He turned and nearly ran over Ahndra. "What."
"You fine?" she asked, even though her expression proved she wouldn't believe any answer he gave.
Seifer stepped past her. "Yes."
A story waited to be told. A story he didn't have. How could he tell it? He tightened his fisted hands as he stepped aboard the waiting elevator. He stared at the changing number with a darkening glare. A story. A confession. Another rush that would heighten the addiction to the next one. Damn it.
The elevator stopped on the main floor and opened its doors. Seifer stepped out and halted. Janine straightened from where she leaned against the wall near the elevator control-panel. The bandage on her head had been changed to a smaller one, and she now wore Balamb-blue sweats with the Garden symbol and her usual white tank-tee.
Her brown eyes searched out his green ones, but he didn't accept the chase. Seifer moved his gaze to the keys in his hand as he searched for his dorm key. "Larabie."
Janine regarded him for a silent moment before asking "How hard do I push?"
He clenched his jaw and said "Hard," through clenched teeth.
"I don't know how to push hard without pissing people off," she warned.
"Fine." He sent her a dark stare. "Push it." They made a bargain, and he was a man of his word.
Janine gave a slight and thoughtful nod. "Okay." She stepped forward and gave a firm push. "Come on. Let's go."
Seifer fought back the flare of temper and allowed the push. He stepped down the stairs, hearing Janine's firm and steady steps behind him as they made their way down the main corridor and to the left. Once they neared the Training Center, Janine stepped past and grabbed firm hold of his arm to pull him into and down the side-hall. The urge to pull his arm from her grasp was strong, but he fought it back as they entered the Training Center and made their way to that portion that was--for all intents and purposes--restricted. Janine pulled him inside and then pushed his back against the wall, pinning him there with a hand on each of his arms as she held his gaze with hers.
"When was the first time you were here?"
Seifer pressed his lips together. "Fourteen." He fisted his hands to keep from pushing her back.
"So that's... um... Five, six... Seven years ago?"
"Close enough."
Janine watched his face a moment. "The first time Sally came here, she met Zell. Well, not really. He stared out at Garden while she just watched him. "What about you? Why were you here?"
Seifer's brain screamed at him to stay silent, almost as if Janine were a spy attempting to force Garden secrets from him. "A dare."
Janine's lips twitched as she arched an eyebrow. "A dare? That sounds like fun. I love playing truth or dare. Took the dare each and every time. Shocked the hell out of everyone, too. Pissed my parents off, though."
Seifer pulled his arms free from her hands and turned to grip the wall as he stared out at Garden.
Janine stepped beside him, still watching his profile. "So what was the dare?"
"Quistis Trepe."
Janine leaned back against the wall, resting her elbows on the top as she examined his face. "And what the hell did you have to do? Or should I hazard an easy guess?"
"To quote the bastard who dared me: 'I dare you to score with Quistis Trepe in the forbidden zone at the Training Center.'" Seifer clenched his jaw. "I didn't think she'd come." He scoffed. "I didn't think she'd let me touch her, either. Too bad it wasn't more damned fun." Seifer met Janine's gaze and slightly sneered. "My first time having sex and in the middle of it I daydream about going off to war."
Janine smirked and lowered her gaze. "Hell. That explains a lot between you two."
Seifer scoffed again as he moved his focus back to Garden.
She heaved herself up onto the wall. She tugged Seifer to stand in front of her, wrapping her legs around his waist. "My turn. What do you already know from my file?"
Seifer settled his hands on her hips, fingers deftly shifting beneath the obstruction of her tee to the silky softness of her midriff. She smirked but said nothing. "Haven't received it yet from Trabia. Regal's tracking it down."
"Heh. That likely pisses you off. Trevor never was quick on paperwork. He'd rather beat the shit out of bad guys. Not bad in bed, though."
An eyebrow twitched at a slight internal cringe as he focused on her profile. "You and Hillman?" He scoffed. "The guy's an undisciplined prick."
Janine chuckled, but didn't meet his gaze. "Tell me how you really feel." He briefly clenched his jaw. "But you're right. He is." She shrugged. "I was bored, I guess. Don't you do anything like that when you're bored?"
"I don't get bored." Her continuing scrutiny caused a slight twitch to his jaw muscle.
"Okay. Fine. Don't you do anything like that when you're so horny you'd hump a chair?"
Seifer barked out a laugh. "Damn, Larabie."
"What? You're telling me you don't ever get an itch to hop in the sack with the nearest sweet-assed candidate or SeeD? I don't believe that for a minute. You're one hot and sexy man, Almasy. You can't tell me that you don't need a little action every once in a while to settle your nerves."
He would have pulled away, but her hands flashed to his wrists, keeping his hands where they were until they remained of their own volition. "I don't have time for distractions." Correction: he didn't allow himself distractions.
"Ten minutes here and there to blow off steam a distraction?"
"'Ten minutes here and there' grows, Larabie, and like I said before: Garden is my life."
Her thumbs caressed the skin of his wrists. "You've been around the bend a couple times."
"I have."
"She ditch ya for another guy?"
The smirk that twisted his lips was a near sneer. "Something like that."
Her hands framed his face, tilting his gaze to meet hers. Her lips tilted up in a lop-sided smile. "You're not making this any damned easier."
"Would you?"
"Hell no. This story-telling shit isn't as easy as it looks. I don't know how Sal-gal does it day in and out."
Seifer's hands drifted from the warmth of her skin and dropped to his sides. For years he worked at getting secrets for Garden's safety, but to give them up? What the hell was he trying to prove? He did an about-face with a mumbled excuse he couldn't even understand and stepped away.
As expected, Janine caught his arm and jerked him to a stop.
"SeeDs don't surrender, Seifer. Remember?"
Seifer fisted his hand, body tensing. Shit.
"Maybe we're trying too big? Too serious?"
But a secret was a secret. Big or serious, small and simple, what did it matter? It was still something better kept to oneself. He pulled his arm from her grasp and headed once more toward the main portion of the Training Center.
"Why 'Death is answering 'no''?"
Again, Seifer halted.
Janine softly cleared her throat before stepping up beside him and intensely watching his profile. "I just don't see it as a smart-ass quip anymore. Every time I do I get a pinch in the back of my brain. So, why that? Why that one statement?"
But how did he explain that statement, said by Headmaster Cid, which made him accept life with Garden? How did he tell her he wouldn't be here, putting his ass on the line every day for thousands of SeeDs, if it hadn't been for that one phrase said to him when he thought his life had lost all sense of a previously had purpose?
"Is that your truth?"
His head sharply turned, eyes focusing on hers. "What?"
"'Death is answering 'no.'' Is that. . . is that your mission?"
Seifer couldn't answer.
"Me? I'm a thrill junkie. Whether it's in a battle, class, exam, or lecture, it's all about the rush and the thrill. It's about pushing myself to the limit of what I can do and then stepping a little more out." She slowly crossed her arms as she held his gaze, her brown ones almost thoughtful. "How does 'Death is answering 'no'' change things for you? What does it make you
do?"
It made him stay in a place surrounded--"My job," he said curtly, unable to look away from those brown eyes.
"A damn hard job. One that's all guts and no glory."
"There's glory plenty," Seifer scoffed. "Each damn day some dickhead doesn't blow the shit out of some military or civilian establishment. Each power-hungry prick whose ass gets handed to him in the brig is my glory, Larabie, so don't shed a tear for this jackass."
She smirked and then laughed. "Me? Waste water on tears? Hell. You don't know me very well, do you, Almasy? The only time I cried was the day they lowered Jen in the ground." Janine stretched her arms over her head, saying, "Haven't had time for it since," as she yawned. "Takes too much damned energy." Then she lowered her arms, casting him a sultry smirk as she motioned toward him. "You done, then? You seemed ready to book ass out of here a little while ago."
Seifer frowned, glaring at the exit as he balled his hands into fists. But go to what? The desk in his room filled with reports and transcripts he'd already sorted through four times already? Or stay with a damned sexy hard-ass who put up with his shit?
"Come on." Janine led him back to the wall. Then she heaved herself up and patted the cement beside her. "Get yourself up here. I've got a helluva story. It'll have you laughing your ass off."
Sending one more look behind him to the exit--Oh hell--and then pushed himself up beside Janine.
"You like pulling pranks, don't you?" Janine asked. She kicked her feet up onto the wall and shifted to plop her head into his lap. "You know the ones. The pissier it makes them the better?"
An eyebrow twitched. "Your point?"
"My point is that I pulled a pisser on a friend of mine when I was a candidate that had me howling for years after. I really think you'd appreciate it. It was one helluva prank. And it came right off the top of my head. Had no idea I was going to pull one when I showed up. Pure and simple inspiration." She chuckled. "Damn. I got the prick good. Still amazes me what he did, though, and as cool as anything." She laughed.
"Larabie, I've got better things to do than sit here listening to a one-sided reminisce."
"All right, big guy. Keep your boxers on. So, here I am a spunky little bitch of a candidate getting ready to start the first wave of heavy training before doing the exam qualifier. Well, that's all fine and dandy but I've never been one to enjoy stressing over anything. So the minute the stress starts, I start freaking a little bit and need to beat some shit up. I go to the Training Center, get all wet, wild, and freaky-icky and then go to the showers--co-ed showers, you know--only to find one of my friends doing the same exact thing." She howled. "The guy's singing in the shower as if he thinks he's the male version of that Julia chick with the 'Eyes on Me' hit. Actually, he doesn't sing so bad. Anyway, it hits me like a--"
"Larabie," Seifer grumbled. "Will you tell the damn prank?"
"I'm getting there. Chill. So, I step into the shower, hear the one-date-wonder singing his heart out, and walk straight up to his locker and take his candidate uniform, all the towels available--including the dirty ones--and then make sure all the other lockers are either secured tight or empty. I even made sure all the wastebaskets didn't have anything bigger than a gum-wrapper." Janine chuckled, brown eyes twinkling. "There was no way in hell I was going to leave him with something to cover up."
Seifer's lips twitched upward. "Poor bastard."
Adjusting her position slightly within his lap, Janine reached up to wipe at a corner of his lips with her thumb as she continued. "Hell no. Pranks and this guy have always gone hand-in-hand. Him and Dincht have great stories. Anyway." She tucked her hand back under her arm. "So here the poor guy's got nothing but what Hyne gave him, and I've gone to lunch with another friend of mine in the cafeteria. Now, what you've got to know is all this is happening at Trabia Garden in the middle of the busiest lunch session. Instructors, SeeD, candidates, and even the Headmaster is in the cafeteria getting something to eat and drink. In fact, I think the chief of security was there refilling his coffee. And what do you know? Some buck-naked guy about 6' 4" tall comes walking in all pink and flustered and holding a strategically placed plant leaf. A rather large plant leaf."
"You're shitting me."
"It gets better," Janine promised. "Not only does he walk straight through the center of the cafeteria, the poor bastard strides directly up to me and my friend at the table as we're trying to eat--not that it's easy to do when you've got a 6'4" hottie walking toward you without a stitch on but a bit of greenery. My imagination was painting a very different picture--but he simply sticks out his hand and says, 'Very funny. Now, may I have my clothes back, please?'"
"You didn't just give them to him, Larabie. Please."
"Hell no! I gave him a key, but I didn't tell him what the key was to, or where it was located, or even what was there. Believe me, he took the key faster than a dying man grabs water. Then he put the key in his teeth, grabbed my tray while smiling weakly at my friend, and then turned and calmly walked off, hiding his sweet ass with the tray. My friend and I must have howled for hours and days after. Hey, you know what? I think he and my friend started going out after that." Janine laughed. "Figures. Who wouldn't with that body burned into their head?"
"Poor bastard," he said again.
"Yeah. I guess it was rather harsh, but damn was it funny to see him all red and pissy. I think every muscle in that tight-ass body of his was as taut as a coiled spring, he was so damned embarrassed."
"Note to self: Put better locks on the lockers," Seifer commented, chuckling.
"Hey, what's the fun in that?"
"You should never do the same prank twice. Ruins the thrill."
Janine's eyebrow arched upward. "Good idea. Damn. Would never have thought of that. Of course, I've never done the same prank twice on the same person, so I guess that's close enough." She put her hands behind her head, lacing her fingers together as she smiled up at him with the same sultry smirk he'd come to expect from her. "So, now what?"
Seifer shifted his focus to the stars. He had never shared anything with anyone. What cause did an orphan have for sharing? And a soldier? They took life and gave back nothing but a supposed sense of security and safety.
"Hey." Janine lifted a hand to tickle the skin of his partially exposed chest beneath his black-silk shirt. When he didn't react, she snapped her fingers and once more crossed her arms. "Damn. Not ticklish."
He absently adjusted his balancing hold on the retaining wall as he slightly frowned. Janine took nothing, and he didn't understand that. The chase was shared between the both of them. The secrets were shared. Seifer's frown darkened. No taking. And he didn't understand that.
Janine left him wanting more. More of her. More of her past. More secrets.
Seifer released a quick breath, feeling her scrutiny as she adjusted her crossed arms. She continued to watch him, reminding him how he'd never done anything like this before. Being with a woman as hot as Janine meant sex, maybe a thrill, and then it was over. With Janine, each time she accepted his 'no' the thrill was like a Firaga in the back of his skull, and it kept him coming back for more.
He reluctantly smirked. Who knew?
"I lost my virginity when I was thirteen."
Seifer's gaze focused on hers somewhat sharply.
"My parents were killed the previous year by Galbadian soldiers, so I'd been living on my own with my brother, Danny, for so long I'd forgotten what it felt like to have a home. Odd jobs, stealing, whatever I could do to keep him fed and warm."
Janine squinted her eyes at the stars, swallowing somewhat hard as she tightened her crossed arms. "Some missionary and his family took me in that second winter, and their oldest boy was damned good to look at." She shrugged and then looked over at him, meeting what was likely an oddly serious gaze. "I guess I just wanted to be with someone again. Being alone sucked shit, and he was a nice kid. A little naive. Didn't know what hit him when I made the move. I was only with them for a month before joining
Garden. Danny's still there. They adopted him years ago. I get letters from him sometimes. Get cards from them every birthday and holiday."
Silence was Seifer's only answer, mostly due to the fact he didn't know what was expected from him by way of response. What the hell am I thinking? But, to be honest, he didn't give a rat's ass.
Janine cleared her throat and shifted her head against him to again meet his eyes. Those damn sexy eyes of brown that set his brain on fire. Those sparkling depths of arrogant desire that hid a SeeD who cried at her best-friend's funeral.
One side of her lips twitched upward as she sat up to hop down from the wall. "You're the first man to say 'no' to me, Seifer Almasy, twice." She stepped close, between his legs, and leaned in, staring up at him with a half-lidded gaze that sent his heart pounding. "I'll be damned if that doesn't make you all the more a thrill I want to have."
"I guess there's only one thing to do."
She smirked at him, giving the belt of his trousers a tug and encouraging him from the wall. "What's the risk-factor of getting interrupted?"
"Let's find out."
His hands followed the supple curve of her backside and tugged her close, pressing her against him as her lips teased his mouth with a seek and chase that had him by the balls. Her quick breath as his hands slipped beneath her tank-tee, the way her back arched as his fingers explored those luscious curves, her moan sending a dizzying spike of desire to his core. There was no daydreaming. Just pursuit of the thrill as it led them straight to the brink of a promised next. Testing each other's discipline and control to the very limit.
"You know all the buttons," Janine moaned, her hands tracing fire along his back.
"A few," he admitted, his voice gruff.
She chuckled, her lips nibbling at his as her breath fanned his face. "Wanna go to my room to find the others," she purred, "or just chase them around a bit."
His fingers teased the hooks of her bra until it gave. "A chase."
Chapter Eight
Green Eyed Monsters
A chair was pulled out and straddled. Janine looked up from the correcting of her papers and smirked. "Hey, Dincht. Did I say you could sit your ass there?"
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