The cries were becoming so intense that Jack had to break into a ran as she began to allow the sound of the woman. She was asking for help, and his heart tried to get out of his chest while he ran faster to be able to help her. Whoever she was, he wanted to save her from whatever harm it was that was making her cry this terribly. And when he found the street they were in, it was the darkest street of the area and he wouldn't lie if he said all these houses didn’t have anyone residing in them because if they did, why was it that no one was there to save her?
He rushed toward them with his cheeks getting pale and when he stood there, he noticed there were three drunkards, and they were trying to rape the innocent...what would he refer to her as? A teenage girl or a lady? Her frame looked petite, and he didn’t know whether it was because she was on the road and was crying for her life to be saved or it was because she was crying with half of her hair covering her face as she pulled her knees toward her chest. He brought his phone out and turned on the flashlight, “Hey!” He made a voice that sounded as though that of a policeman and the way his flashlight glowed on those three men, he was sure they would be afraid of whoever the intruder was.
And they were. Because as he approached them further, he saw the way they stared at each other and it was as though they had spoken to one another because before he took his next step, they broke into a sprint. She was still shivering, hugging herself as she cried even bitterly not even knowing they had run off. He turned off the light and knelt beside her, “Hey?” He called out softly, glad that Willa had unveiled this part of him. He was sure that whoever she was, she would feel safe with the kind of voice he used to speak to her.
With her whole body shaking and her hands trembling, she tried to take away the churn of hair from her face, but she couldn’t, and Jack helped her in doing so. And when he did, the hell, when he lifted her hair and her face got revealed, he had never imagined in his whole life that he would see Anna Brayden on this street, never in his life. And where was Charles? He thought he was first her bodyguard before a boyfriend and would always be one? She stopped him at track when she flung her arms around his neck and hugged him as tightly as she had never hugged a man in her life, breaking completely into tears.
“Jack...” She whimpered with trembling lips and weakly, Jack pulled her closer to his body and hugged her warmly. She was still crying as she nuzzled her head around his neck, and he felt the way his lungs were threatening to stop working due to the sensation he felt. What was wrong with him? Whenever Anna touched him it felt like fire on his body and he'd begin to lose all control of himself.
But she needed him now, she was at her most fragile and broken phase and like before, he couldn’t take his revenge now. He would have to take care of her and wait until she was back to being her poised Anna Brayden before he could do everything he wanted. “Shhh, Anna. It’s fine, I'm here, okay?” She nodded her head, her tears subsiding but her body was still shaking. “Have they done anything to you?” He asked, this time with his face near her ears and he stopped breathing as he awaited her answer because man, if they did something to her, he wasn’t sure of how he’d feel or what he’d do, and it had nothing to do with the revenge he had to take on her. Those men must pay for everything.
She shook her head and Jack let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding, “They didn’t, Jack...” She whimpered and slowly peeled her face away from his neck as she stared at his face with her tears messed one. The moon glowed softly on them and she could clearly see his worried face. “If only you had come a minute late, I don’t know what I'd have done with my life.” She cried again and Jack was still holding onto her as she cried terribly. His arms wrapped protectively around her back and he pulled her closer to him as he took her hair away from her face.
“They haven’t touched you, Anna, that alone is enough to be thankful for, don’t you think?” She shook her head and more tears rolled down her cheeks. He had always known her to be weak and she cried a lot. But this wasn’t the Anna he expected when she was afraid. She was practically clinging onto him even though they had fought not so long ago, merely 24 hours.
“They took my phone; I couldn’t call anymore. I was afraid to my bones that after they raped me they’d kill me, Jack. But somehow...” She broke into tears, this time when she looked at him, there wasn’t only fear and pain in her eyes, there was appreciation. “You made it here, you saved me like you’ve always done.” He realized that she couldn’t thank him even if he was going to swim from Spain to California just for her. Maybe that was how she was, or how she acted toward him, all her manners aside. It was just the real Anna Brayden she had given him. And that made him smiled, softly as he rubbed his thumb on the side of her face.
“It’s alright, you can get them arrested through your phone if you want. And for now, you’re safe, that’s what that matters, don’t you think?” He asked and she nodded her head slowly as she pouted her lips, her tears stopping momentarily. He used his thumb until he cleared all her tears and all she did was stared at him, still cocooned in his arms.
“Is this the area you live?” He asked, and that was when he noticed she had her eyes fixed on his face without moving and something struck his heart. His eyes left her eyes for her lips and how much she had cried made him even softer and so plump that he had to resist the urge to kiss her.
She gulped down a down and took her eyes off his face, “Yes, a few streets away.” She sighed, “My Dad inherited one mansion in this area from his Uncle and he loved the house. He said it reminded him so much of his childhood and he brought us here sometimes to stay for the weekends and when we left to America and came here for holidays, we stayed here I think twice or thrice. I wanted to see something, there was a swing around here and I got bored, so I came out.” The look he was flashing her forced her to stop and she pouted her lips, giving him her best puppy eyes. She knew Jack wasn’t going to buy this expression, had it been it was Charles, he would only pinch her cheeks and tell her how angry he was at her for risking her life.
“And where’s is Charles? How could you come out at night and walk through these streets alone? Anna what is wrong with you? If you’ve eaten peanut and garlic that day and I haven’t said anything it isn’t because I don’t have what to say or I didn’t hurt you because you’re sick, no! I just let it be. What do you think would’ve happened if they had raped you?” He was screaming angrily, and she only closed her eyes because she wanted to see the way he looked angry, even though she had always seen him angry, but this was a different type of anger. Just when she had painted a new version of him in her heart, she didn’t want to change even a flick of an eye in his.
“I was bored, and Charles told me he has an appointment with his friend, and he went to see him? Maya has left, of course she would because she stays with her grandmother and the old woman needs her. What do you want me to do? Call Mom and have her nag my ears out? Or Julia, it’s only work matters and that will bore me even more. Then who? They’re the only people I have in my life.” She sounded sad at the end of the sentence, realizing how lonely her life had always been but if someone had asked her, she loved and enjoyed her life with the people she lived with now.
“Then you should’ve called...” He stopped himself before the words slipped off his tongue. What the hell did he try to say? She should’ve called him? Was he sick or mad or perhaps sympathy-gripped to be thinking of something that none of them could? Before she even asked him of what he was going to say, he changed the direction of their conversation, “Can you walk? Let’s get you back home.”
He tried to lift her off but when she stood to her feet, she had been damned scared to death that her whole body had gone weak and she only got the energy to talk after she had been hugged by Jack. Her knees began to go south and with one swift move, Jack scooped her into his arms, and he stared down at her face that was now resting on his chest. “Show me the directions of the house, okay?” She absentmindedly nodded her head because she couldn't’ believe what was happening to her now. No, she slowly shook her head, not just her, to them.
She kept on showing him the directions to move and when he ended that street, she would show him the next one. She got so carried away staring at him jaws, how chiseled his nose was and craftily created his whole face was. Had she never noticed that he was this handsome or she only got the heart to admit that he was now? Without wanting to, her eyes fixed themselves on his lips and she resisted the urge to add pressure to her arms that were around his neck until he leaned toward her and she would kiss him so hard to give herself a taste of him.
This was torture, she finally concluded even though she wasn’t able to take her eyes off his lips and she knew the kiss she wanted to have so bad with him will never happen and that made her even sadder. “Anna! Can’t you hear me? With lane are we taking now?” His words brought her back and she realized she had been staring for so long, fantasizing for too long.
Jack stared down at her and he realized she had been staring at him, no, not just him, but his lips. Their eyes met and she quickly took off her eyes from his face, but he knew that he wouldn’t just let this chance slip away from him. This was something that if he could be truthful with himself, he wanted to do since the day he met her in her hotel room, and she was in just a towel. “Anna...” He weakly whispered and she turned to look at him with the same expression on her face. “Which lane are we taking?” He tried to focus, on god he wanted so hard to focus on getting her safely back home, but it seemed as though destiny had a better plan for all of them.
“We’re taking this lane, and after a few feet, you’d see the mansion, it’s no 7,” she doubted if he heard what she had been saying because his eyes were firmly fixed on her lips and when she looked up into his eyes, their eyes met, and she was freaked to realized that his eyes had turned to bloodshot.
“Damn the consequences.” He muttered under his breath and took her lips the most passionate kiss Anna had ever felt in her whole life. She gasped out of shock, but it seemed as though Jack didn’t even know what was going on with her, because all he did was raced the pace of their kiss until Anna closed her eyes, tightened her hold around his neck and she kissed him back as equally as he had kissed her.