The Chase, Amber Riel [best english books to read txt] 📗

pulled away from him as I felt a sharp pain in both of my feet.

          “What’s wrong?”

          “These stupid heels,” I answered.

          He started laughing as I looked up at him, kind of eyeing him.

          “It’s not funny…. They hurt.”

          “I’m sorry,” he replied as he tried to stop laughing.  “Here,” he said as he picked me up, placing one arm under my knees and the other arm around my back.  He carried me over to a small stone bench and sat me down.  “Take off your shoes.”

          “But I don’t want to walk barefooted.”

          “I’ll carry you and you can carry your shoes…. You don’t seem to weigh that much anyways.”

          “Are you sure?”

          “Yes I’m sure…. Unless you want to walk around in those shoes that seem to cause you pain anyways.”

          “Okay.”  I removed both shoes from my feet and looked at Louis.  “Can we sit for a little while?”

          “Sure.”  He sat next to me on the bench.

          “I don’t know if I’ve told you this already or not but thank you for saving me and Lainie that night at the hotel…. I don’t know what I would have done if it wasn’t for you.”

          “Not a problem…. And you should know that when I told you I wasn’t just worried about Lainie I meant it…. Whether she had been in the room at the time or not I was still worried about you…. I was kind of slowly starting to like you then and I just didn’t want to lose you right away…. I was also kind of jealous the first night that we had stopped at the first hotel and I knew that guy was flirting with you and you were obviously attracted to him as well that kind of bothered me…. And I’m sorry about that by the way what I said to him…. I don’t get jealous easily but for some reason that night I just couldn’t keep my mouth shut…. That also reminds me of the waitress at the dinner…. I didn’t want her flirting with me because I didn’t know if that would have made you jealous….” He kind of laughed.  “I don’t know why I would have thought that you practically hated me at the time anyways for being such a jerk…. I kind of have a hard time showing my emotions…. Kind of because I’m the kind of guy who doesn’t feel like it’s emasculate and it’s a sign of weakness…. The other part was that after I lost Christy I felt as someone had torn out my heart…. So I’ve kind of hardened it so that when I met other women I wouldn’t let my feelings get in the way and that’s why at first I was a jerk…. But then I started to get to know and I was fighting myself…. My guard is down completely now because I don’t want to lose you and I’m doing what I can to keep you out of harm’s way…. Sam, this is me opening up to you.”

          I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him, wanting to cry because of his words.  I was surprised by everything that he was willing share with me.  “Louis,” I whispered into his ear.  “I don’t want to lose you either.  My heart about dropped yesterday when you ran into that burning building and if you do anything like that ever again…. I don’t know what I’ll do but I will find a way to punish you for it.”

          He kind of laughed into my ear as he hugged me.  “I guess we both fear for each other then.”  Louis tightened his hold around me.  “Don’t worry I’ll do my best not to be that stupid…. And you better not become friends with anymore strange taxicab drivers.”

          I pulled back, using his arms to keep me from falling back words and I smiled.  “Good we’re at an agreement then,” I said as I smiled.

          He nodded.  “There’s just one thing.”

          “What?”

          “We live in two different countries.”  His smile grew.  “We can make that work though…. I’ll visit you and you visit me…. I know that some people don’t believe in long distance relationships because of the hard work to keep them together but I have a good feeling that we’ll do just fine and I don’t know about you but I could actually see us getting married…. Not any time soon but in the future….”

          I kind of blushed at the thought as I thought about my dream I had had earlier that day.  “Anything is possible,” I replied with a smile slowly forming on my face.

          Louis looked up at the sky then turned his attention back toward me.  “I think we should be heading back to Carmen’s.”

          “But we haven’t walked around.”

          He smiled.  “I know but I want to do that when you have comfortable shoes on…. When you have heels, you’re clumsy and I don’t want to worry about you breaking your sweet little bones.  Besides,” he said as he brushed my bangs out of my face, “I know Carmen will be waiting up along with Eric to see how things went and I don’t want to keep them up too late.  We can have more time after you’re out of this mess and Lainie’s safely with Ron and Annie.  I can’t forget about that…. I think that we’ll leave tomorrow….”

          “I don’t want to leave yet,” I replied, talking about leaving Carmen’s and not the park.  “I’m enjoying it here.”  I moved myself over toward the bench, kind of removing myself from Louis.

          Louis sighed as he looked at me.  “I know but I’ve promised Ron and I’m not the kind of guy who likes to go back on my word…. Besides, the sooner I get you and Lainie to Ron and Annie, the sooner I can join my boss and coworkers to figure out who’s behind all of this…. It’s my job and I can’t let that go…. I have a job to do and I want to make sure that nothing happens to you during that time…. We need to leave as soon as possible…. When things settle down, I’ll give you all the time in the world…. Right now your protection is all I’m worried about…. Sam, I’m not trying to hurt you but I need to do this.”

          I understood what he was telling me but it kind of hurt knowing that we didn’t really have much time for anything.  There was no telling when we would have our next date or if the mystery of the men breaking into the mansion would ever be solved.  I was feeling more like a project than anything else at the moment and tears kind of filled my eyes as I thought about what the following days would be like.

          Louis wiped my tears as they fell.  “I’ve done this many times before and believe me everything’s going to be alright…. I just haven’t felt this way about any of the women I had to protect so I’m kind of in an awkward position.”  He kissed my cheek to reassure me that everything would be alright.  He picked me up the same way he had earlier and carried me after checking to make sure I had the high heels in my hands.  He carried me to the car, opening the door with one hand, trying not to drop me.  He helped me into the car then closed the door and walked around to the other side.

Back on the Road

          Before I stepped out of the car, I placed the high heels back on my feet and took Louis’s hand to keep me from falling as I stood up.  I waited for him as he closed the door then we worked out way up the steps, holding each other’s hands as we walked to the door.  He opened it and let me walk in first.  Once we were both inside, I used Louis’s shoulder to keep me up as I removed the high heels again from my sore feet.  We noticed that the kitchen light and the living room light were the only two lights on indicating that someone was still up.  “You go get ready for bed,” he said as he kissed my forehead.  “You can come down when you’re done.  I have a feeling Carmen and Eric are waiting for us.”  He kind of smiled.

          I nodded and headed up the steps.

 

          I snuck into the room that me and Lainie were sharing and walked over to the little nightstand, turning the lamp on.

          “Did you have fun?” Lainie asked, sleepily.

          I smiled.  “Yes I did,” I replied in a whisper.  “Now go back to bed.  Okay?”

          “Okay,” Lainie sighed and within minutes the only noise coming from her was her precious breathing as she slept.

          I quietly placed the heels on the ground, next to the nightstand and worked my way over to the dresser and pulled out a t-shirt and a pair of sweat pants.

 

          I walked into the bathroom and closed the door.  I took my extra change of clothes and placed them on the toilet and looked into the square mirror which hung over the small slim sink.  Louis was a gentleman all night, I thought as I smiled.  I turned on the water and started splashing water on my face to wipe away the make-up.  When I had finished, I turned off the facet and watched in the mirror as I pulled the hair tie out of my hair, letting my dark brown almost black hair fall past my shoulders.  I’m afraid that I’m going to lose him.  I don’t want to lose him, I just started to get to know him and I feel that I’m slowly falling in love with him.  I know it’s too soon to really tell but I feel he’s the one.  I looked up at the ceiling.  Lord, is he the one?  Or is he just going to leave me like the rest of them?  Is he really the man you’ve created for me?  Am I just jumping to conclusions?  Lord, please somehow let me know that he is the man for me?

 

          I walked down the stairs and stuck my head in the living room to find Carmen sitting on one end of the couch and Louis sitting at the end which was closest toward me.  Eric sat in an old wooden chair.  “Ah, Sam, come on in,” Carmen replied with a smile.

          I walked in and before I could really move Louis took my hand and pulled me into his lap.

          “Behave you two,” Eric spoke with laughter in his voice.

          “Don’t worry, Eric,” Louis replied as he slid me off of his lap and next to him on the couch.  “You have nothing to worry about.”  He tried not to laugh but I could tell that it was hard for him.

          Eric raised an eyebrow but he wore a smile that meant he didn’t really believe Louis’s words as he nodded.  “Huh?”

          “So how was the date?” Carmen