Chapter 6

When I woke up I felt like I was floating, I was warm and incredibly comfortable. I felt more refreshed then I had in a very long time. I felt whole and new.

As I opened my eyes I realized I was lying on top of someone, more specifically: Alexander. I was immediately blushing and wanted to get up before he woke or before Sarah found out. I didn’t want her to think I’d just gone and slept with her brother, although technically I had.

I was lying flush, right on top of him, both his arms wrapped around my waist. My face in the crook of his neck and our legs entangled.

I felt a little fuzzy on the whole falling asleep thing. I knew I’d had a nightmare, although I couldn’t remember what it was about. The panic it had caused me gave me the shivers even now though.

Okay how to get him to let go?

I carefully touched his arm to see if I could push it off me. It was hard not to sigh in wonder at the hard muscle and his bare chest. His grip didn’t seem that tight so I started pushing softly, shivering at the loss of warmth when his arm fell to the side.

I was so comfortable I would have much rather stayed put, but he was my teacher and the older brother of my friends. It was wrong.

I had managed to free myself from his arm and was focusing on freeing my leg now. That was a little more tricky because I couldn’t just push him away and I couldn’t put too much weight on his chest, that would surely wake him.

‘What are you doing?’ his husky voice made me freeze in my movements. So much for not waking him up.

Blushing crimson I darted my eyes towards his face. He looked like a god with his hands folded beneath his head, his dark hair all messy from sleeping. His eyes hooded as he smirked at me, revealing a set of straight white teeth.

‘Eh… Getting up?’ I said softly, my voice sounded normal for once.

‘Why?’ he said, a frown creasing his forehead shortly, he moved his arms again. Wrapping them around my waist as if to physically keep me from getting up.

I shook my head, trying to break eye contact but his stormy eyes seemed to draw me in. Up close I could see the darker flecks like gold floating in them, mixed in with lighter shades of gray and soft streaks of violet.

‘Because it’s time to get up…’ I muttered.

‘It’s seven AM on a Saturday a ghrá mo chroí,’ he said, raising one eyebrow questioningly. His accent was thickly Irish now, almost as if he wasn’t bothering to talk properly. The accent was so thick that I couldn’t even make out the last words, although that almost sounded more like a foreign language.

I quickly looked to the beside table were an old fashioned analogue alarm stood. Shit he wasn’t kidding, it really was seven AM! ‘Oh I thought it was later.’ Surely Sarah wouldn’t be up until at least ten… I could stay a little longer.

‘Good,’ Alexander said, as if I’d spoken the last words out loud. He was tightening his arms around me, his head dipping forward into my hair where he breathed in deeply. Then he relaxed backwards into the pillows again.

Thick waves of contentment and happiness rolling off him. Was he really so happy to hold me like this? To wake up with me?

We lay quietly for a while but I wasn’t tired any more. Alexander’s breathing was very deep and even but every time I moved he’d shift his arms to make sure I was comfortable. Every now and then he’d be softly stroking my back or play with a strand of hair.

‘Alexander?’ while we were like this he probably wouldn’t mind answering a few questions for me. I was dying to find out what was up with his accent’s. I couldn’t believe he really had two…

‘Yes a ghrá mo chroí?’ he replied. I could hear it clearly now, the last words were definitely a different language.

‘Where are you really from?’ I asked, daring to look up to his face again. I wanted to see to make sure I didn’t miss anything. I wanted to know if he was honest with me, it seemed like the Irish accent was something he hid.

His face was very open though, he looked pleased in fact. ‘Ireland, we all are…’ he replied smiling fondly as if remembering pleasant things.

‘Then why do you talk with a British accent at school? And if Bob and Sarah are Irish too… then why do they talk American?’ the questions tumbled from my lips, now that my curiosity was getting the chance.

He chuckled, his chest vibrating like last night, but I was so focused on his face that the wave of pleasure that ran through me went unnoticed enough. I wriggled around a bit though, my skin feeling as if I’d just been tickled.

‘I really, really don’t like the sound of American, don’t ask me why… I don’t really know,’ he smirked all traces of accent suddenly gone. His voice sounded strange, now that he talked properly American all of a sudden.

‘See… I have a knack for languages and accents, but the Irish is harder to understand for most people.’ He interrupted himself to laugh, ‘If I talk Irish too much it’s hard not to slip into Gaelic for me.’

‘I lived a long time in London… British is almost natural to me as well. Bob and Sarah they want to fit in a little more at school that’s why you can’t hear their accent, maybe they think people wont notice we’re related either that way.’

He laughed again as he finished explaining, it was very clear that he was in a good mood now.

I smiled at him, ‘Oh so that lullaby and those words you keep saying… They’re Gaelic? What do they mean?’

He nodded slowly, smiling warmly at me, it send butterflies flapping around in my stomach. ‘Yes the lullaby was something my mother used to sing to me when I was little… It’s too long to translate but it’s about the moon and a human falling in love with a Baobban Sith.’

I wondered what that was Baobban Sith, he pronounced it like Bavan Shee and that reminded me of the name Banshee. My mother had told me a story about that creature, a spirit woman, luring men and killing them. I wondered if they were the same.

‘And the words you said?’

Alexander cast me a lazy smile. ‘A ghrá mo chroí?’

‘Yes those, you said them last night a few times and twice this morning,’ I said, nodding. The way he said them made me think they meant something sweet, an endearment.

‘Someday I will tell you,’ with a laugh he added: ‘A ghrá mo chroí Brittany.’

I frowned, ‘But I want to know now…’ Who knew if I’d ever be in the position again to ask? We might not even talk again after this. It would be better if we didn’t… He could lose his job after all, if the school found out he’d slept with me.

That sounded wrong in my head, it made me blush.

Alexander chuckled, ‘I promise I will tell you one day.’

This time I couldn’t prevent the sigh escaping my lips at the vibration of his chest. My eyes closing as I shivered, unwanted thoughts of running my hands across his skin and kissing his amazingly soft lips again shooting through my mind.

It didn’t help that he suddenly ran his hands over my shoulders down to my waist. His fingertips skimming across the exposed skin at the bottom, where my shirt had ridden up just a little.

‘Any more questions?’ he asked softly.

‘Aren’t you afraid you’ll lose your job?’ I asked, equally as soft. It really worried me, he had his two siblings to take care of. I didn’t want to cause problems. Wait what was I thinking? We wouldn’t start a relationship anyway, he was just being nice because of last night.

‘Why would I lose my job?’ he wondered, one of his hands back in my hair, running soft fingers through it to disentangle the knots.

‘It’s against school policy…’ I mumbled feeling my face heat up again. I meant just the fact that he was holding me in his arms right now, with me lying on top of him, in his bed. Not anything more serious but still…

‘I don’t care about that a ghrá mo chroí,’ he was smiling, his eyes twinkling in amusement. He knew exactly what I was thinking.

‘But…’ I spluttered, ‘Don’t you need the money?’

‘A rún1, I work at the school because I LIKE to teach, not because I need too…’ He tucked the strand of hair he’d been playing with behind my ear.

‘Oh…’ that was a new word.

‘I own several restaurants and shops, I own several successful companies. If I didn’t want to I wouldn’t have to work a single day in my life. There’s no reason to worry about that job, you’re more important then that,’ the last he added completely serious. His hand tilting my chin upwards so he could look me in the eye.

Flustered I said: ‘Will you at least tell me what A Ruin means?’ I knew I screwed up on the pronunciation.

He laughed, ‘A rún, it means something like my dear.’

There was a soft knock at the door and then Sarah’s muted voice said: ‘Are you two decent?’

Blushing scarlet I sat up straight. Oh she already knew I was here! And she thought we were doing something!

‘Of course deirfiur og, come in,’ Alexander said, his hands grabbing my hips to hold me still. I was straddling him now, the blanket falling down around me to reveal that I was still fully dressed and that he only wore sweats, riding low on his hips.

His chest was a vision in the early morning light, although looking at the alarm told me it was now nearly ten AM. Chiseled planes and shades that defined the muscles even more made it hard to peel my eyes away from him and I knotted my hands into fists on my knees to keep them still.

‘Morning,’ Sarah chirped happily as she stepped into the room. She was already dressed in a flowing white and blue summer dress, looking every bit like a super model.

She held a phone in her hand that she stuck out to Alexander, ‘Master Borati on the phone for you.’ Alexander took the phone with his left hand, his right still holding my hip, it felt a little as if he was making sure I wouldn’t get up.

Within seconds he was talking low and quickly into the mouthpiece, what he spoke sounded very much like Italian. God how many languages and accents did this man speak?

Sarah’s voice pulled me away from staring at him, ‘I’m sorry. I should have gone looking for you sooner last night.’

Her blue eyed gaze showed nothing but sincerity, I squirmed a little uneasily. ‘It’s alright, it wasn’t your fault. Besides you shouldn’t have to babysit me!’ I repeated the words from last night but I didn’t feel the urge to add that we were both the same age this time.

‘I know. But still… I should have… I don’t know! Done something right?’ Sarah exclaimed, it was obvious she was feeling very guilty about it for some reason.

‘Sarah,’ I told her, trying to keep my voice as light as possible. It was hard because of the awkward position I was in, on top of her brother who wouldn’t let me go. ‘I really don’t blame you, I know you would have helped me if you could have. Besides it was very satisfying to kick him and get away myself, I hope he had trouble walking straight after that!’

Sarah smiled and then giggled, ‘Oh yeah he was limping badly when he came down the stairs. Think your sister went to take care of him though…’

‘Stepsister!’ I corrected her, squirming again when Alexander’s thumb started rubbing circles through my t-shirt.

‘Yeah step sister, you two are nothing alike! Don’t worry, everyone knows that,’ Sarah agreed, she winked and then nodded towards Alexander. He was still on the phone and seemed oblivious to our conversation.

‘Tell him breakfast is in ten okay?’ with those words she spun around and darted back out the door. The door closing softly behind her without making as much as a sound.

Great… She didn’t seem surprised at all to see me there! It almost seemed as if she was expecting it or as if she was used to this kind of thing.

I cast one look at Alexander to see that he was still on the phone, not looking at me but at something on the ceiling. Now to get up quickly…

I shifted a little to the side but his hand kept me from moving more then an inch. The other direction yielded the same result and pushing up with my knees didn’t help at all! I didn’t even see the muscles in his arms tense as I moved even though he must have been using quite a lot of strength.

Despite that, his grip on my hip felt soft and didn’t hurt. In fact it was nice how warm his hand was and that thumb was still rubbing circles. It send tingles through my body that I didn’t really want to be feeling right now.

I tried grabbing his hand and moving it away but even pulling at his little finger didn’t yield any results. Was I that weak or was he just unbelievably strong? I could see he was muscular but he couldn’t be THAT strong now could he?

A little fed up I contemplated hitting him, wriggling around impatiently.

‘What are you doing?’ Alexander suddenly asked, the Irish accent sounding heavy again. He was still holding the phone in one hand but it appeared he was done. His eyes were a smoldering black again.

‘Trying to get up!’ I exclaimed, showing him how frustrated I was by now. Why didn’t he just let me go? To add power to my words I took my fist and went to punch his stomach, I seriously doubted it would hurt him, but it could at least help vent some of my frustration.

Before I could hit him though he caught my fist in his hand, the phone suddenly precariously balancing on the nightstand. Shocked by how fast he’d moved I stared at his face. ‘What… the?’

‘Don’t do that, you could hurt yourself a ghrá mo chroí,’ he said rather huskily. Sitting up so I was balanced on his lap, still straddling him but his chest was pressing against me.

Feeling angry for some reason I huffed: ‘Can you at least let me up? Breakfast is ready.’ I knew I sounded annoyed but I didn’t care.

‘What’s wrong? Did Sarah say something a rún?’ he wondered, his expression confused and a little worried although his eyes were still dark. Both hands were on my hips now, still preventing me from getting up.

‘Why was Sarah not surprised I was here? Is she used to finding her friends or other students in your bed or something?’ I clasped both my hands over my own mouth in shock at the words that had just tumbled out.

Where the hell did that come from?

Alexander still looked confused but then suddenly his expression cleared to make place for amusement. ‘A ghrá mo chroí, are you jealous?’

This time he didn’t stop me from hitting his chest, I winced slightly at the hard impact, even from this close it felt like hitting stone. ‘Of course not!’

‘I assure you, there’s never been a student in my bed before. You are the only one,’ he was still smiling as he said it but something in his eyes told me he was deadly serious. Especially his last words, they seemed to mean so much more.

‘Then why wasn’t Sarah surprised?’ I muttered, still determined to get all my questions answered. I was still blushing and I felt almost embarrassed about what I was asking now. After all, this didn’t mean anything, he was just being nice because of Fort.

‘Sarah doesn’t get surprised easily… She always seems to know everything,’ Alexander said, shuddering at the thought as if he was a little creeped out about that. ‘Seriously, that girl has ears and eyes everywhere.’

I nodded slowly, I had noticed all those looks and knowing smiles she’d been giving me and Alexander too come to think of it. Wait what did that mean? Did she think we had feelings for each other or something?

‘We need to get up, breakfast is nearly ready,’ I told him.

He nodded, ‘Did I answer all your questions a ghrá mo chroí?’ But his hands had finally let go off my hips so I could get up.

I frowned at him as I hurriedly got up, nearly tumbling to the floor in my haste. ‘Not really…’ I felt cold now that I wasn’t touching him anymore and a little less ‘whole’ but that didn’t make any sense.

‘I’m going to get dressed, bye!’ With that I was darting out the door, his laughter chasing me all the way to my room. What he was finding amusing I didn’t know. Probably my hasty and ungraceful exit. Great I’d just made a fool out of myself.

After I got dressed and made my way to the kitchen I could already hear voices drifting up. Was that Bob talking? Since when did he talk so much?

When I reached the kitchen they were all sitting there already, all off them looking like the picture of perfection. Bob’s Mohawk for once not messy but straight and of course Alexander wearing loose jeans and a tight black tee…

I sat down hesitantly, all three of them were looking at me. Sarah with an incredibly happy expression on her face while Bob looked more serious but a smile was tugging at his eyes, he had a tinge of concern mixed in there though.

Alexander looked the picture of satisfaction, he seemed to practically glow and his eyes when they met mine seemed to hold a spark.

‘Morning Bob,’ I said, trying to ignore how uncomfortable I felt. Disguising my unease by starting to eat, it seemed they were all already done, was I that late?

They picked up their conversation easily, it was about something they’d done last weekend. A hunt they’d all enjoyed quite a lot. I wondered about the fact that they went hunting, I didn’t think Sarah was the type for that at all… Hunting boys… now that I would understand coming from her.

The doorbell rang and Sarah was already halfway out the door, ‘That’s probably your chauffeur Brittany.’

My chauffeur? I hadn’t arranged for anyone to pick me up? So what was Dannis doing here?

I was hurrying after her, my breakfast forgotten. ‘Dannis? I didn’t ask you to get me, how did you know I was here?’ I called out but I stopped in my tracks when I reached the front door, shocked by the sight before me.

Sarah was pressed against the door jamb, her arms wrapped tightly around Dannis’s neck, one hand in his blonde curls. Her legs she’d wrapped around his waist, pulling him even closer and I didn’t want to know where the hell his hands were.

Most importantly, they were kissing like their lives depended on it.

My mouth hanging open I just stared, what had gotten into them? This was just the weirdest thing ever… Sarah hadn’t tried anything with a guy last night as far as I’d seen but now she was making out with Dannis whom she hadn’t met until just now?

‘Come, I’ll drive you home. They’ll be busy for quite some time,’ Alexander said, appearing by my side and pulling me with him out the door. He picked up his keys from that silver dish along the way.

One last look as the door closed behind us told me they were, still kissing, making their way up the stairs now. I cringed, I didn’t want to see that.

We didn’t talk in the car as he drove me home and the silence was comfortable despite of this morning and last night. I guessed our shared shock of seeing Sarah and Dannis like that had something to do with it.

After a while, I ventured to ask: ‘What was that?’

Alexander didn’t immediately answer but said then: ‘A reunion.’ It sounded like he had to think about what he said. There hung more to that single word then just a simple reunion, I didn’t think they’d met before anyway. I had talked to Sarah about Dannis and she had shown no sign of recognition after all.

When the big, cold house that I was supposed to call home, came into view I couldn’t suppress the sigh from escaping my lips.

He pulled up into the driveway effortlessly and left the engine idling. ‘Hand me your phone,’ he said, preventing me from getting out of the car.

Shocked I stared at him for a moment, my phone? What did he want with that?

I pulled it out of my pocket and handed it to him though when he held out his hand and looked at me. It was a look that said: you better obey me. I’d only seen him look at a few people like that before, kids in class that were disrupting the lesson.

I dropped my old crappy phone in his hand and shrugged, ‘Why?’

He was already typing something into my phone. ‘I’m giving you my number.’

He glanced at me as he handed me the phone back, his face completely serious and tinged with worry. ‘Do not hesitate to call me okay? If there’s something wrong, anything at all! Or if you just want to hear a friendly voice…’

As he spoke a soft caress touched my mind, easing some of my anxiety and worry. It didn’t take away the sense of foreboding though. Dannis being send to pick me up… did that mean my father was home?

‘Eh… Okay,’ I blushed again. I wanted to stay in his car and go back home with him, I didn’t want to go back to this house ever again… Nothing but unhappy memories so far and being with this ‘family’ was anything but nice, ever. I felt a little like Cinderella sometimes.

Taking a deep breath I opened the door to get out, a hand on my arm stopped me. ‘I mean it Brit, call me if there’s something going on. If you want to get away I’ll come to pick you up again,’ his eyes were large and stormy as always but now also filled to overflowing with concern.

I nodded and forced a smile, to show him I was fine. He didn’t seem to buy it, ‘One last thing Brit… Will you tell me his name?’ his voice sounded remote and controlled again, steel covered with silk.

I shivered, I knew exactly who he meant, ‘Fort… that’s all I know.’

Alexander nodded and let go of my arm at last. I hurried out of the car and to the front door. Rubbing my arm where he’d touched me, the skin was tingling.

I waited at the front door to watch him drive away, waving halfheartedly.

When the flashy red car was gone I turned and knocked on the door. I didn’t have my keys on me, they were still in my bag in the guestroom in Alexander’s house. With Sarah and Dannis’s shocking surprise I’d completely forgotten about my bag.

I took a very deep breath and squared my shoulders as I stepped into the house. The maid, who’d opened the door smiled sympathetically at me and pointed towards the living, ‘You’re father is in there.’

I knew he was home…

As I stepped into the living room my father didn’t waste time and started yelling at me right away. Occasionally helped by my step mother, with Jennifer piling on lies about my bad behavior.

There was just one thing keeping me standing all that time.

Andy.

His nanny was nowhere to be seen but Stephanie held his hand in a bruisingly tight grip. If he tried to get away either my dad or she would snap at him that he should stand still, that he had to know what his big sister was doing wrong.

It made my blood boil, the poor kid was crying relentlessly. He knew it was all lies, but it hurt him to know they were hurting me.