It would have been a fabulous idea of not having both earbuds in her ears. Doing so put her guard down but because she hated silence, Mara was caught in a bad situation. Either way, her breathing was caught in her throat the moment arms wrapped around her. One had pinned her arms to her waist as the other successfully trapped her mouth underneath it.
Her eyes widened and felt her heart beat quicken.'I'm going to die... I'm going die! I just know it!' was all she was thinking.
But the voice that spoke softly to her made Mara frown. "Please. I don't want any trouble."
Mara blinked hard. 'Oh, of course not! Scaring the wits of unaware women and immobilizing them is not asking for trouble. How silly of me to think otherwise!'
She felt a grin in the voice when he said, "Although... you look like you could get me into some trouble."
It was clear he was observing the female in his arms and Mara was not going to have any of that!
With a quick nip, the hand retreated and she managed to struggle free but only for a moment before she was tackled to the floor. This brute knocked the wind out of her, landing on her so roughly. The same hand covered her mouth again, more careful, however, to not let her bite him again.
"Look! I don't want any trouble! I swear!" It was still in a soft tone, but a little more irritated and harsh.
'Good,' she thought. She was glad she was making this difficult for him.
"I just want to know about her."
Mara blinked, confused at who he was referring to but then she lifted up her eyes and could see her cousin sitting a good yard away on a stone bench in the middle of the gazebo. She had headphones on and was lying on her stomach over a blanket and flipping through a magazine from the tall pile sitting on the cement floor underneath her.
Mara's brainless cousin was still in the same position and couldn't see how Mara was trapped underneath a large man that could have been a murderer for all she knew.
The voice sighed, "I really need to know about her. The Heiress."
Mara relaxed a little, sulking her shoulders and rolling her eyes.
'Of course this man would think Jane was the Heiress,' she mentally spat.
Jane's long red hair was tightly braided down her backside and her pale, unblemished skin was due to lack of sun, and those long eyelashes covered her just-as-equally beautiful violet eyes. The red-head was simply perfect and Mara's appearance was nothing to her in comparison.
"Alright... I'm going to let you up. But please don't make this harder than it has to be, alright?"
Mara nodded. The hand slowly retreated and the heavy body was lifted off her---sort of. She turned her body halfway around; the other half still trapped underneath him in case she ran which was smart, considering she would have done so.
Mara looked up, frowning at the man who handled her so roughly.
Nathan raised a brow staring down at the woman underneath him. She was simple-looking compared to the redhead down the way but had certain features that made him stare at her longer. Her chest heaved heavily in the blue spaghetti top; a silver chain sunk in between the crevice of her breasts. She had dark blue eyes, resembling sapphires, glared up at him underneath chocolate colored bangs.
Her cheeks were flushed and her jaw tightened as he simply stared, saying nothing.
"Well, what is it you want to know? Or are you going to just stare at me the whole time?"
Nathan blinked and swallowed, raising himself off her and offering a hand towards her. But she smacked it away angrily and stood up, dusting off her jeans from the front and back of dirt.
Afterward, she lifted her head and scowled, "Well?"
"Right. Um... What's she like?"
The woman lowered her eyes half-mast and blinked. She crossed her arms under her large bosom and made Nathan glance down for a moment as she suggested, "You'll have to be a little more specific, I'm afraid. You see, it's going to take a while for me to explain the likes, dislikes, wants, needs, favorites, and other miscellaneous character traits of Jane."
"Jane..."
Mara raised a brow, "Mm. Yes. Very good, Tarzan. She, Jane. And you would be...?" She kept her brow raised, as she craned her neck forward slightly.
Nathan cleared his throat, choosing to ignore her remark a few seconds ago.
"Sorry. I'm Special Agent Nathan Henry. I'm supposed to be escorting the Heiress tomorrow."
Mara blinked. Her sapphires looked this man up and down before her brows dipped further, narrowing her eyes.
This was the man who was to take her to her fiancé? But he was so... handsome. Her father wouldn't have agreed to such an arrangement if he knew what this man looked like, right?
She'd never seen a man so young and handsome before. All the men she grew up with were middle age or elderly, and happened to work on the estate she lived on. With the exception of Rory, Mara never saw a young man around her age before.
She took in his features and muscular figure; she'd have blushed with the thought that all of him had been on top of her moments ago, and would have blushed much more when he was aware of his glance at her chest too... if she wasn't irritated with him already. He must have women all over him; a reason to keep far away from this man. That was for certain.
Mara pulled from her thoughts and lowered a brow, sniffing, "I see. And without a doubt, you are planning on wooing her, am I correct?"
Nathan blushed with a small wince, making Mara grin, "Ah. So I am correct."
She looked over her shoulder at Jane, still flipping pages, then returned to this Nathan. Mar was eyeing him warily and cautiously asked, "What exactly is your intention with the Heiress?"
At first, he refused to tell her anything of his intentions, but when she made a valid point that without her information on Jane, he'd be walking into the arena blind. So Nathan told her. Everything.
"I wouldn't stoop to something so low if it weren't the fact my family needs it. I'm really sorry, but it's true."
Mara looked at him as his green eyes pleaded with her. His face filled with worry and scrunched his nose slightly, almost pained to hear that she'd not help him. She sighed heavily looking away for a moment then an idea popped into her head that could make this situation quite advantageous. She brightened and beamed at Nathan.
"Alright."
Nathan looked skeptical, "Alright... what?"
"I'll help you get the Heiress."
Nathan grinned and wrapped his arms around her to swing her around once before putting her down where she was before. He held her by her shoulders and beamed, "Thank you! You have no idea how much you are helping my family. I was afraid you wouldn't be so kind-hearted when you heard my reason."
Mara raised a brow, after blinking repeatedly and recovering from the surprise of being lifted so without warning, "I'd probably not have been, considering you sandwiched me to the dirt... but I know little of what family was so if you say that this is for your younger siblings, then so be it."
The handsome man smiled back, and Mara rolled her eyes. "Okay, look. Tomorrow that you show up... don't do this little thing you displayed." She used her hands to make a circular motion in front of her indicating the tackle he gave her. "Janie doesn't take kindly to being covered in dirt."
Nathan nodded, still grinning, "Noted."
Mara blinked hard, annoyed. "Okay, so don't show up empty-handed either. The Heiress is... how should I say... a bit of a brat."
Nathan looked perplexed a moment, even unnerved, and Mara raised her brows, craning her neck forward as she clarified, "She's the Heiress, remember? Rich? Greedy? Gets whatever she wants, when she wants it?"
After frowning, the man mumbled, "Um, right."
That wasn't true.
Mara didn't get what she wanted when she wanted it. She was rich, that was a given, but it was her father's money. Not hers.
The things she received were limited. Even the air she breathed would have a limitation when it came to being outside for too long where someone outside the Estate could see her.
So Mara took advantage of what time outside she could. It was the closest she'd get to the outside of the Estate before this arranged marriage occurred. The marriage was thrown on her like a heavy blanket; suffocating her. Mara shivered at the idea of a man unknown to her, and twice her age, would be her husband in a few weeks.
It was clear Mara wanted no part of it, but no one would listen to her! Except for Rory, who was her only dearest friend, but even Rory was powerless in giving her the freedom she wanted. Mara just had to put up with obeying her father's orders of being married off for the sake of his company, even though she's seen her father four times in her twenty-two years of breathing.
Nathan blinked, shrugging his shoulders, "Like what? What should I get her?"
Mara was beginning to speak when he asked her the questions, "Get her---I was just getting to that, thank you. Get her---" she continued, but then stopped, thinking carefully. She pursed her lips, narrowing her eyes to think a moment before she grinned.
Earlier, Jane had made a snippy comment to Mara about Rory and it was a comment that was not worth thinking about except for when Rory ended up having a severe rash from the poison oak Jane snuck into the man's pillowcase. Jane thought it was well-deserved which was why Mara knew the perfect payback.
"You can bring her strawberries." She gave a small, satisfied smile, "Yes, those. Chocolate-covered to be exact."
Nathan nodded, trying to remember the small fancy shop that was near Ben's apartment. He could have Chambers run for a box before they arrived the next day. The green-eyed man took her hand and Mara's eyes widened; they were focused on their hands before looking up at him.
"Thank you," he smiled before he disappeared back over the Estate wall.
Mara stared at the empty space the agent had previously occupied, dumbfounded. She'd finally taken notice, too, that her hand was still extended outward where he left it. She blinked hard, shaking her head and frowned before turning back to where she once stood before meeting the stranger and began picking up her iPod and dropped utensils.
Sticking the earbuds into her ear, she lifted a brow thinking to herself with a slight smirk, "No... Thank you."