The Guard

Chapter Five- Tenderness

Every thought within her mind had rushed as a single thought consisting of her memories playing back to her as a swift slideshow. Everything from the first memories as a young girl to the first time she tried on her mother's heels, all the way to when she had met Julian, and the current circumstances of her life pending on the mercy of this stranger. Her life had flashed before her eyes.  Even though she has been before the end of a gun once before, the event was not any more expected as each gunman had their own agenda; and this darkened figure seemed just as vile and selfish as the last. 

"What is someone like you doing so far out here?" He spoke before extinguishing his cigarette into the side of Lilianna's father's car and motioning the end of his gun until she now stood entirely upright. "I could be nice and offer you a ride...but then you may say that I was here...and we can't have that-" as the man released a wicked smirk, he began to prepare to claim her life before releasing a grunt from his rotten smile as Julian had knocked him unconscious. 

"Get your ass back in the car." Julian ordered before she made her way to the passenger side of the vehicle and peered in the darkness. As she waited for her bodyguard to then claim the seat beside her, she was met with a sudden force coming to her side of the car. When her eyes lifted from her self pity, she found Julian in the hands of a second foe who had been dressed in similar hunting clothing to the man who had intended to kill her.

Julian had been attacked from behind as he was thrown against the car by a man who rivaled his height and weight. Forced into hand-to-hand combat as he lost his gun during the initial surprise of a second figure, Julian managed to get a few licks in before being struck hard enough in the face to make him temporarily unstable. Feeling somewhat responsible, Lilianna wished to assist him as she decided to side with the lesser of two evils and go after the man who deserved her wrath more. 

She began to search the car for anything she could use as a weapon, and only came upon the keys and a flashlight. Grunting and cursing beneath her breath, she finally decided on using the butt of the flashlight; but would actually find her weapon to be that of having opened the car door as this incapacitated their mutual foe. Julian rose from the ground, his face having now returned to its normal tan coloring as he gave her a momentary look of appreciation before moving to the driver’s side door. Turning the keys into the ignition, he sped away from the scene as Lilianna had grown rather annoyed that she was given only a glance for having saved his life. 

“You’re welcome.” She muttered a few moments upon furthering their journey as Lilianna turned to bear witness to his expression before noting he had quite the wound upon his eye; making him glare as he drove. “You’re wounded-”

“I’ll be fine.” He commented expectedly as Lilianna took hold of his face with a gentle force as he fell into her touch. Although she appeared rather abrasive with so much, she was clearly genuine of heart as she cared when those she knew were wounded. And although he would not allow her to know such a detail, he felt a sense of security in her touch. But stubborn in his lack of social need, Julian took his focus back to the road and out of her grasp. 

“Were they there to hurt me?” She changed the subject when realizing that he would not accommodate her care for him. 

“They were poaching for fawns...they already had one behind a nearby tree...Bad timing is all…” He spoke directly without emotion, as the car came to a small town somewhere in Colorado, where he had finally allowed her a chance for comfortable accommodations by buying a room for the night. Although it appeared more as The Bates Motel than the Hilton, she was thankful to be away from the car. But from the moment he had returned with the keys to the room, he had kept her within his grasp in a way she did not favor. Even after the door closed behind them and he locked it from the inside, he kept this hold until she was present on the far bed and he stood between her and any attempt to exit. 

“I have to get some things...If you leave-”

“I won’t.” She spoke honestly, without any sense of humor or sarcasm in her words. Perhaps it had been yet another gun presented in her face or the fact he was vulnerable-but she did not wish to cause him any further strife...at least for now. 

Julian collected both keys and moved towards the door before turning back to face her. “Do you need anything?” He asked in the same sincerity she offered him. Kindly rejecting his request to her, he then left her alone as she took it upon herself to look around the room. Although she had detested the taste of many types of alcohol, she wished to feel numb for just a moment as she was forced to think of the wound that nearly claimed her life by having a gun presented to her once again. Frustrated that it had now happened twice, she moved to her knees to the minibar beneath the television and pulled everything she could to view. 

“Vodka...Tequila...Schnapps….Gin…” She read the labels aloud before deciding on the one she believed would reach her head the fastest. Twisting off the lid to the vodka, she took it to her lips as if she had been Romeo in acceptance of his death for Juliet and downed the entire travel-sized bottle. Although it had taken a handful of moments to feel the entirety of the effects, she was thankful for its availability as she began to think of things outside of that fateful night. 

By the time Julian would return with ice in hand, Lilianna had been tipsy and fumbling as she traced the cheap artwork upon the walls, as well as the sheets of the bed, and eventually, Julian himself. 

“What are you-” As he moved to question her, he came to note the entirety of her actions when finding the bottles of alcohol empty near the television. “How much did you drink?”

“Enough?” She answered in a minor slur as Julian locked the door behind him, set his items upon the table directly beside the door, and moved to analyze her. She released a sinful chuckle that was a timbre deeper than her usual tone as her body became warm with a mix of his touch and the alcohol itself. 

“You do realize the kind of headache you are going to have in the morning, don’t you?”

“For once...can you not sound like my dad? I have had to hear his...opinions my entire life; many that have put me in positions like this…” Her eyes remained mostly closed as she spoke while she now crossed over the line between tipsy to entirely drunk. 

“You need to cool off…” He commented as he pushed past her and moved to the bathroom to begin a shower for her. Thinking to himself how this ‘job’ was not exactly worth it as he believed it would have been, he returned into the main section of the motel room to find her standing in only her lingerie. His lips parted for a single moment as she moved to him as if she had walked down the runaway; with sass in her step and a perfect swaying of her hips. 

“Lilianna-” He attempted to stop her from performing any task that would endorse him to make a mistake that he could not retract. 

“I am exhausted from everyone ordering me around. If it isn’t my dad, it is the photographers...my former agency...Bianca…” She chuckled to herself before bowing her head into Julian-who tensed immediately to her body pressed against his. Cautiously, he carried his hands to the outside of her arms to gain her attention and keep himself from becoming further aroused by her. 

“You should shower and get some sleep…”

“Are you sure you want to leave me alone? I could do something...reckless…” She used the words he spoke of her earlier, against him before feeling her hand press to his chest. “Am I making you nervous Julian?” She inquired as she felt his heart pound beneath her palm while she lowered her touch until it teased the top of his belt. His jaw and fists were now clenched as he pulled away from her and began to shuffle in the bag of items he had purchased during his absence. 

“Julian?” His name spoken by her had been dripping with lust as he knew if he were to turn to face her that he would become a slave to his desires. Although she held the ability to anger him by the simplistic action of rolling her eyes or countering a comment that would otherwise linger upon the wind, it had been this rivalry that made her rousing to him. Somehow he had come to enjoy this banter-but he was not the type of man to take advantage of a woman in her situation; or any woman for that matter. And so he thought of each action that made her unattractive to him-which were few, and turned to face her, finding her wearing only her panties as her arms were now held over her breasts. 

“Am I lovable?” She asked with as much sincerity a woman of her circumstance could muster. “For more than my body?” She continued to question as he took his focus to her eyes although they begged to outline her frame. “You are the only man who doesn’t seem to want me...Maybe I am just my body…” With this revelation, she slipped into the bathroom and into the shower; where she emerged from a handful of moments later. Although he was uncertain exactly what it was she wanted to hear, he knew there was something she needed to know; and so he moved to her as she was now wearing a fresh pair of clothes and sporting unkempt and damp hair. 

“You are going to be alright, Lilianna...I know you don’t think so now...and you will never forget what has happened to you, but you will wake up one day and realize that it is easier to live with…” His words sobering to her, Lilianna raised her eyes to him before letting out a sigh. 

“Did you know that I was left in that alleyway for seven hours? Nobody thought to call me? Nobody came to look for me...Not my mother or my father...none of my supposed friends-not even my agent...Not even my cheater of an ex-boyfriend who has been practically stalking me since he screwed up, nobody wanted to see me-”

“Lilianna-” He had not understood the depth of this pain until now, suddenly realizing that she had not only felt abandoned, but unloved. 

“It doesn’t matter...I won’t remember any of it when I wake up anyway, right?” Praying these words would remain true, he pressed his hand to hers to gain her attention before she looked at him with a drunken focus. 

“You are lovable, Lilianna. For more than...what you can offer-” He had to rephrase from saying ‘your body’ as he could not allow himself to glorify that image once more as it would no longer keep him a gentleman. “You are funny...you are smart...you are ambitious...and you are strong…” Tears began to form in her eyes as she commented on how he sounded like Bianca and how she would have liked him. 

“You should sleep-” He attempted to ruin the romance of the moment before she pulled herself further to him. “Lil-”

“Would you just stop talking for two minutes?” She questioned as she took hold of his collar in an attempt to kiss him as he closed his eyes to prepare for the explosion that would be a first kiss. But the moment before this would be felt in depth by them both, his cell phone rang from within his pocket. Immediately, anger returned in place of her lust as she glared at him. 

“WHY CAN YOU HAVE A PHONE AND YOU CHUCKED MINE OUT THE WINDOW IN CALIFORNIA?!” She asked with wrath as he ignored her outburst and was informed by her father that he would meet them in New York within that following week. “Just when I thought you weren’t a complete ass!” With this comment, she threw herself onto the bed, turned away from Julian, and remained silent for the remainder of the night. 

When she awoke that next morning, she expected to find him hovering over her or possibly even placing a chastity belt upon her waist; but instead, her eyes came to view a phone upon the pillow beside her. Although it had been horribly outdated as being a simple flip phone, she was thankful to his kindness as she found a single message delivered to her from a number she did not recognize. 

“I’m sorry, -Lian.” She struggled for a moment to figure out who “Lian” was, before recalling how Julian had this written upon a piece of paper in the car in terms of the directions her father had requested of him. Realizing this message had been from him, she gave a kind smile before bringing it to her chin-unaware of just how he felt for her and frankly, how she felt for him as lust had now seemed to take place of the anger with each passing moment together; a thought that caused her to fall back asleep once more.