Plot: Marcus Pike heads a highly efficient task force for many years now and his career is going up and up. She on the other hand is trying to organize her life from a trying ordeal when an unexpected event put her life on a spin again.

Character: Marcus Pike and female reader [For convenience's sake I gave her a name but feel free to change it]

CHAPTER 3

THE BOSS

Broad shoulders, with the eyes of a poet and the lips of an angel...

-Tessa

"They sublet it from me." Marcus tilts his head to include the bungalow. "I own this house."

Tessa's eyes went as wide as saucers, lips parting in surprise. "You?"

Marcus shrugs a little shyly, a dimple showing at the soft smirk. "Kinda."

It deepens the crease on her brow, "Ashley said they're also taking care of stuff from some expatri-" Marcus raised a hand with a small grin. "..ate. Oh, that's you."

"The one."

"So you own this house?"

"Yes, correct."

"You can't."

"Can't what?"

"Own a house."

Marcus reacted like the idea is preposterous, "I can."

"No, because that's stated in the…" Tessa's spate of confident sentences tapered into words and faded slowly. "Shit."

Marcus thinks he dropped his jaw on the floor for a whole minute. "Whoa! Where did that come from?"

Tessa looked shaken up as if she did something terribly wrong. "Nothing."

"That's amazing!" It was!

Tessa frowns. "What?"

"Where…how did you learn that?"

"On…on Google."

"Uh-huh." Marcus narrows skeptical eyes on her. "And you just happen to quote law articles on the spot?"

Tessa shrugs, the girl looks uncomfortable like she wanted to take her words back. "Its common knowledge..."

"Is it?" His question sounds teasing.

"Whatever." Tessa nods, daring him with a single raise of her brow. "Google it."

"Okay! I will!" He matches her sassiness in amusement, grinning. He kinda likes that attitude. "I'll let you off. For now." He teased.

"Fine." She shrugged then softly clears her throat. "Uh, so…back to what we were talking about. You can just tell me when to go and I'll go."

"Umm…actually…" Marcus got up, walk briefly to and fro ruffling his dark hair. "I've been thinking hard and… perhaps it's a good idea for you to stay…" Marcus turns at the gasp.

"I'm…I'm surprised." Her whispered 'thank you' was a tad raspy.

"You're surprised. Why?" He placed a hand on the back of the armchair, leaning on it, facing her.

"Umm, I got the impression that you don't…you didn't like that there's someone here."

"Well, this has never happened before, to tell the truth. But the blame is on me. I was so deep into my….uh," Marcus shakes his head, stops, frowns. Fuck! His fingers were suddenly restless, running them up and down on the smooth leather of the chair. "…my job that I, uh….didn't have time to, uh…to…to check on them…my friends, about the situation here." Shit, man! Where are those suave and smooth answers that you spit out so effortlessly?

"Oh I see. I know your type."

"What…what do you mean?" Get your agent face on!

"You're one of those workaholic types." Tessa points at him.

Guarded eyes suddenly changed. He didn't know he was holding his breath until a big laugh came from him. "Yes! Guilty as charged!" he gave her a thumbs up. "That's me!"

"It takes one to know one." She gave him another one those shrugs that he's finding such a turn on.

"You can stop worrying for a few months at least." he assured her in a soft voice. He could still hear in his head when she called her mom; how she sounded so alone and sad. He's so intrigued to know what circumstances brought her here….to this. With a soft sigh Marcus joins her on the other end of the couch, a leg crossed over his knee, "What's your arrangement with my friends?" He crosses his arms as he leans back.

"Well," Tessa turns slightly from her spot so she face him on the sofa, "I basically babysit the house until they come back. I love this arrangement because I can also teach at the same time. I just need to pay for water, power and internet…"

"What? Forget it." Marcus made a dismissing gesture, "I'll take care of it…"

She blinks her surprise. "Uh…thank you…again. It's great to hear that but…"

"I've decided." He suddenly snorted wherein he added an eye roll, "I don't get you. I'd expect you to break into a big smile but instead I hear a 'but'…." Marcus shakes his head in disbelief, his chuckle rumbling in that corner of the living room.

"Marcus?" The way his name rolls in her voice is lovely in his ears. "Why the change of mind?"

He scoots down further from the sofa until the top of the couch cradles the back of his head; it feels good. "My friends are right; the house just cannot be left in the care of the cleaner. Did you know we have a cleaner who comes once a week?" his eyes moves to her.

"Yes. Uh, she comes Saturday mornings, right?"

"Right. You need to supervise her. Can you do that?"

"Yes, that's no problem."

"And…I wanna know, what time do you work?" He feels happier by the minute after he hears her schedule. "Perfect."

"May I ask a question?"

"Shoot." He waits but she looks hesitant.

"I hope it doesn't offend you…"

"Just ask away. I won't bite." Tessa smiled at his wink.

"How often…are you here?"

"I've no specific schedule like I said. I usually swoop by, see Mike and family, spend a few days somewhere nice in the country and then I'm off again. I like this place."

"Why?"

"I feel at home here. This feels more home than at home, do you know what I mean?" Tessa gave a shrug that he found attractive. His smile softens.

"Home…that would be nice…" she whispers very low with longing in her voice. She smiles as Marcus continues as she leans to the couch.

"I love the weather, the food, the beaches…my God! The beaches are fantastic! White sand and I like the culture…shit!" Marcus laughs, a little embarrassed. "This is what happens when I get started."

"It's okay…"

"Do you like traveling?"

"I do, but it's been seven years since my last vacation."

"That's too bad. This is a beautiful country."

"Well, that's my life." For a moment her face saddens but she shrugs it aside as she straightens up. "I hate to be a buzz killer but I just want to make sure that this arrangement is okay with you?"

"Yeah. It's my fault that this fuck up happened. Besides, I trust my friends. They handpicked you, so…" the man nods with finality. "You stay." He finished with a shrug his gaze lingered on her.

"Uh, by the way, "Tessa clears her somewhat dry throat, "they left me this…" She held out something she took from the pocket of her wide skirt.

Without stirring much from his comfy spot Marcus reaches across the sofa with a big query in his eyes. He counted the paper bills in the unsealed envelope. "What's this?" he flipped the envelope over where the amount has been written on it.

"It's money for the gardener. That's how much we pay for the service." Tessa leaned over pointing to another amount on the envelope. "You can take care of it."

"You know what?" Marcus reached out and placed the envelope back in Tessa's hand. "I'd feel better if you handle it. I trust you with it too."

"Oh, okay." Tessa nods and shrugs. "Thank you." Marcus gave her a smile as she slid her hand out of his.

He looks on as she puts the envelope back in her pocket concerned and worried for Tessa. She has dark circles under her eyes that the light makeup cannot thoroughly hide. Marcus notices how her forehead and lips tense up and then smoothens imperceptibly. Her nice hands are at times balled up, hidden under her other hand. He wanted to ask what's she tense about but she might close up on him again. I must be patient. "Shit, did you pack everything back?"

"Uh, no, just my clothes. I was hoping you'd let me stay for a few days so I just kept some items out."

"Hey, unpack and relax! I'm here if you need help on setting up."

Well, he's being friendly and all. "Okay." She relented. "Uh, I think I do. I need some help moving some boxes…"

"Yes! Show me." Marcus stands up and holds out his hand, a brow up. "Come on." The hand beckons. The smile is charming.

"Uh, but…but I … I mean tomorrow!" She kept looking at his hand. His eyes crinkle nicely as he chuckles.

"I got news for you: Tomorrow is today." He shows her the time on his left wrist; an expensive looking silver watch with navy blue face.

She finally took his waiting hand; it encompassed hers and his grip was firm and warm. "But shouldn't you be asleep?"

"Tessa, I'm not Jake!" Marcus's cheek dimples at the smirk, "… and I couldn't sleep anyway." He tucks his hands in his pockets again when she let it go and he leads Tessa back to Mike's office; now officially her room for the duration of her job as caretaker. "Tessa?" She's pursing her lips again.

"Uh, yes?"

There's that guarded look in her eyes again. "I hope you'll be happy here."

Tessa gave him a relieved but shaky smile. "Thank you, I hope so too." The deep breath she took looks strained.

"Why did you choose this room?" he nods to the door after a little struggle on his part to stop staring at her.

"The room has a desk and I need an extra desk."

"But it's not that roomy. You can use Mike and Ashley's."

"No. I don't want to do that."

"It's a bigger room." He insists.

"It's their room." She gave him an expression then looked away quickly. "You know…"

Then he realized what she means. "Oh! Gotcha! Here." Curious, she follows a few steps where he beckons. "How about Jake's?"

"No." she shakes her head. "That's his room."

"What? So what if there's no Mike's office? Where would you sleep?"

"The couch."

"The couch? That's not comfortable!"

"I'm usually teaching. The dining area can be my teaching area and there's a guest bathroom there. Besides, I sleep very late."

His hand came up to scratch his nape. "There are four rooms in this house."

"Really?" Her brows rise as she looks around his shoulder for the fourth room. "I thought there were only three."

"The fourth is mine." He inclined his head to the left side of the house. Her eyes became guarded all of a sudden. Fuck! What the hell was that? Did I overstep?

The way he said 'mine' gave Tessa mild goosebumps on her arms and it's weird that her knees wanted to buckle a bit. What the heck? And why isn't it I couldn't look at those brown eyes? "Oh, so that's why she didn't mention it."

"I only use it when I'm here." The man turns the knob of the office and pushes the door open. "Tessa?" he asks when he notices that she hung back by the door, the cardigan wrapped around her.

"Nothing." Tessa whispers. The truth is though it was great that she wouldn't be homeless or desperate for the next several months she hasn't shaken that feeling of waiting for the other shoe to fall.

"Tell me what mountain you want moved and I'll move it for you." Marcus enters the room rolling up his sleeves displaying well-toned arms.

Damn it. Tessa tucks her hair behind an ear. "These are the ones that need stowing away." There are two big white semi-transparent plastic boxes, one large black plastic box and three smaller ones. She opens the cabinets by the window.

"Which one do you want below?" Marcus raised a brow when she just stood there looking at him. "What?"

"I'm…I'm not finished yet." She shrugs as she looks around at the various items she was organizing on the bed and on the L-shaped desk, "Much earlier I was just prepping the boxes so when I'm done I was just gonna…." She motions with her hands with additional body language.

"Struggle with it." He feels better that Tessa is a little more relaxed around him.

She snorts. "'Push' is the word that I'm gonna use."

Marcus bends down to the boxes that were all labeled and with a list of items that were taped on the side. "You're impressively organized."

"Right." She rolls her eyes. "But I was caught off guard when Shirley told me about this and I only had a few days to put everything back."

"What's 'LB' mean?" His finger rests on the bullet point list on one of the boxes.

"Uh…'loved books'"

"'Loved books'?"

"Which means I love those books. It's what it says." She shrugs.

"Hmm, okay. What genre?"

"What?"

"Romance, sci-fi, political, erotica…"

"Political and…and sci-fi too."

"Can I borrow one?"

"Borrow what?"

"The political books."

"Uh, no. They're not for loan. Sorry." Tessa looks around the room, "I guess that's it." Marcus picks up one of the bins Tessa points that will go at the bottom. "I can push it over it's just…." She stops when she saw he was amused. "You don't have to do this." She now noticed that, like her, he changed clothes. The white dress shirt and slacks looks good on him.

"I don't mind." When the final box has been quickly stowed he pushed the cabinet close.

"Thank you." She removes and tosses her gray cardigan on the pillow. With a sigh she goes back to her task of putting the rest of the items to the right bins. After she locked the cover she stacks them then sits on the bed. "Honestly, I wanted to do this tomorrow," She shrugs at his questioning look, "It's hard for me to sleep in a strange house."

"Oh." Marcus was surprised. "I see."

"I know I'm just gonna lay there even when I'm tired. I'm like this especially on the first night."

Marcus picks one of the hand puppets from the smaller bin, one of the teaching tools that she uses but his hand couldn't go past the sleeve. The man look amused. "And I'm trying to sleep too but I can't." He returns the puppet to its other buddies in the bin.

"You too?" She sighs in understanding.

"No, this is the first time to happen to me." Marcus leans against the sill of the window, arms crossed. A light breeze keeps the room cool. "So what do you do when you're wide awake as an owl?" Marcus nods back to her.

"I sing…no." Her face fell. "You heard me singing…." Tessa covers her pink cheeks with both hands.

The man smiles, "So? You have a nice voice."

"I sing and do crafting…" She looks tired but Tessa got up and shuffled some placards printed with animals and alphabets and arranged them in a file organizer by her laptop, "When I want to 'remove my stress', that's how my students say it."

"I have a confession." He follows her with his eyes as Tess arranges her teaching paraphernalia within reach.

"Oh." She took a zip lock bag from a bin which curiously contains some medical items. "Really? We're trading confessions already?"

"I can't sing."

"Hmm, we'll see. Shy?" The colorful tongue depressors went in a tin can that may have started its life as a milk can but is now découpage and decorated.

"I'm terrified." Marcus looks on curiously as her office/teaching area is assembled before his eyes.

"Why?"

"I…I don't like people looking at me when I sing." Marcus gave his head a scratch.

"We'll do Karaoke. You'll love it."

"No. No." he begins chuckling nervously. "Anything but singing!"

"Not to brag but I have a superb playlist." Tessa went to one of her boxes she kept out.

"What? What are you doing?" Marcus frowns when she held out the black CD case, pushed it in his hand when he didn't take it.

"That's what we need to do!"

"No." he shook his head as if he was about to be put to death.

"Yes."

Marcus looks at the case with trepidation. "Tessa, it's almost 2 a.m!"

"We won't use a microphone." She rolled her eyes. "It's a vacant lot on this side." She points to the window as she takes her laptop. "Behind us is the other house's garage." She's like a whirlwind; she got a folding laptop table and set it up on the bed and placed the laptop on top of it. "No one can hear us!"

"Why don't we watch a movie instead?" Marcus racked his brain to delay the inevitable.

The man looked like he'd rather put his hands in a bucket of scorpions. "You're really scared…." She said with wonder.

"I…uh, I need an extensive preparation before you hear my voice."

"Oh?"

"Yes. And you have to pay me to listen to me sing." He liked her laughter. It was full and genuine.

"Oh my God!" she theatrically covered her mouth. "Are you one of those famous singers?"

He nods seriously, "This is a secret. No one must know it."

"Fine. I'll keep your secret." She sits on the bed, near its end so her back leans against the wall.

"Oh, thank you. I lack confidence in singing."

"You seem to be a very confident person." Tessa gave him a quick glance as she hands him the other CD case. She opens the other one and flips through her movie collection.

"Appearances can be deceiving."

"Really?" She looks back at him again. "You look like the kind of person no one would like to cross." Then she shrugs, "Or something like that."

"No way!" Marcus laughs but he's racking his brain again for… "I'm a kitten."

"As in tiger cub or lion cub?"

"Why choose the ferocious cats?" he spread his arms. "Why not just a regular house cat?"

"It doesn't match you."

"Nope, I'm a house cat."

"Aloof and bites when touched?"

"Are you a cat person?" Marcus looks at the CD Tessa holds up for his approval. He shook his head. "Another one."

"Yes, and you?"

"I like dogs."

"We had four dogs when I was a kid."

"Really!"

"Not at the same time, though. They're more my aunt's dogs."

"Your aunts?"

"Oh, I was raised by my dad's sisters."

"Why?"

"They said I was a sickly baby and grandma decided that living in the countryside isn't good for me."

"Oh!" Marcus took a look at the CD she held up. "Ahh… I'm not into rom-coms. So how did your mom take it?"

"For some reason mom doesn't talk much about that. Hold on, I showed you about seven different genres and you turned them all down!"

"You didn't have what I like!"

"Well, what do you like?"

"Casablanca, Breakfast at Tiffany's..."

"Casa… you're an old soul. Nevermind! Let's not watch a movie. Let's just sing!" she grabs the other CD case with the CD songs.

Marcus panicked and almost dived to get there before Tessa does, she was faster but he snatched the case away from her hand. "Okay! Let's not fight over it. How about you pick?"

"I get to pick the movie?" Tessa shakes her head fighting to stop herself from laughing.

"Yes, ma'am." Marcus was a little out of breath as he kneels at the end of the bed. "What's your pleasure?"

"Kill Bill."

"Oh, my fucking yes!" Marcus raised his clenched fists in the air. "Let's watch all of it!" Marcus was so relieved that there will be no singing involved. Though Tessa was so amused at him he did not hide his relief. He stood and sits beside her, the laptop table between them.

"Movie it is. No porn!" she held up a finger, mock glaring at him.

He was so shocked that his jaw fell open that those words came from her mouth. Suddenly there was this strange feeling that came from deep in the man. He couldn't help it when a great big laugh just burst out. Tessa looks at Marcus with a smile as she zips close the CD case then she started giggling at first then a chuckle and soon both of them were laughing hard! The bed started bouncing. They looked at each other and both went laughing again. "Porn!"

"Stop. Stop! I can't…I can't…" Tessa holds her middle, eyes wet from laughter.

Marcus blurted, "You sound like porn!"

"Stop! Enough!"

-o0o—