by Lauren Wood
I could hear her breathing getting a little slower and more even. It was becoming clear that she was asleep, but there was no way that I was going to be able to go to sleep myself. Not the way I was feeling right now. I told her that I will go away once she fell asleep, but for some reason I wanted to stay.
It felt good to have her in my arms, it was something that I didn't do very often, I actually couldn't remember the last time I had just laid with a woman, and it was certainly the first time that I wanted to stay. Usually once I was done with a woman, had taken all the pleasure that I could, I was done. This time was different. Kristin was different.
Kristin
I woke up with a start, but it wasn't like before when it had been a bad dream. This time I woke up in alarm because I knew I wasn't where I was supposed to be. As soon as consciousness hit me, I could feel the warm body next to mine, and I could sense that I wasn't at home in London in my flat.
When I open my eyes, it just verified what I already knew. Goff and being taken to America, and everything that happened after that, was real. I really was stuck in a New York apartment with a man that I was attracted to, just as much as I was afraid of him.
The nightmare and Red coming to help me in the middle of the night came back as well. He was the warm body beside me, he was who was holding me in such a way, his arm draped around my waist and hips. It also didn't take long for me to realize that I wasn't wearing any clothes. I didn't have anything to wear as far as pajamas here, so I hadn't had a choice. But now that I had Red pressed up against me in such a way, I was wishing that I would have just slept in the clothes I was wearing.
Red didn’t made a sound, and I was hopeful that he was still asleep. I certainly wasn't going to turn around and find out. What I could figure out rather quickly, was the fact that he was rock hard and I could feel him pressed against me, almost to the point that he was sliding in between my thighs.
The sheet was between us, but it had been pushed through my legs with his movements in the night. It was uncomfortable, but I was far more worried about the wetness that shouldn't be there. I knew then that Red had this hold on me and my body that he shouldn’t have. We couldn't stay this way for much longer, or something was going to happen that shouldn't.
Afraid that I would wake him up, and he would decide that he wasn’t going to be a gentleman anymore, I tried at first to move his arm. It was heavy on the side of me and it felt good, but at the same time it was holding me close and I had to get away. The way he felt against me was driving me nuts, and I knew that had to get him out from in between my thighs. Last thing I wanted him to do was realize how wet and horny I was.
I had to wiggle up against him a little bit to get the arm off of me. It was heavier than it looked because it was dead weight and he started to move a little bit against me. His cock pressed harder against my core and I was sure then that I was seeping on it. I don't know what had come over me, but I was starting to panic. I had to get away from him.
Trying a little bit harder, I only moved him against me more and I was starting to breathe a little heavier. It just felt so damn good that I couldn’t help myself. I made a moaning sound that cut through the silence and I stopped moving all together. This wasn’t working, at all. I was going to push myself over the edge and it didn’t feel right without his permission.
I stalled for a moment, letting my breath get back to normal before I tried getting back out of it. I needed to put some distance in between me and him and I knew that I was going to have to figure it out. I had to get out of this bed and get this man’s body away from mine. My body was a traitor. It was the only way to describe what was going on at the moment.
Starting to push back against him, trying to get his arm off of me, I heard a hiss behind me and I was pushed away instantly. “You have to stop Kristin, or I am going to pull these sheets back and slam into you. We both know that you’re wet as hell.”
I finally looked behind me and I could see from his eyes that he wasn’t joking. There was not a bit of mirth on his face and I knew that I had pushed past his control. It wasn’t hard to see at all and he looked ravenous all of a sudden. The expression and set of his jaw made me scramble off of the bed quickly. I tried to pull the sheet with me to cover up, but he was laying on it and I was further back then the sheet went.
After desperately trying to cover myself to no avail, I just gave up on and stood there frozen for a moment. Our eyes met, and I ran towards the bathroom. I couldn’t believe what had just happened and I saw that my face was beet red in the mirror.
What the hell was this guy doing to me? Why was I acting this way? It didn’t make sense and I wanted some answers.
“Are you going to go, or can you hand me some clothes?”
I didn’t hear an answer and I came out in a towel, walking slowly. Red was out of the room and I breathed a sigh of relief. The bathroom behind me was a half bath and didn’t have a shower, so I went back to the one at the end of the hall that I had used before.
It was then that I heard Red in there with the shower running. He had taken no time in getting in there, and it only took a moment for me to realize why he was in there.
I could hear the sound of him pleasuring himself, and then he whispered my name. I could barely hear it, but I knew that was what he said. The words that were spoken played in my mind and it was hard for me to get a grip on myself. I stood outside of that door for far too long.
Only when the butler came by, did I realize what I was doing and how I did not want to be caught. I didn't even meet the gaze of the person in front of me that was coming down the hallway, instead I just retreated back into the room. Since the shower was occupied at the moment, I splashed some cold water on my face and tried to get myself together. It sounded a lot easier than the actuality of it.
My hands were shaking, gripping the side of the porcelain sink, looking at myself in the mirror. It must be that the last two days were starting to get ahold of me. This wasn't how I was, and Red was the last man on earth that I needed to be acting this way about. I needed to stay away from men like Red. I needed to stick to the game plan, and get him to trust me enough to let me go. As quickly as possible.
Red
At some point I must've fell asleep last night. I don't remember falling asleep next to her, but I did lay there for what felt like hours. I had awoken to her rubbing herself against me, hearing the sound of her pleasure, but also understanding that she didn't want to be turned on. She tried to get away from me, but it had all been too much. My mouth had overrun my brain for a moment and I’d told her exactly what I’d thought.
That had scared her, which I knew it would and she’d ran away as fast as she could. The only good thing that had come out of it was that I was able to see all of her and it was quite a sight. I’d pushed everything else out to make sure my memory was clear, and I would be able to recall it perfectly later. I’d memorized every fine inch of her, including what looked to be a gunshot wound in her shoulder.
The clear image had turned into a curse, because the mental image of her standing in front of me, shocked and bare was going to haunt me, especially if I couldn’t have her. It was driving me crazy and killing me slowly.
When I got out of the shower, Barth was waiting for me and he had some messages. My phone had been in my room and since I was laying with Kristin down the hall, I hadn’t been able to answer it and take care of business. It was a late morning for me and I had to get Kristin up and going. We had a lot of things to do today and I wanted her with me.
“Is the girl ready?”
He agreed and said that she was downstairs drinking coffee. I thanked him and started downstairs to talk to her. I was sure that she was going to be a mess because of what happened between us, but she just smiled at me like nothing was going on. I was thankful for that, especially considering that I had just relieved myself because of her. Seeing her now was bringing back those images that were burned into my memory.
“Hey bo
ss.”
“Boss huh? I think I like that better than Sir.”
“Then boss it is. What is on the agenda for the day?”
“We have a couple of meetings and I need to take you to the office, introduce you around so that you can get with my scheduler. You and Amber will have to be in contact daily. It will help you, keep me on track. That’s mainly your job. Make sure that I don’t miss meetings that are important. I have a lot going on and sometimes I forget.”
“Sounds good to me. It will be good to see where you really work.”
I caught the wording, and I got the way she was looking at me. This was going to be more complicated than I thought it was going to be. Keeping up with her, keeping her close, was going to make it hard for me to think straight.
I had the driver pull the car around and we got in the back. I liked the fact that it was so tight and our legs would touch. I could have gotten something bigger, but the fact was that I wanted to be this close to her. I wanted there to be a reason that we were right next to each other, feeling each other body heat like we had in the bed the night before.
Kristin was quiet for a time and I had to wonder what was going on in her mind. The day before she had been so sassy and full of life, but today she seemed to be a lot more subdued. I don't know what the difference was, but I had to wonder if it was because of what happened this morning. Had it affected her, as it had me?
We got to the office a few minutes after we got in the car. The one thing I liked about the building being downtown, was that it was right down from my house a few blocks. I could have walked there, but I wanted this moment in a cocoon with Kristin. Even though I knew it was going to mess with my head, I still want it to be next to her.
“So, this is where you work?”
We were getting out of the car and she was looking up at the sky scrapers surrounding us. They all looked the same if a person didn’t know the small intricacies that they presented.
“I don't know how you keep this all straight. I know that I would surely get lost here.”
“You will get used to it, Kristin. Just give it a little time.”
A look came over her face that I had seen before and I had a feeling that it was the mentioning of time. While I was trying to keep her close, I had almost forgotten that she was trying to get away. Kristin wanted to go back to her life and her home, and I was going to have to let it happen eventually. It wasn't going to happen today, but soon or later it was.
“So, did you talk to your boyfriend?”
“No, I haven't done that yet. I should give him a call but I'm still trying to figure out what to say. I can’t tell him where I really am, and if I tell him I'm close, he's going to try to come see me. We have never been apart for more than at night and I don't think he's going to take it well.”
“Why not?”
Kristin looked away and she had this look on her face and her cheek started to get a little red.
“Let's just say that he is going to be a little upset that we can't do any extracurricular activities. Hasn't went that long before and I don't think he's going to be able to go very long. He's going to want to know where I am and he's going to want to track me down.”
It was clear to me that she was saying that her boyfriend was going to find it hard to be without her. I could certainly see her point, or rather his point and I told her that I would come up with something.
“Just give me a little time and I will figure something out. Is there something that you were in to, or that you have been working towards that would take you out of the city for a while?”
“They have this interior design competition in France that I was looking into. It was a little too expensive to get room and board while I was there, so I was toying with the idea, but we know both knew that it wasn't going to happen.”
“We’ll just have to make sure that it does happen.”
I liked the idea that. I was trying to find her a way to stay with me, and to make sure that her boyfriend didn't start trouble for us. The last thing I needed was international attention, or a missing person that was in the country illegally. I'm sure that Goff didn't go through immigration when they got back to the states.
“I am sure that he will believe that, better than other things. Do you want me to call him now?”
I told her not to because I was going to call a few people myself. I would make sure that her name was on the list in France, so that if her boyfriend called to confirm or look for her, it would look like she was really there.
“How long is the competition supposed to last?”
“It can last up to two weeks or so if I make it all the way to the end.”
It wasn't enough time, but for now it's going to have to do. Maybe in a couple of weeks, she would decide that she was going to call her boyfriend and tell him that things aren’t working out. I liked the idea of that call a lot more than this one.
“Call him when we get out of here. I first want to introduce you to my scheduler. Amber will have my calendars for you and you guys can chat a little bit while I take care of something else. Then we have a meeting with particular client that is a bit like Goff. So, I certainly want to keep you close with me on this one.”
She smiled and agreed, but I could see that my words had bothered her. She was most likely not used to this sort of thing, this sort of life and it showed. Kristin wasn’t a small-town girl by any stretch of the imagination, she was from the city, but she acted like she had been sheltered from the world a bit more than everyone else.
Walking in with Kristin, I could see a couple of looks. I didn't really work with women all that much, so when I did have a woman by my side, it was most likely because I was sleeping with her or more specifically, I was trying to sleep with her. I was a one-shot pony most of the time, and the women never came again. I knew that the office gossiped about me, but I didn’t care. It was easier to have the gossiping about me in this way, then others. There were far worse things that my employees could know about me.
Something I hadn’t thought about before was, the idea that some of it was going to get back to Kristin. I can’t say that I liked the idea of that at all. She already saw me as a criminal, being a player wasn’t going to help my image in her eyes at all.
Kristin
His office was nothing like I thought it would be. From what I knew about Red, the idea that he was actually a businessman man was hard to believe. I knew that he was not the sort of businessmen that people read about in books or saw on the streets. He was the kind that carried a gun and paid millions of dollars in unmarked bills to other men just like him. Where a person could be taken, flown across the world and he didn't even bat an eye about it, but instead worked tirelessly to keep his second life a secret.
But there was another side to him that I learned about. He actually was the boss, of hundreds of people and everyone looked up to him for guidance, as well as his approval. He had a smile for everyone and from the outside looking in, Red was a nice person. It was also clear that everyone else in the office called him Red. Maybe it wasn't just me that he didn't want to call him boss or something else.
I met with his scheduler, more like his assistant and she seemed surprised to see me. It was pretty clear that she had no idea that I was going to be there. For a moment I think she was afraid that I was going to take her job, but I told her that it wasn't that way at all.
“I'm just here for a little while, just to help out. You have nothing to worry about.”
It took a couple of minutes to convince her that I wasn't really there to take her job, before she would give me the calendar that I was looking for. I really hoped that I was right about it, and that I would be gone soon, and I wasn't taking her job. That would just make this all worse, guilt on top of everything else.
We were talking about the business and what happened at the office when Red walked in. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought that he didn't want us talking too much more than we had to. He told me
that it was time to go and when I told Amber that I would see her soon, he mentioned to me on the way out that I probably wouldn't.
“You will most likely talk to her via telephone. I want you to keep things short with her, considering how me and you came to know each other. I think it best that you don't get close with anyone at the office.”
“I was just being nice Red. I know to keep my mouth shut. You are not the first man I’ve known that lives his life on the other side of the law. I'm sure you won't be the last either.”
He was surprised and asked me what I meant by that, but I really didn't want to get into it. Getting him off of the subject, I asked him about the meeting that we were going to tonight. That seemed to do the trick, because he was telling me about Jin and how things were going to go.
“I don't trust this guy. I mean, I don't trust most of the people that I work with, in and out of the office, but when I tell you that I don't trust him, that means that I want you to take it to heart. If he tries to coerce you in some way, get information from you or something of that nature, I want you to tell me. If he touches you, I want you to tell me. We are going to be going around some dangerous people in a few minutes Kristin and there may be questions about who you are. What you were doing here with me.”
“Haven't you ever brought when your assistance along with you before?
He shook his head and told me that he hadn't.
“I am more of the type that likes to work alone. Most people know me for that, so it is going to be hard for them to except that I now have an assistant with me. Just go along with what I say, and everything will be fine.”
The fact that he was warning me about these people, made me realize that it wasn't going to be fine. I was going to have to work double duty and make sure that I didn't say anything that I wasn’t supposed to do. It was clear to me that no matter what, I was going to have to just figure it out. I had to get the hell away from Red.