MARKED (Hunter Awakened) (15 page)

I was sitting partway up the steps, my legs
spread wide, panties hanging off of one ankle, my fingers sliding
up and down my slit as Elias watched, when the front door
opened...

I bolted upright, gasping for air, my heart
racing. Fuck. Not again.

Chapter Sixteen

I flopped back onto my pillows, soaked with
sweat, my entire body tingling as if I'd encountered some sort of
electricity. I rarely dreamed, but this was something like my sixth
sex dream about Elias, and they'd just kept getting more and more
intense. Half the time, I didn't even realize they were dreams
until everything started getting choppy and weird at the end, they
were that vivid.

I supposed it was just my body's way of
dealing with the frustrating fact that Elias and I hadn't had sex,
but I'd never had anything remotely similar during other periods of
celibacy, and trust me, there were more of those than there were of
ones when I was sexually active. Maybe, I thought, it was just how
I reacted to him.

I rolled over and looked at the clock. It was
time to get up anyway. I felt rested, but distracted as I dressed.
What was prompting these dreams? I'd been thinking about it quite a
bit and I hadn't been able to come up with any common denominators.
It wasn't like Elias and I had touched in any sort of sexual way.
Touching, no touching. Talking, no talking. It didn't seem to
matter what had happened prior to going to sleep. It seemed like my
subconscious would just suddenly decide that I needed to wake up
with an ache between my legs and not enough time to do anything
about it. One thing was for certain, I'd never be able to go into
my library again without thinking about sex.

A knock at my door pulled me out of my
reverie.

“Yes?” I called as I ran a brush through my
hair. I frowned at my reflection. I was going to need a touch-up on
my hair over the winter break. Kiana's hair was naturally
blue-streaked, so any hint of fading or growing out had to be taken
care of before we started shooting again.

“I was just wondering if you were feeling up
to your morning jog.” Paul's voice came through the closed door.
“It's raining so I would recommend using the treadmill rather than
going out.”

“That sounds good, Paul,” I called back.
There were times when the weather was bad that I did run inside
rather than out, but it wasn't a regular occurrence. I didn't
usually mind a bit of rain, but I had a feeling that Paul was just
using the weather as an excuse to keep me indoors. I was sure that
Elias wouldn't have left without telling Paul at least some of what
had happened.

My suspicions were confirmed as I left my
room and saw that Paul was waiting outside the door. Usually, he
stayed in the living room until I told him where we were going that
day. Today, he followed me without a word. This was exactly the
kind of thing that I'd hoped to avoid, but until Elias found out
more about whoever had put that note in my trailer, I wasn't going
to complain. I had enough things to worry about without adding this
to it.

By the time I finished with my run, Kevin had
arrived and it was time to start getting back into my usual
training. I must have been hitting harder than usual as, halfway
through our sparring session, Kevin stopped me and had me move to a
bag. I could see the question on his face, but I didn't offer an
answer and he didn't ask. We worked right up until it was time for
him to go, barely taking any breaks, and I wanted to keep going.
Pounding that bag was making me feel like I was in control again,
like I hadn't been the victim I'd been calling myself for the past
couple of days. I did as Kevin said, however, and stopped, knowing
that I would just wear myself out and I had work to do.

I hadn't told Elias about the fundraiser I
was attending that afternoon, and though the omission hadn't been
intentional, I found myself wondering if he would've told Paul to
cancel it. Even though Paul had seniority on the staff, I had a
feeling that he would've deferred to Elias. As it was, I didn't
bring up any of that as Paul and I headed for the car. There was no
way I was going to cancel on Far-Off Places, the literacy group
with which I volunteered. I'd been looking forward to reading to
the kids for the past couple of months.

As soon as I stepped foot in the library, I
was glad I'd come. Most of the kids were too young to realize what
it meant to be a celebrity. All they knew was that I'd played a
superhero in a cool movie and I had awesome blue-streaked hair.
Paul did his rounds while I made myself comfortable and began to
talk to the kids, telling them about the book I'd chosen to share
with them.

Once I'd finished reading, I answered kids'
questions until Paul finally signaled to me that it was time to go.
A glance out of the windows showed that he was right. It was
starting to get dark and I needed to get ready to head to the set.
Reluctantly, I said my good-byes and followed Paul to the car. All
of my previous worries and stresses had faded to the background. It
was things like this that put my life into perspective. I loved my
job, but it wasn't acting that made me a worth-while person. It was
what I did with my popularity that made me who I was.

I was still thinking about how much fun I'd
had when we arrived at the house. I had only fifteen minutes before
Elias would arrive and we'd have to leave, and I wanted to change
my clothes. I'd dressed up a bit for the reading, and now I wanted
something comfortable to wear to work.

As soon as I stepped inside, however,
everything changed. I stopped just inside the door. Something was
wrong. I didn't know what or how I knew, but something wasn't
right. Someone had been here.

“Paul.” I could barely get my voice above a
whisper. I tried again. “Paul.”

He turned towards me, a puzzled expression on
his face. “Is something wrong?”

“Someone's been here.”

He reached towards his gun, then paused. “The
alarm was still on.”

“What?” I didn't understand what he was
trying to say.

“When we came in, the alarm was still on.” He
crossed to the wall where the alarm box was and looked at it. “It's
not showing anyone else coming in from the time we left until I
turned it off when we came in.”

I shook my head. “I don't care. Someone's
been here.”

The expression on Paul's face said that he
didn't believe me, but he drew his gun anyway. He was a
professional, and he was going to give me the benefit of the
doubt.

“Stay here. I'll take a look around, make
sure the house is clear.”

I waited while he went. For the first time, I
wished that I employed some live-in or full-time staff. I did have
a cleaning service who came in twice a week, and a landscaper took
care of the three acre property surrounding my house every two
weeks during the winter, and every week during the summer. None of
those had been in today. Whoever had been in my house had picked
the perfect day to break in.

I shivered and crossed my arms over my chest.
It was chilly outside, but the cold I was feeling wasn't coming
from the weather. This was so much worse than someone having been
in my trailer. This was my home. I'd bought it right after my
emancipation had gone through. It was my home, my escape from the
insanity of the world. There were no cameras, no press allowed. It
was my oasis.

“There's no one here.” Paul came back down
the stairs. “And I didn't see anything missing or out of place.”
He'd put his gun back in its holster. “Though I didn't go through
your things in your room. I just checked to make sure it was
empty.”

It was on the tip of my tongue to argue, but
I knew that just saying it again wouldn't make him believe me. I
needed to have proof, something broken or missing, something out of
place. I headed for my room.

I went through everything, each minute that
passed without me finding anything making me more anxious. Why had
someone come into my house and not taken anything? How could they
have not moved anything? And how had they gotten in without setting
off the alarm?

I'd just finished my second pass through my
dresser when I heard his voice downstairs. He wasn't talking very
loudly, but it was like I had been listening for him. I hurried
down the stairs, catching the last part of his conversation with
Paul.

“You did not find anything moved?”

“No,” Paul said. “I'm telling you, there was
no one here.”

“They might have left before we got back, but
someone was here.” I let my annoyance seep through my words as I
reached the bottom of the staircase.

Paul didn't say a word. I appreciated that. I
didn't want someone agreeing with me simply because I was their
boss, but I really didn't feel like having an argument at the
moment. Elias looked my way and our eyes met for only the briefest
of moments, but it was enough for me to know that he believed me. I
had no clue why since, Paul was right about there not being any
evidence of a break-in, but I didn't care. All I cared about what
that Elias was here and he believed me.

“I shall take over from here,” Elias
said.

Paul looked at me and I nodded. He glanced at
Elias and then back at me again before speaking. “All right. If you
need me to come in early, or just for back-up, just give me a
call.”

“Thanks.” I doubted Elias would want or need
Paul's help, but it was nice of him to offer.

As soon as Paul left, Elias turned to me.

“Stay here.”

He was walking away before I could protest. I
was really getting tired of being told to stay put like I was a
child, or a dog. Once all of this craziness was done, I was going
to have a talk with my bodyguards about that particular phrase.

I glanced at my phone. We were going to be
late and it was the last night shooting. I was torn. I didn't want
to hold up the shooting schedule any more, but I wanted Elias to
find something that proved me right.

“We must go,” Elias said as he came back into
the room.

He'd only been gone a couple of minutes, so I
doubted he could've gotten far. He must've realized that we were
going to be late for work.

“You're right,” I agreed. “Paul didn't find
anything, so I doubt there is anything to be found. We can figure
out what to do after I'm done.”

“Done?” Elias asked sharply.

Now I was confused.

“I am taking you some place safe,” he said.
“Too many things have happened for this to be a coincidence. We
must leave.”

I shook my head. “I have to go to work. It's
the last shoot before we break for Christmas.”

“No,” Elias said. “Absolutely not.”

I bristled at his tone. I'd never liked
people telling me what to do, especially after the way my parents
had been. I didn't care that I thought of him as something more
than my bodyguard. This wasn't the way I did things. “Look, I know
you're just trying to protect me, so I'm going to pretend that you
didn't just tell me, your employer, 'absolutely not.' Instead, I'm
going to offer a compromise. And understand, when I say compromise,
I mean, this is the only way you're going to get what you
want.”

I stepped closer, my annoyance burning away
any lingering embarrassment about my dream or my attraction to him.
“You're going to come upstairs with me so I can pack a bag, then
you're going to drive me to work where you can make arrangements
while I'm filming. After work, I'll let you take me some place safe
and we'll call Paul to fill him in on what's going on. Agreed?”

A combination of amusement and admiration
crossed Elias's face, mixing with his annoyance at my declaration.
That wasn't an entirely new expression for him when it came to me.
“Agreed.”

It looked like my Christmas hiatus was going
to be off to an interesting start.

Chapter Seventeen

It was harder than I'd thought it would be to
focus at work. Then again, I wasn't sure why I'd actually thought
it would be easy. Still, I forced a smile and kept everything
light. The only things that hinted that something wasn't right was
that Elias stayed closer than usual, and I didn't go to my trailer
at all. I told everyone that I wanted to see as much of them as
possible since we'd be apart for a couple of weeks. It was sappy,
but if anyone didn't buy it, they didn't say anything and I wasn't
about to change that.

Despite my issues concentrating, we managed
to get everything done in record time. There was joking and
non-alcoholic eggnog from craft services. Small gifts were
exchanged and I promised everyone that their gifts from me would be
delivered before Christmas since I'd left them at home. I didn't
mention that I'd left them because I'd been too preoccupied by
trying to pack a bag to go to who knew where with my hot bodyguard
who was trying to protect me from some mysterious or
not-so-mysterious stalker. When no one was looking, I sent myself a
reminder to mail the gifts I'd purchased a couple of weeks back. I
just hoped we could get this whole thing dealt with quickly so I
could get the presents out on time. Mail during the holidays could
get crazy.

When the director called 'cut' after the
final shot of the year, I joined everyone else in cheering, though
my heart wasn't really in it. A part of me was sad that I couldn't
be happier about the great work we'd done over these past couple
months. I should have been joking around with Bryson and Amy and
Simon, not constantly wondering if Rufus, or someone else, was
lurking in the shadows. Well, someone other than Elias. I could
sense his impatience as I chatted with my friends, and it didn't
take long for it to become infectious. As the early morning hours
headed towards dawn, I could feel my heart starting to race, my
palms sweating. I was getting anxious. It was time to go.