by Claire Adams
I did feel the anxiety over Nate leaving, though. But after our little practice fight on the floor of his workout building, I felt much more confident in my skills. I no longer felt like I had to go stay with Jordan the entire time Nate was gone; perhaps I could go over there a few days but then spend more time at the cabin. Besides, I had worked so hard on planting my garden, and I didn’t want everything to wither and die.
There was another distinct noise, in the living room, and this time I was out of the shower and looked outside. Nate’s car wasn’t there. But neither were any other cars. My mind started to race as I tried to figure out what could be going on. If Stephano had sent someone to watch the cabin, the could have waited for Nate to leave then broke into the house. They might not have even needed to break in; most of the time the front door had been left totally unlocked.
I got dressed and listened closely at the door as I tried to wait for any clue to who was in the house. I was in the bathroom attached to my bedroom but I didn’t know if anyone had gotten into the room yet. My heart raced as I leaned down to the ground and tried to look out under the door to see if the intruder had gotten to my room yet.
There didn’t appear to be anyone in there, so I slowly opened the door and made my way into my room. I looked around frantically for a bat or something that I could use to attack the intruder, but there wasn’t much around. I finally took the lampshade off of the lamp and held onto the metal base as the only weapon I had available to me.
My heart felt like it was going to pound right out of my chest as I listened at the bedroom door to see if I could hear any more noises.
Then again I heard it. It sounded like something had dropped or hit the wall in the living room. Whoever had broken into the house was probably searching, looking for me. Well, I wasn’t about to wait for them to get me. I was going to surprise them. I was going to attack them before they could attack me.
Slowly, I opened the bedroom door and walked into the hallway. My courage level was about as high as it could be until I hear the loudest crashing noise I had heard yet. Quickly I turned and ran into Nate’s room. I shut the door behind me and crawled into the back of the closet. I grabbed all the clothes I could find and piled them on top of me in the hopes that the intruder wouldn’t find me if he looked into the closet, then I waited.
My heart pounded as I tried to listen for the intruder. I waited for him or them to make their way to the back bedroom. I held my breath and then let it out. I tried to calm my breathing but I couldn’t seem to catch my breath at all. In my hand I still held the metal lamp base and I had it positioned next to me and ready to beat the intruder as soon as he opened the door and tried to attack me. If the metal lamp didn’t work to subdue him, I was ready to wrap my arms around his throat and strangle him to death if I had to.
It seemed like forever before I heard another noise. The closet was surprisingly noise resistant or the intruders were being very quiet as they made their way through the house. But then I heard the unmistakable sound of a car pulling into the drive area in front of the house.
Maybe the intruders had been waiting for their back up to arrive. Maybe that was why they hadn’t come to the back of the house to try and find me yet. I braced myself for the worst as I gripped the lamp base tightly in my fingers.
My breathing grew faster as the anticipation grew. I didn’t know what to expect next, but I was going to be prepared. Even as afraid as I was, I knew that I couldn’t freak out yet. I couldn’t just start running and screaming if I wanted to be able to get out of the situation alive; no, I had to follow my gut.
“Ana!” I heard a voice scream. “Ana!”
It sounded like Nate, but I couldn’t be sure. Was he fighting with the intruders? Was he calling for me to help him? I couldn’t tell, but then I thought that maybe it was a trap. Perhaps the intruders had a hold of him and were forcing him to yell to me so I would come out of hiding.
No.
I wouldn’t leave my spot. They would have to find me if they were going to kill me, and even then I was going to put up one hell of a fight! I might not have been as strong as I once was, but I was strong enough to put up a really good fight. I was going to make sure whoever was coming to hurt me was going to really pay for whatever it was they wanted to do.
There was a power inside of me, and although I couldn’t harness it all, I did feel its energy as I started to plan how I would attack my soon-to-be killer when he opened the door.
I wasn’t a victim anymore. I was strong and willing to kill a man if I had to. The only way I was going to be taken was if I was shot dead. Only a gun could stop me, otherwise I was going to scratch, hit, kick, and strangle my way free from any person who opened that closet door and tried to take me.
“Ana, are you in here?” I heard Nate say.
It sounded like the man was in the bedroom now and I prepared to fight whoever was with him and forcing him to call my name. They weren’t going to trick me. I knew better than to think that Nate was out there all alone. I prepared for a fight!
“Ana, if you’re in here you need to tell me. I’m going out of my mind.”
I couldn’t bring myself to talk. Something in his voice sounded pained, and for a moment I thought he might have been alone outside of the closet door. But it could have just been a trick that the attackers were using.
No, I had to stay quiet to protect myself. Nate had been teaching me all sorts of ways of protecting myself and one of them was not to be stupid. I had to think about everything that was going on and trust my gut when it came to leaving that closet or staying in there. My gut was telling me to stay right where I was, and when the person opened the door, I was going to clobber them with everything I could get my hands on.
I wouldn’t say a word. I wouldn’t give in to the tricks they were using. I stayed curled up in the closet under a pile of clothes and holding onto the metal lamp. I closed my eyes so I could listen to the footsteps more and be prepared when they got to the closet.
Then the closet door swung open and I saw the silhouette of Nate standing in the doorway. He looked like he was alone, but I didn’t trust it for a second. I lifted up the lamp and began to swing it at him, but he caught it and held his hand tightly around it as he pulled the lamp out of my hand.
“Ana, what happened? Are you all right? Please come out,” Nate’s voice said softly.
I looked around him to see if I could see who was out there with him, but I couldn’t see them. Something was off though and I didn’t like how Nate was looking at me. His eyes looked softer than usual and I felt them as they looked deep into me. Nate looked concerned for me, and it wasn’t a look I liked seeing at all.
“Whoever’s with you, tell them they can’t have me. You can’t trick me into coming out. I’ll fight them. You tell them I’ll fight them until I die.”
“Ana …” Nate said as he sat down on the ground in front of the door. “No one is out here. When I got home, the front door was open and a raccoon was going through the garbage in the kitchen.”
It took me a minute to figure out what Nate was saying. I couldn’t comprehend it at first and continued to hide under the clothes. The light from the bedroom shone through into the closet and I saw hundred dollar bills all over the closet floor.
“What?” I asked as I tried to figure out what was going on.
“Did you think there was someone out here?” Nate said softly as he started to pull the clothes off of me.
“There was. I heard him. I yelled out to him and he didn’t respond. But I heard him out there. I was going to fight him but then there was a big crash, so I hid in here. I was going to fight him. I was going to hurt him with this,” I said as I pulled my hand up with the metal lamp in my grip.
Nate didn’t answer me and he continued to pull the clothes off of me and then reached his hand out and held it there for me to grab. He waited patiently for me to decide to actually grab it and then he pulled me up from the ground and wrapped his arms around
me. The pity in his eyes wasn’t at all what I liked seeing and I wished I could just make it disappear. I didn’t need his pity or anyone else’s. I just needed to keep my head focused.
He didn’t say a word. Nate didn’t offer me an explanation, we just stood there with his arms wrapped around me tightly. I felt safe right there. I was so confused though.
“Why is there money on the ground?” I said.
With Nate’s arms around me I was facing the closet and looked down to see what appeared to be thousands of dollars all over the closet floor. It seemed an odd place to have money.
“You must have knocked my box over that I have in there. It’s emergency money if I need to get out of here quickly.”
“So there wasn’t an intruder who was trying to kill me?” I asked.
“No. Just a raccoon.”
I stayed right there wrapped up in Nate’s arms as I tried to piece together what had happened and how I had ended up on the ground, hiding in a closet, in absolute total fear for my life. My mind couldn’t get a grip around the idea that there had not been an intruder. I had pictured the man there. I saw him in my imagination as he had rummaged through the things in the living room. I had even pictured him calling his friends and telling them I was hiding in the backroom and they should come to get me.
“My mind, I don’t trust it at all,” I quietly whispered into his arms.
“It’s okay.”
Nate stayed there with me for what seemed like forever. His comforting arms never left me and I was perfectly content to stand there all night long if he would let me. The fear I had felt thinking that someone was trying to murder me, it was horrible. And even though Nate was telling me that it had all been an illusion in my head, I still felt like I had been in danger.
After a long half an hour, we made our way out to the living room and I grabbed a seat while Nate picked up the garbage. It was clear that there had not been a person in the house; the only things that had been touched were the garbage and the contents inside of it. I felt foolish as the realization of the situation came to me.
“I better stay with Jordan when you’re gone,” I said reluctantly. “I had hoped to stay here at least a little bit, but it’s clear I won’t be good by myself.”
“What are you talking about? You did great!” Nate said enthusiastically.
I looked at him puzzled as he sat next to me and grabbed my hand. How on earth can he think what I did was good? I hid in a closet for over an hour trying to hide from a murderer who really was just a raccoon. Nothing about that situation seemed like it had gone well at all.
“How do you figure?” I laughed.
“You were able to sneak into my room and the closet totally undetected. You had yourself very well hidden and you had a weapon there with you. That seems to me like a woman who conquered her fears but was being smart and ready to fight.”
The way Nate looked at me and spun that whole situation into something that sounded positive; it absolutely floored me. There I was being sad and putting myself down and with one simple statement he had me feeling on top of the world.
“I’m going to kiss you again,” I said as a warning before I leaned in and let my lips touch his.
This time he didn’t pull away. This time I felt his arms pull me toward him and the passion in his touch told me that he wasn’t going to stop. This time, my kiss had incited something in him that he wasn’t willing to stop or forget about. With the kiss I gave him, I didn’t care if anything else happened after that moment; I just wanted to feel the gentle touch of his lips on mine.
The passion between us was palpable and I wanted more and more of Nate. I climbed into his lap and straddled him as our kiss continued. With a deep breath, I pulled in his scent and let my hands grab his t-shirt and pull it up over his head.
Briefly, our eyes met and I saw the desire he had for me. There was no question at all that Nate wanted me just as badly as I wanted him. My hands ran up and down his chest as I moved my lips to his neck and kissed him gently up and down.
“Thank you,” I spoke softly.
“For what?” he whispered.
“For making me feel normal again.”
“You’re not normal though. You’re extraordinary,” Nate said as he stood up with me in his arms.
His hands held onto my ass as he flipped me around and laid me down onto the couch. His lips moved to my chest and teased me as he kissed down and around my shirt before grabbing it with his hands and pulling it up and over my head.
Nate was gentle, each touch and movement preceded by kissing. He didn’t move quickly and allowed me to get comfortable with each part of my body his lips touched before pulling my clothes off. I loved every moment of it.
Something deep down had given me fear that I would never want another man to touch me. But I wanted Nate to touch me. I wanted him to kiss me and show me his passion more than I had wanted anything else in the last few months. His lips felt like they were giving me power as they touched me and all I could think about was wanting more and more from him.
Nate was gentle and kind and nothing like any man I had ever been with my entire life. He didn’t rush to thrust himself inside of me. Instead, his touch enticed me and showed me love like a true gentleman. My eyes were closed except for a few times when I peeked at him to see where his kisses were going to go next. One of those times he looked right at me and our eyes caught each other’s. Nate shone a mischievous smile as he let his lips move down to my thighs and spread them apart. I closed my eyes again as the pleasure he gave me brought me close to exploding with desire.
“Yes,” I whispered to him as I pulled him up on top of me. “Yes.”
I reached down and grabbed his pants and started to unbutton them. I wanted Nate inside of me. I wanted to feel the passion we had for each other and the feeling was one hundred percent mutual. Nothing about the moment had me nervous or scared. All I wanted was to feel the pleasure of our two bodies as they made love.
Nate didn’t wait another moment as he pressed himself into me and I moaned out in delight. His thrusts were smooth and deep and I felt my body rumbling almost instantly. I couldn’t help it. With only a few thrusts, I screamed out in pleasure and wrapped my arms tightly around him.
For months, I had gone through a loneliness like I had never felt in my life. Yet there I was with an amazing man and we were making love as if we had known each other all of our lives. The moment was beautiful and one of the most memorable of my life.
Being with Nate felt comforting, safe, and erotic all at once. I couldn’t have asked for a better man to make love to after going through such a horrible experience with being kidnapped. Nate had come into my life at just the right time, but I knew he would be leaving soon, and that brought horrible sadness to me.
Chapter 12
NATE
I didn’t mean to give into my desires for Ana, but my body just couldn’t hold back once she kissed me again. Having her body under mine felt more comfortable than I was used to. I wanted her, every last inch of her. Nothing in my head said that the moment was wrong at all; it was right. Even with me leaving in a few days, it didn’t matter. We both wanted each other and we were both adults.
“What’s that?” Ana asked as she looked at the stack of papers I had thrown on the coffee table.
When I first arrived back at the house, my first instinct was that someone had broken in. The feeling in my gut was horrible as I ran up the steps and into the living room. I tossed my papers onto the table and scared the raccoon that was pillaging through the garbage.
I still hadn’t been convinced that the raccoon had let himself in, though, and I screamed out for Ana. When she didn’t respond, I thought for sure she had been kidnapped again. But as I looked around and noticed that nothing else was out of place, I started to calm down. Except I still couldn’t find her. That feeling will forever be one of the worst I can remember: Ana missing.
We were friends and really nothing more, but for a spl
it second, I felt so responsible for her. It was as if she was mine and I had left her behind to get kidnapped again. I hated the feeling of dread that had come over me and was so grateful that she had just been hiding in the closet.
Her touch was genuine and warm and it made me forget about any promises I had made to myself to avoid her. I needed Ana. I couldn’t avoid her or try to turn her down. I needed her.
“It’s my research for my trip. Do you want to look it over with me?”
I was actually joking about having her look it over with me. We were both naked and curled up on the couch; it certainly wasn’t the best time to be looking over boring maps and blueprints. But Ana surprised me by sitting up and pulling the papers toward her. She looked intently at them as I slipped my own cloths back on and grabbed us some coffee.
“This all looks familiar to me, yet I’m not sure,” she said.
“That blueprint is for the Resolve Oil building and the street maps are a bit old, but those are the main streets in Damascus.”
Ana looked puzzled as she examined the blue print of the building. She looked so intently at it that I felt like she knew what she was looking for.
“I’ve been here. This is the building my father worked in. I know this place!” she said excitedly.
“Really? Are you sure?”
“Yes. But when were these blueprints from? Some of this looks different. They had an addition on the back that was where the people lived. I don’t see that here.”
“I’m not sure. I can ask though.”
“Nate, you really shouldn’t go there. I have a horrible feeling about it,” Ana said as she sat next to me.
Ana was still naked and glowing from our lovemaking, yet she was genuinely worried about my trip. I felt guilty. Suddenly, I felt like a big schmuck and like I had taken advantage of her.
I knew I would be leaving on a job that might take me weeks, or even a couple of months to complete. There was no real telling how long I would be gone. When I did protection assignments, it was usually just taking a celebrity or executive to a location and then back home. I could do my intel and the job all in one week. But this was an extended assignment; this wasn’t what I normally did and I really had no idea just how long we would have to be in Syria.