Rouge (21 page)

She paused, playing with a
fork on the cookies-and-cream flecked marble kitchen top, waiting for an
outburst. But then the tone beeped, signaling the end of Joshua’s line.

Frustrated, Hunter slouched
back into the living room where Eli sat waiting for her. The fire flickered
angrily at Joshua’s unreasonable argument, but it didn’t want to get out just
yet.

“Did he want you home?” Eli
asked, lifting his arm and curling it around her as she snuggled into him
again.

“Just wondering. Don’t,” she
said, resting a hand over his as he made to increase the volume. “I’m not
really thinking about Harrison Ford anymore.”

Eli’s eyebrows shot up. “Are
you sure the two of you are alright?”

“We’re... going through some
stuff. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been seeing a lot of you or because
he’s lonely, but Joshua’s become way more protective over me than he usually
is. And he’s usually pretty protective.”

“It’s probably a parental
issue.”

“No, I think it’s just a
Joshua issue,” she sighed and fiddled with a tassel on the throw wrapped around
her thighs. “He’s always been like that.”

She waited for Eli to ask
more questions about the mystery that is Joshua, but instead a grin broke out
on his face. “Are you hungry?”

She nodded, grateful for the
subject change. Eli snatched her hand and dragged her back into the kitchen
where he threw open the fridge dramatically and Hunter jumped up onto the
bench, laughing.

“You know,” said Eli,
glancing over his shoulder slyly. “I’ve always wanted to be a secret agent.”

Hunter raised an eyebrow.
“Is that what you fantasize about at night, Mr. Bond?”

Eli pulled a plate of
leftover casserole out of the fridge and stuck it in the microwave. “Oh it’s not
a fantasy.” He spun like a cowboy with his hands pointed straight at her. “
Pow
!
Pow
!”

Hunter burst out laughing.
Eli crossed the space between them and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her
off the bench and swinging her around in circles. She screamed playfully and
slapped him until he let her gently to the floor and brought her into a kiss
not unlike the one they shared under the shelter of Raoul’s restaurant weeks
ago. One thing Hunter had learned about spending more and more time with Eli
was that she could be herself – aside from the minute detail of having ‘special
abilities’ – in a way that meant she wasn’t herself. Eli gently curled a hand
around the back of her neck and drew her closer to him, surprising her with a
kiss that sent her head spinning. She ran her hand up his back, feeling the
soft texture of his T-shirt and the fit contours of his hip and shoulder
blades. The fire responded hungrily inside her, begging her to get closer and
release the passion from the core of her body where it hid away. She was losing
herself in the moment again, as she so often did when she was around Eli. The
only thing that would ever break them out of the embrace would be if-

“Ahem.”

Someone standing in the kitchen
entryway cleared their throat and Eli and Hunter tore apart as if an invisible
force had exploded between them.

“Dad,” said Eli awkwardly,
rubbing the back of his neck and staring at the floor. “I
er
,
I didn’t think you’d be home until later tonight.”

Mr. Akerman tapped his shiny
black shoes against the marble floor and glared at the two of them, his dark
brown eyes fierce. Hunter had never known such a stern man before in her life
and she glanced at Eli, who had sweat gathering on his brow. How completely
different they were to each other, Hunter couldn’t explain in words.

“The meeting with the board
of directors went surprisingly well, so I finished earlier than expected,” he
said arrogantly, the slightest glimmer of glee in his eyes. “I would have liked
the privacy of my own home, however...”

Eli hung his head, and
Hunter looked from Eli back to Mr. Akerman incredulously. Usually, when meeting
the parent for the first time, it would be rude to mouth off like Hunter so
desperately longed to. So she held her tongue and tried at false courteousness.

“Mr. Akerman,” she said,
holding out her hand confidently for him to shake. “We met at the university
benefit for Colombia, I’m Hunter Harrison.”

He looked down at her hand
but did not shake it. “Yes, you’re the daughter of that absurdly awkward man -
Jonathon, was it?”

“Joshua,” she corrected
icily.

“Yes. I remember you.” His
eyes ran up her body like a paintbrush on a canvas. “I suppose I should thank
you for taking my son from a very important function on a wild goose chase
around a dangerous city without my permission. I must say Miss Harrison, I very
much appreciate it.”

Hunter’s mouth fell open and
she let her hand drop to her side. Shooting a desperate look at Eli for some
sort of support, she crossed her arms uncomfortably and swallowed.
Does Eli
really belong to this family of rude, inconsiderate snobs?
Mr. Akerman
began rummaging in the fridge as he loosened his tie and neither of them moved.
Surely he has a stick up his ass or he wouldn’t be such a downright prick.

“Dad you could be a little
nicer, Hunter and I are seeing each other now,” Eli said, still not looking at
his father. Hunter was so furious that she even missed Eli’s public
announcement of their relationship status. What had Mr. Akerman done in his
life to make Eli so afraid of him?

“Oh you’re seeing each
other?” he nodded, his hawk-eyes wide and amused. “Well I apologize for my
bluntness. Carry on.”

“Look,” said Hunter, courage
seizing her. She didn’t consider that perhaps it was the fire that forced her
to say what she said, nor did she acknowledge the hand Eli gripped around her
arm, begging her not to speak. But she couldn’t resist. He was just too horrid,
and she was just too tempted. “I’m sorry you had to see that, but I really think
you’re being unreasonable. It’s not like I threw Eli in a taxi and forced him
to have a better time than what he was having at that god-awful university
benefit-”

“Hunter,” Eli warned through
his teeth. She yanked her hand away from him and turned back to Mr. Akerman,
whose face had fallen, his jaw set hard. She was about to continue when she
felt it; the tingling through her veins. The fire was sneaking up on her, and
she knew that if she said one more spiteful word at Eli’s father, her hands
would burst into flames.

So - despite how much it
killed her - Hunter backed down.

“I’m sorry,” she said in a
small voice and followed Eli’s lead by staring at the floor. “That was uncalled
for.”

Mr. Akerman’s hard look
relaxed, but he still regarded Hunter with a sneer much like Melissa’s. He
turned his back on them again, muttering something about ‘uncontrollable
teenage trash’ as Eli grabbed the casserole out of the microwave and the two of
them rushed out of the room.

They climbed the staircase
and Eli led her into the second bedroom on the left, which was only half the
size of hers, with a double bed and a wall covered in posters from movies, rock
bands and magazines. His desk was cluttered with workbooks, video-game
controllers and stained mugs. Clothes were scattered across the floor that he
hurriedly began to pick up.

“S-sorry about the mess,” he
fussed. “And sorry about Dad, he was so rude. I don’t know where it came from-”

“It’s fine Eli,” she assured
him, sitting down on the bed and judging its bounce quality. She smiled,
satisfied with the feel of it, and also admiring his deco. Eli didn’t seem to
notice her smile though; he continued to shove clothes in his wardrobe.

“No it’s not fine,” he
hissed. “He does this with all the girls I bring home-”

“
All the girls?”
she
asked teasingly, her eyebrows raised.

“No, I mean – no! It’s not
like that,” he stammered. “What I mean is-”

“Eli!” She snatched his arm
firmly as he hurried past her with jeans and an empty packet of fries. “Relax.”

He stared at her momentarily
and Hunter wondered why on earth he was so frazzled. It was then that his
breathing began to increase.

“Are you okay?” she
exclaimed.

He nodded and muttered,
“puffer,” indicating to the bedside table.

“What?”

He ran around the bed and snatched
a small inhaler, clicking air into his mouth. His chest rose and, after a small
pause, he looked down at her with embarrassed, watery eyes.

“Well,” she sighed. “That’s
something you didn’t share with me on our date.”

“I thought being an
asthmatic would make you think I’m even more of a nerd than I already am.” He
sat down on the floor and lay back on his coffee-colored carpet, staring at the
roof.

“Not in my books,” she said.

“Hunter? Have you ever
wondered if you were meant to be born into another family, if… I
dunno
, if maybe fate wasn’t fair to you?”

She climbed off the bed and
lay down next to him.

“All the time.”

Eli turned to face her and
looked deep into her eyes, squinting, as if reading her like a book.

“You never told me your
fantasy.”

She smiled, staring at the
smudge marks on the ceiling. “I don’t have one.”

“Come on,” he urged, the
childish glee in his tone making her heart melt with joy. “If you could be
anyone in the world, who would you be?”

The answer came to her in
that moment, though she couldn’t remember ever thinking about it. “Marty
McFly
,” she said.

“What?”

“I would be Marty
McFly
from
Back to the Future
so I could speed in
the
Dilorian
back to 1994 and stop my parents from
dying in the fire.”

Eli looked puzzled. “A
Dilorian
? Why don’t you just say ‘I want to be a time
traveler’?”

“Well because that’d be
painful. At least this way, I can do it in style.”

He snickered, his lip
curling up in a crooked smile. “Would you take me?”

“Eli,” she whispered,
exploring his strange eyes behind the glasses, his curly blonde and brown hair
shining in the dim light from the lamp. “I wouldn’t dream of leaving you
behind.”

She looked down at his lips,
at the strong jaw littered with stubble, and hesitated for just a fraction of a
second. The fire burned softly inside her, content and a little eager of what
it knew was coming. It didn’t appear out of control, so she turned her head and
met the slant of his lips with hers. Eli pecked at the corners of her mouth,
then rolled on top of her and pressed her body into the carpet. His lips tasted
of rich chocolate and moved with a passionate, eager motion against her own.
Shivers ran up and down her body at each touch his fingers made against the
back of her neck or the very top of her jaw, just beneath her ear. Surges of
electricity bolted through her, but she was completely immune to them, immersed
in the kiss and the feel of Eli close to her.

They moved onto the bed,
where she fell deep into the covers and Eli relaxed beside her. He dug his
fingers passionately into her hair. The kiss became harder and more urgent.
Pausing to remove his glasses, Eli looked down at her on the bed, his cheeks
flushed, his green eyes filled with light and love. She smiled up at him,
completely unaware of the flame that crept under her skin, and found the hem of
his shirt. She ripped it up over his head and threw it on the ground. Her arms
wrapped around his back and felt the soft texture of his olive skin, warm and
beautiful. His lips moved down the crook of her neck where her jumper covered
her shoulder, as if teasing the skin that he could not touch and she smiled to
herself, savoring each shiver, each spark of electricity that gushed through
her. Eli rolled onto his back and lifted her so she lay on top of him. Hunter unzipped
her jumper and pulled it off slowly, just to tease him, and watched his cheeks
blush but his eyes sparkle. She threw her jumper on the floor, flicked her
out-of-control hair away from his face and continued to kiss him, feeling as if
she might burst with passion. His muscular arms were tense and corded, but the
gentle touch of his violinist fingers gave her comfort that the fire never
could.

The fire.

It accelerated in her blood
so quickly she had no time to push it back. It was as if a volcano of fire had
erupted inside her. She clung to the sheets, grabbing fistfuls of the material
in order to keep control of the burning, but it was too late. She was lost.

Hunter didn’t have time to
pull away before she felt it.

Fire shot from her hands
into the quilt she had been grasping and Eli yelped in surprise. The two of
them leapt from the bed, staring in horror at the two balls of flames licking
at the sheet material on either side of where Eli’s head just lay.

Hunter didn’t realize she
had started slapping madly at the fire until Eli clenched at her waist and
yanked her from the bed. The flames were out, leaving two large scorch marks in
the sheets.