Stolen Sun (The Juliana Lucio Series) (3 page)

W
illiam stood in one graceful move and
reached a hand down to help me stand. I’d felt uncomfortable enough with my display of weakness and utter breakdown in front of him; I didn’t
need him thinking I couldn’t manage to stand on my own as well. I stood up just as swiftly and gracefully as he.

Now that we were standing, and I wasn’t
focused entirely on myself I
could
get a better look at this ‘friend’ of Ana’s. He was rather tall around 6’2” I’d guess. He was lean with a slightly muscular build and was wearing dark fitted jeans over black riding boots
.
T
he hand that he had just held out to me was resting along his side. He had large strong hands that looked as if they had
seen
enough manual labor in their day to
actually
be
of
use.

As my gaze traveled upward I noticed that he was wearing a tight black T-shirt tucked into his jeans that did nothing to hide his washboard abs. I found myself wanting to reach out and feel
just how hard they really were. After I managed to draw my eyes upward a bit more, I
saw that he was staring at me, his dark brown eyes held a knowing glint to them. The golden specs I saw earlier were being shadowed
over by a small ring of black that was starting to grow around the iris of his eyes.
His hair was a dirty blond color that fell unruly around his face stopping at his sharp jaw line. He had full lips that quirked
up into a smile. H
e seemed to enjoy that
I was so openly admiring him. 

Being near him looking so good made me suddenly feel very self-conscious of my own 5’3” frame. I felt
incredibly
small and vulnerable
compared to the strength that radiated from this man across from me. I looked down to see what I was wearing, and instead
,
only saw that I was covered
in another person’s blood
;
I felt like an animal. I started to wipe at my face with my sleeve to clean off what blood I could, and I began
to turn away from William;
in shame at how I must look.

William reached out to stop me but dropped his hand before touching me, “No, you look beautiful. Don’t be ashamed.”

I just stared at him wide-eyed not sure really what to say
.
I didn’t
know this person
.
I didn’t
understand why he was being so nice to me.

“Who are you?” I asked a little uneasily.

“I told you, I’m a friend, and we’re roommates. We really should get out of here
,
by the way, and get home so you can clean up. I’m sure you have plenty of questions, and it really will be better to answer them there
rather
than here waiting for someone to stumble upon us and a dead body.”

“I should wait for Ana; I don’t really know how to get back,” I told him.

“Like I said, we’re roommates, you can ride with me. Ana would be
really upset if I just left you.
Besides she’s going to be out for a while and will need to clean this up before coming home. My bike’s this way.”

At that he just turned and began walking in the opposite direction that Ana and I
had come from
.
I hesitated for a second then began to follow. After all, I couldn’t
imagine him doing anything worse to me than had already happened.

His bike was left behind a cluster of trees
not far off from where we were.
The skid marks he left in the grass indicated that he had been going incredibly fast before skidding to a halt. I wondered if his sensing Ana and I was what had brought him so abruptly.

“
Here’s
my bike
.
I don’t have a helmet for you, but then again since we can’t rea
lly die from a motorcycle wreck
we don’t really need them,” he told me with a smile. 

I think it was meant to be reassuring, but really it just made me more nervous to get on the back of anything with him. He was standing next to a sleek black BMW K
1300
S, which looked like it was made
just for him; it was the fastest and most powerful BMW motorcycle ever made. I silently said a prayer of thanks that I was married
.
B
ecause
after his devil good looks, manners of an angel, combined with the ability to power a machine like this
--
that
I was married
was probably the only thing keeping my common sense alive, and
keeping me from trying to yank his clothes off right there. 

William strode over, kicked up the stand, and straddled the bike. The engine came roaring to life
,
and he just sat there waiting patiently for me to climb on back. I licked my lips in nervousness, not so much
about
the bike, but about the closeness to him it would require. His eyes were watching my tongue moisten my lips, as he did the dark ring of black in his eyes grew a little larger. He still hadn’t said anything
to me about getting on the bike
and just sat there watching me, waiting.

I finally got over my indeci
siveness and strode over to him
placing my hands on his shoulders
;
I straddled the bike behind him.  He took off almost at once and instinctively my arms moved to wrap tightly around his waist. William maneuvered the streets of Chicago expertly, flying down the side streets at an easy 90 miles an hour, not appearing concerned at all that pedestrians or other vehicles might at any moment come into our lane. I was enjoying the feel of his hard muscled back pressed up against my chest, the planes of his
abs
under my hands
,
when we were suddenly home.

We pulled up to a mansi
on straight from the Columbian e
xposition that was set right in Hyde Park. It’s a two story house built of old stone blocks and brick. The property is surrounded
by a black wrought-iron fence, which opened upon our arrival. I didn’t
notice that William had hit anything to trigger the door to open, and I wondered vaguely if he had some sort of transmitter in his bike to open the gates at his arrival. The front of the house has a huge front entrance with four large stone stairs leading up
to an over-sized front door.  The house is
both beautiful and foreboding at once.

William slowly rode around to the back of the house and took the bike into a separate brick three car garage. The garage housed another bike identical to the one we were on, a 2011 Audi R8 that boasted a massive V10 engine and
could go
from zero to sixty
in 3.7 seconds, and a black 2012 Supercharged Range Rover Lux HSE.

“Wow, someone sure likes their cars to come with a lot of speed . . . and the color black.”

William just smiled a full bright smile this time
and told me to follow him into the house.

“Come on, I’ll show you to your new room so you can clean up. Then we can talk while we wait for Ana.”

He led me through the amazing library I had been in earlier; even this didn’t
hold enough awe to distract me from the idea of a hot shower and just washing this night away. William led me up a set of stairs that I hadn’t noticed earlier, and we came to a large bedroom that was easily double the size of the one I had at home, and I enjoyed a large bedroom at home. I kept going until I came to a bathroom that boasted a bath worthy of Rome. The bathroom is the size of most normal bedrooms
.
It is covered
in smooth white brick that made it appear open
and almost gave it an air of being outdoors in the moonlight. I took a quick shower instead of the bath I really wanted, so I could get back downstairs quickly.

As I was drying off I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror.
Well, I guess that one’s a myth.
Then I caught myself and stared
;
that couldn’t
be me. It was me, but not. My skin was so smooth and was starting to take on a slightly paler sheen than I’d ever had before. I still had my olive complexion, but it was almost as if I had a slight glow now. My hair was smoother and shinier than I’d ever been able to get it before
.
I
t was a deep chestnut brown that had natural red highlights shimmering throughout. My eyes were a bright emerald green, with no hint of black to them, most likely from the feeding earlier tonight. Where before I’d just thought of myself as short and voluptuous, now I j
ust looked down right seductive.
My shortness now looked petite and sexy; my curves no longer looked like too much on me but made me appear feminine and alluring. My breasts were round and full, my hips curvy and attractive.

I quickly changed clothes into a pair of black yoga pants
and thin blue T-shi
rt, which I found in the closet.
I
made my way downstairs to find William and Ana. I found William sitting at the kitchen table; he had a cup of coffee sitting in front of him and a fresh pot still brewing in the kitchen. The smell was intoxicating
.
I lived off coffee at home
;
there was nothing better to help wake you up or calm the nerves than a cup of strong black coffee.

“I wasn’t sure if I’d still be able to drink coffee,” I said with a smile.

“You can’t, I just love the smell of it,” William replied as he lifted the mug
and took in a deep breath of the strong aroma.

I was unexpectedly taken
aback at this
and
all of my losses were
once again flooding back to me.
My new strength and newfound sexual appeal
was now
gone by the wayside. Shoving this aside for later, I brought up the important issue at hand.

“I need to talk to Ana
.
I
s she back yet?”

“I haven’t seen her yet
.
I suppose she’ll show when she’s ready to talk to you.”

“When she’s ready?” I felt my anger start to simmer.

“I am tired of waiting around on
her.
I appreciate the shower and the bed for the night, but I will be going back to my family. I want answers from her
;
she owes them to me! I did nothing to her, nothing to deserve what she has done to my life, and I am supposed to wait around until she feels like talking about it?” I said incredulously.

I started feeling
caged and angry all over again.
I
began to pace around the kitchen island in an attempt to calm myself, to find an outlet for my confusion and frustration.

“Juliana. Juliana, please sit down. Let’s talk about this
.
I can’t answer your questions about why Ana did what she did, but I can help to explain about what is going on with you. Please, sit down with me. We need to talk about your family,” William was saying as I paced.

“What about my family?” I said with a barely disguised threat,
w
hether I could back it up didn’t
matter;
I wouldn’t
let them be threatened.

“You misunderstand me,” he said while holding up his hands placating, “I’m not threatening them.”

He slowly put his hands back on the table
.
H
e knew I wasn’t
any sort of threat to him; the gesture
was
more of one of goodwill. At this, I slowly strode toward
him in a slow fluid manner.

“What of my family?” I tried again in a softer tone.

“You can’t go back home, and before you start to yell and fight me on this, think about what happened at the park. My intent is not to bring you more pain and anguish than has already been thrust upon you, but if you go back home you will do t
o them what you did to that man.
And
that
you would never recover from. Please listen to me.”

I heard his words, and I knew he spoke the truth
.
I
f I went home
,
I could very well lose control and hurt or even worse
,
kill my children and
husband. I knew I would fight to the death to protect those three, even if it were me I was protecting them from.

“The idea of never seeing them again, of letting them go on not knowing what happened to me
;
allowing them to think
I’d been abducted, having no idea if I was even still alive or what was being done to me; that seems beyond cruel.”

“It may seem cruel, but it is necessary to ensure their safety.”