Alaric.
Watching Nia eat last night, made me realize that the reason her dad's hired me was not because she needed protection from a gangster she beat up but from herself. She ate dinner methodically and looked ready to cry when I asked her to eat some more.
Then she disappeared for a whole fifteen minutes. And yes I was counting. When she came back, her eyes were watery and she couldn't look me in the eyes.
Now, during breakfast, she's playing with the eggs on her plate. Her face clearly says that if she eats more of the eggs, she's going to throw up. She calls her very enormous Maine Coon cat, Whiskas and feeds the eggs to him. No wonder he is so big.
She then eats two pieces of melon and stands.
"Let's go," she says, looking at me. "Told you I had an early morning today."
"Of course." I say, placing my napkin on the table.
When she goes to the living room to get her bag, I ask Aunt Mary to put some fruits and yorghut in a bag. She does.
"Thank you for looking out for our Young mistress. She doesn't seem to eat much." She says as she hands me the lunch bag.
"It's my pleasure." I say and sprint to Luna before she insults me for keeping her waiting.
I find her on the passenger side in one of the normal cars, a vintage Bentley. It's beautiful.
"You are driving." She says when I get to her. Her mask is on. "I'm hoping you are familiar with manual cars."
"Yes, I am very familiar." I say after opening the car door for her.
"Great." She says with a very fake smile.
The drive to uni is quiet. I keep glancing at her but she doesn't seem to notice. She seems to be lost in her own thoughts. What is she thinking about?
After I pull in front of her faculty building, she gets out silently and leaves me to park. I do so as quickly as I can and find her in her office.
I find her seated behind her desk, mostly going through her notes and a few minutes later, we walk to her lecture hall.
She lectures with perfection from yesterday. I would never get tired of watching her speak. Every once in a while. Her eyes find mie. She looks a little lost but that doesn't make her stop speaking.
Looking at her feels like I have been teleported to a world that is non-existent. The little eye contact we hold makes me feel like my heart is going to explode.
After the lecture I follow her around to her office, looking like a lost puppy.
I sit across from her in her office reading. Well, trying to read actually. She gets rid of the long coat she was wearing and God help me, she's wearing a tight turtle-neck that shows the perfect outline of her body. The outline of her breasts, the slenderness of her waist. A very perfect body.
I stare at her for so long and notice her nipple starting to peak. I try to re-focus on what I was reading but I can't even find the statement I was reading. My eyes want to look away but my brain is not really cooperating
"I don't wear bras," she speaks, her eyes looking deep into mine as she gets rid of her mask.
"What?" I ask, kinda lost in how beautiful she is and how her scent acts like a drug to my brain.
"You were staring at my boobs or nipples," she speaks so casually like it's a conversation like any other, "So I thought you were probably wondering why my nipples are showing."
"Oh, I wasn't—"
"You were." She chuckles. "It's not a sin to look, Amani." Then she continues working. This woman is going to be the end of my fucking sanity.
The air in the room feels so thick that I can't breathe.
Forgive me, Nia, but I can't stop looking at you.
I place the lunch box I carried from home on her desk when I check my watch and decide that it's lunchtime. She stares at it like it's a plague and she doesn't want to catch it.
"I'm not hungr—"
"But you need to eat. It's nothing much. Just some fruits and yorghut." I tell her as I open the lunch box.
She tries to argue but I'm not having any of that. She eats it all with me watching. Not obviously, but enough to make her eat it all. After she's done, I walk out to go get something from the cafeteria. I'm hungry.
When I come back with my lunch, I don't find her in the office. She comes in ten minutes later. Eyes watery and a guilty look on her face. She avoids eye contact.
She sits back and continues working. I know she just purged everything out. I just know it. And she still has the strength to act like nothing happened. My eyes search for something on her face. Anything to show me that she's going through something. But Luna is very good at keeping a good poker face.
She looks normal, but her body language is a little stiff if you know where to look. Now I understand what her dad meant by saying that their baby is going through something.
The shortcoming is, their daughter is a tiny grumpy lady. Someone who is not so easy to read. Someone who mostly suffers in silence. It's going to take some time to break her walls.
I walk out of her office to get her at least a bottle of water. Hydration is good, right?
I place the bottle on her desk, she immediately stands and starts walking towards me. I instinctingly take a step back. She's so close that I can feel her body warmth. We do this dance until my back hits the shelves in her office.
She then side steps me and reaches for a stool that's right next to me and stands on it before I can tell her that I can take the book for her. Because I can't actually speak for a few seconds. She was literally in my space and I loved it.
I hear her giggle. Before she can stop down while holding a book, the stool shakes a little. My hands are quick. I pick her and place her on the ground, the book flying from her hands. She gasps. Not a startled gasp.
I look at her face and find her mouth slightly open but she fixes that in a flash that I could have missed it. Then turns to me, her hands on her breasts.
"Sir, next time you pick me up, can you not squeeze my boobs?" She has this teasing expression on her face. My eyes drop to where her hands are.
"I'm so…. I'm so sorry, Nia." I stumble with my words. Trying to think whether whatever I said was English.
"It's okay, Amani. It's nothing to panic about." She drags her hands down her breasts. Slowly. Her eyes on my face. From up close the outline of her breasts is even better. Beautiful that my mouth goes dry. I can see her nipples peak.
Being close to Nia is going to be torture. She knows what she's doing to me. She's dangerous.
She picks the book and goes back to working. Like she didn't just start chipping away my control.