My Temptation

2

J A N E

It's been a few hours since the small little altercation between Miles and I. I haven't heard anything, no noise or movements at all. I leave my room and walk downstairs slowly, still not hearing anything. "What the hell? Where is he?" I whisper to myself.  I make my way to the kitchen and as I turn into it, I see him sitting at the island quietly typing away on his computer. Not expecting him to be there I jump slightly and gasp. 

"Are you alright?" He asks not looking up from his laptop. He picks up a mug filled with coffee I assume, and sips it. I let out a small shaky breath and nod my head. "I haven't heard anything from you for a while so I got curious and came downstairs. But I didn't expect you to be in here, I assumed you'd be in your room." I say opening the fridge and grabbing a bottle of Coke then popping it open on the edge of the counter. 

"I never really enjoy just sitting in the bedroom alone, sometimes it gets too quiet and all I can hear is my own breathing. Cool bottle opening trick by the way. " He says with a small chuckle. 

"Well it was still pretty quiet down here. I didn't hear you in here at all. And thanks, I learnt it from my ex. " I say leaning on the counter with my arms crossed, he nods and take another sip of his coffee before speaking. 

"I like to stay quiet, I don't really like to be loud unless I need to be." He says finally looking up at me and meeting my eyes. I nod and take a big sip from my soda. "You need to wear a bell from now on, I need to be able to hear you lurking around." I say and he laughs. He finishes his cup of coffee and gets up walking over to the sink right next to me. I watch him rinse out the mug and put it in the dishwasher. I raise my eyebrows in shock and he notices.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" He asks turning his whole body towards me. 

"Looks like you'll be the only man in this house who does that. I'm the only one here who loads and unloads the dishwasher. " I say. Another small chuckles comes from him, he walks back to his computer and sits down continuing to type. His laugh causes me to smile but I quickly wipe the smile from my face. No weakness! "Well now there will be 2 people in this house who does that." He says

Not knowing how to respond to that, a long silence falls between us. After a few awkward moments, I grab my soda bottle and start making my way out of the kitchen when he speaks up stopping me in my tracks. "Would you like for me to order lunch for you and I? It's almost noon." He asks and I turn around to look at him, I lean against the wall before answering, "Thanks for the gesture but my father usually comes home around this time with food." I say - which may or may not be true, he nods without saying anything else. I turn back around and make my way back upstairs to my room.

As soon as I walk inside my room, my phone starts ringing and it's my father. I quickly answer it and put the phone to my ear. "Yes?" I say sitting on the corner of my bed, I hear a deep sigh coming from him and I already know what he's going to say. "Janey, I'm sorry sweetheart but I ran into some trouble at the office and I won't be home until very late. Please don't wait for me, go ahead and get some lunch and also dinner." He says and I sigh. Tears start forming in my eyes but I quickly wipe them away. I'm not even surprised, even since my mother died all my father does is bury himself in his work. And he never wants to be here, he always tries to stay at his office as long as possible. 

I clear my throat before speaking so he doesn't hear the disappointment in my voice. "No problem, I understand." I say getting up and walking out of my room stopping at the staircase railing. "Thank you sweetheart. Love you." He says. 

"Yeah, you too." I say and immediately hang up. I let out a deep sigh as my eyes start watering again . I use the sleeve of my shirt to dry my eyes before calling out to Miles. "Hey Miles!" I say loudly. I finally hear movement from him as he walks towards the stairs and looks up at me. I can see concern spread across his face as he sees the sadness on mine. 

"Yes Jane?" He says in a calm tone 

"Change in plans.. uhm my father won't be home until late." I say and he nods 

"What would you like to eat? I can order food for lunch and dinner." He says pulling out his phone from his pocket. I shake my head and make my way down the stairs , he meets me there as I stop at the bottom step. "You don't have to order food for lunch and dinner. I can make us a small lunch for now and we can split the cost of dinner tonight." I say and he scoffs shaking his head immediately.

"First off, I'm not going to let you cook me dinner or split the cost of dinner. I'm not that kind of man." He says and I roll my eyes. 

"I don't really care Miles. Plus, I don't really want take out for both lunch and  dinner. I can make us sandwiches and then we'll order take out for dinner but I will not let you pay for the whole thing." I say crossing my eyes and he lets out a deep frustrated sigh. "So stubborn, but fine. At least tell me what you want for dinner from now." He says 

"Chinese is fine. I don't have a preference on where from either, so it's up to you."  I say and push past him to make my way back to the kitchen. He follows behind me quickly as he sits back down at the island. We fall into a less awkward silence now but the tension is high. I take out the things for sandwiches as I start to assemble them and all you can hear is him typing on his computer. After 5 solid minutes of silence I finally speak up breaking the tension. "Are you allergic to anything?" I ask 

"Just nuts and tomatoes." He says and I nod "I'll make sure to add extra nuts and tomatoes on your sandwich then." I say jokingly and he lets out a sarcastic laugh.

"So funny." He says and I give him a fake smile then he speaks up again "But seriously,  I am severely allergic to peanuts, I can actually end up dead or in the hospital if I even smell nuts." He says and my eyes widen. "Oh shit, I'm sorry. That's terrible. Have you ever ended up in the hospital? " I ask and he nods. "Only once when I was 10. It was bad, I was in the hospital for 2 days." He says

"Damn, well we can't have that happening." I say and walk over to the pantry opening it then grabbing the jar of peanut butter and throwing it away along with a regular bag of nuts. I then wash my hands thoroughly, after I dry my hands I continue to make the sandwiches. I noticed his eyes on me the entire time causing my face to turn hot. "Thank you.. I really appreciate that." He says and I nod, "I may not like you being here but I don't want you dying here." I say pushing his plate towards him once I finished assembling his sandwich.

I put everything away before taking my plate and walking out of the kitchen to the living room and sitting down on the couch. I turn on the television and flip through the channels until something I like comes on and then I start eating my sandwich. As I continue eating and watching, my mind starts thinkin about Miles. Maybe I can try and be civil to him, he doesn't seem so bad. 

I hope it stays that way.   

•••

No other words have been said since lunch, I'm not complaining but damn it's so quiet in this house. I check the time on my phone and see it's almost 7 so I get up off the couch and walk into the kitchen only to find Miles not sitting there anymore. Confused as to how he left the kitchen without me hearing him is beyond me.

This guy is definitely going to need a bell. I walk around the kitchen to the other side near the back door to see if he's in the backyard but still no sign of him. I walk out of the kitchen and go upstairs to look for him, our house is big but not big enough for a man that's over 6 feet to get lost in it. I check the entire second floor and I don't see or hear anything, starting to get frustrated I rush downstairs and go down to the basement. My father had the basement redone a few years ago so it doesn't look like one of those scary movie basements. There's 3 different rooms in this basement - a gym, a game room and a movie room so Miles has to be down here somewhere and if he's not, I'm going to lose it. 

I check the movie room and the game room but he's not there. As I get to the gym room I finally hear something so I forcefully open the door and see Miles laying down on a bench, doing bench presses. He suddenly stops and looks over at me, I put my hands on my hips and stare back at him with anger. He sits up and puts the bar down then stands up taking out his earphones, I was too frustrated to notice that he wasn't wearing anything except sweat pants. My eyes dart down his sweaty body that's covered in tattoos, I drop my arms from my hips and suddenly my hands get very sweaty. Wow..  he just got a hundred times more good looking and sexy. He's breathing heavily, his face is red and his body is sweaty. I feel a shiver run down my spine and I feel goosebumps form all over my body as well. 

"Jane, are you okay?" He asks walking closer to me, which causes me to take a step back and my back hits the wall. I clear my throat and nod, I have to force the words out of my mouth. "Uh what? Oh yeah, I'm fine. I was just.. uhm, I didn't know where you were. I didn't even hear you leave the kitchen." I say finally catching my breath. 

"My apologies, I was just roaming around down here and found this gym room. I haven't had a workout session in a few days so I took advantage. Is that okay?" He asks staring at me deeply and I nod trying my best to not stare at his body. No wonder his shirt fit him so good earlier, his muscular arms, shoulders and back took up every inch of it. 

"That's fine, but please make some kind of announcement that you are going to be somewhere in the house. I can't keep going around the house looking for you. Next time, I'm really going to get you a bell." I say and he laughs

"Okay, I will. Sorry if I scared you when you couldn't find me." He says taking one small step closer to me. I push myself against the wall as much as I can. If I give into this weakness I would have him on that bench in seconds, but I can't. He's my bodyguard and I also want him to know that I still don't like him being here.

"Did you need something from me? Is that why you were looking for me?" He asks 

"Well it's almost 7 and I'm getting pretty hungry."  I say and he immediately grabs his phone. "I'll order the food now. What do you want?" He asks. Well I want him right now in this moment but I'm most definitely not going to say that. I need to get out of this room asap!

"I'll do some Chow Mein, the Beef and Broccoli then some spicy beef, please.." I say quickly then rush out of the room when he yells out to me before I could get far, "Do you want any Eggs Rolls or Crab Rangoon's?" He asks. "Sure! Either one is fine." I yell and run back upstairs without looking back.

Once I get back to the living room I throw myself on the couch face down. I take slow and deep breathes until I feel my body cool down. After a few moments I turn on my back and stare at the ceiling.

This is going to be so much harder than I thought.