Hello! This was my entry for the Carlisle Uncovered contest. Thank you to everyone who read, reviewed and voted.
I have split the original story into short drabble-style chapters but the content is the same. I don't plan to expand this but I might add a chapter in the future.
Huge thanks to my beta Frannie and to May T Brown who created the beautiful banner. Thank you both so much!
Enjoy!
Tate Modern Museum, London
Tuesday 2.55pm
Bella
The chill of the air conditioner swept over the back of my neck as I shifted my weight to my left foot. I'd been standing in front of Rodin's sculpture for a few minutes and finally felt as if I'd seen something I could understand. The Tate Modern seemed to be a mismatch of genres and styles, and some of the art was too 'modern' for my taste. In fairness, it did advertise that fact right there in the name, but I was ordered to visit by my roommate, Rose. Seeing as entry to UK museums were free, it'd be exceptionally lazy on my part not to bother visiting.
I was in London on a Student Exchange visa for a year, with just over five months left. I loved it here although the weather was unpredictable as promised. We were experiencing what I hoped to be the start of summer, complete with a bit of sunshine. I even decided to wear a dress I bought just before leaving Arizona; a beautiful, emerald green sundress with wide straps and a set of pretty buttons running down the front. I had a sweater, sorry cardigan, too, I learned the hard way that the weather could quickly turn bad. quickly.
As I slowly walked towards the next exhibit, a gorgeous man, well over six feet tall entered the gallery. Not only was he drawing attention to himself by speed walking through the space, but he was the only person in the room wearing a thick coat.
Odd.
I turned back to the sculpture when I heard clipped footsteps approaching. As I moved, I felt who I thought was the same man, standing extremely close to me.
"I need your help. I need you to pretend to be my wife, and we need to leave immediately." He must have bent down to whisper as I could feel his warm breath along the back of my neck. I thought I'd become immune to the allure of a British accent, but his dropped straight to the pit of my stomach and smouldered there.
The contrast between his warm body and the air conditioner made me shiver as I processed what he had said to me. I turned my head to the side to look at his face. He had on a blue shirt with the top two buttons undone exposing his throat, his jaw was sharp and angular, like his cheekbones. His dark blonde hair was neatly parted on the side. He looked to be in his thirties, a good ten years my senior, but I stopped my perusal when my eyes meet his. They were a beautiful blue but looked wild and pleading. A movement at the entrance caught my eye and a huge guy wearing an ugly brown suit started walking through the room. I also noticed the earpiece blue eyes was wearing as his head turned away. That changed things. My instinct was telling me that he had to be a cop, and if he'd asked for assistance, it must've been pretty bad.
"The guy you're avoiding, does he look like Jabba the Hut in a brown polyester suit?" Blue eyes nodded but still looked a bit freaked.
"OK, I'll do it, I'm Bella, what am I supposed to be calling you" Knowing that he was probably not using his real name on this adventure.
"Um, Peter." I nodded and took a small step back, letting him know that the time to act had arrived.
"Darling, there you are, I've been looking everywhere for you." He said just loud enough for Jabba to hear. I saw him over blue eyes, or I suppose it was Peter's shoulder. Snapping my eyes back to Peter I rolled my eyes.
"Well if you'd listened to me when I told you to meet me at one in the sculpture exhibit, you wouldn't have had to run all over the building looking for me. I've been waiting here for ages. Why do you never listen to a word I say?" I turned on my heel and stomped toward the next exhibit, which led to the exit. I tried to stay in character and hope he would catch on and chase after me. It took him until I was about five steps away before I could hear him jog up behind me. He tried to wrap his arm around my waist, but I twisted out of his grip and continued my march. As we turned into the next exhibit, he bent down and hissed at me.
"What the hell was that?" I ignored him and strode out of the exit and into the afternoon sunshine. When we got a bit further from the door, I stopped.
"Look, I'm a child of divorce, you ask me to act married, this is what you get. You need him to believe we're married, do you know people who talk to each other like that who aren't married? Plus, you said we needed to leave immediately, oh look, we're outside." He looked around as though confirming that we were, indeed, outside.
I think he was slightly stunned. He suddenly frowned, turned his head and started hissing something.
"Hey, I know you're in radio contact with your office. I assume they can hear us, so you don't have to whisper." His eyes widened. I rolled mine in return.
"I spotted your earpiece when I saw Jabba over your shoulder, and I assumed you were a cop. I knew you wouldn't ask a civilian for help unless it was pretty dire. My dad's a cop back home. Also, you and Jabba were the only ones wearing coats in there, I'm assuming to hide all of the wiring and your gun." I smiled sweetly at him. I got the feeling I was really getting under his skin.
"Shut it." He hissed into his sleeve at whoever was listening to our very, one-sided conversation. This was kinda fun. His eyes started scanning the street where we had just been standing. Ahead of us, a large black SUV with tinted windows was approaching.
"Your ride is here," I said earning me another sharp look.
What, like it's a shock that the cops have a black SUV with dark windows? The car pulled up, and the side door slid open revealing three guys and a hell of a lot of computer equipment.
"Get in." Blue eyes growled at me. Well, that was pretty hot. But he'd distracted me.
"Hold up! Why do I have to go with you? I'm not involved in this." I said quickly.
"It won't take them long to review the CCTV footage and trace me into the museum and find out that I left with you. They'll think you are connected in some way and it won't take them long to find you in London. CCTV cameras are everywhere. Now get in." He prodded me forwards. Acknowledging the truth in his words and realizing I'd be a lot safer with these guys than on my own, I stepped into the van and sat down in the only available seat. Blue eyes followed, sliding the door shut and crouching on the floor and removing his coat as we sped forward.
"Hey, Bella. Thank you for the assist in there, I'm Jasper." A handsome guy a few years older than me spoke. He was surrounded by three laptops, computer equipment, and had a headset around his neck. I noticed the outline of our driver behind a tinted glass partition. I guessed it was bulletproof.
"No problem. Any chance you can drop me off somewhere unnoticed?"
"No. Now be quiet until we can figure out what the hell we're going to do with you." Blue eyes growled at me again. I wiggled slightly feeling ridiculously turned on.
"This is what happens when you get married, Jasper. He called me darling at first, but now all he does is yell." I let out a soft sigh frowning and then smirked at Jasper.
He laughed loudly as Mr. Blue Eyes started unbuttoning his shirt revealing a toned pale chest. He began pulling out cords and wires that had been taped to his skin. He then removed a small box clipped to the back of his pants. Well, blue eyes was hiding some serious abs under all of those layers. My panties were getting uncomfortably damp at the sight of his muscles extending as he moved. I watched unashamedly as he methodically removed all of the equipment then redid his buttons.
"Yes, well. Thank you for your assistance Miss -"
"Swan."
"Miss Swan. If you bear with us for a while, we'll see about getting you back home as soon as possible." He brushed me off so politely. It was the British trait that had taken the longest to get used to. They are so polite it's hard to tell when they're being rude.
"You're welcome Mr. -" I let the sentence hang.
"Cullen. Carlisle Cullen." He said it so seriously I didn't have the heart to mock him for sounding like James Bond.
It seemed like he took himself extremely seriously and I got the feeling he was embarrassed by whatever caused him to get me involved.
"Carlisle. I know what you're thinking, but I have to warn you, I've heard relationships based on intense experiences hardly ever last." I deadpanned. Carlisle kept the same tight expression, but his right eyebrow rose slightly.
Jasper laughed loudly again.
"Did you just quote Speed?" he grinned.
"See, Jasper got it. I love that movie! Keanu at his hottest. That and Point Break." I started thinking about Keanu for a moment before Carlisle cleared his throat. He was frowning at me again.
"So, what's the deal with Jabba the Hut?" I asked curiously. Jasper barked in laughter.
"We've-"
"Jasper!" Carlisle interrupted before he could say anything further. "That's classified, and we're just dropping her off as soon as you get the okay. So get on with it." His voice was controlled and didn't raise, but his words were clear. Jasper ducked back down into his laptops and started playing with the keys.
Suddenly, the car spun hard to the left in a seemingly never-ending circle. Jasper's laptops all collapsed onto him as well as about two hundred pounds of tech. I slid closer to his mountain of cables, but a strong arm looped around my waist and tugged me back into place.
Carlisle was crouched in front of me on the balls of his feet, one arm gripping the handle above the door and the other keeping me in my seat. His gaze assessed me for a second before he looked out of the back window. Even in the chaos of the moment, all my mind could concentrate on was how good he smelled. We seemed to glide for a moment before lurching to a stop, which snapped some sense back into me.
Carlisle immediately tugged me to the floor of the car and wedged me behind him as he opened the door. My knees felt the burn of the fuzzy carpet flooring, and Jasper righted his laptops, never slowing in his typing.
"Incoming." He barked concentrating on the screen, all signs of the jovial man now gone.
Reaching behind me his face stopped an inch from mine. My eyes darted between his bright eyes and his firm lips. I unconsciously leaned closer wondering what those lips would feel like. Now was not the moment, but my body must have missed the memo. He blinked and pulled his arm back with a gun in his hand. Twisting away from me he lithely jumped from the car and moved around it slowly. Jasper moved over and shut the door.
"Bulletproof." He murmured.
"What about Carlisle? He didn't even have a vest on." I cried.
"He doesn't need a vest. One of his sour looks and they'll turn to ash in mid-air. Although I hope the other guy isn't using American Eagles, I think he might have a soft spot for Yanks." He smirked.
"What's happening?" I asked choosing to ignore his comment.
"We had a tail gaining on us, so we pulled off the Main Streets into a quiet loading dock. Carlisle is doubling back to tie up any loose ends."
"You mean he's going to ..."
"Ha. No. This isn't America, or a Michael Bay film, we don't go around shooting suspects in the streets. Do you know how much paperwork you have to fill out if you discharge your weapon? No, there's an undercover car supporting us, and we've got eyes in the sky. We're hoping that we can pick the guys up with a uniformed officer for dangerous driving, so Carlisle's cover isn't blown, but he needs to look like he was going to retaliate." I opened my mouth and closed it again.
"Do you honestly believe America is full of police running around shooting people like it's the Wild West? My dad's a cop, and I think he's only ever fired his weapon in the line of duty a handful of times."
Jasper just shrugged. "Whatever you say, Annie Oakley."
I did laugh then. He was totally trying to bait me. Before I could respond, Carlisle slid open the door and climbed in shutting it behind him.
Without pausing, he gripped my hips and lifted me back into my seat then banged twice on the glass partition without saying a word. The car lurched forward, and we were off again into the traffic.
A/N
Let me know what you think!
AA (Arty Adventurer)
