Kept From Anguish (+18) (COMPLETE)

|10| BACK TO LIFE |:|

"I can say this is the first time I've ever walked in on someone watching me on the tele."

Jason's insides turned upside right when he met familiar eyes. His chest tightened to see her curls arranged in a simple up-do on top of her head. She was gorgeous in her natural state.

You're so pretty just like you are now."

She smiled her honey-colored cheeks flushed with color. "Thank you."

"Should I be expecting a camera crew following you in here?" He looked over her shoulder.

She laughed. "Not today. It's just me. I have the paparazzi following around my decoy."

He raised his eyebrows. "People really do that?"

"Oh, yeah." She leaned on the foot of the bed and crossed her arms. "It's the only way I get any time to myself. It's strange because I don't actually think of myself as a celebrity, but I suppose I have all their problems."

"Yeah, including all the money."

She smirked. "Yes, money buys me peace sometimes like today." She scanned him head to toe making him very aware of her presence and his and the fact that they were alone. "I heard you'll be released today."

"Yep," He tossed his legs over the edge of the bed with a wince. "Took me three years to get this damn thing so I could walk on my own. Now I'm back to this shit." He said retrieving the cane next to his bed.

"That's on me isn't it?"

He frowned over at her. "Not even in the slightest. How were you to know your agent slash uncle was a homicidal prick with family problems oozing out his ass?"

She laughed. "Either way, I can't help but feel responsible."

He hobbled over to her and cupped her cheek before pulling her to his chest. She linked her arms around his middle. "I missed you."

He chuckled kissing her hair. "It's only been a couple weeks."

"I know. Jade and Blake are great. I mean my shit is locked down, but--" She pulled away from him but still held tight to his waist. "There's nothing like that disapproving scowl to let me know when I'm crossing the line."

He rubbed her cheek with his thumb. "You're so young."

Her pretty eyebrows pulled together. "Jason--"

He covered her lips with his thumb. "You're young and vibrant. You've got your whole life ahead of you."

"But I'm--"

He silenced her again with a digit over her soft giving lips. His chest clenched recalling having her all to himself away from the world, expectations, war, and her father. As much as he wanted to forgo the man's words they were true. "Thank you for coming to see me."

Her eyebrows quirked before her gaze fell to their feet. His hands slipped in her curls from the nape of her neck as she held him tight to her.

She smirked up at him. "I need you to head my security."

"I'm not going to work for you."

She frowned up at him with a tempting pout. "Help me find some good people then?"

He nodded. "I can do that. I'm retiring again and I'm staying here this time."

"You saying you don't want to see me any more?" There was humor, but sincerity in her pretty eyes.

"I was meant to keep you safe by figuring out who was trying to kill you. I cleared your name, got the feds off your back thanks to your father--"

He winced when she pulled away from him. "My father?"

Shit

He nodded keeping his cool. "He basically saved my life in that alley. Adrian would have killed me otherwise."

She pulled away and crossed her arms over her chest. "He doesn't like you."

"He didn't have to save my life."

She turned on him rage in her eyes along with the liquid that hovered there. "He doesn't do anything unless for a reason. He wanted you indebted to him."

"I'm not--"

"You are! That's why you're pulling away. Distancing yourself." She started pacing. "He knew the message would be more potent coming from you." She ripped her hand from his light grasp.

"Ianca--"

"No!" She growled pulling her fingers into her puff of curls. "This isn't fair! He always tried to control things even when an ocean away. I'm tired of it!"

"Ianca." He grabbed her up in his arms so she couldn't get away and held her there against his body. He was leaning on the bed his cane abandoned somewhere behind him. He had both arms wrapped around the little spit fire. "I'm not scared of your father, but he's right. I'm broken--"

"We all are." She pulled away. "In someway. Damaged, wracked with burden, with darkness. Soldiers in our own wars that we fight every day."

He hung his head. "Why are you fighting this so hard?" She doesn't understand what he went through to accept this himself.

She shrugged and leaned into him. "Because You saved me."

"Ianca--"

"Do you want to know why I chose you that first night at my club? Do you want to know why I wanted you close?"

He wondered true, but so focused on his mission he let the wonder slip into the shadows. "I do."

"I saw an escape. For a while I'd felt like a gerbil in a wheel, but I didn't know how to get out." She hung her head and her fingers grazed his spine sending chills through him. She looked up at him from under her lashes. "If I came to you to escape this rat race with no cameras, no cell phone, no social media crap, would you turn me away?"

He rubbed his thumbs over her furrowed brows smoothing them out then shook his head. "No. I wouldn't."

The corner of her mouth lifted. "May I have your word on that?"

He nodded. "On my honor as a ranking officer in the Marine corp of the greatest nation in the world."

THE END

|:|A/N|:|

Okay I went a little heavy on the US pride at the end, but ehh LOL

So what do you think? Should they see each other again? 

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