by Tisha Wilson
“It doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that I am sleeping in your bed. I could stay out here and you can crash in the bedroom if-”
“That’s not the reason. I have no problem with you sleeping in my bed.” He realized that statement could be taken two ways, but decided not to address it. “Like I said. I just don’t sleep every night.”
“Are you sure that’s it and not because I’ve been making coffee every morning?”
He didn’t respond. The smell of her morning cup of coffee hit his nostrils and ran through his senses like a stray bullet. Even walking past a star bucks was like a straight adrenaline shot to the heart for him. He wouldn’t tell her that though.
“Because I can go a few days without if-”
“No need. I’m sure Bateman will surface soon and then he will take over your training.”
She took a drink of her wine and eyed him angrily over the rim of the glass. Her mind was working furiously at something and he had a feeling he was about to discover what it was.
*
She watched him intently. How could one so handsome be so clueless? There had been an unspoken agreement throughout the weeks that they would not talk about what happened in the mornings. They were not to conduct themselves like love struck fools. They were to go on as though they had only filled a necessary duty like changing clothes or combing your hair every morning. But as the days wore on she found that getting harder and harder.
Her mind and heart would not cooperate with their silent agreement. It was getting to the point where all she thought about was the way his hands caressed her. She thought about how his tongue explored her. He could set her on fire just by speaking to her and he acted as if what they did didn’t affect him a bit. Well she was sick of it.
“So this Bateman guy comes along and you just turn me over to him like that? You let him take over all the duties you don’t want to perform?”
She pulled herself out of her chair and picked up her plate. He stood as if he meant to take the plate from her. She turned away sharply. “I don’t need your help to wash a dish. Since helping me is so distasteful. I will be glad when Bateman gets here to take me off your hands!”
Tears flooded her eyes without her meaning them to. She swiped at her eyes with the back of her hand before she wheeled around him and grabbed the loop on her ramp. She pulled it over to the sink and then wheeled up.
“You are unhappy with me?”
She gave him a sharp look. “I am not the one who is unhappy. You are! You explained it to me very clearly the first day I was here. I’m here, you don’t want me here, and I should just get used to it!”
“That is not-”
“Don’t you have something else to do?” she asked as she turned back to cleaning up.
She was relieved when he went into the living room so he wouldn’t see the tears slip down her face. She didn’t want to be with anyone else. She was afraid and so far Braden was the only one who really made her feel safe. Maybe this Bateman person wasn’t so bad but…
“Would you join me?”
She heard the hesitance in his voice. It wasn’t like him to be hesitant. Despite her anger she looked over at him. He had pulled a chess set from somewhere and had set it up on the table. She blinked a few times. Granted, chess was an advanced game, but it was still a board game.
“You want to play a game with me?” she asked incredulously.
“Yes.”
“Are you sure it won’t be too unpleasant for you?”
He paused a long time as he watched her that way he did. She felt like shrinking away from that look, but he had hurt her feelings. She wouldn’t feel bad for being mad at him when he was the one who had pushed her away.
“Obviously you want me to apologize so… I apologize. I did not mean to imply that I don’t want you here. You are always welcome to all that I have. I just didn’t want you to be upset over the coffee issue.”
She rolled down the ramp and stopped near the board where it sat on the table. He sat down and continued to watch her. His face didn’t give away the remorse she heard in his voice at all. Still, he seemed to be sincere.
“So it is the coffee that is keeping you from sleeping?”
“It is, but eventually I will sleep. Eventually I must.”
“I will stop drinking it.”
He didn’t argue further and she nearly laughed at him. He was afraid of making her upset again. She looked at the chess set and reached a hand out to run a finger over a beautiful marble piece. The pieces as well as the board were made of marble.
“This must have been expensive,” she commented.
“I made them.”
“Really? Did it take very long?”
“Yes. But I seem to have time to spare.”
She smiled up at him and saw a quick look of relief cross his face before he turned his attention to the board. He liked it when she smiled. Why hadn’t she noticed that before now? Maybe because she had been so busy trying to avoid staring at him like a lovesick puppy.
“Will you show me how to make marble pieces like this?”
“I will.”
“Is it hard?”
“Not if you are patient. You can hone any skill with time and willingness to try.”
“What else do you do in your down time?”
He made the first move and she countered it. He made a disapproving sound as he quickly took her piece and made another move. She concentrated more seriously for a moment.
“I can blow glass. I can make furniture. I am an excellent marksman. I rebuild cars. I can work clay and wood. I can build a cabin like this one with my bare hands. Sometimes I will volunteer with a charity service or two.”
She made her move and then looked up at him again. “You should start your own business,” she said with excitement.
“My life is not conducive of having a business. I would endanger any innocents involved.”
“That is not necessarily true. If you set up a gallery somewhere you could hire people to run your store and then you could just drop off your pieces every once in a while.”
He thought about that for a moment then shook his head. “I don’t think it would work well.”
“You could also sell your things online, then you would never have to hire anyone. I could post a few things for you on eBay if you like. Do you have more chess boards like this one?”
He made a move and took out another of her men and then waited for her to move before he said anything. “I have a few,” he said elusively.
“What’s a few,” she asked.
He stood up and went to the shelf that was built into the wall beneath the television. She hadn’t even noticed it was there. The door to it just looked like a part of the wall. I small finger panel slid open to allow him to hook his finger in and pull it open. The shelves were deep and there were a few totes inside. He pulled out two of them.
She came over and was amazed when he opened the lids. One was filled with marble pieces and the other was filled with marble playing boards. “What is in the other totes?” she asked.
He pulled out two more. They were filled with hand panted plates wrapped in expensive linens. There were also a few cups and bowls and vases. The craftsmanship was so extraordinary. Each piece had a hand painted scene that were very intricate in detail.
“Oh, Braden. These are beautiful. Is this Norway?”
“Mostly. I have traveled a lot on different missions and I have a few scenes from Poland and the Far East. The mountain ranges there are very stark.” He pulled out a vase that had a scene from a mountain that was so beautiful it nearly brought her to tears. She took the vase and ran a finger over the smooth surface.
“I had a kiln in Norway but I left it behind. I may get another but I have too much as it is. I have a lot in storage.”
“Did you have pieces like this in the house that exploded?”
He shrugged as if it meant nothing. “Things can be replaced. That is the nature of th
e earth. Things are built and then they are destroyed. Life goes on.”
He put the lids back on the totes and put them away, closing the wall panel again. “This from the man who tried to make me pay for damage HE had done to his own cabin. You could have made a fortune off those things,” she said as they went back to their game. She made a move and took one of his pieces. He tsked as he took several of her men.
“Check,” he said in warning.
“No,” she said unbelieving, but there it was. She pushed over her queen and he set them up again.
“I only said what I said about the repairs…”
“Oh, don’t stop now,” she pleaded with a smile. He had a twinkle in his eye.
“I didn’t know any way to make my declaration that we would sleep together any easier, so I used that as an excuse.”
What could she say to that? He was certainly not the bad ass he projected. In fact the more she was with him, the more she saw of his soft center. He may have been roughened by too many years of living but he still had that center under the stone.
“You would never have to worry about money again if you sold those online,” she said by way of changing the subject. She didn’t want to make him uncomfortable now that he was opening up to her.
“I don’t worry about money now. I have what I need.”
“Did you build these cabins?”
“The one we were in before. This one I purchased.”
He made the first move and this time she concentrated. He made an approving sound when she took his piece, though he then took the piece she’d moved. They played a strong willed game and time nearly seemed to stand still. He was good, but her father had been the best.
The room was quiet and she could tell when he approved of her moves. His approval was not overt or very visible but she was learning to tell. He was not given to emotion and people who didn’t know him would think him too serious, but she was learning better. She was going to have to help him work his way out of the shell he had put himself in.
“Good,” he said as she made a move.
His counter was aggressive and left him open and she took her opportunity. It paid off and he looked amazed when his queen fell.
“Again,” he commanded as he set up the board.
“You didn’t think I could win,” she stated plainly as she made the first move.
He looked as if he was considering his response seriously before he answered. “No.”
“My dad was good enough to play in tournaments as a boy. He taught me to play. My sister Katie was better than me…” She swallowed as that thought broke in on the soft atmosphere that they had built. Katie.
“She would have been good at chess because she liked strategy. She had to of if she wanted to build a strong military career,” Braden supplied. He made a move and they played in silence again for a while. When she beat him this time he looked seriously miffed.
“Again,” he said as he began to set the board up.
“I’m sorry general but no. I’ve already won two out of three. It would take two more games for you to really win and I’m tired.”
He looked at the board as if it had betrayed him. She laughed out loud. “Thank you for playing with me, it was fun,” she said as she turned towards the bedroom.
*
He watched her go. He hated to admit it, even to himself, but he had really enjoyed himself. He hadn’t felt joy in his work or his hobbies in a long time, but when she had run her fingers over the pieces they were new to him again. Maybe he would set up a gallery like she said. It wasn’t like the agency paid him a lot, and he had so many pieces. She would be astounded at the number of pieces he had in storage. He pulled out an old journal he had stored beneath the couch cushion.
He was reading about his second marriage. Her name had been Esmeralda and she had been a mentor’s assistant during the French Revolution. She had been a tough woman as well. From what he read, she had been more aggressive in their relationship than he had been. She had taught him order and structure. Apparently before she had come along he had been something of a rake and he had found her strictures amusing.
In his stories of her he was always trying to draw her out of her shell and she was always trying to teach him to be a gentleman. He had loved her strongly. He wished he could remember, recall some of the feelings he’d had for her, but he couldn’t even conger an image of her face. He wished now that he had written something about her hair color or eye color, or how tall she was. Apparently her personality had been the thing that attracted him because he was always talking about one strong headed thing or the other she had done.
If she had been alive today he could see how he would have liked her. She might have been a female more conservative copy of Saul. She had been carried off by wolves while he was out on the hunt. So she was a part of the collective pack now. He sighed as he closed the journal and pressed the button to lift the armory. He lifted the heavy cement lid off his storage case and stored the journal with the others. He pulled out the empty one he always kept in there in case he decided to write.
He lowered the armory again and returned to the couch. He sat down and pulled out a pen. The first thing he did was describe the physical traits of a certain tiny woman that beat him at chess.
* * *
Albion lay in perfect stillness. He watched the cabin. He had been here for weeks now. He hadn’t moved, not to swat away bugs, not when he’d seen small animals hop past, and not when he’d seen the woman near his hidden place. He stayed as still as a statue. He was covered in earth, the end of his gun looking nothing more than a stick protruding from a mound of dirt.
There had been plenty of opportunities for him to shoot the woman, but unless she was in human form it would do little good. He had sabotaged the other cabin in order to get them to come here. He was glad to learn that the scent masking spell was working so well. Else the hunter may have sniffed him out, and may have sniffed out the small changes he’d made to the outside of the cabin. With the rifle aimed the way it was he could see into the small opening he’d made in the bedroom curtain.
He had thought to catch her when she sat up in bed. He had thought that surely she would wake up weak, but that had proven to be very false. The things he had seen going on when she woke up… and then he was unable to get a clear shot. Eventually, one of these times… she would be unguarded and he would have her. It would simply take time and patience.
* * *
Braden stood under the stream of warm water and let it flow over his body. He had soaped up his hand and tried to imagine that he was slipping in and out of Miranda’s body. It didn’t seem to be working this morning. After the way she had writhed and moaned beneath his touch… it had been all he could do to pull away from her. A soft tap came from the door.
“Go away,” he growled as he breathed hard. He released himself and braced against the shower. He was about to turn the faucet to cold when he heard the tap again.
“What do you want?” he asked angrily.
“I need...”
“Hold it,” he said assuming she meant the restroom.
He turned the water to cold and prayed for relief. It was not working. When there was a tap at the door again he turned off the water and grabbed a towel. He wrapped it around his waist and headed for the door. He slung it open and found her standing there. The first thing he noticed was that she was naked. The next thing he gave note to was the fact that she was standing. Was she angry with him?
“I will wait for you to finish,” he said as he began to move past her. She didn’t allow him to move past her. She threw her arms around his shoulders and lifted herself up.
“I already… took care of that,” he breathed shortly as he tried to keep control of himself. She had wrapped her legs around his waist and his erection was making a tent of the towel. He was so hard.
“No. There’s something else… It’s not enough this time. I want you,” she said.
He swallowed hard. “Y
ou don’t want me. You are not in control of yourself. When you come back to yourself you won’t want me.”
“But I do. I want you all the time. I think about you all day.”
He could feel her perky full breasts pressed up against his chest and sucked in a breath. “You are only saying that because you are still turned on. Let me take care of you again and you will-”
“No,” she argued as she ground her hips against him. She was still wet from what he had done to her this morning.
“I am still as big as I was when you took me in that first time,” he argued pressing his forehead against hers.
“Please,” she begged and it was the last straw.
He walked over and lowered her to the bed. He whipped the towel off and pressed her legs wide open. He put himself at her entrance and did his best to slow down. He couldn’t go too fast or he’d hurt her. It was going to be her first time and he didn’t want it to be bad for her. He felt her tiny slick channel open up as he pressed into her inch by tight little inch. She lifted her hips to give him better access, her eyes hooded and darkened with passion, and it was the end of all control.
He pushed all the way home and she cried out. He cursed viscously. He had tried his hardest but he had hurt her. He took a few deep breaths before he began to pull out of her as her legs went limp. Surely she would push him away again. To his surprise she grabbed his butt with her fingernails and pulled him back in. “I want you to,” she pleaded, her heart in her eyes.
The change had released her. She was herself… yet she still wanted him. He looked into her eyes for any sign of uncertainty, but there was none and it did funny things to his insides. He held very still, still debating on whether or not to go on. This would mean something different now that she was in control of herself and he was in control of himself as well.
Well, if not in control, at least still somewhat able to pull away from her. When she took one hand and ran it over his bare chest he made his decision. He covered her with his body and let her wrap her arms around him. She was so soft, so delicate and completely his for the moment.
He used his whole body to make love to her as he moved inside of her. He didn’t think he would ever get enough of the way she felt as she opened up to him more and more. It was a tight fit to be sure, but it felt so right. He kissed her deeply and she responded in kind. He then placed little kisses along her jaw line and nibbled the flesh of her neck.
