I woke up the next morning curled up to Raizo. He was laying on his back with his arms bent behind his head. My arm bent on his bare chest, leg bent across his torso, knee on his hip bone, going down his thigh, foot a few inches above his knee and my head resting on one of his arms, facing him.
I cracked my eyes open and saw his smirking face.
"Comfortable?"
"Oh my gosh! I'm sorry!" I got up quickly and scooted away from him.
After an awkward silence, I asked "Can I take a shower?"
Raizo pointed to one of the bags, I grabbed it and walked into the small bathroom. One quick shower later, I got to thinking, while combing my hair and getting changed. What's going to happen from here on out? How long are we going to be hiding? What about money?
A few knocks brought me out of my worrying.
"Mika, others need to use the bathroom too."
I went outside and voiced my concerns.
"Well, we're set in money. How do you think I got this motel room? People pay really well when you save them from assassination attempts.
"I can't tell you what exactly is going to happen but my plan is to talk to the leaders of the clans and assure them my intention was not to bring all the clans down but to avenge a death. Possibly create a treaty or alliance. Interpol, I'm sure, can do the rest. As for the free ninjas, they're uncoordinated, unorganized, something I can handle. Once they're all dead-" then he paused and looked at me deeply before continuing, "you can go back to your life of research."
After that, he brushed by me, into the bathroom, quickly closed the door and turned the water on.
I sat down on the bed, thinking of the entire situation before recounting all the events that led to this. It's crazy to think that just a few months ago I sat behind a desk looking at paperwork all day, while now I'm on the run from ninjas with an incredibly handsome ninja, who I know nothing about.
That train of thought reminded me of this morning. Highly embarrassed, I covered my face with my hands.
I realized with a start, that I had a crush on Raizo, I started pacing. He can't like me that way, besides even if he did, this is the worst situation to start a relationship in. Add in the fact that he's had a lot of trauma and isn't the best at showing emotions.
Losing hope, I flopped back down on the bed and looked at the ceiling. Hearing the bathroom door open, I looked at Raizo and regretted it. His low slung jeans and gray wife beater tank top accentuated all his muscles, as soon as I realized I was staring, I shifted my gaze back to the ceiling.
Walking up to the bed he asked, "Still worrying?"
"Not really," it was true, I wasn't concerned about my safety but of my attraction towards him, "just hungry."
At that moment, thankfully, my stomach growled, proving my point.
"Well then, let's get going, I'm sure we can find something."
He grabbed his leather jacket, sunglasses, and his messenger bag as we were leaving.
We parked at a small diner a few streets away. He surprised me when he grabbed my hand and didn't let go as he led me in. He did do so once we were seated at a private booth in the back.
We ate our bacon and eggs in comfortable silence before leaving. Again, he grabbed my hand, outside the diner, I spotted the car and started walking towards it, when Raizo tugged my hand gently.
Confused, I turned towards him when he spoke, "I have a few errands first."
He led the way to a small building, it was a Chinese restaurant, and walked us straight to the back, into a dimly lit office with an older Asian man behind a fairly large desk.
"Ahh, your back, and with your girlfriend," he said while leering at me, "and may I say, she's even better looking in person."
With his free hand, Raizo opened his messenger bag and took out a small manila envelope, throwing it on the desk, redirecting the man's attention. "There's the second part of the money, where's my papers?"
"Right here," responded the man as he took out a larger envelope out of a desk drawer and handed it to Raizo.
Raizo put it in his messenger bag, then lifted our arms over my head, so our still linked hands rested on my left hip. My right arm ran across my chest ending on the front side of my hip, while his left arm ran across my back to where his hand rested on my hip. He put his free right hand on my other hip and turned me around before quickly stepping behind me, walking us back to the door, effectively cutting the view of my behind from the man. As we were leaving, he called out, "nice doing business with you, come again, and make sure to bring your gorgeous girlfriend with you."
Once outside the restaurant, Raizo took a step to the left of me, letting our hands fall from my hip to hang in front of his thighs while leaving his other hand on my hip.
I enjoyed holding hands this intimately with Raizo and tried to focus on the task at hand instead of letting my mind wander to fantasies.
I started forward to the car, when again Raizo stopped me. "One more errand and then we can go back to the motel."
He took me to the back door of an old abandoned warehouse, a short distance away.
He let go of me, which I didn't appreciate, to kick open the door, he put his hand on the small of my back and led me inside. He stopped and listened, hearing for intruders before closing the door and walking us further in into a big empty space in the middle of the floor.
The warehouse was lit by big windows on the top half of all the walls allowing us to see.
"What are we doing here?" I asked confusedly.
"I'm going to train and you are going to sit over there," he pointed to a dusty wooden cargo box ten feet away.
I sat down and watched as he took out different weapons and almost freaked me out when he took out a blindfold.
He turned to me before he put it on, "Don't move, you can get hurt or if something else happens, I want you close by."
I nodded and he tied on the blindfold. I watched mesmerized as he pulled incredible feats with his weapons and used his body to do his will with such agility, grace and skill.
I was ogling him again and felt as though he somehow knew it too, so I looked out the windows at the sky for the remainder of his training session.
When his sweaty, toned, hot self walked up to me, packed and ready to go, I said the first thing that came to my mind.
"It's not fair, you know."
"What's not fair?" he asked as he grabbed my hand and we left the warehouse.
"The fact that we're on the run and you still get an amazing workout while I just eat and get fat without any possibilities of a gym membership."
"You're ridiculous. Bodacious? Yes. Fat? Not even close. Besides, I don't train for the looks, it's necessary to keep us alive."
We arrived at the diner and got dinner, apparently training lasted a lot longer than I thought.
When we finally returned to the motel, Raizo took out the envelope and shook out its contents on the bed.
Passports, ID's, and driver's licenses with pictures and information about me and me fell out.
I picked up an ID with my picture and examined it, according to it, I was named Courtney Roberts, Raizo's name was Alexander Lee.
"How'd you get this picture?" I asked as I lifted the ID to face him.
He pulled a small picture of me, identical to the one in the ID, out of his jacket pocket. "I got this when they tried to kill you for the first time."
I looked at the items one more time before laughing, "You know it's funny having false papers after working for a big law enforcement agency like Europol."
Raizo smirked and shook his head at me before heading to the bathroom to change.
I went to bed after putting the items away and getting ready to rest.
I fell asleep on the opposite side of the bed from Raizo, on my side, with my back facing him, I knew he'd protect it in case of an emergency.
