If The World Was Ending

Chapter 5

Elizabeth steps inside and immediately freezes when she sees the queen sized bed on the left side of the cottage. Her eyes quickly darting around the one room cottage with the exception of the bathroom breaking off from the kitchen area.

Shane comes in behind Thabo who has walked in with their luggage dropping Elizabeth’s suitcase and Shane’s bag in the center of the cottage floor. Shane removes his sunglasses and inwardly groans when he sees the bed. This was inconvenient. Shane moves to stand next to Elizabeth and he can clearly see her distress.

“All is good?” Thabo asks expectantly a slight frown on his forehead noticing Elizabeth.

“Everything is just perfect” Shane smiles, placing his hand on Elizabeth’s shoulder warningly when he notices her about to speak, “Thank you Thabo.”

“Good, good. I will be back in the morning to take you to Prince Albert, have a good evening” Thabo nods and then sporting his huge grin he disappears closing the cottage door behind him.

Elizabeth flies around to face Shane brushing his hand off her shoulder, “I am not sleeping with you in that bed.”

Shane sighs tiredly and walks over to pick up his bag.

“You don’t have to I will sleep on the floor. We really don’t have the time or choice in finding other accommodation and to tell you the truth, I am hot and I am tired. I am going to take a shower”

Elizabeth watches open mouthed as Shane walks into the bathroom closing the door behind him. Her cheeks were hot and she scolds herself for being such a prude. Elizabeth looks at the bed. She would have shared the bed with Dr Kramer and to be honest it had been the very thought of sharing the bed with Shane that had her stomach all twisted up in knots.

Elizabeth rubs her forehead, technically they have already slept together as she remembers how she had woken up this morning on the airplane.

Shane stands under the cold spray of the shower, his head almost touching the shower head. The shower cubical was not very big, and he just has enough space to turn around. The cool water was doing nothing to ease the heat in his groin. His hands can still feel Elizabeth’s body underneath her sweater as he had held her.

This situation called for extreme diplomacy and control. It was just for one night. Shane shakes all thoughts of Elizabeth out of his head and he quickly finishes washing.

When he came out of the bathroom Elizabeth was standing in front of the large fan in the corner of the sleeping area. She has discarded her sweater which was now on the bed next to her travel bag and was standing only in her bra and pants. Shane averts his eyes and gave a little cough to get her attention.

Elizabeth swings around, Shane was standing in the kitchen, his bag at his feet. He was dressed in a white cotton t-shirt and black boxers. His hair damp from the shower and he was looking everywhere except at her.

She had gotten so hot that all feelings of modesty were squashed the moment she had switched on the fan. Elizabeth quickly grabs her suitcase and rushes into the bathroom. She leans against the back of the bathroom door, listening as Shane moves about. At least the bra she wore was a sensible white sports bra, so she seriously doubts that she would have evoked any lustful thoughts from her bodyguard.

Elizabeth giggles, lustful thoughts, if anything she was the one with the problem. Without his commando gear and being all stripped down he was even more attractive, how she was going to get through this night with him looking like that, hell knows.

After about a half an hour Elizabeth emerges from the bathroom, dressed in a cream floral wide rayon pants and sleeveless white camisole cotton top. Her towel dried hair tied back into a braid. Elizabeth did not bother with her sandals as they were obviously not going anywhere. The cold cement floor cool underneath her bare feet.

Elizabeth drops her suitcase next to door of the bathroom and walks over to join Shane at the small table in front of the window at the foot of the bed. She sits down in the opposite brown leather armchair and lifts her eyes to meet Shane’s.

“I am sorry for my stupid behavior earlier” she smiles, “I was not expecting to be sharing a one bed cottage with a man on a farm in South Africa.”

Elizabeth sees Shane’s mouth twitch. She looks down at the table and sees the plate of assorted triangle sandwiches and two water bottles.

“Found them in the fridge,” Shane says taking a drink from the bottle closest to him.

“Great! I am starved!” Elizabeth applauds enthusiastically taking a sandwich.

“I know that my being here was unexpected,” Shane speaks leaning forward in his chair, “but I can assure you I take my job very seriously. I was assigned to protect you, nothing more and nothing less.”

Elizabeth frowns, “I understand Mr. Stone, and so do I. My job is very important to me too.”

“Please call me Shane, we are going to be together for a while.”

“Okay, but only if you call me Elizabeth.”

They settled into a comfortable silence drinking and eating for the next hour before Elizabeth stands up to retrieve her laptop. She makes herself comfortable on the bed, sitting cross-legged with the laptop on her lap.

Shane remains where he was, looking out of the window. It was quiet and there has been no movement except for a chicken peacefully pecking the ground in front of the cottage. The sky was clear and the sun was still shoving its heat onto the day.

He was feeling naked without any weapons. He was supposed to meet up with the head of Cure Cybertech’s security department in Prince Albert tomorrow. Although Shane was trained in hand to hand combat, he would still feel better having a gun. But since his deployment had been unexpected, the necessary red tape could not be cleared in time preventing him from bringing his gun.

But he supposes he can handle a disgruntled chicken if he really had to. Shane chuckles.

Elizabeth looks up from the report she has been reading when she hears the soft throaty laugh. Shane was looking out the window, something outside has caught his attention. Elizabeth finds herself admiring the soft wrinkles around his eyes, the slight up turned curl of his mouth, the faint dark shadow on his jaw. His dark short hair looks soft and Elizabeth wonders how it will feel to run her hands through.

Shane suddenly stands up and Elizabeth snaps her head back to her laptop. She can feel her cheeks heat up. What was wrong with her? She needs to concentrate. Elizabeth throws all her attention back into the report. Things will be better once Dr Kramer joins them.