Witness Protection ✔

Insights

It took two days for her items to arrive and to nobody's surprise, neither her phone nor her laptop was among them. It had been tough so far without her laptop because Nathalia was an avid blogger and she was seriously starting to miss her small audience.

The days at the safe house had gone by slowly because she had been mostly alone and only saw Darius at dinnertime when they'd quietly eat together until he got up to wash the dishes and leave again.

He had busied himself with setting up security measures in and around the house, like putting up cameras in strategic places and sensors around the garden. He also spent days pining over the blueprints of the house itself and communicating with his supervisors about possible threats.

After she finished putting away her things she walked to the garage to throw away the cardboard boxes. Looking out the window she couldn't help but feel sad about the fact that such a beautiful garden was neglected like this and decided to ask Darius about it. She turned back into the house and went up the stairs before knocking on the door to his room. When she heard a faint 'come in' she took a deep breath and opened the door.

She found him hunched over the desk in the corner looking at various monitors displaying images of their front yard, back yard, and street. Off to her right was a little couch but instead of soft pillows and warm blankets, guns were laying around. The large bed in the center was meticulously made and made her wonder if he even slept in it at all.

"Can I help you with anything or did you just come here to stare at everything?"

That snapped her out of her thoughts, but she was caught off guard by his voice and it took too long for her to remember what she'd actually come to ask.

"No, I- erm.." she started off before taking a deep breath, "I wanted to ask you about the front yard, do you think I could make some adjustments to it? Like plant some flowers or something?"

He tore his eyes away from the screens and stood up straight. "I'm sure you could but you can't be out in the front yard during the daytime. Too many people would see you," he stated plainly.

"But there's barely any traffic here, very few people would see me. If any at all," she pleaded with him. But somewhere she knew he wouldn't budge on any topic regarding safety, it was his job after all.

"No, work on the backyard or something but not the front yard. We can get stuff tomorrow if you want," he offered.

To her, the fact that he offered to go get gardening tools and items almost sounded like he felt sorry for denying her to work in the front yard. She shook that thought off her because he was probably too cold and detached to have emotions like that. He probably just wanted to get out of the house as well. Yet, she couldn't help but beam at him, ideas for the backyard running through her brain as she got more excited by the second.

"Alright then, tomorrow," she confirmed while walking back to her room. After she softly closed the door she realized she just had to come up with something to do for the rest of the day. Sitting down on her bed she looked around. Her room was almost the exact same as Darius's. But with fewer guns and monitors. She looked up straight ahead and took in the large TV screen and wondered how she'd missed something like that.

After looking around for a few minutes she found the remote in one of the nightstands and turned it on and flipped through the channels. Nathalia had never been a huge fan of cable tv and decided to look for Netflix, which she found. Already logged in and with one user named "D".

So he's just been avoiding me then? She thought as she realized he hadn't been spending all of his time working. At this point, she didn't care to ask for permission and made her own profile before starting her quest of finding a show to binge-watch. She found one and before she knew what had happened she woke up.

I must've fallen asleep then.

The moment she got up she heard a knock on her door and when she opened it she stood face to face with the god-like creature who was tasked to protect her. And he wasn't wearing a shirt. He wore only grey sweatpants that hung low on his hips, revealing a sharply sculpted V going down into a spot she desperately tried not to think about. His whole body was glistening with sweat which made her wonder if he just finished a workout. It took all of her willpower to look up into his eyes again.

His grey eyes were darker than usual and his hair clung to his forehead making him look like some wild animal who had come to rip her apart.

"H-hi," she choked out.

But he didn't reply, instead, he reached out to stroke the part of her neck that connected to her jawline, and it felt heavenly. Electricity jolted through her skin at the spot he held her while he brought up his other hand into her hair and to the back of her neck, pulling her closer.

By now her heart was beating so loudly it was the only thing she heard. Was he going to kiss her? How should she react to this?

She didn't have time to think about it any longer because his lips connected with hers and she couldn't focus on anything else. His lips were so soft as they moved tenderly over hers and she hoped he'd never let go, and it seemed she was getting what she hoped for when he slid his tongue into her mouth and slowly stroked her tongue with his.

Their moment got destroyed by a knocking on the door, but he ignored it and kept kissing her. But the knocking became more persistent and Nathalia became confused, they were standing in the doorway, right? Dread filled her as she broke the kiss and looked up at Darius with wide eyes.

"Time to wake up, love," he said as he smiled down at her, showing off his perfect teeth.

"But I am awake," she replied dreamily.

"You wanted to go to get gardening stuff right? You gotta wake up, we're not going when it's busy out," he said as he shook her.

That's when she opened her eyes to find him standing next to her bed, looking nothing like the Darius from her dream.

It took her a second to realize she'd been dreaming. About him. And the feelings from her dream were still jolting through her body as she tried to focus on what he was saying.

"You know, I almost thought you died when you didn't answer the door," he stated casually.

She quickly swallowed before sitting up."N- no, I'm alive. I just need a minute to get ready."

"Be quick," he said before he walked out of her room again, leaving Nathalia to replay the dream over and over again in her head.