April breathed heavily against the wall. Julian had walked away from her. He now was walking ahead of her. Seemingly unaffected by what had just happened between them. It was hard for her to regain composure. The wind was knocked out of her. Okay, April, just act like it didn't happen. I mean that is what he is doing right? He doesn't even want to talk about what happened. Most likely he figures I won't go past the whole kissing phase. How does he know that I would not do something beyond kissing? I've gone farther than that.
Oh, who am I kidding? Julian is experienced. He has probably been with more women than he can count on both of his hands, probably times four, but hell, who cares? Nothing happened. Nothing. At least that is how I have to act.
Taking a deep breath, April picked up the shopping bags that she had dropped earlier, smoothed out the light blue sundress dress Julian had picked out for her and began walking. Julian was still a good three paces in front of her. She pretended to be entranced by the display in the window of a Prada boutique. In a normal state of mind, she would have completely disregarded the extravagance of spending $100 dollars on a tank top, but right now she had to be Annie Marquette. And according to the persona of Annie Marquette, Annie Marquette liked this kind of stuff.
"Annie, what you doing?" Without noticing, Julian had come back and was now looking over her shoulder. April was a little shocked by his sudden appearance.
She shivered slightly. Now she was beginning to become uncomfortable. "Nothing, just looking."
"Well, love, we need to get going if we are going to get back to the hotel before our flight leaves," he said, with almost a slight undertone of iritance in his voice. He didn't like how she was pointlessly looking in a window display. That type of wastefulness annoyed him.
"Okay," she said, succumbing to his suggestion that she knew did not take on the full meaning of what a suggestion is.
Four hours later Julian and April landed at Heathrow Airport in London. April did not know exactly why London was chosen as their destination. She understood that the masquerade they had been playing had placed the fictional couple of Andrew and Annie Marquette in London, but there are a million of obscure places in the world that the Covenant could possibly never find them in. But for some particular reason they were in London.
April had been to London numerous times before. Once a month her boarding school, that she attended from when she was ten to eighteen, had a field trip to the city. She liked London. Perhaps the one thing that she didn't like was the weather. It was always overcast and clouds were always in the sky. April definitely preferred sunny weather, but the city of London was still one of her favorite places in the world.
Julian had hailed a taxicab to take them to what she supposed would be a residence of his. When she stepped onto the sidewalk in front of the flat that Julian owned, memories came flooding back to her: times of when she was in school and when her father would make a special visit to London to coincide with her school field trip. So many memories that now would be tainted now because her new residence with her kidnapper was here.
"April! Wake up!" Sark was waving his hand in front of her face trying to get her out of a daze that she was in.
"What?" April said absentmindedly.
"Come on," he ushered.
"I'm coming. I'm coming." She hated when people rushed her. Now she would take her merry old time going through the entrance to the building.
As April stepped inside, she realized why Julian Sark liked this place and had taken her here. What she thought would be just an apartment, was an entire residence, like a townhouse. From what she could see, she thought that there were three floors. There were stairs immediately to her right as she entered the house. Then straight ahead there looked to be a kitchen, but before April had a chance to investigate, Julian was holding her by the arm.
"What are you doing that for?" April commented to his holding of her arm.
"I'm taking you to where you will be staying for a short time."
"Another room which should be referred as a holding cell," she said as he directed her up towards the stairs.
"If you want to put a pessimistic spin on it, then you can call it that."
"Great," April muttered under her breath.
They reached the second floor and Julian pulled a key out of his pocket and unlocked the door of the second room that April saw. I bet this room can only be locked from the outside, April thought.
"The answer to the question that you are thinking right now is yes. This room can only be opened from the outside." Sark could not help but saying that. He knew that that was what she was thinking.
"Actually it was more of a conjecture than a question in my head." April wanted to smack herself for saying that. She could not let him have the last word.
Sark inwardly laughed at her attempt to try and make herself seem less intimidated by the situation.
The door opened and revealed a room beautifully decorated and April stipulated that he did not design this room. The room was what in her heart April would call a dream bedroom. The walls were light blue and the bed had a white bedspread and the rest of the furnishings were white also: nightstand, dresser, closet. If this room had different circumstances surrounding it, April would have loved it. But considering what was happening right now, she loathed it.
"Do you like it?" Sark asked sarcastically.
"No," April said plainly.
"Well, you have no other place to stay so this will have to do." He hated the way she was acting. She definitely was beginning to get on his nerves. It was almost as annoying as the way she was on the plane, giving him the silent treatment.
"Actually I do have another place to stay," April retorted, putting her head to one side with her arms crossed, across her chest.
"Really and where could that be?"
"Where do you think? Home, where my parents are. The people that you kidnapped me from!"
"Don't do this April," Julian said calmly.
"Do what? Start to have a mental breakdown? Because I am this close to going haywire and you can't do anything about it. Actually you can. You can stop this whole kidnapping me thing and just bring me back to my parents!" April said, losing her breath. April was melting. Melting into a mess. She hated the feeling that she had no control.
"April..."
She cut him off, "Stop right there! Do not try to calm me down. I can't take this anymore. I want to go home. I just want to go home," April pleaded. The last sentence trailed and was muffled because of the tears that April was starting to shed.
Being insensitive, Sark persisted with what he was going to say, "April what home? You spend nine months out of the year at a college in South Africa and you only see your parents once during that time period. Then you spend your summer jet setting around the world to exotic places with you mother and father, who you hardly see during that time period, because they are busy with their own lives."
"Oh no. Don't start criticizing the only family I have. Look in mirror sweetie. You destroy people's lives for a living! You seem like you have no emotional attachments or any care to, as evidence of earlier today." April wiped her tears away from her face.
"Is that what this is about? What happened earlier when I kissed you?"
"Don't turn this around. You know very well what this is about."
"Yes," Sark was beginning to put his cool exterior on again. He was starting to cover up the way he felt. "It is about me kissing you."
"Well you obviously seem to want to talk about that, so lets. What the hell was that you pulled today? Do you want to mess with me even more than you already are? Do you want to confuse me beyond anything that is humanly possible?"
"Oh sure. I just want to complicate the situation, is that it?"
"Yes you do. You thrive off of inflicting pain on other people. You can't seem to get enough of it. All you want to do is drive me crazy!"
Her thoughts were getting to him. He didn't want her to think that the point behind kissing her was to make her mad or confused. "No. I only wanted to see what it was like to kiss you," Julian said simply. That what it was: simple, nothing more, nothing less. All he wanted to do was see what it was like kissing her.
April took a deep breath at this new revelation. Breathlessly, she mustered to say, "You only wanted to kiss me?"
"Yes. I can't hold myself back anymore."
Before April had a chance to respond, his mouth was on hers again. Continuing only what they had started earlier.