Longing by Arianna Baum (guided reading books .txt) 📕

Parker is surprisingly a good fighter as well as attractive. Tall, dark and handsome! His bright green eyes are visible from half way down the alley. His dark brown hair barley long enough to reach his eyes but the way he pushes them out of the way is adorable. His hair is short but he is well muscled. His shirt looks too tight spread out across his chest.
A thug slams against the wall next to me. The only man left is the one holding me against the wall. Watching all this fighting has got me well feeling like I could probably kick this one’s ass and so I try. I try to turn around as he grab’s me and pulls me to him lips puckered. I decide to give some. I bang my forehead hard against his nose and the crunching sound that sends shivers up my spine. I look at the damage I’ve done and I’m repulsed by the way his defiantly broken nose flops back and forth and he tries to get a better hold on me. The man tries to help me. But I yell at him to stop.
“Are you sure?” he asks.
“Yes!” I yell at him.
I shove hard against the thug still pinning me against the wall I draw my foot back and lets it fly to his destination. I put all of my strength into this one kick. That one really did a number on him though I got enough room to wriggle free. I was about to run when I decided I hadn’t put him through enough torture yet. I turned around and let my right hook fly only to have it caught by the mysterious stranger.
“Let’s go!” he stage whispered in my ear. I start to run but only to feel the alcohol I had drank earlier against employee protocol but you know I couldn’t careless with one hand around my waist and another grabbing my legs. He carried me off into the night.
I awoke to start off a shower. When I fully opened my eyes I realized I wasn’t home. And I was late for work again! I got up feeling groggy and looked down. I wasn’t even in my own clothes! It looked like an old t-shirt. I then started to look for all my stuff. I see my boots at the end of the bed and bend down to grab them. I feel hands on my hips and I nearly jump out of my skin! I turn around to see who it was and find it to be my savior from last night. And when I look over his body well…he’s only got on a towel. And that there makes my heart race a mile a minute.
“Morning.” Is all he says as he goes through his draws picking clothes out. Ok then I Say nothing back as I start to head for the door.
“Where do you think you’re going?” He asks actually surprised.
“Home I have a life to get back to and I need to be at the police station!” I say. He raises an eyebrow at the police station thing but doesn’t question me.
“I’ll drive you.” He says as he drops his towel. Oh my god. I feel my cheeks turning pink but I just can’t remove my eyes from his perfect body. I swear I’m going to start to drool! I’m finally able to look away as he slips on his boxers. I’m afraid he saw that so I try to avoid hi eyes.
“Liz…I’m sorry.” He says suddenly.
“For what?” I ask suspiciously.
“We need to leave now.” Leave? Is he crazy if I avoid going to the police station I’ll be blamed for Ian’s death! And being a fugitive isn’t on my to-do list.
“Are you crazy?” knowing I probably won’t believe anything that he’s going to say I still wait for a response.
“A little. Buts that’s not the point. I brought you into something I shouldn’t have. You see I’ve been hired to protect you.” He admits. I’m in awe. I plan to tell him off but no words come out of my mouth. I don’t know really if this is a joke or what. He seems so serious… I’m broken off in thought by his shouting
“There are people out there who want to kill you! Are you even listening to me!?” he calls from down the hallway. I hadn’t even noticed he’d moved.
“yeah.” I say barely above a whisper. He tosses something at me and my reflex’s take over. I catch it before it smack’s me in the face. I look down at the object. It was a gun.
“Do you know how to use that?” his voice muffled by the shirt he’s pulling over his head. I shake my head.
“Of course. Are you ever going to say something?” he asks irritated by my silence.
“Maybe.” I say. After that there was a loud crash in the other room. He casually walks into the other room. I hear gun shots and cussing. I turn to run but am surprised as the figure coming back into the room is parker.
“Your shot?” it sounded like a question. He nods his he, picks me up and jumps out the second story window. We land on the ground with a thud. A burst of wind makes me shiver. Parker reaches back into his pack and hands me a jacket. As his arm goes back I see streaks of red on his shirt and before he can stop me I lift it up to just see a scrap. I let out a sigh of relief.
“Got any big band aids?” I ask. That sends him to hysteria.
“What?” I ask. He ignored me.
“Let’s go.” There’s another crash inside the house. We race to his car.
Once were on the road I shower him in questions that he really doesn’t answer.
“What the hell?” I yell at him.
“You’re very welcome.” He says sounding irritated again.
“Who are they?” I say into my elbow as I sneeze.
“They are the people who want you dead.” He says sounding smug.
“Why do they want me dead?” I say with feeling.
“Don’t know.” He shrugs. That was the end of our conversation. I should have said I loved you back. Then I wouldn’t be here I would be in the arms of someone who really did love me not in this car with a stranger. The thought of Ian brought back all the dreams and memories of him…good and bad. Tears wake me up. The wet stuff is all over my face and with the a/c on the cold air numbs my cheeks. We’ve been in the car for hours and by now the police are probably blaming his death on me! The thought of that makes me what to vomit. I couldn’t have possibly killed him! He was my friend. I remember just three days ago we were sitting on his couch watching movies I had rented at the nearest blockbuster. This whole thing just felt like a dream. How badly I really wished it were. The sound of the car pulling over made me open my eyes. We were parked at a hotel whose name I could read through all the tears in my eyes. I open my car door and stepped out into the cool night air. It felt good to be able to stand. I looked over at parker who looked like he had something to say but instead his eyes trailed over my body. Everywhere his eye look felt warm and tingly I couldn’t stop the next shudder. I smile at him and start to walk in then stopping to think isn’t it weird that were walking to a hotel without bags? He seems to have read my mind as he walks over to the trunk and removes to duffel bags. The lady at the counter takes one look at me asks what happen.
“A friend recently died.” I say sadness leaking into my voice.
“Ooh poor dear! Are you alright?” she asks like she’s ready to jump over the desk in case I collapse.
“That’s why we’re here. I’m trying to get her away from all the memories. I don’t want her to go into a state of depression.” Parker says looking rather bored. The lady takes one look at him and grin’s. I know what she’s looking at. He looks beautiful the way his dark hair is tousled and his muscle bulging and his rosy lips. He’s a sight for sore eyes I’ll admit that. But the lady looks at me when she answers.
“How lucky are you to have such kind and loving boyfriend?” she says with emphasis on the boyfriend part.
“No see you’ve got it all wron…” I start to say but I’m interrupted by parker.
“Yes she is now could we get a room?” he asks sounding like he’s getting irritated by the normal girl banter.
“Yes. Would you like one or two rooms?” she asks kindly. I say two and parker says one and with the look he shot at me I shut my mouth.
“One please.” He asks just as sweetly as she did almost mocking her. She looks at me and I have half the mind to say two again but I really just want to get out from under the check in ladies watchful gaze so I just nod and smile. She hands us a key without a word and goes back to whatever she was doing before we came along...which was probably nothing.
“That could have went better.” He mumbles as we make our way towards the elevator. I nod my head in agreement wishing he could just leave me alone.
Once inside the room I head straight for the shower. The hot water kneading the knots out of my back. I just sit there thinking about what’s going to happen when there’s a knock on the door.
“I’m busy!” I yell at him.
“Hurry up!” he shouts back through the door. Just for that I decide to take some extra time to condition my long dark hair. The second knock on the door sets me on edge but the third just pisses me off! Couldn’t I grieve for god sake? I mean I lost a friend and now the life that had taken me years to build after the fire.
I slowly step out of the shower and onto the cold tile floor. Towels? i think as a cool breeze hits me. Were we’re the towels? I search through the bathroom only to figure out that I’m blind. I wrapped one around my head and the second one around my body taking the only towels I could find and exit the bathroom.
He was standing right there. When I opened the bathroom door he was everywhere. I pushed him aside as I mutter bad things about him. Once he was in the bathroom I took my towels off and started to dig through the bags. Mine was the purple one, big surprise it was filled with clothes I would think twice about wearing. Putting on a matching set of bra and panties I began to shuffle farther down into the thing. I pass the naughty nighties and almost barged into the bathroom demanding what the hell was he planning! But no instead I ripped each one out of the bag and tossed them into the corner of the room. I searched for more appropriate attire. I found some decent looking women’s boxer shorts and tossed them on now on to a shirt. I look for tanks tops and came across a bag. It was filled with the necessity’s like tooth brush and razor’s. And something to go with the nighty piles, condoms I tossed them onto the nighties and kept searching. Aha