Karina: A Cinderella Story

5

Karina’s POV

I woke up to the sound of the something knocking. It was pitch black outside and the screen of my cell phone said 2:00am. It took me a few seconds to realize I was still on the couch and that I was terrified.

I knocked on Jason’s door but he didn’t answer. So I waited a few minutes and tried again. There was still no response. I was getting ready to knock again when I heard a car driving down the road blaring his horn and another knock on the house.

That’s it, I’m not waiting anymore.

I ran into Jason’s room barely able to see where I was going. I tripped and fell into his bed landing right on top of him. My face just a few inches from his. He didn’t even budge.

I climbed over to the other side of the bed and climbed in. I guess if he isn’t worried I shouldn’t be either, but there is no way I am trying to walk to my room in the pitch black and I dropped my phone when that car went by.

Jason’s POV

I wake to the sound of soft snores coming from the bed next to me. I’m so confused so I reach to calm mind and remind myself nothing is there. Only when I reach I feel hair, long wavy hair on my pillow, warm skin that has been uncovered only for a few moments, and I feel breathing on my face when I rollover to look at whomever made themself at home in my room.

“Karina…” I whisper in shock and trying not to wake her. What is she doing in here?

Then I notice, she never put a shirt on last night. I left her on the couch where she fell asleep thinking it would better for her back to have so much time to heal. So what is she doing in my bed? How in the hell did she get here?

I move as slowly as possible so I don’t wake her, as I’m rolling away from her she reaches out for my shoulder. What is with this girl? She reaches out for me whenever she is sleeping. Who is she really reaching for?

I try again to slide out of bed and her entire body rolls closer to me. She wraps her leg around me and pulls herself in to where I can feel her naked breasts against my arm. God, please let me get out of this. I can’t have her thinking I’m a sleaze bag.

I reach over to pull the blanket all the way to her chin so then at least if she wakes up I won’t be accused of looking. I check my watch before dropping my arm back to my chest 6:30am. I should get up. Only I can’t make myself move. Who would it hurt for me to just stay here a few more minutes?

So, I can’t fall asleep. I’m too busy thinking about this beautiful woman next to me. Everything about her is perfect and very much off limits. I swear I have been checking my watch every ten minutes for the last hour and now I’ve been awake so long I gotta pee.

I pull my arm and body out from under her tiny frame that right now seems like the Incredible Hulk. She’s got a death grip on everything she can wrap those beautiful tiny hands around. Finally, I decide just to wake her up and face the music.

“Karina,” I say as I nudge her shoulder, nothing. This time I try again with a little more force, still nothing. God, this woman sleeps like the dead.

I have this urge, this need to touch her cheek just once. I run the back of my finger down her and around her jaw line, “Karina I really need you to wake up or let go. I have to pee. Please wake up, sweetie.”

What the hell did I just say? Well it got her attention too and the look on her face went from peaceful to terrified in about 1 second flat.

She lets go of me and jumps out of bed. Only I don’t think she realized she was half naked. I motioned to the blanket and she just stood there like a deer in the headlights.

“Karina. I don’t know what happened. I don’t know you got in here and I really don’t think that is the problem. I really need you to put on a shirt or cover yourself, please. Please can you do that?”

She gasps as she pulls her arms up to cover herself. Her arms weren’t doing much good covering what she had and I had already felt them on my body. That wasn’t going away anytime soon.

“I’m..I’m um…sorry. There was knocking or something on the door around 2am. I’m not really sure. And then some jackass went flying down the road with his horn blasting. I knocked on your door three times, but then there was more knocking. You wouldn’t wake up. I don’t know why I’m so edgy, this isn’t normal. I really am sorry.”

She is almost crying. I can tell she is embarrassed and she really was so scared even just talking about it she sounded scared.

I don’t know what to do or how to help her. Oh…my sisters always like hugs when they are sad or scared. Maybe she would let me do that for her.

I begin to walk around the end of the bed toward her and I can see her inching backwards. She raises a hand to me as if to say “stop.”

“Karina I’m not going to hurt you. I can see that you were and are scared. I was just going to hug you, that always comforted my sisters when they were scared. I won’t push you though.” I stopped moving and let her make the decision.

“Thank you I really do appreciate that gesture but I need to go to my room.” She flew out the door so fast, I could barely see her leave.

I will check on her after I get ready for the day and check the cameras. I don’t know how I could have slept through any of that last night. I’ll check with the other agents that rotate shifts in the car to see if either of them had noticed anything out of the usual on their shifts.

It could have just been an accident. Most of the houses in this neighborhood look the same. That’s why the bureau picks locations like this. It’s easier to blend in. But it’s still worth checking out to make sure no one is facing a threat.