Behind The Mask

Chapter 34

*Warning: sensitive issues in this chapter!*

Anouk’s POV

“Baby…wake up. We’re here.”

I find a more comfortable position on the car seat and whine.

“Nooki, we’re at Neverland. Please…just a little effort, then you’ll sleep as comfortable as you can be in my bed.”

“Lemme sleep here!” I groan.

Waking me up after a 25-hours flight will not bring out my best side.

I feel a sound like a door opening, and then I’m floating in the air, held by two arms.

“Michael, what are you doin’?”

“Something that needs to be done. Go back to sleep, I got you.”

He surely has. He has a firm grip under my knees and behind my back. I find enough strength to circle my arms around his neck and settle happily with my head in the crook of his neck.

“I’ll give you the grand tour tomorrow. For now, all you need to know is that you’re gonna stay with me in my room and I won’t take no for an answer.”

I manage a smile. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but in his room…in his bed…everywhere where he is….everywhere where SHE was.

The thought wakes me up. By all possibilities Lisa was in this house and slept in the bed where I will sleep.

“Michael…did you change the sheets after Lisa left?”

He chuckles.

“All of them. Even the pillows and bathroom fixtures.”

I nod and relax again next to his body. But finally a door opens and shuts with a click behind us and I am laid on a soft bed.

“Welcome to my home, Anouk. Now…why don’t I help you get undressed and catch on your sleep?”

“Stay with me…”

“I’d like to have a word with my chief of security and housekeeper. Just to see that everything is alright.”

I sigh and start getting undressed. It’s a dry heat in this hills area of California and I feel like being cooked alive. I drop everything except for my panties and stretch on the huge, king-size bed, with a big yawn.

“Get under the sheets…or you won’t get much sleep” warns Michael with a deep voice.

I smirk and teasingly pull the soft satin sheet over my nearly naked body.

“Don’t go anywhere” he whispers as he bends over me to kiss me.

“Your door has automatic lock. As tired as I am, I heard that. Where could I go?”

He shakes his head and points a slender finger at me.

“You do not act like a woman who wants to recover from the jet lag….you look more like a bad girl who wants to be punished.”

I fake an exaggerated yawn and turn around on my stomach. I can’t see Michael anymore, but I can hear his exasperated sigh. Serve you right if you’re not coming to bed with me right now!

A soft, warm torpor overtakes me. I feel like floating in a warm primeval soup…like a lonely amoeba at the beginning of life. It’s warm, safe and pleasant….Mmmmm….I have to admit….Michael’s bed is much nicer than mine…

“Hey sleepy head! Sleeping beauty….Nooki from the Veldt….waky-waky!”

I crack my eyes open and glare ahead. Michael is reclining on the bed, fully dressed.