Katie woke in the dark, in a sweat. She didn’t know what had caused her to wake at this hour, but looking around the dark room she realized someone was in the room with them. She could hear them moving around softly, and she thought she saw movement over in the corner, but out of fear she didn’t move or speak. She just stared into the darkness, waiting for something to happen. It was too dark to see, but she knew someone was there, just out of sight.
She tried to move her hand to wake Jason, but she was frozen, she couldn’t even squeeze his arm. When she tried to open her mouth to scream for him, nothing came out. She felt like a fish out of water, her mouth opening and closing widely several times.
Her arms wouldn’t move, nothing would work, and she watched in horror as a large man with no teeth came slowly out of the darkness towards her. His hands were stretched out and she saw a pair of shiny handcuffs in one of his thick hands and a dirty potato bag in the other.
She tried to jump up, to scream, anything…
“Katie! Katie!” Jason screamed over and over again, shaking her until she finally woke from the nightmare.
He reached over and flipped on the light. Freed from her paralysis, she frantically looked around the room. No one was hiding in the shadows, no one was there except for them.
“Are you okay, Kat?” He moved to take her into his arms.
“Yeah, I think… It was just a dream,” she said, more to assure herself than anything.
“It’s okay, you’re okay.” He ran his hands down her hair and held her in a tight hug.
She noticed the room was getting lighter and hated knowing she’d started the day this way. But then she realized she was in Jason’s arms and closed her eyes to the warm feeling of him holding her.
“We’d better get going. Our flight leaves in a few hours,” he said into her hair. She looked over at the clock and realized it was just past seven. Their flight left at ten, which gave them just enough time to dress, eat, and make it to the airport.
Just then the hotel phone rang. “That’s our wake up call.” He leaned over and answered it.
Katie wrapped the sheet around her as she hunted for her clothes, which had ended up all over the floor; for once, she hadn’t cared about the mess.
A few hours later, after eating some fresh blueberry muffins from a local bakery down the street, they made it to the small airport.
People came and went and she was actually excited to get out of Greece. Maybe she was looking forward to the change of scenery, or just the possibility of getting away from trouble. Still, Jason stopped her from walking straight to the ticket booth to check in. He told her to hold back, just out of sight for a while. So they stood against the wall and watched people come and go for a few minutes. Then he cussed under his breath.
“What?”
“Hang on,” he said, pulling her back further.
“Why?”
“Katie, are you going to question me the entire trip?”
“Maybe.”
He rolled his eyes at her, then said, “There, do they look familiar?”
She looked over at the large group of people he was pointing at, all of them over fifty and wearing matching shirts; they looked like they were part of a bowling team. “Who?”
“Those two men, standing to the left of the group.”
“No, why?”
“Look again!”
She did and she noticed that the two men didn’t have the bowling shirts on and one of them had a broken nose and a black eye. The other one was walking with a slight limp.
“Are those the –”
“Yes, damn it.”
“What are we going to do? They’re standing at the entrance. How are we going to get tickets?”
Then Jason turned and shoved her back and took her mouth with his. He angled his body so the only thing anyone would see, if they looked, was a young couple kissing.
He kept her pinned against the stone wall until she was out of breath, then finally and quickly he released her mouth, leaving her dizzy.
“Damn it to hell.”
“Well, I’m so sorry that didn’t meet with your satisfaction.” She tried to push him away a little.
“No, not that, there are five of them now.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Damn it.”
“Really, Jason, we’re going to have to do something about your language. How do you know there are five of them?” She tried to look over his shoulder.
“Because they are all talking to each other. Take a look underneath my arm.” She did as he asked and watched the five men talking. It appeared to her that they were arguing with the large guy with the broken nose. The three new men looked like brothers; they had matching dark hair, faces, and builds. They looked like farmers, dressed in rugged pants and blue work shirts, and they were covered in either grease or dirt.
Then the three new men broke off and started walking towards the ticket booths.
“Three of them are buying tickets,” she said as she kept her eyes glued to the other two.
“Damn it!” She chanced a glance at Jason’s face and realized he was watching her closely. Turning her eyes back to the two original men, she watched as they each broke off.
“Quick, one’s coming this way.”
He grabbed her arm so fast, she thought she heard a slight pop. Then they were sprinting out of the airport and down a street, running past the crowded shops and tourists.
She was out of breath when he finally stopped several blocks later, just on the outskirts of town.
“What now?”
“Shh.” He pulled her closer, back into the darkness of a doorway. She couldn’t hear anything but herself breathing heavily.
“What?” She whispered.
“I don’t hear anything.”
“Neither do I.”
“Good.”
“Great!” Neither of them moved. His eyes darted down to her mouth and she remembered the feel of his lips there. Why was she thinking about him in this way while they were in danger? Her heart skipped and she could feel her pulse vibrating under his view as his eyes wandered down her neck.
Then a young boy rolled by on a bike that was much too big for him and they jumped apart quickly, looking at each other like they had been caught stealing candy.
Jason turned and started to pull her along the road again. They ate up the ground quickly, putting as much distance between them and the airport as they could.
“How are we going to get to Rome now?” she asked as they walked past rows of houses.
“There’s always a ferry,” he said, looking over at her.
“A ferry? Does it leave from around here?”
“No, it connects through Igoumenitsa.”
“How do you know that?”
He tapped his head, “Great memory. I studied the ferry schedule while you were shampooing your hair.”
“Well, how do we get to Igoumenitsa?”
He stopped and looked around, thinking. She stood there and watched people come and go in a small market area. She noticed a sign and knew just enough to understand what it said.
“How about we rent a scooter?” she said, pointing to a large sign. Underneath it sat a half dozen scooters in different bright colors.
He looked over his shoulder, then looked back to her and smiled.
As it turned out, they could only take the scooters halfway to Igoumenitsa. They had to be returned in a small town there, no later than that evening. But it would get them out of town and halfway to their destination, which was about four hours away in a car that could travel normal speeds. The scooter’s top speed was thirty-five.
“Why don’t we just rent a car?” she asked, thinking about the long trip ahead of them.
“Where is your sense of adventure?” he asked, smiling at her. “Besides, this was your idea, remember?”
They ended up having to also purchase shatterproof sun glasses after the scooter guy informed them in broken English that it was required on all motor bi
kes. Katie had a bright purple helmet and Jason’s was red. She thought he looked even more handsome in the funny looking helmet which made his head look as big as ET’s.
When she told him this as they were getting on the bike, he just laughed and asked her if she had looked at herself lately. She bent over and, seeing herself in the side mirror, realized her helmet appeared three times bigger than her head.
Jason drove and she held on to him as they made their way slowly out of Petra. They headed towards the mouth of the gulf and the large bridge that she’d seen yesterday, hovering over the canal. The massive, white bridge hung in the air, supported by hundreds of large, thick cables. She wasn’t normally afraid of crossing bridges, but on the scooter she felt more exposed. Tucking her head into Jason’s back, she closed her eyes for most of the two-mile trip across the gulf’s choppy waters. She let out a large sigh of relief when they hit the other side. Looking over her shoulder, she could admire the beauty of the bridge, now that she was no longer under the large cables and over the cold, dark waters.
They took their time traveling over the hilly landscape on the wide highway as cars zipped by them quickly. The traffic lessened once they hit the side highway and Katie could finally sit back and enjoy the weather. It was warm and the breeze felt wonderful on her face. Jason had stuffed their backpacks into the side compartments on the scooter, so when she leaned close and held onto him, there was nothing between them. She enjoyed molding her body against his and marveled at the feel of his tight stomach against her hands as she held on. She could feel his body rise and fall with his breathing and wanted to stay in this position forever.
At one point she brazenly explored the muscles along his stomach and chest. He pulled over, and turned to look at her.
“If you keep doing that, I’m going to crash.” He tried to lean over and kiss her, but their large helmets clanked together, and they both laughed.
Another hour later and her butt cheeks had gone numb, and she couldn’t feel her toes or her hands.
“Can we stop soon?” she said over the roar of the other cars, passing them quickly.
“How about lunch?”
They stopped in the small town of Stanos and enjoyed a very small, local cafe. The food always seemed so much better in some of the “off the map” places.
The gyros were some of the best she’d had so far, the meat juicy, with just the right amount of spices. They actually watched the man make fresh pita bread in front of them as they waited. Then he’d carved the lamb meat off a large spit which held the chunk of meat over the flame. The grilled onions and peppers were caramelized to perfection.
They sat in the cafe, enjoying the locals and food for almost an hour, then hit the road again. Katie groaned when she sat back down on the seat. Her butt hadn’t quite recovered yet, and she was sure that by the time they got to where they were going, it would be bruised.
It took them another three hours at the scooter’s maximum speed to get where they were going. They had almost an hour before sunset after turning the scooter and their ET helmets back in. They started walking the streets of Ioannina, a large town on the shores of a large lake. There were several other towns around it, making it feel more like a large city than individual towns. As they looked for someplace to stay for the night, she realized how badly her butt and legs hurt from the day spent on the back seat of the scooter. She’d stretched as much as she could, but she was still sore from sitting in the same spot for too long.
They walked along uneven stone roads. After she’d stumbled for the third time, Katie wondered how Jason wasn’t tripping all over the ground.
“Pick your feet up, Katie.” He grabbed to steady her.
“I’m trying!” He stopped and she could tell that he was looking at her.
“Come on, I think there is someplace we can stay just down here.”
“Not another flour closet,” she smiled. “I refuse to sleep on sacks of anything.” He chuckled.
“No, I think I see a bed and breakfast sign.
An hour and a hundred dollars later, Katie sank down under the lukewarm water in the bathtub and realized how wonderful it felt not to be walking, riding a scooter, or traveling anymore that day. Her muscles slowly relaxed under the warm water and she closed her eyes.
The room was small and they were going to have to share a bed. She smiled at that and was happy she was going to sleep in a soft bed again tonight. What could be better?
Then her mind wandered to what Jason had done to her last night. Her cheeks heated and she started questioning if he had gotten any pleasure from it. She didn’t know much about what guys wanted, but her friends had always talked about their boyfriends around her like she had known, like she had experienced everything they had. She had always kept quiet when they talked about their sex lives, and she had never once let on that she was not only inexperienced, but still a virgin. She’d always kept herself for one man, and he was sitting in the next room, waiting for her to get out of the bath. She thought about what he had done last night and knew she needed to take matters into her own hands to please him in the same manner tonight.
Less than half an hour later, she walked out of the bathroom wrapped in a large towel and found a small cart with silver plates sitting in the middle of the room with the most wonderful smells coming from it. She lifted a lid and saw a large square of pasta covered with some kind of breading. Dipping her finger in it, she tasted and closed her eyes to the richness.
She heard a noise and opened her eyes to see Jason staring at her again.
“What?”
“What? What?”
“Are we really going to keep doing this?” She set the lid back down, keeping the food warm.
Then he smiled quickly and said, “They didn’t have strawberries and cream.” He shook his head in disappointment and walked into the bathroom without another word, as she blushed to the roots of her hair.
Quickly getting dressed in her light shorts and t-shirt, Katie sat back down in front of the television to watch the news as she ate her dinner.
Less than ten minutes later, Jason walked back into the room. He was dripping wet with a dark pair of boxers on and was using the towel to dry his hair. She’d seen him like this a million times; after all, they’d been roommates once. He hadn’t made a point of walking around in boxers in front of her, but she’d always found an excuse to be in his room when he’d come out of the shower. But seeing him like this after what they had done was different.
His sandy hair was pushed back away from his face, the water making it look darker than it was. He hadn’t shaved, so he had a full day’s growth going, which only gave him a more dangerous look. She’d always admired his muscles. He had taken years of Judo and she loved the way they rippled down his stomach. He didn’t have much hair on his chest and she found that very sexy. She wondered if he would be as smooth and hard as he looked. Last night he hadn’t even removed his shirt. His boxers hung low on his narrow hips and she could see the sexy V his hips made, pointing to the one place on him she’d never dared imagine on him.
“What?” he asked, and her eyes jumped back to his face.
“What? What?” she asked, then was shocked to realize the game they were playing, and it dawned on her what he’d probably been thinking about her. She blushed right down to her toes. He’d been looking at her earlier the way she was looking at him just now.
The room was quiet as they looked at each other. What could she say? Should she say anything? She was no good at sex games. She’d never… well … never.
Then his phone rang, breaking the spell. He walked across the room, tossing the wet towel on the chair, something he knew drove Katie nuts. Before he could answer the phone, she was across the room, grabbing the towel before the water could soak into the chair’s material, ruining it.
He watched her with a wicked smile, “Hello?”
She glared at him as she started to fold the wet towel, so she could hang it.
>
“What?” He almost dropped the phone. “No! She’s here. No, I swear. Yeah, okay. No, I don’t think that would be wise. Yeah, you do that. Bye.”
“What?” she asked looking at his face.
“Well, it appears you’ve been kidnapped and a ransom of ten million dollars has been demanded from your family.”