Intrigue (5 page)

Rafe was over on his side of the room talking to a few of our fellow students, but I saw his mouth quirk as if he was listening. Well, it was a small room and Jazz’s voice definitely could be heard vast distances when she was upset. I finally slyly noted, “I figured you could be planning a whole list of questions for him during class, so you can properly interrogate him while you are sparring him tonight.”

Jazz sniped at me, “Don’t think I wasn’t, but the point is I could have been planning a much more extensive and detailed list of questions had I known this a day earlier.”

I raised one of my eyebrows at her as I remarked, “You would have just forgot the questions by the time you were sparring with him. Now the questions are fresh in your mind. Are you not the girl we dubbed, Ms. Short-Attention-Span?”

Key laughed and agreed, “True dat, but I think we were talking about guys, not interrogation questions. Of course, in this case, it’s the same thing. She even made me drive separately so she would get Rafe all to herself.”

Jazz shot Key a challenging smile as she said, “I’m paying you the same courtesy of driving separate when it’s your turn.”

Thrace listened to Jazz and Key’s verbal sparring and announced, “I’ve never seen Jazz and Key directly compete over the same guy—talk about entertainment.”

I tilted my head to indicate Rafe was on his way over to the group, as I said, “I’ll bring the popcorn, and let the most devious temptress win.”

Jazz snorted and inquired, “Where
does
your vocabulary come from sometimes?”

I smirked and quickly said, “Calli’s vocabulary: brought to you courtesy of our fine friends that wrote the most popular trashy romance novels in the past six years.”

Jazz cracked, “That explains a lot about you,” just as Rafe arrived.

Two things happened at once: Thrace’s arm immediately snaked around my waist and as he did so he also politely asked Rafe when he could set up a time to spar with him. I saw Rafe try to hide a smirk at the arm move, but Jazz and Key couldn’t hide their snorts of amusement.

Rafe answered just as friendly, “Does tomorrow work for you? How about 11am. We can meet here if that is ok.”

Thrace then astounded even me as he said, “Calli, why don’t we have a back to school pool party at my house tomorrow afternoon? The parents won’t be home until late cause they’re meeting your parents at Vicente’s for dinner. As long as everyone is gone by 9pm, we should be fine. Rafe, you can follow me back, and Calli and I can introduce you to some of your fellow classmates early.”

Rafe gave us (or mostly me) an amused smile like he was remembering our conversation from this morning, “Thanks, Thrace. That is very generous of you. I have been going a little stir crazy this summer not knowing anyone my age.”

“Yeah, you’re asking Ms. Introvert to spread the word about your party, not gonna happen. Key and I will take care of it,” Jazz assured him.

Thrace must have really taken my words to heart as he added, “We should get rolling about 1pm. Rafe, if you want to crash at my place that night, you won’t be the only one.” Jazz and Key started texting classmates.

Rafe could not hide his bemused smile as he looked at us, “I’ll run it by the father figure. He tends to be rather strict sometimes. Maybe I’ll catch him on a good night. You mind if we play it by ear?”

Thrace smiled and said, “No problem. Calli’s dad practically has a ankle monitor on her.”

I tilted my head and raised an eyebrow at him, “If that were true, we would have never managed to go to any of the raves this summer. Although I still have a sneaking suspicion that he calls his buddies on the police force every time we go out on the weekend.”

Jazz and Key both looked up at the same time and as Jazz announced, “Done and done. Now, time for anyone not sparring with Rafe tonight to say their goodbyes.”

Thrace laughed and said, “Don’t let her overwhelm you with her personality, Rafe. She’ll say something to shock ya then she tries to knock you on your butt while your mouth is still hangin open.”

I smirked as I reassured Key, “Luckily, she never keeps them very long. Plus, wasn’t that hottie on the basketball team texting you the other day?”

“True. And he actually might be a keeper. Well, we’ll find out tomorrow. Ya want me to call you tonight with the Jazz’s version of Rafe’s interrogation?”

“You can fill me in tomorrow at the party,” I said as I got in Thrace’s car.

He roared off as usual as if he was driving in Daytona. I warned, “Slow down, Sparky.” Then, I remarked, “Weren’t you friendly to the new guy.”

“I’m just listening to my girlfriend’s advice,” Thrace answered like a boy scout.

“Let me feel your forehead. Or is that one of your 21 steps—listening to your girlfriend? If it is, I like it. We can stay on this step awhile,” I teased.

“You know I
hate
surprises, Mr. Evasive.”

“Fine. We’ll play it your way,” I said as we arrived at my house. “You coming in and grabbing dinner?” I asked. I knew there would not be a meal waiting for him at his house. Honey was not much of a cook. He, of course, recognized this as well so he said, “Sure. I gotta hear what your dad thinks of the Spartan’s chances this year.”

“Great. I could tell you what he’s gonna say before we even get in there.” I did my best dad impression as we get out of the car and enter the house. Thrace was impressed when dad quoted me word-for-word as he discussed football with Thrace.

Thrace got his fill of family bonding, and he said good-bye to my parents. I walked him back out to his car and was about to kiss him when he stopped me.

He gave me a hug instead and said that I would have to wait until tomorrow before we started down the 21 Steps. I muttered something unladylike under my breath that made Thrace laugh. He let me go as I looked at him with bewilderment in my eyes. He got in his car and said, “Love ya, Calli.” I grumbled something else, and he took off with a smirk on his face.

A minute after Thrace left I got a call from Rafe. As soon I picked up the phone he commented, “Thanks for the warning. Jazz has got a bright future in military interrogation.”

I laughed and said, “She does have a way of turning the screws just right. So what did she get out of you?”

“I am sure she will share her interrogation techniques and findings with you tomorrow. I wouldn’t want to bore you. I was just calling to see if you are going to be at the gym tomorrow morning.”

“Why would you want to work out twice? Taking on both members of the dynamic duo in one day. You must be a glutton for punishment.”

“What else do I have to do to entertain myself, and as we both know, you are highly amusing. Speaking of other types of fun, you must have had a similar talk with Thrace as you did with me about friendship.”

“I just pointed out to Thrace very clear reasons to be friends with you,” I replied cryptically.

“It must have been something like
a friend is less likely to steal your girlfriend. Although that is really flawed logic, a friend has greater access to your girlfriend than an average stranger. The history books are full of those stories.”

Since I did not have any witty comebacks, I fell back to my usual evasive techniques and remarked, “If you want me at all civil tomorrow morning, I need to get off the phone now to get my beauty rest.”

“What if I like you as a savage, and I can’t handle you getting any more beautiful?” He replied in a husky voice that had more than my stomach fluttering.

I took a cleansing breath to slow my pulse and stammered, “Too many comments like that will get you in the friendship doghouse, understood? And I also have no problem calling you on your antics, friend.”

“I am counting on you to keep me in my place, Calli, wherever you decide that is in your life.”

Holy cryptic message, Batman. Ok. He definitely won that round, and I was too tired to go another round with him tonight.

Hermes Field Log: August 2007

I have now established a friendship with my Aegis. And as inadvisable as it is, I find her intriguing. In some magnetic way, it is like I am drawn to her. I don’t understand it, but it definitely has the potential of causing me to break Rule #1 of being a bodyguard. It would be easier if the attraction was all on her side, and I could perform my duties without getting attached. That
is
the plan. And even though she says how distant she usually is, she seems to feel the bond, too. I even told her about Cora. Now, she wants me to make friends with her “better half” who does not seem worthy of her. I will definitely make friends with her girlfriends, but making friends with her boyfriend might prove awkward. Hopefully, my duties will not last long enough for any of these potential situations to ignite. Apollo is still very secretive about the situation. He asks for my trust and as my closest brother I must give it and hope he knows what he is doing.

Chapter 5: Spin the Bottle

The next morning as I entered the gym I tried to greet Rafe in a more formal way than a grumbled hello. I couldn’t really tell if my attempt was successful because he just seemed amused. I secretly sent up a prayer to the heavens that today I would knock Rafe on his eyas.
No Such Luck
. He constantly kept me off balance with questions about my life. Just when I thought the questioning was over, he went on to ask me about Thrace’s ex-girlfriends of which there were many. My Prince had left a wake of ex-girlfriends that saw me, not Thrace, as the enemy. He was just not the type of guy that could handle being alone, whereas I had sometimes been happier in my fairy tale world than in my relationship reality. Rafe seemed thoughtful as I shared much more than I intended.

He then switched tactics again by asking, “So are you looking forward to the pool party this afternoon?”

I mumbled, “I am not that comfortable in large social settings. Small group of friends, I’m fine. Large party where I am going to have to be the hostess—not so much.”

Rafe seemed puzzled, “Why will you have to be the hostess?”

I sighed and explained, “Thrace will take care of all the social host jobs, but I will have to take care of things like food, clean-up, making sure people aren’t in places they shouldn’t be, and taking care of anyone that isn’t feeling well. I get to be mom at these parties, so I rarely ever enjoy them like Thrace does.”

“I’m sorry. Do you get to have any fun?”

“Jazz and Key will be there so I will get to hear about all the dirty details of your interrogation. It’ll be fine, just not the highlight of my week or anything.”

Rafe gave me his most mischievous smile as he asked, “What was the highlight of your week, Calli? Keep in mind, if you say anything other than meeting me, I won’t believe you.”

I considered my week, then I considered lying, but I finally admitted, “I guess it would have been making friends with you. But, keep in mind, it wasn’t that exciting of a week. I really don’t want to inflate that ego of yours anymore than it already is.”

“Well, if it makes you feel any better, meeting you has definitely been the highlight of my summer so far. Of course, since I don’t care about inflating your ego, I can admit that I find you fascinating,” he threw my words back at me with a twist that made my stomach contract as if I had been kicked.

I shakily laughed and finally bowed to him after not making one direct hit. “I’m letting you off easy today since you are sparring my better half in a couple of hours.”

“Since you are cutting our sparring short, can you help me out with my calisthenics? I usually do them after you leave anyway.”

He went to his bag, grabbed a water, and threw it to me. He then did the one thing that would be sure to get my attention and had me drooling again. He took off his shirt. My eyes widened and my heart rate increased rapidly as he came back toward me. He asked me to sit on his feet and keep count while he did sit-ups. I looked down at his hand touching my bare arm and slowly gazed from this hand, to his forearm, to his bicep, to his muscular shoulder, and to his chiseled chest. When I finally worked my way back up to his face to meet his eyes that were now smoldering on me, I was well past my usual flush red.