Afterlife (Afterlife Saga) (36 page)

“It's ok, just put me on the couch.” I was already embarrassed enough as it was, but picturing him in my bedroom made me blush. The thought of him laying me on my bed was enough to make my mind burst with pleasure and I didn't know if I could hide my secret fantasy about him doing this without moaning and giving myself away.  As it were, I was going to have no choice in the matter as he ignored what I had said and went for the stairs carrying me up them as though I weighed nothing at all. My sister followed behind like something from a zombie movie.

He reached the first landing but kept going as if he knew where my room was. He leaned down to my face and said “Is your sister Libby all right, she hasn't spoken a word.”

“Yeah and it's a first
!..
she'll
be fine.” I said under my breath so only he could hear. He tried to hide a smile. I was in shock… did he just find me funny?

When inside my room he looked around for a moment before finding what he was looking for... my bed. I knew this was the end so I inhaled deeply taking in his scent for the last time, wishing more than anything in the world that I could keep this intoxicating smell forever with me.  This was the moment I was both dreading and dreaming about. There was just something about a man that carried you to bed that made my blood boil. But this man, well there was no other that I could imagine ever topping this, even if I wasn't going to remain in his arms for much longer.

He placed me down tenderly and said,

“Here you go.” And that was enough to make me close my eyes and bite my lip yet again. But he hadn't moved
,
did he want to say something more?

“You better watch that lip of yours or before long you
won’t
have anything left of it.” One side of his mouth curved up into a mischievous grin and my heart was very near to doing a back flip in response.

“Thanks,” I said under my breath so he wouldn't hear.

“
You’re
welcome,” he said over his shoulder as he had turned to face Libby who had now joined us. How had he heard me? I was pretty sure I had only mouthed the words more than actually saying them. Poor Libby must have regained some life back when walking up the stairs as she was now smiling at him.

“Thank you so much for bringing her home but my God Kazzy what are you trying to do, scare me to death?” OH GREAT, she was back! And she just had to call me Kazzy, like I was five all over again. Draven smiled at this and went to stand next to her.

“It was no trouble, but I would get her to a doctor tomorrow as she might need an X-ray,” he said as though they were a parent and teacher talking about me as though I was a bloody child!

“NO, I said I will be fine, no doctors...I
wo
” I nearly shouted this but the pain cut me off and my eyes watered through squinted lids. Draven frowned and Libby noticed.

“She doesn't like doctors, ever since… well...”

“LIBBY!” I shouted, warning her not to add anything else to that sentence or my life would have ended there and then. Now Draven's full attention was on my face. I could almost see the cogs turning in
h
is head. He looked as though he was burning to know why I had just reacted this way. Luckily the conversation was interrupted by Frank running up the stairs shouting about the Aston Martin parked in the drive.

“Lib's have you seen that car, man whose is...” He was cut short once he entered my bedroom and saw the answer to his question standing there with his wife.

“OH
shi
..
I mean Mr Draven Sir.” At this Libby froze in horror, as it finally twigged who he was. But Draven turned to Frank and held his hand out to him and calmly said,

“Please call me Dominic.” Frank shook his hand as though he was meeting a celebrity. Libby also shook his hand but once more she couldn't speak. I couldn't help think that this was a blessing.

Frank looked over to me in the bed and said,

“Hey kiddo what's up with you, you all right?” Great now it was Kiddo, what was next, a bottle before bedtime and nursery rhymes?

“It's no big deal, I fell and now everyone’s fussing.” I
couldn't look at Draven anymore. I
t was
still too
hard enough believing any of this was still happening. Nope there was definitely no more worries about this being a dream! Frank stepped closer to see for himself what all the fuss was about and then made a face like he tasted something sour in his mouth.

“Damn, kid that don't look good, where did you fall? In the ring with Bruce Lee?” Great the one person I thought I could count on and now he had turned to the dark side. And just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, Libby found her voice again. 

“No, she did it in the woods, and then she went to work with concussion, collapsed and then Mr Draven here was good enough to bring her back...himself,” she added the last part as though some secret code she was trying to get across
that Draven did in fact drive me back here and why the hell would he do that!!!???

“Well, I will leave you all and Keira I don't expect to see you working back in the VIP until you get the ok from a doctor ...understood.” Draven said with his authoritative tone firmly back into place. GREAT well this night really couldn't get any worse, if it tried. Oh no I was mistaken because what came next was far worse than anything that had happened this night. Because what came next out of Draven's lips would haunt me for the rest of my life!

“Oh and if I were you I would give her a bucket just in case, she was sick earlier.” OH DEAR GOD! He had known all along that I had vomited in his plant pot! Life just couldn't get any worse!

“Oh my, ok I will do that...and thank you very much for taking care of her but wait... did you say the VIP.” Libby unfortunately hadn't missed that bit and now I was going to pay for it.

“Yes this was Keira’s
second night working the VIP area, did she not mention it?” Draven's eyes looked questioningly at me but I looked away from his gaze.

“No it must have slipped her mind.” Libby said keeping her voice steady and smiling.

Draven nodded at my sister and Frank and said goodbye leaving the room with Frank walking him out. I could hear him asking,

“Umm could I just a
sk what model is the Aston...,” a
s his voice trailed off downstairs.

I wanted to die of shame! It was so bad that tears started to well up in my eyes and thankfully Libby put it down to the pain. She came over and sat on my bed to feel my temperature.

“Oh Kaz, it will be all right, I'll get you some pain killers.” And then I remembered, Draven had taken mine away and he still had them. But then I noticed Libby opening up a bottle of pills that was on my bedside table. It was the same bottle he had taken but how? He must have put them there when he put me down. Libby went into the bathroom and came back with a glass of water in one hand and an empty bin in the other. I raised my eyebrows and she said,

“Just in case
”

She handed me the water and I finished it in one, along with the two pills. Strange they looked different somehow but I looked at the bottle and it was the same one as before. So I shrugged it off putting it down to my spinning head and immense headache. After all, this was the craziest night of my life so why should it suddenly start making sense?

“Try and get some rest but wake me if you need anything or if you start feeling worse.” She kissed me gently on the forehead and I told her I would be fine as she left the room leaving me with the cruel images of tonight's events.

No, I would never sleep, that much I was sure about. I lay there and wondered how on earth I was ever going to face Draven again. What must he be thinking
of me? The most ironic part was
that if I had just left when Karmun asked me to then I could have avoided all of this humiliation but then my mind drifted to the nicer parts of tonight. The part where I was in his arms and the way he held me close as though needing to protect me in some way. Wasn't that worth all the humiliation in the world?

I mean we had actually had a conversation, of sorts. He now knew things about me, he now knew where I lived, who I lived with and even knew where I slept. But I was missing something here, when had I told him any of that? I hadn't told him any directions to my house but yet he knew exactly where it was. I didn't tell him my sister’s name yet on the stairs when he asked me if she was all right, he had said, “I
s your sister Libby”
. And most of all how did he know which room was mine, how would he have known that I slept on the top floor in the attic! This wasn't making any sense. There was something...different about him. He wasn't like everybody else and by everybody else I meant… human.

I laughed off my ridiculous thoughts, I mean what was I thinking...not human, I needed help! Maybe this bang to my head had affected me more than I thought. I probably told him these things but don't remember because I was in pain. Or the best explanation was he probably looked at my records. I mean I don't remember filling out details but I did get the job thanks to Frank, so maybe he filled something in for me.

I still had all my clothes on so I kicked off my shoes and wormed my way out of my trousers. I was about to take off my top when I stopped myself. I lifted it up to my
nose and inhaled, allowing my senses to be overwhelmed with the scent of his body. I pulled the top over my head only leaving my underwear and a vest on but I held the top in my hands and then positioned it close to my head so that I would fall asleep with nothing but that scent to consume my mind.

I woke up the next day to find that I had slept through the whole night without one dream or more importantly a nightmare. I was even more surprised that I had managed to fall asleep at all given the amount of worrying I had been doing as soon as Draven had left. I looked at my bedside table and noticed a mug of now cold tea, as it must have been sat there a while. I looked at the clock. OH, wow it was nearly one in the afternoon. I hadn't slept this much since being in the hospital. It took me all of two minutes to realise that what had happened last night was in fact not a dream. And a mixture of pleasure and pain rang deep in my head. What a fool I had made of myself and knowing that I could do nothing to take it all back just made the pain part worse.

There was a little tap at my door and then it opened without waiting for a reply.

“Hey honey, how are you feeling today?” My sister's kind face poked through the doorway and when she realised I was now awake she walked right in.

“I'm ok, still a little sore but I will live to humiliate myself for another day I'm sure,” I said in reply and she smiled and looked a little confused.

“What is it?” I said wondering what else could have gone wrong last night.

“Well I think you will need to get dressed as the Doctor’s here.” WHAT, no way, never going to happen, what was she thinking!

“AWW Lib's why did you go and call a doctor, I said I was fine and…” She cut me off holding her hands up in defence.

“I didn't call a doctor.”

“What! Then who did?” She smiled, clearly amused with the answer.

“He said that Mr Draven sent him.” Oh no, she was serious. This wasn't some cruel trick instead it was just a cruel reality.

She left the room giving me some privacy to get changed telling me she would give me ten minutes. But my mind wouldn't concentrate, as it was still fuzzy and light headed and not just with the huge lump protruding from my forehead. I got up and wobbled like one of those inflatable clowns you hit for fun. My brain wasn't up to the simple task of walking to the bathroom. Once I finally got there I washed and brushed my teeth but my throat still burned from last night's vomiting and the thought once more made me shake my head in shame. Once I'd finished in the bathroom I grabbed a pair of black sweat pants from my drawer and put on a fresh pair of grey sleeved gloves and a maroon coloured long sleeved top with a faded football logo of my dad’s old university team. I brushed through my hair quickly pulling it into a ponytail and then went to sit back on my bed waiting for a doctor I didn't want.

“May I come in?” A voice at the door asked and begrudgingly I agreed.