Rouge

Rouge - Chapter Twenty-One

The vibration in her jeans pocket made Hunter jump as gunfire erupted unexpectedly from the television screen. Eli snickered at the fright it had given her and she elbowed him playfully, pulling out her phone.

“Joshua’s calling,” she explained, regretfully sliding out of his embrace and stepping into the kitchen. She feigned annoyance, but as soon as she turned her back, she felt the fire flare in anger.

“What?”

“It’s Joshua.”

She resisted the urge to snap back sarcastically. “What do you want?”

“Where are you?”

“At Eli’s. Why?”

His tone was completely emotionless, and it scared her that she couldn’t see what look was in his eyes. Lately, Joshua’s behavior had become unpredictable. He was a naturally strange and awkward man, but his personality had become almost bipolar; he over-reacted or sometimes didn’t react at all. Tonight was one of those nights where he pretended nothing was wrong, but inside his head a war was raging.

“I want you to come home,” he said. “Now.”

“Why, so we can train some more? So I can go crazy from boredom and isolation from people I actually care about?” ‘Person’ was more the appropriate word, but she didn’t tell him that. “Joshua, I’m far more capable than you think I am at being around people now, and I don’t know what it will take for me to prove that to you, but I’m with Eli and he’s not on fire, so I think I’ll hang around for a while, okay?”

She ended the call and slouched back into the living room where Eli sat waiting for her. The fire flickered angrily at Joshua’s unreasonable argument, but it didn’t want to get out just yet.

“Did he want you home?” Eli asked, lifting his arm and curling it around her as she snuggled into him again.

“He’s just wondering where I am. Don’t,” she said, resting a hand over his as he made to increase the volume. “I’m not really thinking about Harrison Ford anymore.”

“Are you sure the two of you are alright?”

“We’re … going through some stuff. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been seeing a lot of you or because he’s lonely, but Joshua’s become way more protective over me than he usually is. And he’s usually pretty protective.”

“It’s probably a parental issue.”

“No, I think it’s just a Joshua issue,” she sighed and fiddled with a tassel on the throw wrapped around her thighs. “He’s always been like that.”

She waited for Eli to ask more questions about the mystery that is Joshua, but instead a grin broke out on his face. “Are you hungry?”

She nodded, grateful for the subject change. Eli snatched her hand and dragged her back into the kitchen where he threw open the fridge dramatically and Hunter jumped up onto the bench, laughing.

“You know,” said Eli, glancing over his shoulder slyly. “I’ve always wanted to be a secret agent.”

Hunter raised an eyebrow. “Is that what you fantasize about at night, Mr. Bond?”

Eli pulled a plate of leftover casserole out of the fridge and stuck it in the microwave. “Oh it’s not a fantasy.” He spun like a cowboy with his hands pointed straight at her. “Pow! Pow!”

Hunter giggled loudly. Eli crossed the space between them and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her off the bench and swinging her around in circles. She squealed and slapped him until he let her gently to the floor and brought her into a kiss not unlike the one they shared under the shelter of Raoul’s restaurant weeks ago. One thing Hunter had learned about spending more and more time with Eli was that she could be herself – aside from the minute detail of having ‘special abilities’ – in a way that meant she wasn’t herself. Eli gently curled a hand around the back of her neck and drew her closer to him, surprising her with a kiss that sent her head spinning. She ran her hand up his back, feeling the soft texture of his T-shirt and the fit contours of his hip and shoulder blades. The fire responded hungrily inside her, begging her to get closer and release a passion from the core of her body where it hid away. She was losing herself in the moment again, as she so often did when she was around Eli. The only thing that would ever break them out of the embrace would be if –