by Naomi Niles
He took a swipe at me with it, but when he missed, I balled my fist and took another shot at him, connecting squarely with his nose. He yelped as he broke free from my grasp and pulled himself to his feet. I slipped on the glass as I lunged towards him and grabbed him by the back of his shirt. In one swift motion, I lifted him off the ground and slammed him into the pile of shattered glass. He screamed out in pain as I crawled on top of him and punched him repeatedly in the face. Hannah yelled again as if something was wrong with her, and as I turned around to check, I felt a shard of glass rake me across my arm.
After that, I lost my balance and fell backward as he got up and ran for the door, leaving his gun behind him, along with a trail of blood. I ran to the front door to check for him, but he was gone. He seemed to vanish in midair, but the elevator 10 feet away had begun its descent to the first floor. As I started to go after him, I heard Hannah yelp again, halting my original intentions to follow him. I ran back inside and removed the gag from her mouth as I maneuvered past a river of tears. “He was here! He was here!” she yelled as I untied her hands.
“How did he get in?!”
“He posed as one of the security guards! He had his uniform on, and he kept his head to the side when he said he had a delivery for me! He said he would kill me if I screamed!”
I wrapped my arms around her as she shook uncontrollably in my arms. I held her head to my shoulder as I rocked her back and forth. I wanted to leave her and go finish the fight with her stalker, but I knew she wouldn’t want to be left alone. I looked at the table. His chrome revolver laid peacefully in the same spot, ready to be fired. “It’s OK, baby. It’s gonna be OK. Sssssh, it’s gonna be OK.” After she had settled down, we called the police.
They showed up with the security guards 10 minutes later to question her about the intruder. “He just came in here! He was dressed like one of the security guards, and as soon as I opened the door, he pushed his way in and told me to keep my mouth shut, or he would kill me!”
“How the fuck does something like this happen?” I asked, stepping up to the plate. “This is supposed to be a highly secure area. How can somebody get a fucking security guard outfit and walk up here like he fucking owns the building? Anybody could get up in here if it was that easy for him to do it!”
“I assure you, sir,” one of the security guards said, “it was a glitch, and we will make it our top priority for nothing like this to ever happen again. I am truly sorry about this, ma’am,” he said, shifting his attention to Hannah. She was distraught as she sat on the couch, staring into a sea of nothing. Her eyes were blank as she rocked back and forth on the edge of her couch.
“That is not good enough!” I snapped. “What if I wasn’t here?! Huh?! Then what?! Tell me what would have happened then?!” I said, stepping closer to the security guard with fury in my eyes.
The police officer stood between us. “Sir, I understand your anger. I do, but please, calm down. Please.” He put his hand on my chest to keep me away from the security guard that I was ready to pummel the same way I did her stalker. I inhaled and exhaled rapidly as I bit my bottom lip with my eyebrows scrunched together between my eyes. I wasn’t done, and I wanted somebody to pay for what just happened. “Now,” he said, still between me and the guard. “Ms. Black. Can you please give a description of the perp? We want to do all we can to track this guy down so that he can’t do anything like this again.”
“He was tall. White. A short haircut. Brown eyes, I think. I can’t remember, you know? Everything is kind of jumbled together right now. But, he worked with a casting company, and his name is Brian. The agency is,” she snapped her fingers to recollect, “The Right Cast. He is affiliated with them in some kind of way.”
“The Right Cast,” he said, writing in his notebook as I glared at the security guard. “All right. We will take it from here. And sir,” he said, looking towards me, “please do not take this into your own hands. Let us do our jobs and take care of this fellow the right way. We don’t need you doing anything and getting yourself hurt, or even worse, dead or in prison for hurting or killing somebody else. If that happens, he wins, and we do not want him to win. We want him to lose.”
Hannah reached for my hand and pulled me closer to her on the couch, but I didn’t budge. My fists were still tight, and my eyes didn’t remove from the security guards that kept their distance from me. After a few more yanks, she finally got me to sit down next to her. The scratch on my arm had lines of dried blood all around it, but I didn’t feel an ounce of pain. My adrenaline had blocked it all out of my mind. “We do, too,” Hannah said as she stood up. “Thank you, officer. I appreciate all you have done.”
“No problem, miss. It is our duty.”
I watched her walk the officer and the security guards to the door and lock it. Afterward, she walked down the hallway as I sat on the couch, my fists still balled and ready to strike like a cobra. I looked to my left and saw the shattered lamp still lying on the ground. I should’ve killed him, I said to myself. I should’ve killed him right then and there.
Chapter Thirty
Hannah
I stood in the bathroom for a few minutes, glaring in the mirror at myself and what could’ve happened if Ezra wasn’t there. I grabbed a piece of tissue and wiped my bloodshot eyes. Moments later, Ezra walked down the hallway and stood in the doorway as I looked at his arm. I grabbed a bottle of alcohol and drenched a napkin with it. “Hold still,” I said. “This might sting a little bit.” I grabbed his arm and held it over the sink as I dabbed his arm with the napkin soaked in rubbing alcohol. He didn’t even flinch as it came in contact with his skin and removed the dried blood from around the wound.
The wound started bleeding again as the napkin brushed across it, so I dabbed it a little more and then grabbed a bandage to wrap it up. “Does it hurt?” I asked.
“I’m fine. Are you OK, though?”
I put the rubbing alcohol back in the cabinet. “I will be. I just thank God that you were here. I don’t want to imagine,” I looked away from him and held my tears in. I had cried enough for the night, and I didn’t feel like going through it again. “I’m just thankful that you were here.”
He stepped closer to me and wrapped his arms around my body. I had always felt safe in his presence, but now, I knew I was safe. The way he kicked Brian’s ass in front of me was something that I imagined seeing in an action movie. I was scared, but at the same time, I was turned on. It was a frightening and sexy thing to watch him handle Brian the way he did. “Thank you,” I said as I kissed him on his chest.
“Don’t thank me. I’m supposed to do that.”
“No, thank you.” I kissed him again on his nipple. “Thank you,” on his other pectoral, “thank you,” I slid down to his abs, and finally, I got on my knees and slowly removed his basketball shorts from over his waist. “Thank you,” I said as I slowly placed his dick inside my mouth. I wanted him. He was my soldier. My protector. I was not only appreciative that he protected me, but I was also grateful that I was his woman. He braced himself, placing his hands on the door frame as I wrapped my lips around his dick. I felt him stiffen while he was inside my mouth and when he had gotten too big for me to keep him inside, I slid my tongue up his shaft, then twirled it around the tip of his penis.
I grabbed his dick and moved my hand up and down the shaft as I held my tongue out, waiting for him to bust on it. I slapped it against the side of my face as he grabbed the top of my head and pushed it back onto his meat. He bit his bottom lip as I looked up at him, his muscles poking off his chest like mountains. I bobbed my head back and forth on it, spitting and sucking while I jacked him off. He squirmed and leaned against the counter, knocking my makeup onto the floor with a loud crash. Suddenly, he pulled his dick out of my mouth and stood me up, ripping my pants and underwear off at the same time with one yank.
He turned me around and pressed my cheek against the bathroom mirror as he slid into my wet vagina. I knocked the rest of my mak
eup onto the floor as he grabbed my waist and fucked me from behind, smacking my ass loud enough for it to echo throughout the whole apartment. He grabbed a handful of my hair and pulled me towards him as I felt his dick deep inside of me. I twisted around to kiss him on the lips as he continued ramming me from the back. It was rough, but I wanted it like that. I wanted him to hurt me. I glanced at his reflection in the mirror and caught a glimpse of his bandage. I ran my hands across it as he fucked me from behind, and in that moment, I opened my mouth to scream out the pleasure of my orgasm, but nothing came out. Just empty screams as he fucked me like I was the last woman in the world.
Chapter Thirty-One
Ezra
One week after the fight, we boarded the private jet to New Zealand. Hannah told me that the police had caught the guy that had gotten into her house, so that was a load off both of our shoulders. My adrenaline was still going from the day I pummeled him. When I told Jeff about it, he said that all those months in the gym were paying off in more ways than one. But honestly, even if I didn’t lift a single weight, I think it still would have ended the same way for that guy. Hannah was already on the flight when I showed up. The security escorted me to a private airport just outside of the city. I didn’t even know it was there, but it was hidden far off the highway, and the flights usually took off early in the morning just to minimize the attention.
She sat in a reclining chair with her feet propped up on the footrest. As soon as I walked in, she lowered it and welcomed me onto the flight with a kiss. “Hey, babe,” she said as we embraced.
“Hey, baby. How are you?”
“I’m good.”
She grabbed hold of my arm and took a glance at the bandage that was wrapped around my wound. She tried to unravel it, but I held her hand in place. “No, don’t. I just wrapped it up again before I got out here. It is still a little fresh, but it is healing nicely.”
She poked her bottom lip out. She had apologized repeatedly for the past week about placing me in that situation with her crazy stalker. For some reason, she felt like it was her fault, even though I told her that it wasn’t. She can’t control who likes her and what they are willing to go through just to get close to her. It wasn’t her fault, but I couldn’t tell her anything other than, “I forgive you.”
I gently grabbed her chin and lifted her eyes towards mine. “Hey, what did I tell you? It’s not your fault, all right? Just let it go. I’m just happy I was there.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. You’ve been saying the same thing all week, but I can’t help how I feel about it.” She slid her hand into mine and interlocked our fingers. Suddenly, a wide smile spread across her face. “Come on,” she said with excitement. “Let me show you around this jet. It is soooooo nice!” She took me further into the jet. There was a small wet bar against the window with crystal glasses hanging across the top. The floor was carpeted, and one long, brown leather couch sat on the other side of the aircraft with two small tables bolted to the ground. On each side of the couch, there were two smaller chairs, and on the wall near the cockpit, there was a flat screen television mounted on the wall.
The only time I had seen anything like this was in a movie or an upscale magazine that highlighted the lives of the rich and famous. I tried not to look too anxious to be inside of this luxurious jet, but I couldn’t keep my smile hidden. “Go ahead,” Hannah said. “Smile! Shoot, I know I did as soon as I got on this thing. I’ve been smiling ever since I sat in that big, soft recliner. I can’t believe we are about to fly like this!”
“Yeah,” I said as I grabbed one of the champagne glasses. “I can’t either. One day, though, and one day soon, I will own one of these for myself.”
Just as I put the glass back into its spot on the wet bar, Leonard seemingly came out of nowhere, clapping his hands together as if he had just seen one of the greatest feats known to man. “Yes, yes, yes,” he said, reaching towards Hannah for an embrace. “Welcome to my home away from home, away from home.” He kissed Hannah on each cheek, then embraced her once again as I watched with a curious look. When they released, he switched his attention to me. “And you, Ezra, my handsome star in the making. Come, come,” he ushered me closer to him. “Don’t be shy. You know how I operate now, I am sure of it.”
I reluctantly embraced him, squirming as he brushed his lips against each one of my cheeks. “So, I am happy that you all made it here. The ride here was smooth, no?” He didn’t give us a chance to respond. “Oh, of course it was! I only hire the best drivers and security detail, so I know that- ” he stopped mid-sentence when he noticed the bandage on my arm. His mouth opened slowly like a whale in the depths of the ocean. His eyes lifted from my bandage until we met mine. “What happened?!” he gasped. “What in the world happened, Ezra?!”
He lunged for my wrist, but I kept it away from him. Just behind him, Hannah lowered her gaze to the floor as if she were a young child getting ready to be scolded by her parents. “Ezra! For heaven’s sake, let me look! What happened?! You must tell me at once!”
“I um, I just got into a minor accident.”
His eyes widened like saucers as he put his hand over his heart. “Accident!? Oh, no, no, no! Automobile?! Please, tell me that you or anybody else weren’t seriously hurt!”
“No, Leonard, not a car accident. Just a scratch. I was lifting weights this past week, and one of the machines caught a hold of my forearm.”
“Dear God! You must take the bandage off at once so I can analyze it! We are headed to New Zealand, and you cannot wear long-sleeved shirts in New Zealand! Your arms,” he rubbed my other forearm, “they need to be out in the open!” When he rubbed his hands onto my chest, I was moments away from socking him in the mouth. “And these pecs! Yes, they must see it all! They must get a full view of this body of art! Remove it, Ezra! Remove it at once!”
“Leonard, it is nothing, really. It’s just a–”
“Remove it!” he said, stomping his foot on the floor. I glanced at Hannah as she turned her back to our interaction. I exhaled, then unwrapped the bandage as Leonard tapped his foot against the floor with his arms folded across his chest. “Goodness, I hope this is not bad! I hope this is not bad!” Once the bandage was removed, he slid his glasses onto his ears and leaned down to get a closer look. He squinted his eyes together as if he still couldn’t see my scar well enough. After he had got a good enough look, he straightened himself out and removed his glasses.
Hannah paced the side of the jet, waiting for Leonard to finish his examination. “Did you know about this?” he asked her. When she spun around, I could tell that she was searching for a way to explain the scar on my wrist.
“I umm–”
“No, she didn’t,” I said, interrupting her response. Leonard fixed his attention on me again as I continued, “well, I mean, she knew but only because I told her. She was the first person I told that I had been in an accident, so, yeah, she knew… but she wasn’t withholding anything.” He looked between the both of us as if we were siblings, taking up for each other when we were both under the gun.
He slid his glasses back into his pouch. “Well, I suppose. It is not that bad, though. A little makeup will take care of it,” he looked at the scar again. “Well, maybe a lot of makeup. Anyhow, it is not a deal breaker. You have to be careful, Ezra. You are the star of this movie, and we need that body of yours flawless for the screen.” He looked at Hannah. “And you as well, my dear. You as well. Well, I suppose you two should get comfortable. The flight is 12 hours long, as you both know, but the time generally flies on this aircraft, no pun intended.” He smiled. “I shall see you two when we land. I will be in my room getting some much-needed rest. Enjoy.”
After he had walked away, Hannah approached me. “I thought that was going to go bad,” she said as she grabbed my hand. “At least it is healing… sort of.” She sighed. I am sorry, Ezra. I am–”
“You are going to make me go crazy if you apologize one more time, all right, baby? Listen,” I pulle
d her closer to me, “if I had to do it again and get this same ugly scar on my arm, I would do it without hesitation. My job is to make sure you are safe, and that is something I can’t fail at. I want to make sure you are secure, and I want you to know that if we are together, I will always protect you. Always.” I gently held the sides of her face and pulled her closer to me for a kiss.
“All right,” she said. “I’ll just let it go.” She took my bandage and rewrapped the scar on my arm. “But, I am taking care of you while we are on this flight and I am not taking ‘no’ for an answer. It is the least I can do. I want you to relax, OK? Deal?” I started to respond, but she cut me off. “OK, deal. So, you take your seat right there,” she pointed to the couch. “Lay down, do whatever you want. Would you like a drink? They have a lot of different wine bottles up here. Chardonnay. Merlot. Pinot Noir.”
“Merlot is fine.”
“OK.”
I sat down on the soft leather couch, and before I could get comfortable, my phone rang. I exhaled, then shook my head as the phone rang in my hand. “What’s wrong?” Hannah asked while she poured the drink into my glass.
“It’s fucking Tanya. She made good on her threat to keep my boys away from me while we are filming this movie and she won’t stop calling me about it. I told her I was going to get a lawyer, so she is bugging me about random bullshit to keep provoking me. Honestly, I think she is trying to piss me off and then record the conversation so she can say that I am stressed out with shooting the movie, you know? Make it seem like I can’t handle my boys during this time.”
She walked the drink to the couch and sat down beside me. “Well, you know the lawyer I was telling you about? I mentioned the situation to her and she said she would take the case, but I didn’t hear anything else about it, so I didn’t know which way to take it. Sounds like you need her, though. Do you want me to give her your number?”