If I could turn back the hands of time, I'd rather choose to stay in my room, have girls night with Lacey and her girly girly friends instead of having a gun pointed at my head in the middle of the night at someone's else's house.
I would've been less freaked out if that was Miss Renee's voice. But it's not. It sounds more deep and masculine that I'm starting to fear if I'm facing a real burglar here.
"Where is the money?" The voice asks, with the gun still pressed to my head.
Yep. That's a burglar. And I would've readily shown him where the money is except for the fact that it's not my house and I don't know what money he's talking about. I only have two cents in my pockets, but I have a feeling the burglar wouldn't be too satisfied with that.
"Are you deaf or stupid?" He says again when I'm taking too long to reply as he presses the gun tighter to my head. "I said where's the money."
"I... well, you see-"
A smash cracks jarringly against him as he grunts in pain and shoves me forcefully to the floor. I immediately scramble back on my feet to reach for the walls, using my hands to trace where the light switches are as I flicker it on.
Noah's struggling on the floor with the burglar whose gun fell from his hands already.
Wait, what's Noah doing here?
"Are you going to stand there and look pretty, or you're going to call the police," Noah says between grunts as they both struggle to reach for the gun left lying on the floor.
"Phone's dead!" I panic, snatching the gun from the floor instead and holding it up.
Noah stares up at me with wide eyes, like he remembers my fear of guns.
"Stop! I'll shoot you," I yell.
My finger closes over the trigger reflectively. I didn't mean to squeeze it, but the gun discharges with a deafening boom. A picture frame in the wall explodes in a shower of glass.
The burglar pushes Noah off him and takes off through the front door.
"What are you doing here?! Give me that gun before you kill more than a picture frame," Noah demands.
"I... I didn't mean to shoot it," I stutter, my whole body shaking with tremor and shock. Tears stings at the back of my eyes as I hand him the weapon.
"You should've stayed put."
I raise my chin. "Did you really expect me to stand there like some helpless mouse? Get real! He was bigger than you as well as armed."
"Exactly why you should've stayed put," he growls, taking a step closer. "You could've been hurt."
"Well, golly gee, are you wearing invincible armor over your clothing?" I aim a finger at his chest. "You're just lucky I didn't shoot you instead of the picture frame."
"Why did you fire it in the first place?"
"It just went off."
His final step brings his face within inches of mine.
"Do you know how many pounds of pressure it takes to pull a trigger?"
"No." Yes. "And I don't care. I was scared to death, all right? I thought he was going to kill you!"
My explosion of words softens his expression, but I'm too pissed right now to pay attention. "You went charging out there like some comic-book hero—"
"You were worried about me?"
"No, I was worried about your pet fish."
His posture relaxes, infuriating me further. He steps back, opens the gun's cylinder and shakes the bullets into his palm. Carefully, he sets them on a shelf. "I don't have a pet fish."
"Don't you dare sound amused! You're such an idiot! You—"
"Yes," he says softly. "I am."
He cups the back of my head, tips my chin up, and then he's kissing me, taking possession of my mouth and crushes me against him. His lips molds into mine, shapes them, tastes them, kisses me one way or another making heat wash over me. His tongue plunges in and fire seems to scorch through my veins. I find myself clinging to his neck, kissing him back as wildly as he's kissing me.
I feel light-headed, almost giddy and my heart's racing, pounding so hard I wonder if he could hear. My fingers slides into his thick hair. I could feel it's silky texture on my fingers and as insane as this is, I don't want him to stop.
The spicy scent of soap and shampoo fills my senses as he backs me against the wall. His broad hand anchors my head possessively. His legs slips between mine, sending electric currents to tingle low in my belly.
I melt as he nibbles his way along my jaw until he finds the soft, tender spot beneath my ear. Tremors weakens my knees as I cry out in fierce pleasure, his tongue gliding down my neck, my body aching towards his.
An icy blast of air sweeps in through the neglected front door as he pulls away from me and turns towards the direction. Miss Renee stands there with her mouth agape. Her five year old beside her has the same look on her face.
She stares at her broken picture frame, shattered glass on the floor, and the gun resting on her shelf beside the bullets.
"Is anyone hurt?" Miss Renee asks, fear evident in her tone.
Noah and I shake our heads 'no'.
"Good, then I don't want to know what happened. Noah, take Jane upstairs to bed," she tells him with a smile and to my surprise, he picks up the girl, giving me one last stare as he walks up the stairs.
What did I just let him do to me?
"Allie. In the kitchen." My face still burning hot from the kiss, I follow her to the kitchen where she brings out a tray of rice cakes from the oven and places it on the counter.
"Have some."
"Thanks." She continues to stare at me in silence while I chew on the rice cake, the grandfather clock in the living room ticking loudly just as my patience and suspicions ticks along with it. I decide to come right out and say it.
"Are you and Noah a thing? It's okay if he likes older women. I mean, age doesn't count if two people like each other. I once liked my mom's gardener, dude was two times my age with a kid but I didn't care..."
"Allie."
"Hmm?"
"He's my nephew."
A deep and loud breath of relief escapes my mouth. "Oh, thank goodness. Liking older people is gross. By the way, I didn't like my mom's gardener. We don't have a gardener or even a garden."
She laughs. "You're quite the character."
"So you're his Aunt? But... but you're so young."
"I'm a mom. Plus, looks deceive."
I nod in understanding as she goes silent again, staring at me intently. "Why are you here, Allie?"
I give a tired sigh. "I wanted information. I was curious. Noah's hardly a chatterbox and I noticed you were the next person I could..."
"Pry out information from?"
I blink. "It makes me sound nosy when you put it that way."
The older woman smiles. I notice she smiles a lot. "Tell me, do you have a crush on my nephew?"
My eyes widen in shock and embarrassment. "N-No! We're just friends!" She gives me a knowing look. "Ok, maybe just a little bit."
I watch her close the oven and begin to walk out of the kitchen. "Come. Let me show you something."
Dropping my half eaten rice cake back on the tray, I follow her again out of the kitchen and into the living room. There's up to four brown cushions in the living room and a television hanging on the wall. The walls are painted with a creamy color which has so many picture frames on them, excluding the one I shot off it.
"Mind the glass." I dodge the broken pieces of glass on the floor. She stops in front of a picture on the wall and I step in beside her, following her gaze to stare at the frame.
It's a family picture with Miss Renee in it. There's a man, tall and stout, standing beside a very slender woman who rests her hands on the shoulders of the young boy standing in front of them. Miss Renee in the picture, is carrying a much younger girl in her arms, having a big smile on her face.
"That's his family," I hear her say. "I used to live with them."
"How come he's not part of the picture? I don't see him anywhere." The young boy in the picture looks nothing like him at all. That's definitely his older brother.
"Look closer."
Like she says, I look closer. My eyes rests on the little girl in Miss Renee's arms not because I think that's him, but because I'm wondering who she is. She's dressed in a fluffy pink dress and has a tiara on her head.
"Who's that?" I ask.
"Believe it or not, it's Noah."
I shake my head vigorously, backing away from the picture slowly. "This doesn't make any sense. Why is he dressed up like that? What the hell is this?"
I've been wanting to know more about him than he let on, but with the look on Miss Renee's face right now, I'm scared of what I might find out.
1592 Number of words
Edit