Spellbound in His Arms (7 page)

“Oh, but there is!” he insisted. “I know that you can
feel it too!”

Jackie shook her head from side-to-side in denial. “I
have to go to bed,” she said suddenly and left him alone in the kitchen. She
couldn’t stay in the same room with him any longer and keep on hiding the way
she felt.

Walking into the foyer, she realized that she hadn’t
managed to make it to the study yet. Anxiously, she looked over her shoulder to
make sure he hadn’t followed her.

When she was sure Michael had stayed in the kitchen, she
rushed down the corridor, entered the study, and softly closed the door behind
her. She approached the desk and picked up the folders. Then she hastily
stuffed the documents back inside them and raced downstairs to the secret room.
Having no time to waste, she left the documents on the mahogany table and left
the secret room, closing the steel door behind her. She climbed the narrow
steps, two at a time. In the study, she turned the hound’s head
counterclockwise and stepped back, watching the fireplace move back in place.
She let out a deep breath. Now, all she had to do…
Oh! My God!
One of
the documents had fallen on the floor.

She bent down to pick it up when she heard a noise close
by. Frantically, she hid the document beneath one of the pillows on the leather
sofa. Then she stood still and waited. Nothing. The only sound she could hear
was her heavy breathing. She carefully approached the door, opened it, and
checked the corridor. There was nobody there.

***

Michael peered through the small opening in the wall
behind the big portrait of Emilios Demiris—Constantinos’ grandfather—which hung
on the wall behind the showcase with the miniature of the mansion. A small
corridor behind the kitchen led to a secret entrance in the study and also had
this small opening through which one could watch what was going on in the room.
The mansion had a lot of secret passages like this, which had saved the lives
of the residents, during wars and other difficult times. Michael knew every
single one of them.

So she knew about the secret room, Michael realized. He
watched Jackie walk out of the room and turned to get back to the kitchen when
he heard a smashing noise. He looked through the opening again. A tall, bulky
man climbed inside through the broken, stained glass window.

Without a second thought, Michael pulled the door of the
secret entrance to open in order to get inside the study. The door was stuck
and Michael had a hard time trying to get it open. By the time he made it to
the study, he caught a glimpse of the man climbing out through the window and
running away.

Michael cursed out loud and rushed to the sofa to check
underneath the pillow. As he had suspected, the document was gone. Without
delay, Michael stormed towards the window. He climbed outside and pulling out
his gun, he ran after the intruder.

***

Jackie walked down the corridor towards the kitchen,
looking for Michael. Suddenly, the sound of breaking glass coming from the study
made her stop dead in her tracks. Her heart pounded fast and she hesitated for
a moment. Should she go back and check it out or should she wait for Michael?
The broken window in the living room the other night had made her very
cautious. A sudden gunshot made up her mind for her. Frantically, she turned
and rushed into the kitchen, calling out for Michael. He was nowhere to be
found.

In a state of panic, she checked every room downstairs,
calling out his name. No answer. She finally made it to the study and
cautiously entered the room.

The first thing she noticed was the broken window.
Shaking from anxiety and fear, she made it to the sofa, only to find out that
the document was gone.
Oh! My God
!
What now?

She took a quick look at the fireplace and breathed out
in relief to see it was in place. Then she noticed a small opening in the wall
next to one of the bookcases, like a narrow secret door. And it was half open.

Jackie was shocked. She looked around petrified, feeling
a shiver racing up her spine. Things were getting very creepy. No wonder, she’d
felt that someone was watching her.

What now?
she wondered.
And
where on earth is Michael?

Suddenly, another thought crossed her mind.
What if
it was Michael out there shooting? And ever worse, what if someone was shooting
at Michael?

She moved away from the window and hurried to the living
room.
Calm down
, she kept repeating to herself. But it was hard to
remain calm. She was having trouble breathing, feeling a constriction in her
chest.

“Are you all right?”

She was taken aback when she heard his voice and turned
to face him. He was standing in the living room doorway with a gun in his
hands.

“What happened?” she asked anxiously. “I heard a
gunshot.”

“Someone broke into the house,” he replied. “I went
after him.”

“Was that you shooting out there? Did you hit him?”

“No, I missed.”

“Where is he, now?”

“He’s gone!” Michael said and Jackie saw fire burning in
his eyes.

“Who was it?”

“I don’t know. But it wasn’t the same guy who chased you
the other night.”

“
Chased me
?” she asked confused. Her face turned
pale. “What do you mean chased me? Who? When?” A million questions bombarded
her mind.

“Jackie, calm down,” he said softly. He put his gun back
in its holster and pulled her into his arms, holding her tenderly and caressing
her hair.

Jackie felt his strong arms closing around her, and she
leaned against his strong body, feeling its warmth. Suddenly, she started
shivering but not from fear this time. Every part of her body was responding to
his touch. The blood was running hot in her veins and she felt her head
spinning.

Michael pulled her towards the sofa and sat down,
pulling her down beside him. “Are you all right?” he asked tenderly, brushing
her hair away from her face.

“What’s going on?” she asked and turned her eyes on him.

He shifted uncomfortably.

“Michael, what’s going on?” she insisted, squeezing his
knee. “Please…I don’t understand anything anymore.”

***

Michael saw how badly shaken she was. Her eyes were
filled with anxiety and confusion. He hadn’t told her about the man who’d
chased her the other night. She hadn’t seen him running after her, and then the
shock of the accident didn’t leave any room for anything else.

Hesitating for a moment, he tried to decide whether she
could be trusted. She looked so innocent and vulnerable, the only thing he
wanted was to take her in his arms and reassure her that everything was going
to be all right. At that very moment, he felt as if he could read her like an
open book. But she had tricked him before.

“The other night when
you ran away from me
,” he
said, putting emphasis on his last words, “I saw someone running away from the
house in the same direction you had taken. I assumed he was running after you,”
he explained, choosing his words very carefully, and watching her reactions
closely. He had decided to give her only the facts. He couldn’t possibly tell
her the whole truth. He felt her tensing and saw her face frowning. “I’m not
sure who he was,” he continued. That much was true.

“But you have suspicions?” she asked, carefully
searching her face.

“No,” he lied. “At least not for the time being.”

“And what about tonight?”

“This wasn’t the same guy,” he said firmly. “The other
one seemed slimmer and taller.”

“What now?” she asked puzzled.

“We have to secure the house and wait until tomorrow
morning. There’s nothing we can do in the middle of the night.” He looked out
the window. “At least the rain’s stopped for a while.”

“Yes,” Jackie agreed and gave him a hesitant look.

“What?” he asked and saw her shifting uncomfortably.
“Jackie, what is it?” he insisted, seeing her hesitation.

“I was just wondering…” she started and lowered her
eyes.

“You were wondering what?” he insisted.

“I was wondering…” she said, keeping her eyes away from
him, “if you could spend the night with me?”

***

Jackie heard him taking a deep breath and raised her
face to look at him. Seeing the look in his eyes, she realized how her statement
must have sounded.

“I didn’t mean that!” she protested and was furious to
see an amused smile on his face. “I just don’t want to be alone and was
wondering if we could sleep in the same room.” Her voice shook from
embarrassment.

“I have no problem with that,” he reassured her. “Even
though, I had no problem with your first suggestion either,” he added, making
her blush again.

“Forget about it!” She jumped up from the sofa. “Just
forget I even asked.” She rushed to the kitchen to pick up her flashlight. With
the electricity out on the second floor, she needed light to go upstairs. She
had decided earlier to use one of the bedrooms on the second floor. It somehow
seemed more secure being in a room up there. And now after tonight’s events,
she was even more determined to spend the night in the dark with only the company
of the flashlight and maybe a candle or two, than to be downstairs where
intruders had immediate access.

“Jackie!”

She heard his voice, calling after her, but she wouldn’t
stop. She needed to get away from him…as far away as she could. She couldn’t
believe that he had misinterpreted her intensions like this. He was
infuriating.

But, if she wanted to be honest, it wasn’t his fault
after all. The problem was, though, that she didn’t want to be honest. If she
did, she would have to face the fact that spending the night with him had
crossed her mind more than once.

Holding the flashlight in her hands, she entered the
first bedroom on the right and slammed the door behind her. It was good that
she had carried some of her stuff into the room earlier because she had no
intention of going back downstairs tonight.

She lit a candle in the candlestick on the small desk by
the window. She turned her flashlight off and went to close the heavy curtains,
glancing uneasily outside for a moment. She knew that someone was out there,
watching,
waiting
….

***

Michael didn’t want to pressure her anymore. She wasn’t
being honest with him, but he was no better. He had been lying to her all along
too.

He walked to the study and examined the area. He
realized he’d left the secret door open and wondered if Jackie had seen it. If
she had, she hadn’t mentioned anything about it for some reason.

He looked around the room and his eyes rested for a minute
on the portrait of the young girl. “I miss you so much…” he whispered. “I miss
you and I miss dad. I promise you I’ll make this bastard pay for everything.”
He let out a deep breath and clenched his fists, making the muscles in his arms
flex. Just thinking of what his mother had been through made him furious.
I
need to control myself,
he realized.
I can’t let anger blind me. I need
to clear my head and get to the bottom of this.

He took another look around, trying to find something to
place in front of the broken window in order to block the opening. Nothing
seemed to fit the bill except the bookcases, but he knew they were too heavy to
move by himself. He walked out into the corridor and decided to use the
grandfather’s clock that was placed against the wall right outside the study.
It was big enough and at the same time, easier to move. He moved the clock in
front of the broken window.
It would have to do for tonight,
he thought.
Besides, if someone tried to move it, it would probably make enough noise to
be heard.

He walked back to the corridor and, just to be on the
safe side, locked the door to the study behind him. Then he picked up his small
backpack he’d dropped by the front entrance when he stormed into the mansion
earlier and went upstairs. He picked the room opposite Jackie’s and left the
door open, so that he could watch the door to her room. He lay down on the bed
without taking his clothes off. Taking out his gun, he placed it on the pillow
next to him.

Now all he had to do was
wait
.

However, he realized soon enough it wasn’t going to be easy.
Wild thoughts whirled around in his mind, as her lovely face and heavenly
curves kept haunting him, driving his senses insane. Thinking of the passion he
had seen in her seductive eyes and the trembling of her inviting lips, he felt
every muscle in his body tighten and a hot wave of passion threatened to
consume him. He wanted her…he wanted her so much it hurt. He longed to take her
in his arms and conquer her lips with his. And she wanted him too. He could
sense it; he could see it in her eyes every time she looked at him. Then again,
she didn’t want to admit it. Maybe it was pride, maybe it was fear. Whatever it
was though, it couldn’t change the fact that the feelings were there and they
would have to address them sooner or later.