Claimed (13 page)

“I’m not. How can I when I don’t even know you?” she whispered back, his breath pitting knots in her stomach, tingling her all over.

“Then why won’t you look at me?”

“Jared…,” she started.

“You know, that’s the first time you’ve said my name.”

“Jared, please,” she protested as she spun around, putting some distance between them. She felt her stole slipping from her elbow and she instinctively latched on to it. To her utter dismay, she discovered he had gripped the other end of it.

He fished her closer t
o him with it and she, caught in a mesmeric state, drew slowly towards him until he dropped the soft fabric to hold her face tenderly in his large hands. She rested her head against his palm, closing her eyes to feel his touch. His fingers were long and rough, his palm callous, evident of the hard manual labor he had endured through much of his life. She knew he had drawn even closer to her, his breath upon her face as he caressed it with the end of his nose. His thumbs were delicately stroking her jaw-line. He was different, he smelt different; he felt different. Different from…

Her eyes sprang
open with sudden bewilderment, staring directly into his puzzled eyes. She pushed away from him.

“Stop!” she cried.
She held her head in her hands as she stumbled about in confusion. “You need to stop,” she forcibly lowered her voice. “
We
need to stop.”

“Why?”

“Jared,” she protested. “I’ve only met you once before and suddenly we’re overcome with an unreasonable lust. Does any of this sound rational to you?”

“Yes.”

She looked at him as if he had been stricken with madness. “I can’t believe you said that with an ounce of common sense.”

“So my attraction
to you is somehow insane?”

“You know what I mean, Jared.”

“No, I don’t know what you mean.”

“Jared, whatever this… this is, it is not normal.”

“You see a puppy for the first time, and you fall in love with it enough to take it back home with you. You see a dress in a store and you want to possess it immediately. A mother falls in love with her baby at first sight and will immediately give her life to protect it. But I, as a man, am not entitled to that same emotion?”

Her eyes glistened with tears. “I am engaged, Jared.”

“You’re not married and you don’t love him. If you did, you wouldn’t be here with me like this. I know you went looking for me at Central. You wanted to see me just as much I was aching to see you.”

“And what of Evelyn?
I can’t do this to her.”

“We hardly know each other.”

“And do we?” She turned around and raced back towards the house before he could answer. Back into the safety of the crowds, into where she was certain he would not follow her.

He watched her disappear down the pathway, the skirt of her pink gown fluttering behind her in the light breeze.

He bent down to pick her stole
up from the ground. He ran it through his hands, his mind still fresh with her scent. He balled the stole neatly and stuffed it into his pocket.

*****

“What do you think you were doing?” James scolded. “Instead of impressing Evelyn, you had completed disappeared with Ellie Callum.” He shook his head disappointedly. “Have you any idea what you’re risking? Edmund Farriss is a formidable opponent. He doesn’t like to lose, let alone to have his fiancée stolen from him under his very nose. He’d take it very personally should Ellie decide he’s not the one for her but you are.”

Jared took a deep breath as
he leant back onto James’ large wooden desk. His arms were folded across his chest as he lowered his head, listening to the older man lecture him harshly. His words made sense, but he couldn’t ignore how he felt about Ellie.

“Jared,” James tried again. “You’ve got to stop with your obsession over Ellie. It’s irrational, unreasonable and it’s not going to help our cause.”

“I’m not giving up on Ellie,” he raised his eyes obstinately at him.

“And how do you think you’ll manage that with Edmund
Farriss in the picture?” James raised his voice in equal ire.

“Is that the only reason
you have for not allowing me to pursue the woman I have feelings for?”

“Only
reason?” James threw his hands up in disbelief. “It is enough reason. We need Edmund and the Governor in our corner. And we would never get that if you’re hell bent on trying to dissolve one of the most anticipated marriages in the media. Can you honestly tell me that that’s not going to happen? Have a publicized disruption and an angry mob of social elites at our doorstep?”

Jared stayed silent, not knowing how he should answer that.
He understood the importance of freedom – particularly to the people he knew, he had lived with, who he had witnessed suffer at the hands of powerful men such as Governor Callum. But he was no martyr. He had not chosen his fate. In fact, he was doing his damndest to live it to his best. Why should he have to be so sacrificial? To surrender the one thing he had begun to love, the one person he felt who could give him some sense of normality to his life, the one woman his body craved to possess?

Evelyn burst through her bedroom, heading directly to the balcony.

“Would you stop brooding like that?” she sulked. “Anyone would think you had broken up with Edmund.”

Ellie rolled her eyes
up at her. “Why are you here, Lynnie?”

Evelyn
pouted her lips. She hated her pet name. She felt she had long outgrown it but her family insisted on calling her by it and there seemed very little she could do about it. She clumsily pushed aside Ellie’s outstretched legs resting on the ottoman and sat down excitedly across her.

“Let’s go camping,” she declared.  “Liam and
Kayla are already on board. I’ve already spoken to Edmund and he is happy to take some time off from work. So, how about it?”

Ellie looke
d at her with disbelief. “You spoke to Edmund behind my back?”

“Oh come on, Ellie,” Evelyn breathed out tiredly. “If I had left it to you, you would have just preferred to mope
about the house like you’ve been doing these past few weeks.” She picked up her sister’s hands. “What is going on, Ellie? Is it the pre-wedding jitters?”

“No… it’s only
… I haven’t been feeling well,” she mumbled.

“Are you pregnant?” Evelyn asked a little too eagerly.

Ellie huffed with indignation, giving her a gentle kick.

Evelyn made a face at her. “
I’ve noticed though that you and Edmund rarely are together except when you’re making a social appearance. Do you even kiss?”

“Of course we do,” Ellie replied quickly.
She gathered her long dark hair and knotted it at the top of her head with trembling fingers. “But we’ve decided to leave the sex until after the marriage.”

Evelyn snorted a laugh. “You’re kidding me, right? You were living together while you were at university. Why would you even want to regress to celibacy all of a sudden?”

Ellie stood up impatiently. Her sister had a terrible habit of annoying her when she least needed it. “Abstinence,” she corrected. “And because I grew a brain. I matured, Lynnie. There are some things you need to leave for marriage. Otherwise, what is there to look forward to?”

“That you will be starting a new chapter in your life with the man you’re in love with and hopefully
, live it out till old age?” Evelyn shrugged. “It’s an alternative reasoning to your otherwise absurd viewpoint on celibacy- just in case you want to reconsider the sex issue.”

Ellie waved her hands in the air
erratically. “Why are we discussing my sex life?”

“Because it’s none of my business and it’s always interesting when it’s someone else’s business we’re talking about,” she drawled lazily.
“Besides, we’re sisters. I have a right to nose about.”

“Really?”
Ellie frowned, crossing her arms across her chest.

“Anyways,” Evelyn dismissed her casually. “You haven’t given me an answer. Are you coming camping or not?”

“To the cottage up in the mountains? No,” Ellie replied flatly.

“Very well,” Evelyn stood up. “At least I tried. So it’s just the six of us then.”

“Six?” Ellie asked. “I thought it was only Liam and Kayla.”

“And Edmund,”
Evelyn ambled to the doorway. “And Jared and Tara Ryder.” She stalled at it. “I like him- Jared. He seems really nice. I thought this trip would help me get to know him better. And if things go well, who knows?” She bit her lips and then walked out of the room, leaving a frozen Ellie back alone on her balcony.

*****

Jared threw in another jacket into his bag. Evelyn had called in two days ago about a camping trip to the mountains. Great. It was going to be fun walking into the forest freely without having to crawl under the wire.

He should be nervous spending
three days alone with wealthy brats, having a social conversation about people and business he cared less about whilst pretending to enjoy it at the same time. But he had already been briefed and reminded repeatedly to keep a good ear out for anything that would help in their plans for democracy. It irked him that he didn’t know much of those plans. He didn’t have a choice. At the moment, he had to simply trust James on what he was doing. However, he would slowly let it be known that he would have to be given more access to those plans well in advance if they wanted him to play any part of it. All in due course, he thought as his eyes raked over the room in case he’d missed something.

He caught sight of Ellie’s stole
he had neatly knotted to his bed post and he picked up the ends of it, letting it run over his palm. Then there was the matter of Ellie. This was also going to be three days with the woman of his dreams. He would probably have looked forward to it had he not known that Edmund Farriss was going to accompany her to the mountains.

A knocked rapped on his door
. But before he could call out his permission to enter, James stepped in.

“They’re here,” he announced.

Jared zipped up his bag quietly, watching the other man from the corner of his eye.

James walked up to him s
lowly with his head lowered. He glanced at his bag hesitantly, trying to avoid eye- contact with Jared. “Listen, I know that you didn’t like what I had to say about Ellie Callum. But it was meant for your own good and for the freedom we’ve long been planning for. You don’t understand the hope you’ve inspired in us. To be able to dream that such democracy can now be even plausible. We’re depending on you to help us bring us nearer to making that dream a reality and that can be onerous sometimes. I’m sorry about that.” He rubbed Jared’s shoulders affectionately. “I hope though that you will at least consider our plight if you’re deciding to continue to pursue Ellie. You don’t have to worry about your family when you’re making that decision. They are now my family too. I’ve grown to love them and I cannot think about living the rest of my days without them. I’ll accept your decision whichever it is you make.” He gave Jared a small smile of approval.

Jared watched him hobble to the doorway. He had all this wealth and luxury and yet here he was weary from the troubles of the common man. Where did he get the strength to endure such a burden?
The problem wasn’t even his. He had all to benefit from the corporations and nothing to lose. So why was he willing to risk everything for people he didn’t know? The old man didn’t know them like the way he did. He didn’t breathe the same air, endure the same fears, and live the same hardships. Why didn’t the man just mind his own business?

“Thank you,” Jared muttered before he could leave the room.

It was enough to stop him. He turned slightly to give him a small nod. It was the first time he had ever thanked the old man for anything.

*****

Jared threw his bag onto the roof along with Tara’s and then got about tying them securely to the rack. His skin prickled with sensitivity, his nerves inciting a rush of adrenaline through his body, exciting him, making him aware of Ellie’s presence right behind him. It took him an immense dose of self-restraint to ignore her and even more to pretend that that was not her sweet scent streaming to his nose. She smelt of lilacs, his lips thinning out in a straight line, thinking. She always smelt of lilacs.

“Thank you for coming along,” he heard Evelyn say to Tara.
“I was really hoping you would.”

“I’ve never been to the mountains,” Tara replied. “I can’t say I’m not excited.”

A car honked behind them and they turned to find Liam and Kayla had driven into the driveway.

Another social elite couple, Jared recalled. Liam was a magazine editor and he’s girlfriend a model.

Kayla waved at them excitedly from her window. “Let’s go, people!” she screamed at them, her mouth in a wide smile as she protruded her head out of the window.

“Well, I’m bust driving,” Edmund said. “How about you taking the wheel off my hands?” he asked Jared.

It was the way in which Edmund had smiled that told Jared that there was more to the offer than politeness. His mouth had lifted at a corner; his eyes were narrow and shifty. Jared had seen them before and it usually sparked a sense of caution inside him.

“Of course,” he replied, giving out his hand for the key.

Edmund dropped it into his palm. The smile had disappeared but those eyes narrowed and remained as they were, pinned on him, studying him closely. “I’ll join Liam and Kayla. I probably might get some sleep in it without being disturbed by Lynnie’s endless nonsense.”

Evelyn would have been offended had that not also meant an opportunity to sit beside Jared.

“You coming Ellie?” he asked, expecting her to join him.

Ellie swallowed. “I think I’ll s
tay. Tara will be sitting alone in the back and she
is
our guest, Edmund.”

He nodded. “Very well,” he said, giving her a quick kiss on her cheek before walking away towards Liam’s silver SUV.

Evelyn beamed. “Great then. Shall we go?”

“How about we sit together, Evelyn?” Tara blurted quickly. “I needed to ask you a few things.”

“Oh,” Evelyn muttered disappointedly. She wished she could tell the woman to keep them to herself till they reached the cottage. And she would have, had she not been
the
obviously fond sister of the man she was pursuing. “Yes, of course,” she replied half-heartedly.

Jared lifted an eyebrow at Tara and she smiled
at him as she opened the car door to the rear seats.

He turned to Ellie who had paled from the change in seating arrangements. She moved hesitantly towards the front door and slithered into the vehicle reluctantly.

Jared let out a deep breath. He was doing his best to ignore the fire racing through his veins, burning for the woman across him. And Tara wasn’t making it any easy on him at all.

*****

Jared gripped the wheel tightly, his body very aware of the woman beside him. Evelyn’s occasional questions eased him a bit, digressing from his thoughts of how his body was involuntarily reacting to her. Not surprisingly, Tara had nothing much to say to Evelyn.

They had left the fine
upper class suburbs of Sector 8 and its immaculately maintained landscapes and were now heading into the more remote area of the sector. Jared diligently followed Liam’s SUV, his eyes focused on its silver hatch door. He frowned as he tried to deduce why Edmund had given him the key to his vehicle. He wouldn’t have dwelt on it at all if he had not caught that little smirk on his face. Edmund had assumed that since he had come from Sector 8 Central, he would not have known how to properly operate a vehicle. And he would have been right had James not given him those non-stop driving lessons four months ago.

A hand gently
brushed his thigh. “Slow around the bend,” she whispered.

His feet immediately let go of the accelerator, slowing
the vehicle down, carefully maneuvering around the large curve in the mountain.

He gave her a short glance and smiled. “Thanks.”

She blushed. “There’s a huge series of bends in the road from now onwards before we reach the next proper stretch. I don’t know why I am always nervous around it.”

 
“It’s alright to be nervous. It keeps you attentive and careful,” he assured her. His eyes narrowed as they continued to circle up the sides of the mountain.  He tried to keep as much as he could to the wall of the mountain. He glimpsed down at the forest canopy on his side, the shrub layer of the forest invisible beneath its denseness. If he wasn’t careful, it would certainly be a long disastrous fall to its floor. “I can understand why though,” he muttered, also understanding why Edmund had made that quick dash for Liam’s SUV. 

He glanced at her again. Her fingers were clasped together tightly, but she sat stoically, her eyes bravely set upon the view outside her window. She had faith in him.
And this was making it terribly difficult for him to ignore her. How was he to ever let go of her if she continued to win his heart like this? He had wanted to clasp her hand the moment she had touched him lightly on his thigh. Her hand had burnt his flesh, spreading a heat wave through his veins and to his entire body. His vision of her touching him in more ways than that, washed over him. He didn’t know if he would ever have the strength to turn away from her now.

Her phone buzzed. Ellie searched for it in her bag, trying her best not to make her twitchy nervous fingers obvious to the man beside her. She somehow was always in a state of fluster when he was around her.

She found her phone and
switched it to holo mode. Edmund’s hologram projected out of it and she held it up so he could get a better image of them.

“Are you guys okay?” he asked.

“We’re fine, Edmund,” she answered, trying not to look at Jared.

“Do you want to take a rest when we reach the stretch? I’m happy to swap with you
then, Jared,” he offered.

Jared didn’t want to swap. He was doing absolutely fine in the driver seat next to Ellie.