Chapter 10
–
He finished preparing himself for the Ambassadorship of Europe. He realized with clarity that it was complex, that was obvious enough from the outset, but he hadn't realized that the issues he would be facing now were ones he had known about for quite some time. He was after all not only a Global Citizen, but his homeland was Europe and the issues hadn't changed much in the last seven years. They were the same issues his parents had wrangled with. The only thing he had to do was catch up on the latests and that was quickly done.
"We're leaving now?" Serenity asked, coming in the room, looking as adorable as ever. Her words though were calm, as he had only seen her before twice. The two times before he knew her occupations.
"Someone here?" He asked, catching on to her strange attitude. She grinned at him sheepishly. "Who?"
"The man you're replacing."
"Ah." Endymion nodded, he had been expecting him but not until later today. "Send him in."
"You do realize it is already four, right?" Serenity arched a blond brow and he glanced at his wrist in mild surprise.
"So it is." He had been distracted finalizing his plans. The only thing he hadn't missed was the fact that Serenity and Jeb were no where to be seen, all day. Zed had the day off, so he knew Serenity wasn't at her shoots or working on her lines. The public duty was off her radar today. Wherever she and Jeb had gone, today had been personal for them. He didn't give any indication that he was pleased to see her now. "Did you do what you needed to?" She looked confused at him and he gestured towards where she was. "With Jeb." He clarified, as if she knew that he was talking about her time away.
She hesitated a moment, shifting through what he said and what her answer should be and then she smiled wryly. "I guess you could say that."
Endymion nodded. "Show him in." Serenity's head ducked back out again and this time it was Nic showing the old ambassador into the room. Serenity was probably off pouting somewhere that as his 'girlfriend' she didn't show in anyone. Though she didn't give any indication about that when she came in later, after the ambassador left. The meeting had been uneventful, just a few key things the old one thought were important pearls of wisdom and a few actually were. Tomorrow they'd go to a ceremony where the old one would step down and Endymion would step up. At least all of it would appear so officially as he was already acting as his title declared.
Serenity was actually a little bemused when she came back in. "What is happening?"
"Seems Kai will be having the night off as well." She chuckled. "Someone very important is in town for the night and he's going to be spending his time there."
"Anyone in particular?"
"Very particular." Serenity agreed, but she would say no more on the subject. Well, mostly. "Perks of my job, it gets them in touching distance of all sorts."
"Just them?" Endymion questioned casually, not wanting to appear interested in this line of topic. "What about you?"
"Oh. Well I do meet all sorts, but mostly they're clients and I never mix that, company policy and one of my own little rules." She shrugged deliciously. "Though..." She never finished her thought, her thought causing a short devilish laugh in its place.
Endymion looked at her, wanting to ask but history taught him never to ask a woman for details when she laughed like that. It usually got him into trouble. Instead he asked about who would be left. "Just you, Jeb and Nic then for the night?"
"Well... yeah." She was going to say something else again and then quickly changed her mind. "Want to go out tonight?" She asked batting her eyelashes and he couldn't find it in his heart to say no.
–
They ended up at a random pub and drinking. Though Jeb and Nic sipped on water while Serenity and him had a drinking competition. Somehow she was winning. "No more shots!" He protested.
"Ok, want to dance instead?" She rose to her feet lithely and held out her hand. There was some music playing but no one was dancing.
"This isn't a disco." Endymion tried to ignore her hand but she jiggled it in front of him and he sighed and took her offered hand, letting her pull him to his feet. He tipped a little and Jeb offered him a hand. Endymion glared at the offending object before pulling Serenity closer to him. He wasn't drunk, per se... though everyone else probably thought he was.
The music wasn't really meant to be danced so close or at least not like they were, but Serenity didn't offer a protest. She only wrapped her arms around his neck and went at his pace, a secretive smile upon her lips. He knew exactly what he wanted to be on her lips, his. But he knew the last time he tried while drinking she'd side-stepped him and they had, well actually he had an awkward morning, she was probably used to it.
Just then a flash went off in his face and he lifted his head to utter a curse. Another flash, followed by two more. "Bloody paps." He dragged Serenity closer to him in an effort to protect, but she only turned around in his arms and leaned back against his chest, her hands lying over his. She smiled serenely to the press. Jeb and Nic were working on moving them off but they weren't trying too hard. Then something clicked in Endymion's brain. He scowled down at Serenity. "You set this up, didn't you?"
She glanced up at him innocently, her eyes batting too slowly to be natural and he knew he was right. He let go of her, grumbling as he did so. "Endy?" She protested his distance and came after him, reaching for him and giving him a questioning look.
He never knew when she was being real and when she was posing for the cameras. Everything she did was planned. "I want to go home." He snatched his arm back from her. "I'm sick of these photo shoots. If that's what you want, you do it, but stop dragging me into this! You've known since the moment we got together that this exactly what I hate about being well-known!" His words, though not intentionally following their cover story somehow still fit.
Serenity scrambled after him as he stormed out of the pub, Nic already out ahead of him and Jeb following Serenity. "Endy!" She had to jog to keep up with him and the press were snapping pictures away the entire time. He knew that the headlines tomorrow would be anything but pleasant. She gripped his arm and pulled him back to her. "Please stop!" There was a plead to her voice he wasn't used to and when he looked into her eyes he sucked in a breath. They really were trying to get him to calm down, he knew this wasn't a ploy. So he stopped and waited to see what she'd do. "I'm sorry." She began, head bowed, not sure what to say, or at least that's what he thought. "It's part of me and my life. I'll work on keeping it to a minimum and warning you if I suspect-" She lifted her head and he fell for it. He probably would have regretted it later on, but for now, he believed her.
Serenity looked behind her for a second, looking desperate and then she turned back to him, pulled him by his lapels, making him bend almost in half to reach her eye level and then her lips were pressing hard against his. He didn't know what to do for a moment, he was still cooling off and she was causing him to heat up again. But that moment didn't last long and his hands were on her shoulders, but instead of pushing her away, he was pulling her closer. His hands molded over her shoulders, feeling just how small and delicate she was. One hand slipped down her back and in the center of it pushed her towards him. His hand started going lower to the center of her back but before he could touch anything inappropriate a cat-call, or rather several, from the press had him realizing that he was in a public place and with people more than happy to record everything that transpired. The idea that this wasn't just between them anymore cooled him faster than any images he could pull up could.
He didn't want Serenity subject to this, even if she was used to it. Anything they did, that was purely for themselves and it was private. He dragged his lips away from her tempting ones and encircled her into a one arm embrace. He heard the motor behind him and knew the car had pulled up. He opened the door and held it open for Serenity and then followed her in. Jeb got in after them, Nic behind the wheel.
The door closed and they were heading home. Endymion went to pull Serenity into his embrace again, at least hold her, but she was sitting on the other side with Jeb and they were conversing quietly. That made him realize that now was not the time to drag this out and talk about it. He leaned his head against the seat and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, they were in his garage and the motor was cut. Serenity was out of the car and Jeb was waiting for him to wake up. Endymion realized Jeb was trying to wake him. Endymion unfurled himself from the car and followed the man up to the mansion.
Endymion looked around as they walked but Nic and Serenity weren't anywhere to be seen. "Where-"
"Sere went to bed." Jeb cut his question off with no humor in his tone, very different than the man he generally dealt with. It did not broke further conversation.
"What about Nic?"
"He took her there." Jeb's lips thinned until they were almost white. "She was unable to walk properly." Endymion wondered if that was supposed to be a hint of some sort. At any rate, Jeb was not pleased that Serenity had acted that way in public and probably wasn't pleased that it was with Endymion and not him. Jeb had to have a really good control over his jealousy to allow his girlfriend to pretend to be dating other men all the time.
Once they were inside, Jeb walked away from him and Endymion went up the stairs that would take him to his room. He didn't bother changing, just undressed to his boxers and slipped into bed. He was asleep a lot later than he would have suspected with how much he had to drink and how late the hour was. Sleep did not come easily for the second time. Too much was on his mind.
–
The next morning he found that nobody was around. He almost thought that he had dreamed the whole situation until he walked into the kitchen and found Serenity curled up onto the couch that also occupied the space. She was drinking a coffee, something he wouldn't think she needed on a normal day but she was sipping it and reading the newspaper.
"Anything good?" He asked, he wasn't used to getting a Saturday paper, the Sunday edition the only one that he bothered to look at and only for the things he couldn't follow regularly. He didn't know where to begin with Serenity today and she glanced only momentarily at him before throwing a stack of papers, headlines, from all sorts of different news publishers onto the table in front of him. They were all face up and he slid them around so he could see all at once.
An uncomfortable squeezing sensation took over his gut as he looked at the order. It had them dancing in the pub. "Lovers out for a Drink." The title read. The next one had them arguing. "Are They on the Rocks?" "Lovers Spat." "Break Up Eminent." "Ambassador and Icon in Dangerous Waters!" Were just four of the ones about the fight. Then front and center on his favorite newspaper was a picture that took up the entire top of the oblong paper. It depicted the "Kiss." Endymion scanned the title. "Endynity Share First Captured Kiss." It was a full on lip lock and both parties seemed to be enjoying it thoroughly.
"Cute name meshing." Endymion commented perusing the rest of the article. It talked about how things started well that night, they had hit a rough patch and then all but made up for their lack of public outings in one go as they shared the first kiss a photographer was able to capture. It wasn't speculated that it was the first kiss ever, just the first one the stodgy Ambassador and fun-loving Icon had shared where someone was able to catch one. Their control had 'slipped' for a brief moment.
Serenity wasn't talking to him, just reading the rest of her paper. He hadn't realized that this was something she did. He tried for another angle. "They captured my good side." He teased and she tossed back the rest of her coffee. He winced at the idea of her scalding her throat. When she rose to her feet and rinsed her cup out, he followed her with his eyes. "Ready for round two?"
She whirled on him. "That wasn't supposed to happen last night! I was just going to give you a quick peck to get the vultures off our back but then you had to go and make it a huge thing!"
"That was not a quick peck!" Endymion gestured towards the picture. "I don't know where you learned that smashing your lips against someone else's and holding them there is a peck! What do you mean it was for them?"
"That's all it was!" She snapped. "It was a publicity stunt, nothing more! So don't think for one second that we're going to have a repeat of last night!"
"Do you ever get tired of this?" Endymion was getting angry. He had thought that maybe last night he had finally chipped into her steely resolve to keep him a hundred feet away. Especially because now he knew that she felt the attraction as well, no matter how she tried to hide it.
"Get tired of what?"
"This! All the lies, all the deceit! Can't you be honest for one moment in your life? I never know which way is up with you! One time you tell me its this way and the next its that. I am a good read on people, I know when they're lying but you- it's like you're lying about lying!"
She took a deep steadying breath and a step away. "I already told you, I don't get involved with clients, its a rule I have. Anything I might do in front of the press it is completely thought out. It doesn't mean anything. I thought you knew that when I told you about my job! I'm sorry if you've gotten emotionally involved and are confused. That wasn't my intention. But there is nothing between us, so don't you dare think you can hint towards it at all. Our relationship is purely professional but we both have to be actors in front of the proverbial camera."
Endymion felt a scowl slip upon his features. "Stay away from me." The tone was low and dark, just daring her to breech the line he just drew in the sand. "I want you to physically stay away. If you think that this is the best way to go about being a bodyguard, well then, I have to tell you that you're crossing the line far too often. You are a heartless shrew and I'd rather not see your face at all."
"You can't just get rid of me." Serenity warned.
"Watch me."
Endymion stormed away from Serenity and slammed the door shut in his study. He grabbed up the phone and dialed Andrew. "You have to fire her. She's mentally unstable!"
The man on the other end just laughed. "What did you do now?"