your face does something to you.” How had he turned this around on her? He always had a way of diffusing the situation.
“I’m sorry, I can’t imagine it. I know how it felt seeing our friends betray our trust.”
She looked at him and realized he had lost everyone back home, too, that she wasn’t the onl
y one who’d been put under the media microscope. She remembered some of the interviews by their friends. Everyone had highlighted their relationship, trying to make it something that it hadn’t been.
“Come on, we’d better start walking if we plan on getting anywhere.” He pulled back and smiled at her.
“I’m sorry.” She took her bag after he handed it to her. “I just couldn’t spend any more time on that bus. I’m sure there’s another bus stop around, and a little walking hasn’t hurt us so far.” She tried to smile away her frustration and the possibility of her feet hurting again that night. “Besides, it couldn’t be as bad as the other day.”
Less than an hour later the rain started and she felt totally hopeless.
“Don’t say anything.” She looked over at him as the heavy rain soaked them both.
So far there hadn’t been any towns. They’d passed a few quiet farm houses and had seen plenty of cows, sheep, and horses. There hadn’t even been other cars or vehicles on the road. They really were in the middle of nowhere.
He grabbed her hand and they sprinted to an old building that they had spotted in an open field. It was an old gray barn which looked like it had seen better days. It appeared that no one had used it in years.
Katie watched as Jason broke the old lock that kept the door closed. It was rusted all the way through and when he opened the small door, it almost came off its hinges. The place smelled like mold and dust, but it was dry and a little warmer. At least it was out of the cool wind that was now blowing across the fields.
Dropping her bag inside the door, she searched inside it for her flashlight, only to realize it had been stolen. A light filled the room and she turned to see Jason with his flashlight.
Searching the room, they found some bales of old hay and a large tractor that looked like it hadn’t been used since the early fifties.
“Well, at least we won’t sleep on flour bags tonight,” he said, walking over to the hay. He pulled out a pocket knife and cut the ropes that had been holding the hay together. Then he took his time making a large pallet out of the fresher hay from inside the bales. He took the large black blanket that had covered the back seat of the tractor, shook it off, then laid it over the hay. Once he was done, he moved his bag over and pulled out a small brown bag and a large bottle of water.
“Where did you get those?” She looked over at with excitement.
Chapter Seven
“You didn’t think I would come unprepared, did you?” He chuckled at the face she made.
She sat down on the blanket in the hay next to him and removed her wet jacket. He discovered her light cotton shirt underneath was completely soaked and see-through, but decided against telling her he could see every inch of her. It took all his willpower to hand her a sandwich and the water without his eyes popping out of their sockets.
Did she know what she did to him? She sat there completely focused on the food. He realized he was hungry, too, but it wasn’t the sandwich he wanted.
He had missed his friendship with her over the last year. But in the last few days, that friendship had grown into something he hadn’t realized was there before. He’d tried to deny his attraction to her and for the most part, he’d kept it at bay. But now, even watching her eat food looked appealing. How had she changed so much that she could seduce his thoughts with a simple sandwich and a bottle of water?
He thought about what he’d done to her last night, what she’d done to him. He was getting hard thinking about her mouth on his skin. He wanted her naked underneath him, to feel her skin against his own skin. To have his hands on her, his fingers inside her heat. For him to be inside her heat.
He watched as she leaned her head back and took a long drink of the cool water. He had to swallow the desire in his throat. His eyes roamed down her body again. Her nipples peeked out from her wet shirt and he wondered if she was wearing a bra, because he could see everything. He thought he could just bend his head slightly and in one move have her nipple in his mouth, sucking.
Shaking his head clear, he said, “Katie?” and when she looked over at him, her eyes showed him that she knew exactly what she’d been doing to him. He tried to smile, but then she licked her bottom lip slowly, to remove a small bread crumb from the corner. The small dimples that played at the corner of her sweet, soft looking mouth flashed and he didn’t even remember pulling her into his lap.
The kiss was hotter than any he’d ever had; it warmed his cool skin, causing a light steam to rise from him. He had toyed with her for two days, building his desires, gauging her reaction and not once did he think that he was torturing himself in the process.
She didn’t fight the kiss, but tried to pull him closer, so he pulled her to him, devouring her, tasting her. With shaky hands he started undoing the small buttons that ran down the front of her shirt, slowly peeling the wet material aside so he could see her, just her.
She shivered when he finally had her exposed to his view. She started to pull his jacket off his shoulders, so he helped her and flung the wet coat on top of his bag.
Then she was reaching for his shirt and he helped her remove it as well. Small bumps covered them both from the chill in the air. Slowly, he laid her back until his body covered hers.
Running kisses down her neck, he enjoyed the sounds she made as she ran her hands up and down his arms. He could tell how shy she was with her touch and he wanted to reassure her.
“You can touch me, Katie. I want to feel your hands on me, everywhere.”
He felt her pull back, but couldn’t really see her in the darkened room. He wished for more light but he didn’t dare leave the flashlight on all day. The light that was coming from under the door would have to be sufficient, since the clouds were blocking out the sun, and the dreariness would most likely continue through the night.
As she looked into her eyes, her hands started moving to his stomach, his back, his hips. It was pure torture feeling her cool, soft fingers run over him lightly.
“I want your hands on me, too. I love how you make me feel.”
He followed her lead and ran his hands to where her wet jeans hindered his downward path. Slowly, with his eyes on her, he unbuttoned them and took the zipper in his fingers.
“Are you sure?”
When she nodded her head, he pulled his mouth back down to hers and knew he didn’t ever want to stop. Couldn’t stop. She tasted like spring. Their skin was slowly drying but he could taste the fresh rain drops on her and enjoyed lapping them up. He could feel her vibrate under his touch.
Pulling wet jeans down her slender body was harder work then he imagined. He thought there was probably a bead of sweat on his brow when he finally freed her legs for his view. She had wiggled and laughed when he’d cursed the wet denim. He got his jeans off in half the time and knelt over her with just his damp boxers on.
Now she was lying there, the white of her wet panties a beacon in the darkness. Her skin was darker than his, and her dark eyes and hair made her look like a Greek goddess laid out for his pleasure.
Her mouth pouted slightly until he ran his hands up her legs. He watched her eyes close and her head tilt back while he touched her. Then he held up her leg and ran his tongue up it and she moaned as she grabbed his hair. He ran his mouth up her as he pulled the small cotton over her hips and down her long legs. Then his fingers found her heat, wet and slick, waiting for him.
“God, Katie, I don’t, I can’t…” his ability to think had disappeared.
Her hands were on his stomach and he felt her tugging at his boxers, then he was freed and he kicked them down near his feet. He kissed her, feeling her relax totally under his hands as his fingers went back to her heat and played there. He parted her soft lips slowly and enjoyed the slickness he found. Running his finger across her, he watched her hips rise and fall and heard her moaning his name as he circled her wet heat with his finger. Then he pushed a finger into her and her shoulders came off the blanket. He had to have her now. He reached for
his backpack and accidentally grabbed hers instead.
“What?” She watched him hunting for his bag.
“What?” He looked back over at her. “I’m looking for my backpack.”
“Why?” She started to sit up and crossed her arms over her beautiful chest.
“I have a…” he found it then and held up the small foil packages.
“Ohhh,” He could instantly tell she was uncomfortable and he rushed back over to her, trying not to chuckle.
“I told you I was prepared.” Then he kissed away her discomfort until he finally felt her relax again in his arms. He pushed her legs wider with his hands and ran his finger up and down her entrance until she moved her hips, matching what he was doing to her.
