Chapter Two

Marshalling the troops and troop inspection

Wherein Sydney and Sark get ‘reacquainted’

 

Sydney had managed to sneak out of work early; she told Eric that she was going to do some checking around, off the books.  Now she was back at home, sitting on her bed with her laptop waiting for a reply.  She’d just sent an email asking Julian to meet her right away; she only hoped he was still in town.

 

The pinging of her computer startled her and she quickly opened the new email.  An address and the words, ‘whenever’s convenient for you’ was the only text.

 

Half an hour later she pulled into a nondescript parking lot for a nondescript apartment building in a nondescript part of town.

 

Knocking on the appropriate door she waited, smiling slightly as someone a door down exited their apartment and looked at her curiously.  She was about to knock again when Julian opened the door.

 

“Hello.”

 

“Hi,” she thought she sounded a little breathless.  She also noticed the neighbor still staring in their direction.  Deciding to give him a reason to stare she wrapped her arms around Julian’s neck and quite thoroughly kissed him, pushing him back into the apartment and kicking the door closed behind them.

 

She broke the kiss, but Julian had other ideas as his lips immediately reattached themselves to hers.  This time he was pushing her back into the apartment until she ran into the back of the sofa, sitting down on the back in the process.  She had to wrap her legs around his waist lest he knock her over with his persistent advances.

 

Finally his lips left hers, to trail along her jaw, and she tried to speak but his hands under her blouse were somewhat distracting, “Julian…I wanted….”

“mhh,” his tongue trailed down her throat.

 

“Uh, wanted… to talk!” she finally managed.

 

“Right now?” he wanted to know from somewhere near her collarbone.

 

“uh,” she tried to think how long her father and Marshall had been gone, she couldn’t quite remember, but surely a little longer wouldn’t hurt, “Later’s fine.”

 

She staggered suddenly as he backed away, pulling her off the sofa, “Bedroom’s this way.”

 

“Right,” she followed him down the hallway.

 

As soon as they reached the bedroom he turned and began divesting her of her clothing as she looked around.  The room was done in beiges and creams, the wood a warm golden colour.  The antique gold full length mirror leaning against the wall near the large bed fit in with the rest of the décor nicely.

 

“Darling, I’ll show you around later,” Julian’s slightly irritated voice broke into her perusal of the room.

 

Laughing she raised her arms so he could pull her blouse over her head.  Then she pulled his white polo shirt over his head, mussing his artfully arranged curls.  Now that she was paying attention things proceeded much more rapidly.

 

*~*~*

 

Lazily rolling over in the bed she stretched out on her stomach and eyed the mirror leaning up against the wall.  Her reflection, naked except for the sheets twisted around her hips and the green ring on her hand, stared back at her.  Lifting her eyes she watched in the mirror as the bathroom door behind her opened and Julian’s naked form was silhouetted in the doorway before he walked over to the bed.  Closing her eyes she stretched again as he sat on the mattress and ran a hand lightly over her back.

 

“You said you wanted to talk about something,” he reminded her.

 

“Yes,” she opened her eyes and met his in the mirror, “My father and Marshall are missing.”

 

His reflection frowned, but he didn’t say anything, his hand continuing to skim across her back.

 

“Marshall had the mirror in his office before he disappeared and my father was working late that night too.”

 

“Ahhh,” he slowly drawled and glanced at the mirror, “You think they’ve gone through it then.”

 

“I don’t know,” she frowned and sat up, wrapping the sheets around her.  “It seems possible and they both were last seen at work, so…” she trailed off as Julian laid kisses across her shoulder.  She smiled at his reflection.

 

“I presume you have a plan,” he pushed on her arm, lowering her back to the bed while he propped himself up on an elbow.

 

“I thought I’d pop through and have a look around for shell casings, Dad himself, that sort of thing,” she ran a finger across his frowning lips.

 

“That doesn’t sound too risky.”

 

“If I do find something we’re going to have to go through it to look for them,” she looked up at him with wide eyes.

 

“We?” he questioned and smirked at her pout.

 

“Consider it a holiday,” she wrapped her arms around his neck and rolled them over. “Pretty please?” she exaggeratedly batted her eyelashes at him.  “With me on top?” she saucily added with a wiggle.

 

He swallowed as she shifted on top of him, “I think that’s with a cherry on top.”

 

“Well, if you’d rather that instead,” she made to get up but he quickly rolled her back under him.

 

“Fine, but you better make sure your father doesn’t shoot me,” he grudgingly conceded.

 

“He won’t,” she firmly assured him.  She almost asked him about the anonymous tip her dad received but changed her mind and instead got up to get dressed.  Well Julian got up, she was caught in his grasping sheets.  She fidgeted this way and that, but she couldn’t untangle the sheets from around her body.

 

A smirking, though not laughing, Julian had to help her, “Really Sydney, you can fight your way through a half a dozen guards, but you can’t unwrap a sheet from around you.”

 

Finally she was free, “It wasn’t my fault!  Your sheets are evil, clutching sheets.”

 

“With good taste,” he added.

 

Interlude One ~ Chapter Three ~ Tell us a Tale