Hide and Seek: Married to My Master Part 2

8. Aria

Rurik and I locked eyes.

He looked a little worried, and a lot frustrated. After a few seconds, someone knocked again. Rurik sighed and eased off of me. I tried to hide my immense relief as he began to put his clothes back on.

He was like a different person just now.

I know people always warn you to watch out for the quiet ones, but Jesus. I'd only ever known him to be gentle, patient, and now lovingly protective. Now I wondered if he exhibited such flawless self-restraint outside of the bedroom...But then held absolutely nothing back in the sheets.

I think I'd assumed that he would let me take charge and go at a pace I was comfortable with. Alessandro had never let me lead, unless he ordered me to. I didn't even get a say in whether we were going to have sex or not. An hour ago, I was completely positive that Rurik would never be like that; he was meek, mild, and probably enjoyed sweet, vanilla sex.

...Now I had my doubts.

I quickly pulled my clothes on and followed Rurik to the front door. We both paused to look at the security camera monitor.

It was...a man. A tall, blonde man I had never seen before, dressed in a t shirt and exercise shorts. I had no idea why he'd be knocking on my door at like 8 PM. Rurik and I exchanged a confused glance, and I shrugged my shoulders. Rurik's jaw clenched.

"Stay behind me, Malia." He warned gruffly. I shifted behind him, anxiously playing with the hem of his shirt as he reached for the door knob.

The door swung open, and I peeked my head around Rurik to see the man's face. The man looked relieved. For a second. Then his face fell, and he used his hand to scrub the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Uh...does Ariana live here?"

Seriously?? He just knocked on a random door this late, hoping it was his girlfriend's?

"No, there is no Ariana here. You have the wrong address." Rurik was about to shut the door when the guy spoke up again.

"Are you sure? I could have sworn this was the address she gave me... I'm from California, here on business." My eyes bugged out, and I stepped away from Rurik a little as I listened.

"I don't know. We met at the gym a couple of days ago. We were supposed to go work out together... Any idea if any Ariana's live around here? Maybe I got the numbers mixed up?" Rurik apologized, now sounding more empathetic, but once again told the guy he couldn't help him.

"Ok," I heard the random guy tell Rurik. "If you happen to run into anyone name Ariana DeSanti, tell her Alex stopped by please? She told me she hates working out alone, but I guess she'll have to this time... Just until I can come back... Anyways, uh. You don't care. Ha... Sorry to waste your time. You and your wife have a good night." Rurik glanced back at me for a second with an extremely confused expression, and then reached forward and grabbed the man's collar before he could walk away.

"What did you say your name was again?" He asked menacingly. I stared at Rurik in shock. The blonde man's eyes widened in fright.

"I uh. My name is...is Alex. Wh—I. I didn't mean any h-harm. I was just looking—" Rurik cut him off as he wrapped his hand around Alex's throat. My jaw dropped, horrified.

Who is this man???

"Yes, just looking for Ariana. So you said... But how about you......don't? I get the feeling Ariana gave you the wrong address on purpose, Alex. I think it would be wise to stop looking for her, and maybe never come back here again. Hmm?" The man's face was turning blue. I was starting to freak out, wondering if I needed to hit Rurik or intervene somehow, when he abruptly released Alex's throat with a hard shove and slammed the door shut.

He locked the door and set the alarm again, exhaled slowly, and then turned around to face me. At this point, I was fighting an anxiety attack as I leaned against the entryway wall. He held his hands up as if to say he meant me no harm as he slowly approached me.

"Malia...It's me. I'm not going to hurt you. It's ok." Normally, I found his voice to be soothing, like an instant Xanax. He had always held such a strong, steady, calming presence. But I felt like I'd just seen his personality shift so many times in the last hour.

From Everyday Rurik (kind, gentle, patient, loving), to Bedroom Rurik (passionate, primal, slightly terrifying) to Protective Rurik (insane).

"Rurik, what...why did you act like that just now?? And also—before just now, when we were about to...do grown up...stuff."

No more dirty talking in front of this guy, Aria.

He looked exasperated and stopped his slow approach towards me. "Malia...he was clearly threatening you." I said nothing as I tried to calculate whether I could reach my pepper spray before he did. He looked at me like I was the crazy one.

"Rurik...he was looking for his girlfriend...Aria...na....." My eyes widened. Rurik didn't even know my old name, and he still pieced that together before I did.

"Wait...what? What about that name made you feel like he was threatening me??" He suddenly looked exhausted, like he'd been running on adrenaline and testosterone up until this point, and now he was about to crash.

"Malia...I heard the people at the door a few months ago. I believe you called the woman Lara. When she and that old man visited, they called you "Aria"... And they said "Alessandro" a few times... I didn't say anything about it, but I admit, my curiosity got the better of me. I looked up the names... I know your name was Aria Daniels. You were married to Alessandro DeSantos when you lived in California. The names and everything that...man...just said were too similar. And the timing was...strange, no?"

Oh. So I guess this is the part where we talk about the fact that we almost had sex. Cool.

"Rurik...yeah. Yeah you're right. I did think what he said was a little familiar too. It almost felt like a warning... But I guess I just...didn't expect you to catch on. You honestly scared me a little. Just now at the door...and on the couch." I nervously played with my fingers, trying to avoid his eyes.
I felt him walk up next to me. I peeked up at him and saw he was now leaning against the wall, too.

"Oh I scared you? You mean when I was about to "fuck" you? Or "cum on your tits"?" I blushed. I felt like it was sexy in the moment, but now my words just seemed excessively vulgar.

"Malia, I was just excited. I'm sorry. It's been a while, like I said... Two years of many, many cold showers..." My blush deepened. It honestly hasn't occurred to me that he must have had blue balls for the last 2 years. This man deserved a medal.

"I had a feeling you weren't quite ready, but I asked a couple of times if you were sure, so when you kept insisting... I'm sorry. I can be quite...dominant in sexual situations. I think maybe some of that bled into my frustration with that man's thinly-veiled threats." I finally looked up at him, feeling remorseful.

I got scared of him because he was horny.

I straddled him, started talking dirty, and then got scared because he responded in a way any normal man would.

"Rurik I am so, so sorry. You did absolutely nothing wrong. Thank you for protecting me just now. Again. I've never seen that side of you...but I'm glad it's there." I wrapped my arms around his waist and stood up on my tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek, which was as high up as I could reach without him leaning down...which he wasn't. He still seemed frustrated and tense.

After what felt like forever, he finally hugged me back and kissed the top of my head. We stayed in that position for a while, just lost in our own thoughts. I was about to suggest we go sit down on the couch again and turn on a movie when he finally spoke up.

"Malia...I think maybe you and Daniel should move in with me."