His Dark Obsession

Chapter 25: Perturbed

Tara stood in the kitchen cooking dinner for everyone while Jake helped her by chopping vegetables for a salad and taking out crockery from cabinets to put on the dinner table.
"Tara, you have not been yourself the entire day." Jake spoke with concern as he brought the bowl of salad to her side expecting to hear her approval.
Tara wanted to avoid any discussion on what she was feeling, especially since, what she was feeling was something even she did not fully fathom. With Jake's sister staying with them, and with her already having troubles with her husband, Tara didn't want to divulge another problem to Jake. "No, not at all. I have a slight headache that's all."
"Take a Tylenol before you go to sleep." Jake coupled the friendly reminder with a sweet peck on the cheek.
Inside Tara felt flustered and unsettled but she replied with outward calm, "Yes, I was planning to."
"Aren't you going to say anything about the salad?" Jake inquired hugging her from behind.
Tara faked a smirk, "Yes, I can see you have made a lot of effort. It looks good, I am sure it's delicious!"
Just then Brooke came into the kitchen and declared abruptly, "Jake, I need you."
Tara felt Jake let go of her as he responded to his sister, "Coming!"
Tara heaved a sigh of relief when the siblings left the kitchen to go sit in the living room. She had wanted to be left alone; she had been feeling this way the entire day. She had to assess what had happened in the early morning hours and how much of it could she have imagined. She knew she was exceptionally somnolent when it occured but she did remember the figure in the doorway succinctly, and the kiss -- how could that be a figment of her imagination? It was too real, too potent to be a dream, and, she hadn't ever had dreams so...so...beguiling before. In the back of her mind she had registered something different in the kiss; subconsciously she did realize it could not have been Jake.
Ian? Was it really him? He felt more like a dark and brooding spectre in hindsight. At the time, however, all she had felt was pleasure, a pleasure she had never known before...she checked her thoughts immediately as they crossed her mind.
She couldn't believe that Ian had taken such liberties with her knowing that she was half asleep. And why had he been standing in her room anyway? He had come to their apartment to collect the files...maybe he thought they were in the bedroom...no, Jake would have never told Ian to pick up the files himself had they been in the bedroom. So why was he there?
In their room? Why did he kiss her? And that too the way he did? She felt befuddled. And then she remembered...'kiss me', she had said.
"Oh my God! Could he have thought that I wanted to be kissed, by him?!"
But then she recalled that she had taken Jake's name. Ian must have known that she thought he was Jake and yet, he had kissed her. He had and then he had touched her. She felt herself burn to an inferno inside; thinking of his kiss, his touch -- she felt extremely offended, and at the same time, she felt something deep down, between her legs which she could only equate to carnal lust. Immediately, she felt horrified with herself for even entertaining a thought of this nature and that too for Jake's, her boyfriend's, best friend.
She did not want to go over this in her mind anymore. At this point it had become a reel playing over and over, while she swung like a pendulum between detest and unwarranted desire. She had to go see Ian. She had no idea what she was going to say to him when she saw him but she was going to go to him.
Tara didn't want Jake to know about what had happened till she had talked to Ian. It was only fair since she had no idea how Jake was going to react after hearing all this. Up till this point, Ian had been a perfect gentleman to her, so much so that she had offered him her friendship and now this had happened, and she did not know what lay beyond this point. She had to see Ian, seeing him and talking to him might make her understand what had made him cross the periphery of her physical and personal space.
"Tara, Brooke's real hungry! How's the chicken looking." Tara got startled as Jake popped his head through the kitchen door and questioned her about the meal.
"You guys should go sit at the table. Just two more minutes in the oven and it'll be done!"
"Excellent!"
Tara brought the Braised Mushroom Chicken to the dining table in the oven tray with the juices ozzing down its glistening skin.
After everybody was served and the Cada siblings had taken a bite out of the succulent meat, Brooke spoke in delight, "Tara, this is delicious!'
Tara look at her expression and said laughingly, "You look surprised!"
"I hadn't expected you to be that good a cook!" And then she looked at Jake, "You seem to have hit the jackpot with this one! She is sweet and she knows how to cook!"
Tara smiled wondering why Brooke was considered difficult and what kind of problems were she and her husband having. She seemed pretty sweet to her, she hadn't been any trouble till now, albeit she had known her but half a day!
"You are too kind!"
"No, Tara! I say it like it is! Elise, his old girlfriend, she was a piece of work! She turned his life upside down. She was bloody insecure! I kept pushing him to break it off with her. No use wasting time with women like that. They become clingy very quickly!"
Ok, scratch that, Tara pondered, maybe Brooke was a bit difficult; she had just ruthlessly assassinated Jake's ex-girlfriend's character! Tara didn't want to get on her bad side now. There was no knowing what Brooke might deduce about her over the week she was staying with them! She just hoped to tread carefully and their time together, to pass by quickly.