Taken and Misused.

An adventure was an understatement as I thought about what we were going to do when we got to my apartment.

No doubt my absence last night was noted and I’d probably have a very angry voicemail from my step mom when I got to my room. Also there was the fact I’d have to make it to my room without being seen because first of all, I was wearing Vaughn’s clothes, and second, I didn’t have shoes. According to Vaughn I had been shoeless when he had found me dancing on the bar table last night. There was another bit of information he gave me and the fact I had been dancing, and according to him it wasn’t ballet, well, it simply horrified me.

I sat in the passenger seat of Vaughn’s mustang as he barely followed the speed limit going towards my apartment. I didn’t know if it was bad or good that I was comfortable in the speeding car with a reckless driver, I looked over at him and noted that even though he pulled stupid stunts every once and a while he had never gotten us close to getting into a car crash. So I guess I couldn’t really call him reckless, maybe he just had a case of controlled recklessness or something like that. He caught me looking at him and raised an eyebrow, I looked away quickly and felt my cheeks heat up. His chuckle let me know he’d seen my blush. I crossed my arms and stared pointedly out the window, Vaughn had insisted I wear his leather jacket again because the weather was growing colder each day. He was wearing a white button up shirt with a tan suit like jacket over it, I felt like he was the one who should be bundling up.

“Shouldn’t we have a plan?” I asked him as we turned onto my street.

Vaughn looked over at me with a grin as he said, “plans are for squares Princess.”

“What does shape have to do with anything Vaughn, are we just going to walk in there and hope no one sees me?” I said, and he just laughed, and shook his head.

“See? You know the plan” Vaughn’s tone made me frown at him; he was finding this to be way too much fun.

“Oh, ha ha” I said dryly.

“Just trust me Elisabeth” his eyes caught mine as he looked over at me and his gaze was intense, for a moment I saw someone other than the joking and sarcastic Vaughn, this man practically stared into me and I couldn’t look away. Vaughn, however, could and he returned to driving with a satisfied grin. One glance back at me however and he frowned, but it seemed like he was frowning more at himself than at me. I didn’t question it though, I was still caught up on the intense stare that he’d had on me moments ago. And the fact that he hadn’t called me Princess, that was good too.

We arrived at my apartment but instead of pulling into the valet area Vaughn parked the car himself after I got us through the front gate with my code. Vaughn got out of the car and so did I, hurrying to follow him once I did.

“Now, we don’t get seen, it’s simple really” Vaughn said with a shrug as we left the garage and took one of the elevators that would lead to the lobby. It was an odd construction that these three elevators stopped at the lobby floor, money at its best I suppose.

“It’s going to get complicated; this elevator opens up right in front of the manager’s desk” I muttered, looking up at him as the floors counted up from the ground floor, approaching lobby at a infuriatingly slow pace.

“Well, you know how to dampen someone’s mood don’t you?”Vaughn said while looking around the elevator for something to use. The elevator stopped at the first floor, one floor before the lobby. A man got in with what looked to be a broken umbrella, he tried to straighten it out but it seemed determined to stay bent up everywhere. Why he had one was a mystery to me but I assumed it had something to do with the fact that the man’s skin was a shade of red. He was probably a very fast burner in the sun.

“Piece of junk” the man muttered and shoved it into the waste bin sitting in the corner of the elevator. From the corner of my eye I saw Vaughn’s grin stretch over his strong features and before I could question him the doors to the elevator opened and the man hurried out while Vaughn pulled the umbrella out of the trash.

“What are you doing?” I hissed, trying to be quiet for no obvious reason. Vaughn just grinned at me.

“Get to your room, I’ll wait down in the garage for you, go!” he ushered me out of the elevator and pushed me to the left where a whole row of fancy elevators stood that led up to the rooms of the building. I nearly ran into one of the shrubs and I got a few curious looks but I regained my composer and walked, well, jogged to the elevators. When I clicked the up button about ten times I glanced back to see what Vaughn was doing and I saw him gesturing widely at the umbrella while the manager tried to get it closed. I caught a few words that sounded like, “sir why is your umbrella open when there is no rain?” and Vaughn’s reply was hilarious: “the sunlight is bad for my sensitive skin, do you not care if I get burned leaving my car to come into this building?.”

He was never going to live that down.

The manager finally got it shut just as I slid into the elevator and leaned against the back of it with a sigh.

“Thank god” I muttered, closing my eyes. It was sad that even though I lived so far away from my step-mom she still managed to complicate my life.

“Tough day?” the deep Russian voice scared me and I jumped to the other side of the elevator before looking at the owner of the voice. For one crazy second I had thought the deep Russian voice had belonged to stephen but as I turned I knew it wasn't Stephen. They had the same facial structure but other than that Stephen could be compared to dark this man was light, copper hair, hazle eyes. And he was smiling, deffinitely not Stephen.

“Yeah, I guess you could say that” I said, returning his friendliness.

“Was that your friend creating a diversion?” he asked with a wry grin but there was something else in his stare for just a moment, like his question wasn’t just an attempt at small talk. I ignored my paranoia; I was probably still hopped up on adrenaline from my first or perhaps third rebellious act.

“Yeah, he’s Vaughn, I’m Elisabeth, I guess you could say I’m trying to evade my own personal spy” I said as I slid an access card into the slot above the buttons with the floor numbers. You either had to have an access card or a code to reach the upper levels of this building. Vaughn had gotten the code once when he pretended to be a delivery boy.

“I’m Aleksander, it’s nice to meet you Elisabeth” he said in his thick Russian accent, his eyes drifting from the pocket I had just slipped my access key into to my eyes and he smiled a polite smile. He seemed like a really nice guy.

“Are you new here?” I asked as the elevator began to approach my floor.

“Yes, I’m here on… business though, I have no time to go exploring this city” he said, flashing me another smile which I returned.

“I know how you feel” I said with a laugh. The elevator doors opened and a man came in with a large suitcase, taking up most of the elevator and squashing Aleksander next to me. He gave me an apologetic look and shifted next me then gave me some room.

“Sorry” he muttered before falling into silence, the large man who had come into the elevator glanced at Aleksander and I thought I saw Aleksander give the tiniest nod but I shook it off. God, I was turning into an over paranoid person by the minute.

When he got to his floor he got off the elevator and gave a polite “goodbye” to me, which I returned. Then I was going up to my floor in the empty elevator to get ready for a surprise dance practice with my impolite dance partner, Stephen, and my cryptically sarcastic instructor, Mr. Dellmonte. At least I had three hours with Vaughn before I had to fall victim to them.