The Heart of His Lair (MSP #1)

Chapter 2

      It was almost midnight.

      Zia went to the kitchen, opened her fridge to get a glass of water. She couldn’t believe it. She was going to confront Chris and Xyra tomorrow.  She sipped water from her glass. And sighed. She really just couldn’t believe the fact that her best friend and her sister would set her up on a date. With Mark. Of all people, why Mark? He was her previous client. Although he was good-looking and all that stuff, he always gave her creeps. She didn’t like the way he tried to touch her inside his car when he insisted that he would drove her home. She just didn’t like the way he looked at her while they were eating dinner earlier this night. She tried to give a good conversation with him. But then again, Mark was the one who was always talking, about himself of course. She tried to talk but he always interrupted her. She didn’t like that. She was about to call him out on his behavior but she didn’t because she was sick at heart. She wanted her date to be someone. Someone she hadn’t seen for two weeks now. Why she was harboring a crush with someone who didn’t give her any time of the day?  She didn’t know. So she decided to endure an hour of Mark boasting about himself. For the whole hour, she just tuned him out. Just nodding her head at the right time, pretending she was listening.

      And now, finally, she was home. She was about to walk to her room to get ready for bed when the doorbell rang. She frowned. She looked at the wall clock. It read 11:36. She didn’t know someone who would be knocking on her door at this time of the night. Well, maybe it was an emergency. She walked to the door and opened it.

      “Oh! Mark? What are you doing here?” She regretted opening the door. If she had known it was Mark, she would have pretended she was asleep already. He really freaked her out.

      She stepped outside and slowly closed the door behind her. Well, she didn’t want to be alone in a room with him, after what he had done to her inside his car.

      Mark was strangely watching her. He noticed that she didn’t invite him inside.

      “Why don’t we go inside to talk, Zia? You know, to say sorry.” Mark didn’t look sincere.

      “Ahm, it’s better if we talk here outside, I think.” She didn’t want to sound rude.

“Why are you here? Did you need something?”

      “Yes, this!” He pinned her on the door impatiently and tried to kiss her. Good thing, she had reacted quickly. She was able to move her head on the side. His kiss just landed on her cheek. Even that had made her gagged.

      “Mark, what are you doing? You’re drunk!” She tried to dodge his hold on her but he was much stronger than her.

      “You slut! I know you want me! You are just playing hard to get!” Mark half whispered on her face. She shrieked when she felt him grind his hip on her stomach.

      “You pervert!” She shouted. She was about to kick him on his groin when he suddenly disappeared in front of her.

      “Zia!” Someone had shouted her name.

      When Mark fell limply on the ground, she saw her savior. Ross Martinez. Colonel Ross Martinez.

      “Zia! Zia, are you okay, baby? God!” Abruptly, Cal was in front of her, hugging her to his body, his arms were tightly enclosed around her. She unconsciously wrapped her arms around his waist. Her body trembled, feeling the shock of what almost surely would have happened to her.

      “Ross?” Her voice was muffled on his chest. His musky and woody scent comforted her.  She didn’t know when he had come home, or why he was hugging her now. She was just a non-existent human being to him before. Anyway, she was thankful he was here.

      He unwrapped himself from her. “Baby, are you okay?”He was now rubbing his hands up and down on her arms as he looked at her intently, looking for any injuries. “God, when I heard you screaming! I thought, I thought….” He was now babbling. She stared at him in amazement. In the three months of him living here, she always saw him impeccable and always in control. This is the first time she saw him looked frazzled. “Are you hurting? Did he hurt you?” he demanded. He didn’t wait for her answer. He swiftly turned from her and went to Mark whose body was now lying lifelessly on the ground. She saw Ross picked him up on his collar as if he weighed nothing, and raised his right arm. She realized then, that he was going to punch him! Again!      

      “Ro—Mr. Martinez! What are you doing?” Zia screeched. His face turned to her impassively. He raised his eyebrow, as if questioning her.

      “What do you think am I doing?” He asked incredulously. “I’m going to beat the hell out of him?” He said coldly.

      “But…but he was already out cold?” That came out as a question, not wanting to rile him more.

      “What do you think we should do to him?” He asked her softly, too softly. He uncurled his hold on Mark, and let him fall on the ground mindlessly. Zia winced when she heard the thump of Mark’s body.

      “Ahm, call the police?” She asked hesitantly.

      “Or we should just bury his body somewhere.” He murmured, looking around the area.

      “We should really call the police, Mr. Martinez.” She told him with conviction. She didn’t want him to be put in jail because of her.

      He stared at her, contemplating.

      “I don’t want you to go to jail.” She whispered, concern was evident on her voice.

      Ross heaved a sigh. “Fine,” he grumbled. He pulled his phone at the back pocket of his pants and started dialing. He put the phone on his ear. He looked intently at her while waiting for someone to answer on the other side of the line. “It’s Ross Martinez. I want to talk to Zach.”

      She raised her eyebrow. He knew the Zach? Now, why does that one surprise her? Ross was a Colonel, a former military man. Of course, he knew Zachary Lopez, the City Chief of Police.

      She heard someone talk on the phone. “Hey. Ah, I just got back in town. Look, Zach, I have a situation here.” Ross listened. “No, he’s not dead. Not yet.” Pause. “Zia stopped me from killing him.” Another pause. “Yeah. Zia Alicosta.” He knew her full name? “This fucker touched my girl,” Ross growled. Wait, What? My girl? Is he talking about her? “Just get here as fast as you can before I kill him myself. Yeah, I’ll sit on him.” Then, he hung up.

      Zia rubbed her hands on her shoulders, suddenly feeling the cold. She was still wearing her yellow sleeveless knee-length dress. “You okay?” There was concern on Ross’ voice.

      Without waiting for her answer, he removed his black leather jacket and put it on her shoulders. He surprised her even more when he caressed his index finger on her cheek. She couldn’t help staring on his eyes. There was something in his eyes.

      “Soft.” She heard him say quietly.

      Ross put his hand down and coughed. “You sure you’re okay?” She just nodded. She didn’t know how to react to this side of Ross. He didn’t know her. Sure, they were neighbors. Their houses were ten feet away from each other. She didn’t even know if he knew her as his neighbor, or if she even existed. She tried to say hello to him before but he just looked at her weirdly, as if she had grown two heads. Because of embarrassment, she just walked away. From then on, she just decided to leave some cookies on his front porch.

      “Maybe you should get inside? It’s cold out here.”

      “No, I’ll just wait here with you.”

      He stepped forward, caging her against the door. He put both of his hands on each side of her head. He took one more step, crowding her. But she didn’t feel scared, whereas before she felt sneaky whenever Mark tried to invade her space.

      Now that he was under the light, she could finally see him clearly. He was wearing grubby camo pants matched with a pair of soiled black combat boots. His sullied gray v-neck shirt, or maybe it was color white before, fitted his ripped sexy body sinfully.  Even though he was quite filthy, he was still handsome in a rugged way. He was also now sporting a growing beard, and his hair was longer, whereas before, it was always clean-cut.

      Zia looked up to him, straining her neck so that she could see his eyes. This was the first time she could actually see the color of his eyes. They were cobalt dark eyes, adorned with thick brows. It was mesmerizing. His left brow had a small cut in the middle, missing some hair on it, and making him looked more dangerous.

      “You’re so tiny,” Ross said in deep voice. He was scrutinizing her the way she was to him.

      “Well, you’re very tall and huge,” she pointed out. He was maybe more than a foot taller than her 5’3’’ height. Her head just fell on his chest.

      “I’m going to hurt you when I hold you,” he seemed bothered by that idea. “I don’t want to hurt you.” She doubted that. One thing she knew about Ross was he couldn’t hurt any woman or child. She had seen him helping others even though he seemed aloof.

      “I know you’re not going to hurt me, Mr. Martinez,” she said softly, inadvertently putting her right hand on his chest. Ross’ face was impassive. She was about to move her hand away, when he clasped it and put it back on his chest.

      “Don’t call me that,” Ross growled.

      “What?”

      “Don’t call me Mr. Martinez,” he repeated.

      Oh. “Ahm, Colonel?”

      “Not that,” now he snarled.

      “Sir?” she whispered questioningly.

      Ross smiled mischievously. God! He was beautiful. “I really would like you to call me ‘Sir’, baby. Maybe, when we’re both naked in bed.” Huh? Bed? Her brain might be malfunctioning.

      “My name. Say my name,” he demanded softly.

      “R-Ross,” she uttered quietly.

      “Say it again.” 

      “Ross.”

      “Good girl.”

      Zia noticed that Ross’ head was now dipping towards her face. She could feel his breath on her cheek. He looked at her lips. She unconsciously wetted them with her tongue. He groaned, as if in pain.

      “I’m warning you, Zia. I’m going to kiss you. I need to taste you, baby.” His voice was getting deeper and sexier. He was hypnotizing her. And she didn’t care. She wanted to kiss him, too.

      Realizing she was not moving away from him, he continued his descent. Then, she felt his soft lips on hers, tentatively tasting her. Biting the corner of her lips, then covering her whole mouth, sucking it into his. 

      Ross lifted his head a little. “Open your mouth, baby.” Then, he went back to assaulting her mouth, coaxing it to open. When he bit her lower lips lightly, she couldn’t help but to gasp. He took advantage of that. He put his tongue inside her, tasting every recesses of her mouth. “God! Zia, you taste so good,” he moaned into her mouth.

      Zia didn’t know what was happening. Ross was invading her mouth and her senses. Her brain had short-circuited. Her knees buckled, so she tried to hold onto him by looping her arms around his neck. She felt Ross gripped her around her waist, pulling her onto his body. Her body was now totally flushed in front of his. She gasped when she felt something against her stomach. Ross’ arousal. It was huge.

      “Shh… it’s okay, baby.” He held her head with his left hand, angling her to kiss her deeper.

      Zia was burning. She felt her core clenched, signaling her arousal. She reflexively rubbed herself to him, making Ross groaned loudly. “s**t, baby. We have to stop.” Instead of stopping, he clutched her more to his body. She felt him touched her right breast, squeezing it tenderly. She moaned. No one had touched her there before.

      She didn’t know how long they were kissing and touching. She didn’t care. It was as if they were both catching up to long months of pent-up lust that they were both have been ignoring before.

      Their moment was hastily cut off when Ross abruptly let her go. Zia stumbled back. “f**k! Sorry, babe.” He immediately clasped her arm to steady her.

      Someone coughed behind them. She looked over Ross’ shoulder. Her eyes rounded when she saw that it was Zach. Did he see them making out?  Her cheeks reddened.

      “Really, Ross? You called me, telling me some i***t had touched Zia,” Zach accused. “Now, you’re the one touching her. Is this one of those known moments of yours? Releasing-tension-after-a-mission moment.  Well, not her, Ross.”

      Zia couldn’t understand what Zach was saying. “Come here, Zia.”

      “Don’t,” Ross said in a chilly, commanding tone.

      Zach stood still, staring at Ross intently. Ross stared back with cold eyes. She glanced back and forth between the two men, gauging what was happening. They were both communicating silently.

      It was Zach who first turned his gaze away.  Then, he looked back again at Ross, finally coming with a decision. “Don’t hurt her,” he warned.

      “I won’t,” Ross promised. What was that?

      Zach clapped his hands, turned away from them and walked towards Mark’s still unconscious body. “Okay! Let’s take a look at what we have here.” He kneeled on the ground and inspected Mark’s head. “Good. He’s not dead. You didn’t kill him, Ross,” he said, pleased. He motioned the other two police officers to carry Mark inside the police car. “Bring him to the hospital first. Then, when he wakes up, bring him in the station.” The two police officers nodded, and did as they were instructed.

      “I guess you want to file a complaint,” Zach asked her.

      “Is that really needed?” She wasn’t even hurt.

      “Yes,” both men said at the same time.

      “Okay.” She acquiesced. “I guess I won’t be sleeping soon.”

      “Look, honey, you need to file a report. So, we can issue a restraining order. That kind of f**k—sorry. That kind of guy will keep coming back. He’s going to bother you again. The next time we don’t know what he will do. Okay?” Zach elaborated, being the voice of reason.

      Zia nodded. She glanced up at Ross who had now a murder look in his eyes.

      “I’m sorry about this, Zia,” Zach said contritely.

      “Can we do it inside, Zach?” she asked quietly. Ross was now looking at both of them through slit eyes. What was his problem? Zach also noticed the way Ross was behaving.

      “Sure, beautiful.” Zach held her elbow. “Let’s get you inside, sweetie.” Zach was acting funny.

      “No need to hold her,” Ross gently pulled her elbow from Zach’s grasp.

      “I’m just being a gentleman.” Zach grinned good-naturedly. Ross gave him a lethal look.

      Zach held both his arms up, smirking. “Lead the way, Colonel.”

      Zia and Ross went it first, with Zach following behind them, whistling humorously.