Mystery Behind Amber Eyes

A few hours later, she picked up his duster coat and hung it from a hook near the sliding door. Jane placed two dishes full of angel hair pasta soaked in sun-dried tomatoes with chicken, that had melted mozzarella draped over it, on the table.

Rame looked at the dishes, his mouth agape.

“Hmm...seems like you lost a little of your masculinity there,” Jane commented smugly as she sat down and began to eat. Rame snapped his mouth closed and sat down heavily across from her.

“Doesn’t mean it tastes good,” he shot back. He stabbed the pasta with his fork and placed some in his mouth, he paused. Jane could see the cogs working in his head as she watched him. His eyes widened and he looked down at the plate of food like he had never seen anything like it. Jane bit the inside of her cheek to stop the bout of giggles that threatened to overtake her.

He ate quickly and when he was finished he wanted seconds. Jane pushed her almost untouched plate towards him.

“No, you have to eat,” he said as he leaned back in his chair.

“Really, I’m not hungry,” she urged. After the back and forth conversation, Rame took the plate and ate.

“Do you starve yourself often?” Jane commented. Rame looked up at her with a surprised look on his face.

“What gave you that impression?” he asked through a mouth full of food.

“I remembered when I punched you in the stomach, I felt that it was a little concave, like you hadn’t eaten in a while,” Jane shrugged. Rame finished eating and regarded Jane silently.

“I was on twenty-four hour watch for you and your family. I couldn’t really leave the site to get some food. What if something had happened to you? My boss would have killed me.” He stood up and took the dishes to the sink and rinsed them off. Jane watched him.

“Who is your boss?”

Rame froze for a second, “I think he will tell you that when he sees fit.” That didn’t inspire confidence. “It’s really top secret. I mean, I just can’t give out information freely when it’s his choice to give.”

Jane thought about that. It made sense. She wouldn’t push the subject since it seemed to make Rame uncomfortable.

“So, what is this place?” Jane changed the subject and he seemed grateful for it.

“It’s my house.” Jane immediately tensed up. This was his house?

Oh, crap... She didn’t know why, but she suddenly became very uncomfortable. She should have felt safe that he had taken her to some place he was sure she wouldn’t be attacked, but...it was his house.

“Are you tired?” Her anxiety must have shown up as exhaustion. She took it as a blessing and nodded. He told her where a guest room was and said that he would check up on her in a few minutes.

Jane walked into the room and noticed that it was bigger than she had expected. She sighed and flopped down on the bed, falling asleep instantly. Her body was too tired to give her mind a chance to think and sort out all of the confusing thoughts about the events of the day.

In a few hours, she went from wanting to go to her dojo and then out to lunch with a few friends and finally shopping before getting back home to being protected by a stranger from strange men who wanted to kill her. Her brain just seemed to accept it without question and that didn’t bother her. She just wanted to get it all over with.

The sun poking through the curtains woke Jane up. She rolled over and fell off of the bed onto the floor. A loud grunt echoed against the empty wall of the room and Jane’s eyes shot open. She hadn’t made that noise.

A chuckle vibrated the chest below her as she gazed into Rame’s eyes from an inch away.

“I didn’t know you cared,” he mumbled sleepily. Jane pushed off of him and glared down at him.

“What are you doing in here?” she demanded. He smiled up at her and sat up.

“My job,” he answered simply. Jane looked away as the sheet that covered him slipped down his chest and pooled at his waist, as far as she could tell, that was all that was covering him. She was right about his stomach being a little concave, but the recent meal seemed to have taken the severity out of it.

She couldn’t believe that the first time she had seen him, she had thought he had weighed more than her, 150 pounds had been an overestimation. He was probably only 75 pounds heavier than Jane.

Jane was pulled out of her thoughts as a towel was thrown at her head.

“Wash up. We’re going somewhere today.” Rame walked out of the room. Jane glanced at the other door in the room that lead to the en suite bathroom. She stumbled to her feet tiredly and flung the door open. There was a big tub in the middle of the room with a shower that stood behind it.

Jane opted for the tub to soothe her muscles and thoughts. She turned the knob and let the water fill as she wandered to the closet that held a plethora of soaps and shampoos. After shedding her old clothes that smelled of stale sweat, Jane lowered herself into the tub and sighed in comfort.

It had been such a long time since she had taken a moment to have a bath. She was always rushing in the shower so that she could get to wherever she was going. The bubbles in the tub made her smile. She just couldn’t help herself when she had seen the bubble bath in the closet.

Jane scrubbed herself clean and played around with the bubbles. She had never felt so calm.

“Are you done ye–” Rame froze in the doorway after he threw open the door. Jane looked at him for a second before flinging the soap in her hand at his head.

“OUT!” she screamed, plunging into the water up to her neck. She thanked God she hadn’t been standing up to get out of the tub.

What annoyed her the most was the small smile that played on Rame’s lips before he slammed the door shut. Jane huffed and ducked her head under the water before surfacing.

Nope. The water hadn’t helped get rid of my blush...Crap.

Jane sighed and grabbed the towel that had been resting on the floor next to the tub. After wrapping it around herself she stepped out into the room and cursed.

Rame was lounging on the bed, hands behind his head, smiling his ass off.

Jane opened a few drawers in a chest and found another pair of sweatpants and a big t-shirt Jane pulled the hair-tie she always kept off of her wrist and tied the back of the baggy shirt up so that she could move comfortably without the fear of catching on anything. It was easy to put on the shirt over the towel, but she had to go back into the bathroom to pull on the pants.

She muttered a few choice words for Rame as she shoved her feet into the pants leg. Once she appraised herself in the bathroom mirror and got her anger down to a dull roar, she went back out to face the still-smiling Rame. Her anger flared again and she marched right past him into the kitchen and flung open the refrigerator grimacing slightly when the door slammed against the side.

Jane didn’t want to take it out on the kitchen appliances, but the smiling man in the next room. But he was the person who knew what was going on so...kitchen appliances beware.

She could feel her face heat up as she went through the day’s events so far.

It seems like it’s going to be a awesome day.Her sarcasm made her feel a little better, but it quickly vanished as Rame walked into the room. Her good feeling slipped right out of her as she quickly turned back to the fridge and pulled out a bagel.

Jane threw it into the toaster and forced the lever down.

Rame took a seat at the kitchen table, his eyes never left her back as she waited impatiently for the bagel to finish toasting. She remembered the tattoo she had seen the other day in the car. Jane cursed herself for her curiosity as she tried to sneak a peek at the still-shirtless Rame. His eyes were still on her, which made it much harder to go unnoticed.

Her fingers began to tap on the counter as she waited for the bagel to pop up with a ding. Once it did she grabbed it and perched herself on the counter, opting for staring through the doorway in to the next room, which she guessed was the den.

She swallowed a bite of the bagel, “So where are we going today?” Looking uninterested was hard, but she pulled it off. Years of practice. He yawned and stretched causing Jane to glance at him before quickly averting her eyes back to the den. It wasn’t that she had never seen a hot guy before, many trips down the shore had assured her of that.

It was just the fact that they were alone. And only he knew where she was. No one else knew if she was alive or dumped in a ditch somewhere. It was very unnerving. Hot guys on beaches with a hundred people around was good. One hot guy in an empty house with no idea where she was...was bad.

He chuckled when she averted her eyes and then sighed, “We are going to see the second in command to see what we are going to do now. Since the safe-house turned out to be...not so safe, we have to change our original plans a little.”

“Will I see my family?”

He didn’t answer after a moment; Jane looked at him. He wouldn’t look at her.

“Will-I-see-my-family?” She annunciated each word. Rame looked at her this time. He stood up from the chair and walked over to her.

“Jane...During the night I had gotten a call.” Jane braced herself. She was going to have to stay away longer than she had thought. So how long would it have to be? A few weeks? “The man had an accomplice wait for them before they reached the house...”

Jane backed away from him, slapping the hand he had been trying to place on her shoulder. Her eyes darted around the room as if she were trying to find something that would convince her that her family was still alive. She found that she couldn’t focus on anything. Her breathing had gotten ragged, she grabbed onto the counter for support and edged away from Rame. He grabbed the counter on either side of her, effectively pinning her in that spot.

Her eyes kept looking her around her, searching for a smile or the warm gaze of someone familiar, but her eyes met cold, black tile and steel. Her knees wobbled and her wrists weakened; she slid to sit on the floor, Rame following her- hands ready to catch her if she fainted. Jane stared at a spot on the tile. Her mouth opening and closing like a gaping fish.

There were no words for the shock that he had just dealt her. They had been fine the other day. She had seen them the night before last, yawning , watching an old black and white movie, reminding her that she had to study for a test that she would have taken today.

She hadn’t even met her new little brother. Hadn’t been able to hold him, help him with his homework, give him advice on girls when the time had come. She didn’t even know what he looked like and he was already taken away from her.

Her head was feeling a little light from the breaths she was taking and she was vaguely aware of Rame telling her to breathe in and out. She was too busy thinking about the last thing she said to her parents. Which made her feel a little better. She hadn’t yelled at them, she had told them she loved them and goodnight.

She brought herself back to reality, where she realized Rame was trying to catch her attention, trying to catch her stare. Jane looked into his eyes and her vision began to become blurry. Maybe she was passing out. She would welcome that.

But one eye’s vision became clear and then blurry again. Rame’s eyes widened slightly before he grabbed her in a hug. Jane didn’t feel like she had the energy to hug back, so instead she sobbed into his skin.

“May it be an evening star
Shines down upon you
May it be when darkness falls
Your heart will be true
You walk a lonely road
Oh! How far you are from home...”

Rame held her and kept singing softly into her hair as she wept.

“Mornie utúlië
Believe and you will find your way
Mornie alantië
A promise lives within you now...”

His arms tightened around her as a new round of sobs wracked her body. She held onto him, nothing felt real anymore, it was the only thing she could do to not slip away.

“May it be the shadows call
Will fly away
May it be you journey on
To light the day
When the night is overcome
You may rise to find the sun...”

Jane fell asleep listening to Rame repeat the last verse over and over as he held her shaking form.