In My Veins (22 page)

The next few weeks were quiet. James worked from his
home studio and went to rarely went to work. I guess producers are known for
being quiet, so him not talking wasn’t a huge deal but he says he can’t hide it
for long.

I went back to work too and got in touch
with the makeup company that wants to us to do their ads. I finalized my report
and smiled that I got everything done as walked to Mr. Yang’s office. I walked
past Jennifer who has continued to show up and glare at me but there is no sign
of Collin. Apparently she spent all her time trying to get rid of me that she
couldn’t make the company she was doing ads for happy.

I knocked on Mr. Yang’s open door and
waited for him to say I could come in.

I opened the door and smiled at him with
the files in hand. “The finalized plan is ready.”

“Wonderful come have a seat.” He said
pointing to the chair across from his desk. I handed him the file and sat on
the comfy looking, but not so comfortable when sitting, office chair. I did a
quick glance around his office and noticed the framed picture of his kids on
vacation on the desk and smiled, who would have thought the scary but nice boss
was a happy father.

“Well Karina. What can I say? Hiring you
was a risk since you were fresh out of college with no real experience…but I’m
glad I took it. You have shown that you are a hard worker and I can only see
you going up as a marketer.”

“Thank you sir.” If it was socially
acceptable I would have been screaming from happiness.

“Although this particular project had to
do with advertising I’ve noticed your knack for leadership. As you know our
actual company is owned by Dash and Watson, they’ve seen some of your ideas and
work and they’d like you do be an assistant.”

“
Dash and Watson
?
As in the owners of the building…” I asked pointing to the ceiling.

He nodded getting some papers out of his
desk, “Have a look at the offer and let me know what you think. I’d be sad to
lose you here, but this is really good for you. Plus, you’d still be in the building
so hopefully I’d be able to steal you over for some help some day.” he laughed.

“Thank you Mr. Yang!” I said taking the
manila envelope and heading out after my goodbyes. Assistant to Mr. Watson? Me?
This is too good to be true. I couldn’t wait to tell James.

As I was walking back to my desk I saw
Jennifer looking at me again. I rolled my eyes, she’s lucky I can’t press
charges of some sort. I felt my phone vibrate and I jumped forgetting it was in
my blazer pocket.

I smiled when I saw that it was James,
Good
news?

Still freaks me out that he could feel
my emotions.
Great! Can’t wait to tell you <3

He quickly wrote back,
Then
tell me know *impatiently taps fingers on desk*

I laughed out loud at his cuteness and
looked around to make sure I didn’t get any unnecessary attention,
You’re
just going to have to wait :P

He still demanded that he had to pick me
up from work. Even though I told him I would be fine. Collin was the one that
was doing the attacking before and he’s obviously not crazy now.  But I’ll
take what I can get with James, I loved seeing him anyways. 

I looked over the papers. I would have
to go and see Mr. Watson today before work finished and have a talk with him
before though.

A few hours later I noticed I could
start packing up to leave. I stretched as I turned off my computer and took my
bag. I’m tempted to just go in and tell him I accept the job now, but I want to
talk to James about it first.

I was about to walk out of the elevator
into the lobby when I saw James talking to Collin. I hesitated going forward
but James looked at me and smiled reassuringly.

I quietly walked to James’s side and barely
mumbled a ‘hi’ to Collin. I noticed his eyes were red and his sharp teeth were
out. Why is he like that? Is he permanent too?

He noticed me looking at his teeth and
smiled. But it was forced. He looked at James who also looked worried as his
arm went around my waist. What did they talk about before?

“Nice seeing you.” James said as he
shook Collin’s hand like guys always do before Collin dashed off. I looked around
making sure no one saw him and looked back at James.

“What was that about?” I asked taking in
James’s worried face.

“Nothing… he’s just being paranoid about
something. Let’s go.” he looked around and took me to his car. He quietly drove
us in the direction of his family’s home and kept glancing at the rearview
mirror.

“Did Collin say something?” I asked, “Is
he bad again?”

“Hmm? No Collin’s fine. Actually… if I’m
not around and you see him….and he tells you to go somewhere with him or
something… go.”

“What? Are you kidding?”

I noticed his grip on the steering wheel
get tight, “Nothing. Trust me he’s the last person I want to trust… but I trust
him. Just know you can trust him now that’s all.”

“Okay…” I agreed reluctantly. He’ll tell
me when he wants to.

He cleared his throat, “So…tell me, what
was the good news.” He said trying to change the subject.

Deciding to just let it go since I
trusted
him
, “I got a promotion.”

He looked at me with a wide smile,
“That’s great! Tell me about it!”

“Well… you know the building we’re in,
Dash & Watson, the CEO Mr. Watson, wants me to be his assistant. I’ve seen
him sometimes around the building and he’s kept a tab on my work and he thinks
I have potential. He wants me to be his assistant!”

“That’s great!” he said smiling then
serious, “Do you know this new boss?”

“Yes.”

“Will you be…far from W-Ads?” He asked.

“Oh yeah. And I start on Monday.”

“Where?” He asked furrowing his brows.

“A few floors above.” I laughed.

The line between his brows smoothed and
he smiled, “Oh.”

“Yeah… what were you thinking?”

“I… thought that that maybe Watson might
just own the building and work somewhere else. Far maybe…”

“Then I wouldn’t accept it.” I said
simply and took his hand before looking ahead too.

“So you’re telling me if your dream job
was offered to you in New York, you wouldn’t take it?” he asked surprised.

“My dream job is just to have a good
job. My real dream has always been just finding a good guy and being happy.
Which I got.” I looked at him and smiled. He tried to hide his smile but
failed. I smiled in a response and leaned out of my seat to kiss his cheek as
he drove.

We had lunch with his family. I didn’t
fail to notice that when Jenny was talking to me James discreetly told David
and his father something in Gaelic. I caught a few words that I had learned
thanks to the internet a few weeks ago, 'dangerous', 'okay' and ‘here’. The
rest I had no idea. I really needed to find an intro book to learn more.

I looked at James and gave him an ‘I
know you’re keeping something from me’ look. But he just shook his head and
proceeded to eating. After dinner James took me to his room, I hoped he’d
finally talk to me and tell me what happened since Collin.

We sat back on the bed with our back
against the headboard and cuddled. A few weeks ago we were in this room where
he ended our relationship and now we were together. Closer than ever. Except he
was still keeping things from me.

“James why won’t you tell me what Collin
said?” I asked and he tensed up.

“Because…it’s probably nothing and I
don’t want to scare you.” He said as he ran his finger down my ring finger.

“You not telling me anything is making
me more scared. I won’t be scared…just tell me.”

He hesitated and sighed, “Well… Collin
said he noticed someone following him around lately. He said it was a man. He
thinks he even saw a flash, like a camera. It could be anything or nothing at
all…but he warned me just in case.”

“Why would he warn you if someone was
following
him
around?”

He sighed, “Because… there was a picture
left in his mailbox. It was of when he and I were fighting…you’re in the
picture too.”

I sat back and looked at him, “And you
didn’t want to tell me this?”

“I’m sorry I just didn’t want to scare
you. I figured I could protect you without you having you worry…”

I groaned, “Ugh James…we’re in this
together.
Will you thinking for me? I’m getting really tired of being out of the loop.
Especially if my life is involved.”  

“Don’t be mad baby,” he said grabbing
both my hands as I faced him, “I really didn’t think much of it…I still don’t
think much of it. It’s just pictures. That’s why I didn’t want you to worry.
I’m sure it’s nothing…”

“Who do you think took them?” I asked
forcing myself to not be mad.

“Don’t know... I mean who would? But
what’s bad is you can clearly see what we were doing…hopefully with all the
movie and book trends these days people will just think we’re acting out
something for a play or something.” he said pulling me back into his side, “But…I
really want to keep an eye on my family for the time being…”

“So you’re staying here?” I asked
feeling sad and selfish for wanting him with me.

“Yeah…well…you too.” He said suddenly
shy, “I really want to keep an eye on all of you…and it would help if everyone
was in one place.”

If he’s not taking the picture so
seriously why does he want to keep an eye on everyone?

He tilted my chin up to face him, “I’ll
never let anything happen to you. You know that right?” I nodded and caught
glimpse of his lips. Suddenly feeling like I hadn’t kissed him in years I
missed those soft, full but not too full, lips. I held in a sigh and he leaned
in and kissed the left corner of my lips, then the right. I could feel that he
was forcing himself to stop as he rested his forehead onto mine. His control
was getting harder lately and it was hard on me too. I could only imagine how
bad it could before him.

Feeling frustrated, and a little naughty
for always being the one to want to go forward, I pulled him closer and kissed
him for real. I ran my fingers in his hair as he held me close. I felt myself
smile as I noticed he was kissing me without wanting to bite my neck off. His
hands went down to my hips and he pulled me into his.

I accidently let out a moan against his
lips and I felt him smile as we pulled away. He looked at me in my eyes before
gently pushing me on the bed and continued our little make out session. It felt
naughtier being in his childhood room for some reason. I felt like we were
going to get caught and in trouble by his parents.

I heard an annoyed groan and someone
laugh making us stop and snap our eyes to the door. David and Chris stood there
watching us. David looked annoyed but Chris had the biggest grin on his face.

“Finally.” Chris said grinning even
bigger.

James leaned to get a pillow from behind
me and threw it at Chris making David finally crack a smile.

“What do you guys want?” James asked
irritated pulling me up with him.

“Seriously, at your parent’s house James?”
David said and preceded coming in and sitting at the chair next to the desk.

“James, sorry to … kill the mood,” David
started awkwardly only adding to my mortification, “But… what do you plan on
doing now… you know…”

“Now that I am like this forever?” James
asked bitterly.

“You don’t know it’s forever…” Chris
said hopeful, “Maybe you two will find something. You still have a long way to
go till your thirtieth
birthday.”

I smiled at Chris, I always liked him.

“Well I’m not getting my hopes up…” James
said pulling me back loser to him. I’ve noticed he does this subconsciously
whenever he talks about something he thinks is going to have me running.

David eyed us curiously then looked at
me, “So you’re okay with him being like this forever?”

James tensed waiting for my answer, “Of
course. He’s still the James I fell in love with.” I smiled and rested my head
on his shoulder to show how comfortable I am with him. He snuck his arm around
my waist and squeezed me even closer before he kissed the top of my head.

David cleared his throat, “I’ll just go
to the guest room… come on Chris.” He said and pulled Chris away from us.

“Guess we should go to sleep too,” James
said, “But I was thinking. Tomorrow… want to go on a date? Celebrate your
promotion?”

“A date? An actual date?”

“Yes an actual date…” he said pulling my
back so that I was lying in his embrace.

“Are you sure you can’t read my mind?” I
said looking up at him.

He laughed, “I promise you, I cannot
read minds.  As much as I wish I could.”