MARKED (Hunter Awakened)

by Rascal Hearts

  “May I ask another question of you?” Elias's voice interrupted my musings.

  “Of course,” I said. “You can ask me anything you want.” Part of me said that wasn't a good idea, but I'd already made the offer, and I didn't intend to take it back. I braced myself for something emotionally deep and personal.

  “You do not seem like a person who revels in the money she makes, or one who flaunts her wealth,” he began.

  My interest was piqued. I wasn't sure where this was going.

  “I am curious, then, why a lone person would choose to live in such a large house.”

  I laughed. I could honestly say that no one had ever asked me that question before. He froze for a moment, then relaxed when he saw that I hadn't been offended by his inquiry. “It's actually a really simple answer,” I said. “When I was first looking for a house, I told the realtor that I wanted something with at least two acres of land and I wanted it to be close enough to the city that I didn't have a crazy commute if I decided I wanted to continue being an actor.”

  I sipped at the still-hot cider. “I didn't consider the fact that, out here, having that much land probably meant a big house was on it. She showed it to me and I fell in love with what I imagined this could be.” I gestured to my surroundings. “The house was amazing too, but I actually bought it for the land.” I grinned at him. “Besides, who says I'm alone all the time. For all you know, I could be inviting people over for weekly orgies.”

  His jaw dropped and I laughed again. I'd wondered if I could manage to shock him. After a moment, he joined in with my laughter and the tension between us dissipated, leaving behind something light and sweet. It stayed that way as we finished our meal, and he told me about all of the places he'd lived when he was child and even as an adult. I told him about my pet hamster, Ignatius, though not the fact that my parents had used the poor thing as a bargaining chip for pretty much everything during his three year life. I hadn't asked for another pet after he'd passed.

  It wasn't until I started nodding off that Elias declared that it was time for the picnic to be over. He helped me to my feet, but he didn't have to carry me to bed this time. He did, however, walk me to the door of my bedroom. I stood there, looking up at him, trying to will him to kiss me. For a moment, I thought it might've worked, but all he did was pluck the orchid from my hair.

  “May I keep it?” he asked softly. “I would like to have it to remember this night.”

  I nodded mutely, torn between the disappointment of not being kissed and how romantic I thought it was that he wanted the flower as a keepsake.

  “I shall call tomorrow to inquire if my services are needed.” He gave me a look that made me think that he was trying to memorize what I looked like. “Sleep well.”

  I watched him walk down the hall towards the stairs before heading into my room. I had a feeling sleep would be a long time coming as I replayed every moment of our lovely picnic.

  Chapter Ten

  We had the restaurant to ourselves. No paparazzi. No fans asking for autographs. Make no mistake, I loved my fans, but there were times I just wanted to eat in peace. This would've been one of those times, so I was doubly grateful that no one else was around. We'd finished our delicious meal and were just taking the last bites of a sinfully rich chocolate dessert when a song began to play.

  “May I have this dance?” Elias asked as he stood, holding a hand out to me.

  I slid my hand into his and allowed him to help me to my feet. I loved the suit he was wearing. It fit him beautifully, somehow more sensual than the ones he wore to work. The style perfectly complemented my dress, which I thought was a nice move on his part. I'd never been the type of person who went to the big name designers for awards show dresses, preferring to help struggling designers get their name out there, but that meant that it was sometimes difficult for my dates to match. The dress I was wearing now hadn't come from a designer I'd used in the past, but that wasn't uncommon. I rarely used the same one twice. Whoever did this outfit, however, I would probably be calling on again. It was stunning.

  As Elias led me out onto the empty dance floor, the silver gray silk flowed around my legs like smoke or fog. The material draped beautifully over my figure, enhancing my chest and hips enough to give me some curves while keeping my waist still slender. The neckline was a little lower than I usually wore, but the heat in Elias's eyes was well worth a little extra cleavage. The way his gaze kept dropping to the thigh-high slit in my skirt told me that he liked that just as much.

  I put one hand on his shoulder as his settled at my hip. Our other hands stayed clasped together, our bodies several inches apart as we began to dance. I should've been worried, I knew, trying to dance in the heels I was wearing, but my feet didn't seem to agree with me. They moved almost of their own accord, each step perfectly mirroring Elias's. Our movements were fluid, our bodies moving in such perfect synchronization that it seemed like we'd been dancing together our whole lives.

  Elias spun me out and around, moving me away from him before pulling me back, letting our bodies come together. He let go of my hand and dropped his to the other side of my waist. His hands slid around me to my back. One splayed across the middle, the other at the small of my back, the tips of his fingers just barely brushing the top of my ass. I wrapped my arms around his neck, my fingers teasing the short hair at the nape of his neck. It was as soft as I'd always imagined.

  The fancy moves we'd been doing moments ago disappeared and we swayed together, pressing our bodies together so that the heat radiated between the two of us. With my heels, the height difference between us had shrunk and I found that I barely had to tip my head to look him in the eye. Our gazes locked, gray and green, everything we were feeling playing across our eyes.

  “You are certainly the most beautiful creature I have ever seen,” Elias said.

  I blushed, but couldn't deny that I was pleased by what he said.

  “I have been entranced from the moment I set eyes on you,” he continued. “The thought of your lips on mine has kept me awake at night, wondering what they would feel like, taste like. I imagine you taste of strawberries and sugar, something ripe and sweet that would burst across my tastebuds as I explored.”

  I swallowed hard. I wasn't so sure he was talking about my lips anymore. I could feel him, hard and hot against my hip. All I would need to do would be to shift just the slightest bit and he would almost be right where I wanted him the most. It was agony, having him so close to me, but yet so far from satisfying the ache between my legs.

  “I have dreamed of making love to you.” Elias's voice had dropped to a whisper. “Of stretching you out on your bed and worshipping your body with my hands, my mouth, until you have screamed your pleasure to the sky.”

  Breathing was suddenly a problem for me.

  “Would you be wet for me? Your core hot and tight as I ease my way inside?”

  His fingers flexed on my back and I shivered. If he kept talking like that, I was going to climax before he even kissed me. I desperately wanted him to keep going.

  “Would you stretch around me, your body molding itself around me as if we were two puzzle pieces coming together for the first time? Every stroke I made would rub against places inside of you that have never been touched before. I would fill you over and over again, swallowing your cries as my body drove yours to heights of passion and pleasure that you could never imagine.”

  My body went stiff as my climax washed over me, brought on by words alone...

  I sucked in air as my eyes flew open. What the hell? For a moment, I was disoriented, unable to figure out why the room was dark, why I wasn't in my dress, why Elias wasn't there, why I was in my pajamas and lying down... on my bed.

  A dream. I pressed the heels of my hands against my eyes. My entire body was thrumming with arousal, but it had only been a dream. I'd just cum from a dream and it hadn't even been a sex dream. It had been just talk.

  I groaned in frustration. This sucked. If I did
n't get laid, and soon, I was going to explode.

  It took me a long time to get back to sleep.

  Chapter Eleven

  It was two weeks until we were going to break for Christmas and it was raining. I'm not talking about the usual light mist that sends a lot of Californians into a tizzy. This was a full-on downpour that had basically brought all of our outdoor scenes to a halt. In a bit of irony, they all happened to be our daytime shots, including a couple that specifically called for sun.

  The temperature had gone up to the low seventies, which was nice, but most people were pointing out that they'd much rather have sixty and sunny than rainy and seventy. Not me. Even though I didn't like how it affected our filming schedule, I liked the rain. I always had.

  The house I'd grown up in had a massive window seat in the room my mother had called 'the parlor.' We hadn't really used the room except for Mom to show people when they visited so she could say that we had a parlor. It had also been the one room where she never thought to look for me. If I'd wanted to be alone, my bedroom and the library had been my favorite places to go, but I'd always known that, at some point, one of my parents would find me there.

  So, on those rare occasions when I hadn't wanted to be found at all, I'd gone to the parlor. Usually it was on the odd rainy day and I would sit on the window seat and watch the rain against the glass. The sound soothed me, and I found a soft sort of beauty to the raindrops. I even liked the occasional thunderstorm, the way the lightning would streak across and down, bright bolts of sizzling electricity. After a couple of hours, I'd go back to the real world, able to cope a little better.

  There was no thunder or lightning today, so once the rain slowed, I knew we'd be up and running. We also had the crew rushing to get some interior shots set up so the day wouldn't be completely wasted, but until we knew what we were doing, none of us actors could get in costume or make-up. It was just a waiting game. I could've been studying my lines since there were only a handful of scenes left to shoot for this episode, but I had no way of knowing which one would be next, so I'd set my script aside and was now thinking back over the past two weeks and how great they had been.

  Elias had come by the Saturday and Sunday after Thanksgiving, to check on me, he'd said, but he'd stayed for most of the night both times. On Sunday, we'd sat in front of the fireplace in the library and read, occasionally stealing glances at each other, but mostly just trying to get through our books. I wasn't sure how he'd done, but I hadn't really gotten much read.

  Saturday, he'd helped me set up and decorate my tree, a process that had taken more time than I'd anticipated. I'd bought a tree that was eight feet tall, smaller than the monstrosities my parents had set up, but bigger than I'd realized. The ornaments I'd kept from my past barely covered a third of the tree. So, at a quarter till eleven at night, we'd gone out on a mission to find ornaments.

  A couple of years back, I'd seen a small, family-owned store that made hand-crafted ornaments, and it had been to there that I'd directed Elias. The look on the elderly woman's face when I'd gone through the checkout with a full cart had been priceless. I'd always liked supporting smaller businesses, and the fact that every single one of these were beautiful just made it all the more worthwhile.

  There had been glass bulbs painted with intricate designs, landscapes and quotes. Stuffed animals of various kinds. Snowmen made of everything from glass to cotton to bells. Reindeer, crosses, stars and snowflakes. Hand-cast plaster that had been painted by members of the family. Wooden ones carved by hand. No two were alike.

  I might've gone a bit overboard on the ornaments, I admitted as I thought about the tree, now packed tightly with everything I'd purchased, but I loved it. When my parents had hired professionals to re-decorate our tree every year, I'd been disappointed, but they'd assured me that was how 'real actors' did it. As I'd gotten older, I'd realized that they'd wanted everything to look their definition of perfect. I liked the fact that my tree didn't look like something out of a magazine.

  “Miss Rhines.”

  I rolled my eyes as I called, “come in.” Even though we'd spent every day of the past two and a half weeks together, when we were at work, Elias still insisted on addressing me formally. I understood that he wanted to keep things professional, but a lot of bodyguards called their employers by their first names—Paul, for example. Elias, however, was different.

  Elias stepped inside, shaking off his umbrella and setting it aside. He stayed just inside the door, his posture making it clear that he was here in a professional capacity, despite the fact that even if we hadn't talked about it, we both knew that things between us weren't strictly business. While I appreciated his discretion, I still thought it'd be nice for him, every once in a while, show me that it was as hard for him to stay that way as it was for me. In our time alone, I'd seen glimpses of him being vulnerable, but when he was in bodyguard mode, it was like there wasn't anything else between us. How serious could his feelings for me be if they were that easy to hide?

  “A section of the roof above the set is leaking,” he announced without any preamble. “Marcus said to be ready to report to wardrobe and make-up in ninety minutes for the Kastigan flashback scene.”

  “All right.” I nodded. It made sense. I was the only one in the scene, so we didn't need as big a space as a lot of the others and it was mostly just smoke and mirrors. Literally, smoke and mirrors. It was simple, but it created a really eerie practical effect for all of the Kastigan flashbacks. Kastigan was the other dimension where my character had lived before coming to Earth. It still wasn't clear if she'd been banished, if she'd run or if her being here was an accident, and I was as eager as my fans to find out. It also meant that I was going to have to have full Kastigan costume and make-up, including a wig of waist-length hair the same color as mine.

  “Do you wish to run lines?” Elias asked.

  I shook my head. “It's a monologue.”

  He hesitated, then asked, “then do you wish me to go?”

  “No,” I said. I wanted him to stay, but I didn't want him to be in bodyguard mode. He needed to loosen up. My eyes dropped to the umbrella and I got an idea. He wasn't going to like it. In fact, I could pretty much guarantee he was going to hate it, but it was going to happen.

  I stood up. “Do you trust me?” I asked.

  He gave me a wary look.

  I held out my hand. “Do you trust me?” I repeated.

  Slowly, he nodded. “Yes.”

  “Then come on.” I squeezed past him, trying not to think about the way my body responded just because he was close.

  “Miss Rhines,” he started to protest when I opened the door.

  “You said you trusted me.” I stepped outside into the unseasonably warm rain. I pulled him after me, laughing at the sound of surprise he made as I didn't wait for an umbrella. I kept going until we were halfway between my trailer and Bryson's. I knew that my co-star would be on his phone or laptop, talking to his boyfriend, so Elias and I were as good as alone. Besides, Bryson wasn't the type of guy who would care even if he saw us.

  I turned towards Elias, twisting my hand around so that my fingers were threaded through his. Our skin was already slick with rainwater. He was staring at me, but I couldn't quite figure out what he was thinking.

  “Did you ever play in the rain when you were a kid?” I asked. When he nodded, I continued. “I never did. My parents wouldn't let me. I used to watch the rain and wonder what it was like.” I grinned. “Now, I'm a grown-up and I'll play in the rain if I want to.”

  I dropped his hand and stomped in a nearby puddle. The water splashed up, soaking what little of my clothing wasn't already drenched. I was going to be cold soon, I knew, and I was determined to get as much fun out of this as possible. I jumped into the next puddle with both feet, laughing in delight as the water sprayed around me. My hair was plastered to my face, and my clothes clung to my body, but I didn't care. I jumped in another puddle, imagining the horror on my parents' faces if th
ey could see me now.

  I looked at Elias and his eyes were wide, his mouth hanging open in shock. I held out my hands to him. “Come on.”

  “Miss—” He appeared to be completely flabbergasted.

  “You need to loosen up a bit, Elias,” I said. I motioned with my hands. “Come here.”

  He walked towards me, his eyes locked with mine, as if I was drawing him closer whether he wanted to come or not. I shivered when his fingers touched mine and it had nothing to do with the rain. Such a small touch, but it went through me like nothing I'd felt before. I closed my fingers around his hands and it was as if a bubble went around us, not one that blocked the rain, but one that shut out the typical noises of a movie set, one that allowed us to pretend, even for a short while, that we were alone.

  “I am far too old to be jumping in puddles,” Elias said, his voice more amused than stern.

  “You're only three years older than me,” I countered. “And you're never too old to do something fun.” I jumped where I stood, sending some water splashing up on him.

  “Teal.” Now he just sounded exasperated, but he was using my first name, so I was going to count it as a step in the right direction.

  I jumped again, this time ending with a little kick in his direction. “Come on, Elias, you know you want to.” I knew I was baiting him, but I wanted some reaction out of him, anything that broke through that stoic exterior. I kicked water at him again.

  His eyes narrow, the corners of his mouth twitching. “Teal.” There was a warning in his tone.

  “Yes?” The question sounded as innocent as I could muster. I gave a little hop.

  He made a sound like a growl and stamped his foot. I laughed and began to move around, jumping and stomping until he had to start moving with me or let go of my hands. I could see it there, the little boy who wanted to come out and play, the side of him that had wrapped my garland around me like a scarf. It was trying to get out, but the surface was so hard to crack. I dropped one of his hands and the jumping became a dance.