The Bad Girl in Boots

The Arrival - edited

I woke up to a strange rocking motion. I kept my eyes shut, hoping to fall back asleep, but a cold wind nipped at my skin, and I found myself curling tighter into the warmth that seemed to be carrying me. Oh. My eyes shot open and I stared at the perfect jawline a few centimetres from my face.

Hunter.

His citrus-pine scent was in my nose, making me feel a little dazed. What was it with this boy? All my senses seemed amplified around him, and everything he did affected me harder than any other boy I'd ever known. But at the same time, he infuriated me. He was confusing.

"Sleeping beauty awakes!" his melodic voice came drifting down from above me, along with his trademark smug smirk. It was irritating.

"You can put me down."

"Hmmm." he pretended to think about it. "Nope." he grinned and carried on walking towards the massive stone building ahead of us.

I growled. His eyes shot down to mine. I wasn't sure who was more surprised, me or him.

"Right, I think it's clear you're not a morning person. But malyutka, (sweetheart) - it's actually 10pm."

"Don't call me sweetheart."

His eyes when from green to blue in an instant, shocking me, and he dropped me unceremoniously onto the snow.

I was momentarily distracted. Snow.

I squealed. Hunter looked at me, confusion and concern evident on his face. He grabbed me, yanking me to my feet. "Are you okay?" He cupped my cheeks, checking me for injury. I nodded, giving him a strange look.

Noticing my confusion at his immediate concern, his hands dropped to his sides and he turned to walk away. "Let's go." I squealed again, remembering the snow. His back tensed and he whirled around.

"Jesus, woman. What is it?" His eyes were back to green.

I was beginning to understand that his eyes turned blue when he flicked the switch and went emotionless, but wasn't sure about the other colours. I knew now that they were to tied to his emotions though. Supernatural, but at this point, I was beyond caring. I had a beast in my head, who was I to judge?

"I've never seen snow before." I muttered, suddenly shy.

"Seriously?" he sounded like he was laughing at me.

"Yeah, seriously." I was bright red now, but also angry that he found this funny. I didn't meet his eyes, instead glaring at the white stuff that started all this.

He made a noise low in his throat, gaze fixed on my pout. "Sweetheart, don't look like that. I wasn't laughing at you, just at the irony." he practically cooed.

I scowled again at his nickname.

He huffed. "Let's get going, the headmaster is expecting you."

"At this time?" I asked incredulously.

"Yeah, he uh- doesn't sleep much." Hunter turned and walked away from me, towards the magnificent red-brick mansion.

Hunter held the door open for me when we got to the mansion, but got into a position where I had to squeeze past his muscled chest in order to get through the door frame, my face pressed to his cotton shirt. I blushed and shrank from him as the now familiar sparks rippled through my body. From his self-satisfied smirk, I knew he'd done it on purpose, and that he enjoyed watching me squirm. Cocky bastard.

He then proceeded to push rudely past me to bound up the stairs three at a time, while I stuck to the more traditional way of one per step. He waited at the top, leaning against the banister with a bored expression.