After dinner, Mason and I insisted on doing the dishes after Mady made such a fantastic meal. Even before she could protest, I paid her back for earlier by kicking her out of the kitchen. I washed the dishes while Mason dried and put them away since I had no clue where anything went. After the kitchen was clean we headed outside to the front porch to watch the sunset.

Sitting sideways on the swing facing Mason giving him enough space to join. Mason rocked the swing in silence as we sat together enjoying the arrival of the night's air. Jumping at the sound of his voice when he started to talk, I accidentally kicked a leg out and hit him in the thigh with my heel.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," Mason said, not even fazed by the kick.

"It's OK, I'm just jumpy. You'll get used to it so much that you won't even notice when I almost pee my pants. Sorry about the kick."

"So what plans do you have now that you're finally here?" he asked, completely dismissing my apology.

With a slight shrug of one shoulder, I answered, "I am going house hunting tomorrow and I figure once I find a place and get settled in I will start to look for a job. I will need to find something from keeping me from going insane."

"What kind of work are you looking for? I might know of something or to keep my ears open," he said, nonchalantly but curiosity screamed from his eyes.

Smiling at his, "get to know you better tactics," I could not help but to keep smiling. "I'm not sure yet. Financially I'm pretty set, but I will need to do something or end up a cat lady whose body will be half eaten by her pets because I never left my house and nobody knew I was dead." I would never admit to anyone but that was one of my biggest fears even though he thought it was joke.

"Can I ask you a personal question, Sam?" he asked out right.

"Sure, but I might not answer." The smile was a bit forced but the words were true.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm personally glad you're here and I can honestly say I know of a few others that are too...Why did you move here?" He turned his body slightly and gave me his full attention.

Why did it have to be someone I liked that asked such a personal question, instead of someone I could tell to mind their own damn business? Not wanting to lie to him either, that was not a great way to start a friendship. More importantly I did not want to lie to him period. I already started to have feelings for him. That was an uncomfortable thought. Looking away from his intense stare, I focused on the birds flying above the trees across the road. "I needed a new start, a fresh start." That was not a lie at all.

Grabbing my foot closest to him, he began to massage it. It felt amazing! "If you ever need anything, Sam, I'm just a phone call away."

"Besides what those amazing hands are doing right now you mean? A friend. I would like us to be friends." I said, turning in to putty in his hands.

A huge smile aroused from that handsome face. "That, I can do. Before I forget I'm free Thursday if you still want to go out," he said, with a smirk of knowledge on how good he was at this foot rub.

"Huh...oh yeah, the hike." It astonished me that a simple foot rub could turn my brain into mush. God I hope I don't moan. "I would like to go for a hike in the woods. The scenery from here is fantastic. I can just imagine what it looks like from in there. Does that sound alright to you? It would really suck if I got lost, plus I'm not much of a hiker."

"Sounds great, I can think of some places you may like," his voice became distant. His hands working pure magic.

Wiggling my butt further down rested my head on the armrest he grabbed my other foot, giving it the same treatment. Now in complete bliss my eyes drifted shut concentrating on the sounds of our breathing. The world as I knew it faded and the feeling of being wrapped in a warm comfortable blanket invaded my body. It should be a sin to get this much pleasure from a foot rub.

Only when those gentle large hands stopped moving, did I recognize the roar engines cutting off. Opening my eyes as if just waking from a sleepy fog I saw Dmitri and Nate climbing off the machines. A surge of quilt passed through me as I jumped up off the swing and moved a step away from Mason. The displeasure in Dmitri's eyes made my heart ache, lowering my head in shame even before I realized what I was doing. What the hell? I'm not doing anything wrong. Hell I'm my own person and have no ties to Dmitri. I am supposed to stay away from that man if anything. Scolding myself, straighten my spine, lifting my chin to meet his eyes. That was when I noticed something was wrong. For some reason I was more in tuned to these people, some more than others.

As they approached the stairs, I couldn't help but to rush over. "What's wrong?" I demanded, looking over both of them to see if they were physically hurt.

The moment of displeasure was no longer on his face, it was replaced with a blankness they both wore. Just standing there motionless, Dmitri said nothing and stared at me from the bottom of the stairs. Waiting for one of them to answer I turned back to Nate.

"Nothing's wrong. Where's Mady?" Nate answered, with the same blandness he wore.

"Uh...I do believe she's in the living room, reading." Eyes shifted back to Dmitri.

As Nate walked into the house, I jumped when the forgotten Mason came up from behind. What is it being with these men that made my brain drop to my ass and the ability to focus was nonexistent?

Patting my arm, Mason whispered into her ear, "You going to be OK?"

Turning my head to see Mason, I smiled then frowned at his question when it registered. "Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

Mason followed Nate in to the house without answering my question. I turned back to face Dmitri, I forgot all about Mason's misplaced concern. Standing there as if he was a statue, silence between them was not exactly uncomfortable, but more unnerving. Not able to take the silence any more or control the unbelievable urge to touch him, I took those couple of stairs never leaving eye contact. Stopping at the second to bottom step left us to meet eye to eye. Tugging at his shirt, I asked again, "What's wrong?" The overwhelming need to protect him was so wrong. We only met yesterday. I was having that feeling a lot since I walked in this house but it was strongest with this man. The sexual attraction I felt for him was bad enough and now with this, it was all becoming too much. Part of me wanted to throw my arms around his while covering his lips with mine and the other part wanted to run. Run fast and far. The more thought I put in to it the more I felt out of control. A control I wasn't sure if I could get back.

Dmitri, finally broke the silence. "Do you know self-defence?" he blurted out.

Totally taken back by the question it was my turn to be motionless. "What? No. Why?"

"Good. Well not good, you should know your basics. I'm going to teach you. Your first lesson is tomorrow at 5, and then we will have dinner," he said, still with that emotionless expression.

"O-o-o-ok." Now getting worried something did happen. "Is there a reason why this is coming up?" Tilting my head to the side, trying to figure out what was going on in his head.

"No," he paused, "What better excuse do you need to have someone as your punching bag? It will be fun, I promise," he said, with a twinkle in his eye and a cocky little smile that didn't quite make it to his eyes.

Knowing the battle to find out what happened today was lost, I decide to let it go, for now anyway. "Well...you do have a very appealing argument," Sighing in defeat, "Ok." Wait a minute did I just say yes to a date or was it just really self defense class? How did I get from needing to stay as far away from this man to getting extremely up close and personal with him? Fuck this was not good.