Chapter 2
Arsen
Past
“That looks like it hurt. You a'right?” I extend a hand to the quarterback that I just laid out with a monster tackle. The poor kid's splayed out on his back like a stoned turtle, too dazed to even grab my hand.
“That's how it's done, bitch!” Marcus, our team's tight end, collides with me in celebration. That was their last down, we just won. “Shit, Arsen, you're a monster! What is that like nine sacks...”
He kept talking, but I tuned it out. I focused on catching my breath. I closed my eyes. The late fall wind chilled the sweat and heat that radiated off of me. When I opened them, I found myself staring at half full stands. My eyes were drawn to one girl in particular, a girl I’d seen every day since school started.
She had brown hair with bangs that covered half her face, porcelain skin that could use a day at the beach. And despite how much she tried to cover it with loose dark clothing, I could tell she had a bangin' body.
She lived down the road from me and walked past my house to get to school every morning. I hadn't met her yet, she kept to herself mostly and didn't seem to have many friends. She wasn't the type I usually hung around with, but I'd been thinking about her a lot lately, usually while I was fucking around with some other girl.
Was it just because this girl was forbidden fruit?
She didn't look like a girl that was into sports. But there she was, hoodie pulled tight, trying to disappear into the bleachers. She seemed to wilt whenever I looked directly at her. Something about her timidity really turned me on. My mind started drifting to what it'd be like to peel her bulky layers off one by one. I had to adjust my jock to hide my hardening cock. Did she come to the game just for me?
I sure as hell hoped so.
“Marcus.” I cut short his insults to the other team. “What do you know about that girl up there. Bleachers, top left.”
Marcus whirled around and smiled. He pointed at the row of girls that hadn't taken their eyes off me the whole game. “Her?” he lets the word linger, then grunts like he just tasted the world's sweetest pie. “I'll forgive you because you're new. That piece of heavenly ass is the future prom queen, and every senior's wet dream.”
What? That didn't sound right at all. The girl I was looking at was cute, but I could tell right away that a wallflower like her wasn't going to be a prom queen.
“Stacy is the hottest, most popular girl in school. I think her mom's a senator or something.”
“What?” Stacy? That wasn't right, she didn't look like a 'Stacy'. The blonde girl that Marcus was talking about winked and blew a kiss at me. “Nah, man. The one on the far left.”
Marcus squinted at the seats. “Who? Valentine?”
That name somehow sounded more appropriate. Valentine was only a row or two over from Stacy, but the fact that Marcus had trouble finding her was a testament to how easily the girl blended in. She liked to hide, even when she was out in the open.
I nodded.
“She's nobody.” Marcus made a dismissing noise. “But her dad's Hugh Dawson.”
“The famous actor?”
“I shit you not. Look, man, that apple fell pretty far from the tree. Forget her, she'll just hurt your rep.” Marcus threw an arm over my shoulder and spread his other arm wide toward the girls that were watching me play. “'Sides it looks like you got your own fan club already.” He pulled away laughing and slapped me on the back. “You goin' up for varsity wrestling too?”
“Depends,” I say. All the girls up there are waving and making eyes at us, but I look past them all to the girl with the hood pulled tight. I can just barely make out her oval, porcelain face and her piercing, icy blue eyes. She has the eyes of a celebrity that you'd hang on your wall.
I thought about getting in her way tomorrow morning during her walk to school, but I decided against it. My dad moved us around so often with the Marines that getting attached to someone isn't an option. I got maybe a year here and then we'll be somewhere else.
Val was weird and different. That's what made her so dammed dangerous. I couldn't fall for a girl like her. It'd only hurt that much more when I had to abandon her. I knew who and what I was. I turned away from the stands, and away from Valentine.
“That the sport that gets the most pussy around here?” I asked Marcus. I was the bad guy that didn't give a shit about anybody. It was easier that way.
Present
“My new what?” Val's face fell at hearing the news, then lifted with the tone of her own outrage. “I don't need him and I sure as hell don’t want him.”
It always got me a little hard when she got fired up like this, it was something in the way her light skin flared with redness. Does she get red like that when she comes too?
I pushed the dangerous thought out of my head, she's my stepsister now. I'm here to keep her safe, that's it. Six damn years should've killed all these cravings.
It's amazing that this was the same timid, flustered girl from high school. Gone were the bangs that covered half her face and the loose fitting layers of clothes that made her invisible to the popular kids.
The Valentine Dawson that stood before me was a very different woman. She had to be. After all, she was Hollywood's go-to actor for young-adult romance. Looking at her now, I could see why. She'd transformed into the jerk off material for every popular guy in high school that never gave her a second look.
Her brown hair was now dyed a dirty blond that was long, layered, and confidently brushed out of her face. She still dressed modestly, but no longer hid behind her clothes. Today she wore a knee length white cotton dress, belted at the waist with a full sleeved lace jacket thing over it.
Val's piercing blue eyes were the same, not even fame could dim or tarnish those.
Of all her movies, I'd only seen her first major one, and even then I didn't make it all the way through. I couldn't sit there and watch her fall in love with some wimpy, scrub co-star. I wasn't out of the theater for ten minutes, before I found a fist fight to vent some steam.
“You are getting a bodyguard, Valentine, we all are. At least until the threats stop coming.” Her father, the legendary hack, Hugh Dawson dismissed Val like she was a five year old. Then, with barely a pause, rapped his ring against his empty scotch glass and looked at my mother. “Pamela, be a dear?”
One look at Hugh and you knew that he had to be a famous actor. With his square jaw, handsomely rugged, yet completely refined body type and Madison Avenue fashion sense, he just looked the part. He wore a light, graying beard and perfectly styled hair at all times, which often meant a personal stylist traveled with him almost everywhere he went.
Aside from leaving Val behind, the thing that frustrated me the most was that Mom never left Hugh. I knew why, of course. It was because she was devout catholic, and didn't believe in divorce. That was probably how she was able to tolerate my father's career moving us all over the country when I was growing up.
Mom got up and made her way across the room to the plush armchair, before I stopped her. “Allow me, Mom.” I winked at her and took the glass from Hugh's expectant hand. “I am, after all an employee of the Dawson family.”
“I'm twenty-three years old, why can't I hire my own bodyguard?” Val protested, trying not to look at me. It reminded me of the furtive glances she used to give me when she thought I couldn't see her.
She could hide from everyone else, but she could never hide from me.
“Your stepbrother...” Hugh must know how much that term grated against me. He shot me the glance of someone who expected poison to be slipped into their drink. And here I was, all out of poison. “Has experience with these matters, as you've seen downstairs.”
You're damn right I do.
I filled Hugh's rocks glass to the brim with the insanely expensive top shelf scotch, then let the glass slip from my hand and smash against the kitchen tile. Val's eyes flashed in disbelief that I would do something like that. Despite her anger that I was back, the hint of a smile raised the corner of her mouth. “Sorry, Hugh.” I shrugged. “Good thing you hired me to crack heads instead of pour drinks, right?”
Hugh narrowed his eyes at me over the cigar that he was lighting, then waved to the manservant waiting statuesque by the entrance of the hotel room. The man quickly moved in to clean it up and fetch Hugh another drink. I almost scoffed at the thought. Hotel room, more like hotel house. Hugh did everything lavishly, like rent the top floor of the most expensive hotel in Manhattan.
Slowly wiping the scotch off my hands and onto my jeans, I walked over to Val. She looked away, that cracked smile was gone. I hated that the sight of me made her eyes sparkle with old pain. I understood why. I did exactly what I said I'd do. I abandoned her.
“I don't trust Arsen.” She leveled a hateful stare at me that made my chest tighten. “How could I?”
I'm sorry, Val. But I knew an apology would never be enough. Was that why I really came back after all these years?
“I know you better than anyone, Val.” I may not be a good person, but I'd keep her safe. That's all that mattered. “Hate me all you want, but even Hugh knows that I'm your best shot at protection.”
“Valentine, you must think of the Dawson legacy.” Hugh tapped his cell phone then put it to his ear. He stood up to make a call that was obviously more important to him than discussing his daughter's safety. “Now calm yourself and accept it, before you embarrass us both.”
The manservant returned with his drink, but Hugh's hands were full with the phone and his cigar. As opposed to even mildly inconveniencing himself, Hugh simply waved two cigar clutching fingers for the man to follow him into the study. And with that, Hugh Dawson was done with us.
Leave it to an actor to make a grand exit.
After a short silence, my mother finally spoke up. “Your father is right, dear. At least in the sense of you needing protection.” She was soft spoken, but always sincere. When my mom said the word 'dear', it held compassion and warmth, as opposed to the patronizing indifference that came out of Hugh's face whenever he said the word.
My mom always had a graceful way about her. My father used to say that she never walked anywhere, she just floated. She had a pronounced nose, a brilliant white smile and she was where I got my black hair from. Her years with Hugh had stolen some of that fire in her eyes, that always kept me in line growing up. Of all the things that changed, that fire was what I missed most about her.
“I know you two have had your differences,” Mom walked over and put a hand on Val's shoulder. Val's seething anger at the whole situation immediately started subsided. Mom smiled, nostalgia twinkling in her eyes. “But I remember a time when you two were very close. Almost inseparable, really.”
Val glanced at me then turned her back to me to speak with my mom in quieter tones. They were still close enough to hear, but barely. “I can't, Pam. It's been too long, there's too much history there. I need to focus on my career, you know how hard I've worked to get here.”
My mom squeezed Val's hand and whispered something to her. No matter how hard I concentrated, all the while looking like I wasn't interested, of course, I couldn't make out what she said.
Val nodded.
“Thank you,” Mom said, releasing Val's hand. She smiled to Val, then to me, then walked from the room as well.
Val stood alone, thoughtfully, before the massive floor to ceiling windows that overlooked the NYC skyline. I barely noticed the buildings in the distance, my eyes were too busy tracing her body. Her lean, but full, hourglass figure silhouetted against the setting sun and skyscrapers. Her beauty put the scenery to shame.
Not that I’d tell her that, obviously. I was hired to keep her safe, that was all. The last thing either of us needed was to rekindle old flames.
Somebody was bound to get burned.
With a body like hers, my cock didn't give a shit about the fires of reason and logic. The whole scene played out in my mind. I'd come up behind her, she'd be hesitant, but willing to finish what we started all those years ago. I pull that dress up, or tear it right the fuck off and slam her against the glass. Her palm's leaving prints over all of NYC as I fuck her till the glass breaks.
You're a fool, Arsen. I had to keep my eyes off the prize. Not even two hours since I started this and I'm already slipping into old fantasies. This was going to be a hell of a lot harder than I originally thought.
“I'm going home.” Val announced to anyone that was listening. I can tell by how she said the word that she didn't mean her NYC apartment, she actually meant home.
I blow out my air. Going back there was something I wasn't looking forward to. Too many memories.
“We're going home,” I correct her. Val's my responsibility now. I'm here to do a job. Once she's safe, then I can get back to what I'm really good at; busting heads. “I just need to pick something up on the way.”
Boston... I could've lived the rest of my life without ever going back there. That's where Val and I first met. That's also where everything fell apart.