Time to Escape

[jay]

Sweat dripped from his brow as he pushed himself harder, faster. Trainers digging into wet undergrowth as he pushed himself up hill. Black tracksuit bottoms clung to his toned legs, a plane black T-shirt lay hidden under a grey hoody. His faithful black beanie hat was pulled down over his ears, holding his ipod head phones in place. The loud tones of Metallica bellowed out Enter sandman as jay looked at his watch. Hour and a half run. The air was crisp, he was still getting used to the sudden climate change from San Diego to Chicago. His crystalline blue hues looked dead ahead as he reached the top of the hill, forest tree’s filling the canopy, hiding the morning sun. It was a little after ten, and he was enjoying a rare day off. The hours so far were less than in San Diego, mainly as he was still finding his footing with in the Chicago PD. He followed a dust track as it wound until he saw in sight some benches along the trail and sat down. Catching his breath he took his water bottle that was held tightly in his right hand and took a few sips. He clicked off his Ipod and pulled out the ear phones before enjoying the quiet.

[galina]

Galina was pushing herself, she needed the burn in her muscles to fight the burn in her brain. She couldn't get that hateful man out of her thoughts no matter how hard she tried. So she had come here to to run herself into the ground, and hopefully his face at the same time.

She had her hair pulled up in a tight pony tail, her face was bare of makeup and she was sporting tight spandex pants and a t-shirt that sported the the saying 'Future Trophy Wife.' She had a loose zip up sweatshirt over the top of that. Her running shoes were battered and scuffed, having seen more than their share of days like today when Phoenix was trying to outrun her demons.

She always took the same track to run, usually because no one else was around and she could stop at the benches and have a breather before pushing on again. Today was different, there was someone already at her spot. She cursed to herself, so much for peace and quiet, but she did stop anyway, huffing and blowing as she bent double, putting her hands on her knees and tried to decide whether she was going to sit down or move on.

The man she had seen when she approached as fairly good looking, she'd give him that, well she would have to say he was more than good looking he was totally drool worthy. She couldn't scent any kind of animal on him so he wasn't a lycan. That was a good thing anyway, and made her decide to go ahead and sit down beside him, "Nice run?"

[jay]

Jay had caught his breath and was about to move on when the sound of approaching footsteps caused him to cast his bright orbs down to track to see a woman moving toward him. Her hair was like copper fire and he cocked his head to one side, a slight smile forming as he cast his eyes over her. As she drew closer and then stopped, catching her own breath, he let his eyes travel over her body once more before meeting her eyes dead on.

“Hmmmm, so so...” Jay said in response to her question, secretly thinking it had just got hell of a lot better, “More an exploration than anything.” That part was the truth; he was gathering the lay of the land so to speak. He took another long sip of from his water bottle and turned on the bench to face her as she sat.

“Jay.” He said forwardly to her, his accent a mix of thick Boston with a hint or Irish.

[galina]

She felt his eyes on her, and was not at all upset about it. It was nice to be looked at like that instead of the way Thorn looked at her, with a mix of lust and abhorrence. Oh yeah she had a feeling things were starting to look up. When she looked up she noticed his eyes, such a crystalline blue, a woman could fall into their depths and drown.

"Yeah...oh exploration? New in town then?" This town could use a few more drop dead gorgeous men like him, a smile slid across her face at that thought. Oh yeah she could definitely enjoy that. "It's not a bad city as cities go." She liked his voice, though she made sure to keep any accent from falling into her own words.

She debated about whether to tell him her real name or give the one she usually gave, her call sign so to speak. She decided to give her usual, "Phoenix, pleasure to meet you Jay." She looked him in the eye and smiled, genuinely meaning her words. She was hoping maybe it would get more pleasurable at some later time.

[jay]

Watching her, he brought his thumb to his lips and began to run it across, a habit it had acquired when paying, extremely, close attention to beautiful women. He smiled toward her and moved his hand to the back of his neck, rubbing the overly tense muscles, mostly caused by carrying double shoulder holsters for long hours. And getting thrown out of windows and attempted to be blown up. All in a day’s work eh?

“Yeah, job transfer, been here a few weeks. First run...and feeling the burn.” Jay liked to keep in shape, obsessively so. He did not smoke, or drink heavily; his kitchen was stocked with organic fruits and vegetables. And his body was at the peak of physical health.

“All cities are the same, well in my line of work they are.” He wasn’t about to announce he was a cop, sometimes it worked as a cliché chat up line, but more often than not it scared people off. Besides, he didn’t see how his job was important when talking to a stunningly beautiful woman.

“Phoenix,” Jay repeated her name, “That’s a beautiful name.....” His voice trailed as his found himself gazing into her eyes, a curl of his lips forming into a smile.

“Is this your regular run? I hope i have not stepped on any toes finding this track, It was purely by chance....But i am certainly glad i did...”

[galina]

She watched his thumb graze across his lips which of course only drew her attention to them, they were full and looked like they were very kissable to say the least. She drew her eyes away from them with a bit of difficulty. When he spoke again her eyes once more locked onto his, "A new job huh?" She looked him over, trying to picture what he did for a living.

She rolled her shoulders, "Yeah I know what you mean about the burn," She always tried to stay in shape, of course being a lycan gave her an extra advantage but he didn't need to know that. She trained constantly, always trying to improve her technique and of course she ran, but other than that she drank like a fish and ate like a starving bear.

"Let me guess, you're a male underwear model?" She could believe that, "But yeah I know what you mean, about cities and your work, it's much the same with mine." Working in the medical field was pretty much the same anywhere. Gunshot wounds, broken bones. That brought the thought of Thorn back and she sighed softly.

She didn't let it stick though and pushed the thought away smiling back at Jay, "Eh, it's more of a nickname than anything. My sisters marked me with it." He had a a beautiful smile to go along with those beautiful eyes, yeah she was sure he was a heart breaker alright.

She nodded, "Yeah this is my regular run, but no you're not stepping on toes. I'm glad you found it too, maybe we can start running together." She liked that idea a lot, there were plenty of places to stop along the way and burn off calories in other ways.

[jay]

He felt her eyes moving over him, and he simply kept his gaze upon her. Jay, unlike many, was not a sleaze. He respected woman, but that did not mean he was blind, nor that he was a saint. He, after all, was only human. He erupted into a deep laugh at her comment about him being an underwear model. Licking his bottom lip he arched a very, amused brow toward he.

“Isn’t it a little early in our relationship to be thinking of me in my underwear. You’ll give a man ideas...” he grinned that wide, boyish smile at her before giving a light shrug of his shoulders.

“Running partners eh?” he liked the sound of that, as his mind drifted off slightly to the thought of sweat dripping over her soft curves. He blinked and then nodded, “If you have the stamina to keep up?”

[galina]

She smiled impishly at his laugh, he had a good laugh, it soothed her frayed nerves and he had her laughing at his comment in response to hers, "Well you can't blame a girl for trying...I think you would look pretty good in nothing but underwear myself but..." She cast a wink in his direction, "And if a guy gets ideas well....."

She had let her thought trail off on purpose, let his mind wonder where she had been going with it. he might actually guess right, and then of course he might not and she could continue to tease him. It was a win, win situation as far as she was concerned.

A brow arched at his last comment, "Oh I have the stamina, you can count on that, so any time you want to test it...well as they say ...bring it." Green eyes sparkled with mischief, she knew she had enough stamina to keep up with him and outdo him, she was after all a hyena.

[jay]

Jay simply kept smiling at her, finding her frank, open banter refreshing. At least it saved any confusion as to whether she did find him attractive. Of course he had been having ideas since he first laid eyes on her, but, he wasn’t about to admit that out loud, leave some things to her imagination. This was the part Jay loved most, the first meetings, the fleeting glances, the cross analysis of every word and sentence.

Jay edged a little closer to her then as she remarked about stamina, his head tilting to the side as he breached on her personal space, his eyes locked with hers as he spoke. “I would very much like to test that theory...” his face inches from hers he quickly pulled back and rose to his feet. He grabbed his water bottle and tucked his ipod into his hoody pocket.

“No time like the present....” he grinned and began to take a few steps back, before turning and starting a light jog, “Unless of course, you’re a coward.” He looked over his shoulder and winked.

[galina]

This was the moments that Phoenix enjoyed, when things were new and fresh, first impressions, opinions formed and were often not changed even long after the fact. Jay was a man she could see herself maybe even being friends with, that didn't happen a lot in her life. The only man she would even come close to putting in that classification would be Hazel.

One heartbeat, then two and he was so close she could have touched him without even having to reach. She could feel his breath upon her face as he looked at her, and spoke about testing the theory of her stamina. Before she could react he was up and warming up his muscles for another stint at running.

Her green eyes blazed as she too rose, "Oh we can prove this theory, and I am far from being a coward. I can promise you that.....we shall see who falls on their face first my little underwear model." She wiggled her brows as she stretched her body out tall and straight, moving up next to him, "What do you want to bet that I can outlast you?" She was now invading his personal space and could feel the heat of his body, it was an unfair challenge that she was sure to win but that was half the fun of it.