Aris: A Sexy Romance Novel (Thief of Hearts Series Book 1) (5 page)

“Hello.”  she took the woman’s hand smiling back at her.

Mata looked past Saoirse,  “Hello.”

Denise smiled back at her, “Hello Mata.  I’m Denise.”

“Oh.”  Mata said suddenly.  “It’s late.  You’re hungry?” she looked at Aris.

“No Mata.  I ate on the plane.  It’s late.  Let me get Saoirse and Denise settled then I’ll take you home.”

“I’ll take her, Aris.  You see to them.”  Noah reached out his hand to the little old woman helping her from the chair.  He wrapped her arm around his, walking at her pace, out of the house.

“Guest rooms are already made up.”  Aris grinned, “Good thing because I certainly don’t know how to do it.” he picked up both their bags carrying them to the second floor.

The hallway upstairs was square as it enclosed the courtyard below. 

“You, ladies, are going to be right here at the top of the stairs across from each other.”  Aris took Denise’s bag into the room that looked out on the courtyard. 

The room was done with white washed walls and bamboo flooring.  The overall decor had an up beat ‘roughing it’ feel without compromising any of the comfort.  Having set Denise’s bags down, he went across the hall to the room for Saoirse.  The decor wasn’t that much different.  Clean, neat, nothing fancy, with smooth bamboo flooring and natural colors throughout, but this room’s balcony opened to the ocean side.  A small dressing table sat against the wall that faced the ocean between the balcony door and the tall windows.  A tall dresser sat on the far wall where the bathroom was.  The third wall simply had a door in it that lead to the walk in closet which was large enough to be another bedroom by itself.  Aris set the bag down on the bed for her before opening the balcony doors. 

“If you don’t mind, I’m going to bed.  I probably should have slept on the plane like Seers did!”  Denise waved to the two of them as she went back across the hall shutting the door.

“Night Nise.” 

Aris looked at Saoirse looking around the room.  “You didn’t need to pack anything.  Everything in here is for you.  If there is anything you need, let me know.”  Aris’s voice had that strange quality about it again that Saoirse couldn’t place.

“Hungry?” Aris stood in the doorway.  “Kitchen’s this way.” 

“Denise gets to bow out of eating but I don’t?” she looked at him out of the corner of her eye.

“I thought we’d already had this conversation.  Denise ate with Noah and I several times on the plane.”

“I heard.  Turkey with avocado something.”

“Humor me.  Please?”

Exasperated, she followed him down to the kitchen where he rummaged in the refrigerator,  “Any preferences?  Let me guess -- no.  How about anything you don’t want?”

She shrugged her shoulders as she shook her head.  She wanted to tell him she honestly wasn’t hungry but somehow she figured that was going to go over about as well as it had on the plane.  Maybe she should have just blurted out Ben & Jerry’s Everything But..., it might have made him feel better.

His head disappeared into the fridge again.  He was saying something but she wasn’t listening.  She wandered out beyond the steps of the outdoor room.  There was a hammock slung between two of the palm trees.  On the beach itself was a ring of some sort.  As she drew closer she could see that there had been logs burned in the center with a few sticks still sitting on the rocks suggesting someone had been roasting something.  The bay rippled quietly with the breeze blowing in off the water.  It was beautiful like a scene from a computer wallpaper.  Turning back toward the house she sat down in the middle of the hammock looking at the stars rising over the water.

“You know, you could have waited til I burnt something before deciding I can’t cook.”  Aris took a lighter from his pocket starting the torch next to the hammock as he set down a plate of fruit and cheese on the small table. 

“If that’s typical of what you burn you need to see someone about your cooking methods.” Saoirse was still looking at the water.

Aris smiled.  Her sarcasm was at his expense, but she was at least talking to him.  He straddled the hammock sitting down facing her.  Reaching over to the table he grabbed the knife handing her a piece of cheese. 

She looked down at the knife and slice of cheese in his hand,  “You’re really that intent on my eating?”

“The knife is for the apple, of course.  The sour of the apple goes nicely with the cheese.  It’s a little boring without it.  Here, you’re going to need more water before you go to sleep or you’ll have a headache tomorrow.”

Saoirse took the glass he handed her, “Really.”

“You don’t have to take my advice.  You were in the dry air of a plane for more than a couple hours.  Most people find its effects dehydrating.  Maybe you’ll have no effects at all tomorrow.”  Aris shrugged his shoulders as he cut another section of the apple for her.

She took the apple piece he offered to her knowing he was going to have his way.  She looked up at the sky exploding with stars the way she’d only seen in pictures.  The breeze picked up making the night air chilly.  Without realizing it, she put her hands on either arm.

Aris stood up leaning across her as he pulled a light blanket off the ropes of the foot of the hammock.  He sat back down wrapping the blanket around her pulling her into his arms.  She considered saying no, but decided it wasn’t worth fighting about.  Besides, if he got grabby she’d be more than happy to let him have it.  He unwrapped the blanket further putting it around all of both of them as he pulled her into his chest laying down with her between his legs. 

The hammock swayed gently in the breeze.  Aris kept one arm around her, while his other hand ran his fingers through her hair.  She could feel his cock getting hard under her side, but his breathing was slow and deep.  She could hear his heart beat beneath her head as she laid still listening to his body.  She moved her feet to get more comfortable, but Aris misunderstood, pulling the blanket closer around her feet with his.  He ran his hands up and down her arms a few times assuming that she was still chilly.  Her eyes closed.  She was listening to him breathe.  The last few times he had touched her she wasn’t aware of him the way she was now.  He smelled good, like the ocean breeze itself, but warmer.  She knew he looked good in his suits, but it was only now that she was laying against his chest, that she noticed how tight his body was, even his abs in this position were tight.  He wasn’t a big guy.  He was just sort of
‘functionally athletic’
she thought to herself.  One of those guys who have the muscle to do what they need to get done and nothing more.  His presence exuded power and control, yet he was easy going in his attitude.  There were moments where she felt completely intimidated by him.  It wasn’t intentional on his part; if it were, Saoirse would have had no problem fighting him back or staying angry at him.  It was something about the way he didn’t seem to know that he was incredibly sexy or didn’t care.  Or the way he handled everything with complete confidence as if that’s the way things worked.  Her hands rested on his chest as she dozed in his lap. 

She didn’t know how long she had been dozing.  The torch had gone out.  Aris was still below her  but his hands were moving.  One was rubbing her hand on his chest, the other one was pulling her closer to him.  He was still rock hard underneath her but his hips were shifting to the right. 

“Saoirse.”  Aris’s voice was barely audible as he shifted his hips harder to his right wrapping his legs around hers under the blanket. 

She tightened up getting ready to belt him, but his body settled down in this position.  In another minute he was still again, his breathing in long calm cycles.  She relaxed waiting to see what would happen next, but he appeared to be asleep.  She moved her hands out from under his, lifting herself up from his chest.  Aris woke with a start.

“Are you cold?”  he began pulling at the blanket.

“I’m going in to bed.”

Aris nodded his head in the moonlight.  Moving his legs to either side of the hammock, he sat her back up as he did so.  From her room’s windows, she could see Aris finish folding the blanket back up before picking up the plate coming into the house.  She laid down across the bed in the room without bothering to move the pillows or blankets.  She listened for his foot steps on the stairs or even in the hall, but she heard nothing.  That fight was beginning inside her.  Part of her wanted Aris himself, the other part kept reminding her he was a bad guy.

“Seer!  Wake up sleepy head.”  Denise was pushing her shoulder,  “Aris is already up.  He said today is Mata’s shopping day.  We can go too.  Come on, grab a quick shower!  I want to see the village.” 

She showered, dressing in a plain pair of shorts and short sleeve blouse.  She pulled her socks on, carrying her shoes downstairs.  Denise was laughing in the outdoor room with Aris.  Saoirse sat down on the last stair to put her shoes on.  It irritated her that she had a headache this morning.  It pissed her off royally that Aris had been right about it.

“Is Mata your mother?”

Aris chuckled slightly, “I don’t have a mother.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.  When did she die?”  Denise looked sad for him.

“No, I mean I don’t have any parents.  I’m a street kid.  I’ve never had anyone.”

“I don’t understand.  How can you not have anyone?”

“I grew up on the streets.  I don’t remember any mother or father.  Noah started coming down from the citadel when we were about seven.”  Aris frowned, “I don’t know when my birthday is, so I’m guessing.  We were still little boys.  The men of the citadel used to take some of us.  If they were smart boys, they were kept at the citadel to be taught like Noah was.  If they were hopeless, like me,” Aris smiled at her, “they were left to their own fate.”

“But who fed you?  How did you get clothes?  I don’t understand any of this.  How could you do this as a child with no adult?”  Denise frowned cocking her head to one side.  “Wait a minute, if you have no parents, how do you have a name?”

Aris laughed, “I had several names when I was growing up.  Different people called me different things depending on who I was to them.  When Noah, Jerith, Khar and I decided what we had to do, we picked our own names.  Names that we knew each other by so no one else knew who we were.  The idea was that if we got into trouble we couldn’t accidentally give the others away.  Over time, they have become our names.  I have no idea who my parents are, or when I was born, there’s not even a birth certificate for me.  To governments, I don’t exist.  We didn’t realize that then.” 

“Are all of you from the streets?”  Denise wasn’t sure if she should be asking the question or not.

“The vast majority of us, yes.  There are some people among us that were born into what you would consider a normal world.  Anaya, for example.  She is from a wealthy family.  She had every advantage they could give her.  She is well educated, smart, talented, and beautiful.  Noah met her one day.  He invited her to dinner with me.  She is now our process specialist.  Some of the men refer to her as ‘
Why
’.  It’s always the first question out of her mouth and it’s the one you’ll hear from her a thousand times a day.  It makes them crazy.”  Aris grinned.

“But if she is from a wealthy family why does she work with you?  Is it the adrenaline rush?”

Aris burst out laughing.  “I couldn’t send Anaya to do the jobs that we do.  We’d never get through them!  Besides, she is not trained for what we do.  She is here because she saw what we were doing and decided she wanted to help us.”

“I don’t understand what you mean.”

“Everything that you see on all the islands we own, there are six in the archipelago, is all ours.  The people are either ours or family members.  The houses are theirs.  The shops are theirs.  The training facilities are ours for our people.  We couldn’t change the world, so we decided to change our piece of it.  All of our people are recruited by our people or related to our people.”

“You’re not teaching all these people to be master criminals are you?”

Aris burst out laughing again, “No, Denise.  There are very few people that have it in them to do what we do.  Some of them like Celeste, are good at business, so she owns a shop in the village.  She makes good money running the shop, she buys things in the village she needs from the other shops, suddenly you have a small economy where people can support themselves.  You’ll have to talk to Jerith about the particulars, but we try to take care of all of ours.”

Saoirse got up from the step where she had been listening to Aris and Denise.  She rolled her eyes as she thought about what Aris said. 
‘Yeah, like that makes it all ok.’

“You’re up!  Good!  Let’s go!”  Denise really wanted to see the village now.

Aris looked at her,  “Coffee?”

“No, I’m good.” Saoirse walked toward the door they came in last night.

Aris shook his head following them out the door.  “The bungalow right there is Noah’s.  The one next to that is Jerith’s.  The far one up on the hill looks out to the training island, that’s Khar’s.”  Aris pointed them out as he walked out of the cul de sac to the main street.  “The tram should be along any time now.”  he looked down at his watch.

Almost as if on queue, a small white, cut up bus looking vehicle, appeared.  Saoirse looked around as they rode.  The countryside was pretty.  It was healthy looking.  She had expected an island with the fabulously wealthy served by the miserably poor but she wasn’t seeing that.  Aris was probably carefully controlling what they saw.  Why would he live in a plain house like the one they were staying in if he had ridiculous amounts of wealth at his disposal?  Probably for appearance reasons.

Aris had the tram stop in front of a little cottage.  The front was a patchwork of cemented together stones.  Mata stood smiling as she opened a wooden screen door.  Aris said something to her in her language as he touched his cheek to hers.  She held her hands out to Denise and Saoirse.  They said good morning as they entered the little cottage. 

Mata gathered her things.  Aris offered her his arm, leading her out the door to the market in the village.  Denise smiled as she looked around.  Aris walked Mata to the market before he left her to her own devices.

“We’ll catch up with Mata in a minute.  Saoirse hasn’t eaten yet this morning.  Let’s go get coffee at Celeste’s.”  Aris lead them to one of the shops with a porch running along the front of it.

Inside, a very big woman was busy behind the counter.  She had to have been well over six feet, probably pushing seven feet tall.  Aris stood there waiting on her for a minute.  He was patient for a minute or two.  Saoirse noticed a wicked grin come over his face, as he looked at the floor, waiting on Celeste. 

“Ah, you don’t want any of that, it’s got bugs in it.”  he had barely looked up from the floor before Celeste jumped like she’d been hit with electricity.

“Bugs!  Who said bugs?  Aris!  You scruffy scamp!”  Celeste started making her way out from behind the counter, “Where have you been?”

Aris laughed as Celeste hugged him,  “I’ve been away on business.  How have you been?”

“Don’t get me started!  Marley’s been such a handful lately if he don’t quit he’s not going to see fifteen.”

“Mischief?”

“And how!”

“He’s at that age Celeste.”

“He better start watching his ‘at that age’.  He’s not too big for his momma to break his backside.  You want coffee?”

“Three, please, Celeste.  You have eggs this morning?”

“Eggs, sure I got eggs.  You want pie?  Three?”  Celeste looked up realizing there were two women standing behind him.  “Now where did you steal these ladies from?”

“Yes, please.  Spinach.”

“I get you spinach, you don’t worry about nothing.”  Celeste waved him off as she came around the counter again.  Celeste approached the women.  “You better be on your best behavior, cause this one’s sweet.”  she said to Aris pointing to Denise.  She grabbed her hands,  “No, not for no boy!  I’ll find you a water name.  Oh honey!  You ain’t leaving this island.” Celeste patted Denise’s cheek.  Celeste stepped in front of Saoirse.  She arched her left eyebrow looking at Saoirse from under it,  “Mmmm. Mmm. Mmm.”  Celeste shook her head.  She reached out, taking both of Saoirse’s hands in her own, looking at her palms.  “Girl.”  Celeste shook her head.  “No. No.  Aris love, you best leave it alone!  This one’s got your number.  She’s got hell fire bad enough.”  Celeste fingered lines in Saoirse palms, “She destroys worlds.  You send her back to wherever she came from right now.  Pain--it ain’t enough.”  Celeste looked at Aris shaking her finger. “She’s gonna bleed you before she’s gone.”  Celeste looked over at Aris again shaking her head.  “Mmm.  Mmm.  Mmm.  You send her back, now, Aris love.”  Celeste went back behind the counter putting cups together.