The Truth About The Many Worlds Of Printed Pages

°•○•°Eleven°•○•°

"It must be Jake," Siena deduced, her mind catching up first with their reality. "Christopher must have sent him to pick us up. I suppose the Society is just as excited about our first quest as we are."

James nodded. "I'm sure you are right. I'll get the door." He closed his notebook and stood up, pushing the booklet into the back pocket of his jeans as he headed for the door, looking as impatient as she felt.

"I'll get ready then, tell Jake I only need five minutes. Let me get my handbag and the book," Siena called after him, rushing towards her room.

When she exited the garden flat minutes later, her bag on her shoulder, she found James and Jake chatting inside the entry hall, politely waiting for her.

"Miss Siena," Jake, the driver, greeted her with a smile while she closed the door of the flat behind her.

"Hi Jake. Just call me Siena, please." She returned his friendly smile before she turned to James, passing him a blue-grey, zip cardigan. "Here. I found this one on your bed, I thought you meant to carry it with you and forgot. You'll be cold in that t-shirt should we return late at night." She shrugged in half-apology for entering his bedroom without permission, and he fought his urge to embrace her. She was perfect.

"Thanks, Siena," he said simply when he noticed Jake turning away as if they needed privacy. Were they so obvious? He took the cardigan from her along with the house keys, which she dropped into his palm. "Lead the way, Jake," he told the driver, puzzled by how Siena was suddenly keeping her distance from him-- she was very careful not to touch him as she passed him the things. He would give anything to know what was going on in her head.

They followed their driver out of the house, and Siena slipped onto the back seat of the car the moment Jake opened the door for her, while James locked the house and closed garden gate.

He climbed into the back next to her then, acknowledging Jake's all-knowing grin, which he caught in the rearview mirror, with a small smile. Apparently, they were not the first Book Travellers to feel like this about each other... Had the others suppressed their feelings? Had they acted on them? His father was married when he worked for the Society...

He banished all those maddening thoughts and questions when he felt Siena drawing closer to him, her determination to keep her distance gone just as fast as it had appeared, the back of her cold hand brushing against his lying on the seat between them, for him to take it in his or leave it there.

He closed his large, warm hand around her small and cold, pulling her closer and wrapping his arm over her shoulders for good measure. She was getting nervous, he could feel it, but he wanted her to know that he wouldn't let anything bad happen to her, he would protect her wherever their quests would take them.

She laced her fingers through his in an immediate response to his touch, and he could feel how it took all her will not to lean her head into the crook of his shoulder. She would do it, he was sure, if Jake's eyes didn't dart to them so often. She just needed time to wrap her mind around him possibly becoming more than a simple colleague and he would give it to her, he mused. This was only the first of the many quests they would undertake together. Then, once she would be ready to take him into her life, he would be there waiting with open arms. He already couldn't picture his life with any other woman but her.

Siena had no idea how long it took Jake to drive them to the Headquarters, she was too focused on James, the comforting weight of his arm lying on her shoulders, his warmth and his scent, the sound of his heartbeat, his hand never quite still as it enclosed hers within a never-ceasing caress. It was all so pleasant, satisfying, promising...

She scowled at Jake when she caught his bemused smile in the rearview mirror once he pulled up outside the jungle-encased building of the Headquarters.

"Here you are!" Christopher's voice welcomed them the moment they, holding hands, set foot on the garden path after saying goodbye to Jake, who drove off instantly. "I was so very sorry to have missed you yesterday, but Alicia and Albert told me everything, and we're quite ready for you," he said, ushering them inside.